At the forefront of the tide were Griminion Emperors and everyone went all out right off the bat.

All formations were activated.

All items and consumables were used.

The airships floating above unleashed bombs at the river’s entrance, spending an uncountable amount of energy and resources, going all out to eliminate as many as possible.

Almond and Lily were two lights weaving together in the Hyper Plane at Hyper Speed 3, as Almond used Spirit Drape and Lily used Absolute Dreadspire Devour on several spirits, gaining a max boost.

And then, they arrived.

They came like a black tide, an endless, howling flood.

Mindless. Unrelenting. Flesh-ridden monsters corrupted beyond reason.

The Griminion Emperors did not think. They did not fear.

They only slaughtered.

And so did Almond.

And so did Lily.

A single step from Almond, and the space fractured.

Lonveril, the Golden Void, sang—

A whisper of steel, a severance of reality.

The frontmost beasts ceased to exist—Devoured.

No scream, no blood, no corpse.

Just emptiness.

Lily was already inside the swarm.

A flicker of motion, a blur in the dark.

Her daggers glowed with abyssal hunger,

And with each flick of her wrist—

Bodies burst.

Limbs separated.

Skulls collapsed inward.

Every step she took left a trail of mutilation and ruin, a mist of red carnage streaming behind her.

The Griminions did not hesitate.

Even as their kin were ripped apart, they kept coming.

A billion legs, a million maws, a flood of gnashing fangs—

They did not stop. They could not stop.

Their corrupted flesh writhed, some regenerating in real-time,

Some tearing apart their own kin to evolve,

But none of it mattered.

Almond twisted his grip.

A single slash—Harrowing Edged Stream.

Reality warped, time staggered.

Every beast within a hundred kilometers was bisected in the same instant.

Their upper halves slid apart,

Butchered.

Scattered.

And then devoured like a fleeting dream.

“Leave some for us!” Shouted the Emperors.

Lily exhaled, and the world bled.

A single dagger plunged into a beast’s skull—

And from that wound, rot spread like wildfire.

Corruption eating corruption, her essence hollowing them out.

Within seconds, hundreds fell, their insides liquefied,

their bodies rotting into nothing but bone and smoke.

The wave surged.

More massive, more grotesque, more feral.

Their howls split the battlefield,

Their stampede shook the world itself.

Almond stepped forward—

His presence alone sent tremors through the air.

A thousand beasts lunged for him, claws swiping—

Not a single one reached.

His blade moved once—

A phantom of golden devastation.

It did not cut through them.

It cut them out of existence.

A thousand bodies were there—then gone.

No corpses. No remains.

Just a void that silently sang.

Lily vanished.

One moment, she was there. The next, she was not.

And when she reappeared, she was standing atop a pile of corpses,

still falling, still dying, still unraveling from her blades.

A hulking beast, five times the size of the rest,

Bellowed and charged at her.

A mountain of moving flesh, a living siege engine.

She met it midair—

Two small daggers versus an abomination of war.

It swung. A force that could flatten a city.

She sidestepped in an instant.

Her blade grazed its hide—just a scratch.

And then, its entire torso ruptured.

From that single wound, black flames exploded.

A howl rang a claw’s shred.

It crashed to the ground in pieces,

And then into violet crimson mist.

The final wave came.

Not thousands.

Not tens of thousands.

Millions.

A continent of flesh, a writhing landscape of hunger.

The battlefield itself turned into a crawling abyss.

Almond exhaled.

Lily smiled. “Darling, do it.”

He raised his sword to the sky.

Lonveril glowed, pulsing with an unfathomable power—

And then it fell.

A single slash.

A golden arc of nothingness.

And the world split open.

Everything before him—

Everything in front of that blade—

Every Griminion—

Saw a spiral—

And was severed.

Mountains crumbled.

The land was cleaved apart.

Tens of thousands of Griminions were not just killed—

They were erased.

Lily stepped forward, daggers crossed.

Her Axiom of Hollow Splendor roared to life.

And from her, a tide of devouring mist swept outward.

The remaining beasts—

Those that came after Almond’s cut—

Wasted away in seconds.

Their bodies shriveled,

Their essence drained,

Their existence undone.

And then, there was silence.

The battlefield, once a sea of horror,

Now lay barren, lifeless.

Among the many figures amidst the carnage, two radiated an ultimatum.

Unscathed. Unchallenged.

Lily rolled her shoulders.

Almond sheathed his blade.

This was never a battle.

Never a war.

It was extermination.

Almond’s rank: 4th — 2,243,992 kills.

Lily’s rank: 21st — 1,385,290 kills.

…

Almond, Lily, and Admiral Rudra lay in Sylvia’s Warden Grove, tired and exhausted.

“You two…were crazy,” Admiral Rudra weakly smiled. “It’s like you were in a zone.”

“Yeah, our teamwork was amazing,” Almond chuckled.

Lily grinned. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had recently. I don’t think we’ve pushed ourselves this much after entering Immortal rank.”

“Yeah. I’m not gonna lie, I used tens of thousands of spirit to keep the kill count up,” Almond chuckled. “But each one I used brought me three more if I calculate, so it’s profit.”

“Well, I used them too. There was no need to hold back, and I also created a second ability of Axiom of Hollow Splender in the middle, which drastically increased my kill.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Your attack pattern suddenly became bigger. You started striking tens of Griminion Emperors’ weak marks instantly. Moreover, the debuffs began to spread fast and onto others, especially the bleed and slow.”

“Axiom of Hollow Splendor’s second power,” Lily’s eyes sparked as she continued, “Axiom of Target Splendor. A very flexible power. If I strike a target’s weakness mark, all other targets within range who have a weakness mark will get struck by 50% of the damage dealt.”

“As for the debuff spreading, it’s the new Regalon Spirit Engraving I created after we killed Hollow Defilers. Upon activating it, all monsters I kill transfer their debuffs to the nearest targets with a ‘weakness’ mark.”

“That’s a scary combo,” Admiral Rudra chuckled. “So your attack was amplified drastically that even 50% of your damage killed others.”

“My stats were maximized, but these Griminion Emperors were also tougher. Without that Engraving, I couldn’t have killed so many.”

“How much of it did you spend?” Almond curiously asked. “I’ve used up all of my Engravings so I have to make new ones now.”

“It’s about to disappear, but I can make a better one with the new Spirits we’ve got.”

“Yeah”

“Indeed, we have a good haul.”

“But when will the rewards come?” Lily stretched her arms and snuggled into Almond’s side. “I want to sleep already.”

Almond put his hand around her and smiled, “It’ll be soon. But go to sleep. You’ve strained your will almost completely.”

Almond didn’t need to say that because Lily just straight up fainted and entered a deep slumber.

And right after that, the notifications began arriving.

[Congratulations. You all fought well and bravely. May this experience make you even stronger as you ascend higher.]

Almond internally rolled his eyes. Now that he knew that powerhouses at the very top were merely just food for the Grimworld Tree, he felt sick at these types of notifications.

[The reward of eliminating Griminion Emperors for the top 100 powerhouses has been finalized. Congratulations.]

[Rewards]