The sound of a heavy explosion rang out, followed immediately by blood and brain matter splattering violently into the air.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground shook twice as two enormous bodies crashed onto the battlefield, one belonging to the hulking six-armed devil, while the other belonged to the Hellish Centaur that had wielded the chained spiked ball.
Now, that very same spiked ball rested upon its own face, having caved its skull inward and blasted its brain out through the back of its head, while its lifeless eyes remained frozen in both shock and disbelief beneath the pitch-black sky.
Quietly, its head began turning invisible, the very essence of its life slowly being erased from existence.
"Idiotg..."
White mocked coldly, harrumphing at the corpse before him, but then a grin slowly spread across his monstrous face as a flash of realization crossed through his eyes.
The creature had died simply because of its own ignorance.
It had yanked the chained ball back with complete confidence, believing it would tear through White before White’s own claws could ever reach him, but it had misunderstood everything from the very beginning.
White had never intended for his claws to reach it.
What he truly wanted was to see how the Anti-life aura surrounding their weapons affected them.
He wanted to know whether wielding that aura granted them immunity to it, much like how a fire elemental would naturally be immune to his own flames.
So the very instant he saw the spiked ball flying toward his back, he simply shifted away from its path, allowing the weapon to continue uninterrupted until it smashed directly into the Hellish Centaur’s own face.
Now, as that very face slowly vanished from existence beneath the destruction aura coating the weapon, the answer had become obvious.
They weren’t immune.
White’s thoughts accelerated.
Countless possibilities flashed through his mind in less than a heartbeat before they were discarded one after another, each replaced by an even more efficient method of slaughter.
Until now, every exchange against the Death Centaur Generals had demanded caution. Every clash carried the risk of that terrifying aura grazing his body, and even the slightest mistake threatened permanent damage.
But that balance had changed.
If the destruction coating their weapons acknowledged neither ally nor master, then every one of those weapons had become just as dangerous to the Hellish Centaurs as they were to him.
To him now, they no longer possessed eleven unstoppable weapons, but eleven opportunities to destroy one another, and that further actuated one thing:
None of these Hellish Centaurs truly controlled the Anti-life aura.
They merely borrowed its power from Mundus, and because it wasn’t truly theirs, they were just as vulnerable to it as everyone else.
With that realization, he bent down, seized the chained weapon from the ground, and began spinning it heavily through the air, its immense weight making the surrounding atmosphere howl beneath its momentum.
"Comeg theng!"
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
...
The void itself shattered beneath the speed of the eleven remaining Centaur Death Generals as every one of them abandoned all traces of defense and charged toward White with nothing held back.
The ground beneath their hooves caved inward beneath the pressure of their advance alone, eleven Death Centaur Generals wielding horrific weapons coated in life-devouring destruction, yet White welcomed them without retreating a single step.
His six enlarged arms bulged violently before surging forward together, the colossal chain screaming through the atmosphere as the spiked sphere vanished from sight altogether.
The first Death Centaur General never even had the opportunity to raise his weapon before the destruction-coated sphere materialized directly before his chest.
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The sickening sound of ribs collapsing echoed throughout the battlefield as the spiked sphere blasted straight through his chest, obliterating his heart before erupting through his back, carrying half his ribcage away with it.
Still, it refused to stop.
The chained weapon continued flying for several hundred kilometers, blasting apart thousands of ordinary Hellish Centaurs standing behind him before finally slowing.
Instantly, White jerked his arm backward.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The chain snapped tight, violently dragging both the weapon and the General’s corpse back toward him.
At that exact same moment,
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!
A gigantic black spear tore toward White.
Without hesitation, he pulled the returning corpse into its path to block the attack, but the spear possessed far more momentum than expected.
It ripped straight through the corpse without slowing in the slightest.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!
White twisted his body away at the last possible instant, yet the spear still grazed across his shoulder, blue blood spraying through the air in a long arc.
The corpse he had used as a shield slammed into him from behind, forcing him several heavy steps backward while the burning agony of the Anti-life aura assaulted his wound simultaneously.
Before he could even throw the corpse aside, his eyes narrowed as the battlefield suddenly darkened.
Jerking his head upward, he was just in time to witness a mountain-sized war hammer descending upon him.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
CRAAAAAAAAAAASH!
The world trembled violently as both White and the corpse were smashed deep into the ground, molten lava erupting from beneath the fractured continent beneath the overwhelming impact.
The silence barely lasted a heartbeat.
White exploded back out of the crater, only to find a gargantuan halberd already sweeping horizontally toward his neck.
He reacted instantly.
CLANG!
The chain wrapped around the halberd’s shaft as White violently jerked it forward, dragging the Death General completely off balance.
The gigantic Centaur stumbled toward him, and White answered with the spiked sphere.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted as the destruction-coated ball crashed into the Death General’s head, crushing its skull into pulp while the Anti-life aura devoured everything beneath the neck, leaving the gigantic corpse to collapse lifelessly onto the battlefield.
Yet even then, there wasn’t a single moment to pause.
Nine more Death Generals attacked simultaneously from every direction.
One arrived with lightning speed, its colossal hooked blade wrapping around White’s waist while another swung an enormous twin-bladed glaive directly toward his exposed chest.
White was able to block, but not perfectly.
CRAAAAAAACK!
The glaive shattered three of his fingers upon impact.
At the same time, the hooked blade completed its arc around his body.
White twisted desperately to escape it, yet the hook still managed to catch one of his lower left arms.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!
Blue blood erupted into the air as the entire arm was ripped clean from his body before spinning high into the sky.
"HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE—!"
Deranged laughter filled with callous mockery burst from the maw of the Death General wielding the hooked blade, but it never finished.
White seized the flying severed arm with another hand before swinging it like a colossal club with the full momentum of his body.
SPLAAAAAAAAAAAT!
The detached limb exploded across the Centaur’s face with enough force to burst its skull apart completely, though the severed arm itself also exploded into gore within White’s grasp.
’Just eight more.’
His thoughts remained frighteningly calm as his gaze shifted briefly toward the wound where his arm had once been.
Already, new flesh had begun regenerating, but halfway through, it stopped.
The lingering destruction aura continuously erased every strand of flesh that attempted to reform, preventing the regeneration from progressing any further.
Every attempt at regeneration ended the same way.
New flesh barely had time to exist before it was devoured completely, vanishing as though it had never been there to begin with.
Unless the destruction aura itself disappeared, that arm would remain lost forever.
The realization made White’s eyes narrow coldly.
This...
This was precisely why he had remained so cautious of the Anti-life aura.
It possessed the power to erase even him from existence itself.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Space exploded apart as the remaining Death Generals closed the distance.
An enormous greatsword burning with destruction descended directly toward him.
Behind it followed a jagged executioner’s axe, both weapons casting a shadow that completely swallowed White beneath them.
Twin crimson scythes sliced in from the side, targeting his ribs, but they were merely the beginning.
A gigantic flail followed immediately afterward.
A massive trident came hurtling toward him.
Each weapon seemed to ignore distance itself during the final instant before impact, arriving simultaneously from every direction.
Even space itself appeared unwilling to stand between those attacks and their target.
Eleven Death Generals had become eight, yet the pressure surrounding White had not diminished in the slightest.
If anything, the survivors attacked with even greater savagery, abandoning all restraint in exchange for absolute destruction.
White barely managed to raise the chained weapon in his hands to intercept them, when,
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!