Space split by his sheer speed as he aimed straight for the powerful ant.
As he reached it, he saw its armor shimmer just before his fist met the ant’s body.
The shockwave blasted through the surrounding area.
The ant responded immediately, countering with a claw strike. He dodged, swung his Death Sword, but the blade barely scratched its shell.
They traded blows in rapid succession.
Nameless Death noticed something.
‘This one’s different,’ he muttered. ‘It must be Level 2.’
It explained a lot. While every other ant was frozen in time, this one moved, reacted, and countered at the same speed as him.
They clashed again.
The ant didn’t use normal strikes. It bit into empty space, and the very air responded.
Cracks formed in reality itself, thin lines of ruptured dimension that moved with terrifying precision.
One of them missed Nameless Death’s face by less than a hair’s width.
Another one didn’t miss.
A slash tore across his upper arm. Flesh and bone were nearly sheared off.
He stumbled back, pain flashing through his senses.
He ignored the pain, and instead of retreating, he activated Burrowed Shell, the defensive technique he’d absorbed from the ants earlier.
Thick, interlocked red plates shot out from his skin, forming an armor around him. They trembled against the spatial distortions but protected him successfully, even if barely.
It still hurt. But he didn’t stop.
He pushed forward again, only to be repelled. The ant was matching him move for move. Speed for speed.
‘My Death Sword’s too weak. It can’t cut through that shell.’
His physical strength wasn’t enough either. He was already pushing himself past sane limits by using six Overdrives at once. Five through monster cores. One through his own.
That was already damaging his Existence, and twisting it into something unknown.
They continued exchanging blows.
The shockwaves from their collisions were lethal to the nearby ants, but neither of them cared. The others were weak, and unimportant.
He needed a stronger attack.
Ragnarok Exhalation Breath wouldn’t work. The ant’s armor would shrug it off.
Abyss Mirror?
It could let him copy the ant’s techniques, but the copy percentage was barely progressing.
They were simply moving too fast. Not even a nanosecond had passed since the battle began.
“If only my Death Sword was stronger…”
Then it struck him.
He was covered in death. He had died thousands of times since the battle began, thanks to the ant’s relentless assault.
Even if he was alive, his action of deploying five Worlds at once was damaging his Existence, and he was close to touching True Death already.
His mind—thanks to Frenzied Instinct—was operating with impossible clarity, pushing survival judgment and combat awareness into overdrive.
And with EverGrowth Soul, he was evolving mentally and learning everything five times faster than normal.
This…
This was the perfect moment for enlightenment.
He stopped trying to win.
And started trying to learn.
Every death taught him something. Every pain, every narrow dodge, every failed attempt, it all built toward something more.
What is Death? he asked himself as he dodged another spatial fang.
He knew he had left countless corpses behind, even if he didn’t remember it. Even now, he had seen thousands of his own death.
Nameless Death looked inward.
Why had he taken the name Nameless Death?
Why nameless?
The answer came without effort.
Because Death doesn’t need a name.
That’s why I’m Nameless.
He ducked under a sudden blow, feeling a portion of his red armor shatter, but he didn’t care. The enlightenment continued to flow into him.
Death doesn’t kill for a reason. It doesn’t choose who deserves it, and who doesn’t. It doesn’t knock on the door.
It simply is.
Another blow struck him in the side. He felt ribs crack.
Death is abrupt. It is sudden. It arrives without warning. It doesn’t give time to grieve. It takes, and leaves nothing behind.
He raised his sword.
No one recognizes Death when it comes.
That’s why… it will always be nameless.
To his surprise, the change was immediate. It was as if his Death Sword had been waiting for him since long ago. The weapon in his hand began to shift.
It grew darker, and its presence became heavier.
The deep red color changed into an overwhelming black, so dense it seemed to eat the light around it.
Tiny red lightning bolts flickered along the blade’s edge.
[Death Sword (Stage 3, Supreme) → True Death Sword (Stage 3, Supreme)]
There was no change in stage.
But it felt different now.
Before, it had felt artificially boosted. Now, it was strong enough to be called Stage 3, and….
This was his Death.
Nameless Death.
He moved again. This time, his sword left a deep gash across the ant’s armored carapace.
The ant hesitated.
Then it growled and lunged. But something had changed.
The ant wasn’t confident anymore. Not only did its opponent had vitality comparable to monsters in the inner circle, he was just as ferocious as them.
Nameless Death saw the hesitation in its attack instantly.
The ant had realized that it had to put down Nameless Death quickly.
But, it sensed a sudden shift.
The atmosphere around Nameless Death changed once more.
An enlightenment.
Again.
The ant’s movements faltered.
It was smart enough to understand the danger. It couldn’t let this go on.
If Nameless Death gained another enlightenment, the outcome of the fight would no longer be in its favour.
So, the ant made a gamble.
With a violent lunge, it tore Nameless Death into a thousand pieces. Fragments of flesh, shattered bones, and slivers of soul scattered midair. It opened its mandibles wide and swallowed everything.
Nameless Death felt himself being pulled inward.
There was no fear in his gaze.
He had expected this. In fact, he faked the second enlightenment, by increasing Death around him and acting as if he was in a trance, to trick the ant into doing this.
The ant summoned Devouring Blood inside its body, hoping to drown him from within.
Its plan was simple: Cover him in Devouring Blood and remove the possibility of internal attack.
The Devouring Blood created inside its body wasn’t diluted like the one created outside, and hence was much more powerful.
“Now that I’m inside it’s body. It should be easy enough to kill it. After all, its inside aren’t protected by the defensive Spell.”