I wanted to scream.
The pain was unbearable—blinding. But I couldn't even speak.
The **recoil** from controlling that much mana... it was worse than anything I'd felt before.
I'd pushed too far.
Now I couldn't move, couldn't cry—couldn't even whisper in agony.
"To hell with it… If I'm going out, I'll try whatever I can."
I don't have an affinity for magic. I couldn't chant spells. This body wasn't meant for it.
But I could control **a little** mana in the air. Barely. Weakly.
And now?
Now I'd try something reckless.
I would **force** mana into my body.
Let it flood through me—**override** me.
Like a puppet on strings made of raw mana.
Panting… trembling…
I pushed myself up from the rubble.
My body screamed in protest—every bone, every nerve on fire.
But I stood.
This time, I was going to **kill** that bastard with **everything** I had left.
Mana surged through me, foreign and wild.
It wasn't gentle—it was tearing me apart from the inside.
"Hey! Laughing idiot!" I spat, blood in my mouth. "I'm not done yet."
The demon stared, stunned.
He actually **stepped back**.
"What… what _are_ you doing?" he said, his voice no longer amused, but shaken.
"Are you insane? You're letting mana corrode your body from the inside! Your soul—it's dying! Are you even human?"
I looked down—
My hands were pale… too pale. Almost white.
My veins glowed faintly, tracing blue lines through my skin.
Even my reflection in the shattered glass—my **eyes** were glowing, pulsing with mana.
"Who cares…?" I rasped and grin. "If I die… I'm taking _you_ with me."
I charged forward, dragging mana into my limbs, forcing my body to obey—
Even if I was little more than a marionette controlled by magic.
Once more, I wrapped my blade in dense mana—
The pressure was worse now, burning like acid,
But I didn't stop.
The demon hurled spell after spell.
Fire. Wind. Blades of darkness.
I **cut through them all.**
And then—
I stabbed him again—this time through the **heart**.
He gasped, coughing blood, eyes wide.
"You… you'll pay for this," he choked. "You might kill me here… but the monsters are already out there… killing this city."
Blood ran from his mouth as he laughed weakly.
"You could've saved yourself… But you'll collapse soon. And this kingdom will fall with you."
I twisted the blade in his chest, then pulled it sideways—cleaving him in half.
"You talk too much," I muttered. "If you came to kill… then use spells. Not speeches."
The demon's body dropped.
I turned toward the stone golems still smashing through the palace.
They couldn't be defeated with a normal sword.
Even if I could chip away at their bodies, they would just regenerate unless I destroyed their **cores**.
"Guess all that reading in my free time finally paid off..."
There were **three** golems.
If each had a core in its center—then that's where I had to strike.
The soldiers were doing their best to hold the line, shielding the King and Princess Maya.
I leapt.
Mana surging once more, I launched myself at the nearest golem—
Sword cloaked in raw mana—
And struck.
_CRACK!_
The blade pierced stone—deeper—into the shimmering crystal heart within.
The golem shattered, its pieces collapsing like a broken statue.
"One down."