The conversation ended there.

At Geist's severed left arm, pale bones crawled out from the void, twisting and knitting together until they had rebuilt the limb's shape.

Not as strong as the original — but more flexible.

Once he dealt with the matter at hand, it wouldn't be too late to head back north and have that person restore it properly.

"Your corpse," he said, "I'll keep it in good condition."

The words had barely fallen before Geist vanished from where he stood.

As a Great Demon who had mastered both magic and martial arts, he had hunted more mages over the past thousand years than he could count.

Human lifespans barely reached a century. Achieving even minor proficiency in magic was no small thing. But the demon race's vast longevity let them forge their bodies and deepen their magic at the same time.

That was why most high-ranking demons chose to cultivate both paths.

And that was precisely why humans, when facing creatures like him, had no choice but to hunt them in groups.

Battle Aura layered over magic was never a simple matter of one plus one.

Geist reappeared in front of Banxia almost the instant he vanished.

Before the young man could react, the ground beneath his feet cracked violently open. A pair of skeletal hands clawed up from the earth and locked around his shins with a death grip.

"It's over." Geist looked at the young man inches away, already picturing his left hand driving through the other's heart.

When Banxia had drawn the greatsword earlier, it had given him some pause. But after careful sensing, he'd found no trace of Battle Aura anywhere on the young man's body.

A human frame could not survive this kind of assault.

That was what he was thinking.

Then everything changed.

BANG!

Banxia barely raised his left arm, and the bone claws meant to nail him in place exploded into dust like rotted wood.

Geist's pupils snapped shut.

"How could—"

He never finished the sentence. The young man glanced down at the bones underfoot, let go of the greatsword, and let his body tip forward. Five fingers curled into a fist.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

No flashy stance. No incantation. Just six plain, direct punches hammering into his chest and gut like a chain of cannonballs.

The force was staggering, unreasonable in its scale. It tore through Geist's torso, and for a moment he was certain every bone in his body was about to come apart at once.

His mouth fell open. No sound came out. The momentum of those punches picked him up and flung him backward, and he only stopped when he crashed through a cluster of exposed skeletons and sank into the rubble beyond.

Dust billowed around him. He knelt on one knee amid the broken stone, and the expression that had stayed perfectly still from the start of this fight began, at last, to change.

A human body. Both paths cultivated.

And every single one of them taken this far.

Geist pressed a hand to his nearly shattered chest, and found himself thinking, without quite knowing why, of the Demon King's arrangements.

"Could it be... you are the one from the prophecy?"

Banxia didn't answer. He just shook his feet slightly, and the bones still clamped around them crumbled to fragments on the spot.

"So this is the level of a so-called Great Demon?"

Silence.

No one could answer that question.

The crowd that had been surrounded by skeleton monsters, the ones who had nearly given up hope, now stood completely still alongside the skeletons, which had lost all control the moment Geist went down.

What had they just seen?

A Great Demon that the kingdom's finest warrior couldn't survive a single exchange with had been beaten nearly off his feet, by bare fists, from a mage they'd written off as physically frail.

No. This man should never have been called a mage.

Looking back, he'd been traveling with a greatsword on his back from the very first moment they'd met.

In hindsight, magic was his secondary discipline. The martial path was always his foundation.

Roxy led Banxia's horse over to the group at an easy, unhurried pace.

She looked at all those faces still frozen in shock, and felt a small, unbidden surge of pride.

She had always known. Mister Banxia was a powerful warrior who could hunt demon dragons with his bare hands.

Beating a magic-wielding Great Demon in close quarters was, for him, entirely unremarkable.

---

"For the future of the demon race, I must defeat you here."

Geist climbed slowly to his feet, feeling just how little Battle Aura remained after tanking that six-punch combo head-on.

"Hey, you're the villain — don't go around saying the kind of inspiring lines that belong to the protagonist." Banxia swung the greatsword as he spoke.

A terrifying slash ripped through the air and drove straight for the demon's face.

This was Banxia's first time using Sword Qi Slash in actual combat.

The cheapest basic martial skill on the market, but it was still the first skill he'd pushed to lv.3. A small expenditure of stamina, and it launched a blade of qi that didn't bleed force for a hundred meters.

When it came to clearing out mobs, a ranged option like this was obviously far more convenient than trading punches at close range.

"Demon King. Schlacht." Geist caught the slash cleanly with his one remaining right hand, and in that moment his thoughts went back to the scene inside the Demon King's Castle a hundred years ago. "Your decision was correct."

The blackened palm was gouged open to the bone. He didn't move an inch.

"The fault is entirely mine," he said quietly, eyes steady on the young man ahead, who looked, if anything, mildly unsatisfied with the power of the sword qi. "I was too arrogant. I underestimated humans."

"If I had begun accumulating strength in earnest a hundred years ago, things would never have come to this."

"But the battle is not over."

"I will spend this life to stop him."

Crimson Battle Aura erupted from his body, several times more intense than anything he had shown at the start of the fight.

This was a forbidden technique available only to warriors who had reached the highest echelons of their craft. It burned through the body's own potential in exchange for a violent, short-term explosion of Battle Aura. The burden on the flesh was immense. The cost, in the end, was lifespan, drastically, permanently reduced.

Geist had believed he would go his entire life without using it. And yet.

"Done fighting?" The question left Banxia's mouth at the same moment his greatsword swung out again.

Slashes poured from the blade like a breaking storm, surging forward in an overwhelming wave.

Geist said nothing. He held that burning Battle Aura steady and walked straight into it, one step after another, absorbing every strike without giving a single inch.

His ornate robes shredded. Flesh peeled back. Pale bone gleamed through wound after wound. His eyes never left the figure ahead.

This man.

For the future of the demon race.

Even if it costs every year I have left.

No matter what, right here, he will be,

"You will fall by my hand!"

He stopped caring about the cost. The surging Battle Aura swallowed him whole.

He drove off the ground, launching himself forward at a speed that put everything before it to shame, and charged headlong into the rain of sword qi.

The endless slashes crashed into him the way waves crash into rock.

Every last one of them shattered.

One thought remained in his mind now.

Kill this human.

Even if it meant his death.

➤ Next: Fighting Geist the Undead to the Utmost

Chapter 52 - Fighting Geist the Undead to the Utmost

"I am Geist the Undead—!"

Shrouded in boundless Battle Aura, Geist bulldozed through layer after layer of sword qi and closed the distance in an instant.

Banxia stared at him without expression, raised his greatsword, and slashed diagonally down.

Geist didn't dodge. He flipped a blindingly pale dagger from beneath his cloak and met the blade head-on.

No crash of impact. No burst of sparks.

The greatsword snapped clean in two.

"..."

Seeing the surprise flicker across the young man's face, something boundless surged inside Geist.

I can win!

This bone dagger, forged by exhausting every drop of his mana and every ounce of his future potential, it really could kill this man.

His Battle Aura exploded. His body twisted at a near-contorted angle as he lunged forward, the dagger tip driving straight for the young man's heart.

At the exact instant that cold gleam was about to sink into his chest, the dagger stopped dead.

"Nice treasure. I'll take it."

The young man's voice was completely flat.

Geist went rigid. Only then did he realize that the other's well-defined hand had, at some point, clamped firmly around the wrist of his only remaining arm.

He tried to pull free. That grip was mountain-weight, pinning him so completely he couldn't move a single fingertip.

"So... I was the ant all along..."

The moment he understood that they had never been in the same dimension to begin with, Geist stopped thinking. Stopped resisting.

Seeing that, Banxia stopped holding back. A flick of his left hand sent the bone dagger spinning precisely through the air, it landed squarely at Roxy's feet.

"..."

The blue-haired girl flinched at the sudden dagger, staring in bewilderment at the young man and the demon locked in what looked like a contest of strength.

She thought she caught Banxia glancing sideways at her. Did he want her help?

She gripped her staff, nerves tightening. A demon of this caliber, still locked in a standoff with the young man, if she miscalculated her aim...

She was still clutching her staff and spinning through worst-case scenarios when the young man said, offhandedly:

"Hold onto that for me. I'll grab it in a bit."

"..."

The words had barely landed before he stopped holding back entirely. His fists came down like a rainstorm, packed full, no gaps, one after another without pause.

Geist reached out with his right hand, a last meaningless attempt at resistance. It never made it to his chest. One strike battered it limp, and it dropped uselessly to his side.

A Great Demon. An undead who had terrorized the Southern Continent for a hundred years, and he looked utterly wretched.

With the final charged blow, what remained of Geist's form was battered beyond recognition.

Banxia let out a slow breath and opened his fist into a flat palm.

"It's over."

His hand came down like a blade.

The master of the undead who had ruled the Southern Continent for nearly a century fell right there, dissolving into black smoke that scattered across the sky.

[Ding! Monster slain: Geist. Total lifespan: 5,500 years. Remaining lifespan: 10 years. Absorbed.]

[Held Monster Time: 38,040 years.]

Banxia: "...Hm?"

...

Roxy obeyed almost on reflex, drifting over to the bone dagger in a daze and bending down to pick it up.

The cold crept from her palm all the way up her forearm before it snapped her back to reality, and she finally understood what had just happened in that brief, blink-and-miss-it moment.

She gripped the dagger tight and jerked her head up.

The young man was standing exactly where he'd started, not a single step taken from beginning to end. There wasn't even a speck of dust on him, clean as ever.

As Banxia turned and walked toward the crowd, everyone in his path, knights, adventurers, it didn't matter, took half a step back without thinking.

Even the Three Heroes stepped respectfully aside to clear a path. As they watched that unhurried figure approach, there was nothing left in their eyes but awe.

He stopped in front of them all and asked, calm as anything, "Any monsters left?"

"N-No, none, esteemed adventurer." Kilian Black, the kingdom's strongest warrior, a person who had never deferred to anyone, stood with posture lowered and unconsciously reached for honorifics.

"I see." Banxia nodded, his tone carrying a faint note of being left wanting.

Every eyelid in the crowd twitched.

This was a Great Demon. The absolute peak of demonic combat power.

If even this wasn't enough to satisfy him, what on this entire continent could?

Roxy jogged through the crowd and offered the bone dagger back with both hands.

She looked up. Her blue eyes settled on his profile.

They'd fought side by side for so long, yet over these past few days, she found herself feeling like she understood him less and less.

Not exactly unfamiliarity. It was more that the masks peeling away from him came one after another, faster than she could keep up with.

She wasn't afraid, though. She just had so many questions she wanted to stay near him long enough to ask.

She opened her mouth, hesitated for a long moment, and squeezed out:

"Mr. Banxia... are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Banxia glanced at her, something like amusement at the corner of his expression.

"Why have you been acting so strange lately? Just be like you were before. Don't make a fuss over nothing."

"Oh, and — we've been partying together this long. Just call me Banxia."

"...Mm." Roxy answered quietly, feeling heat rise in her cheeks. "Mr. Ban — no. Banxia. You can call me Roxy."

"..."

With their target dealt with, there was no reason to stay in the City of the Dead any longer.

They broke camp quickly. In under three days, the expeditionary force was on its way home.

Most of those three days were just travel. The actual fighting had lasted under an hour, total.

Anyone who didn't know better would've thought the Three Heroes had taken them on a day trip.

Everyone had braced for at least a month outside, even in victory.

No one had expected this.

Riding on horseback, Roxy fidgeted for a long while before she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Banxia... how did you do it."

"Do what?"

"You know... that Great Demon, and the magic, and the warrior, and all of it..." She had no idea what she was even trying to say. Just being beside him made her thoughts go fuzzy.

"..."

At the question, the soldiers around them, all of whom had been chatting quietly among themselves, went still. One by one, they tilted their ears over without moving a muscle.

The man who had defeated Geist the Undead. The person they all recognized as the Southern Continent's strongest warrior. And its strongest mage.

Was he finally going to reveal how he got this strong?

Banxia thought for a moment.

"Heaven Rewards Diligence; every effort bears fruit."

"Huh?" Roxy blinked at him, completely lost.

The people around them exchanged glances.

"Though there is one thing that matters most," Banxia added.

If he was calling it the most important thing, it had to be the real secret.

Roxy and every eavesdropper in earshot held their breath.

"You need a strong, healthy body."

"..."

The blue-haired girl's expression went even blanker.

Well. Come to think of it, she hadn't understood most of what he'd said since the day they met.

But at least he answered her questions. That already meant they were closer than he was to anyone else here.

She hugged her staff to her chest and, quietly, sat a little straighter in the saddle.

...

➤ Next: Welcomed Along Crowded Streets (Bonus)