The sound of hundreds of dragging footsteps scraped harshly against the cracked asphalt. The humid night air was tainted by slowly falling volcanic ash, covering a sky that had lost its stars. The distance to the Bogor Safe Zone was fifty kilometers. It was a distance that felt like a stretch of hell for those walking without armor. Eka walked at the very front. Every time his boots struck the asphalt, a stinging pain shocked his leg muscles. He coughed violently. A clump of black blood escaped his lips, staining the dry ground.  Breaking through to a D-Rank Hunter did save his life from instant death by the Demon General's attack earlier. However, there was a price to pay. In this apocalyptic world, nothing was ever free. His mortal body had just been forced to act as a drainage pipe for an A-Rank Demon's lethal aura. As a result, the blood vessel networks across his neck and arms had ruptured. It left a dark purple spiderweb pattern t

Bara's massive body was thrown into the air like a worn-out ragdoll.The purple-eyed mutant demon's strike was too fast and far too brutal for a D-Rank Hunter's reflexes to follow. Bara managed to cross his thick arms to block. The two-centimeter-thick iron plates attached to his sleeves, which had been his reliable defensive shield, shattered into sharp metal shrapnel. The iron fragments pierced straight into his own biceps.Bara hit the muddy asphalt with a deafening thud. The ground around him shook. The young man's ribs creaked painfully, instantly cutting off the air supply to his lungs. The giant youth vomited fresh blood from his mouth. His chained iron mace flew far out of reach.The dark purple-eyed demon did not waste a single second. The blood-red bone spikes on its back scraped together, creating a horrifying screech that assaulted the auditory nerves. The creature leaped into the air, opening its jaws filled with serrated fangs and highly acidic saliva. Its target was crys

The air inside the steel factory plummeted instantly. The temperature froze to an unnatural point. The rusty iron walls around them groaned softly, covered by a layer of white frost climbing up at terrifying speed. The puddles of acid rain on the concrete floor cracked and hardened.In the main doorway, a three-meter-tall Ice Knight Demon stood blocking the only wide exit. The creature held a giant crystal spear dripping with frost. Behind its horned skull helmet, two eye sockets emitted a bright blue light that swept the room. Every breath the demon exhaled created a small blizzard in the air.Eka tightened his grip on the hilt of the God-Slaying Sword. His left shoulder, newly bandaged by Old Man Thomas, throbbed agonizingly. The cold pierced through the dirty cloth, biting into his raw flesh all the way to his collarbone. "Eko, Dimas." Eka yelled over the sound of the cold wind emitted by the demon in front of him. His voice was hoarse and rough. "Take

"Aris, now. Burn the machine." Eka's shout tore through the freezing factory air. His voice was hoarse from pain, breaking the panic that had momentarily chained Aris and Siti. Aris did not waste a single second. The man pressed both of his palms toward the giant, rusty boiler tank right behind Eka. Instead of aiming at the Ice Knight Demon floating in the air, Aris focused all his remaining fire elemental Qi onto the valve Eka had damaged seconds earlier. "Die, you bastard!" Aris cursed, panting heavily. Bright orange flames spewed fiercely from his palms, crashing into the old pressure-holding metal. The extreme heat from the fire Qi met the leaking air pressure inside the tank. The boiler machine exploded with a deafening blast. Rusty iron debris flew in every direction. Boiling steam heated to hundreds of degrees erupted like a volcano, hitting the face a

Eka crashed hard against an invisible surface. The smell of wet asphalt and metallic blood vanished instantly, replaced by cold air that froze his lungs. The pain in his chest still throbbed violently. It was the effect of energy rejection from the Demon General crystal he failed to digest earlier. Time moved thousands of times slower in his subconscious dimension. In front of Eka, Sabeni stood with a straight posture. The gaunt-faced man did not look at Eka. His ice-cold gaze was locked sharply on the two giant silhouettes floating behind Eka's back. Kuro-Oni and the Hellhound. "Are you two just going to watch my vessel nearly die?" Sabeni said. His tone was very quiet, but its vibration shook the void. "Did you forget who tied the chains around your necks?" Kuro-Oni snorted softly, hiding his panic with a tone made as calm as possible. The giant samurai demon bowed his head sli