The Scepter of Time

The three Demon Lords were brutally knocked flying by that invisible aura. They stumbled in mid-air to stabilize their bodies, and the look in their eyes when they looked at Ye Chuan instantly changed.

Cullen stared at Ye Chuan's face, veins bulging on his bald head. "It's you! The man who killed Kassiel!"

He had long seen the recording stone Kassiel left behind before dying in battle, and this face had left a deep impression on him.

It was just that he never expected the other party's aura to be far more formidable than he had imagined!

"Oh? You recognize me?" Ye Chuan pondered. "It seems that piece of trash Kassiel was still thinking about me quite a bit before he died."

"Hah!" The space around Cullen violently distorted once again. "Do you think killing him gives you the right to act so arrogantly in front of us? With the three of us joining forces, even if the legendary magician Xi Xi from a thousand years ago came, he would still die!"

"Guess who's here."

"Who's here?"

"Your daddy is here."

With a casual flip of his hand, that completely silver-white Hero's Sword appeared out of thin air in his grasp.

The blade trembled slightly, and a pure Hero's aura instantly swept across the entire city of Fanta.

The ferocious expressions on the faces of the three Demon Lords in the sky instantly froze.

"The... the Hero's Sword?!"

Morgana's voice was trembling, her cloudy eyes filled with extreme terror.

"You... you are the Hero?! Impossible! His Majesty the Demon King clearly snuffed out the possibility of a Hero being born! How could you be a Hero?!"

A Hero!

This was a fear carved into the very bones of the demon race!

His Majesty the Demon King had spent ten years of blood and sweat establishing countless human breeding farms, all to sever the possibility of a Hero being born from the very source!

But now, a living, breathing Hero holding the Hero's Sword was standing right in front of them!

Cullen's heart sank to rock bottom. He shouted sternly at the other two, "What are you afraid of! Even if he is a Hero, he has only just awakened!"

"Heroes only grow stronger through the sacrifices of the human race! Right now, he absolutely cannot unleash the true power of the Hero's Sword!"

"Kill him! We absolutely cannot let him leave here alive! Otherwise, His Majesty the Demon King's plan will be completely ruined!"

Before his voice had even faded, Cullen was the first to charge forward. Countless spatial rifts exploded around Ye Chuan, forming an airtight spatial cage.

Morgana even combined her skills with Cullen, using those spatial rifts to channel a plague to corrode Ye Chuan.

Chronos also immediately prepared to activate his authority over time to restrict Ye Chuan's movements.

But in Ye Chuan's eyes, their movements were as slow as snails.

Ye Chuan casually swung the Hero's Sword in his hand.

An unremarkable silver-white sword aura rippled out from the blade.

There was no earth-shattering might, but wherever this sword aura passed, space was easily torn apart like paper. The spatial cage Cullen laid down shattered instantly!

The sword aura passed straight through the toxic claws Morgana had condensed, and then right through her body.

Morgana's movements instantly froze.

She looked down at her chest, where a thin sword mark had appeared.

In the next second, her body, along with her soul, turned into a sky full of dark green ash. Blown by the wind, it dissipated without a trace.

Dead.

Insta-killed by such an effortless move.

The sky instantly fell silent.

Cullen froze in mid-air. The ferocity on his face had yet to fade before it was replaced by sheer terror.

He looked at the empty sky, then at the still lightly trembling Hero's Sword in Ye Chuan's hand, feeling as if the blood in his entire body had frozen.

This... this was a newly awakened Hero?

A newly awakened Hero could insta-kill the Plague Demon Lord?!

Chronos was also dumbfounded. He had seen countless powerhouses, but he had never seen such a terrifying existence.

This was absolutely not a newly awakened Hero. This was clearly an existence that had grown to its peak and could rival His Majesty the Demon King!

Ye Chuan flicked nonexistent dust off his sword and looked at the two in front of him with amusement. "Two left."

"I am quite interested in the authorities you two possess."

One of space, one of time.

Let these two powers be used by me.

Cullen shuddered and suddenly snapped back to his senses.

He knew he was no match for Ye Chuan at all. If he kept fighting, he would only end up with the same fate as Morgana.

His eyes darted around, and a ferocious sneer appeared on his face as he shouted at Ye Chuan:

"Let me tell you, I had people bury thousands of Abyssal Demonic Bombs beneath Fanta City a long time ago! With just a single thought from me, the entire city will be blown to ash! Millions of civilians will be buried along with me!"

"If you don't want them all to die, then obediently put down the Hero's Sword and surrender! Otherwise, I will detonate the bombs right now!"

These were all prepared for conquering the Holy City, planted little by little by spies, intended to be activated all at once during the siege.

He thought that since Ye Chuan was a Hero, he would definitely care about the lives of these civilians.

After all, weren't Heroes born to protect the human race?

But he never expected that upon hearing these words, Ye Chuan wouldn't show the slightest bit of nervousness, but instead started laughing. "Hahaha, is that so?"

Ye Chuan raised his hand and slashed out with his sword.

A silver-white sword light flashed past.

"Ah—!"

Cullen let out a miserable shriek. His right arm, holding the Realm-Breaking Thorn, was severed at the shoulder, and black demonic blood gushed out.

He clutched his severed arm, his entire body convulsing in pain, and looked at Ye Chuan in disbelief:

"You... you actually dared to strike? Do you not care whether those civilians live or die?! You are a Hero!"

"A Hero?" Ye Chuan smiled merrily. "If you want to blow them up, go ahead. What does that have to do with me?"

"The more people die, the stronger the power of this sword in my hand gets. If you blow up these millions of civilians, maybe I'll be able to chop down your Demon King Majesty with a single strike."

"Oh my, speaking of which, I should be thanking you."

After saying that, Ye Chuan lowered his voice. "Right, let me tell you a little secret."

"Actually, this sword doesn't have any power at all right now. So, do you know what that means?"

Cullen was completely dumbfounded. "You, y-y-you..."

Looking at the indifferent expression on Ye Chuan's face, a bone-chilling coldness rose in his heart.

This was no Hero!

This was simply a monster even more evil and crazy than the demon race!

What kind of Hero would be eager for civilians to die just to increase his own combat power?!

Right in the moment Cullen was stunned, a ruthless glint flashed through the eyes of the ever-silent Chronos.

He abruptly raised a pocket watch, pouring his entire body's magic power into it without reservation.

"Time Domain: Eternal Stasis!"

Following his sharp shout, an invisible power instantly spread out, enveloping the entirety of Fanta City.

In the next second, the entire world fell still.

The demonic blood flying in the sky, the leaves drifting in mid-air, the fleeing civilians, the sword-swinging Holy Knights, and even the pained expression on Cullen's face—everything froze in this exact moment.

In the whole world, only Chronos was left able to move.

Chronos gasped heavily for breath, a look of relief at having survived a disaster appearing on his face.

This was his ultimate trump card, originally prepared to deal with the Pope, but to think it was actually used here.

"Good thing I saved a trick up my sleeve." Chronos wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at Ye Chuan, who was frozen in place. A cold smile appeared on his face.

"So what if you are strong? In my Time Domain, you are nothing but a puppet at my mercy!"

He slowly flew in front of Ye Chuan, raised his hand, and aimed straight for Ye Chuan's heart.

"Farewell, Hero."

Just as he was about to pierce Ye Chuan's heart, a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist.

The smile on Chronos's face instantly froze.

He snapped his head up, meeting a pair of smiling eyes.

Ye Chuan tilted his head, beaming at him. "Hello there, little kid."

"H-how is this possible?!" Chronos shrieked, his face covered in sheer disbelief. "Why can you move?! This is my Time Domain! Other than me, no one can move in frozen time!"

"Time Domain?" Ye Chuan chuckled lightly, applying a slight bit of pressure with his hand.

Crack!

With a crisp snap, Chronos's wrist was forcefully crushed.

"Ahhh!"

The excruciating pain caused Chronos to let out a heart-wrenching scream, and the pocket watch in his hand instantly dropped to the ground.

Ye Chuan casually waved his hand, his Hero Sword drawing a silver arc in the air.

Squelch.

Chronos was sliced completely in half at the waist. His upper body crashed heavily to the ground, black demonic blood spilling all over the floor.

"The Authority of Time. How interesting." Ye Chuan looked at the severed half of the body on the ground, a hint of amusement in his tone.

"It is a pity that it seems quite useless in front of me."

My rules are far above yours.

Right at that moment, the severed upper half on the ground suddenly erupted with a blinding silver light.

"Time Reversal!"

Chronos roared, exhausting every last ounce of his magic to activate the Authority of Time.

His severed body rapidly healed at a visible rate. His chopped-off lower half grew back, and his crushed wrist was perfectly restored to its original state.

However, his face had turned as pale as a sheet of paper, and more than half of his hair had gone white. Clearly, forcibly reversing time had exacted a massive toll on him.

He staggered back a few steps, panting heavily. As he stared at Ye Chuan, his eyes held nothing but bone-deep terror.