Chapter 440: Come at me… All of you
Chapter 440 of "Extra's Path To Demon King" opens with: Hearing the open threat of Axel, Balen’s face twisted into a hideous grimace as he... Find out what happens!
Hearing the open threat of Axel, Balen’s face twisted into a hideous grimace as he roared, "Attack, the masked bastard must not leave from here alive, no matter what."Axel grinned; it seemed his brazen blackmailing was successful, so that no outside forces would come into play. In the midst of his bloody slaughter, he declared thunderously, "KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM."
The mighty guard division of the Vex family, numbering more than 150, all of them being powerful third-phase Seekers, charged towards the troop of assassins with a battle cry, as they all held rune tools in their hands that further boosted their power. It looked like an unstoppable tide.
Just one third-phase Seeker could single-handedly have the qualifications to build a third-grade force within Suncrest. Yet, so many of such powerful beings were now treated like cannon fodder by the Vex family. Just from this gesture alone, the result of their long accumulation of power and wealth could be seen.
Unlike the charging troops of the Vex family who roared with righteous battle cries, the troops of assassins did not let out a single sound, not even a sound of footsteps. They were like an ethereal cloud of smoke as they vanished from their spots, like mist.
Only the demonic figure of Axel stood in place, with a devilish smile on his face, wearing the skull mask. Without a care in the world, he started walking towards such an unstoppable force all alone.
Puchi!!!
Arghh!!!
Grahh!!!!
NOOOO!!!!
Abruptly, with no warning whatsoever, the 120 assassins all appeared in the midst of the charging army, using their stealth techniques, using their poison daggers, they pierced through the necks of the enemy Seekers, cutting off their limbs or heads, without a shred of mercy.
Most of the time, the assassins, as they were trained, would go straight for the vital points, aiming to kill the enemy in a single shot. But the enemy belonged to the guard division of the most powerful rune family; how could they not possess enough artifacts to make others feel helpless?
That’s precisely what happened, though the assassins were all exceptionally powerful and could hold their own against a larger number of enemies than their own. Still, once they lost the element of surprise, it became much harder to catch their enemy off guard.
Pretty much all the 3rd phase guards of the Vex family possessed defensive rune artifacts that blocked life-threatening attacks at the crucial moments. And their rune weapons all possessed unique buffs, which also factored greatly in a life-and-death battle.
Axel saw this scene as he kept walking between the two fighting sides; though some stray attacks came his way, the assassins, in the end, kept all the guards busy. So that he would not have to expend his energy against these cannon fodder, which was the primary reason he had hired them in the first place.
Axel paused for a moment, observing the many destructive battles spanning a vast area. He was unsurprised, as he had already guessed that this situation would occur. Axel raised his one foot and stomped into the ground, charging it up with his despair-attuned demonic energy.
The ground quaked slightly as the black cracks started to spread through the hard ground. Dark mist began to seep out from the ground, spreading everywhere; the cracks seemed to lead only towards the Vex family seekers.
As the black energy latched onto them, even a slight touch would blacken and decay the body, and rotting flesh was falling off.
The black cracks on the grounds and the Dark mists’ effects completely ignored the killer assassins, all of it being perfectly controlled by Axel. Though this could be used as a wide-area-of-effect attack against enemies, it also serves as a temporary distraction. But it wouldn’t really do any significant damage to the enemy guard division.
So, the purpose of it was something else entirely. Axel focused on the energy sense skill, using the passive effects of his mutated runic eyes as his demonic energy was now spread all over the area, near the bodies of all the countless enemies.
He began to ever so subtly guide the demonic energy to latch onto the rune tools that the vex family seekers were using. Axel watched coldly, if the sin of obsession was something that boosted certain parameters.
Then the Sin of Despair was the polar opposite; its main power lay in the curse and a debuff on others. Eating away all the negative emotions of others and turning them into a conceptual level of poison that could almost work on anything with enough dosage.
And it was this very method that Axel used to render the powerful rune formations ineffective. Otherwise, how could he do something like this without activating the full power of the runic eyes and, obviously, having the runecaster aspect active?
As his despair attributed demonic energy seeped inside the rune tools, Axel began to manipulate it at the most minute scale, causing the rune tools’ energy pathways to become blocked on multiple key nodes.
It was almost like causing a short circuit on an electrical house board.
Some rune tools even began to explode, right in the hands of their wielders. Thus causing more damage to Vex families’ seeker troops. And how could the deadly killers of the Hand of Umbra let such a good opportunity pass?
One after another, too many of the guard division members began to die out. Seeing this scene, Balen hurriedly issued another command as the standing 20 late 3rd-phase Seekers charged straight towards Axel. Though they could feel an overwhelming dark force coming from the masked figure, causing them to feel immense fear.
They, in the end, had no choice but to charge head-on, despite knowing that they were being treated as disposable cannon fodder. Axel only sneered; these people already had despair in their minds, and with the sin of despair, he automatically felt stronger against those who were feeling that particular emotion.
It was like a virus that sucked away existential power from those who had despair in their hearts.
Axel did not need to bring out any sword, as his claws grew sharper. With a swipe of his claws, a crescent arc of Ashen fire shot out. The fire started burning on the bodies of those who came charging towards Axel. The fire did not stop, no matter what they tried.
Because the ashen flames burned from their most disparaging emotions, these flames were not in fact physical but spiritual. They burn on the outer edges of one’s soul sanctum, causing incomprehensible pain.
So, outwardly, it didn’t look like the ashen flames of despair were doing anything to the late third phase Seekers who were struck by it, yet they were writhing on the ground, howling in pain like wild dogs. Shouting profanities, they did not even know they could spout.
But then they had no choice but to beg in the most humiliating manner, beg while grabbing Axel’s feet. But at one point, the pain became so unbearable for these mighty figures that they became utterly lifeless, they who were but a mere step away from becoming famed 4th-phase beings.
A hush fell over the entire mansion area of the Vex family; all the bloody fighting and clash between metal rune weapons and poisoned daggers had suddenly stopped. Not only because most of the rune weapon wielders of the Vex family had been killed by the assassins, but also because everyone was terror-stricken by the masked figure’s demonstration of unquestionable power.
The pain caused by those dark colored flames was too terrifying. No one wanted to die in such a humiliating manner, at least not after they had progressed as powerful Seekers to such heights. They had their own pride and dignity, even in the face of certain death.
Everyone on the Vex family side had terror on their faces. No one understood how or why this was happening, how those ashen flames worked, or why the master of these ashen flames, this skull-masked figure, was attacking the Vex family in the first place. The most primal fear of humans has always been the unknown.
At this moment, Axel had become the amalgamation of that most primal and unknown fear. Not knowing that this despair-stricken fear would become their very bane, and this emotion itself was powering this terrifying enemy.
Axel’s demonic eyes flashed in delight. He could smell it, the despair that was overflowing in the hearts of everyone present. His two demonic hearts began to pump blood faster and faster. And like a magnet sucking all the metal dust, all those negative emotions started to flow towards him, specifically his two demon hearts.
They were being channeled, purified, and transformed. The trait of despair, on his demon blood, began to increase further and further.
Axel let out a monstrous laughter, seeing no one come forth to face him. He stepped over the bodies of all the third phase seekers who died in the most miserable manner, locking his eyes towards the remaining 4th phase beings, specifically the Guard division Leader of the Vex family, who was at mid 4th phase as Axel announced, "Come at me... All of you."