There were, however, heroes among the people beside Damien who remembered their vows at the last second and jumped in front of him. They were standing between him and the gigantic palm defensively. It was quite clear as to what they were up to.
"You gave us this life. I don't mind giving it up for you."
"We will block it for you."
"Please take this chance to run away, my lord."
Their persuasion fell on deaf ears. It was completely useless to tell the power drunked Damien what to do.
"No need."
Saying those words to them, Damien jumped ahead and threw out a palm to meet with it. The very next moment, the hand of death met with his tiny palm, and a shocking event unfolded. The jaws of the proud and arrogant crimson mages dropped as their combined effort was stopped after impacting his seemingly powerless palm.
"This is impossible! We are using forbidden mana to push it forward. How can he stop it with just a palm?!" Verona punched the tree next to her, unable to register what she was seeing for a while. "A normal human hand would have immediately melted after coming in contact with black mana!"
Damien glanced at her indifferently. She felt as if she was nothing more than a soon-to-be-corpse in his eyes. "Who set the boundary between what's possible and not? Undead from the uncharted land, your black mana can intensify the decay of a living being, and my divine energy can reverse it. Nothing is impossible. It's only about who's more capable. And compared to me, you are all rubbish."
Hearing his words, Verona laughed, her body trembling.
She felt angry because of getting humbled by Damien.
It wasn't just her who was feeling this way but also Odon.
'This hand alone is enough to slay a Realm Lord. Yet he stopped it so effortlessly. I'm afraid he is beyond mortal comprehension. We aren't his match.' Odon thought, 'But even if we know we can't defeat him, what choice do we have but to fight him?'
Getting overhwlemed by a boy who was dozen if not hundreds of times younger than them angered the crimson mages, gradually making them go crazy.
They exploded with black mana, all of which was used to propel the Hand of Death forward. But it didn't budge, not even one bit as Damien kept it from moving. It trembled like a vixen rocking on the dance floor as it gave it its all to yank his hand out of the way, but Damien's hand was like an unmoveable object. No matter how much force was applied, it didn't move a single cm out of its way.
"It's such a one-sided fight. If I was them, I would have just smashed my head on a brick of tofu and commited sucide." Eldwin's voice was very loud. Everyone heard his words, and the crimson mages felt taunted.
"How about I kill you first?"
Verona glared at him and Eldwin jumped back with a teasing smile on his face.
"Can you?"
Verona immediateldy abandoned what she was doing to attack Eldwin.
Eldwin smiled, seeing this. "So it's true. Crimson mages really lack a brain."
"Don't do it! He is baiting you."
Odon's warning came a bit too late as Verona could already been flying towards Eldwin.
Damien's eyes became as cold as ice when he saw that, and he said, "You need to pass through me first if you want to get to him!"
"Like hell you can stop me. Little boy, your hands are already full trying to stop it. Don't act strong!" Verona retorted.
"It's useless to speak with a brainless bimboo." Eldwin winked at Damien.
"Teacher. Seriously…"
Fiercely, Damien slashed out with the palm of his free hand, and extremely sharp and cold ice and wind blades formed under the full moon, flying outwards at a terrifying speed. Splitting wind and clouds, they drizzled down on her like a torrential rain before she could get anywhere near Eldwin. She didn't try dodging them as she had a sturdy rank-2 runic armor on her body. She believed that it would be able to block them. And even if it failed, she would at least be mildly wounded. Considering that she would be able to take Eldwim's head for such a little price, it was a favorable trade in her eyes.
But her armor was shredded into pieces in an instant by the blue and green blades.
After that, she fared the same fate.
She died with a look of disbelive in her eyes.
"Our lord has grown up and become so strong and we didn't even know."
"He is like a peerless immortal!"
The noble knights erupted into cheers.
Damien focused his gaze on the remaining enemies, uttering one word at a time, "Now it's your turn."
…
The hand of death burst backward as Damien slapped it like a dog clapping his bitch. An air of death surrounded the scattered pieces that rained down on the rebels and the ones around them.
Pieced by them, the rebels rotted. Their skin, eyes, and nails melted, and their flesh, brain, and innards evaporated. A blink of an eye later, all that was left of them were bones.
The chaotic beings fared better. The black mana clashed with the chaotic energy in their bodies, inflating them endlessly. Eventually, they inflated so much that they exploded, a mess of flesh and blood erupting outwards, falling all over the place.
They died a quick death.
Nothing happened to the crimson mages. They weren't biologically alive, to begin with. The aura of death didn't do anything to harm them. Instead, it replenished their empty magic sea, dumping a nice amount of black mana into it.
Damien's eyes narrowed. 'Huh? Friendly fire doesn't work against them.'
'Guess I have no choice but to personally send them off to the afterlife.'
He kicked off the ground and charged towards them like the lord of the end days, holding a sword made of divine power in his hand in a two-handed horizontal grip.
