"Oh, that thing? Technically it spoke the truth. You and your friend here probably couldn't reach R5 without its assistance. However, many humans and I can do it after enough work... You're confused, right? Well, let me clear that up for you. You see, the moment you let that thing taint your body was the same moment you cut off your path to progress without it. I don't know your class level but it doesn't matter now. In your current state, even a person with a random class has a better chance of advancing alone than you do..." Muku casually dropped a bomb on the duo.

"Impossible! You're lying to us! His Excellency has no reason to trick random people like us! You aren't human! You're a shape-shifting demon!" Jim shouted crazily in denial.

"Hehe. A shape-shifting demon? Now that's a new one. I would have accepted it if it weren't so long and sounded cooler. Anyway, I've told you all I wanted to. Whether you believe it or not, I don't care. Now let me send you on your way... And don't worry, if your Monarch keeps messing with me and my team, eventually, I'll send it to join you in the afterlife. The y'all can have a little chat about life..." Muku was done wasting time with the two randos.

And so...

Whoosh!

Slash!

A blade appeared behind the duo and slashed at their necks before they could even react.

As for why he was so resolute in killing them when he was willing to let them go before, well, he had given them a chance.

Which was something he rarely did due to his policy of getting rid of all enemies. So, since they were so hellbent on dying, he didn't mind sending them on their way. He was sure they weren't good people despite their wholesome interactions anyway.

"Smith... No, Lewis... I'm sorry for the way I treated you" Due to the clean cut and their high ranks, the duo were able to retain their lives for a little while even after getting their necks sliced right through.

Jim took that chance to apologise to his friend before death so that he won't have any regrets in the afterlife. His head fell off his neck the moment he finished speaking and he died with a relieved smile on his face.

Smith whose name was actually Lewis, who had a few more seconds left, looked on in horror...

"NOOOOOOOO! JIMMMMY!" Lewis screamed loudly with extreme sadness then his head fell off too and he also died.

"Sigh... Why are they so dramatic? Now I seem like the bad guy here. If this were a movie, I'd probably be hated by many people for this... Well, whatever. Nothing can be done now. They dug their own graves... Now I can go back to the g..." Muku was speaking to himself when...

He noticed faint black smoke coming out of Lewis's headless body. Before he could make sense of the situation, his head rolled back to his body and reattached itself then...

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A loud explosion accompanied by thick black smoke occurred at that very moment.

Fortunately, Muku was fast enough to get away or who knows what could have happened...

"Aaaahh!".

"Ahhhhhhhh!"...

Before the smoke could clear up and he could see Lewis's situation, he heard tens of pained screams in the distance.

...

Back at the Tactoa headquarters in the Monarch orb's lair...

"Hehe. Seems things are about to get really interesting. Good thing I put in that fail-safe or it would have been another waste of good soldiers. Now let's see if those bastards can get away from my experiment. The Destroyer... Even I don't know what it's capable of. Hehe. Hahahahahaha...." The Monarch orb laughed to itself evilly in its lair...

...

Back on the battle scene...

"Tsk. This is why I don't like killing humans. It's rarely just a simple act of killing them and moving on. Sigh. What's this now?" Muku complained to himself while looking at the black smoke from more than a kilometre away.

He didn't know what was happening plus the smoke gave him a very dangerous feeling. So of course he dared not stick too close.

He just looked on as he tried to under what was going on. He soon realised that the screams from before were probably from the soldiers Lewis had sent away before.

Black smoke was coming from that direction and making the smoke from Lewis more intense.

The situation reminded him of the time the green Monarch sucked the life force out of the people who had been affected by its power to strengthen itself.

From how the smoke was getting more and more intense. He figured that, a similar situation was also happening then.

But... Lewis Smith wasn't a Monarch was he? Also, didn't he die in front of him too when his head was cut off?

"Damn it! Just returned and had to fight a shark monster, then Jade's concerning visions, followed by Tactoa agents and now an undead grudge monster? I mean, I can't see anything yet, but it's obvious where this is going... If it wasn't for the great sex, I would have sought the author out for an explanation..." Muku cursed to himself as he looked on.

Of course, he wasn't just looking on like an idiot. He was preparing some of his strongest attacks at the same time. If it wasn't for that, he would have long begun attacking the smoke.

After all, he wasn't a DB character who waited for his enemy to power up... Sure, he loved the anime but that part was just impractical...

Anyway, he also called Raya over to back him up in case things became too much to handle.

It wasn't that he didn't have confidence in himself, but one needed to be as cautious as possible when dealing with an unknown situation...

And so, the two opponents gathered their strength while looking at each other. Muku couldn't see the other party, but he felt their hate-filled gaze focused on him.

His face was again covered by the nightmare armour and in between it and his body, Mithril was slowly being formed.

The Force Technique was great and all, but the damage it caused was somewhat on the blunt side. What he needed was the penetrative damage factor brought by Mithril energy.

If that weird sword didn't take too long to create. He would have gone with that, but he was uncertain of the time he had until the fight began. So if he couldn't spare too much focus or he could die before he knew what happened... And that wasn't an exaggeration because the threat level he felt from the black smoke was enough to threaten his life already.

What made it worse was how it was still climbing higher as more and more black smoke gathered from a distance.

Soon enough, no more smoke came in. The smoke began swirling around in one place until a black tornado was formed.

However, the tornado didn't charge forward. It swirled around in the same place until a suction force appeared at the bottom and all the smoke was sucked in...

"Oh my...." Muku spoke two words then trailed off.

His eyes widened behind the creepy helmet.

As someone who had seen his own look in the mirror. He never thought that one day he would actually see a being even creepier looking than he was. But that day proved him wrong.

The saying was true. There was always someone better... Though in this case, it would be someone creepier.

Obsidian black skin. Two hollow eyes with tiny red glowing lights at the centre. A somewhat round face. With no neck in sight. A mouth so large that the other facial features looked like they had been shrunk. There was no nose at all. Or ears. Pitch black razor razor-sharp teeth. Bald head. Black spikes all over its broad back. Long lanky arms which reached the ground. Sharp claws digging into the ground. Spikes at the elbows. Somewhat short legs with sharp long nails at the end. A mysterious red vertical line going from the chest to the waist. Standing around ninety metres tall. And faint black smoke getting emitted from the body...

That was the creepy creature Muku was looking at.

BOOOOOOM!

BANG!

A sudden intense pressure pressed down on Muku the moment the creature looked him in the eyes.

He was caught off guard to the point that he was smashed to the ground by the pressure.

"Haaaaaah!" Muku screamed the moment he reached the ground.

His body began growing instantly until he was a bit over a hundred meters tall. It was more than ten metres taller than the creature.

Gigantification was one of the key abilities humans got from reaching R5. It was basically the opposite of the compact forms that beasts got.

However, Muku's gigantification was a bit different from the others which would be revealed in what way, soon enough.

However, even in the physically, more imposing form, Muku didn't feel like he was at an advantage.

The creature in front of him gave him way more pressure than the shark beast.

He wasn't sure who would win this time. And that made him really nervous.

Whoosh!

Bang

"AHHHHHHHH!"

Muku screamed in agony as his huge left hand fell to the ground...