Chapter 43 Return of the Wardback

Chapter 43 Return of the Wardback
A wall of light flooded the entire forest, erasing everything in sight. Blinded, Jax waved his arms wildly, trying to find Mira. The moment his hand touched her arm, he crawled forward and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Then the light vanished.

In its place, dark mana began to rise.

The egg lay split in two and empty. Whatever had been inside was gone before they could even see it.

“SO THIS… IS WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN.”

The voice spoke directly into their minds.

“YOU THOUGHT YOU KILLED ME? HAHAHAHA… SOMEONE AS WEAK AS YOU COULD NEVER HOPE TO KILL A LIEUTENANT OF ZERITH.”

In front of them, a black vortex began to form. Sickly, almost poisonous mana leaked from it in thick waves. As it stabilized, it took the shape of a corrupted gate, and the moment its doors cracked open, a wave of pure, crushing pressure slammed into them.

The mark on Jax’s chest flared to life. This time it brought no pain, only a sudden rise in mana density.

Not fully sure the instinct was right, Jax called for the hammer.

“Wardback, grant me the Hymn of Restraint again.”

In response, the ground quaked. Mana dragged up from the depths and rushed toward Jax’s hands, gathering into a familiar shape. One side formed into a devastating hammer. The other curved into a sleek, bladed edge.

At his shoulder, mana spilling from the mark on his chest began to gather, green and gold colliding in small, luminous bursts. When the light finally released, a tiny floating turtle sat there.

Its eyes were almost gem-like. Moss and fine traces of gold coated its shell and scales. It looked up at Jax and gave a small nod, as if accepting him. Then it sent a stream of its mana toward the hilt, and the weapon grew in response.

“Mira, it’s chosen me… I don’t know how I can tell, but…” Jax tried to speak, his breathing outpaced by his excitement. “I think I can beat this guy.”

Mira was too terrified to respond. She was huddled near the ground, still covering her ears.

“Mira, it’s okay. I can protect us…” Jax said, resting the weapon on his shoulder. Then he turned toward the demon. “How are you still alive anyway?”

“I FLED INTO THE VOID AND WAITED FOR THAT TURTLE’S RETURN,” it hissed, stepping fully through the gate.

Corruption bled from its body and soaked into the surrounding environment. Trees wilted and buckled. Bugs dropped dead instantly. Even the ground seemed to soften and melt beneath its feet.

“I WILL NOT DIE WITHOUT HELPING MY MASTER!” it roared, closing the distance between them slowly, as if even the world itself could not survive its presence.

Pulling the axe side down and bracing for a decisive blow, Jax gathered mana around his feet.

“Mira, I hope you don’t hate me, but I kind of stole this from you.”

“Stone Step!”

Stone covered his boots in an instant, wrapping tight and sinking into the earth with each step. Then he blitzed the demon, slashing once at its midsection.

The demon slipped out of the swing by a fraction of a second, reappearing almost instantly where it should not have been. From another pocket of void, it drew a jagged-edged sword and turned back toward Jax.

“YOU SHOULD FEEL HONORED… NOT ONCE HAVE I EVER NEEDED TO USE THIS SWORD!”

“Probably because you hide all the time,” Mira shot back, finally joining Jax in the fight. “Jax, you do realize you have an adorable little turtle on your shoulder, right?”

Without looking away from the demon, Jax braced for another attack.

The demon sprang forward with a wide slash. Jax shoved Mira to his left and dodged right. The blade missed them both as the demon carried itself deeper into the trees behind them, vanishing into a pocket of darkness.

“Yes, Mira, I saw it… focus on the demon for now!” he barked, bracing himself with the axe as he straightened.

Then he crouched low and began gathering more mana. Over time, it condensed into an almost physical sphere, dense enough that the air around it started to distort. The little turtle at his shoulder gave off another faint pulse, and the weapon in Jax’s hands answered immediately. The moment he forced the gathered mana into the hilt, the energy surged through the entire weapon and vanished in an instant.

For half a heartbeat, the forest went still.

Then Jax launched.

An explosive burst of stone blew out beneath his feet, tearing up the ground and sending dirt and broken roots into the air behind him. Frost streaked across the earth in a sharp line at his back as Mira followed through on instinct, feeding momentum into his charge and locking the battlefield into one clear direction.

Straight at the demon.

“You will die… DEMON!”

Jax spun as he flew forward, the sheer weight of the weapon pulling him harder into the rotation. One turn became two. Two became three. With each twist, the force built until even he could feel it threatening to tear the weapon from his grip. He let the hammer hilt slide through one hand at the last possible second, guiding the motion instead of fighting it, turning all that stored momentum into one final, brutal arc.

The strike landed.

It cut through the nearest trees first, shredding trunks apart in a violent spray of splinters. Then it tore through stone, ripping a gouge through the earth as if the forest floor itself had tried and failed to resist it.

Then it hit the demon.

The impact rang out like metal colliding with the bones of the world. A wave of vibration burst from the point of contact and rolled through the forest, shaking the ground beneath Mira’s feet hard enough to stagger her. Leaves burst from branches. Cracks spidered through the softened earth. Even the remaining corruption in the air seemed to recoil.

The demon froze.

Its sword slipped from its grasp.

A line opened slowly across its body, bright at first, then blackened by the corruption spilling out from within. For one impossible second, it looked as though the thing still did not understand what had happened.

Then it split cleanly in two.

Both halves fell in opposite directions, crashing into the ruined forest floor with a wet, heavy force. The black mana leaking from its body thrashed violently for a moment, then began to unravel, tearing apart into filthy strands that dissolved into the air.

Silence followed.

No roar. No final threat. No last boast.

Just the sound of broken trees settling and Jax’s breathing as he landed, boots digging deep into the torn earth.

This time, the demon was dead.

Mira stared at the corpse a moment longer than she meant to, her chest still rising and falling from the fight. The crushing pressure that had filled the forest was gone, leaving behind only broken earth, shattered trees, and Jax standing at the center of it all with that impossible weapon still in his hands.

This was the first time he didn’t look like someone bracing for the next disaster. He looked steady. Certain. Like the power resting in his grip had answered something inside him instead of merely being borrowed.

Then her gaze shifted to the little turtle hovering at his shoulder, and some of the fear still locked inside her finally began to loosen.

“Jax…” she said, the word leaving her softer than she intended. A breath of laughter followed it, shaky and relieved. “You actually did it, you really killed that guy by yourself.”

She started toward him almost immediately, boots crunching over splintered wood and fractured stone, paying no mind to what the battlefield had become so long as he was still standing in it.