196 - Desperate Resistance

The first collision was too fast for any soldier to react. Rygar was so superior in speed that he cut through the troop of soldiers like an unstoppable terror.

Executing the Burst Step along with the Longsword of Light, he surpassed the entire army that was waiting for him, killing everyone in his path.

His blade and body moved so quickly that only when he appeared on the other side did the opponents feel the shockwave.

Severed limbs flew through the air. Armors were sliced in half as if made of butter, with such clean cuts that no one would say they were made in less than a second.

A line of destruction and death emerged wherever Rygar passed. The sound came delayed; everyone was still trying to understand what had happened.

The soldiers, stunned, slowly looked back. Rygar was now behind the first line of defense. He turned calmly, as if he were in the middle of a pleasant stroll, and let out a long sigh.

"What a waste..."

His body began to heat up. Blood pulsed rapidly, his muscles tensed, defining themselves with a new and brutal strength as he activated the Holy Beast Battle Aura.

Tsukikage in his right hand began to emanate incandescent red and orange flames. His golden eyes shone like beacons amidst the chaos.

The Earth Colossi, further back, unleashed their own nightmares upon their enemies. Powerful blows rained down on their gigantic bodies, yet still, they advanced, unstoppable like living mountains.

One of the army commanders, an Advanced-level warrior, staggered back, trying to regain control of the troop.

"Kill th—"

Those were his last words. Rygar was already upon him. Tsukikage's blade passed through his armor and flesh as if there were no resistance.

The commander's body was hurled meters away, ablaze.

Rygar then looked toward the interior of the marble fortress and said:

"Let's get this over with."

The desperate resistance of the knights began.

Rygar couldn't quite understand their logic at first. Looking at these soldiers, they definitely knew they were going to die, yet they continued to advance.

At the beginning, the attacks were coordinated, tactical, with calculated formations. But gradually, order was lost, becoming just a confused contest of who could even scratch Rygar.

Most of them were Intermediate-level warriors, and several were Advanced-level. But to Rygar, they were merely soldiers of death, throwing themselves against an invincible enemy.

He gradually realized that their objective wasn't to defeat him. It was merely to delay him.

His Earth Colossi were beginning to lose strength. After all, they weren't living creatures, and their existence was time-limited. The reason they had caused so much destruction and lasted so long was the fact that they were Emperor-level.

Knowing this, Rygar changed the tempo.

He began to advance toward the center of the fortress—where the strongest were probably stationed.

Of course, that didn't mean he would leave the rest alive. Every soldier, every knight, every warrior who placed themselves in his path was killed, and there were many of them.

Flaming waves engulfed the marble fortress.

Blades of silvery-white light were launched from the slashes of Tsukikage and Watermirror, cutting towers, walls, and buildings to pieces.

The entire fortress trembled with each impact. The ground cracked. Pieces of marble and concrete flew in all directions.

The sky was covered by a rain of debris and flames. What was once a magnificent and imposing structure now looked like an apocalyptic scene.

Rygar was at his physical and technical peak. His muscles contracted with superhuman force. His senses were sharpened.

His eyes, like those of a predatory beast, analyzed every enemy, every route of attack, every gap.

He was like a beast unleashed on the battlefield. And the crazed, desperate soldiers were merely prey thrown in his direction.

None of them could stop him.

---

On the other side of the battlefield, atop a swaying tower damaged by previous impacts, one of Milis's archers climbed with desperate effort.

The stone structure trembled beneath his feet, creaking, about to collapse.

Every movement demanded effort; every second could be the last. He knew he'd have a single chance.

With his heart racing and sweaty hands, he reached the top. There was the ballista—a massive weapon, already partially broken—still functional enough for one shot.

It was already loaded. Fortunately, he aimed at the partially destroyed Colossus and pulled the trigger.

The arrow cut through the air with a thunderous sound. Being weakened, with his knee already damaged by previous attacks, the Colossus could not withstand it.

The projectile pierced the rocks easily and struck the critical point of his leg. A muffled roar escaped the creature as his body lost balance.

The gigantic Colossus began to fall—directly onto the Fortress.

The soldiers screamed, running in all directions. Many would not escape in time. But then, a golden flash appeared like lightning.

A female figure, slender, with long golden hair, crossed the field at a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.

In the blink of an eye, she reached the soldiers about to be crushed and kicked them away with supernatural strength and speed, saving dozens of them from certain death.

The first Colossus finally fell. A terrifying crash shook the entire fortress. Rocks shattered, dust rose like a dense cloud, and the already battered structure began to partially collapse.

And atop the rubble, unperturbed, stood she: General Flash Sword. Her light armor shimmered even under the darkness of the night, and her expression was serious.

The saved soldiers could hardly believe it. Many knelt, thanking their savior, but she said nothing. Her gaze was fixed on the distance.

On the horizon, a flaming flash appeared: it was a Hell Slash. A wave of destruction sent by Rygar, consuming a large part of the fortress and reducing soldiers to ashes.

General Flash Sword's expression tightened into a grimace, dissatisfied for not being able to do anything while her soldiers were being killed.

And then, a chill ran down her spine. Instinctively, she stepped back. Being so close was dangerous. At that distance, she wouldn't be surprised if the Beast God could appear out of nowhere by her side.

With a harsh look, she gave her orders:

"We're ready. Everyone, retreat!" she said loudly.

The soldiers, still in shock, buzzed with joy.

They didn't understand exactly what that meant, but whatever it was, the generals had finalized their plan.

They weren't abandoning the field—they were preparing something.

Everyone began to retreat as best they could, in formation or fleeing, but always with renewed hope. Then, the General disappeared in a flash of golden light.

Meanwhile, Rygar watched the fire consuming everything before him. Tsukikage burned with incandescent flames, sharper and more distinct by the moment.

Rygar had recently discovered the second ability of the blade.

For a long time he had ignored the hidden properties of his swords—there was too much to think about, and the abilities were too mysterious to be explored calmly.

The second ability of Tsukikage manifested when Rygar was blinded: his senses were heightened to the extreme.

Similar to the Blue Dragon he had killed to enchant his blade,

It wasn't shocking, considering his abnormally sharp senses, but it explained some strange situations.

But its first ability was still absurdly useful; it was important even in his most perilous battles.

The blue blade could become so sharp that it could cut through armor, bones, magical barriers, marble, and concrete as if they were air.

Of course, Rygar's Touki was primarily responsible for this destructive power, but together with the sword, they became even more lethal.

Rygar then conjured a forest of Stone Thorns to his right. Earth stakes burst from the ground violently, piercing dozens of soldiers around.

And then, he felt something. A stronger soldier. A Saint. His presence stood out among the others, and Rygar shot toward him like lightning.

The newly arrived Saint shouted to the others:

"We're ready! Retreat!"

But before he could finish, he saw Rygar coming with inhuman speed. Desperate, he activated his magical armor, which glowed with intense white light, forming a barrier around him.

In sync, the Saint advanced with his sword trying to intercept the Beast God in midair.

It was useless.

Rygar swung Watermirror diagonally. A blinding silver sword light appeared. It cut through the magical barrier of the armor without much resistance, passed through the Saint, and split him in two.

The blade continued forward, drawing a luminous fissure in the air and opening the ground in a straight line for dozens of meters.

The soldiers, who had been cheered by the order to retreat, returned to despair. They fled uncontrollably, abandoning any kind of formation.

But Rygar did not stop his relentless pursuit. Still, he thought:

'Are they ready? Then, finally the generals will show themselves…'

Obviously, this did not prevent him from continuing the destruction. He stormed through the walls of the Marble Fortress like an insatiable beast.

Nearby, the second Colossus was also falling.

It had been hit by a powerful Saint-level spell—Immolating Conflagration—that exploded in flames and destroyed the last resistance of magic.

But that spell revealed the presence of a Saint mage.

Rygar ran like lightning across the battlefield, leaping over debris and corpses.

As the Colossus fell, he ran over its body, using the creature's height to gain elevated vision.

He activated his demonic eyes—and saw. Beneath one of the inner sections of the wall, a man in a red cloak with a staff in hand. A mage. The one responsible for the spell.

Rygar did not hesitate. He leaped like a missile. The mage realized too late. He tried to run, stumbled, and fell.

Watermirror descended in a vertical arc. The blade of silvery-white light appeared, consuming completely the wall and the mage.

The impact left yet another fused scar on the once magnificent Marble Fortress. Rygar landed on the rubble at the same moment the second Colossus hit the ground, provoking another deafening crash.

All the soldiers retreated to the interior of the fortress. Rygar activated his magical eyes, trying to see what lay beyond the barriers, but they hid everything.

He sighed, somewhat disappointed.

His danger senses barely reacted.

"I expected at least some challenge… Fine. Here we go."

And with that, he shot toward the center of the fortress, where everyone seemed to be gathering.

Night had already cast its dark cloak over the skies of the Marble Fortress. The moon, covered by clouds of smoke and ash, could barely cast its light on the flaming rubble.

But for Rygar, that mattered little. As a member of the beast race, his dark vision was superior to any ordinary human's—and with his magical eyes active, the distinction between light and shadow became irrelevant.

The open destruction in the wake of his fury still smoldered. The charred bodies, the melted stone, the shattered ground… it was all a common scene in that battlefield now taken over by chaos.

But Rygar knew the true challenge was yet to come.

Advancing with constant speed, he reached the inner limits of the Fortress. There was another wall there, smaller, but still reinforced. Not all the soldiers had managed to gather in the central area protected by it.

As he shot forward like a living arrow toward that resistance core, the flames of Tsukikage grew.

The blue blade was now completely engulfed in flames. The flames danced and buzzed around the blade.

Rygar sheathed Watermirror.

His entire body seemed like a falling comet. A flaming streak crossing the night skies. And then, he collided with the wall with an infernal crash.

"Hell Slash..." Rygar murmured.

The word was like a divine command. A wave of fire burst from the collision, expanding like a solar explosion.

Rocks were pulverized. The remains of the inner wall evaporated into splinters. Crossbowmen screamed in agony, their bodies being swallowed by the flames that consumed everything in their path.

The screams lasted only seconds before the sepulchral silence returned.

From the flames, Rygar emerged. Illuminated by the infernal glow of the sword itself, his gaze was sharp, alert.

It was then that he felt it.

A barrier.

A translucent blue layer covered the area around him. A magical dome was erected, like a prison.

But it wasn't just one—a second green layer appeared right after, followed by a white one, even denser.

Rygar raised his gaze. Around the dome, he noticed various mana clusters, small symbols floating in the air, all interconnected by almost invisible magical threads.

The Barriers that had been placed before his arrival were mostly destroyed by Rygar's magics.

So the commanders improvised—they decided to erect new barriers while the combat was already happening, activating them at the exact moment he invaded the final zone of the Fortress.

Now, within the magical prison, all that remained was a simple plan: kill the Beast God. Prevent his escape. And hope the barriers held long enough.

Rygar faced his enemies.

Atop the rubble and improvised platforms stood his final opponents.

General Flash Sword, with her long golden hair swaying in the night wind, her eyes shining with lethal focus.

General Saint McEarntown, a robust warrior in blue and gold armor, ivory blade raised with an iron gaze.

And around them, almost twenty Saint-level warriors, accompanied by elite troops specialized in containment, support magic, and combat.

It was a complete siege.

McEarntown was the first to speak, his voice echoing inside the magical dome:

"The days of your tyranny end today, Rygar Adoldia! You will be buried in the Marble Fortress!"

Rygar let out a slight laugh. The smoke still danced around him, and the flames of Tsukikage hissed, hungry.

"Tyranny? Strange..." he said, rolling his shoulders as if warming up his muscles before a hunt.

"I wasn't even here when they started calling me that. But if... that's all you have..."

He took a step forward, his presence making the soldiers before him tremble.

"...then I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. You... underestimated me."

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