Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 424: The Trial Turns Its Teeth

Thalion watched as the three groups approached at terrifying speed. Every single one of them was too dangerous to ignore. There was no time to form a proper plan. Only seconds later, the red devils landed on the skyships.Their leader struck first.

With a single thrust, his spear pierced Emma’s heart, killing her instantly. Andrew managed to deflect one spear, but the follow-up swing took his head off in a single brutal stroke. The two mages standing in the circle on Thalion’s skyship tried to raise a barrier, but one of the devil’s spears began to glow with red light before shooting forward, shattering the barrier and killing both mages at once.

Nine devils landed in front of Thalion, followed by their leader, who wielded a spear in each hand. He lunged forward, both spears exploding with crimson power.

Thalion ducked under the attack, summoning the Claws of the Blooded Templar and slashing forward. The devil leader was extremely fast and dashed aside, avoiding the ten crimson arcs aimed at him. Four of his underlings were not quick enough and were ripped apart instantly.

“This one is dangerous. Activate your boosting skills,” the leader commanded in a deep voice as his aura surged.

At this point, the devil’s power surpassed even Aris by a wide margin—and that was when the fight truly became dangerous for Thalion. The underlings had died easily before, but with their boosting skills active, even they were now a threat.

Only four stayed behind to assist their leader. The others leapt away to attack the remaining group and Ryan. Thalion would have liked to know how they were faring, but there was no time. The leader was already moving again.

It was time for a change.

If Thalion continued fighting in his human form, he would be forced to expose his curse. He would rather reveal the Crippled Eclipsari—or Eagly—than the true horror hidden in his human form. And honestly, he was itching to tear them apart.

The light around him dimmed as Thalion shifted into the Crippled Eclipsari.

He caught the spear aimed at his head, ripped it from the devil’s grasp, and followed up with a kick that blasted the leader backward. The other devils did not give him a moment to recover. They activated movement skills, blinking forward as runes along their spears flared to life.

Thalion had no idea what twisted abilities were woven into those weapons, but they were powerful—and he had no intention of taking a direct hit.

A black tendril shot from his shoulder, catapulting him sideways as he charged a Shadow Claw and unleashed five arcs of darkness. The devils dodged easily and used the opening to surround him.

Then the leader appeared above him.

The two spears were gone. In their place was a single massive weapon, easily twice the size. He brought it down with overwhelming force.

Dodging was impossible.

Jumping would put Thalion directly into the attack. Moving sideways would leave him open to the other spears. A single wound here would mean death.

In a split-second decision, Thalion punched downward, shattering the planks beneath him and diving into the ship.

Not a moment too late.

The devil leader cleaved the entire skyship in half. The force of the strike carried through, cutting deep into the floating rock fifty meters below.

Thalion thought.

He issued a silent command to the darkness elemental and let it loose.

Releasing his aura beneath the falling ship would have ruined the element of surprise, so instead, Thalion slashed upward with a Shadow Claw. Five arcs of darkness tore through the planks like they didn’t exist. Splintering wood filled the air, mixed with the agonized scream of a devil.

Thalion burst upward through the deck, appearing behind the wounded devil—now missing an arm and a leg. He seized the body and hurled it at the leader while finally unleashing his full aura.

Before, only a faint distortion of light had marked his presence, even when suppressed.

Now, it was as if the sunlight itself was being devoured.

Shadows stretched unnaturally long across the entire perimeter. Darkness thickened, swallowing the battlefield. Even the overwhelming aura of the devil leader could not resist it.

Why that was the case, Thalion had no idea.

With his aura came darkness—and with the darkness came fear.

The elemental had not fed in quite some time, and it craved nourishment. Before, Thalion could barely sense fear through the dulled perceptions of the elemental. Now it was as if a candle had been lit inside every enemy around him. Even within the devil leader, a small ember of fear began to glow.

What Thalion did not see—but the devil facing him did—was the change in his empty eye socket. The shroud of darkness within it began to move, and smoke of pure shadow seeped outward.

This was the opening Thalion had been waiting for.

Tendrils of pure darkness erupted from his body, lashing toward the devils still around him. However, the three remaining devils—aside from the half-dead one Thalion had already hurled at their leader—were no weaklings.

They reacted instantly.

One summoned a barrier that wrapped around his body as he shot backward. Another empowered his spear further and slashed through an incoming tendril. The last activated a movement skill and dashed upward.

All tendrils missed and retracted.

Thalion cursed internally. He had not expected all of them to escape unharmed. That moment of failure left him dangerously exposed.

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Only one did not escape—the devil he had thrown at the leader.

The leader did not hesitate. He showed no concern for his subordinate and simply thrust forward. A spear of condensed mana tore straight through the devil’s body and continued toward Thalion’s head.

Thalion shot sideways, barely evading the attack, and immediately charged the devil who had protected himself behind the barrier.

The devil slashed downward, attempting to cut Thalion the same way he had severed the tendril earlier—but Thalion dodged, dove forward, and closed the distance.

This was fatal for the devil.

Spears were excellent weapons at the proper range. At close quarters, they were clumsy. Thalion had fought spear-wielders many times before—and it showed.

Before tearing the devil apart, Thalion launched another attack.

The barrier still surrounded the devil like a miniature dome. However, the shadows beneath his feet remained untouched. Thalion seized them, forming a massive spike that erupted upward, impaling the devil from below. The shield shattered from the inside like glass.

The next devil was already upon him.

He dropped his spear, grabbed Thalion by both shoulders, and smashed his head forward. The impact flung Thalion several meters back—but despite the devil’s speed, it was not enough.

A darkness tendril had already embedded itself in the devil’s chest.

It began dissolving him from the inside.

The devil screamed and tried to bite the tendril, but his teeth eroded into shadow instead. He howled in agony as darkness consumed him.

Thalion did not urge the elemental to finish him quickly.

The pain fed it. The screams were music.

The same was true for the impaled devil, still clinging to life despite being on the brink of death.

Unfortunately, Thalion could not savor the moment.

The leader was on him again.

The massive spear—over five meters long—whirled through the air. If the skyship’s planks had been sturdier, the leader’s wild swings might have been hindered. Instead, the spear tore through the wood as if it did not exist.

Dodging became increasingly difficult.

With the skyship falling and gravity working against him, Thalion was forced to solidify shadows beneath his feet, creating footholds in midair to maneuver.

Above them, the devil who had escaped earlier began firing crimson lances downward, trying to support his leader.

That bombardment lasted only seconds.

Then the skyship slammed into the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces, killing the two devils who had already been half dead.

Using the dust and debris filling the air, Thalion launched three shadow spikes upward, forcing the airborne devil to retreat and halting the assault—if only briefly.

That was enough.

Thalion surged forward toward the leader.

He nearly laughed in triumph as he slipped between two violent spear swings, closing the distance at last.

Killing intent flooded his thoughts.

The elemental went berserk, summoning shadows to hunt the remaining devil in the sky. Thalion could not tell if the spikes had struck, but he felt the fear in that devil’s body surge again and again.

Looking upward was not an option now.

The leader stood directly before him, grinning wide—four elongated fangs bared like a lion’s maw.

The devil released the spear and threw a punch, his fist blazing with intense crimson light.

Thalion swung his Shadow Claw at the same time.

They collided.

There was a clear winner.

The impact blasted them both backward. Thalion’s Shadow Claw shattered, several of his fingers breaking under the force. The elemental recoiled in protest, shrieking in frustration.

Thalion complained internally.

Normally, when fighting as the Crippled Eclipsari, he never had to worry about coming out on the weaker end. If there was one thing this form excelled at, it was strength and brutality. Yet even the devil standing before him—who clearly did not possess a high-rarity evolution—was more than capable of giving him serious trouble.

The fight was far from over, but the implications were terrifying.

From here on out, the difficulty of the trial would only continue to rise. Even worse, the rewards would scale just as drastically. This stage alone offered one million points for a single mission. Aside from Thalion and the First Daughter, no one else even had that many points in total.

Before, Thalion had been confident in his eventual victory.

Now, things were starting to look grim.

There was the pirate treasure hunt in the next stage—where everyone would be fighting each other while racing for the same prize—and then there was the secret stage beyond that. The chances were high that several far stronger Chosen could surpass him in the coming trials. Some might even catch up during this very stage.

Thalion dodged sideways as the devil lunged forward, throwing punches meant to pulverize him. Shockwaves burst outward with every strike, each nearly as dangerous as the fist itself.

He adjusted his approach, focusing on evasion while using shadows to restrain the leader whenever possible. It barely helped. In the blink of an eye, the devil appeared directly in front of him, using a different movement skill, his fist already on its way toward Thalion’s head.

Thalion was not confident he could tank that blow without his skull cracking like an egg.

He repositioned instantly, yanking himself aside with a tendril while exhaling a cloud of umbral miasma straight into the devil’s face.

The space behind him—where his head had been a moment earlier—exploded as the punch landed. It finally dawned on Thalion that even the toughness of the Crippled Eclipsari had its limits.

That realization was deeply unpleasant.

Fortunately, the leader now had his own problem. The umbral miasma took effect almost immediately, slowing him down.

Thalion felt a flicker of cold satisfaction as the elemental finished off the devil in the sky and began devouring the corpse with shadow tendrils. He capitalized on the moment, carving deep wounds into the leader’s right arm and chest.

But it wasn’t over.

The devil roared and exploded with power, pushing his boosting skill to its absolute limit—something he clearly had not done before.

Thalion cursed internally.

The increase in power was obvious, but more troubling was the complete disappearance of fear or hesitation. Rage burned away any lingering effects. Pain no longer seemed to register at all.

That could work in Thalion’s favor—overconfidence often did—but it also meant he had no idea how much damage the devil could still endure.

The leader’s reflexes sharpened dramatically. Landing a shadow spike or tendril became nearly impossible. Thalion was forced to abandon most offensive actions just to keep dodging.

Every attack from the leader carried the potential to end the fight instantly. Regeneration meant nothing if half his body was shattered in a single blow.

The only saving grace was obvious: the devil was burning through mana and stamina at an absurd rate. The moment that boosting skill ended, the tables would turn.

The only question was how long the leader could maintain it.

There was no trace of fear left in him. His feral grin widened with every strike, long fangs bared in savage delight.

Thalion had no idea how the others were faring—but given how brutal this fight already was, it couldn’t be good.

Someone like Ryan could probably put this devil down quickly. As an E-grade Chosen, raw power alone would be enough. The silver knight earlier had likely been an unfortunate matchup.

You didn’t become a Chosen by accident, after all.

For now, Thalion had no choice but to survive.

The leader kept up relentless pressure, forcing Thalion to focus entirely on evasion. One mistake was all it would take for the devil to corner him and end his life.

Using tendrils and his inhuman speed, Thalion stayed mobile, throwing out occasional attacks in hopes of slowing the leader down. With the devil’s current speed and strength, landing a clean hit felt nearly impossible.

Then everything changed.

The leader launched a rapid combination of punches, each one strong enough to obliterate Thalion outright. To execute the sequence, he had to remain stationary—just for a moment.

All of the sudden a flaming fist burst out through the leader’s chest as Ryan drove his entire arm straight through him, killing the devil instantly.

A second later, Thalion felt the overwhelming heat of Ryan’s aura wash over the battlefield.

That wasn’t a bad sign.

Thalion wondered. He hadn’t expected it—but damn, was it welcome.

Then he saw Ryan’s expression.

The usual arrogance was gone.

In a hoarse voice, Ryan said,

“The others are all dead.”

Thalion finally took the time to scan the battlefield.

The two remaining enemy groups were thinned out—but both of their leaders were still alive. Every member of Thalion’s team lay dead, torn apart or already devoured by the translucent attackers.