Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 414: The Smell of Despair

Blue lightning crackled in the skies, and a massive arc of it descended downward, landing on Axel’s sword, and the moment he slashed downward with all of his might, the air particles sizzled in pain. And hundreds of smaller lightning arcs trailed out of his sword, landing on the remaining Apekins on the ground.

Blowing off the heads of the creatures directly. That same attack of his also cleared the poison mist.

His feet touched the ground, softly, glaring viciously at the remaining assassins who were rushing towards him, with the same mindless desire to kill.

Axel sneered, charging up his rune sword again, but he suddenly found himself unable to move, as if held by invisible chains.

To his complete shock, near-invisible silver threads had wrapped around his arms and legs. They were so strong that he could not move for a few short seconds; his runic eyes were already in the process of trying to break through and nullify the silver threads. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But even those short few seconds were too long in a battle like this. Axel watched on in terror. The 50 or so assassins did not attack him with their killing techniques in that moment of vulnerability; instead, they wrapped their bodies around him, almost akin to a fleshy cocoon.

And he was not able to do anything, but a greater sense of danger arose in his heart precisely for that reason. With 50 powerful assassins toppling over him like a manmade mountain, he could not move even after the silver strings decoded and were countered by him.

Through a small gap in the piling up of bodies, he saw the face of Count Halden, who whispered expressionlessly, "You will die today, Daniel’s son."

All the assassins grabbing him smiled a lifeless smile, as they chanted in complete unison like a last decree of their wretched lives, "Hail the Hand of Umbra."

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!!!!!!

Like a thousand-ton gunpowder exploding right in your face, all the assassins self-destructed, each of the killers possessing four nexus cores for two aspects, a total of 200+ nexus cores exploding. The force was strong enough even to decimate a 4th-phase Seeker.

A deep crater formed where the explosion occurred; the road and a hundred-meter radius around it were destroyed, and the ground was charred entirely black. A cloud of black smoke rose high into the sky.

Slowly, as the black smoke cleared, a ghastly figure could be seen, or what remained of him. Axel’s skin was melted, the muscles all being revealed, his entire body— bloody and unrecognizable. He was now less of a human and more of a monster.

Even so, he remained standing, holding the sword in his hand, and he remained alive, though barely. The insufferable pain of standing in the middle of such a powerful explosion was etched into every single pain receptor; his brain itself screamed in agony. He had blacked out for a few short seconds.

The only reason he had even survived was due to a few emergency artifacts that Axel had set up, which would shield him in case all of his defenses were broken through.

The very next second, Axel’s eyes snapped open. His vision was blurry—a trace of shock and fear mixed in his eyes. Axel was unable to feel pain, and his terror only deepened as he came to an understanding of his own state. His tenacious demon bloodline kept his major organs working even in this half-dead state.

As his blurry vision slowly cleared, he saw the face of the count again. Looking at him in disbelief, he spoke, his voice filled with complicated emotions, "Just what are you, boy? Are you even human?"

It was understandable after all, even if a 4th phase Seeker were to be in the midst of that explosion, only their bones would remain, let alone a mere 2nd phase runecaster. After all, the runic eyes had nothing to do with physical strength or durability—something which greatly unnerved the powerful assassin.

Axel’s gaze became alarmed; he was most vulnerable right now. His mind went into a panicked hyperdrive as he started to channel the remaining 20% of his mana into the rune sword. But nothing happened.

He turned his neck, looking at the sword. His mana was indeed coating the sword, but it wasn’t working. Axel was shocked. But before the shock could settle down, a dagger pierced his throat, in such speed that he wasn’t even able to react to it.

More blood came out of his barely hanging body. The count sighed as he uttered in cold resolution,

"I told you, boy. You will die today. There is a counter to everything in this world. Even the fundamental force of runic sorcery itself, said by your very grandfather."

After a moment of pause, the count stated with a hint of admiration, "You’re strong, Axel Nomrad, disgustingly so. To think it took the complete counter of runic sorcery to end you. You can be proud of it."

The killer slashed out for the last time with the remaining dagger in his hand, this time aiming to cut off his head directly, "Farewell, Axel Nomrad."

Time slowed to a crawl in Axel’s perception. He tried to move his hand, but he felt too numb; his hand wasn’t moving fast enough to intercept the blade. So, by pure instinct to save his life, his body moved, Axel opened his mouth wide ...

Bang...

He bit down on the dagger with his jaws; the sharp blade was a nanosecond away from splitting his mouth in half. The Assassin was shocked, even though he had not used his full strength, but to block his dagger with mere teeth, and in this state. Shock after shock gripped his heart.

In that one second of a delayed moment, Axel finally evoked the evil power sleeping within, ’Half demon transformation.’

Right in front of the terrified gaze of the mighty assassin, an incomprehensible, uncontested power of malevolent magnitude burst out like a torrential tide. Axel’s teeth sharpened and grew longer. The runic symbol on his eyes vanished, his ocean-blue eyes turning red, his pupils narrowing to demonic slits.

His skin turned gray, and his hair transformed into black ink; two red horns protruded from his forehead. His stature grew a few inches, with just the clench of his jaws, the blade shattered like it was made of glass—an unholy killing intent pressed onto the count.

Rahh!! Rahh!! Rahh!! Rahh!! Rahh!!

The Count... felt scared. He almost doubted what he was seeing in front of his eyes. For the first time in his life, he was witnessing the most feared beings of the continent, A DEMON.

Even someone as iron-willed as him could not keep calm. Axel showed a demonic smile, as wounds in his body all slowly healed up, his unnerving voice came out like a monstrous... inhumane screech,

"Sigh, I thought I would not need to transform, but it seems I am the one who had underestimated that bitch. How terrifying, I can’t believe that I almost died."

With each word that Axel spoke, an existential shudder ran through the count’s body. Despair was taking over him; he felt compelled to kneel and beg for forgiveness. What madness was this? Halden could feel the demonic energy seeping into his system and corroding his very being.

The man gritted his teeth so hard that his gums bled, and only the pain of it helped him come to his senses somewhat.

And he ran... as fast as he could, using every iota of power.

Axel let out a demonic laugh, seeing the haughty bastard run away in fear. The surrounding air vibrated, and all the animals in the forest cried out, sharing the same fear of the demons’ evil power. Especially, the forbidden demon cursed by the very world itself.

With a mere push of his feet, the ground cracked, his figure dashed towards the count in multiple times the speed of before. Bringing out the 2nd-tier rune sword, Axel slashed out, and a ray of severing reddish flash cut through the trees. It instantly cut off the Count’s leg as he was running for his dear life.

Swoshh.....

Halden fell to the ground. He was running away with so much fear that his mind had not registered that his feet were cut off.

He started to crawl with his hands, blood flowing out of his cut-off legs. The fear of demons was so greatly buried in human hearts that perhaps that itself was their most significant disadvantage against the sinful race.

Axel grabbed the Count’s neck with his sharp claws. Smashing his face onto the ground, he whispered in delight, "I can feel it, the dense smell of despair."

He added with a crazed smile, "And I love it."

Axel’s current demon transformation was much different from his previous partial demon transformation or obsession demon form. This half-demon state of his was something in between the two, and this form of his derived power from despair instead of obsession.

In this state, he could absorb the emotion of despair. As it was the next major rung on the ladder of the mutated sin, he had to deepen his understanding by causing despair in others and perhaps absorbing it all.

Smashing the Count’s face into a tree, Axel asked coldly, "Now, how about you tell me everything from the start??"