CHAPTER 295: SELF DESTRUCT

Just like Yumi, Andrew proved to be very sturdy as well, and his skull didn’t shatter — but that was only because Gabriel was never planning to kill him.

He continued to stomp Andrew’s face, each strike landing in a tight, merciless sequence.

Face. Stomach. Chest. Ribs. Throat. Jaw. Solar plexus. Knee. Shoulder.

Each hit sounded like a drum.

BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM.

For a moment, there was silence.

No one moved.

The dust settled slowly.

Andrew lay there, eyes half-open, blood at the corner of his mouth.

"You..." He coughed weakly. "You really think... this is enough to get rid of us?"

Gabriel crouched beside him, expression calm.

"I know it’s not," he said quietly. "But it’s enough to make you and the others think twice before walking into my run again."

Andrew wanted to spit in his face, but he never got the chance — Gabriel stomped his head one final time, destroying his skull.

"Phew."

Several sighs of relief rippled through the crowd the moment Andrew stopped moving.

Everyone watched Gabriel, who stood with his back to his guild, admiration and fear mixing in their eyes.

But the memory of how he had just killed those people was still fresh in everyone’s mind, so none dared to make the first approach.

"Leader!!!" Ragnarok yelled, voice full of life again. "That was... that was sick!"

He staggered forward, still clutching his probably fractured ribs, eyes shining like a kid watching his favorite anime fight.

"You saw when you kneed that tank bastard into the ground? And when you snapped his wrist? And the clones—"

"Shut up," Sophie said, but there was no real anger in her voice. She walked closer, eyes scanning Gabriel’s body for injuries. "You’re bleeding."

"Not much," he said. "I’ve had worse."

Cassie shook her head slowly. "You just soloed three people who were wiping the floor with all of us."

Samantha’s eyes were practically glowing. "Leader... can you teach me that technique thing? I can use it with skeletons—"

"No." Gabriel’s answer was sharp and final.

"So fast," Samantha mumbled under her breath, a crestfallen expression on her face.

"You all did well," Gabriel said in a low voice, just loud enough for all of them to hear. "Thank you for protecting and buying time for me."

A small, genuine smile spread across the faces of everyone present.

They shared a brief glance. Then Sophie jabbed his side with her finger — carefully avoiding the erased lines.

"Idiot," she said quietly.

"Hm?"

"You tell us to step back and then let yourself get cut multiple times," she said. "If he had gone for your head first..."

"He didn’t," Gabriel replied. "If he did, we’d be having this conversation in the afterlife."

"With you? Nah. You’d probably punch your way out." Ragnarok chuckled heartily.

The gunslingers finally relaxed, lowering their weapons. A few of them started laughing weakly — not because anything was funny, but because the crushing tension was gone.

They were alive.

They’d just watched their leader beat down monsters who had made them feel helpless.

Meanwhile, Doodle Brambleton had no idea what had just happened inside the Blood Tower.

Outside, theories would explode.

Inside, Gabriel rolled his shoulder once more and finally let out a long breath.

"Pack your stuff," he said. "Five minutes. Then we move."

"Move?" Sophie frowned. "Wouldn’t it be better if you rested a little so you can recover?"

"We lost time," Gabriel said. "The other guilds have already cleared more floors. If we delay any further, we’ll fall behind."

Sophie sighed, but the corners of her mouth curved up slightly.

"Sit down for at least one minute so I can heal what’s left of your ribs — and don’t argue," she said, retrieving a spare healing potion she’d originally kept for herself.

Gabriel actually sat down as the veiled beauty fed him the potion.

Broken Dawn had survived the Deleters.

More than that — their leader had shown something terrifying.

Gabriel closed his eyes for a second, replaying the stairs, the throne, the chained crystal, and the long crimson hair of the final boss in his mind.

Some time later, he opened his eyes again and shifted his gaze toward the wall where Andrew’s blade was embedded.

The blade was still humming with a faint glow. Calmly, Gabriel stood up and began approaching it. All eyes followed him.

The others were equally curious about the sword and its strange ability, so they watched in silence, cautious but intrigued.

When Gabriel reached the blade, he didn’t immediately pick it up.

He stopped a few steps away and studied it.

The Deletion Edge was still buried in the cracked wall, humming with a faint, unnatural light. It didn’t look like a dropped item or something forged by any blacksmith. It didn’t belong to this world.

Even on Earth, this would be classified as a top-secret weapon. Gabriel furrowed his brows. If his guess was correct, then this weapon was created by the same person who discovered the technology to transfer human consciousness into a living, breathing world — somewhere in a faraway galaxy.

In other words, the creator of Realm of Ascendency.

He had close ties with Sutre, so Gabriel wouldn’t even be surprised if he was the one responsible for all of this... if he was capable of creating a weapon that merged divinity with technology.

Either way, this weapon would’ve been a fine addition to his arsenal.

Gabriel extended his hand slowly.

He didn’t grab the hilt.

He stopped a few centimeters short and frowned when he noticed a spike in the sword’s glow. As if that wasn’t enough, even the hum intensified sharply at that moment.

He was about to pull his hand back when the glow abruptly flared.

Gabriel took a step back on instinct.

The Deletion Edge screamed.

That was the only way to describe it — a high, sharp ringing that filled the hall, like metal grinding against metal inside their skulls. Cracks crawled along the blade from the hilt outward, glowing pure white.

"That can’t be good!"

"Seriously? It’s going to explode now?"

Samantha instinctively raised a bone wall in front of herself, then remembered what sword they were dealing with. "Ah—wait—"

The sword pulsed once.

Then it broke.

Not like normal metal — it didn’t shatter into fragments or fly everywhere. Instead, the cracks widened, and each piece simply... vanished, erased from tip to hilt.

"Self-destruct," Gabriel murmured.

It appeared the developers didn’t want anyone else getting their hands on that weapon.

Although he was a bit disappointed, it wasn’t something that would weigh him down. He quickly turned his focus back to the group.

"Alright," he said, standing up as Sophie’s healing light faded. "Let’s continue climbing. This time, we’re not taking a break until we reach the top."