CHAPTER 177: AS LONG AS WE STAND

[: Daniel’s POV :]

No matter how many times I’ve seen it and no matter how many gates I’ve shattered, collapsed, or crushed until nothing remained...

There were still too many of them.

Like festering wounds carved into the sky, each one pulsed with malignant energy bright veins of crimson and violet crawling across the horizon.

They multiplied endlessly, tearing into this world’s atmosphere with a sound like bones grinding against metal.

Pulse after pulse, more rifts opened, hurling invaders into the world below.

Not that I’m complaining.

More gates meant more targets.

More targets meant more growth.

More growth meant a faster death for everything that threatened Mika.

My feet lifted gently off the ground as mana curled beneath me like coiling mist as I vanished.

[: Void Step :]

The world inverted, skies folding, land twisting, the battlefield blurring into streaks of smeared color.

A soundless ripple snapped through reality as space bent to my will, and in the next instant, I reappeared directly in front of one of the largest gates.

Thousands of invaders flooded out like an unending metal tide.

They were armored from head to toe like medieval knights, towering, broad-shouldered, and heavy-plated.

Their armor was not crafted iron, but forged from worlds I had never seen; black steel etched with jagged sigils that pulsed with bloody light.

Their helmets curved like snarling beasts, eyes glowing through the slits, small, burning points filled with nothing but malice.

The air grew colder around them.

The scent of death followed them like a shadow.

Among them, a larger figure stepped forward, maybe their leader or a commander.

Its armor was adorned with chains of severed insignias belonging to fallen worlds.

Its voice echoed like metal scraping against stone.

"What? A puny mortal dares to stand before a Knight Commander of the Legion of Iron Colossus?"

Without a doubt, it was proud, loud and arrogant.

I tilted my head.

"Why wouldn’t I dare?"

The commander paused, as if not expecting someone to answer so casually.

"...Ho? Confident. I admire your courage. But courage without strength is nothing. Your life ends here."

Its massive sword clanged as it sheathed it back in place, a ceremonial gesture, then pointed toward me with authority.

"Knights! Sheathe your swords and kill this mortal who obstructs our Lord’s descent!"

A collective roar erupted.

"ATTACK!!"

Thousands of armored soldiers surged toward me like a black tidal wave, weapons raised.

Mana overflowed, their battle cries shaking the air.

Their speed, their coordination, their killing intent, everything about them screamed elite.

But to me?

They were less than insects.

Ever since I began killing invaders, devouring their stats, siphoning their essences, evolving with every breath, my growth was monstrous.

My base strength, once a mere one quadrillion, had multiplied tenfold under the effects of my Title and passives.

[: Title: Butcher of the Ten Thousand :]

– The feat of killing ten thousand beings in a single move astonishes the Universe –

– When outnumbered, all stats increase tenfold, and for every enemy present, your power rises again –

Standing before thousands of enemies meant my stats were compounding beyond reason.

So why bother pretending I was on their level?

I raised my right hand and closed it into a fist.

[: Gem of Strength :]

The moment the ability activated, muscles tightened, veins illuminated with golden light, and raw force poured into my arm like an ocean funneling into a cup.

The air thickened.

Gravity warped.

The very space around me trembled as the weight of my strength distorted it.

Even the ground beneath my feet cracked and dipped inward, unable to withstand the sheer pressure radiating from my stance.

The rushing Knights suddenly faltered.

"W-What... what is this force!?"

"My legs—! I can’t move!"

"What kind of gravitational skill is this?!"

It wasn’t a skill, maybe it was but most of it was pure, unrestrained strength.

A force that ignored their rank, ignored their authority, ignored their flashy armor and "high-tier planet" superiority.

Their laws bent.

Their bodies shook.

Their movements crawled to a halt as if time itself rejected them.

I inhaled deeply, gathering every ounce of power swirling in my arm.

Then...

I threw a simple punch toward the air.

A harmless punch.

At least, that’s what it looked like.

The commander scoffed.

"What? Was that pathetic gesture—"

*BOOOOOOOM.*

The shockwave erupted a full second later, carving through the world with a roar so violent the sky itself recoiled.

Light tore through the sea of invaders.

Bodies disintegrated instantly.

Armor shattered into metallic dust.

Entire clusters of Knights vaporized before their minds could register death.

In less than a second the whole fleet was gone.

But the shockwave didn’t stop at them.

It hit the gate behind them.

The massive rift twisted violently, then shattered like breaking glass, flickering into thousands of purple fragments before collapsing into nothing.

The wave continued, ripping apart three other nearby gates, then blasted upward, splitting the sky into two enormous halves.

Clouds churned violently.

Daylight bent and refracted.

The world looked like it had been torn open by a divine blade.

And I still wasn’t done.

I floated upward, rising above the storm of debris and light.

Below me, the battlefield stretched for miles, a chaotic landscape of screaming soldiers, burning mana, collapsing terrain, and hundreds of gates.

Amidst it all, Mika’s cocoon shone, a brilliant sphere of condensed essence.

Even from this height, it glowed like a star that refused to be dimmed.

She was evolving.

And that meant I had to tear apart every threat before it touched her.

I spread my arms.

Time to erase everything in this entire field.

[: Blood of the Fallen Saint – Heavenfall Effect :]

The moment I triggered it, the atmosphere changed.

Clouds twisted violently, spiraling as if dragged by celestial chains.

Light gathered at their center, not sunlight, not mana, but something far older, purer and holier.

A radiance so intense it felt like it pierced the soul.

The sky dimmed, as though all color drained from the heavens, leaving only white and gold swirling above.

There was a pressure descended, and it felt ancient, absolute and sacred.

Even I felt the tremor run through the atmosphere.

Invaders looked up, horrified.

"T-That power... NO... NO! THAT’S—!"

"Impossible! A low-tier world shouldn’t... couldn’t..."

"RETREAT—RETREAT—!"

Too late.

Because the sky opened.

Thousands of spears of divine light rained down like the judgment of forgotten gods.

Each pillar of brilliance tore through the air, ripping through invader after invader, ignoring armor, ignoring shields, ignoring spatial distortion barriers.

They screamed.

"AGHHHH—!!!"

"MY ARM—MY ARM—IT’S DISSOLVING—"

"THIS ISN’T MORTAL—THIS ISN’T—!"

Their bodies didn’t burn.

They were purified into dust.

Even their sins were peeled away, leaving nothing behind.

Gate after gate shattered under the descending brilliance.

I didn’t even need Eyes of Calamity.

The Heavenfall identified every invader on its own, seeking them, judging them and erasing them.

Fear twisted their faces, their last thoughts etched into the air like silent questions.

’How could such a weak planet possess such power?’

They would never know the answer.

And when the final rays faded...not a single corpse touched the ground.

The Heavenfall cleansed everything, leaving only purified light drifting like ash.

The battlefield was silent for a breath.

With the last gate around the academy collapsing into shimmering dust, the battlefield finally fell silent.

Not peaceful... just silent.

The kind of silence that settles only after too many screams have already faded.

I exhaled slowly.

[: Void Step :]

Darkness folded around me, and in the next moment, I reappeared in the sky above the academy.

My shadow stretched over the devastated grounds, craters, shattered walls, broken earth, and above all, the wounded struggling to stand.

I clenched my fist.

No... this wouldn’t do.

Not today.

[: Spatial Convergence :]

With magic and my affinity with void, dark energy spiraled beneath me, forming a wide dimensional circle.

A pulse of void rippled outward, gentle, not destructive, and in an instant, every instructor and every surviving student vanished from where they stood and reappeared around Mika’s cocoon.

Gasps echoed everywhere.

"Instructors?!"

"W-what just happened?"

Some looked terrified, others shaken, but at least they were all together now, alive, breathing, and close to Mika, whose cocoon radiated warm, pulsing light like a heartbeat.

But many were lying on the ground, bleeding, trembling, missing arms, legs... even half their bodies.

Some couldn’t even cry anymore from exhaustion.

I raised my hand.

A blend of warm gold and deep violet washed over the field, spreading like waves through sand, gentle yet absolute.

Wounds closed instantly.

Severed limbs regenerated.

Blood loss reversed.

Poison burned away.

Broken bones realigned.

Cries of shock burst out everywhere.

"My arm...! My arm is back—!"

"Professor! Your eye!"

"I can stand... I can actually stand!"

But despite the miracles, the atmosphere felt heavy. Too heavy.

Because healing the living didn’t change the number of the dead.

The instructors stood together, staring at the gathered crowd of survivors with grim, hollow expressions.

Their faces were pale, some tear-streaked, some stiff with guilt.

Finally, Instructor Hale stepped forward, voice rough.

"Daniel... everyone... we... we did a count."

Every breath in the air held still.

His voice cracked.

"We lost seventy-three instructors."

The students around me flinched.

"And... one hundred and forty-two students."

A few gasps.

A few choked sobs.

A few fell to their knees.

Even those healed moments ago suddenly looked weaker than before.

Grief hung in the air like a suffocating weight.

Silvia gripped her robe tightly, face pale.

Fendrick stared blankly at the ground, fists trembling.

Even the strongest instructors, those who had always appeared unshakable, lowered their heads.

No one said anything.

Because what could they say?

After a moment, Instructor Hale began again, voice small.

"We... we tried. We really did. They died protecting their friends, their colleagues, their students. They—"

I stepped forward.

"...Enough."

Everyone looked at me.

Even Mika’s cocoon pulsed lightly, as if sensing the shift in my mana.

I continued, voice calm but carrying through the entire field.

"You did what you could. And the ones who fell... they didn’t die in vain."

The air trembled faintly with my aura, not overpowering, just steady.

"You protected this academy long enough for me to finish the gate"

You protected the people who are still alive. Every breath taken right now... is because of your stand."

Some instructors bit their lips, trembling.

Some students broke into tears silently.

"But grieving doesn’t mean giving up," I said.

"And giving up is the one thing the dead would never want from us."

I glanced toward the sky.

More gates would come.

More threats.

This wasn’t over.

Not even close.

"So mourn them," I whispered. "Honor them. Remember them."

Then I raised my chin, eyes sharpening.

"But don’t break. Because we’re not done yet."

A faint ripple of determination spread across the field.

I continued, voice deep.

"As long as we stand, this academy stands. And as long as it stands, no invader will take a single step further."

Everyone stared at me—fearful, hopeful, uncertain, but alive.

And right now, that was enough.