Thick black smoke is retreating from the outskirts of the Elf village. The small body with the loli-like dark skin of Elly was trapped among the fallen trunks of ancient trees. The kick wrapped in fire and water pressure from Tusuki Kenji caused his chest to cave in, fresh blood continuously oozing from the corners of his mouth. The magical connection with the World Demon Realm was suppressed by the formation of Esktra and Lily, rendering him pitifully weak.
However, the fiery red eyes of a Dark Assassin showed no signs of submission. In the utmost deadlock, the brutality and arrogance of an otherworldly being drove him to the most insane decision.
"Lowly beings... You force me to resort to this!" "Lowly scum... You force me to use this!" Elly hissed thru her blood-stained teeth. Elly hissed thru her blood-filled teeth.
He raised both of his small hands to the sky. A thick, dark purple aura, carrying the scent of decay and nothingness, suddenly erupted. This is his greatest nightmare, the ultimate skill he had never wanted to use in this world due to its immense spiritual devastation: Memory Devour.
Just as Tusuki Kenji charged like a golden lightning bolt to deliver the finishing blow, Elly directed the palm of her hand toward the Holy Sword Knight. A chain of dark purple smoke shot out, piercing straight into Kenji's forehead.
Whoosh!
A terrifying scene unfolded. The number one Western master, who was brimming with battle intent, suddenly stood still like a stone statue in mid-air. The fiery holy sword in his hand immediately extinguished, and the radiance from the Holy King Rebirth's blessing faded into harmless specks of light. Kenji's eyes widened, then gradually lost focus, turning into a blank, empty white. All of his memories of swordsmanship, identity, and life ideals are being frantically sucked away by that dark aura, turning him into a soulless corpse in the truest sense.
"Ha ha ha!" Have you witnessed it yet?! This is the power of the Demon King Realm! " Elly was coughing up blood while laughing maniacally.
He quickly turned his head, his eyes filled with hatred locking onto Hegemon – the one standing on the high stone platform not far away. For Elly, this mortal is the most detestable one, the one who saw thru and shattered his perfect plan.
"Now it's your turn, you insolent little ant!" I will devour your memories, turning you into a fool who strangles yourself with your own hands! " Elly roared, redirecting the stream of purple-black smoke straight toward Hegemon.
Hegemon had no time to dodge, nor the strength to evade. The chain of memories pierced into his mind. Hegemon collapsed, clutching his head tightly as he felt a terrifying force trying to extract fragments of memories from his brain.
Elly stood there, arrogantly devouring the first streams of information flowing from Hegemon's mind. At first, everything went very normally. That was the memory of a lonely immigrant, a series of aimless wandering days, dull conversations with Lily by the edge of the forest... Elly found it ridiculous how shabby the prey's life was.
However, Elly had only consumed half of the memories when the stream of dark energy suddenly halted. The second half of the spiritual diary titled Hegemon is not an ordinary past. It is a forbidden zone containing an invisible monster that the laws of time have deliberately concealed.
Because the Memory Consumption technique requires the user to absorb and digest the victim's information, Elly, in a moment of inadvertence, directly relived all the memories he had just touched.
And that was the beginning of hell.
Boom!
Elly's mind exploded. He suddenly found himself holding a rusty dagger, plunging it deep into his own chest in the suffocating darkness of the prison. The heart-wrenching pain, the suffocating feeling of fresh blood gushing out, and the collapse of reality crashed into his mind with millimeter precision.
Before he could regain his composure, the next memory hit him. He found himself thrown into a space of intense pressure, his chest exploding, his soul disintegrating like a sponge.
Then came the third time, the fourth... the tenth time... the fifteenth time!
The entire series of horrific deaths, the successive insane deaths against the manifestation of the Supreme Spirit. The sensation of the body being torn apart into particles of information, the feeling of the spine being shattered under the pressure of magic, the spiritual pain piling up, embedding directly into the soul with each forced reset of the timeline... All the tortures that surpass the endurance limits of all living beings in the multiverse now flood into Elly's mind like an acid flash flood.
"Aaa... Aaaaaaaa!"
Elly let out a horrified scream. The scream was no longer a trace of arrogance, but a complete shattering of reason. The chain of dark purple smoke cracked and then exploded, the technique being violently rebounded.
The one from the Demon King Realm, who always took pride in nurturing power from "Fear," is now being consumed by the most primal fear. He had never known what true death was, let alone imagine that a creature could die and be reborn 15 times in a row, enduring the cruel and hopeless torment of the soul. His trembling voice uttered the final words in utmost fear:
"You... you are a monster..."
Then she repeatedly stabbed herself in the head with a knife, and he went insane, killing himself and laughing maniacally.
Everything truly ended now that he was dead. Esktra sealed his body, burying it deep in a cave at least 50 meters below the surface.
The Elf villagers rebuilt the village, and to avoid disaster, Hegemon suggested creating a deeper barrier to prevent the God of Tree from unleashing a catastrophe.
The energy from Lily's boundless knowledge was also very helpful.
The Elf tribe was saved and the village rebuilt, the only problem being that Kenji recently lost his memory. However, no one said anything about it, as it was for the best since he didn't need to remember it.
Hegemon and Lily bid farewell to everyone and, following Yuki's directions, they arrived at the Western Kingdom.