He stared at Razeal the pale-skinned man with silver hair drifting like liquid moonlight and whispered hoarsely:

"Just… j-just who is this person? Why… why can't I recognize him?... With this kind of aura… I should recognize him…"

His heart thumped harder.

"This… this feeling… it's like… like I am standing before one of the Sea Lord himself…"

The words came out broken, squeezed through sheer terror. No matter how he tried, he could not move. His limbs refused to listen. His instincts screamed at him to flee, but his body felt frozen in a vice.

Razeal finally spoke, quiet and emotionless:

"This is the first time I've had people under me…" His crimson eyes drifted toward Aurora and Levy for a moment before returning to the trembling Atlantians. "…and someone dared to hurt them."

The tone was calm, almost gentle which somehow made it infinitely more terrifying.

"This," he finished, "is bothering me quite a bit."

And then

BOOM.

Something invisible but monstrous tore through the water.

A red wave thick, dense, terrifying burst from Razeal's body and spread outward like a blooming storm. It wasn't magic. Nor aura. Nor physical force.

It was pure killing intent.

And it was so powerful it almost manifested as a physical presence. The water itself shuddered and rippled violently as if trying to escape. The stone beneath their feet trembled. The cages rattled. The entire open-water facility vibrated like a creature cowering in fear.

Maria's nerrowed her eyes.

"Wh-what is this…?" she whispered, stumbling back a little.

Her heart pounded wildly, beating like it was trying to flee her ribcage. She looked down at her hand..

It was shaking.

Just from standing near him.

Just as I thought… he really did become stronger… Maria's thought. Completely different from before.

After getting that new heart, her strength had skyrocketed she knew she was much stronger than before and even then…

This killing intent alone made her feel like prey.

Neptunia, floating behind her, wasn't any calmer. Her expression was tight, her usually calm eyes hardened into sharp seriousness. Even she could feel her spine tingling.

"This… This is pure killing intent," she murmured. "So strong that it feels like a beast's jaws around my throat."

Meanwhile

Aurora and Levy looked completely unaffected.

Not a muscle of theirs trembled. Not a single breath got stuck. Razeal's killing intent circled around them like a river splitting around two stones. It didn't even brush them.

Yet even they could see it.

The entire world around them seemed tinted blood-red not from the killing intent touching them, but from how overwhelming it was on everyone else.

Aurora's pink eyes widened slightly.

Levy simply stared blinkingly.

Across from them, however the ones Razeal was targeting

Everything changed.

The Atlantians blinked once, and suddenly their surroundings warped.

The environment twisted into a horrifying, overwhelming illusion created by pure killing intent. It felt like they were standing in the center of a blood sea, thick and suffocating, with no escape anywhere. Even though it wasn't a real illusion, their minds couldn't perceive otherwise.

Their instincts screamed:

DEATH.

DEATH.

DEATH.

Every single one of them collapsed.

Dozens

Hundreds

All of them instantly dropped to their knees, unable to breathe, unable to lift their weapons, unable to even stop there bodies from trembling. Their limbs gave out completely, paralyzed by terror more absolute than any cage or chain.

Their gills fluttered violently as they desperately tried to pull in water, mouths opening and closing like suffocating fish. Even as Razeal stood completely still, their bodies trembled so violently their bones shook.

Razeal watched silently, eyes cold.

After a few seconds, he spoke again:

"Hm. Seems my killing intent became powerful enough to take down enemies without me doing anything."

He sounded… thoughtful.

With the slightest thought, he withdrew it.

The suffocating pressure disappeared instantly.

One moment, the world was red. The next, it returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

But the Atlantians were still on the ground, shaking uncontrollably, sweating, drooling, their minds still scrambling to understand that they weren't dead already.

Razeal watched them with faint indifference.

He had finally upgraded his killing intent to Rank A.

And it showed.

This was killing intent forged not from petty skirmishes or battles…

But from the weight of billions of lives taken.

A pressure honed through death and carnage so vast that no ordinary mind could resist it.

Razeal stood there for a moment, completely still, his silver hair drifting slowly in the water. His eyes lowered to the Atlantians sprawled across the ground hundreds of them, trembling, choking on their own fear, paralyzed by the killing intent that had pinned them into the sea floor.

Then

Razeal calmly rested one pale hand upon the hilt of his star-forged black sword. The weapon hummed faintly under his touch, reacting to its master. The handle gleamed with a cold, silent threat, almost as if the sword itself was eager.

His eyes remained indifferent as he surveyed the fallen slavers.

Click.

The sound of the sword sliding out of its sheath echoed more sharply than it should have clean, metallic, terrifying. The moment the blade appeared, a ripple spread through the water around his body.

And then

He vanished.

Not a blur.

Not a streak.

Not even motion.

He simply disappeared.

Maria's eyes widened. Her breath caught.

"So fast…" she whispered, barely audible. Even after evolving into a Devil, even with her sharpened senses, even with her enhanced perception

All she managed to see was a faint, blood-red shimmer slicing through the water.

A shimmer that flickered through every direction at once, bouncing between bodies like lightning striking a forest.

Razeal reappeared exactly where he had been standing, as if he had never moved at all. His black sword was already sliding back into its sheath.

Click.

A perfect, calm ending sound.

And then…

Blood began to seep.

Maria looked down slowly shock visibly running up her spine.

Every Atlantian who had been lying on the ground now had blood pouring from multiple severed areas. Arms floating. Tentacles drifting. Legs cut cleanly. Some bodies twitching, some limp, faces twisted in confusion and pain.. As only screams could be heard now.

Not a single one was dead.

But none had a single limb left attached.

Razeal had removed every weapon they possessed arms, legs, fins, tentacles in less than a second.

They couldn't fight stand or even crawl.

Only breathe.

Barely.

"Let's go," Razeal said calmly, turning his attention back to Aurora and Levy as though nothing significant had happened. "We are done here. We should leave for the Royal Ocean now."

Levy blinked in confusion.

"What? Already done?" he asked, stunned. He and Aurora both turned their heads toward the Atlantians

And froze.

Blood clouds drifted through the water. Severed limbs floated aimlessly like dead leaves in a red pond. Every slaver lay helpless on the stone floor, gills flaring weakly, eyes wide with horror and screaming painfully.

He was alive only moments ago. Razeal had arrived mere seconds ago.

And yet…

He had turned a hundred men into limbless worms before they even realized they were being attacked.

Aurora stared, mouth open.

Levy felt chills climb up his spine.

Was he always this strong…? Levy swallowed hard.

Cutting off the limbs of hundreds of people in a single blink, without a single sound…

Aurora clutched Levy's hand instinctively, not in fear of Razeal she wasn't afraid of him but simply stunned at what she was witnessing.

Razeal looked at them both calmly.

"Stand up," he said. "I checked already you're both in fine condition. If there's anything else, you can tell me now… or while we travel."

Aurora and Levy blinked, then looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads at him.

"We're fine," they said softly, entwining their fingers even tighter, smiling faintly at each other as if the whole world had shrunk to just them.

Razeal nodded once.

"Good."

He reached his hands out to help them rise

But before they could leave, Maria's voice cut through.

"Are you not going to kill them?" she asked her arms still crossed as raising a brow she looked at the limbless, bleeding slavers. "I mean… they tortured these two. They tried to kill them. You don't need to show mercy here."

Her tone was practical, not angry. She had pieced the situation together just by observing the surroundings: the blood-stained stone mound where Aurora had danced, the dagger wound on Levy's neck, the cages everywhere.

They had suffered.

Softness made no sense here.

Razeal turned his head slightly, crimson eyes glimmering with a distant, cold light.

"Dying is easy," he said quietly. "But living is hard."

His tone was not cruel just factual. Unfeeling.

"It would be mercy to end them painlessly," he continued, looking down at the writhing slavers. "This way, they will die slowly. Painfully. Their blood drifting through the water, unable to swim, unable to move, unable to reach food."

"Some will die in hours. Some in days. They'll lie here helpless regardless ..regretting every decision that led them to touch what's mine."

Aurora looked at Levy, a chill rolling up her spine not out of fear of Razeal, but out of how casually he said such things.

Levy simply nodded silently, understanding Razeal a little deeper now.

Razeal finished with a hollow calmness:

"Killing is mercy. I don't kill people I hate."

The space fell silent.

Maria stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowing.

She wasn't intimidated she was evaluating him.

After several seconds, she finally spoke:

"But what if someone doesn't die?" she asked coldly. "What if one of these people lives? That would be mercy. And it can create more enemies for you."

She uncrossed her arms, eyes sharp, voice even sharper.

"Killing is always better. People die because of this kind of ignorance. You should kill them. All of them. Because any one of them might become your lifelong enemy."

Her tone dropped colder.

"Leaving enemies alive is stupidity. Just end them."

Her words sliced through the stillness like a blade.

"If someone didn't die… that'd be even better," Razeal said quietly, almost too calmly for the words he spoke. His voice carried that cold steadiness that made every syllable cut deeper. "Living without limbs seems worse than dying to me. Unable to do anything… nothing but breathing and regretting. That is a place a blade can't reach."

His crimson-tinted gaze lowered toward the severed limbs floating in the red-tinged water. Not pity ..calculation. Then his eyes lifted again, locking onto Maria's.

"And as for someone surviving and becoming my enemy," he continued, shrugging lightly as if the idea amused him, "or letting them live can make people come after me? Of course that's a choice. You can never get anything without choosing. You have a choice to end everything fast and let your revenge be… tasteless." His lips curved, not kindly. "Or you take the harder path. For revenge, sometimes you must work for it. Even watch them living happy lives all their glory, all their smiles while you have nothing. That is hard.. Compare to that this is nothing. If you want revenge you can't expect no risks can you."

"Revenge is a choice," he said again, slower. "One cannot take revenge if they do not have resolve. You must risk things. Killing is dull. It ends too soon. Too clean and tasteless." His eyes half-closed, almost savoring his own philosophy. "I prefer painful revenge. Even if it bites me later… that only makes it more fun. Imagine people going to hell just to crawl back for revenge… and then destroying them again. Send them back to hell. Let them live. Let them rot in the pain and misery of revenge that eats them from inside. Slowly. Slowly. Until their life becomes only hate forgetting whats important and whats not loosing everything in there paths.. The life no one wants.. Its hard to come back once on that path."

His crimson eyes flickered brighter. "You know nothing about that feeling. I have lived it. And it is worse than dying."

Maria stood there silently, her arms crossed, but her eyes attentive. His words were calm, but she could feel everything behind them a history, a storm, weight that no one could read unless they had lived through it. She processed him like a puzzle made of shadows.

"…Who do you want revenge from?" she finally asked, voice steady but edged with curiosity.

Razeal's jaw loosened slightly, and a tiny breath of laughter not joy, not humor escaped him. A small "hahh," dark and low.

"Why ask," he murmured, "when you already know?"

Maria met his eyes. She did know. But hearing him confirm it was something else. "I thought you didn't want it," she said honestly. "You always acted like you were running from them. No hints of revenge that i saw atleast."

"No," Razeal said, and this time a smirk truly appeared on his face cold, sharp, but undeniably alive. "I will have my revenge."

Maria's brows narrowed. "But not killing them?"

"I'll take everything they love the most," he replied. There was a ripple in his tone excitement, anticipation, the thrill of something twisted but deeply personal. "And then everyone will see."

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. Maria understood enough to fall silent again.. But still.. She wanted to sat that.. That is stupidity but again she didn't because she thinks she doesn't need to care.

A few long seconds passed. Only the sound of faint bubbling water or screams echoed around them and the distant whimpers of the mangled Atlantians who were still alive.

"…Anyway, let's leave," Razeal said abruptly, breaking the tension as if it meant nothing. "We're out of time. We have to go back up there."

"Hm." Maria nodded first, then Neptunia, then Aurora and Levy though the last two were still clinging to each other more than paying attention.

Behind them, Neptunia leaned forward slightly, whispering low near Maria's ear, "Who does he want revenge from?" Her tone held eager curiosity, the kind that wanted gossip but sensed danger beneath it.

But Maria just shook her head in silence. She wouldn't tell her anything. Even though Razeal wasn't looking at them, she was sure he could hear every word. Not that it mattered. Maria wouldn't talk in any other way either. She simply didn't want to.

Still, she was curious. What revenge was he talking about? Was he planning something? But what? She tried to guess, but knowing who his grudge was aimed at, she also knew he would never succeed. Yes, he was strong, but his target… that was impossible.

----

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.