CHAPTER 543: END IT

The sight made Clyde’s gut tighten. He had survived two lifetimes of apocalypse, faced horrors and powers that would kill most people, but this... this abomination... left him frowning in genuine discomfort.

Had he ever seen something like this before? He searched his memories and found nothing in his first life. This was new and worse than he had saw in the Selection Stage. It wasn’t just monstrous random mutation, it was deliberate work.

He could almost feel the hand of the crazy World Master in it. The sick mind that had crafted this nightmare not only to kill but to destroy the sanity of human itself.

And if this was the kind of thing appearing now, Clyde knew the road ahead was only going to get harder. With the worst of his creation would appear.

He glanced at Mina.

She was on her knees, her body trembling. Then she lurched forward and vomited onto the damp earth.

She didn’t even cry. Her throat seemed locked by the weight of what she saw.

When she raised her head again, her eyes locked on the monster. She looked like she was staring into a wound in the world.

Clyde didn’t know what to say. No child should ever see their parents like this. half-dead, half-consumed, trapped in a grotesque shell of something that used to be human.

"AAAAAA!!!"

Mina’s scream tore through the trees. Long, loud, and jagged with grief. She gripped her dagger so hard her knuckles turned white.

"GRAAAAHHH!!!"

The monster screamed back and let out a guttural roar that rattled the ground beneath them. The human heads—her parents’ heads—moved slightly, their dead eyes fixed on her.

"I’ll kill you!" Mina’s voice was low, trembling with rage. Her eyes were red, her body taut with murderous intent.

"I’ll help you," Clyde said firmly. He knew what would happen if she rushed in alone.

She would just die or worse, she might end up as just another face on that creature’s body.

The beast’s massive limbs dug into the soil. Then it lunged at them.

Clyde moved first.

His spear swept upward in a sharp arc, intercepting the creature’s lead claw before it could tear through Mina.

The force of the impact sent a jolt down his arms, but he pushed back hard, knocking the limb aside.

The monster countered with its other arm that was thick, sinewy, and packed with unnatural muscle.

Clyde pivoted, stepping to the side so the blow tore through empty air, then drove his spearpoint into the creature’s body.

The tip punched through flesh and gristle, but the beast didn’t slow.

It swung its head toward him, the monstrous jaw snapping with bone-splintering force.

Clyde wrenched the spear free and drove it upward again, piercing the joint between neck and shoulder.

Black ichor sprayed out, burning the dirt where it landed.

The monster bellowed, rearing back, but its long arm lashed out in a wild strike.

Clyde ducked, feeling the rush of air above his head, then drove forward. His shoulder slamming into the beast’s body.

It staggered a step. That was when Mina decided to dart in, dagger flashing in her hand.

She stabbed deep into the side of the creature’s torso, her face twisted in fury. The monster roared, twisting violently to fling her away.

Clyde caught her before she hit the ground, shoving her behind him.

The beast’s many heads shrieked in unison, the sound a twisted chorus of pain and rage.

Clyde planted his feet, eyes locked on the abomination He didn’t waste any more time.

The ground cracked under his feet as he surged forward, his movements faster than any normal human could track.

His spear became a blur when he sends his attacks in quick succession. Thrusts, sweeps, and crushing blows battering the monster from every angle.

All of his attacks landed with incredible force that he shouldn’t be able to do, tearing chunks of flesh and spilling more of that black burning ichor.

The creature tried to match him, but it was already too slow.

Clyde’s physique wasn’t just honed and slightly higher, it was beyond anything that should exist at this stage of the apocalypse.

He was already at Level 100, with physical attributes that surpassed every other human alive in this world. He shouldn’t have been able to reach this point so early, but he had kept his small fraction of his level from before he was killed in his previous life.

Because of that, the fight was never going to last long. He didn’t want it to last long anyway.

Not when Mina was standing behind him, shaking, forced to stare at the warped faces of her parents fused into this nightmare.

Every second it lived was another wound in her heart.

The beast lunged again, and Clyde’s spear swept low, severing one of its massive legs in a single, brutal stroke.

The abomination crashed to the ground, thrashing, its many heads wailing in dissonant agony.

Clyde stepped in close, his weapon flashing again and again until both its arms were nothing but twitching stumps.

It could no longer rise. The fight was basically over.

Clyde turned, meeting Mina’s tear-reddened eyes.

"You should be the one to end it," he said quietly.

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. For a moment, she couldn’t move. But then she nodded.

Slowly and shakily, she walked past him. Her dagger was clenched so tight her knuckles were white.

She stopped in front of the monster’s heaving bulk. Her gaze locked on the two faces—the faces she had known since she was born—now cold, empty, and twisted into something unrecognizable.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, and tears streamed freely down her cheeks.

Her sobs turned into broken cries as she raised the dagger.

She hesitated for just a second, her hand trembling... then drove the blade down into the monster’s exposed core.

The abomination convulsed, all its heads letting out one final, distorted wail before going still.

The black ichor stopped flowing, and the twisted bodies fell silent forever.

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