"F-Fuck,"

Gray just barely managed to get his blades up in time, but even then, he still suffered substantial damage.

A gaping hole bled at the side of his ribs, sending out searing jolts of pain as the warm afternoon wind blew past it.

Although the rupture he had created with his sword temporarily prevented elven soldiers from surrounding him, it was only a matter before they found another way around it.

"Master!" shouted Tesse as a bullet went hurling towards Artemis.

"It seems you have a friend," whispered Artemis, her black tentacle effortlessly blocking the bullet.

'I h-have to m- Fu#$#@$%' Gray's thoughts became unintelligent screams. The burden of containing so many souls finally overcame him, his sanity lost in the pool of specters.

As Tesse ran towards Gray, ignoring the look Artemis was giving her, she noticed something was off.

Gray had stopped moving, he simply stood there, blood dripping down his side at a dangerous rate.

[S-Sytem error.] Read a pop-up that came into Gray's view, glitching as if a virus had infected it.

[Gray Verlice{Possesed}]

[Level 1: 0/100]

[Mana points: 100/100]

[Safe Blood meter: 0%]

~Stats~

[Agility: 20 {32}]

[Strength: 24 {38.4}]

[Stamina: 16 {25.6]

[Attack force: 6 {9.6}]

[Karma: -25]

~Abilities~

[He who pleasures death lvl.1 {2/3}: 0/100]

[Blood weapons lvl.1: 0/5]

[Hisashi Miyamoto Summon lvl.3: 0/10]

~Race~

[Demon Specter]

Right as Tesse was about to touch Gray, a blood-curling shriek made her shudder away. The shriek in question came from none other than Gray himself, his white hair masking his face,

"M-Mas-" before Tesse could finish her sentence, a silver blade came crashing towards her, severing her left arm before she even knew what happened.

"Souls,"

The voice that came out didn't sound human, it sounded like the chorus of a million hungry animals howling in unison.

"To think you'd attack your o-"

Artemis's words were brought to a halt when she saw Gray disappear right in front of her eyes.

"Where did h- Run! Run away now!" she shouted.

However it was too late, several elf heads lobbed to the ground simultaneously, their bloodless bodies falling to the floor with a thud.

"Souls," howled Gray once more as he stared at the rest of the elven soldiers with pitch-black eyes.

"D-D-Demon," stuttered an elf, before being relieved of his head.

"Hold him down!" ordered Artemis, sending out her black tendril.

*Stab*

Gray took on the full brunt of her attack, blood gushing from the hole it had punctured on his back. However, even with the black tentacle still impaled in his body, he continued his onslaught.

His fighting style had become erratic, without form or care for self-protection.

Although his speed now reached a level that those around him could not fathom, he didn't seem to care about dodging attacks.

As he decapitated as many elves as his blades would allow him, he received an equal number of hits, however, due to the black suit, the damage he received was minimal.

"Retreat, get away from him," ordered Artemis, the number of bodies that now littered the ground was nearing a hundred.

*Crack*

As the elves tried to retreat, Gray stabbed his crimson sword into the ground, opening a gaping hole within the earth that swallowed the retreating elves.

Artemis withdrew her tentacle, before dividing it into eight parts and sending them all towards Gray.

"Argha" shrieked Gray, sending out crimson-black waves of energy that corrupted their way through the black tentacles.

"A corruption rune," murmured Artemis under her breath as she glanced at the shimmering black rune attached to the silver sword.

"Shryah hash kesh," screamed Gray, before releasing the same crimson wave of energy in circular pulses, killing all the elves in close vicinity.

"Enough of this," boomed a powerful voice.

"Magus Sirfene," cried some of the elven soldiers in relief as a white-robed elf floated on top of the battlefield.

However Gray did not stop his rampage, the number of casualties continued to rise, his speed faster than ever before.

"I said stop," shouted Sirfene once again, before a blue pentagram appeared on the ground below Gray, releasing several chains that wrapped around his arms and legs, holding him down.

'If I use AOE spells our troops will definitely get caught in the blast. Anyway, I didn't expect such an interesting person to be hiding amongst the humans' thought Sirfene as he descended a few meters away from Gray, right next to Artemis.

As he lashed and jerked to get free of his restraints, the chains that bound him only tightened their grip, until he didn't even have enough space to move a muscle.

*Stab*

All eight of Artemis's tentacles stabbed into Gray's body, puncturing him from all sides.

Blood gushed from all his wounds, before finally, his lashing stopped.

"Well done princess. However I'll still be reporting your insubordination to her majesty," commented Sirfene tiredly, before turning around.

"Gather the wounded, we'll be retreating for today," ordered Artemis.

"Watch out there princess," warned Sirfene as a blue pentagram appeared at the side of Artemis's head, blocking the bullet that nearly ended her life.

"Death, death to all of you," screamed Tesse wildly, the sight of Gray being impaled driving her past the point of insanity.

"Kukk," muttered Artemis before sending her tentacles towards Tesse.

"Huh, what's going on," whispered a few soldiers, staring at Gray's lifeless body with confused expressions.

Red mist evaporated from his body, covering the battlefield in the smell of blood.

'Now that I think of it, it's kind of odd. There are so many dead bodies but not a single drop of blood,' thought Sirfene, before turning around quickly.

"Princess get back!"

[『Bloodlust Mode』 activated. Blood lust has reached critical level. Warning, excessive use of this mode exponentially increases the blood price toll. A sacrifice must be offered before the blood lust expires or the full toll will be paid by the user.]

======================================

[System Information]

[Specters]

Specters are the formless residents of the underworld. They are the products of chaos and destruction, not even the 9 high demons have control over them.

Souls are required in order to return them to the [Great Cycle], however being the selfish beings they are, the 9 high demons tasked their thralls with this job.

Specters will eat away at their host's consciousness, before being let out into the conscious world, destroying any living thing in its sights.

They are a form of corruption, that eventually being an end to the world.

See more information in the 『Book of The Non-Living』...

==============================

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/w9exHW6FBw
Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lordofkaizen