The Annihilator: Killer Of Gods

< You are under the influence of a True Nightmare called Despair >

Khinux had finally played his trump card, the move he had been keeping hidden all this time. He had already unleashed his most powerful techniques—[Reality Warp], [Void Slash], [Blood Slash], and his expert swordplay—but none had succeeded in killing Karsha. Even after pushing his strength to its absolute limit, he couldn't land the final blow.

No matter what he tried, Karsha was always one step ahead. He managed to wound his opponent several times, but the killing strike always eluded him.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Now, however, Khinux had made his move, and it was a sinister one. In the world of Eldritch magic, some practitioners cultivate the dark art of imprisoning and taming Nightmares or forging contracts with them. While some techniques can project nightmares as illusions, they are nothing compared to the real thing.

Nightmares come in different classes: True Nightmare, Arcane Nightmare, and Ancient Nightmare, each more terrifying than the last. These classifications determine the level of horror they bring. Thousands of Nightmares can be contracted and summoned during battle, and when they appear on the battlefield, they bring with them screams of fear and terror.

Now, hovering behind Khinux was not just any Nightmare, but a True Nightmare called Despair.

As its name suggests, Despair's presence fills its targets with such overwhelming hopelessness that they may even beg for death. Summoning a Nightmare like this is not something to be done lightly. Even demons shy away from invoking such entities because it requires immense soul strength and mental fortitude.

This also means that before summoning a Nightmare, one must be certain that its appearance will finish the opponent. After the Nightmare departs, the summoner's soul and mental strength are left utterly drained. It's the only downside, but a significant one. Khinux clearly believed he was done playing games and had summoned one of the cruelest of all Nightmares.

But he made a critical miscalculation—his target was Karsha, someone who needed Nightmares to advance his skills and elemental powers.

Karsha looked at the entity behind Khinux with a happy smile, his third eye gleaming with delight. The monstrous eye of Despair loomed behind Khinux, exuding a terrifying presence. Its blood-red iris pulsed with a sinister glow, contrasting sharply with the pitch-black sclera that surrounded it, making it seem like an abyss that could swallow souls whole.

Countless smaller eyes, equally menacing and crimson, surrounded the central eye, each one watching with unblinking, predatory intensity. The surface of the main eye was slick and oily, reflecting the dim light in eerie, fragmented patterns, while veins of darkness spread out from its center like the roots of a cursed tree.

The entire visage radiated an aura of pure dread, harboring untold horrors and malevolence within its depths.

'My luck is amazing,' Karsha thought, smiling cheerfully.

"Human, it's time for you to die," Khinux said, his voice dripping with smugness.

"Khinux, my friend, you have no idea how happy I am right now," Karsha replied, his grin widening. "Who would have thought that after stealing your battle style, you'd bless me with another gift? This is great! I'll be sure to remember you every time I use this power."

Khinux's smugness quickly turned to alarm as he noticed Karsha's growing confidence.

"DIE!" Khinux shouted, and the red eyes immediately shot beams of crimson energy toward Karsha. The beam from the large eye was particularly dense, more powerful than those from the smaller ones.

"Futile effort," Karsha's voice deepened as a dark, sinister mask appeared on his face. The dark beams were met with an even darker beam, tinged with a hint of purple energy.

"Absorb," Karsha commanded, and the mask began to hum with an eerie sound. The Nightmare, which had been towering menacingly behind Khinux, started to tremble. It tried to fade away, but it was as if it had been locked in place by an invisible force.

"Human," Khinux spat, slashing his sword. Dark beams shot out, but Karsha, now a Grandmaster swordsman, only smirked at the feeble attack. Khinux's soul and mental strength were clearly suffering, making the strike weak and ineffective. With a swift motion, Karsha's crescent ice arc cut through the beams effortlessly.

"Eternal Demon Gaze," Karsha commanded, and a terrifying eye appeared behind him, wide open and unblinking. Though it was just an illusion, it served its purpose, accelerating the absorption of the True Nightmare.

As the process quickened, pain and fear flashed in Khinux's eyes, causing Karsha's smile to widen even further. The mask he wore thrived on those emotions, and like a vapor, it began to absorb them. It was a truly evil power. Even a demon should be allowed to feel fear and pain, but Karsha wasn't granting Khinux that luxury.

Instead, as he drained the pain and fear, he replaced them with something far worse—terror and unimaginable horror.

All the courage Khinux might have drawn from his pain and fear was being converted into Karsha's strength. The mask didn't just take; it also gave back. It replaced pain with horror, which would inevitably lead to even greater fear.

The more the mask and the huge eye drained the Nightmare dry, the weaker Khinux became. But Karsha didn't let his guard down. He knew how dangerous Khinux was, and the murderous intensity still burning in Khinux's eyes showed he wasn't planning to back down anytime soon.

"Die for me!" Khinux roared, his aura exploding as red energy burst from his body. His metallic armor began to crack, and the hand holding his sword started to tremble uncontrollably. The ground beneath him fractured as he raised his sword over his head, slashing down with all his might. A massive, 100-meter-long energy arc hurtled toward Karsha, tearing through the air with lethal intent.

In a flash, the blood-red energy arc traveled a kilometer, cutting through the air as it hurtled toward Karsha, who stood four kilometers away. Despite the speed and intensity of the attack, Karsha's expression remained calm, his demeanor unshaken. He raised his sword as Khinux did, channeling fire essence into the blade.

"One Slash Kill," Karsha intoned. A massive, 120-meter-tall crimson-red fire arc erupted from his sword, so powerful that the force shattered the blade in his hand. The entire area between Karsha and the fire's path ignited instantly, the heat so intense that even Karsha felt it deep in his core.

Over 369 kilometers away, the shadow guards saw the fiery explosion and broke into a cold sweat. The terrifying crimson-red fire that lit up the sky sent chills down their spines, a stark reminder of the power their master wielded.

The fire arc from Karsha collided with the blood arc from Khinux, resulting in a furious explosion. The force of the clash was so immense that trees within a 10-kilometer radius were obliterated, yet strangely, those beyond the 11-kilometer mark remained untouched, as if protected by an invisible barrier.

"Giant Sword," Karsha quickly followed up with the second level of the Dark Prince Art. The ground trembled as a colossal sword materialized, descending from above. Khinux took a few steps back, but before he could react, he was locked in place by an unseen force. His eyes flared with an intense red light as he slashed his sword, sending a dark beam toward the descending giant sword.

The two attacks collided, and cracks appeared in Karsha's giant sword. "Not again, demon," Karsha growled, pumping 200,000 MP into the attack, further solidifying the sword. The black beam was sliced in half, and the reinforced sword continued its descent, crashing down on Khinux with unstoppable force.

BOOM!

Khinux was hurled two kilometers away, his body battered and broken from the impact. Karsha, too, was blown back by the shockwave, though he managed to stay on his feet, his heart racing. He'd successfully absorbed the nightmare, a fact that filled him with joy—so much so that he failed to notice the horrific transformation Khinux was undergoing.

What stood before Karsha now was no longer human. An indescribable abomination of a snake had taken Khinux's place, and for the first time, the entire battlefield fell into an eerie stillness. The monstrous serpent loomed, its gaze locking onto Karsha, freezing him in place.

The snake was a gargantuan creature, stretching over 300 meters in length. Its scales, blacker than the void itself, absorbed all light, rendering the beast a shadowy silhouette against the abyss. Unlike any other serpent, this one bore scales etched with ancient, arcane symbols, pulsating with a sinister, otherworldly energy.

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Its eyes were deep, empty voids that seemed to reflect the infinite darkness of the abyss. As it opened its mouth, rows of teeth capable of tearing through reality itself gleamed menacingly. A dark, ominous horn jutted from its head, adding to its terrifying presence.

Karsha's instincts screamed at him to run, but his body betrayed him, drained of all strength. Deep down, he cursed himself for dismissing the Mask of Malevolence. With the mask, he might have resisted the pull of those dark, obsidian eyes.

For ten agonizing seconds, the snake glared at him, unblinking. Then, without warning, it vanished, only to reappear mid-air, hurtling toward Karsha with terrifying speed. When it was just a kilometer away, its massive body vibrated, releasing 30-meter-tall spear-like shards that shot toward Karsha with deadly precision.

Karsha gritted his teeth, desperately trying to break free from the paralysis, but it was futile. The spears appeared before him in a blink, too fast to evade.

"Ah, crap," Karsha thought bitterly as the shards pierced his chest, pinning him to the ground. His vision darkened, and he felt his soul being wrenched from his body as if something was pulling it away.

Oddly, Karsha felt no pain or regret. Only disappointment lingered in his mind—disappointment that he hadn't been able to slay the snake and boast about it when he returned to the human world. The snake had outwitted him, and his fear of tapping into the darkness had led to his downfall.

Karsha, even with the Mask of Malevolence at his disposal, had always hesitated to fully embrace its power. The [Eternal Demon Gaze], terrifying as it was, unnerved him. He had always preferred more "human" methods of combat, relying on his skill, strategy, and strength rather than the darker, more sinister abilities that had been offered to him.

But now, as he lay dying, Karsha realized that his thinking had been too small. He had a second chance at life after being transmigrated, but he had squandered it by holding back. If he had a third chance, he would make different decisions.

But there were no third chances in death. Or at least, that's what he believed. As his vision dimmed and his soul was pulled from his body, Karsha felt something unusual. Something was pulling him away from the void, something powerful, and without understanding why, he surrendered to it.

Time passed in a blur—seconds, minutes, hours, he couldn't tell. When his vision began to clear, Karsha found himself in a place beyond his comprehension. What he saw was unlike anything he had ever encountered, so strange that he couldn't even begin to describe it. He didn't try to judge or understand it; he simply focused on observing, trying to grasp the true nature of what he was seeing.

The vision before him became clearer—a figure, somewhat familiar yet completely alien. "Human, Long Ear, Handsome... but I am probably more handsome," Karsha thought, feeling a strange mix of recognition and failure as he looked at the being.

Just as he was beginning to make sense of it, a voice echoed in his mind, a voice that was both foreign and strangely familiar. "Arrogant, intelligent, and handsome. Ah, how I miss myself."