Rean could hardly wait to see who dared be so audacious. Even the six Demon Kings wouldn’t openly challenge Christine—yet this fool sneaked into her territory with others to sabotage it?
Still, Rean knew well: anyone who reached the Demon Realm’s Eternal Frostlands and seized Fenrir’s Fang—the artifact sealing Ifrit—must have been sent by another Demon King.
They’d never wage open war, but backroom tricks? That was “the very nature of a Demon King,” as he’d once told Olga. Such harassment had been routine for ten years. He’d planned to wrap this up quietly—but now they’d crept to the edge of the Demon King Citadel. Practically stepping on his neck! Without a harsh lesson, the others might think Christine had no fighters left.
Rean retracted the barrier of 【Six Nights】, letting the six blades float scattered behind him. He reached into subspace, pulled out a cylindrical object, yanked the pin, and hurled it forward.
“Eat this grenade!”
*Boom!*
A roar rivaling the earlier thunderclap shook the wasteland. The magic-charged alchemical grenade bloomed into a brilliant white lotus across the ashen earth.
“Your invention’s seriously lethal!” Olga remarked, watching dust swirl from the blast. She’d thought it was just a prank prop for laughs—not something that actually exploded.
“Obviously,” Rean scoffed, pulling out another. Its iron-gray shell gleamed dangerously. “Did you think I made it just for lovers’ suicide pacts?”
With his magic reserves low, pre-made tools kept his combat edge sharp.
Smoke cleared. A cracked blue barrier revealed itself before Rean and Olga—scarred from the god-fury of sixth-tier lightning magic 【Lightning Flash Dark Blossom】 and Rean’s own 【Heartbreak Grenade】.
(Only by abandoning the fallen soldiers around it had the shield held this long.)
“Still hiding?” Rean’s finger rested on the pin, voice icy toward the blurred figure within. “Need another toss?”
“Alright, alright! I’m coming out!”
The barrier dissolved into shimmering blue motes. A flustered, short-statured youth emerged in finely tailored robes—likely some obscure minor noble seeking merit for his master, now crushed by overconfidence. No crest or emblem marked his allegiance.
“Oh… Never expected Lord Rean back so soon. My miscalculation,” he bowed awkwardly, flashing a sycophantic grin. “Please forgive this intrusion.”
*Predictable.* They struck while he traveled. Logically, it was their best shot.
Rean gave no reply—only pulled the pin a hair further.
“Who sent you? What’s your goal? Answer. Now.”
While pressing, he calculated efficient ways to erase a territory. At full strength, one Demon King’s domain would fall in a day. But brute force wouldn’t unify the Demon Realm. Hearts mattered. That was his promise.
“My apologies… I cannot say. Speaking means death.”
“You’ll die anyway for silence.”
The six black swords behind Rean snapped forward, tips gleaming like frozen stars. One thought, and the youth would be shredded flesh.
“Yet… Lord Rean isn’t one who enjoys slaughter, is he? You only stunned these others with lightning. If you wished, we’d all be ash drifting in the wind.”
“What’s your point?”
“I mean—is absorbing fragments into your own body to save others… a little too soft-hearted?”
Olga’s brow furrowed. Not just at his sarcasm—but that the very act which made her rethink Rean was called *soft-heartedness*.
If this was the Demon Realm’s norm… was peace just cowardice disguised as mercy?
“So you admit,” Rean’s voice dropped colder, “you stole Fenrir’s Fang and planted shards inside children.”
【Six Nights】 shot toward the smirking youth.
Refuse to confess? Refuse to yield? Target innocents? He had no right to exist.
But the youth dodged—effortlessly.
*Rean… missed?* Olga stared, stunned. His strike was sluggish compared to their first clash.
Then she saw it: Rean’s slight panting, sweat beading on his brow only to vanish as white vapor.
“Just as I thought,” the youth smirked. “Lord Rean’s magic is fading. Even you struggle suppressing nine fragments.”
“I still have enough to end you.”
Ignoring the taunt, the youth’s grin twisted into a wild laugh. “Then try this—*Hah!*”
His body shuddered. An orange orb burst from his chest. He seized it, hurled it straight at Rean. It pierced through raised swords like mist and sank deep into Rean’s chest.
