Chapter 466: 464
In the past, the daemon had always been the hunter. Humans were its prey, creatures it could gleefully chase, torment, and slaughter.
Today, their roles had been dramatically reversed.
It had managed to separate itself from the shameless human clinging to it, blasting Kain into a bloody mess. Yet the bastard immediately resumed his relentless pursuit.
The daemon attempted to use sorcery to teleport away, only for a bizarre field to spread from Kain's body. Warp energy was suppressed even further, making its sorcery almost impossible to use.
The strange field was the same phenomenon produced by the special humans known as Blanks.
However, this bastard's field covered a much greater area and was far more terrifying.
The daemon quickly realized that the enormous range had to be connected to the Warp-like realm within Kain's soul.
Boom!
A building exploded after being struck by a rock the daemon had thrown.
It might have been unable to use sorcery, but nothing prevented it from launching physical attacks.
The two were now locked in a purely physical confrontation.
The daemon felt as though it had become one of Khorne's followers, capable of nothing except mindless violence.
Its pupils contracted as it swung its metallic blade. The weapon screamed through the air, forming a vapor cone as it slashed toward Kain at supersonic speed.
Metal crashed against metal, scattering countless sparks.
The resulting shock wave blew away the surrounding dust, revealing the person holding the opposing weapon.
At this point, Kain looked far more like a daemon than it did.
He was a blood-drenched monster that intended to devour it.
The daemon's expression suddenly changed, and it hurriedly leaped backward.
It was still too slow.
Kain knocked aside the weapon in its hand before accelerating again and catching hold of it.
The instant he touched it, the daemon abandoned that portion of its physical body without hesitation.
Kain's arm was like a knife and fork scooping a piece from a cake. The chunk torn from the daemon's body immediately melted into his hand and was devoured.
Damn it!
Since their relentless struggle began, Kain had already consumed another third of the half that remained after the daemon tore itself apart.
However, Kain seemed increasingly desperate.
His abnormal state clearly couldn't last much longer.
If the daemon could hold out until his body failed, victory would belong to it.
The problem was that the daemon might be completely devoured first.
As it retreated again, it touched the ground and condensed another metal weapon into its hand.
It could still manage matter transmutation on this scale, but the resulting weapon couldn't withstand more than a few blows from Kain's harder metal.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, followed by a sustained barrage of gunfire.
The daemon's expression darkened.
It had been preparing to circle back toward the puppet daemons it had created earlier. It had also fashioned cannon fodder from human corpses, hoping to use them to buy time.
Instead, those daemons and reanimated bodies were being destroyed.
The daemon regretted not killing those oversized tin cans earlier.
It was too occupied with fending off the creature trying to eat it to devote any attention to controlling its puppets. Without its constant manipulation, the Astartes had broken free and were now destroying the materials it could have used.
Bang!
After the final shot, the seven Astartes who had escaped its control could only silently observe a battle they were incapable of joining.
Even so, they remained prepared to intervene at any moment.
If the Commander they had sworn to protect began losing, they would enter the fight regardless of the cost.
For now, intervening would only cause trouble and hold him back.
"Our brothers from the Salamanders are already on their way."
"Understood."
The daemonic domain had disappeared, so their signals were no longer being blocked. They had immediately transmitted a request for reinforcements.
They had also ordered the Astra Militarum units evacuating survivors in other regions to withdraw from the planet and stay away from this area.
However, they were only permitted to retreat into orbit. No vessel was allowed to leave the star system.
If any ship disobeyed orders and attempted to escape the system, the remaining vessels were to destroy it by force.
Once their brothers from the Salamanders arrived, they would bring a fleet to blockade the entire region. Everyone involved would undergo inspection, and all relevant memories would be erased.
Even the Astartes would have certain key memories removed despite being cleared of corruption.
That included information concerning the Commander, such as the fact that he had just displayed Blank abilities far beyond anything previously imagined.
That information would be erased.
Each time they witnessed this ability, they would be made to forget it. Every possible precaution had to be taken to prevent information about the Commander from leaking.
Clang!
Another deep metallic impact rang out.
It sounded like a single prolonged note, almost as though an echo had stretched it out.
In reality, dozens or even hundreds of collisions had occurred within a fraction of a second.
Each impact produced a shock wave or compressed the air into something resembling a flying blade. Their surroundings were carved into a devastated wasteland.
Shunk!
A blade pierced flesh, and blood sprayed into the air.
It had struck Kain directly through the heart.
"You're no different from Khorne's lunatics."
The Greater Daemon serving Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, didn't sound pleased despite inflicting such a devastating injury. Instead, its words sounded more like an insult.
Destroying Kain's heart hadn't killed him.
The daemon had assumed the injury would incapacitate him and let its guard down. Kain exploited that brief opening to close the distance again and rip off one of its arms.
This insane willingness to exchange injuries made him seem no different from the simple-minded brutes who served Khorne.
If only that were truly the case.
Then Kain wouldn't have deceived and outmaneuvered the daemon in the first place.
What he did next gave it the human equivalent of crawling skin.
Kain smiled.
The severed arm hadn't yet been completely absorbed, so he raised it to his mouth and tore into it with his teeth. His expression made it seem as though he were savoring a delicacy.
This pervert!
"Are you afraid?" Kain asked in a taunting voice. "Fear will weaken you even further."
He was right.
When a daemon experienced negative emotions that contradicted or undermined the essence from which it was formed, it destabilized its own existence. It was effectively questioning the very nature that sustained it, causing its power to diminish.
The more deranged Kain acted, the more fear the daemon experienced.
"Come on! Become part of me!"
Kain laughed madly, his voice seemingly making the air tremble.
His display of insanity shook the daemon even further. Its existence flickered like a candle flame caught in a violent draft, becoming dangerously unstable.
Now!
With Bullet Time enhancing his perception, Kain pushed his body to its absolute limit.
He became a streak of bloody lightning, crossing the distance between them in an instant. His hand plunged directly into the daemon's head.
Then...
"Hm?"
Kain's hand collapsed.
His body had finally reached its limit.
The daemon screamed and forcibly pulled away from his arm.
It looked like a red-hot iron rod being pulled from melted plastic. The heat had liquefied the surrounding material, but part of it remained stuck to the metal, stretching into long strands as the rod was withdrawn. A mass of viscous daemonic matter clung to what remained of Kain's arm.
"What a shame, human. It seems you were the first to reach your limit. Until next time."
The daemon spoke with renewed satisfaction as its body transformed into a raven-like shape.
It flapped its wings once, split into a flock of ravens, and scattered in different directions.
It intended to flee instead of pressing its advantage.
Clearly, it feared that Kain's weakened state might be another deception meant to lure it into approaching him.
Until now, Kain's precisely controlled Blank Field, enhanced by the D99 Serum, had inflicted what amounted to a slowing debuff and an almost complete silence debuff on the daemon.
It had been forced to engage him physically.
Now Kain's body had reached its limit, and the effects of the D99 Serum had expired.
He felt as though taking one more step would cause his entire body to break apart.
"Next time?"
There would be no next time.
Kain had no intention of letting it escape.
Without the Hyperdimensional Channel, he truly would have been forced to wait for another opportunity.
Instead, Kain immediately prepared to travel to Saeko's world.
His request to cross worlds didn't require confirmation from her side. He could transfer there instantly.
He would recover in that world while time in this one remained frozen.
Then he would return at full health.
(End of Chapter)
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