Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

[Translator - Kie]

[Proofreader - Kawaii]

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Chapter 327: Awakening (1)

Vahel charged at Damien as he enveloped both his hands with the power of isolation.

An opaque gauntlet formed over Vahel’s hands.

“Hahaha!”

Vahel threw a punch at Damien. Damien didn’t dodge and instead swung his sword.

The gauntlet and Erebos collided. The impact pushed both of them back.

Immediately, they both launched off the ground, closing the distance and attacking each other again.

Vahel’s fists and Damien’s sword clashed repeatedly, neither side yielding an inch.

“Why the sudden switch to barehanded fighting?”

Damien asked in the midst of the fight while blocking and attacking simultaneously. Vahel laughed joyfully as he responded.

“I’m just so happy to meet you! If I don’t fight like this, I feel like my heart will explode!”

“Disgusting.”

Damien muttered.

“Ahaha! Don’t be so cold! You’re hurting my feelings!”

Suddenly, Vahel leaped into the air, swinging his leg in a wide arc.

Energy surged, creating a massive slash. Damien blocked it with his Erebos.

Damien twisted Erebos and deflected the slash's angle, sending it soaring into the sky.

“Oh, that’s quite the technique.”

Vahel was impressed. He hadn't expected Damien to handle his attack so effortlessly.

“Think you can dodge this too?”

Before he finished his words, crystals of isolation began forming around Damien.

The crystals rapidly grew, enveloping Damien with their sharp edges, breaking the ground around him.

But Damien had already moved. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of Vahel.

“Oh?” Vahel's expression changed.

“As expected, you’re impressive. Looks like I can't go easy on you anymore.”

Vahel swung his fists repeatedly, aiming to break Damien.

Thanks to his overwhelming physical strength, every punch tore through the air and cracked the ground.

But that wasn’t all.

Simultaneously, Vahel used the power of isolation.

Pillars shot up from the ground, and crystals of isolation formed in the empty space around them.

Vahel’s fists came from the front, while the crystals attacked Damien from all sides without pause.

There were no openings. Every movement and attack worked like gears in perfect sync.

But the truly amazing one was Damien.

He parried or dodged every attack coming from all directions, not allowing even a graze. It was as if he could read Vahel’s mind.

‘This is absurd.’

Vahel thought, clicking his tongue internally at how effortlessly Damien was handling his offensive.

Vahel hadn’t always been a strong demon. In fact, he was considered among the weakest.

He was treated as trash, no better than filth.

But Vahel had a natural talent and a more warlike nature than any other demon.

He travelled from battlefield to battlefield to hone his skills.

Luckily, Inferno was full of demons with terrible temperaments, and wars were never-ending there.

Through countless battles, Vahel developed his own unique fighting style.

He developed a unique hand-to-hand combat style and added power of isolation to it.

Vahel refined his skills on the battlefield, and the more perfect his techniques became, the stronger he grew.

Once Vahel perfected his combat style, he found no worthy challengers left.

In other words, the techniques Vahel was displaying were honed over nearly a thousand years of relentless warfare.

Yet Damien was effortlessly seeing through them.

‘He was always a monster… but not to this extent.’

Vahel recalled his previous encounters with Damien.

Though Damien had displayed impressive moves back then, it wasn’t to this degree.

‘Has he grown stronger since then?’

The thought sent a chill down Vahel’s spine.

Vahel was renowned for becoming a Duke among demons in record time. Yet, even he couldn’t match Damien’s rapid growth.

“Damien! You’re not easy after all!”

Vahel shouted, his voice brimming with joy.

“That’s why I like you! You’re the first one who can fight me like this…”

At that moment, Damien vanished. In an instant, his sword slashed at Vahel’s neck from the side.

Thanks to the power of isolation, Vahel’s neck wasn’t severed, but he was shocked nonetheless.

Despite his light tone, Vahel had focused all his senses on Damien.

And yet, he couldn’t keep up with Damien’s movements. Even though he experienced it firsthand, it was hard to believe.

Vahel conjured square pillars beneath his feet and Damien was forced to retreat

“You used a similar technique last time, didn’t you? Seems like you’ve mastered it even more now.”

Vahel rubbed his neck.

Damien rested his Erebos on his shoulder and responded.

“You sure talk a lot.”

“I’m just having too much fun.”

Vahel replied with sincerity.

Vahel had reached the pinnacle of Inferno too early. He was so overwhelmingly strong that no one dared challenge his authority.

As a result, Vahel spent centuries bored, with nothing to do.

Then, he finally found someone who could fight on equal terms with him.

How could he not be thrilled?

Of course, it wasn’t entirely equal. Vahel, after all, was holding back his powers.

Otherwise, his newly found plaything would break too quickly.

‘Considering how much stronger he’s gotten in such a short time, this could get even more fun.’

Vahel wanted to draw out Damien’s full strength, not for any grand reason—just because it would be more entertaining.

“Oh, right.”

Vahel suddenly remembered the information he had received from soul-searching Dorugo.

“You have a family, don’t you?”

In that instant, Damien’s eyes widened.

Seeing Damien’s visible agitation, Vahel inwardly celebrated.

“Your father and mother are both alive, and you have an older sister and a younger brother. Your family is all in the western region of the Kingdom of Apple, aren’t they?”

The more Vahel spoke, the more Damien’s anxiety grew.

“Damien, you’d better stop me here. Otherwise, I plan to kill your family.”

Vahel was deliberately taunting him.

“Are your siblings married by any chance? If so, I’ll find their families too and kill them all. And I won’t let them die peacefully. I’ll make sure they die in excruciating pain—pain no human can endure.”

Despite the provocation, Damien remained silent.

Vahel felt a bit deflated.

“Are you thinking I’m just saying this to provoke you, that I’m not serious—”

Suddenly, Vahel’s mouth clamped shut.

It wasn't by his own will. His mouth closed on its own.

Soon, cold sweat began to run down Vahel’s face. It felt like a blade was pressed against his heart.

What’s happening?

Vahel asked himself but couldn’t find an answer. Though, there was no need to.

“What did you just say?”

Vahel turned his gaze toward Damien. In that moment, a chilling terror washed over him.

An intense, murderous aura was pouring out of Damien.

It manifested around his body, so thick that Vahel could barely make out Damien’s face or form.

But his eyes—those were clear.

They were cold, emotionless, and unnerving, as if they were glass marbles.

“I asked you a question.”

Damien spoke again, and Vahel felt as though a blade was pressing harder against his heart.

“What did you say you’d do to my family?”

***

‘He’s strong.’ Damien thought.

Exchanging blows with Vahel, Damien keenly felt the strength of a Duke class demon.

Attacks came from every direction, so precise and fast that it was almost impossible to dodge without intense focus.

The unfair part was that Damien’s own attacks didn’t seem to work on Vahel at all.

The power of isolation surrounding Vahel’s body was impenetrable, no matter how sharply Damien honed his aura blade.

‘I need that technique.’

He thought of the aurablade that Ruin had once created.

Ruin’s aurablade was formed from a combination of mana, dark mana, and divine power. It was terrifyingly sharp.

If Damien could replicate that aurablade, he’d be able to cut through Vahel’s defences, even severing bone with ease.

But even with Damien’s extraordinary talent, replicating that technique was no simple task.

Though he had briefly used it when battling Ruin’s mental projection, it had only been for a fleeting moment.

‘I need to remember that feeling.’

Damien thought and tried to recall the sensations from his fight with Ruin. But even that was proving difficult.

- Damien, your talent is far greater.

Ruin’s words suddenly echoed in his mind.

- Free yourself. Break the mold.

It was easy to say, but Damien couldn’t put it into practice.

He didn’t even understand what ‘mold’ Ruin was referring to.

“Oh, right.”

Vahel’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Damien initially tried to ignore it, but the next words made that impossible.

“You have a family, don’t you?”

Damien’s body, which had been heated from the intense battle, instantly cooled.

“Your father and mother are still alive, along with your older sister and younger brother. They’re all in the western region of the Kingdom of Apple, aren’t they?”

Every sense Damien had became focused on Vahel. He even forgot to breathe.

“Damien, you’d better stop me here. Otherwise, I plan to kill your family.”

Those words triggered memories from his past life.

When he had stabbed his father’s abdomen, the sensation of it, the sight of his mother cursing him, the corpse of his headless brother, and his sister being torn apart by the undead...

“Have your siblings gotten married? If they have, I’ll hunt down their families as well. I won’t let them die easily. I’ll make sure they suffer unimaginable pain—pain so excruciating that no human could withstand it.”

His thoughts flashed to a nephew he had yet to meet. The child hadn’t even been named.

“Maybe you think I’m just saying this to provoke you?”

His mind brought forth the image of his pregnant sister, the joy-filled faces of his family one after another.

“What did you just say?”

Dark emotions consumed Damien’s entire being.

“I asked you a question.”

His mind was drowning in shadows, and any lingering distractions vanished completely.

“What did you say you would do to my family?”

In his pitch-black thoughts, only one idea surfaced.

KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILLLLL HIM.

By any means necessary, kill that demon. He would start by ripping off his legs so he couldn’t escape. Next, he’d crush his arms so he couldn’t fight back.

He’d grind his face into the dirt so that the demon would regret everything he’d ever done. He would make him crawl on the ground, overwhelmed with the guilt of his crimes.

Damien opened a subspace and brought out all the potions stored within and smashed them on the ground.

As the potions shattered, their essence flowed freely, and Damien absorbed every drop of it.

Next, he seized the divine power enveloping the entire capital and began to absorb it. The massive amount of divine power surged into Damien’s body.

Mana, dark mana, and divine power.

The three forces fought against each other, attempting to destroy one another in their clash.

But Damien operated both Five Wheel Harmonious Art and Nameless mana art simultaneously.

The two mana techniques fused together, activating a new, combined form of power.

Soon, the three forces Damien absorbed merged and blended into one. They harmonised, transforming into an incomprehensible and immense power.

At that moment, a colourless aurablade enveloped ‘Erebos’. Erebos roared as if it would tear the world apart.

In this instant, Damien had reached the level he had long sought.

Grandmaster.

The human Damien Haksen had finally caught up to the Death Knight Damien Haksen.

***

[Translator - Kie]

[Proofreader - Kawaii]