"Tell me, do you feel pain?"
A muffled sound echoed across the fog-covered fields at dawn, and the fleeing Keeper of Secrets suddenly looked back.
It could see nothing, only feeling the shrieking of the air drawing closer, until a smear of crimson pierced through the dense fog.
Slash!
The Blade pierced straight through its abdomen. The Keeper of Secrets dodged in a panic, its body violently convulsing from the pain. This physique, brimming with explosive power, could now only roll across the soft, damp grass in a desperate bid to escape.
This body was immensely powerful, that of a natural-born hunter. But in this very moment, all it could do was spasm.
"Tell me, do you feel fear?"
The knight's voice seemed to echo from all directions, as if he were running in circles around the Keeper of Secrets.
'Damn it, how can he see me?'
The Keeper of Secrets drew in a sharp breath. The throbbing agony in its abdomen was intensely sharp, making it difficult to even stand up straight.
But Arthur had no intention of patiently waiting for the daemon to adapt.
Right at that moment, another strike thrust forward.
The Keeper of Secrets lunged forward to evade, rolling across the ground. The crab-like pincer on its left back dug into the earth, while its elven longsword whipped out behind it like a lash.
Clang!
Sparks erupted.
The elven longsword shattered, and its arm bent at a sickeningly unnatural angle from the sheer force of the impact.
The reverberating shock sent all color draining from the daemon's face.
'It is too heavy.'
'It hurts too much.'
It could not see. Its razor-sharp senses were utterly overwhelmed by agony, to the point it could not even pinpoint the origin of sounds. The Keeper of Secrets scrambled up wretchedly, only to be met with another howling gust of wind.
A figure tore through the dense mist, appearing right in front of the Keeper of Secrets. He held his Blade high, looking just like a legendary knight hunting beasts in the fog.
'This is my world. Organisms die when they are killed. There are no gods or ghosts here.'
'Trust your body, aim, and strike.'
'How is this possible?'
'It is one thing to be blind, but how can I not even hear anything?'
The heavy edge of the sword was already swinging down. It was too late. The Greater Daemon's body was exceptionally flawless, but just because the flesh could react did not mean the entity controlling it could keep up.
Swish—
"Ah!"
A cold gleam flashed, and an arm gripping a buckler soared through the air in a high arc. The Blade then plunged directly into its spine, tearing a bloodcurdling shriek from the Keeper of Secrets as excruciating agony consumed it.
It was that simple. Just like a lion hunting a hyena—lock on, pin down, and snap its neck.
Effortless!
"Look, you feel pain too."
Cascading flames illuminated the mist, casting silhouettes of warriors. The battle-scarred soldiers slaughtered daemons, just as a pride of lions would tear into a pack of hyenas.
And the daemons? What of those fearless horrors?
Faced with the showering flames and the impending snuffing out of their existences, they could only writhe in the searing torment of the fire. They had no choice but to turn and flee.
Once these monsters lost their warped senses, they could not even hold their weapons steady.
'I cannot win. I absolutely cannot win.'
'I should not have talked so much to him. A normal fight would have ended in a stalemate. Why did I have to run my mouth and spout all that nonsense?'
Confusion and fury.
The Keeper of Secrets blinked, slightly bewildered. Instinct caused its pupils to contract, and it abruptly jerked its head up.
Arthur pushed through the daemonic tide once more, thrusting his longsword forward. Even though the action played out in slow motion to its supernatural senses, its body simply refused to respond.
'Dodge!'
It deeply regretted everything. How did a few psychological taunts end up spawning such an overwhelming juggernaut to annihilate it?
'Should not the normal reaction be falling into despair and seeking the help of a greater power? Why did neither the Four Gods nor the Accursed One react? Why did he suddenly unlock some hidden potential and start hacking me to pieces?'
'What the hell is this thing?!'
"If there is anything I expect from your kind..."
Squelch!
The Blade punctured its chest, the welling blood dyeing its body crimson. Arthur yanked the sword upward, tearing through its ribcage and the crab claw that had desperately tried to deflect the thrust. Then, he brought the Blade crashing right back down into the exact same gaping wound.
"It is that you cease to exist."
"Cease to exist."
Every muscle in the Keeper of Secrets trembled. It stood on the soft grass, its eyes peering at the millions of lights glowing beyond the fog.
People living in peace and contentment, police patrolling the streets, breakfast stalls opening for yet another ordinary day. Though life was never perfect, and occasionally fraught with misfortune, it remained filled with hope and boundless dreams for the future.
War still existed. Crime still existed. The inherent good and evil of human nature still existed. But reality was simply reality, completely devoid of interference from any higher-dimensional beings.
The people there possessed a right that countless beings across this universe could only dream of.
The right to choose who they would become.
No daemons. No gods who constantly spied on the material universe, feasting upon suffering.
Indeed, it had no place in this world. Its martial prowess, its twisted senses that derived ecstatic pleasure from agony, even its very existence.
It offered no reply, for whatever an entity that did not exist did in this world would be utterly meaningless. It merely pulled its battered body away, distancing itself from the greatsword.
Then, it turned tail and ran.
'I am not playing this game anymore!'
The Keeper of Secrets sprinted madly, its back turned to the blazing sun that was slowly burning away the fog.
'What kind of horror story is this? The enemy desires absolutely nothing and holds no illusions about this world.'
'He just wants me dead. He wants all daemons eradicated!'
'How can such a being exist? Denying even the Souls of living things... How could there be an entity that wholesale rejects the very meaning of life in this universe?'
'Even the soulless Necrons strive to reclaim their Souls, searching for their purpose in this cosmos.'
'Damn lunatic! How could something like this exist in the universe?!'
'Faster! Go faster!'
A frantic voice shrieked in its mind. It tore through the thinning mist, fleeing for its life.
With the Greater Daemon leading the rout, the already terrified lesser daemons suffered a complete psychological collapse. Scrambling on their multitude of legs, they desperately fled, fighting tooth and nail just to run a fraction faster than their brethren beside them!
It was as if a violent storm had entirely swept over the domain. The daemons glanced around in sheer panic. Faced with enemies attacking from all sides, they did not even dare to fight back.
True, they had lost their sorcery, their immortality, and their warped senses. But they still retained their robust physiques—forms vastly superior to any ordinary human. It was strength enough to slaughter Sisters of Battle multiple times over, enough to swarm and butcher the Adeptus Astartes to the last man.
But now?
All they cared about was fleeing for their lives.
"Regroup—"
A greater daemon attempted to use its commanding presence to suppress the lesser daemons' terror. But a streaking beam of radiation punched cleanly through its upper half, annihilating its body and vaporizing a massive swath of its subordinates right in the middle of the stampede.
The charging knight, sword in hand, was practically on top of them.
Clatter!
A severed head tumbled to the dirt. The dense, chaotic mob of fleeing daemons instantly thinned out as they scrambled madly away from the sunlight, desperate to escape this terrifying domain.
"Run!"
Without a single thought of resistance, these daemons acted like "players" stepping onto a deadly battlefield for the very first time, utterly horrified to discover that the in-game NPCs were suddenly slaughtering them for real!
They could accept killing one another, but NPCs committing murder?
What kind of nightmare was this?
It violated the fundamental laws of existence!
Exalted Alluresses of Slaanesh were run down, their lithe, enchanting forms scorched by flames before power fists smashed their charred remains into dust. Heralds of Nurgle stumbled blindly in their panic, caught by the grinding teeth of chainswords that dragged their bloated masses to the ground, only to be violently ripped apart.
"Run!"
However, they soon smashed right into a sheer white wall.
In the realms of the gods, such a barricade could be toppled with effortless ease. But here, it stood like an impenetrable natural chasm, completely severing any path to survival.
Smash!
Mutilated limbs hammered desperately against the stone, only for the daemons to hiss in agony as the violent recoil fractured their bones.
The Keeper of Secrets stared at the minute fissures in the wall, physically incapable of mustering the strength for a second strike.
A tremendous clatter echoed from behind, instantly locking onto the daemonic horde as an army with weapons drawn quickly encircled them.
Breathing raggedly, the Keeper of Secrets gradually made out the approaching blurred figures. Beside it, a Great Unclean One—who had been desperately trying to minimize its own presence while wildly hacking at the wall—gulped nervously in unison with the Slaaneshi daemon.
A Blade cleaved downward, butchering a daemon straggling at the rear.
Warriors, their bleeding wounds dripping with embers, surged forward, wielding their brutal weapons with merciless precision. The agonizing wails of daemons echoed endlessly.
"Flee!"
The crisp breeze scattered the thick fog as the knight raised his golden Blade high. He watched as the blood-drained soldiers massacred their foes, watched as massive, muscular daemons were systematically dismembered, and watched as this once-terrifying army was reduced to nothing more than livestock being callously slaughtered.
That scattered force of scarcely a hundred men felt like a legion of thousands.
That is, if you can even escape!
"No, spare me!"
The Keeper of Secrets shrieked, then cast a profoundly malicious glare at the Great Unclean One next to it.
"My death will only draw the Lord of Decay to project more power! You will not just be facing an ordinary Great Unclean One then!"
The Great Unclean One never expected the flames of blame to suddenly shift to it. Invoking the Divine Protection of the Benevolent Father, it frantically tried to reason with the knight.
"The Benevolent Father will not accept my demise! If you do not wish to be eternally hunted by my family, if you do not want plagues to follow you wherever you go, then please, spare me!"
It did not matter!
Victory was within reach. The path of vengeance lay directly ahead.
A Battle Sister looked up, her shattered visor plastered with a chaotic spray of blood. It carried no foul stench, only a faint, coppery sweetness.
It was a truly marvelous sensation. So daemons could bleed too. They could feel fear. They could die.
Arthur did not care what consequences would follow killing these enemies. The only mandate his comrades had given him was to slaughter.
And slaughter he would!
"No! Even if you cannot die, look around you! Your warriors are bleeding! They bled dry long ago! The fire will burn them to ash! They will die!"
The Keeper of Secrets wailed.
At this moment, it desperately wished it was an ignored, bloated lump of fat like the Great Unclean One. The majestic presence it used to take such pride in was now a fatally massive target.
'Are you kidding me?'
'After so many sacrifices, did all my comrades die in vain?'
'End this? I finally have the chance to eradicate you all permanently, and you want to end this?'
Arthur raised his sword, the Blade shimmering with a faint golden radiance.
Thud, thud, thud.
His heavy footsteps hammered against everyone's hearts. The daemons could only gape in horror as the knight swept past them.
Illuminated by the sunlight, the severed head of the Keeper of Secrets tumbling through the air was flawlessly, brutally clear.