RISE OF THE HOLY DEMONIC GOD
Chapter 119: The Day Darkness – Slaughter in Shadows

Rey exploded back into the cavern, breaths ragged, adrenaline surging. But the predator wasn't far behind.

Aiden and Victor materialised beside him, faces grim.

"Kid… two choices," Aiden said coldly, eyes sharp. "Fight it head-on."

"Or?" Rey panted, tightening his grip on his weapons.

"Climb out now. Block the tunnel behind you, seal this nest forever."

Victor, silent as death itself, gave a curt nod.

Rey hesitated. The scraping sound behind him—metal claws tearing stone—echoed louder. His heart hammered.

"Think, idiot!" Aiden snapped. "If that pack slips past you, they'll reach the outer walls. Your family's out there."

Those words slammed into Rey like a blade. Retreat wasn't an option anymore.

"…Fine," he said, voice low. "I'll fight."

"Good," Aiden replied without emotion. "But don't expect a miracle. Odds are 30% survival."

"…And 70%?"

"Torn to pieces."

Rey forced down the tremor in his throat. No choice. He raised his shield. The sound of charging claws erupted from the tunnel.

Silence.

Then—too late to react—a blade-like limb shot from the shadows.

CLANG!

Rey braced his shield just in time, but the blow hurled him backwards, boots sliding on the slick floor.

A monstrous silhouette emerged.

It was sleek, dagger-shaped, its body built purely for speed and death. Two elongated, blade-tipped limbs arched from its back, dripping black liquid, clicking against the stone floor like scythes sharpening themselves.

It lunged.

Rey ducked, dodged—only for a second blade to whip from above.

Too late.

WHAM.

The blade slammed into his abdomen. Rey gasped, breath stolen, but his armour held, leaving only a dent where flesh should've torn. His Ravenblade attire had just saved his life.

No hesitation. Rey retaliated, snapping his dagger into the air.

<Umbral Telekinesis>

Daggers spun midair, surrounding him like orbiting stars, before slicing forward toward the predator.

The beast screeched, deflecting several blades with its back limbs, but it couldn't stop them all. Shallow cuts tore across its flesh.

Rey pressed the assault, manipulating the daggers like a swarm. The beast thrashed, blind fury overriding its strategy.

It lunged.

Rey didn't flinch.

In a blink, his warhammer materialised.

The beast never saw it coming.

—CRUNCH!

The hammer slammed directly into its skull mid-leap. The predator's momentum snapped backwards as its body rag dolled into the cavern wall. Teeth exploded from its shattered jaw, scattering across the blood-slick floor.

Rey exhaled, pulling his floating daggers to hover over him once more.

He approached the crumpled creature, its deformed head pulsing weakly. Pity? No.

A final, desperate limb stabbed toward his face.

Without blinking, Rey commanded two daggers forward.

SHINK! SHINK!

The tentacles pinned to the ground.

"Even now, you struggle…" Rey whispered coldly. "Fine."

A single swing.

His greatsword cleaved the beast's skull apart.

Silence.

"Kid…" Victor spoke, calm yet grave. "The party's not over. Incoming."

Rey froze. From the dark tunnels… came the sound of rushing claws.

A lot of them.

Multiple tunnels erupted at once as more beasts poured in, like a tidal wave of flesh and bone. Their pale bodies glistened. Blade-limbs clicked. Jaws snapped. Dozens of them, as he thought by the noise.

No hesitation. No fear.

Kill.

Rey stepped forward to meet them.

The first beast lunged. His greatsword swept sideways, crushing the front-runner into the cavern wall. Bones snapped.

In the same motion, his sword shifted—a seamless transition. Spear in hand, he lunged forward, impaling the next beast through its skull, pinning its body to the stone before tearing it free.

He moved like death incarnate.

Six remained.

Their shrieks echoed as they charged.

Rey vanished.

<Umbral Dash>

Appearing above them in a burst of shadows, his spear transformed into a katana mid-air.

One downward slash.

The beast below was split in half.

However, the relentless barrage of dagger-like limbs from the remaining beasts made closing in suicidal.

Their flurry boxed him out, a storm of death.

Rey's frustration boiled.

"Enough."

His daggers erupted forward under telekinetic control, weaving between the deadly blades, seeking gaps in their defense.

One connected—then another.

Screeches of pain.

Blades flashed.

Blood sprayed.

Still, Rey didn't stop.

This wasn't survival.

It was slaughter.

The massacre had only begun.

Rey was cornered.

But surrender?

Never.

He narrowed his eyes, scanning the wounds inflicted by his attacks which were too shallow to call an injury as he scanned the battlefield littered with claw marks and shattered stone. His mind sharpened. A plan clicked.

Several rocks, fragments from the chaos, floated into the air—drawn by his telekinesis.

A moment later, he hurled them toward the left flank.

Instantly, the pack reacted like rabid hounds. Their blade-like tentacles whipped toward the sound.

But they didn't realize their mistake.

Rey was already behind them.

A shadow above their heads.

"Fall."

BOOM!

His massive Warhammer came down like a guillotine, caving in the skull of the lead beast. Black fluid sprayed as its head was crushed into pulp, body convulsing violently before collapsing.

Rey didn't pause.

Four more remained.

No… five.

The first beast—broken, but not dead—dragged itself back to the fight.

Rey's eyes burned cold.

He grabbed more stones, launching another barrage into the darkness. Once again, the beasts lunged toward the false sound, predictable as mindless predators.

He struck.

Three more kills. Swift, efficient, brutal.

But as Rey turned to finish the last two, a flash of danger rippled down his spine.

Too late.

SLAASH!

Pain tore across his back as a tentacle slammed into him from behind, flinging him forward.

He rolled, gasping, before forcing himself to his feet. His Ravenblade suit had dulled the impact… barely.

He turned.

A third limb.

One of the last beasts possessed a mutated, growing third blade. Its body was bulkier. Stronger.

Evolving.

Rey's breathing slowed. He saw the thin trails of blood sliding down his armour. That attack had penetrated.

And then—he heard it.

Claws scraping stone.

Dozens of them.

Rey's stomach dropped.

'More…?'

He gritted his teeth, feeling desperation creep in.

But then his gaze fell to the floor.

Darkness.

No… not just darkness.

Oblivion Gloom.

"I'm counting on you," Rey whispered, extending his hand.

The blackness around his feet stirred like a living entity, rippling, expanding. Silent. Soundless.

The incoming beasts didn't notice.

They wouldn't—until it was too late.

Oblivion struck.

Tendrils of black, vine-like energy surged upward, ensnaring the two remaining predators like iron chains. The beasts screeched, thrashing, but the darkness only constricted tighter.

They were helpless.

Perfect.

Rey surged forward.

His sword became a blur of silver as he severed one beast's neck in a single slash.

The larger one, though… it fought.

Its bladed limbs shredded the tendrils, inching free, lashing toward him in rage.

But Rey was faster.

<Flicker Step>

He blurred forward, cutting deep into its hardened hide with his greatsword, carving through muscle and bone alike. Its mutated limb fell uselessly to the floor.

Finally, the beast collapsed.

Silence returned.

Breathing heavily, Rey scanned the battlefield. Broken bodies and puddles of black blood surrounded him.

Nine.

He'd killed nine.

But the system gave no notification. No level-up.

Because the massacre wasn't over.

Rey's pupils shrank as he felt vibrations from the walls… from the ceiling.

Dozens more.

Beasts poured from every tunnel. From above, from below. Not eight. Not nine.

Twenty.

Maybe more.

"…You've got to be kidding me."

And yet, his lips twitched.

A grin.

The exhaustion in his body told him to give up.

But the bloodlust boiling in his veins told him otherwise.

"Oblivion," Rey whispered.

The darkness at his feet expanded like a shadow storm, flooding outward, creeping along the floor, up the walls, into the ceilings.

Beasts dropped into the cavern.

The trap was set.

Oblivion's tendrils snapped upward, entangling the first wave before they even touched the ground. Some were caught midair, strangled by black vines.

Rey's hand gripped his greatsword tighter.

But this time, he didn't just rely on raw strength.

Mana surged into the blade.

<Abyssal Burst>

The moment the power activated, his body screamed. Muscles tore. Blood vessels burned.

He didn't care.

The dark energy flooded his sword, coating it in a writhing, chaotic aura with his mana.

"Let's end this."

Rey lunged forward.

The first entangled beast was cleaved in half before it even saw the blade.

One down.

Then two.

Three.

Four.

Each swing of his blade sent beasts collapsing into puddles of gore. His strikes carried the weight of annihilation.

The cavern became a slaughterhouse.

But the enemy's numbers weren't shrinking fast enough.

For every corpse Rey left behind, two more descended from the ceiling.

A tide of monsters.

And Rey?

He didn't retreat.

He advanced.

Aiden's voice echoed faintly in his mind.

"This… is no longer a battle. This is butchery."

Oblivion Gloom spread further, devouring.

The massacre continued.

....

Standing atop a mound of broken beasts, Rey's gaze swept the endless tide.

Still, they came.

He barely breathed.

Blood dripped down his side where tentacles had torn through his flesh, but pain no longer registered.

Above him, more predators crawled across the cavern ceiling.

He moved.

One leap—higher than before.

Feet braced against the ceiling itself, shadows clinging to his boots like a second skin.

A Warhammer materialized in his grasp.

Before the ceiling-dwellers could react, he swung.

—BOOM.

The hammer tore through their ranks, crushing skulls, sending shattered bodies raining onto the floor below. The cave itself quaked from the impact.

Landing amidst the crater of destruction, Rey stood in silence, blood dripping from both weapon and body.

The next wave charged.

He didn't blink.

Darkness swirled around him. Not just any darkness.

Something deeper.

Colder.

Abyss.

His voice was flat. Empty.

"Come."

A wall of darkness formed around him. Rock fragments levitated, hurled like bullets into the oncoming beasts. Smaller ones were pulverized instantly. Larger ones used their tentacles to deflect—but even they stumbled as the darkness ensnared their limbs.

Rey's movements slowed.

His eyes dulled.

He remembered this feeling.

That trial.

That abyss.

Then… his lips parted. Words not his own whispered out.

"The Abyss welcomes all."

His body moved forward like a machine. A predator.

A weapon.

Aiden, watching from within the spiritual space, felt dread coil around his artificial soul.

"No… no, that's not right."

Victor's expression was unreadable.

Rey's Title—The Psycho & The Killing Maniac—wasn't supposed to activate yet.

But it had.

Prematurely.

And it wasn't alone.

Abyssal energy, dormant until now, stirred like a sleeping god.

Aiden's fists clenched.

"He's waking up… his other self… if I can't suppress it, the Rey we know will vanish."

Meanwhile, outside—

Rey didn't care.

His mind, drenched in cold ecstasy, welcomed the corruption flooding through him.

Power.

His dark element coiled, shifting unnaturally.

The darkness didn't obey him anymore.

They followed him.

A weapon formed—one he'd never used before.

A Halberd.

Forged of pure darkness, it solidified in his grasp like it belonged there.

Spinning it with impossible grace, Rey advanced, steps measured, precise.

The beasts hesitated.

Even the larger ones.

They sensed it.

Predator.

Rey's twisted smile stretched unnaturally.

The nearest beast—a towering monster with four massive tentacles and reinforced bone armour—charged first, blades poised to cleave.

Rey didn't evade.

He let the beast's claws pierce straight through his abdomen.

Blood splattered.

But Rey didn't flinch.

His hand clamped down on the creature's limb, holding it inside him.

He smiled.

"You shouldn't have done that."

With inhuman strength, he ripped the tentacle from his own body, tearing it apart.

His other hand?

Already swinging the halberd.

—CRACK!

The weapon slammed into the beast's skull, breaking bone, sending it crashing down.

But Rey wasn't finished.

He leapt onto the beast's back as it roared, dazed but alive.

His fist came down again.

And again.

Each strike echoed through the cavern like a drum of execution.

When he finally stopped, the beast's head was caved in, body twitching violently beneath him.

Rey stood.

Drenched in gore.

Expression blank.

Eyes dead.

The incoming beasts—stronger, faster—still approached.

But slower now.

Fear.

Rey's corrupted mind didn't recognize it.

He only saw prey.

And he wanted more.

He turned, raising the halberd.

The next slaughter was about to begin.

From deep within his soul, something darker pulsed.

Feeding.

And Rey?

He welcomed it.

The beast's tentacles struck like whips of bone and steel, faster than any Rey had faced.

Yet, he wasn't panicked.

He moved through them like death incarnate—dodging, weaving, blocking.

Not a shred of fear remained in his eyes.

He was smiling.

Laughing.

His body spun mid-air as he dodged another strike, but then—a shadow loomed above.

A massive jaw.

The beast lunged from above, maw wide open.

CHOMP.

Rey vanished.

Swallowed whole.

The beast crashed down, body trembling with satisfaction. It stood victorious—until its throat bulged grotesquely.

Swelling.

Splitting.

From within the suffocating darkness of its stomach, two massive dark arms burst out, prying open its jaws from within.

Rey emerged.

Smeared in saliva, smile intact.

"I told you… you won't be able to digest me."

Gripping the dark arms formed by his darkness, he wrenched the beast's jaws wider.

Wider.

Cracks echoed as bone shattered.

The beast thrashed wildly—but it was too late.

With a roar of raw strength, Rey ripped its jaws apart.

The creature collapsed, spasming… dead.

He climbed its corpse, dripping, victorious, grinning like a mad god.

A sea of predators remained.

At least a hundred.

But they weren't charging anymore.

They were backing away.

Fear.

"Oh? Leaving so soon? We haven't even danced yet."

Darkness spread from Rey's feet, swallowing the cavern.

Total darkness.

A dome.

Rey's Dark Dominion activated—connecting every shadow to his perception. The beasts' every step, every heartbeat, every desperate lunge to escape was felt.

And it wasn't just control.

It was corruption.

Weaker minds buckled. Some turned on their kin, confused and maddened. The cavern devolved into chaos as Rey's laughter echoed—unnatural, high-pitched, endless.

Inside the dome, no light existed.

Only slaughter.

Screeches.

Terror.

A madman's laughter.

Every slash.

Every pierced skull.

Every broken bone.

....

Half an hour passed.

When the darkness finally receded, silence ruled.

What remained inside was carnage.

Heaps of dismembered beasts, their blood staining the stone black.

Rey stood at the center.

His armour shattered.

His skin is blood-slick.

Yet… not a single wound marred his body.

Abyssal Regeneration.

But his eyes… were hollow.

Dead.

And the smile?

Still there.

Faint tremors betrayed his exhaustion, but his voice held the same madness.

"Starters complete."

His gaze shifted.

Toward the deeper tunnels.

Toward the real threat.

The main course.

He stepped forward.

Only to stop.

Three figures appeared before him.

Aiden.

Victor.

And Zero.

His corrupted mind registered them.

But instead of attacking, Rey simply blinked… tilting his head.

Then smiled.

"Oh? Look who finally showed up. Been centuries, hasn't it?"

His voice was wrong.

Detached.

Someone else was speaking through him.

Aiden's eyes narrowed.

Victor said nothing.

Zero merely watched.

Rey's corrupted persona chuckled.

"Well, no need to worry. Once I finish this next hunt, we can catch up properly."

He stepped forward, but Aiden blocked him.

"Go back."

That single sentence echoed like iron.

"This hunt isn't yours."

The smile twitched.

"Oh? You think you can stop me now, Aiden?"

He laughed, hollow and eerie.

But then… he paused.

"Ah… I see. You're serious."

His grin faltered.

For the first time, a trace of awareness flickered in his eyes.

"Not going to let me have my fun… not this time. Well, let the other have it, maybe a gift for him for this sweet little time."

Victor watched cautiously. "Why so cooperative? Not like before."

Rey's corrupted self shrugged.

"This isn't a dreamscape anymore, Victor. My body's real. Damage sticks. And I know the ending if we fight—you'll seal me. Like always."

His smile faded completely.

"But remember… every time you suppress me, I grow."

Aiden's face darkened.

"I'll erase you."

A cold laugh.

"You can't. One day… when he learns the truth… he'll hate himself enough that even you won't save him."

Aiden stepped forward, reaching out.

"Don't."

But it was too late.

Rey's corrupted persona whispered, eyes burning:

"I'll take this body."

"No, you won't. With the power of curse, you will be erased from his body, just like his other emotions." Aiden shouted as he disappeared and appeared in front of him.

With a single touch to Rey's forehead, Aiden pulsed abyssal-suppressing energy into his mind.

The corrupted smile snapped.

Rey's body convulsed.

Gasping.

He collapsed.

Silence.

Victor watched quietly.

Zero closed her eyes.

Aiden stood over Rey, fists trembling.

"I'll stop you. No matter what."

All three stood beside the collapsed Rey, who was lying carelessly on the floor.

What truth was hidden in Rey's past?

What persona chained his soul?

And what nightmare awaited when Rey discovered it?

Only time would tell.

But one thing was certain—

The Persona wasn't done with him yet.

—To Be Continued...

Hello, everyone! I expect you enjoyed the chapter, and I want to hear your thoughts on the fight scenes. I put in a lot of effort to make them truly thrilling and exciting, and I'm confident you found them outstanding.

Get ready for the next chapter—it will be even more intense, as Rey will encounter new powers and face a greater threat on his journey.