Despite having been at the very center of a blast of energy comparable to a nuke, he had survived.
Yet again they couldn't bring him close to death.
But Arnold knew that already.
He had drained almost every ounce of Aether in his body, even draining his internal energy but there was one last thing he could do to ensure Valtraak can never be revived or even taste death—a miserable existence for a prisoner who had already endured thousands of years of isolation, or rather confined to a realm where death lurked around every corner and no place was safe.
He descended to meet Valtraak at eye-level then caught one of the chunks of meat that fell down.
"You won't attack me, huh?" he remarked at the demon who was silently watching him.
"…I yearn to taste battle and defeat. What warrior would I be if I did not embrace both?"
"Is that why you didn't attack us that much? All you did was defend."
He bellowed in laughter as his skin was starting to regenerate but due to the aftermath of the blast, divine energy was still in the air and burning away more than what could regenerate in time.
"I can come back again so that does not matter."
Arnold scoffed.
Seeing this, the demon frowned, "…You do not seem scared to face me again. Have you accepted that you can never defeat me, boy?"
"That's not it." Arnold's hair began to turn red and blood filled his eye whites, a lighter red than his eyes were.
"??" Valtraak's eyes widened slightly at the sight of that.
Arnold then took a bite out of the flesh he caught earlier, absorbing the blood, making glowing red veins appear on his skin.
"!" Valtraak's breath caught in his throat when Arnold lifted his hand.
"I would've liked to use my new martial art on you but I don't think it would've been compatible with a Kaiju type monster." He spat out the meat that was stuck between his teeth, "Do you wanna know what I did? I used your blood to invade your body and am in the process of killing off every new cell that regenerates, which makes the curse's healing factor useless."
His cells are vulnerable now but if this was before the big blast, Arnold wouldn't have been able to pull it off since the cells would've been too much to handle. But a weakened Valtraak is easy prey for this technique.
Yes, he is literally decaying the demon from the inside.
But this just delays their deaths—unless Sylphy can break the portal.
"Kukuku! What good does that do!? I could snap your neck where you stand, boy!" Valtraak tried to grab Arnold but his hand went right through, "Wha!?"
He wordlessly lifted his hand again. The pattern in his eyes span around and his eyes glowed brighter.
"[Void Attraction]"
This was his final plan.
◊◊
There were villagers and city folk from neighboring fiefs standing outside the dome, some of whom didn't evacuate and were eager to watch the fight and perhaps witness the birth of new "heroes", having total faith in this prophecy. Even in the midst of an approaching apocalypse, many held faith that during such times, a "hero" will show up.
They saw a man in black armor floating in the sky, standing right in front of the monster king.
A demigod, one of them whispered. It spread through the crowd like wildfire and all of them cheered for the demigod in their hearts.
He was one of the heroes who brought the titan to its last breath. Well, it's not dead but it goes to show how powerful the man is.
A small black ball of energy was sent up in the sky. Nothing happened at first. But then the ground began to rumble and the people could literally feel their entire bodies shake.
They noticed that every rock, fallen tree and chunk of meat that remained on the battlefield, began to float and gather at a single point.
Then the ground split apart, sending chunks of the earth towards that same point.
Valtraak's roar shook the lands—
"Curse you, dragonkin! You intend to confine me once again!?" he tried to resist the force of the gravity, "You may have brought me to this state but I still possess the power to turn this entire country to ashes!"
He opened his mouth, making purple energy gather inside.
"You will do no such thing, Valtraak." The man in the black armor pinched his index finger and thumb together, as if pinching something then a moment later Valtraak's mouth closed shut on its own.
"!!!" spikes of bones grew out of the demon's body and shot towards the man.
But just like before, they went right through him.
"…Is this man… God?" one of the villagers wondered out loud.
This was no doubt everyone else's conclusion as to why he's so powerful.
A certain sound echoed throughout the valley, as if a blacksmith was striking a sword on an anvil. But the sound that accompanied it was that of breaking glass.
The monsters that were slowly regenerating suddenly fell apart into bags of flesh.
"That's the sound of your damnation to remain a pile of flesh for all eternity." Then the man's voice followed.
"Agggggghhhhhh!" The demon was spaghettified as he was pulled into the black sun and buried under layers upon layers of rocks.
Once the gravitational force ended, there was a floating sphere of pure rock and earth in the sky.
The barrier shattered and the golden titan humanoid vanished into thin air.
Just as the man descended and he put his helmet back on, he collapsed on his knees and vomited a mouthful of dark blood onto the scorched earth.
The cheering began as the onlookers hugged each other, having witnessed the apocalypse end.
Boots pounded across broken stone and churned mud as people ran toward him from every direction—villagers, soldiers without banners, refugees who had hidden in cellars and ditches when everything began. Someone fell. Someone else tripped over a corpse and kept going anyway. Voices overlapped into noise, then into meaning, as they poured their hearts out in gratitude.
"He did it—!"
"It's over—!"
"Thank the Gods—no, thank him—!"
Hands reached for him before he could even steady his breathing. Someone grabbed his shoulder plate. Another clutched his arm as if afraid he might vanish if they let go. A woman dropped to her knees in front of him and pressed her forehead to the ground, sobbing incoherently. A man laughed and cried at the same time, repeating the same words over and over.
"You saved us. You saved us."
Arnold tried to stand.
His legs buckled immediately and his eyes were beginning to blur as he did not have enough Aether to maintain the Halo's absurd energy consumption.
A sharp pain tore through his chest and he coughed again, blood splattering across his gauntlet. The warmth of it snapped through the haze in his head, but his vision still swam. The world felt too loud and too close. Every cheer hit him like a hammer, as he experienced the worst headache he's ever had.
"Don't—don't touch him!" someone shouted belatedly.
Too late.
He raised a trembling hand, not in triumph, but half to ward them off, half to keep himself upright.
"…Enough," he said. He wanted to tell them to stop screaming in his ears.
The word came out hoarse, almost lost under the noise. Just a tired human voice scraping its way out of a ruined body.
It took a moment, but the people closest to him heard it. Then others noticed the blood. The way his shoulders sagged. The way his armor no longer looked like something worn by a god, but like a shell holding together something that was barely conscious.
The cheering thinned. Awe curdled into unease.
Arnold forced himself to his feet anyway. Every muscle screamed in protest. His heart felt like it was grinding against his ribs. He stayed standing through nothing but stubborn refusal.
He had only taken a few of Valtraak's punches head on but that was enough to cause this much damage.
He almost fell on his face the next moment but two boys caught him in time, gritting their teeth at his weight.
"…Thanks…" his helmet fell off the next moment, making the people gasp.
"He's… He's just a boy?"
"I thought he would have a beard at least for how skilled he was back there."
"He's no older than my son."
"This… This is our hero? A boy who barely became an adult?"
"—Give him room, everyone." A woman's voice made them split to make a path, as if on command.
"W-What the hell? She's so tall!"
Guinevere, who was towering over everyone here by four heads at least, stepped forward. She was carrying an unconscious Freya in her arms. Freya's entire face was covered in blood and her eyes were unfocused but her fingers were twitching.
Looking at her signature, she had escaped death by an inch.
"Hello to you all," Guinevere began to speak to the people, "I'm glad you are safe. But I must berate you because coming here was a foolish thing to do. If that barrier did not hold, forget the monsters, the initial blast of our final attack could've wiped you all out. Your lives would have been on my conscience."
The villagers lowered their heads at being spoken to like that by one of their heroes.
"I know legends are born through the eyewitnesses of their deeds but I would rather not be remembered by anyone four or five generations from now than be responsible for your deaths."
"They get it…" Freya suddenly said between coughs, "…What matters is everyone… and everything outside the barrier remains untouched and safe… Guinevere, thank you… For doing what I could not…"
"…Lady Freya, you did more than enough…" Guinevere smiled as a tear fell down her cheek.
"…To hear that… from you is… the greatest praise… I could ever… hear…" she buried her face in Guinevere's bountiful breasts.
"H-Heroes, may we know your names?" the villagers surrounded them, ignoring Guinevere's earlier plea to give Arnold some space.
"I… am…" Guinevere hesitated for a second, "Guinevere, Former High Valkyrie of the Divine Realm."
--Err, is she serious?
--Idiot, did you not see the angels that gathered around her and how she summoned that giant golden thing? If she were just a regular human, I would been more shocked!
--Ah, yeah, that's right… Crazy to think the Valkyries have returned… I was never the religious kind of guy and always thought the Valkyries copulating with humans and fighting on our side before the world was split sounded ludicrous…
Many had their doubts but her power and bravery had highlighted that even the most unbelievable things can be true.
"Freya York…"
"My name is Ceru! Nice to meet you!" a poof of smoke appeared then Ceru popped out in her school uniform. Again, as they have seen too many crazy things today, they didn't even question why she was casually flying next to Guinevere.
"Lancelot, Inquisitor of the Juliar Theocracy." Lancelot levitated down to the crowd.
Something heavy hit the ground, and a shadow loomed over the crowd, making them retreat at the sight of what caused it.
"Tyrgavion, Servant of House Orburom."
Everyone then looked at Arnold, waiting for him to introduce himself.
"Arnold, Lord of Whitage City."
"You do not have a surname, sir?" one of them said, as if he was the most interesting person amongst them and not the Valkyrie, angel or dragon.
"I had one but I was disowned by my family."
-What kind of idiot would disown his son who's this strong!?
Arnold heard that remark way in the back. A dry laugh escaped his throat.
It was unavoidable.
"There is something I would like to share in regards to that, if I may." Guinevere interjected, "Among my people, we had a tradition of naming our tribes—or in your case, Houses—after the demon our leader slayed. It does not matter how weak it was or what rank it held—for a demon remains a demon, an enemy of the Gods. We manufacture our honor through the death of our foes, holding dominion over even their souls after death, so that they may never know true peace."
She continued, "Humans may think it is superstition or the mumblings of the senile Valkyries but we see it as an eternal victory over the demons we slay. You were ultimately the one who defeated Valtraak—Will you bear his name?"
All of them looked at him to hear what he was about to say.
"…Arnold von Valtraak. If the Demon King heard this name, she will inevitably hunt me down." He chuckled to himself then coughed again, "I'm not looking forward to that."
"Indeed. It will be a declaration of war to the demons."
He slowly stood up and took a deep breath, "They can come at me whenever they like as I have the power to fight them now—Arnold von Valtraak, King of Whitage and Lord of Sroln—that is my name." he declared to the people proudly.
**
A certain platoon of knights had arrived through the highway that cut through this valley and past the town. They were the knights who were stationed at the frontlines, imperial soldiers who lay their lives on the line each day to protect their borders. They had just witnessed the end of that gruesome fight that seemed to have no happy ending for humanity. But only a select few could prove them wrong in their pessimistic assumptions.
A woman by the name of Vealle led this group. She was tall, had the face of a seasoned warrior, a permanent cold expression, two scars across her face, short pale blonde hair and pale blue eyes.
She came here without instruction so she is technically disobeying her emperor's orders but with so many lives in danger, they had to rush over to save people at least. The empire was vast and there were more villages than towns or cities so they were planning on going to each village to evacuate them.
"—By the Gods, didn't that battle resemble the paintings of Promethius taking on the demons?" Vealle's squire remarked beside her in complete disbelief at the power they had witnessed. All of them had witnessed the fight in silence, unable to find the right words to describe it.
Dragons, nightmarish monsters, a Kaiju Demon and finally demigods flying around and fighting monstrosities.
This was like witnessing the Demon Human war, or perhaps even the Valkyries-Demon War that took place thousands of years prior.
Despite being the Head Commander of her own fortress and outpost, Veallehad felt like a little child watching two knights duel each other. To her defense, there is only a few people in this world on these people's level.
"What shall we do, Lady Vealle?" one of her captains pulled his horse next to her and asked. She looked at her unit of knights before answering, "Do you think it's safe to go here?"
They all looked pale and even the hands of those wearing helmets were trembling.
If not for their loyalty, they would've fled. No, the group looks a bit smaller than yesterday so some of them might've already left. While fleeing during such important times is considered treason and is punishable by imprisonment, Vealle understood their actions.
"We continue our mission—looking for survivors and protecting our fellow countrymen." Vealle turned her horse around and began to gallop forward.
The sound of glass breaking echoed across the lands the moment they rode out. A large gathering of people ran across the battlefield just as the floating individual, who fought the Kaiju, began to descend at a rapid pace and crash into the ground.
While the main threat was gone, it's possible there were more monsters around so Vealle headed straight for the crowd with her knights.
**
"All of you there!" Vealle and her group pulled their horses up to the crowd who had noticed them coming, "Vacate this area at once while we scout the surroundings for any remaining monsters!"
"Ah, the imperial soldiers are here." One of the villagers remarked in disinterest.
"Took them long enough."
"Yeah, someone else did their job for them."
"They're here to steal the glory."
"I'm surprised there aren't more nobles here, honestly. Maybe they're still on their way."
…None of them sounded happy to see them.
Vealle noticed a tall woman in the back of the crowd speaking to a man with dark blue hair but she could only see the back of his head. Beside the two was a young girl in a school uniform who looked out of place here but Vealle knows she's a powerful divine priest, perhaps a disciple of Oracle Angelica?
The three of them were undoubtedly the heroes who saved the world today. Going by headcount, Vealle saw six at least confronting the titan monster but the others left. The dragon was nowhere in sight, probably since it wasn't interested in hearing the humans' gratitude or getting a reward. Even the other man who fought alongside these three, left before Vealle could thank them perfectly. The sixth one was undoubtedly Freya York but she didn't even need to use her powerful spells in this battle since it was obviously not a battle of strength.
She looked up at the floating spherical rock. It was like a moon had fallen to the earth.
"Uhm, ma'am, they don't look too happy to see us." Her squire remarked.
"…I think it's more to do with dissatisfaction at our inaction."
None of the nations sent any troops here, after all. Neighboring fief lords and country nobles were the only ones who sent their soldiers here—Vealle spotted their camps somewhere nearby while riding here and recognized a few raised banners. You could say the lords were only trying to get a "piece of the pie"—in other words, a fraction of the reward that would be given for their bravery in helping the heroes of humanity.
But even this is a noble cause compared to cowardice.
Vealle jumped off her horse and began to approach the heroes to thank them personally. Since one of her House's villas isn't too far from this town, she wanted to offer them accommodation for the night before taking them to the capital in the morning. Once the empire hears what she witnessed, they will reward these heroes with the title Duke, give them land, gold, marriage proposals will fly from all directions, and many kings will attempt to coax the men of this little party that stopped the demon, into providing their semen to them for their daughters.
It's a predictable aftermath to an otherwise heroic and noble fight. Honestly, Vealle wished she could at least marry her daughter off to one of them. But she knows her daughter loves only one person.
"Excuse me!" she took off her helmet, holding it next to her hip and called out to the three of them, "I would like to personally thank you as head commander of the Border Enforcement Order (BEO)! My name is—"
Once she grabbed their attention, the young man looked back and she stopped right in the middle of her introduction.
"Aunt Vealle?"
Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.