“Don’t bother looking around, Luna…
I’ve already killed your spies,” I said, my voice cutting through the darkness of the night like a ribbon of ice that silenced the crackle of the campfire.
The moment those words left my lips, Luna’s innocent, submissive maid persona shattered completely.
Vaulting backward with relentless speed, she conjured a curved blade of pure, sharp ice mid-air.
As she landed in an absolute defensive stance, I felt a sudden surge in the local mana flow; she was already sending powerful telepathic waves into the surroundings with her mind.
She was likely broadcasting an emergency dispatch to the nearest rebel elven garrison.
Caring absolutely nothing for her panic, I fixed my eyes back on the dancing campfire in front of me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, my tone perfectly calm and mocking.
Luna remained motionless with her ice blade, locked in total defense.
Her chest heaved rapidly as she counted the seconds, bracing for a fatal strike from me.
“You are all going to die, don’t worry.
None of you will escape in this loop,” I said.
Before I could even finish my sentence, the dense brush in the depths of the forest parted with a loud crash.
Emerging right behind Luna were two towering, hideous demons, flanked by an armored squad of elves under their command.
I slowly raised my eyes to scan the pathetic crowd that had just arrived; a dark smile played upon my lips.
“So, the reinforcements are nothing more than demonic trash playing at nobility, blindly following orders,” I said, openly degrading them.
The demons’ eyes flared with a fierce, crimson light at the insult.
“Who do you think you are to speak to us with such arrogance, you filthy human?!” they roared, lunging at me with a savage fury.
The elves, however, remained stationary behind Luna, weapons drawn, clearly waiting for a direct command from her before making a move.
These noble demons sealed their own fate by choosing to ignore their magical prowess entirely, opting instead for a direct physical assault.
Before they could even make a single pass at me, they stepped right into the lethal mana traps I had meticulously buried beneath the soil before arriving at this clearing.
Blinding explosions tore through the dark of the night.
Pure mana erupted from beneath the earth, severing the limbs of the noble demons from their torsos in a matter of seconds.
As the monsters wallowed and shrieked in agony on the ground, their limbs scattered about, Luna maintained her silence, observing the slaughter with frigid eyes.
The first demon, doubled over in a pool of blood while clutching the stump of his severed leg, spat through his teeth: “You will pay dearly for this…
When our masters find you—”
Before he could finish his thought, I took a small step forward.
My katana sliced through the air in a single motion, cleanly decapitating the noble demon in a smooth arc.
As his head rolled away, I stepped up to the second demon; seeing his companion’s demise, the creature remained entirely unresponsive, having already accepted his death.
Without wasting a moment, I ended his life in a single strike as well.
By the time I brought the second corpse to the ground, Luna had already realized the gravity of the situation and begun fleeing into the depths of the forest with her elven squad—or at least, she thought she could escape.
Utilizing my casting speed and immense mana pool, I closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
Descending upon them like a shadow from above, I severed the head of the elf running at the very back with a single strike and hurled it directly onto the path ahead of Luna.
Faced with the bleeding head of her soldier suddenly barring her way, Luna skidded to a halt, utterly blindsided.
Shaking off the shock instantly, she raised her hand and roared to those behind her: “Everyone, push to maximum speed!
Run to the garrison immediately!”
Following her command, a dense haste spell enveloped the elves, pushing each of their velocities to the absolute brink of their physical limits.
Yet, against my absolute speed, their efforts remained utterly futile.
Realizing they couldn’t escape, two young elven soldiers stopped dead in their tracks and shouted to their fleeing comrades: “We’ll stall him here!
You deliver the—”
I didn’t even allow them to finish their sentence.
My katana gleamed like an invisible ribbon in the darkness; with a single, flawless cut, I bisected them both cleanly at the waist.
As the remaining elves continued to run for their lives, Luna bitterly realized she would get nowhere at this pace.
I will stall him here!
No matter what happens, you must deliver that report to the council!”
With those words, she unleashed the entirety of her latent mana, causing a frigid tempest to howl around her.
We stood completely motionless in the middle of the woods as the other elves vanished among the trees.
I pointed the bloody tip of my katana directly at her throat.
“The noble demons attacked physically without using mana so they wouldn’t leave an elemental trail or evidence behind, given how intelligent they are,” I said in a bone-chilling voice.
“But what is your goal, Luna?
What are you planning?”
Flatly refusing to answer me, she deepened her defensive stance, listening intently for my first move.
Instead of lunging at her as she expected, I suddenly leaped into the sky with immense force.
Extending my hand toward the direction of the fleeing elves, I unleashed hundreds of colossal fireballs from my palm into the heavens.
Desperate to protect her soldiers, Luna immediately spun a massive ice barrier over them.
What her small brain failed to anticipate, however, was that my fireballs were not traveling horizontally toward the elves.
My spells pierced the sky first, ascending above the clouds, before raining down vertically upon the elves like a barrage of meteors, propelled by the devastating force of gravity and speed.
Seeing that she had blocked the decoy spells I sent straight at her ice barrier, a haughty smile appeared on Luna’s face.
“I suppose I overestimated you, human,” she mocked.
I didn’t bother replying; I was merely counting down the seconds until my fireballs above reached their target.
Suddenly, the pitch-black forest in the dead of night illuminated with a tremendous light, as if the sun had risen anew.
The descending fire meteors completely blew the elves’ sector to pieces, creating a magnificent, destructive visual display in the background.
I began walking slowly toward Luna.
The tip of my katana dragged against the dirt and rocks, echoing through the forest with a chilling, relentless scraping sound.
Closing the distance, I looked straight into her eyes.
“Do you really think…
you can defeat me like this?” I pressed.
Gritting her teeth, she drew her ice sword closer to her body, tightening her guard.
“Even if I can’t…
I will stall you here until my last breath!” she spat.
I lightly raised my left hand, pointing it directly at her forehead.
“Paralyze,” I whispered softly.
Instantly, Luna’s knees buckled, and she collapsed heavily onto the ground.
The haughty expression on her face was replaced by a terrifying bewilderment; she struggled to move even a single muscle but failed.
“This spell will keep you completely paralyzed as long as I continue to channel my mana into your body,” I said, looming over her.
“It’s actually a highly inefficient spell, because almost every second, it drains an amount of my mana equal to your entire maximum capacity.
But for someone like me…
that isn’t really an issue.”
Reaching into my inventory, I pulled out the high-grade mana potions I carried and downed them back-to-back, topping off my depleted reserves within seconds.
I knelt beside the motionless Luna and pinched her pale cheek firmly with my fingers.
“Do you know what I’m doing now?
I’m waiting for the single elf I intentionally left alive amidst those fireballs to reach the garrison.
The moment that coward arrives, I will blink directly into his shadow and erase that place from the map entirely,” I whispered in her ear.
Luna stared at me with terror-stricken eyes, frantically trying to calculate what my next move would be.
Ignoring her desperate gaze, I pulled out holy-sealed manacles and a massive stone pillar from my pocket.
After driving the pillar deep into the earth with immense physical strength, I dragged Luna across the ground by her hair and brought her to it.
If you look closely, you can decipher the words; though be careful, these words were created only for angels to read.
Regardless…
no living being or magic can bypass this barrier unless I permit it.
Sit here quietly and wait for me,” I said, chaining her tightly to the pillar.
Having finished my task, I recalled my katana to my right hand from my inventory.
“Shadow Shift,” I whispered, activating my high-tier displacement magic.
I vanished into the darkness.
Emerging completely unseen from the shadow of the elf I had spared, I found myself inside a grand underground council chamber.
I beheld high-ranking elf nobles and powerful half-demons gathered around a massive obsidian table.
The fleeing guard was kneeling before the council in a cold sweat, recounting the situation.
One of the elves at the head of the table stood up and spoke harshly: “If that human truly knows my father’s name, this poses a catastrophic security risk for us.”
From behind my veil of invisibility, I stroked my chin, examining the speaker in greater detail.
His facial features, his posture, his arrogant aura…
he bore an uncanny resemblance to Oberon.
‘Could this bastard be Oberon’s biological son?’ I mused to myself.
Right then, a high-ranking half-demon at the table slammed his fist down in fury and turned to the young elf: “Sir!
When will your father, Oberon, deliver the lands and power he promised us?!
Our lords are growing thoroughly irritated by these delays!”
The young elf didn’t even look back at the demon.
He merely extended his hand carelessly toward him and released a highly compressed sphere of pure light.
His move was so flawless and swift that it cleaved the single horn on the half-demon’s head cleanly in two with a millimetric cut.
As the demon collapsed to the floor in agony, writhing while clutching his head, the other council members at the table lowered their heads in terror, attempting to diffuse the tension: “We are deeply sorry for his disrespect, sir!
Please forgive his insolence,” they pleaded.
Watching this internal strife had proven quite entertaining.
With a mocking smile on my lips, I completely dropped my invisibility spell, allowing my immense magical pressure to paralyze the room.
Instantly sensing my presence, the surrounding guards drew their swords and shrieked: “An intruder!
A human!
What business do you have here?!” they yelled, lunging at me in unison.
The son of Oberon, sitting at the head of the table with his legs crossed, didn’t even budge, measuring me with cold eyes.
Smiling, I nimbly evaded the blade of the first guard to strike.
Within a fraction of a second, I equipped a set of black combat armor from my inventory, entirely covered in long, thin, sharp spikes.
Before the other guards closing in on me could even activate their magic barriers, their bodies were riddled with holes by the lethal spikes erupting from my armor.
I had intentionally avoided harming the demons in the room, focusing my target entirely on those treacherous elf sellouts.
Stepping over the corpses littering the floor, I approached the young elf at the head of the table.
Leaning slightly over the table, I looked into his eyes:
“So you…
are the spawn of that filth Oberon and Queen Titania the Fertile, huh?” I said.
Upon hearing the severe insult, his composed demeanor shattered instantly; he bolted from his seat in a rage.
The color of his eyes shifted from a serene blue to a relentless demonic crimson.
“Who do you think you are to utter such disgusting words about the sublime Oberon and Queen Titania?!” he roared, lunging at me with all his might.
Despite being a highly trained, noble warrior, he had succumbed to his anger incredibly easily.
Because of this, his movements were completely predictable; before he could even form a single magic circle in front of him, I slipped swiftly behind his back.
I delivered a swift, heavy strike to the base of his neck with the back of my hand.
Before the young elf could even comprehend what had happened, he lost consciousness, his body slumping heavily onto the stone floor of the council chamber.
Reader discretion is advised.