Odyssey of the Renegade Sovereign

Astrael pressed his back against the large rock while his body was tense with heavy breathing. Beside him, Clawdia lay low in Astrael's embrace, but her golden eyes locked on the screen unfolding ahead.

The cave trembled from their relentless assaults. Fireballs, swords clashing, and arrows whizzing through the air all struck the old man's fragile figure. Yet... none of these attacks damaged even a tattered piece of his clothing.

Each strike meant to crush a strong person like meat, but simply passed through him as if he were transparent. The black arrow disappeared into the old man's chest and reappeared embedded in the wall. Tavion's blades hit his throat, but they left no scratch. Even the great axe strike left not a single scratch.

The old man kept walking forward with a low and steady pace. His footsteps echoed like thunder in the silence between blows.

"What the fuck is he…?" Astrael muttered under his breath. His hand hovered over the hilt of his sword, but he didn't draw it. He knows it will not change anything, as, in front of absolute power, no tricks would work.

Clawdia let out a low growl, but Astrael shushed her, though his brain was working in overdrive. "Stay still, girl…Let them clash… then we decide if we run or.." Astrael didn't complete the sentence.

While Astrael was thinking of his survival, the group of adventurers was fighting a life-and-death battle.

From the other side of the fire, the old man finally raised his face, voice curling like the Grim Reaper.

"Is this… all?"

The stone Astrael hid behind shook faintly at those words.

The group of adventurers formed in a stance for their ultimate attack.

Mira's hands erupted with searing light, Sekena's black arrow split the arrows s if it were the arrow of death, the warrior's axe swung down with a million pounds of weight, splitting the earth below and Varic's black flaming sword, aimed at the heart, all these attacks collided with the old man

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The noise was deafening, and the very ground quaked as if the cave itself would collapse.

Astrael shielded his eyes while clutching Clawdia closely as the wave of attack washed over them. For a moment, even he believed the old man must have been obliterated. If he were there, he would be turned to dust.

Varic, Mira and others breathe heavily.

"That old man must be turned to ash by now," Mira said with sweat on her temple as her knees gave out on the ground. But as she turned towards her friend Selena, who was trembling with fright, expression. Mira, confused, tilts her head towards the source, but her body also starts trembling.

As the smoke thinned down, the old man, the same one standing there, was the way he showed himself at first. Their ultimate and deadly attack was completely ineffective on him.

Untouched.

Unshaken.

Unbothered.

The rest of the members froze with disbelief as if they had seen a ghost. Their weapons lowered, and the faces once fierce now twisted in disbelief and horror.

"No… no way…" Selena whispered, her bow trembling in her hands.

Tavion's smirk had long since vanished, his dagger clattering to the floor. "That was... our full strength…"

The leader's jaw clenched, but his eyes betrayed the same truth they all felt.

Hopelessness.

Astrael's chest tightened as he watched the five hardened fighters, the people who had looked untouchable a minute ago, begin to crumble, despair written across their faces.

And the old man? He only tilted his head, as if disappointed.

"…So weak."

The single phrase cut through the silence sharper than any blade.

Then again, he stepped forward, and for a moment, he was in front of the group. The next moment, his figures blurred and vanished into thin air.

"Where—?!" Varic barely had time to gasp before the hooded figure reappeared behind him, hand already buried in his chest. Fingers were wrapped around something wet, pulsing—

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound of a living heart, clenched in the grip of death.

Varic's eyes bulged, then a strangled cry of mercy escaped from his lips. His black flaming sword slipped from his hand, clattering onto the floor as the flame dimmed down.

The old man standing on the corpse, his voice a whisper that crawled through the cave like the voice of death itself.

"You should've given me the thing."

CRACK!

His fist clenched, and his heart burst like a rotten tomato. Blood sprayed across the cavern, Varic's body convulsing before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

Clawdia pressed tighter against Astrael, a low growl rumbling in her throat. Astrael gritted his teeth, every muscle in his body screaming to stay hidden, to not move.

The four remaining adventurers stood frozen, their faces drained of all colour.

The old man straightened, blood dripping from his hand, his gaze sweeping across them with chilling calm.

"…Next."

Mira's finger shook as she pressed her staff to the stone floor, man started attracting towards the runes etched into its shaft. Her lips moved frantically, saying a chant, but before she could speak...

In less than a blink, she was simply there, his ragged cloak fluttering as if carried by a wind no one else could feel. An old, withered hand rose and with a casual swipe—

SHHK!

The Mirra's neck split open cleanly, as though sliced by the sharpest blade forged in heaven itself. Blood sprayed in an arc shape as the still-burning staff clattered to the ground, and the runes dimmed down. Her body swayed with wide eyes in disbelief before crumpling lifeless beside the leader.

"Pathetic." The old man's voice was flat, almost bored.

But before the others could even draw breath, a blade emerged from the old man's blind spot. The assassin appeared into existence like a shadow, and his dagger was coated in venom. But as the strike landed—

CRUNCH.

—into teeth.

The mysterious old man had turned his head at the last instant, catching the assassin's blade between his jaws. With one bite, the blade of the weapon shattered into pieces.

"What?" Tavion's eyes went wide with unspeakable horror, but before he could leap back, a suffocating weight slammed down on him. The air grew heavy as suffocating pressure descended on the assassin's body, and his knees buckled on the floor. The pressure on him was pressing in and crushing him beneath invisible hands.

But before he could process all this, the old man's foot rose.

BOOOOM!

Tavion's skull burst under the stomp, spraying blood and bone fragments across the cavern floor. His body twitched for the one last time before getting limp like a broken rag doll.

The already silent cave, except for the battle, became even more eerie. All this happened in less than a few seconds, which prevented anyone from reacting in time. The blood began to form into a crimson pool on the stone.

Astrael's fingers curled tight against the rock he hid behind, his heart hammering so loudly he swore the old man could hear it.

The old man stood there, wiping the remains of Tavion's brain beneath his foot, and slowly shifting his gaze towards the remainder three people.

Jorek, with his heavy axe, roared suddenly, shattering the stillness. His massive frame surged forward with crimson veins bulging in his neck. He raised his battle axe high with a killing intent to survive as he swung down with all the weight his body could muster.

"DIE, MONSTER!"

The old man didn't move from his place. He merely lifted his hand, curling his fingers into a fist.

Jarek froze in the middle of a swing. His eyes bulged and his lips trembled as though a scream was trapped in his throat. Blood seeped from his nose and ears, and then—

BOOOOM!

Just like a red, juicy and sweet watermelon, his body burst apart into an eruption of flesh and bone fragments splattering the cave walls. The axe fell uselessly with a dull clang, the only part of him left intact.

The only remaining woman, Selena, screamed as her body was drenched with blood and the flesh fragments of the human watermelon bomb. Her voice was incoherent with hopelessness. She staggered back until she hit the cave wall, clutching at her chest as tears streaked her blood-smeared face. Then she collapsed to her knees, her hands trembling violently as she scrabbled at her pack.

"P-please! Don't—don't kill me!" she sobbed, clutching something that gleamed golden in the firelight. She held it close as if it were both a treasure and a curse. "Here! Take it! This is what you wanted, right? Just take the eggs and spare me!"

She pushed the massive glowing egg forward, presenting it to the old man across the blood-soaked floor.

The old man's hood shifted as he tilted his head. His empty, pit-like eyes lingered on the eggs. Then slowly… very slowly… his lips curled into the faintest semblance of a grin.

While Aastrael's eyes widen, seeing the same familiar golden eggs