******
Aside from Lilith, every other Demon presently in the Village Square was dumbfounded beyond measure.
Their jaws were not just nearly touching the ground, their mouths were wide open as if expecting a swarm of insects to fly in, and their eyes bulged as though they might pop out of their sockets.
They continued gawking at Xylen, who had been teetering on the edge of defeat and death moments ago but was now pulsating with a sinister energy that radiated malevolence beyond comprehension.
His gaze. His stance. His aura—everything about him exuded pure demon hood, a level that most of them had never felt before.
The spectacle was so astonishing that the blood-drenched battlefield had ground to a complete standstill.
Whether it was the guards, the rebel faction, the villagers, or even Kaelrik himself, every single one of them gazed as though their very souls had already departed their bodies.
No one could move, no one could breathe, and no one could think.
They simply stared at Xylen in a stupor for what felt like an eternity before, at last...
"You!"
Kaelrik, who had just been flung away by Xylen, snarled, snapping out of his daze and returning to his senses from his stunned state.
At that instant, the spell that seemed to have shrouded the village in a trance shattered, and everyone abruptly regained awareness.
In the next moment...
"Is... is that the young Baron who had been in a coma since toddler?" an elderly Demon woman with a crooked neck and twisted limbs stammered.
"He... this power... this energy! It’s horrifying!" another Villager shouted.
"Has he been concealing his strength all this while?"
"Why does his aura seem so menacing? What rank is he exactly? When does he even manage to achieve if he had been in a coma all his life!"
"Damn! He looks like he has surged far beyond level 5, but... but he’s undeniably still at level five!"
The villagers began whispering in unison, completely forgetting about Kaelrik’s terror, their hearts pounding violently in their chests.
On the other hand, the rebel force—
At this moment, many of them, especially the 0-rank demons had perished, countless of them had sustained grievous injuries, and only a handful remained relatively intact.
Before now, seeing how Xylen was beaten and tossed around like a ragdoll, their morale had plummeted to rock bottom, and they had resigned themselves to their impending demise, yet, now...
"That’s... that’s our lord?" Charghouls suddenly muttered, his entire frame drenched in greenish blood, covered in a myriad of gruesome wounds.
However, the moment he muttered this, a newfound glimmer of hope began to ignite in his eyes.
"He is our lord," he muttered, this time, with certainty, and in the following moment, he became overwhelmed with exhilaration beyond articulation.
As soon as the other Demons—the members of his faction—heard him, their own eyes also began to glimmer and in the following second, they erupted in celebration, their deadened spirits slowly rekindling.
Witnessing this, the guards snapped at them, attempting to quash their risen morale again, but they were woefully unsuccessful this time, and as a result, it wasn’t long before the battle resumed at full intensity.
However, this time, the Rebel force had grown several times more formidable, holding their ground against the guards with newfound vigor and resilience.
Meanwhile, Kaelrik.
Right now, his mind was in turmoil, utterly shaken by the dreadful energy radiating from Xylen.
Even though he was vastly stronger, surpassing him by five solid levels, he couldn’t control the eerie sense of unease and adrenaline that slithered down his spine.
His instincts screamed... danger, and this—
It ignited his fury to the core, infuriating him.
"How dare you wound me?" he suddenly growled, all traces of his earlier pretense vanishing as though it had never existed in the first place.
He had never deemed Xylen worthy of serious consideration from the outset, which was why he had refrained from going for the kill straight from the start, but now...
Even though he tried to convince himself that a weakling like Xylen couldn’t possibly intimidate him, the undeniable truth had already taken hold.
Slowly wiping away the trickle of blood at the corner of his lips, Kaelrik straightened, his veins pulsating as the final backlash from Infernal Wound manifested.
His expression slowly twisted into something grim, making him appear even more menacing than before.
And for the first time, Kaelrik finally took Xylen seriously, his eyes burned with pure, unfiltered, murderous intent.
"Looks like I’ve been playing around with you for too long," he spat coldly and slowly, gripping his sword and twirling it in his grip, his gaze never wavering from Xylen.
"I’m done holding back," he spat, his voice further turning vicious. "I’ll tear you apart limb from limb now."
The moment he uttered those words, he lunged forward, swinging his colossal blade with every ounce of power in his body.
The sheer force of the slash alone instantly cleaved through the air, unleashing a sharp, cutting wave that instantly cut into the weaker guards nearby and sent them tumbling backward.
But Xylen...
He merely watched Kaelrik with an eerily, unusual calm and unreadable expression.
He observed the towering Demon charging toward him like an unstoppable force, each step shattering the ground beneath him.
The villagers held their breath, their eyes fixed on the scene in tense countenance.
Then finally, at the last possible moment, as Kaelrik neared—
Xylen’s lips parted.
"I’ve said this before," he murmured, his tone quiet, even casual. "And I will say it again."
He paused, his gaze locked onto Kaelrik, who was rapidly closing the distance between the two of them with each step.
"You talk too much!"
The instant Xylen spat these words, his eyes flashed, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from where he was standing—his speed now several times faster than before—blurring out of sight just as Kaelrik’s strike descended.
Boom!
Kaelrik’s sword slammed into the ground once more.
He hastily tried to yank it free and launch another attack in a different direction when he realized that Xylen was no longer there, but—
Xylen was faster.
He materialized behind Kaelrik, and without hesitation, his short blade stabbed downward.
"Infernal Wound!"
The dagger plunged in, the cursed energy sinking deep into Kaelrik’s back. The familiar black veins reappeared—but this time, they spread faster than ever before.
-30 HP
A massive damage number flashed above Kaelrik’s head, and he howled—his cry a mixture of agony, wrath, and sheer frustration.
"Damn you!"
He cursed, and without hesitation, he twisted around, swinging his enormous sword in a sweeping, wide arc.
However—
Xylen caught it... with his bare hand.
The impact directly sent blood spraying from his palm, his flesh searing against the scorching metal—but Xylen did not flinch.
He had endured suffering and pain far worse than this.
Without the slightest reluctance, his fingers clenched tighter around the blade, locking it in place.
"This..."
The onlookers flinched, their hearts hammering in their chests, while Kaelrik...
His eyes widened in disbelief, his entire form quaking with shock.
"How..." he stammered. "How is this possible?!"
That was all Xylen needed.
With a sharp twist, he wrenched the sword from Kaelrik’s grasp, and then—
Katcha!
The massive, weighted weapon snapped clean in half, shattered effortlessly by his bare hands.
Xylen, who appeared lean and frail, had accomplished the unthinkable, and the sight instantly left all the witnesses utterly stupefied, many rubbing their eyes as though verifying whether they were hallucinating.
With this, a sinister smirk crept onto his lips, Xylen’s face, his gaze unhurriedly falling upon Kaelrik, who now looked like a man whose soul had fled his body.
"My turn now," he sneered.
And before Kaelrik could even react, Xylen drove his knee straight into his ribs—
Crack!