Clyde gritted his teeth as his Elderglass sword pressed deeper against the obsidian like stake. Sparks erupted where the blade met the darkened surface, red-hot energy crackling outward in defiant bursts.
The entire battlefield trembled beneath him once again as a powerful force resisted his strike and pushing back against his strength like an immovable wall.
A wave of intense heat rolled over him, scorching the air. The Demonic power embedded within the stake pulsed violently, fighting back with all its might.
The ground beneath him cracked and split, glowing veins of molten energy spreading outward like a living entity, trying to consume him in its fire.
But Clyde didn’t back down.
He tightened his grip on the sword. His arms straining against the unseen force that refused to let him break the stake.
His Angel aura flickered, momentarily dimming under the sheer weight of the power pressing against him.
His instincts screamed at him that whatever this stake was, it wasn’t just a simple relic or marker. This was indeed something ancient that woven into the very fabric of this destroyed world. This must be the thing he was looking for.
Clyde exhaled sharply. Fine then. If this much wasn’t enough, he need to exert more.
His eyes burned with renewed determination as he drew upon more his power agagin.
"I’ll use my real power then!"
A surge of golden light exploded outward from his body. The radiance of his stolen Angelic energy intertwined with the flowing might of [Tidebreaker] skill and sending ripples of divine and water element force in every direction.
The ground beneath him was no longer just scorched and broken — it was now become a battlefield of two colliding forces that tried to cancel each other.
The Elderglass sword, still embedded in the stake, began to hum, vibrating with newfound power from its master.
The transparent Elderglass blade blazed with shifting hues of radiant gold and deep blue, a perfect fusion of holy fire and ocean force.
The reaction was immediate.
The stake shuddered violently, its molten veins flickering erratically. A deep, roar echoed that seems to be coming from living thing erupted from within the earth, as if something buried beneath was feeling the strain of Clyde’s assault.
The heat around him escalated to unbearable levels. The coat from Hammer start to be burned, yet Clyde stood his ground.
His armor of magic power wavered but it did not break. Its shielding him from the worst of the Demonic inferno surging outward.
Then, with one final push, Clyde poured every ounce of his strength into his sword.
The fusion of holy power and elemental might surged down the blade, traveling like a lightning strike straight into the core of the stake.
For a moment, nothing happened.
A massive shockwave erupted, the sheer force tearing through the battlefield like a hurricane of fire. Golden mist and searing water surged outward, clashing violently with the Demonic flames that fought desperately to remain.
The veins of molten energy flared once... then dimmed a moment later. The obsidian surface fractured from within, splintering like shattered glass.
And finally, it exploded.
Chunks of molten rock and corrupted energy detonated everywhere, sending debris flying in all directions. However, the fiery glow snuffed out in an instant as if something deep within the stake had finally been extinguished.
Clyde staggered back, breathing heavily. His sword still crackled with lingering energy but he could feel it now that the resistance was gone.
The power that hold the stake had been destroyed.
And as the dust settled, Clyde lifted his gaze toward the battlefield once more.
Something had changed.
The very air around him felt different now — the weight of an ancient power lifting or, shifting.
And then, from the distant horizon, a new presence stirred.
Clyde kept his stance firm, his grip tightening around his sword as the figure strode toward him through the haze.
Every living thing he had encountered in these ruins had tried to kill him. He wasn’t about to let his guard down now.
The thick air shimmered with lingering heat, and the ground still crackled where the molten stake had erupted. Then, through the rising waves of ash and smoke, the figure came into full view.
It had long, jagged, and cracked horns with ember-like veins pulsing along their length. Its skin was a deep, molten red, a body sculpted with powerful unnatural musculature.
But the most unsettling thing was its eyes — two smoldering pits of dull orange light, sunken and filled with exhaustion rather than malice.
Clyde ignored that last part.
The creature exhaled, rolling its shoulders as if it had just woken up from a long slumber. Then, it spoke.
"You managed to destroy that stake." Its voice was hoarse, dry, as if it hadn’t spoken in centuries. "And you’re... human. I didn’t know that was possible."
Clyde narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
The being let out a hollow and tired sound of chuckle.
"I’m a man who was imprisoned on that stake," it said, glancing down at the broken remains of its former prison. Then, with a humorless grin, it added, "Well... I used to be a man. Now? Definitely not anymore. Hah."
Clyde frowned. A man?
That meant... this thing wasn’t born . It had once been human.
"Who imprisoned you?" Clyde demanded. "Asmodeus?"
The molten figure stilled. Then, with slow deliberation, it nodded.
"Yes. The very being who burned this world." The voice was bitter now, thick with something resembling regret. "I used to serve him, you know. During the apocalypse, I fought in his name, carried out his quests. But one day, he decided I was more useful as a prisoner than a warrior."
The creature turned its burning gaze back to Clyde, flexing its clawed fingers.
"He made me the guardian of his weapon. And then he sealed me inside that cursed stake for... I don’t even know how long."
Clyde watched him carefully, his mind working through the implications. Asmodeus had left a guardian here. He mentioned a weapon.
Clyde’s grip on his sword tightened. "Where is it?"
The molten figure smirked.
"Ah... So that’s why you’re here."
Then it pointed at its chest. "Its right here."