Death Heir’s Devouring System

Despite managing to remain standing, Azrael felt a massive weight over his body, his forehead dampening in sweat.

In what appeared like a moment, the Rift enlarged, intensifying the Corruption it gave off several times over.

A horror slowly crept into the human realm from beyond. Several times larger than the Wanderers the Chosen had just fought, making the monster rival the height of most buildings.

A body covered in ragged black scales, six thick arms ending in several sharp claws. Three white eyes positioned on its head.

Azrael gulped, foreseeing a disaster ahead.

Name: [Unnamed]

Race: [Harbinger]

Danger Level: [Reaver]

Corruption Rank: [Profane]

A memory resurfaced in Azrael's mind: The Scalded Crown, the boss monster that the Proven he had met in his first Rift needed to slay in order to return to the human realm.

He remembered the overwhelming power it had displayed so effortlessly…

And now such a being was in the human realm?

"We need backup!" Alexander shouted in his ID device, bringing the frozen Chosen back to reality.

"The subjugation team failed! I repeat, the subjugation team failed! The Savage Rift has evolved into a Reaver one! We are in desperate need of more Champions and—"

Azrael didn't bother paying more attention to Alexander's words.

A cold chill ran down his spine as he made eye contact with the Reaver monster.

Harbinger in turn smiled menacingly and shifted its attention to Alexander, taking the Champion as the biggest threat.

Before Azrael had realized it, he was shouting his lungs out.

"MOVE—"

In a flash Harbinger brought its six hands together, forming a lance of pure darkness.

The edges of its eyes turned upwards mockingly. A second later it sent the deadly projectile to the HQ roof where the Chosen squad was located.

Unable to warn his team in time, Azrael was left with no other choice but to fend for himself.

Pushing his body to the limit, he ran as far away from the team leader as he could.

Once the lance of darkness collided with Alexander, a void that seemed to absorb light spread. Chunks of the shattered building were sent outwards, sending the Chosen flying to the side.

By pure chance, one of the large debris hit Azrael in the face, causing harm.

"Just my luck." He groaned, bleeding from his forehead.

Rather than stopping the bleeding with [Blood Manipulation], he conserved his energy and took a sip from Moonlight Tears instead.

The healing item did its intended job; a warm feeling spread around his body. Before his wounds were closed off.

'Do I run?' This seemed like the best option, yet at the same time he wasn't in a Rift. This was an official mission assigned to him from the government.

There was a very high chance that if he ran away, they would chase him out of the Moon Breakers. Leaving him with no access to the resources he needed to grow stronger.

Sure, he could attempt to argue that the difficulty of the job had been blown out of proportion, but then they could counter with how he was a part of the government, and in cases such as this, he should protect the civilians and infrastructure with all he had.

Yet the danger Harbinger represented was enough to make him not risk his life and run away.

'But if I am not under government protection, then I will just become a target to be picked up by the three great clans.' He frowned at the realization.

With time running out, he made his choice; if his squad leader was alive, he would fight. If he wasn't, he would make use of the chaos and run away.

"Alexander!" Going towards the rubble and smoke rising from the strike, Azrael searched for the man.

It didn't take long to find him. Across the fallen debris his figure stood.

His upper armor was gone, reduced to atoms by the single attack of Harbinger. His torso was exposed and bleeding; the left side of his face was disfigured, looking like it belonged to a corpse.

Getting his bearings thanks to Azrael's shout, Alexander took a deep breath, summoned some kind of syringe, and stuck it in his neck.

The green liquid in it entered the Champion's body and caused his vines to enlarge and turn green.

Instantly most of the wounds he had accumulated were gone.

Single-use healing item.

"Azrael." Alexander spoke with eerie calmness in his voice despite the danger looming ahead.

"Five minutes." The man said. "Reinforcements will come in five minutes. Can I rely on your help for that long? While I hold Harbinger's advance, someone will have to keep the wave of monsters next to it at bay."

Before Azrael could answer, Chunk appeared out of the rubble. "You got it, boss!"

"If it costs our lives to protect humanity, then so be it!" Clara limped toward them, her injuries clear but her resolve unshaken.

'Great, now refusing to aid them will be treated as treason.' Azrael thought grimly.

At the end he made his choice.

"Okay, we will hold the smaller fish off; you keep Harbinger at bay."

The Champion took a shaky breath, steeling his resolve.

"Get ready for battle."

The second the words left his mouth, he was gone, moving so fast that to Azrael it appeared like a blur.

'So he could have moved faster after all.' He thought, calling forth Cinder.

Once the Remembrance materialized next to him, he frowned seeing Clara and her condition. Despite her surprisingly unshaken resolve, her injuries were going to slow them down. As such, he threw Moonlight Tears to her.

Seeing her confusion, he spoke in irritation. "Drink, it heals. If we are fighting such a large wave of abominations, we would need all the hands we could get."

It was certainly weird considering that at the beginning of the day he was ready to kill her for attempting to seduce him, yet now he gave her a healing item to increase his chances of fending off the monsters.

Maybe that was why humanity had endured for so long—no matter how deeply they might despise one another, it was nothing compared to the bottomless hatred they reserved for the Corruption and the abominations that yielded to it.

After checking the damages, it turned out that four out of the ten Proven in the squad had died in the blast caused by Harbinger.

Quite a blow to their fighting power. Still, they just had to hold on for five minutes.

Before the lesser monsters that came out of the Rift could pounce on Alexander, the squad engaged.

Azrael threw a glance towards the Reaver monster. The smoke that had risen from its duel with the Champion severely obscured the area.

Yet even from afar, Azrael was able to tell one thing with certainty.

As things stood, Alexander was fated to lose.

'Troublesome.' He cursed inwardly, seeing the massive wave of monsters coming out of the Reaver Rift.

Other than Harbinger, there wasn't another Reaver monster to appear, as all of them were Savage.

However, their situation was far from ideal. The sheer numbers of the monsters weren't to be underestimated.

"Come!" Azrael roared, meeting the wave head-on.