DEMON SUMMONER: DESCENDANT OF THE CELESTIAL SOVEREIGN

Chapter 2: Valhalla I'm Coming

Six hours. That time felt like an endless hellish torture for Andi and Wardi.

The asphalt of the toll road beneath their feet was no longer visible. It was completely covered by piles of demon corpses overlapping each other. Thick black blood pooled up to their ankles, creating a disgusting splashing sound every time they shifted. Andi breathed through his mouth. The filthy early morning air burned his lungs.

His severed right arm had gone numb a long time ago. He had run out of blood, which was now drying and mixing with the dust of a ruined world. His left hand still gripped the steel spear tightly, but the white glow of his pure Qi had faded hours ago. He had reached the absolute limit of a C-Rank Hunter.

Beside him, Wardi panted with his chest rising and falling irregularly. His broadsword was cracked in many places. The muscular man's arm muscles suffered internal tearing from constantly forcing raw Qi to condense. Both of them had far surpassed the physical tolerance of mortal humans.

Ten wolf-like C-Rank Demons surrounded them in a five-meter radius. The demons did not attack immediately. They played with their prey, waiting for the hunters in front of them to collapse from exhaustion.

Andi turned to Wardi. They exchanged a brief look. No words came out of their mouths. Only a faint, proud smile painted their dirty faces. They had bought six hours. Six precious hours for their sons to run as far as possible.

One wolf demon suddenly pounced from a blind spot. Wardi reacted and tried to lift his sword. But his back muscles cramped and refused to work. The demon's thick claws pierced Wardi's chest, crushing his ribs in one brutal strike. Wardi coughed up a massive amount of blood, his body collapsing heavily onto the asphalt.

Andi let out a hoarse scream. He lunged forward, stabbing his spear into the demon's eye. But the other nine demons leaped simultaneously from all directions, drowning Andi's body with their fangs and claws. The sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh echoed down the silent toll road. The final defense line had finally fallen.

The morning sunlight was blocked by thick fog and slowly falling volcanic ash. Inside a completely ruined minimarket, Eka opened his eyes with a sharp gasp.

Cold sweat drenched his entire face. His torn right palm throbbed painfully. The pain shot up to his shoulder, reminding him of the reptilian demon's deadly strike last night. Eka held back a groan. He had not slept at all. His mind was filled with the image of his father's face.

Eka looked down at the concrete floor of the minimarket. There was a rhythmic vibration beneath him. A puddle of dirty water near his feet rippled slightly.

Sopian woke up in the corner of the room due to the vibration. The muscular young man's hand instinctively gripped the handle of his sledgehammer. Beside him, Rahayu sat hugging her knees with a deathly pale face. Eka's mother had swollen eyes from crying all night. Her body trembled in fear.

The vibration grew stronger, traveling into the soles of their shoes. Low growls and the sound of hundreds of feet scraping against the street could be heard very clearly from behind them.

Sopian looked at Eka. Sopian's face hardened. His jaw veins bulged tightly. They were not stupid. The six hours of escape time they got last night meant their fathers managed to hold off the sea of enemies for that long. And the vibrations of hundreds of demons marching less than two hundred meters away proved one absolute conclusion.

The defense was broken. Their fathers were dead.

Sopian stood tall. The D-Rank Hunter spun his sledgehammer, walking heavily toward the shattered glass door of the minimarket. His eyes were red, holding back tears.

"Sopian, where are you going?" Eka's voice trembled slightly.

Sopian did not look back. "Buying time. Take your mother and run, Eka. They are too close. If we run together, we'll be slow and we'll all die."

Eka forced his stiff legs to stand. He walked quickly and pulled hard on his best friend's shoulder. Sopian slapped Eka's hand away roughly.

"Let me hold them back, Eka. My dad died for us. I have to pay them back." Sopian yelled. Pure emotion spilled from his chest. Tears rolled down his dust-covered temples.

Smack.

A hard slap landed squarely on Sopian's cheek. The sound of the slap echoed sharply inside the silent minimarket.

Sopian froze like a statue. He touched his cheek, looking at Eka with pure shock.

Eka's eyes stared back at Sopian. There was no more naive Eka. There was no more terrified teenager crying like last night. Eka's eyes were now cold as ice, empty, and filled with despair that had frozen into absolute resolve. It was a forced maturity brought on by the apocalypse in a single night.

"Use your brain, Sopian." Eka's voice was low and extremely cold. "You are a D-Rank Hunter. Your physical density is way beyond mine. You have the muscles and stamina to carry my mother and run all the way to Bogor."

Eka raised his right hand, wrapped in a dirty, blood-soaked cloth. Fresh blood dripped back onto the concrete floor as he forced his fingers to move.

"My hand is ruined. My legs can barely feel the ground. As an E-Rank Hunter, I will only be a burden and slow you down if I run with you," Eka continued. His words were sharp, cutting straight to the core of the painful truth.

Sopian shook his head. His breath caught in his throat. "No. You are my brother. Your dad told me to protect you."

"And my dad told me to make sure my mother survives." Eka snapped. His voice cracked, holding back the emotions he was desperately trying to bury. Eka grabbed Sopian's collar with his functioning left hand. "I stay. I become the bait. This is not a discussion, Sopian. Take my mother and run."

Rahayu screamed hysterically upon hearing the conversation. The middle-aged woman stumbled to her feet, running to hug Eka's body tightly from behind.

"No, Eka. Mom doesn't want to lose you too. We run together, son. Please, don't leave me." Rahayu cried loudly, gripping her son's blood-crusted shirt.

Eka closed his eyes. His heart felt like it was being stabbed by a dozen daggers hearing his mother's heartbreaking cries. But in this ruined world, tears could not stop a demon attack. Pure kindness without physical power would only send them all to their graves. Eka held his breath. He locked the door to his emotions tightly, throwing away the last of his humanity. He looked at Sopian and gave a signal with one slow nod.

Sopian understood that look. Sopian's gaze dimmed, filled with deep respect and profound regret over his helplessness. He slowly stepped behind Rahayu. Without a moment's hesitation, Sopian swung the side of his hand right onto the back of Rahayu's neck.

The strike was measured and precise. Rahayu lost consciousness instantly. Her body went limp and fell, but Sopian quickly caught her. Sopian hoisted his best friend's mother onto his broad shoulder.

The roar of the demons was now deafening. The minimarket walls began to vibrate violently, shaking dust from the ceiling.

Sopian looked at Eka one last time. The muscular young man's eyes welled with tears, but he steeled his resolve to carry out the assigned task.

"I hope we meet in Valhalla, Eka." Sopian said with a hoarse voice.

Without delaying another second, Sopian turned and sprinted through the back door of the minimarket. His footsteps were heavy but extremely fast, carrying Eka's only remaining family away from the center of death.

Eka stood alone in the ruins. The atmosphere suddenly felt incredibly silent. It only left the sound of his own racing heartbeat and the approaching footsteps of the demons.

He took a deep breath. The foul morning air, reeking of blood, filled his lungs. It provided a stinging sensation that kept his mind sharp and awake. Eka reached out with his injured right hand to the scabbard at his waist. He winced in agonizing pain as his torn palm forced its muscles to grip the hilt of his sword.

Eka drew the remains of his steel sword, which had broken in half during last night's battle. The scrape of old iron rang out loudly. He lifted the chipped blade, covered in black blood stains, in front of his face. Eka closed his eyes for a moment, then kissed the cold blade.

A silent vow was carved into his heart. A vow to kill.

Eka turned around. He walked out the front door of the minimarket. The volcanic ash fog was slowly blown away by the wind, revealing an asphalt road packed with hundreds of red-eyed monster silhouettes.

Hundreds of C-Rank Demons stared at him. Their savage breaths created white vapor in the cold air.

Eka lowered his stance. He clenched his fists tightly, feeling fresh blood flow from his wound and drip onto the asphalt. There was not a shred of fear in his eyes. There was only absolute rage and the will to destroy whatever breathed in front of him.

"Come at me, all of you." Eka roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the apocalyptic silence. "I will avenge my father's death."

With a broken sword in his right hand, Eka charged forward alone to meet the sea of demons head-on.