Esdeath was lying straight on the ground, some dirt even getting into her mouth as she barely breathed. Her one hand was gone and other wasn't working, So she couldn't even roll back. In front of so many strong awakeneds, her body had finally given up.
Or so it seemed.
Everyone around her sighed in relief. The air was heavy and still after the long, brutal fight. Cassandra dropped to her knees, exhausted and trembling. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to catch her breath.
"Finally," she whispered to herself, "this is the end."
But it wasn't.
Ethan and Caesar landed on the ground and immediately ran toward Esdeath, who was lying about fifty or seventy meters away. They weren't rushing out of cruelty—they were rushing out of fear.
Esdeath's body was covered in wounds, her blood soaking the dirt beneath her. Her breathing was shallow, her pulse faint. By all logic, she should have been dead already. But there was one terrifying reason they couldn't take any chances.
The legend of the "Second Awakening."
It was said that when a person stood between life and death, the chance of awakening for a second time became extremely high. A second awakening could turn a dying person into a being far stronger than before.
And that fear came true.
Before they could reach her, thousands of glowing purple cubes suddenly appeared in the air above the battlefield. They floated silently, flickering with strange light. At first, they looked harmless—like tiny reflections of glass. But then each cube began to hover over the dead bodies scattered across the field.
One by one, the cubes started sucking up the faint, ghostly remains of souls from the corpses. The air grew cold and still. Screams that weren't really screams echoed faintly, twisting in the wind.
Then, all those smaller cubes merged into one massive cube that appeared right above Esdeath's body. It glowed brightly for a moment—
—and then poured all the souls down into her like a rushing river.
Esdeath's body convulsed violently. Her limbs twisted, her back arched, and a deafening hum filled the air. Waves of dark blue, transparent energy spread out from her body in every direction.
Ethan and Caesar stopped at once. The waves struck like invisible blades, forcing them to block their faces. Even then, thin cuts appeared on their cheeks as the pressure pushed them backward.
Caesar's eyes widened in shock. "A space path attack?" he whispered. "Don't tell me…"
Before anyone could even think, Esdeath's body rose from the ground like a puppet pulled by invisible strings. Her head hung low, her hair falling over her face, and an overwhelming violet burst of mana exploded from her body.
The energy was so thick that even normal people could see it with their eyes. It was the same as a first awakening—only stronger, wilder, and darker.
Her body began to change. The two human ears on her head vanished. From the sides of her head, two furry, pointed ears started to grow—wolf ears, covered in black fur. A long, dark tail pushed out from her lower back, swaying slightly behind her.
She had awakened as a wolf woman.
"Impossible!" Ethan shouted, his voice filled with disbelief. "There's no record of a female wolfman in history! Only males can awaken as wolfmen!"
But the truth was standing before him.
Esdeath slowly lifted her head. Her eyes opened fully, and everyone froze in shock. Her sclera had turned pitch black, while her pupils glowed red with several ring-shaped patterns spinning inside them.
She wasn't awake—at least not in the normal sense. Her mind was gone, but her body moved on its own.
Her aura shifted again—calm, cold, perfect in movement.
It was "Ultra Instinct."
An ability that no one else could use except the Demon King—and Maruti.
Several notifications appeared , but Esdeath didn't move. She was still unconscious, lost deep inside her mind. The notifications faded one after another, unnoticed.
In her current state of Ultra Instinct, there was no thought or hesitation. The body moved only to kill whatever stood in front of it. But this time was different. Esdeath's body had already reached its limit, blood still dripping from her wounds. She was in her Second Awakening, a process that had only just begun, and it was tearing her body apart from the inside.
Ultra Instinct was pure offense. It gave almost no focus to defense, and Esdeath needed defense the most right now. Without a doubt, she could kill some of them, but her body would soon collapse on its own.
As she raised her arm, ready to attack with everything she had, she suddenly stopped. The wild energy that was bursting from her body began to calm, Her bleeding paused. The energy quietly flowed back inside her body.
Her breathing slowed, and her trembling stopped. The violent power within her settled completely, turning calm and stable.
Her eyelids twitched, then slowly opened. A faint glimmer of life returned to her eyes. Esdeath lifted her hand and stared at it, moving her fingers slightly, as if testing if her body still worked properly.
Her sclera remained pitch black, her red eyes glowing faintly. Then, she chuckled softly, the sound low and unsettling.
"To stop herself from becoming male and stabilize the condition, I accidentally created the first ever female Wolfman," she said to herself.
But it wasn't Esdeath who was speaking.
The one standing now was not her at all. It was her Star Constellation. Seeing Esdeath so close to dying, she had no choice but to possess her body to save her.
In history, it was said that only males could awaken as Wolfmen, but that was only half true.
Awakening as a Vampire and as a Wolfman were very similar. Both lost control and went on a rampage, but the reason behind it was different. Vampires went mad because of an uncontrollable thirst for blood, while Wolfmen lost control due to a massive increase in hormones and the heightening of negative emotions.
When one awakened as a Wolfman, their body changed rapidly. Their height increased, fur grew all over their body, and their muscles tightened as they fell into rage. But once their body began to stabilize, The opposite happened—the hormones began to drop sharply.
At that stage, three results could occur. Those who accepted the insanity became daring and arrogant, their bodies tall and muscular. Those who resisted the madness till the end, Completely gained strong control over their wolf form without much change in appearance. And those who barely managed to hold on to their sanity became thin and feminine.
Corin was one such example. He had almost lost himself to insanity and barely survived. His body changed so much that he looked more like a girl than a man.
For females, the process worked in the opposite way. Instead of turning rough and muscular, they became more mature and feminine. In their final stage, their hormones rose again, far more intensely than males.
That was why it wasn't true that there had never been female Wolfmen in history. The truth was that every female who awakened as a Wolfman and survived the rampage phase eventually turned into a male.
Very few people knew about this—not even Esdeath.
The same would have happened to her, but her constellation had possessed her body and stabilized her awakening before the hormone changes could occur.
And Esdeath became the first recorded female Wolfman.
Possessed Esdeath raised her hand, and a red and black scythe appeared in her grasp. The air rippled around it as she pointed it at Cassandra.
"Not bad. Never thought this kind of situation would come so early," she said with a smug smile. Her voice was heavier and more mature than before.
Cassandra slammed her hand against the ground again and again. The sound echoed through the battlefield. Her once calm, emotionless face was now full of anger and regret. Her eyes were wide, her breath heavy.
"I knew it… I knew this was the case! I should have come with an even bigger force!" she shouted, her voice breaking. She wasn't angry at anyone else—she was angry at herself for doubting her own judgment.
When Cassandra had been investigating and planning against Lortell and Esdeath, there were a few things that never made sense to her. The most suspicious of them was Esdeath's sudden rise in strength. Her growth rate was simply impossible for someone her age.
But how?
Did she find some powerful inheritance? Or was it her hidden potential?
That didn't seem right either. If Esdeath had received a large inheritance, it would have been equal hard to keep it hidden. Besides, Esdeath was only seventeen back then and had very limited knowledge. Cassandra had done her research—Esdeath was known to be a shut-in who rarely interacted with others. Her knowledge about the world was likely less than most of her classmates.
So Cassandra had come to her own theory. Esdeath's body was either taken over by another soul, or two souls were sharing the same body, helping each other grow stronger.
But if that was true, why didn't anyone notice it?
Lilith, who could read minds, would have sensed something wrong. And especially Lortell—Esdeath's partner. They were extremely close, even intimate. If anyone would have noticed something strange about Esdeath's soul, it would have been her.
Yet no one did.
One night, in her dreams, Cassandra thought of a rare and frightening possibility—what if Esdeath had made a contract with a diety?
The idea chilled her to the bone. Deities were ancient divine beings that could grant immense power, but their existence was uncertain. Many still believed they were only legends. Still, Cassandra couldn't shake off the thought.
"If she made a contract with an evil deity," Cassandra whispered to herself back then, "then she must be killed."
Even though the chances of it being true were small, Cassandra had decided to act. She believed in her instincts enough to gather not just her own squad but also Caesar, Krona, and thousands of soldiers for this mission.
They had thought Esdeath's strength was only around a Rank B awakened, but now the truth was clear—she was far beyond that.
And when they finally defeated her, the moment she was about to die, her diety appeared and took control of her body.
Cassandra's theory had been right all along. But that didn't bring her any pride—only deep regret. She should have gone all out from the start. She should have called for more Rank A awakeneds. Maybe then… Esdeath would be dead by now.
Caesar looked at Esdeath, his face full of awe. "Dieties… they still exist," he muttered to himself. Even though he knew the being inside Esdeath was a evil deity, it was still a shocking sight.
"What are you waiting for? Quickly, kill her!" Krona shouted as she charged forward with her large hammer.
Esdeath's left hand was still missing, and it wasn't regenerating. It was proof that she wasn't as strong as she looked. Her body was far from complete.
So what if a deity was inside her? As long as Esdeath's body was destroyed, it wouldn't matter.
Krona rushed in with a battle cry, but Esdeath moved first. With her one remaining hand, she swung her massive scythe.
"Killer Move—World Cutting Slash!"
Death.
Krona's heart froze. For a brief moment, she felt something cold brush against her neck—the blade of the scythe. It felt so real that her body trembled. Esdeath looked like the reaper of souls herself, eyes glowing crimson, a faint smile on her lips.
Of course it was just her imagination, But the next second, Krona's world turned black.
Her body split cleanly in two, sliced apart like paper.
Esdeath vanished and reappeared right in front of her, moving faster than eyes could follow. Before Krona's upper body could fall, Esdeath grabbed her by the hair.
Krona's lower half fell to the ground, blood spreading in dark pools. Her upper half was still alive, barely breathing, her mouth open in pain and horror. But before she could say a word, she felt her strength fading rapidly. Her skin wrinkled, her hair turned gray. She was aging—years passing in mere seconds.
Her face became that of an old woman. Then she stopped breathing.
Esdeath's eyes gleamed faintly. "Good… good. Five years of lifespan from a dying person. Not bad," she said softly.
But she wasn't done yet. She closed her eyes and drew in the last flicker of light that came from Krona's body. Her soul.
An Rank A awakened's soul was truly useful.