— When the Sword Silences a God —
Carried on the wind, a slovenly figure ambled into view.
Unshaven, clothes rumpled, a wine gourd swaying lazily at his hip—he looked no different from a drunk who had wandered onto a battlefield by mistake.
Yet the instant his gaze lifted—
The suffocating killing intent that weighed upon the land simply... vanished.
As if a raging tide had been cut off at its source.
"Meow—"
The Cat Boss let out a cheerful cry.
"Senior Eupheron!" Nadia shouted, relief and joy flooding her voice.
The old man didn't even glance her way.
His muddy eyes snapped open, a blade-sharp light bursting from within as they locked onto the colossal demonic figure hovering amid the storm clouds.
"Bastard," he spat.
"Taste your grandpa's sword."
He reached out and clenched his fingers—
SHIIING!
The wooden sword on Cael's back trembled with a muted resonance, as if answering a long-forgotten call.
Then it dissolved into a stream of pure light and flew into the old man's grasp.
Without flourish.
Without hesitation.
He swung.
A sword ray—condensed brilliance itself—erupted into existence, blazing across the sky like a shattered Milky Way. It erased the remnants of the blood palm in an instant, shredding them into nothingness, and continued on unabated—
Carrying a force that seemed capable of splitting heaven and earth—
Straight toward the Tidelord.
"Oh?"
For the first time, the Tidelord's expression shifted.
Dark waters churned around his towering form, robes billowing like storm-swollen waves. With a casual flick of his sleeve, a curtain of abyssal tide rose, dispersing the sword ray into countless fragments of fading light.
"A mere wasteland," he said coolly, his voice rolling like distant thunder over a flooded plain.
"And yet it breeds a warrior of your caliber?"
His gaze turned cold.
"But before this god—"
"You are still nothing more than an insect."
"Insect my ass!" Eupheron roared.
"You little runt—take another swing from your grandpa!"
His figure blurred.
BOOM!
The ground detonated beneath his feet as Eupheron shot skyward, leaving behind overlapping afterimages. In the blink of an eye, he appeared high above the Tidelord, silhouetted against the roiling clouds.
"CUT—!"
Gripping the sword with one hand, he brought it down in a single, decisive arc.
A sword ray ten times larger—and a hundred times more radiant than before—ripped through the heavens. The clouds split apart like torn curtains, the air screaming as the blade-light descended with overwhelming, annihilating force.
It slammed straight into the Tidelord.
KABOOOM—!!
The impact thundered like the collapse of the sky itself.
The Tidelord was driven downward, his massive form smashed into the earth like a falling star. The ground caved in, forming a vast crater as torrents of water and mud erupted upward, blasting into the air like a broken dam.
Floodwater surged.
The land screamed.
"So... strong..."
Eren stared, his thoughts in chaos.
This senior—
was actually overpowering the demon who dared to call himself a god.
— When the Demon Shows His True Face —
Before anyone could catch their breath—
a roar tore up from the depths of the crater, like a curse dragged from a drowned underworld.
"Lowly mortals!"
"You dare wound a god?"
"Then drown in despair—ALL OF YOU!"
The earth shuddered.
From the shattered pit, demonic energy surged skyward like a breached abyss.
The Tidelord rose once more, his towering form wreathed in black-and-crimson tides.
This was no god.
This was calamity given form.
He opened his mouth.
A column of pitch-black water burst forth—compressed and roaring, warping space like a collapsing whirlpool—slamming Eupheron straight into the storm clouds with the force of a broken dam.
"Senior—!" voices cried out in shock.
"Haha…"
The Tidelord laughed.
Endless dark-crimson demonic energy poured from his body.
Where it passed, life was erased.
The land was stripped bare, reduced to dead, waterlogged ruin.
"Fall back!" Nadia shouted, waving his arm.
The survivors fled with what little strength they had left, scrambling toward the rear as if escaping a collapsing world.
Cael ran with them—then instinctively glanced back.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Eren was still there.
Not retreating.
Charging forward.
"Eren! What are you doing?!" Cael screamed, panic tearing his voice apart.
"Come back—!"
He tried to turn, to run toward him—but several companions dragged him back by force.
"Cael, stop!"
"Don't throw your life away too!"
Cael's roar of despair echoed across the ruined field—
And Eren's figure vanished, swallowed whole by the churning demonic flood.
---
— The Thing That Should Not Exist —
Eren plunged into the crimson-black miasma and was instantly engulfed by the Power of Oblivion.
It wasn't heat.
It was as if countless icy fangs were tearing into him at once, gnawing through flesh, bone, and soul. Every nerve screamed. Every breath felt like it might be his last.
Instinct took over.
Gritting his teeth, Eren desperately circulated the Lumivora Art .
Then—
Something impossible happened.
The destructive Power of Oblivion didn't tear him apart.
It was being drawn into him.
Absorbed.
Refined.
Transformed by his very body.
"Hmm?"
High above, the Tidelord's expression finally shifted.
"A mortal... devouring the Power of Oblivion?"
A flicker of unease crept into his eyes.
"This one," he said coldly,
"cannot be allowed to live."
He opened his mouth once more.
A torrent of pitch-black water burst forth, compressed to the point of distortion—
a deluge meant to erase all things.
Death closed in.
The pressure crushed down on Eren like a collapsing sky.
Just as he believed he would be erased—
A burning sensation exploded between his brows.
A shadow surged forth.
The Lumin & Umbra Sigil.
It expanded violently, unfolding into a vast, mountainous silhouette that stood between heaven and earth. Its surface rotated with eerie, shifting light, radiating a devouring pressure that warped space itself.
The annihilation beam struck it—
And vanished.
"What... is that?"
For the first time, true fear entered the Tidelord's voice.
"That artifact—no... impossible!"
His gaze locked onto the Sigil, disbelief spilling into horror.
"The Celestial Tome? The Terrestrial Tome?"
"No—those things should not exist in this era!"
His face drained of color.
Arrogance shattered—replaced by raw terror.
The 'god' who had looked down upon all life moments ago turned without hesitation, transforming into a streak of fleeing light as he desperately tried to escape.
But—
It was already too late.
The Lumin & Umbra Sigil split apart.
In an instant, it became massive, domain-like walls, sealing the entire space like an iron prison beyond escape.
The Tidelord slammed against it again and again, darting wildly—
like an insect trapped in amber.
"No—!"
"I refuse to accept this—AAAH—!!"
His final scream twisted space itself.
Then—silence.
His form was swallowed by the Sigil, erased without a trace.
Eren stood frozen, his mind blank.
That artifact...
Had suppressed such a being—instantly.
In that moment, he finally understood.
That day in the prison cell, the jade pendant hadn't merely unlocked a legacy—
It had awakened something far more dangerous.
As his thoughts raced, the Lumin & Umbra Sigil rapidly shrank, transforming into a stream of light that returned to the space between his brows.
The battlefield fell silent.
But the world—
would never be the same again.