The Damned Demon

Chapter 606  The Thundering Reaper

 "I don't recognize you, but you won't live long enough for me to care," The White Knight said with a deep frown.

"They should have sent more…" The demoness suddenly mumbled in a cold, bored voice.

The White Knight's eyes widened before he broke into a loud laughter, "Hahaha. You arrogant filth. You have no idea whom you are dealing with. But I brought in my friends on the off chance you also brought your friends. Demons are devious abominations, after all."

The crowd suddenly parted as three figures stepped forth, matching the commanding aura of the White Knight in their resolute stance. Their appearance was a beacon of hope amidst the terrifying aura that had engulfed the surroundings.

Clad in identical suits to the White Knight, minus the imposing cape, each stood fiercely prepared for this face-off. Their steel-like armor shifted and gleamed under the faint illumination, and their weapons were glowing with a radiant light.

The first, a woman, held a weapon that radiated a stunning green energy.

It was a massive war hammer, the head designed with illustrative etchings that glowed with hidden power. Her stance was one of determination and force, an unstoppable tide against the terrifying presence of the demoness.

Beside her, another woman stepped forth. In her clutches was a long, curved scythe, its blade reflecting an intimidating sharpness which was not just physical, but also seemed to cut through the haze of fear. Her aura was one of resilient calm, a silent storm preparing to unleash its wrath.

Last to appear was a man, his stoicism a strong complement to his female counterparts. Clasping a pair of sleek and deadly twin short swords, the cold gleam of his weapons could send a chill down anybody's spine. As they grouped around the White Knight and surrounded the demoness, the populace uttered their collective gasp of recognition.

"It's the Radiant Guards!"

"I can't believe it…Our heroes rushed here so fast to save us!"

"Our government is on high-alert these days, especially with us not allowing the WHA to step in."

"Yes! That evil thing is going to dearly regret messing with our country's heroes."

"I know right. I heard the three of them, together with their leader, White Knight, easily killed off two peak Soul Devourers during a quest!"

"Even if this demoness is a peak Soul Devourer, she won't stand a chance against our S Rankers. Ha!"

"But…don't you think it's scary that a demoness somehow popped out of nowhere without any warning? Isn't this the same as how Hellbringer showed up in our world not too long ago?"

The demoness seemed to give a lazily glance over the four Hunters before her before she turned to look at the Hunter called the White Knight, "Are you four the strongest in this country?" A seemingly harmless question rolled off her tongue.

Wide-eyed, the Radiant Guards exchanged smug grins outlined through their masks, snorting at her audacity. The White Knight, however, sported a menacingly mocking gaze, his response laced with arrogant assurance, "Yeah, why? Are you scared that you picked the wrong place to mess around? But too bad for you that-"

"Good," the demoness cut him off, her tone void of fear and filled with chilling nonchalance, her contempt for them unleashed, "This will make things easier for me."

White Knight felt his confidence tremble for a second upon feeling the confidence in her tone.

But then he grunted and roared in fury, "This bitch!" A long, shimmering blue chain materialized in his hands.

He then issued order to his team through his earpiece without looking at them, "Let's restrain her, guys! We can't kill her yet without finding out how she sneaked into our world. Aino, cut off her mana circuit once I bind her and you two be on guard until Aino is done."

The three of them nodded and said in unison, "Got it, lea-"

*ZZZZ-KRAKK!* n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Their response was brutally cut short by a sudden, deafening, thunderous rumble. A sound that left the air vibrating, an echo that mirrored the knell of the reaper one had only heard in tales, accompanied by a violent gust of wind that seemed to sweep away whatever hope lingered in the air.

In a horrifying instant, what followed this echo was the visceral spray of blood as the heads of the three Radiant Guards were severed from their bodies. Everyone, including the White Knight watched in horror, their eyes quivering as blood gushed dramatically from the grotesquely severed necks of the three Radiant Guards while their headless figures kept standing before beginning to slowly sway.

*Thud!*

The silence that followed was suffocating, pierced only by the soft thuds of their headless corpses finally hitting the ground.

The only sight burning into the White Knight's psyche and the eyes of the helpless citizens was the towering figure of the demoness. She stood unscathed in the same spot as if she never moved an inch, a chilling sight with two heads resting languidly in one hand and a single head in the other, their masked faces frozen with battle intent as if they didn't even realize what happened to them the next second.

Dark yellow lightning hissed and sparked violently over her body while blood dripped in a steady, grim rhythm from the severed necks, splattering onto the ground and pooling darkly.

She then casually threw them towards the White Knight, who could only stare with dawning horror as he looked down to see the severed heads of his friends roll over and stop upon bumping onto his feet.

The shock, the utter disbelief, was a poison seeping into his veins, paralyzing him. His mind screamed denials, yet the horrifying spectacle stood invincible before his eyes. As a veteran Hunter, he had seen a lot of shocking things, but never in his life before did he see three mid-level S Rankers get killed before he could blink. These three were people he had known since his academy days. How could she have killed his powerful friends as if they were nothing?

The street, moments ago filled with the tense anticipation of a showdown, now echoed with the horror of the unexpected massacre.

"No... What are you..." the White Knight muttered under his breath, his voice breaking as his eyes, wide with horror, shifted from the gruesome severed head back to her impassive mask.

The crowd, which had been clinging to every move of the supposed protectors, recoiled in terror. Screams erupted as the reality of the demoness's power sunk in, her ability to dispatch the country's finest defenders with such ruthless efficiency sending waves of panic through the onlookers.

"You monster! I will kill you!!" The White Knight roared in rage and anguish as his radiant blue mana pulsed like ethereal veins across the steel plates, its mesmerizing potency dwarfing the darkness around him.

Suddenly, an explosive roar of desolation and wrath echoed through the stony silence. The ground trembled beneath the sheer might of it, resonating with a primal fury that could shatter mountains. His hand gripped tightly around his long chain. It defied the definition of a simple armament—it was composed of intertwined chains, flickering in a hypnotic fusion of fiery-red and otherwordly blue lights.

Harnessing every ounce of rage and despair holed within, he raised his chain whip high, unleashing the combined force of his flame and light powers.

The lethal whip snapped forward, trail-blazing an arc of radiant blue fire through the ashen sky. *BOOOOM!*

Its boundless power collided brutally where the demoness was standing, the explosive impact lighting the darkened landscape like a furious comet.

An eerie silence followed as the people regained some hope upon seeing the sheer devastation caused by the White Knight's vengeful attack.

Beneath the dust and debris stirred by the violent clash, the White Knight stared unflinchingly, expecting to find her wasted amongst the debris.

However, an uneasy frown furrowed his brows, as nothing but emptiness met his eyes.

"You are too slow."

The biting coldness of her voice pierced through the silence, sending a shiver down his spine. She was behind him. The realization both stung his pride and augmented the terror within him, reflected in the horrified expressions of his people.

Grinding his teeth, he whirled around, the raw fury in his throat erupting as a roar, "YAARG -"

*ZZZZ-KRAKK!*

His roar was whipped away by the ghastly breeze as he froze, horror stricken.

In mere moments, the demoness materialized, ripping through the air, her form phasing through his body and stopping behind him. Stunned, he stared at the impending void, his body trembling, and feeling the fading gust of wind against his body.

Why did it feel like he lost seconds of his time?

But just as he fought to regain his senses, the demoness' eyes glowed with an ominous light.

Her figure turned into a dark yellow lightning streak as she zoomed straight towards his body, phasing through his body again, and again, leaving behind her a scorched trail of dark mana that sought to consume him from the inside out.

The crowd watched helplessly and in horror as each phase sent their hero reeling, ripping him - the unsettling sizzle of burning flesh and the soul-chilling snap of fractured bones filling the air. They recoiled each time they heard sickening sounds and couldn't count or keep track of the number of times she was phasing to and fro through their hero's body.

But they could see her dissecting him methodically- arms, legs, all severed by her relentless onslaught, leaving him suspended midair, impaled by the deadly tendrils of her demonic energy.

Just as the crowd thought it was over, she phased directly through his torso as her hand, a demonic claw, reached through his chest to grasp his beating heart. *SPLASH!*

A cruel, slow twist wrenched it free in a shower of crimson gore, leaving nothing of his body behind. Holding it high, like a gruesome trophy, she crushed it into a bloody splatter while his body disintegrated behind her, falling piece by piece to the ground until only a bloody splatter was left.

Terror had paralyzed almost everyone who was in the vicinity, their minds frozen, their instincts crippled as they stared in despair at her figure.

She stood there, dark yellow lightning crackling around her, the suit stained with the blood of her victims, the horrifying realization dawned on everyone present:

This was no ordinary demon. This was a monster among them—a Thundering Reaper, born of nightmare and darkness, reaping lives within the blink of an eye.

She slowly shifted her gaze toward them, making the people come out of their terrified daze and wonder if this monster was going to come after them, too.

*ZZZZ-KRAKK!*

The same thunderous rumble from before echoed, making them all shut their eyes in sheer terror.

But only a powerful gust of wind swept across their bodies, and as they slowly opened their eyes, to their vast relief, she was nowhere to be seen.

However, the relief they felt did nothing to quell the terror that had gripped their hearts on this day, which turned out to be one of the darkest days in history for their country.