Chapter 392: Frey starlight vs Mergo (2)

He turned away from the boy he had butchered without mercy, exhaling in frustration.

"I went too far... I shouldn’t have lost control like that."

After burying his opponent beneath an avalanche of brutality,

Mergo forced himself to move on, his attention shifting to the other corpses around him.

He just couldn’t comprehend it—

A monster who had slaughtered a thousand men talking about saving anyone?

That...

That was what truly made him snap.

"Now then... where did that beast sever Lawrence’s head?"

Mergo stepped deeper into the sea of blood, one step at a time, searching for his subordinate.

"That boy possesses the highest purity among us all—and regeneration that rivals even the strongest demons. He’ll survive... even if only a fragment of him remains."

Lawrence was nothing more than a fifteen-year-old child, with barely any experience.

He was more like a beast that fought purely on instinct ... And that instinct, despite his raw power, wasn’t enough.

Mergo had no intention of letting him die so easily.

Unbothered, he kept searching...

Until suddenly—he froze. His eyes widened.

Of course they did .. after all ... he felt him standing behind him.

Slowly, Mergo turned around.

There stood Frey Starlight, swords in hand, bloodshot eyes cold as death.

"...What is the meaning of this?"

Mergo was certain he had killed him.

He had pierced his heart several times—yet here he was.

Standing again.

Then, without warning, Frey lunged forward, resuming the battle.

Both surged at one another, their speed so fast it resembled teleportation.

A flurry of strikes echoed across the bloodstained land.

Mergo couldn’t understand it ...

Most of Frey’s wounds had already healed.

"What are you...?"

Frey attacked faster than before, relentlessly, trying to land a fatal blow.

But Mergo was still far quicker.

He bent space around him, teleporting freely—effortlessly avoiding everything—

And appeared behind Frey with a smile.

"crevice."

SLAASH!!!

In less than a second, more than a hundred cutting marks exploded across Frey’s body .. A brutal technique using the Ushigatana’s unique spatial mastery.

Blood gushed out violently.

Then ..

The wounds caught fire in a dark violet glow...

And healed.

Mergo’s eyes twitched in disbelief.

Frey dashed toward him again, and their chaotic speed duel resumed.

Both had become blurs—too fast to follow.

Slashing and countering .

The battlefield became their canvas of destruction.

Mergo continued tearing Frey apart ..

"Sever!"

SLAASH!!

His swordsmanship was nothing short of monstrous.

In less than a second, Frey’s body was once again covered in hundreds of cuts.

But then—again—

A strange sound. A rustling. A shadow swept through Frey’s body ..

And just like that ..

Those wounds began to heal once more, cloaked in the same dark violet glow.

"Hahaha! Are you some kind of zombie?!"

They clashed again.

And again.

But then—Mergo noticed something.

"...He’s getting faster?"

With each passing second .. Frey’s speed increased.

"Crevice!!"

Mergo unleashed hundreds of slashes in an instant.

That was the power of the Ushigatana:

A sword that could attack from every direction with invisible cuts in the blink of an eye.

It was the same attack that had destroyed Frey’s body again and again.

But this time...

Something changed.

Just before the slashes could connect—

A dark aura erupted from Frey, and he moved.

Weaving through them with an unnatural precision .. Dodging invisible attacks that no one should be able to see.

Somehow...

Frey avoided the unavoidable.

Mergo laughed madly.

"You can see them, Frey Starlight!!"

His hand moved with blinding speed, unleashing another flurry of attacks.

"You can see my sword!!"

This time, Mergo went all out—unleashing his full power.

With a single swing, he released 100 invisible crescent blades.

Then with a second—200 more.

Then a third.

Then a fourth.

And a fifth.

By the tenth swing .. thousands of slashes rained down like a storm, covering the entire battlefield.

The corpses, the ground, the mountains, even the air itself—

Everything was torn apart.

And especially...

Frey Starlight.

Though he managed to dodge some ..

The sheer volume of slashes was too overwhelming.

His body was shredded.

Torn to pieces like meat on a butcher’s slab ..

Mergo’s invisible blades showed no mercy.

Then—less than a second later—

That same dark aura ignited again, wrapping around Frey’s mangled form...

And healing him.

He stood again.

Mergo narrowed his eyes.

"Again... that strange power..."

Mergo spoke in confusion, watching the young man whose regeneration now mirrored that of Lawrence.

And once again.. The battle resumed.

Mergo unleashed another barrage of cutting attacks, but Frey began dodging them with increasing efficiency and greater speed.

"He’s seeing my attacks... and adapting to them .. every single time."

As their clash continued, a realization dawned on Mergo.

"He’s... adjusting to them."

That strange dark glow—

That combat style unlike anything he’d ever seen before...

Mergo now understood that his opponent was anything but ordinary.

[Shadow Adaptation: 3/7]

Against a monster like Mergo, ranked SS+ .. The true power of the Shadow Adaptation was finally beginning to show.

A terrifying ability that made Frey resistant to nearly everything his enemies threw at him .. And when paired with his uncanny regeneration, it created a force Mergo could no longer dismiss.

Frey had become a question mark.

An anomaly Mergo had so far handled with ease .. Yet now, Frey’s speed and strength had grown at such an alarming rate that reaching Mergo was no longer a matter of if, but when.

"This can’t be happening..."

An eighteen-year-old boy ..

Wielding two blazing swords imbued with strange powers.

Looked more terrifying than the demons Mergo had once faced.

It defied reason.

Frey had shattered every limit, far surpassing what should be possible.

Their blades continued clashing amid a battlefield consumed by flames. The devastation from their collisions scarred the very land.

Then their eyes met ..

And in that moment, Mergo saw something he had failed to notice before.

Frey Starlight’s eyes ..

His body’s movements, his aura, his abilities...

He was too perfect.

A cold, expressionless face.

Eyes devoid of light.

Not a word spoken since the fight began.

He didn’t seem like a boy fighting for his friends anymore.

He seemed like a killing machine.

An automaton.

Not the same human who had once fought with conviction and emotion ..

But something else entirely.

Their auras exploded again as they pushed against each other, and Mergo laughed out loud.

"You... what are you?"

Was he still fighting Frey Starlight?

Or had that cold sword... become something entirely different?

Frey didn’t answer.

He just kept fighting—harder than before.

Regenerating again and again.

That dark violet light overtaking his face.

His silence was louder than words.

Mergo had been right all along ..

That boy wasn’t human anymore.

He was a monster.

A true monster who had finally found his way to this battlefield.

After all, it was impossible for someone who had just fought a thousand men ..

To then fight like this with such power—

Such cold fury.

"What the hell are you?! Frey Starlight!!"

Mergo roared, launching himself forward with full strength, unleashing everything he had.

The battle erupted into an entirely new realm of destruction.

The mangled corpses around them were desecrated even further—collateral damage from a fight between beasts.

Mergo vs. Frey Starlight.

A terrifying clash between a young man and an old warrior .. Both wielding blades for similar reasons ..

But standing on opposite sides of a world that had forced them to fight.

This was the peak of the elite class’s struggle ..

And a brutal reminder...

That their suffering was far from over.