Chapter 232: Demonic Awakening
’Damn it!!! That Lion’s roar! If it hadn’t been for my eye, I would be stunned in place... if that happens here, I would be dead,’ Jessica thought in disbelief, her hands trembling as she wiped the metallic tang of blood off her lips. Every nerve in her body was screaming, a symphony of pain that her Sword Academy conditioning tried—and failed—to suppress.
Cupcake watched the struggle with a feline tilt of her head. ’Wow... I didn’t know these World Bosses were this powerful, but Master killed them all with one move.’
’Don’t compare her with the Master,’ Adira chided, her voice a cold stream. She didn’t spare a glance for the girl; her purpose was singular. She moved toward the collapsed Wyvern, the beast’s breathing now nothing more than a wet, ragged rattle. ’Let’s complete our task and get out of here.’
Adira stopped in front of the Wyvern and stretched her hand toward its massive, scaled head. "I will refine it," she added, her palm beginning to pulse with an eerie, transcendent glow that began to unravel the beast’s very molecular structure.
"Ok, But remember, we shouldn’t kill Jessica." Cupcake pointed out.
BOOOOM!!!
Behind them, the earth erupted again. Jessica leaped backward, coughing up another mouthful of blood that splattered across her torn uniform. She smashed heavily onto the ground, a warm trickle of blood flowing from a jagged cut on her forehead.
’I could take one World Boss, but five? I can’t even take on three.’
She felt a sudden, sharp vibration in the bedrock and shot to the side by pure instinct. Purple lightning lances shot out from the ground where she had stood, arcing high into the sky. The moment her boots touched the dirt, a ten-meter-tall Wolf materialized behind her, purple lightning crackling through its obsidian fur like a living storm.
’Am I going to die here?’
The thought flickered through her mind as the Wolf’s massive maw lunged toward her head, teeth like ivory grave markers.
BAM!!!!!
Jessica squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the crunch of bone. After several agonizing seconds, she opened them. The Wolf was there, but its mouth was closed. Before she could process the mercy, the beast swung a massive claw, slapping her away with contemptuous ease.
BAM!
She smashed into a rock formation, the sound of snapping ribs echoing in the canyon. Her vision blurred.
’This? That wolf could have chopped my head off with its jaws... why did it slap me away? Am I being toyed with?’ She thought, her teeth gritted so hard they threatened to crack. ’I don’t even have a chance to use a single skill... World Bosses are truly overpowered.’
She turned her head painfully to the side. The massive Gorilla and the Queen Ant stood like statues, their multifaceted eyes watching her with a terrifying lack of interest. ’Those two haven’t even moved... why?’
GRAAAAAAAA!!!
Jessica’s eyes widened in horror. Huge, divine golden flames suddenly enveloped the Wyvern. The heat was so intense it turned the surrounding sand to glass, and before her eyes, the majestic beast was being completely "cooked"—its life force being harvested and refined into a pure, concentrated essence.
"This... This... Did I fail? No!! I can’t fail, I just can’t fail!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!
A geyser of blackened, suffocating energy burst from Jessica’s core. It wasn’t the clean spirit energy of the academies; it was the foul, stagnant energy of the Abyss. The demonic pressure spread across the canyon, forcing even the five World Bosses to take a wary step back.
Jessica began to rise into the air, her hair floating in the dark updraft of her own power.
"Huh? Is she a demon?" Cupcake asked, her fur standing on end as she sniffed the air.
"I don’t think so," Adira said, her back still turned as she continued the refinement. "She just has demonic energy in her system, artificially implanted. It seems the Sword Empire’s ’enhancements’ go deeper than simple alchemy."
"You will all die!!!!!!"
Jessica screamed, her voice distorted by a dual-toned screech. Her Mythic Eye vibrated until it physically split into two separate entities, both hovering over her eyebrows like bleeding rubies.
"Wow!! She now has four eyes!!" Cupcake yelled aloud, her excitement returning at the prospect of a real fight.
Jessica raised her hands, and two jagged red swords forged from solidified demonic energy manifested in her grip. They pulsed with a heartbeat of their own.
"Die!!!"
She swung the twin blades in a cross-cut. Two massive, crescent-shaped energy waves tore through the air, screaming as they collided with the Wolf and the Anaconda.
BOOOOM!!!!
The demonic blades were terrifyingly sharp. They easily divided the two World Bosses and the very land beneath them into perfect halves.
"My goodness!! She is strong!!" Cupcake added, her eyes wide with amusement.
Jessica narrowed her eyes, expecting the monsters to dissipate into ashes. Instead, she watched in mounting disbelief as the two halves of the Anaconda and the Wolf simply fused back together, their forms knitting as if the attack had never happened.
"They are already dead?" she muttered, her four eyes darting to the massive Tiger. "It seems the Realm Boss summoned them... But how can a monster use a summoning skill?"
She didn’t wait for an answer, raising her twin swords toward the heavens.
"I don’t care, I will simply kill all of you together!!"
BOOOOM!!!
_
Huge waves of demonic energy burst out from Jessica, a tidal wave of corruption that covered thousands of kilometers in seconds. The sheer scale of the eruption was so vast it reached the sensory nets of the hidden Masters stationed by the various empires to monitor the borders.
"A demon? But all the academies’ students are already in the tower. Are they fighting something else?!" A Master from the Dragon Empire exclaimed, his face pale as he felt the oppressive aura.
"Let’s go check it out. If it’s a demon, we must kill them before they reach the towers, If they’re in battle, we observe." The white-bearded Elder said. He shot forward like a streak of light, the other two following closely in his wake.
_
In another hidden location, an old woman from the Sword Empire opened her eyes, her pupils narrowing as she turned her head toward the distant canyon.
"Such strong demonic energy... It can’t be the Demon Emperor, right?" she muttered to herself, her heart racing. She took flight, her robes snapping in the wind as she hurried toward the source. The two Sword Empire’s Masters followed behind her, their expressions grim.
___
[Back at the Battle.]
Cupcake raised her head to the sky. The atmosphere above the canyon had turned into a swirling, dark vortex. From the center of the black clouds, thousands of metallic points began to emerge—the tips of countless demonic swords.
"Huh? She has this much demonic energy?" Cupcake thought in surprised, her eyes wide opened.