DEMON KING'S Love Redemption

Chapter 17 Single Snap of Death

The Forbidden Forest was no longer a mere site for a harrowing field exercise; it had transformed into a gargantuan maw, ready to swallow anyone who dared venture deeper. A frigid gray mist now slithered between the Ironwood trees, carrying the metallic tang of blood and the sharp, suffocating stench of sulfur. In the distance, the fading shrieks of fleeing goblins still echoed, creating a symphony of terror that made the students' skin crawl.

Vann walked at the very back of the line, his shoulders slightly slumped, playing the part of an exhausted and shaken teenager. However, beneath his eyelids, his dark pupils pulsed with a hidden intensity. His senses, honed over centuries as a lord of darkness, caught something that had escaped both Professor Mordred's watch and Freya's sharp instincts.

The ground beneath his feet was not merely still. There was a rhythmic pulse, faint but massive. It was a presence far more ancient and bloodthirsty than the Goblin Shaman he had just obliterated.

"Vann, are you still spacing out?" Elric’s voice shattered the silence. His friend walked with knees that were still trembling, his hand gripping Vann’s cloak as if it were the only lifeline left in the world. "Hurry up! The Professor said we have to get out of here before the sun fully sets. I don't want to know what kind of monsters come out after dark."

Vann simply gave a slow nod. "I’m just... dizzy, Elric. That artifact explosion made my ears ring."

"Thank goodness you brought that thing from the library," Elric whispered with a mix of envy and relief. "If you hadn't, we’d all probably be goblin snacks by now."

Vann didn't respond. He glanced toward the front, toward Freya, who was walking in silence. The girl was no longer holding her bow. Her hand occasionally brushed against her scratched cheek, where a small bead of blood had dried. Vann could see the residue of his own mana still clinging to the wound—a microscopic black haze that refused to be washed away by any light-based healing magic. Vann felt a sharp pang of guilt. He had marked the woman he loved with the very energy she loathed most.

Suddenly, Vann’s footsteps halted.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The vibrations grew stronger. They didn't come from the ground, but from the air itself. A dense gravitational pressure abruptly descended upon the area, forcing several students with weak mana to drop to their knees, gasping for breath.

"What is this?!" Kael shouted, his face turning deathly pale. "This pressure... this isn't a normal goblin!"

Professor Mordred immediately drew his staff, his stern face now drenched in cold sweat. "Everyone, form a protective circle! Now!"

From behind the fallen trees in their wake, a massive shadow emerged. Standing nearly four meters tall, it possessed skin as pitch-black and hard as stone, with glowing red eyes that pierced through the mist. The creature was a Goblin King, but it had mutated entirely. Pulsing purple crystals sprouted from its back, radiating a suffocatingly thick aura of Corruption.

The beast roared, a sound so powerful it cracked the trunks of the surrounding trees.

"Run!" Mordred screamed, his voice nearly drowned out by the Goblin King's roar. "I’ll hold it back! All of you, run for the boundary gate!"

Chaos erupted instantly. Students fled in a panic, but the Goblin King moved with an agility that defied its massive size. With one swing of its enormous arm, it unleashed a shockwave of dark energy that slammed into the rear of the group.

Freya, who always stayed at the front to protect her companions, spun around sharply. She drew her bow once more, but her mana felt stifled. The effects of the wound on her cheek began to take hold; Vann’s dark energy was resonating with the presence of the Goblin King, locking down Freya’s flow of holy mana.

"Damn it... why now?" Freya hissed. She tried to summon the light, but all that emerged were dim sparks that flickered out immediately.

The Goblin King locked eyes on its favorite prey. It leapt high, its massive shadow engulfing Freya. A giant fist cloaked in purple flames lunged directly at her.

Vann, standing amidst the fleeing crowd, froze. He saw Freya cornered. He saw death reaching for her once again. Memories of the past—of the moments he had failed to save her from the gods' conspiracy—exploded in his mind.

Enough.

That single word echoed within Vann’s soul.

He was done hiding. He no longer cared about punishment or suspicion. Vann vanished from Elric’s sight in a heartbeat. He moved through the Abyssal Step, traversing a shadow dimension invisible to the human eye.

In a single heartbeat, Vann was behind the mid-air Goblin King. Time seemed to stand still for him. He looked at the creature's massive back, at the purple crystals that served as its power source.

Vann didn't draw a sword. He didn't chant a sky-shaking spell. He simply raised his right hand, folding his middle finger over his thumb in a simple snapping gesture.

At the tip of that finger, however, all the pure dark mana he had stored for months was compressed into a single black dot smaller than a grain of dust. That dot was a Singularity—a micro-black hole containing absolute destructive power.

"Begone," Vann whispered. His voice was cold, flat, and carried an authority that not even the laws of nature could defy.

Snap.

The sound of the snap was tiny, almost inaudible amidst the forest's roar. Yet, the impact was catastrophic for the Goblin King.

A dark purple, transparent shockwave shot from Vann’s finger. The wave didn't disperse; it bored a hole through the air, creating a vacuum path that struck the center of the Goblin King’s dorsal crystal with pinpoint accuracy.

There was no grand explosion. No towering inferno.

There was only a horrific sight as the Goblin King’s massive body was suddenly sucked into a single tiny point in the middle of its own chest. Its skin, bones, flesh, and even its energy twisted and were swallowed into the void within milliseconds.

In an instant, the four-meter-tall creature vanished completely, leaving behind a vacuum-driven kinetic burst that swept the fog from a hundred-meter radius. The air pressure was so intense it knocked everyone to the ground, except for Freya, who was shielded by the residual wind wall of the attack.