-----

  Vd swung his bde against the Blood Demoons with everything he had. Moving as quickly as he could, although the skeletons sometimes were faster, catg up to him and attag him together. Their Blood Demon Runes gave them short burst of power and speed, giving them the ability to surprise him.

  CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

  As they hit him, he tried to dodge or parry the blows; however, they were too many. Despite the small cracks spreading across its rusty surface, he was utilizing the armor to its full potential and taking hits with it too.

  “Haah!”

  He kicked the skeleton in front of him, swinging his bde horizontally and sshing apart two other skeletons, only for them to begin crawling towards him even when divided into two, grabbing his legs tightly, trying to break them.

  “Dammit, cut it out!”

  He pierced their heads and shattered their skulls; only one of them ended up dying as he pierced the Demon Blood Crystal inside and absorbed its essehe other tinued moving.

  “So not every one of them got the crystal in the same pce…!”

  Vd realized that the Heavenly Demon snorted.

  “But of course they don’t, my brainless reination.” He ughed. “That would make things too easy, wouldn’t they?!”

  “Ah, you’re not helping at all by being an ass, you know?!”

  Vd tinued fighting, kig the skeleton away and then hitting it with his shield to destroy the bones, enhang his arm strength using the Blood Demon Runes he gained.

  CRAAASH!

  As he shattered them, he found the destroyed red crystal in the middle of the pelvis! It had gone all the way there to hide from him.

  Once he broke it, its essence leaked, but he quickly touched it, making sure not much was lost.

  He didn’t have time to rest though; the moment he ko grab that crystal, three more skeletons attacked his back while two more came from the front.

  “Use your Soul Aura! You unleash a Soul Pressure with it; you’ve cultivated it enough, fool!”

  The Heavenly Demon panicked, giving him an important tip.

  “Soul Aura… right!”

  Vd quickly unleashed his Soul Aura, by merely willing it to happen, his golden aura surged, suddenly gaining red-colored veins and resembling fmes.

  FLUOSH!

  The Soul Pressure pushed the skeletons way, burning their bodies with Soul Fmes, buying him enough time to grab the sword and ssh their legs apart.

  SLAAASH!

  After that, he charged against them, smashing the head of oabbing another’s ribcage, and then crushing a third with the shield.

  CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

  As he crushed them, he felt their broken crystals fuel him with a bit more energy, which he used to attack the other two that were on his front.

  He jumped over one of them and pushed it into the ground with the weight of his body before crushing its bones with his fists.

  Then, the sed that came behind him, hitting him very strongly with a hammer, shattering the backside of his armor, was quickly greeted with several spear thrusts, making its broken body colpse.

  “How many more do I o fight? This is endless…!”

  Vd kept moving across the floor of the castle, finding more and more red skeletons with horns everywhere; they immediately attacked him upon seeing him.

  There was no way to escape rain any sort of higher ground; the only thing he could do was fight and struggle until the bitter end.

  “Prove your worth and fight!”

  “Those that don’t fight aren’t worthy!”

  “Prove your worth!”

  “Fight, battle!”

  “Don’t you dare escape!”

  “There’s o escape…! Fight to the death!”

  “Prove… yourself!”

  The skeletons surrounded him, dozens after dozens of them making a huge army; so many of them were that they had little space to even stand, stuck with one another like a swarm.

  [Prove to the A Blood Demons that you’re worthy of iing their true legacy.]

  [Fight as many of the A Blood Demons while not using Skills ic, using your stats alone.]

  [Because of this trial, your Stats had beeored to their inal numbers.]

  [Objective: Sy as many A Blood Demons as possible. The more you sy, the higher your score.]

  [Time Left: 24 Minutes.]

  Vd g the system message again.

  “It has only been six minutes?!”

  He felt like he had already been fighting for a whole hour, but barely six minutes had passed, and twenty-four more were needed for this to end.

  And he believed that if he died, it would be game over, and he wouldn’t pass the test. So while having to sy as many as possible, he also had to survive until the st minute.

  “A cowardly pipsqueak like you ever hope to i our a legacy!”

  A furious Blood Demoon roared, rushing towards Vd.

  This one was different than the rest too, twice as big, with four arms and a sword in each on.

  He had four horns and a longer pair of them on his forehead too…

  It seemed to be of a higher ranking, probably giving more points as well.

  Strangely enough, the other Blood Demoons didn’t interfere, watg from the sidelines as this “general” marched towards Vd.

  “No, I will prove you I .”

  Vd’s mind bzed with new resolve after realizing he had no other option than tle with whatever tools he had at his disposal.

  He grabbed the swords the skeletons had been dropping and threw them at the four-armed blood demoon, trolling them with his Soul itself.

  How? By ing them on Soul Threads themselves!

  CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

  “Gahahah! What’s this? It’s not even worth a damn thing!”

  The four-armed blood demoon, however, easily sshed the ons away, ughing at Vd’s stupid attempt at dealing any damage.

  However, that was merely a distra.

  CRASH!

  “Guh?!”

  The skeleto Vd, who had sneaked behind him and pierced his spear through its pelvis all the way to the chest and then the head.

  “Is this worth anything then?”

  FLUOSH!

  Blood Soul Fmes erupted from the spear as it was destroyed, exploding alongside the giant skeleton’s insides, spreading tiny bits of red bones everywhere.

  BOOOM!

  As it fell apart into a pile of red bohe other blood demons gave a step back, surprised that Vd could use magi here.

  “How he use magic?!”

  “This is a sacred pce!”

  “Powers such as those are sealed!”

  Vd wasn’t using magic though, but his very soul to destroy them. He had used a tiny piece of it, igniting it through his Bzing Soul and using it as a bomb.

  To do this, he had to sacrifice a small piece of his soul, a tiny one, but it was still rather painful to do so…

  However, if he wao win, he couldn’t be a coward about things like these!

  “I am not using magic; this is the very ignition of my soul,” said Vd. “You said I was a coward? Now what do you think? I’m willing to blow up my own soul to defeat you!”

  The blood demoons ughed, gng at one another and nodding, charging all at once against Vd!

  “Then how about you fight all of us at once?!”

  “Kill him!”

  “I’ll drink his damn blood!”

  “Every limb, tear them apart!”

  Vd infused more of his Bzing Soul into his sword as he swung it against them while spinning on the floor, sshing apart the skeletons oer another.

  SLAAASH!

  As the skeletons were beiroyed into pieces, he stantly absorbed their crystals, gaining more and more blood power as a result.

  They attacked him from every angle; sometimes spears pierced his back or sometimes a dagger would stab his stomach, but he tinued fighting, cauterizing his wounds with his own bzing soul while keeping the ons inside his body.

  CLASH! CRASH! BAAM!

  He tinued fightilessly, swinging his bde until it broke, then grabbing more from the floor, the ons of fallen blood demons, and using these ons against them.

  The blood demons opped being hard foes though; although some died instantly, others ingly sneaked behind, hitting him strongly, sometimes leaving him bleeding even more.

  Yet Vd barely kept himself standing, stantly fighting, going mad as he lost blood ahirsty, the blood crystals never satiating his hunger.

  “RAAAAHHH!”

  I minute, he screamed like a mad beast as dozens of skeletons pierced his body with spears, swords, and nces, blood spttering everywhere.

  “Don’t you dare…!”

  SLAASH!

  “Think I’ll lose…!”

  CRAASH!

  “Fuck this…!

  BAAM!

  “Stupid game!”

  BOOM!

  Swords cut through the skeletons, shields crushed their bones, powerful stomps made them fall into the ground, and explosions of bzing soul fragments blew them up into pieces.

  The ter tinued moving; ten seds remained!

  10

  “Hahh…! Hahhh…!”

  9

  8

  7

  Vd felt both his avatar and his soul reag their limits. While having one of his arms sliced off, his left eye missing, and his stomad back covered with wounds, he grasped to life however he could, grabbing skeletons and throwing them around.

  “Stop him!”

  “He doesn’t deserve acy!”

  “Don’t let him win!”

  Even i six seds, the demons tinued fighting furiously, their powerful runes giving them short bursts of energy.

  6

  5

  BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

  Vd’s face unched from one pce to the iant skeleton fists pung his beautiful vampire face, leaving it bd purple, bleeding everywhere.

  “Gahahah! That’s a better look!”

  “GRRRHHH!”

  Vd roared like a mad dog, opening his jaws and biting through the fists of the skeletons, pung him, tearing them off while taking out the ons from his body and stabbing and pulverizing their bodies.

  4

  3

  “END THIS ALREADY!”

  He kept screaming, and while struggling, he felt his legs being cut off and torn out of his body; the agony and pain were endless, making his mind go pletely insane.

  2

  “E ON!!!”

  1

  0

  Zero.

  No more time was remaining, and Vd…

  Somehow, survived.

  His soul avatar, missing two legs, two arms, and one eye…

  Remained alive.

  “Graarggh…!”

  He vomited blood, uo even move anymore.

  The system message appeared in front of him as he drifted from scious and unscious state stantly.

  Ding!

  [gratutions! You have passed the A Blood Demo, and you have gaiheir trust after showg your never-ending ferocity and will to live.]

  “Hahhh… Hahhh… I won…”

  The sadistic system didn’t even dare to heal him. Gng as he struggled to live, Vd saw the notifications, about to fall asleep.

  The realism of this game was simply too much, to the point it felt utterly ridiculous and torturous for the human mind.

  Yet every time he logged out, all of this feeling dissipated, as if he had only had a bad dream and nothing else.

  It was strangely enough, something that only sted in the moment but never left aional scar in the mind.

  [After having calcuted how many Blood Demons you’ve killed, it has beeimated you’ve earned 625.782 Score Points!]

  [Your points have surpassed the 500.000 points necessary for the highest upgrade for your Css and Subcss.]

  [The surplus points had beeo further power up your Css and Subcss Rank Up!]

  [Your [Css] has evolved into…]

  “Ah… Wait… Ugh…!”

  Before he could even see what it was, Vd lost sciousness within the game world.

  Darkness swallowed him entirely as his mi back to his avatar’s body.

  Yet, unknowingly, two crimson eyes were staring him amidst the darkness where his mind drifted away from.

  “How iing…”

  Enormous, red-skinned hands with long bails appeared within the bck fog and then geed something.

  A small droplet of red blood, sending it towards him.

  “Take my Legacy, endling. And avenge my kind. The ohat ehe A Era are ing for your world again. And you will not be able to stop them as you are.”

  The darkness rapidly dissipated, as whatever remained of this being fully disappeared alongside it.

  And then Vd woke up, opening his eyes widely.

  -----

  Pach