Chapter 453: I needed to train.

The silence that preceded the fury lasted only a moment. And then, all hell broke loose.

Vergil advanced.

His eyes, once vibrant and sarcastic, were now empty and intensely focused—like the center of a whirlwind. Each step he took was calculated, each movement a rehearsal for perfection. He wasn’t just fighting. He was testing. Refining. Exploring the limits of what he had left behind since he first wielded Yamato.

His fists met the first skulls with brutal force. A punch to the chin, a thrust with his open palm to the abdomen—the creature writhed, and he spun on his heel, finishing with a sharp elbow strike that crushed the spider’s eyes like grapes.

From the top of a tree, Zuri curled up on the branch with the tension of someone watching a macabre opera performed by a single actor. Vergil danced on the battlefield. A demon in a complete state of Flow. Nothing around him seemed to touch him — and if it did, it was only to be used in his movement. A carapace that tried to strike him became support for an aerial spin. A fallen log became a springboard for a spinning kick in the air.

“He’s crazy… completely crazy…” Zuri muttered, her eyes wide. “This isn’t fighting. This is psychotic art.”

Vergil spun among the spiders, the spear of fire appearing in his hand as if summoned by his own hatred. With a sudden movement, he pierced two enemies at once, swung the weapon over his shoulders, and unleashed a flaming arc that severed the heads of three creatures at once. The flames lit his hair like a halo of chaos.

“Let’s see…” he muttered to himself between blows. “Reverse Vortex Key… double the axis… and bam!”

With a full turn, he kicked a spider coming up behind him with his burning sole, throwing it against another and causing both to explode into a pool of white slime and ashes.

He crouched, diving under the legs of another, dodged a downward blow, and counterattacked with a hook that lifted the creature’s body into the air. With a reverse jump, he turned in the air and drove his spear into its sternum, pushing it to the ground with all the weight of the impact.

The ground shook.

“That was new!” he shouted, laughing at himself. “Hell Meteor Technique. Provisional name… needs more drama.”

Zuri didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or just jump out of the tree and run away. But she was mesmerized. She had seen Vergil fight Yamato before… But this? It was raw. Brutal. Beautiful in its savagery.

The spiders didn’t stop. They came from all sides—dozens, hundreds. Some jumped from the trees, others emerged from underground, digging tunnels with their fangs. The surrounding forest was a pit of grotesque hisses, creaks, and cracks.

And Vergil was the only fixed point in the midst of the storm.

He paused for a second, his chest heaving, and laughed—not out of despair, but out of pleasure. He was sweating. Really sweating. Not out of fear. But out of challenge.

“I HAVEN’T USED MY FIST LIKE THIS IN YEARS!” he shouted to no one, opening his arms, sweat mixed with blood dripping from his chin. “Yamato spoiled me! I was getting soft!”

A huge spider advanced, opening its fangs. Vergil threw his body to the side, spinning like a top, and struck the creature’s jaw with a side kick that broke its shell. Before it could retreat, he jumped on its back and began to deliver a series of punches concentrated on strategic points — as if he were breaking a wall with his bare fists. One… two… three… and on the fourth blow, the creature collapsed with a guttural groan.

The spear spun, now on his back like a natural extension of his body. When three smaller spiders came together, he swung the weapon in a fiery arc and tore through the air in a straight line. The creatures were cut in half like paper.

Zuri cringed on the branch. “He’ll wear himself out… he’ll wear himself out and then… then there won’t even be a shadow left to tell the tale.”

But there were no signs of fatigue. On the contrary — Vergil seemed to grow with each defeated enemy. It was as if he absorbed the energy of battle. An ancient predator, fueled by chaos.

He leaped into the air, spinning his body around his shoulder. A double flaming kick fell like a comet on one of the giant spiders. The explosion sent three others flying with the impact.

Vergil fell to his knees in the center of the clearing, panting… and smiling.

Around him, a growing pile of bodies and slime. Ashes, broken shells, scattered legs.

“Hellish Martial Art: Execution Chain.”

He rose slowly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The flames on the spear danced gently, as if they knew that the blood in the air was fuel.

Zuri climbed down a little from the tree, just to get a better look. Her scales were bristling.

“You… you’re fighting like this is a tournament!” she shouted. “Like someone’s scoring your combos!”

“Oh, but there is,” he replied, throwing the spear into the air and catching it with his other hand. “Me. And I’m a very demanding judge.”

More spiders were coming. But now they hesitated. Their eyes flickered, their formation scattered, as if they were beginning to understand what they were facing. And yet… they didn’t stop.

Vergil raised his spear with one hand and made a circular gesture with the other. The shadows around him began to rise like dancing curtains. He had killed enough.

“Let’s test this now… direct shadow extraction, unstable form…”

The ground darkened. The broken shells trembled. A black mist began to rise from the corpses like smoke rising from flesh. Vergil absorbed the shadows with his palms, and his aura pulsed every second. His eyes shone.

“Zuri… this… is beautiful.”

She looked at him in terror. “Vergil, you’re feeding off the energy of a spider graveyard! THIS IS NOT BEAUTIFUL!”

“It’s technical,” he corrected. “Symbiotic. Creative.”

“IT’S INSANITY!”

But he wasn’t listening anymore. The next group was advancing. And now, he was even faster.

His fists were charged with black shadow and fire. Each punch now came with a wave of energy that exploded on contact. Each kick generated a dark reverberation. He cut through the spiders as if he were made of wind and steel. They were cut by pure kinetic force—they didn’t even need to be touched directly.

Zuri covered her eyes.

“I don’t know if this is a fight anymore… or a ritual.”

Vergil spun like a storm. The spear disappeared and reappeared. The blows were beyond the physical. He had entered a state that Zuri no longer recognized.

And in the end, when the last creature fell… when silence finally returned… Vergil stood alone in the center of the clearing.

Breathing deeply.

The shadows retreated. The heat of the embers died. And the forest, as if out of respect, fell silent.

Zuri slowly climbed down from the tree, still in shock. “You… won.”

“Of course I won,” he said, wiping his hands and cracking his neck. “I needed to train.”

She widened her eyes. “TRAIN?!”