Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the overwhelming surge of Sol dissipated, leaving behind only echoes of its previous scream. Kaiser exhaled slowly, his vision clearing instantly, his senses snapping back into sharp focus. His eyes darted quickly toward the teleportation building, noting the familiar blue glow of the teleportation device fading gently, signaling someone's recent arrival. He considered briefly, if that immense wave of Sol could have been merely the teleportation energy at work? No, he swiftly decided, observing the villagers' fearful and bewildered reactions. This had clearly been something abnormal, something that even these strangely apathetic villagers couldn't ignore.

As he began piecing together possibilities, his instincts screamed in sudden alarm. Without conscious thought, Kaiser's right hand shot outward, grabbing fiercely at what seemed to be empty air. His fingers closed tightly around something invisible yet solid. Immediately, the creature began to materialize, revealing itself as another ink-cat—albeit larger and far more sinister than the ones he'd encountered previously. Standing nearly two meters tall and formed entirely from swirling shadows, its presence radiated menace.

Without hesitation or mercy, Kaiser tightened his grip around its throat, Sol surging through his arm, coating his hand and armor in a biting frost. The monster barely had time to snarl in surprise before he slammed it violently into the earth. The force shattered the creature instantly, sending a splatter of ink exploding outward, scattering viscously across the dirt within a five-meter radius.

Kaiser straightened calmly, eyes scanning the perimeter. He knew immediately this wasn't an isolated attack. His suspicions were confirmed as the villagers around him began to scream, their previously indifferent facades cracking open as raw panic surged to the surface.

"Help! They're coming again!"

"Monsters! Monsters everywhere!"

"Save the children, for the gods' sake, someone do something!"

"Stand your ground! All the men, stand your ground!"

Amid the sudden chaos, a terrible, human-like gurgling noise resonated from the edge of the camp, quickly multiplying into an eerie chorus. Horrified villagers turned their gazes outward, only to see dozens of grotesque ink-creatures charging toward them from every conceivable direction.

As the villagers froze in either terror or confusion, Kaiser roared a command, voice booming with unshakable authority. "Move! Now! Get into the mayor's house immediately! Do not waste a single second!"

Yet the villagers stood paralyzed, unable or unwilling to obey. Kaiser's gaze swept the camp, instantly pinpointing a cluster of women and children frozen in shock and horror as four ink-cats sprinted hungrily toward them.

In one swift motion, Kaiser drew his sword, the blade glinting icily in the faint sunlight, and launched himself forward. He became a blur of motion, appearing instantly between the monsters and their prey. With a single precise slash, he decapitated all four creatures simultaneously, sending a frigid wave of frost bursting forth from his strike. The creatures froze mid-motion, their severed forms shattering into shards of ice and ink.

Turning sharply, his crimson eyes blazing, Kaiser leveled a fierce, commanding glare at the terrified civilians. His voice cut through the panic with absolute authority. "Now! Move your feet or lose your lives! Inside, now!"

Stunned awake by the sheer force of his presence, the villagers finally surged into action, stumbling over one another in their desperate rush toward the safety of the mayor's house. Kaiser released a brief sigh of relief before his heightened senses snapped his attention toward his left. There stood one of the few individuals with a visible blue Sol core, a warrior who seemed to be a personal guard of the mayor. The guard had just defeated another monstrous cat covered in countless blinking eyes.

But Kaiser's attention caught something else, something nearly imperceptible, creeping behind the guard.

Without hesitation, Kaiser pivoted and hurled his sword, shouting a clear warning: "Down!"

Instinctively, the guard dropped just as Kaiser's blade sailed overhead, piercing the invisible ink-cat mid-leap, pinning it to a distant wall with force so immense it punched cleanly through two additional monsters hidden beyond it. The wall trembled violently but held, barely.

The guard stared wide-eyed at Kaiser, breathless in shock and awe. "T-Thank you sir!"

Kaiser advanced swiftly, recovering his sword in one fluid motion. "Save your thanks," he growled, voice low and dangerous, his eyes blazing with cold fury. "And start protecting your people."

The guard scrambled up, nodding fervently, gripping his weapon tightly. "Understood, Liberator!"

All around, villagers screamed in terror as the monstrous tide pressed relentlessly inward. Kaiser strode forward, picking up his sword, ice forming steadily across his armor as Sol pulsed fiercely within him. "This village will not fall," he declared loudly, voice echoing like thunder through the battle. "Not while I stand."

Each scream grated against him. Every helpless face became another mark against his name. If even a single villager died, the world would call it his failure, a stain of incompetence he'd carry forever. It was infuriating. He'd commanded the most powerful army a world had ever seen, and now he was forced to play savior for the weakest, most miserable wretches this world had to offer. The kinds of people he'd never once pitied, only scorned. Disgusting, every one of them... Yet he could not allow them to perish. Not if it meant even a whisper of blame would reach him.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

A young boy stumbled and fell in the dirt, crying out in terror as another monstrous shape lunged hungrily toward him. Kaiser closed the distance instantly, cleaving the beast apart effortlessly and scooping the child into his arms. He handed him swiftly to a trembling woman who clutched him tightly, whispering frantic thanks.

"Go!" Kaiser commanded sharply.

He barely spared them a glance as they fled, his lip curling in faint disgust. As soon as the woman and child were out of reach, he wiped his arm clean against the battered plates of his armor, as if ridding himself of some clinging stain.

Chaos reigned, yet Kaiser moved through it like a storm. Each strike froze monsters in mid-motion, shattered them with brutal precision. His voice rose again, resonant and powerful, instilling courage even in the most fearful hearts.

"Stand your ground! Move together! Do not break and don't stray!"

The villagers finally rallied behind his commanding presence, guards and commoners alike forming a fragile but determined defense. Even as ink-beasts surged and snarled, Kaiser stood firm.

"Is this all you've got?" Kaiser taunted the approaching horde, his eyes alight with fierce exhilaration. "You'll need far more than these pathetic creatures to challenge me."

As soon as Kaiser finished his declaration, two dramatic and unmistakable changes occurred simultaneously, altering the battlefield's entire dynamic. At first, it was subtle, an almost imperceptible shift in the shadows and the air itself, but Kaiser felt it immediately, his senses heightened and sharp beyond human limits.

Far off, at the periphery of his vision, something caught Kaiser's attention, something distinctly unnatural. His gaze snapped sharply toward one of the distant buildings, where, framed clearly in a small, weathered window, stood a figure unlike any he'd encountered before. The sight froze his breath momentarily in his throat.

A man, humanoid at first glance, but unmistakably alien upon closer inspection, stood motionless behind the glass. His skin was a deep, unnatural blue, his eyes completely black, bottomless voids absorbing every speck of available light. Kaiser felt his heart quicken as his mind raced to interpret the scene. It wasn't simply the man's strange appearance that commanded his attention, it was the overwhelming intensity of Sol radiating from him.

Yet something was profoundly wrong. This wasn't the pure, vibrant Sol he had come to know. This Sol felt corrupted even from a distance, Kaiser discerned its strange, unsettling hue—deep and murky, blue threaded intricately with streaks of impenetrable black. He estimated quickly that the raw power emanating from the figure indicated at least Hero-level strength, placing him roughly on par with Milo. Yet, unlike Milo's, this man's core seemed twisted inward upon itself, a swirling abyss of darkness pulling energy inward, consuming all around it.

Before Kaiser could fully process this disturbing sight, another wave of energy surged behind him. He recognized it instantly: Celestine. In a brilliant eruption of golden-white light, the opposite end of the camp illuminated dramatically, the sudden flare of her power scattering monstrous shadows.

In that fraction of a second, Kaiser made a decisive choice. The dark, enigmatic figure in the distant window intrigued him too profoundly to ignore. Determination and curiosity merged within him, and with no hesitation, he burst into swift, purposeful motion.

"Out of my way!" he commanded, voice resonating with fierce authority as he charged forward, every step empowered by raw Sol.

Ink-cats surged toward him, sensing his approach and desperate to halt his advance. They lunged ferociously, claws extended, mouths wide to gnaw at him. But Kaiser barely acknowledged them, slicing effortlessly through each obstacle with ruthless efficiency. His blade danced fluidly around him, cutting a path.

One monstrous feline leapt high, claws aimed at Kaiser's throat, only to be cleaved mid-air, its fragmented remains scattering in icy shards across the ground. Another beast tried flanking him from the side, but Kaiser spun fluidly, his sword carving a perfect crescent through its shadowy form, dissolving it instantly into frozen ink. He was relentless, unstoppable—a whirlwind of murder focused solely on the mysterious observer.

All around him, monsters fell beneath his blade in droves, the battlefield turning swiftly into a graveyard of ink-stained ice. Kaiser felt his heart pounding with exhilaration, his movements fueled by a mixture of battle lust and unwavering curiosity. His gaze remained fixed on the figure in the window, even as the monsters fell all around him.

The strange observer, seemingly startled by Kaiser's focused advance, took a cautious step back from the window, his dark eyes briefly widening in surprise or perhaps interest. As Kaiser rapidly closed the distance between them, the figure swiftly vanished from sight, slipping deeper into the recesses of the building.

"You won't escape so easily," Kaiser murmured fiercely, his eyes narrowed, determination set firmly within him.

In one last decisive act, he slashed brutally through the final ink-cat standing in his path, scattering it into frozen fragments with a single, powerful strike. He reached the building in mere seconds, his footsteps sure and powerful as he leapt effortlessly toward the window through which the stranger had observed him.

Glass shattered explosively as Kaiser burst through, landing gracefully inside the dimly lit interior. His boots crunched sharply upon broken shards scattered across the wooden floor, his sword held steady, ready to face whatever awaited him within. His breath came in controlled, measured rhythm, each inhale sharpening his awareness, each exhale solidifying his resolve.

Kaiser's crimson eyes scanned swiftly through the dim room, taking in every detail—the worn furniture, shadows flickering uncertainly in candlelight, the lingering trace of corrupted Sol dissipating in the air like acrid smoke. Though no immediate threat presented itself, the tension in Kaiser's muscles did not relax; he remained vigilant, prepared for the inevitable confrontation that lay ahead.

"Show yourself," Kaiser demanded calmly, his voice echoing slightly off the old, wooden walls, confident and commanding. "You can't hide from me."

He paused briefly, straining his senses, searching for the subtle hints—the faint rustle of fabric, the careful, quiet breaths of someone concealed in shadow. This stranger, with his unnerving black eyes and corrupted Sol, intrigued Kaiser deeply, igniting within him both caution and a powerful eagerness for answers.

A quiet sound, barely perceptible, echoed faintly from deeper inside the building. Kaiser immediately honed in on it, stepping forward slowly, deliberately, his presence radiating a confidence.

"You're no ordinary beast," Kaiser continued evenly, voice pitched low. "You watched, didn't you? You observed everything from the shadows. Why hide now? If you're brave enough to come to a field of battle, then be brave enough to face the enemy."

He advanced another careful step, senses heightened, prepared for any sudden attack. "I've fought creatures and men alike," he said clearly, his voice resonating like cold steel. "You are neither. So, show me what you are, and perhaps I'll let you survive long enough to explain yourself."

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.