Kaiser of the New World

Inside a cave, an armoured beast engulfed by raging red flames continued to fight against nothing, their claws swiping at thin air and somehow producing blood that continued to add to the large amounts of blood coating its fur.

Luckily, the flames were slowly burning away the blood, but its not like that made a difference.

Kai growled darkly as he threw himself at one of the invisible monsters, impaling it with his claws before slamming it into the wall of the cave. Then, he turned around and threw the invisible beast, hitting some of the other ones and buying him a split second of respite.

So far, none of the creatures had been able to breach the defense provided by Chrome Skin, which was a good thing, only each blow landed on Kai damaged a little of his body underneath the lustrous set of armour. The damage wasn't bad though, considering his body was stronger than it had ever been and was currently being boosted by a Legendary rarity skill.

Plus, even if he did get injured, Kai could just use Minor Restorartion to heal himself. Even if the skill worked rather slowly and consumed a fair bit of Mana, it was still a worthwhile skill to use if the situation went downhill.

And the situation did seem to be going downhill.

Hit after hit, Kai was slowly getting pushed back, towards the exit of the cave where Petunia and Cecilia had gone. He and Esurient were doing a good job on holding back all of the Forgotten Husks, but who knew how long the would be able to keep it up.

Esurient pierced the invisible head of another one of the beasts, killing it instantly as it soared towards its next target. By now, Esurient's already red body had become an even darker shade of it, like a sword that had been forged out of the blood of a demon.

Every move they made was precise and calculated, and their body was burning with a bright red intensity.

Why wouldn't it be? After all, Kai had infused it with Soul Inferno before letting the sentient blade wreak havoc. Currently, it's body was much sharper than it would normally be.

Sadly, Kai's claws could not enjoy the same boon as they weren't classified as items, but he could intensify the flames coating them so that it practically had the same effect.

Kai roared and swiped in a wide arc, catching numerous abominations and clawing them open, streams of blood shooting at him. His armour was slowly being dyed a dark shade of red.

Every attack took something out of him, but he also took something out of the beasts in return, be it flesh, blood or strength.

Twirling with absolutely no finesse or skill due to his massive size, Kai managed to block an invisible arm using his armoured forearm before leaning down and catching the invisible body of the beast in his mouth and using Bite of Umbra.

The taste was abysmal, like he had just taken a bite out of overcooked meat that had been rotting for over a year. Kai's eyes started to tear up as he spat out the horrible tasting chunk of invisible flesh, he then finished off that abomination with a swift swipe of his claws.

The notifications continued coming into his mind.

By now, they had managed to kill about ten of the invisible beasts, but it was nowhere near enough, there was another three dozen left minimum.

And the situation was only going to get worse from here. With every passing second, the abominations got closer and closer to dealing some sort of meaningful damage to Kai.

And worst of all, the flames hugging their bodies were just about to die out, meaning Kai wouldn't be able to keep track of them anymore.

Something had to change.

And Kai inwardly knew exactly what to do.

Kai's eyes narrowed as he charged into the crowd of Forgotten Husks, raming them with his body as they all desparatey tried to injure him.

At the same time, Kai retracted all of the flames surrounding him, all of them funneling back inside his chest.

The two eyes that were floating above them were now left alone, allowing Kai to get a slightly better look at them.

The pupils of the floating eyes were dark red, even darker than the current state of Esurient's body. They also seemed to be looking at something, only that something wasn't Kai or the invisible creatures, it was something else entirely.

But Kai didn't care about what the eyes were looking at, all they cared about was getting out of here.

Kai grunted in pain as he continued pushing back the monsters. By now, they were starting to create cracks in his armour. The once lustrous armour was slowly getting dented and more battered.

Finally, after only a few seconds, which were more than enough time for the beasts to break parts of the armour and start attacking Kai's actual body, did Kai pull away.

Then, he raced back towards the exit of the cave.

Sadly, he couldn't use Equilibrium since he had used that ability while they were back on the titan's leg. The best way to deal with a horde of monsters like this was to have an incredibly strong AOE attack like that.

And Kai currently wasn't in possession of a skill that could do that.

So instead, he didn't use a skill that was an AOE attack, he simply made an AOE attack out of a different skill.

And what better way to do that than to take inspiration from the story he had been told and the mural he had seen back in the destroyed chappel.

Kai grimaced, his body burning horribly as Soul Inferno continued to charge up inside him. He was like an atomic bomb, waiting to go and annihilate anything in the area.

Inside him, his soul continued to supercharge with the incredible might of Strength flames. If flames created from Constitution had the longest life longest lifespan, then the ability of Strength flames was their raw destructive power.

His soul ached, courtesy of it being charged with power that it definitely could not handle, but it was going to be damn powerful.

And Kai was just about to see that power.

Turning around just in time to see the final bits of green flames die out, Kai grinned darkly as the horrific shrieking sounds the invisible beasts kept producing got closer and closer to him.

A fraction of a second passed.

The floating souls got closer.

Another fraction passed.

The burning inside his body got even worse, like he was on the verge of imploding.

Finally, a full second passed, and the beasts were close enough to be heavily damaged by such an explosion.

Dismissing Esurient just after they felled the invisible beast at the back of the pack, Kai roared in pain as he let the bomb inside his soul loose.

A shockwave of raw heat shot out of his chest as Kai keeled over, consumed by overwhelming pain. A wave of fire shot outwards, engulfing the first beast it touched and utterly erasing it from existence, leaving behind no trace.

Then, the wave of supercharged fire reached the second invisible beast.

Then the third.

Then the fourth.

Time moved in slow motion, even the dying shrieks of the abominations seemed to slow in Kai's ears, creating an almost angelic song.

As if the dying wails of such horrid creatures couldn't be considered angelic enough.

The walls of the cave rattled, waves of dust and chips of rock falling down, it was like the entire cave was about to collapse on itself.

And throughout it all, a wave of notifications flooded Kai's mind.

You have slain...

You have slain...

You have slain...

You have received...

You have slain...

Slowly, the amount of shrieks began to lessen, courtesy of the beasts getting wiped out by the remnants a Divine flame.

However, somehow, the ones that had been at the back of the pack still lived.

And even though they had been horribly burned, their bodies still burning due to the nature of the flames, all they could see was an injured Kai keeled over on the ground.

And that was enough to send them into a frenzy.

Groaning, Kai watched as Esurient manifested into existence before shooting at the few remaining beasts.

They spun their body, cleanly decapitating the first one before they twirled and managed to cut another one of them in half, the two halves of its burning body slowly falling apart.

Esurient had only just gotten all of the blood off of their body, yet they were already getting layered in it again.

But the blade didn't mind, this was the strength it had always dreamed of after all.

Kai watched in pain as Esurient killed the few remaining beasts. They were incredibly weakened after all, so it was easy for the blade.

And after all of them had been killed, Kai gripped his chest and let out a groan of relief.

"Damn... never again am I doing that... Well, hopefully never again."