"No need to thank me yet. Focus on recovering," Asta said seriously. Then he turned to Nivier. "Here—take these healing potions. Apply one externally and have him drink another every day. Then take your brother to a recovery mage for follow-up treatment. With this regimen, he'll be fine."
He handed over five healing potions, each worth 1 system point. Though common, these potions were highly effective in stabilizing physical injuries and aiding recovery.
"Master Asta… thank you so much!" Nivier's eyes welled with tears.
"Don't call me 'Master.' We're comrades now, aren't we?" Asta grinned.
"That's right!" Noelle chimed in, raising her chin proudly. She summoned a soft wave of water magic to clean the blood from Chris's body. As for the wounds, Nivier carefully poured a healing potion onto them. Chris groaned in pain, but the wounds began to seal at a speed visible to the eye.
"Little Asta really is full of surprises…" Vanessa smirked teasingly, then leaned in close. "Wanna tell big sis some of your secrets in my room tonight?"
"Pass!" Asta immediately turned red and waved his hands. "I'm not into that, okay!?"
Just as the group started to relax, a sharp crack echoed in the distance.
"…What was that?" Asta immediately snapped alert.
"It sounds like… armored footsteps," Noelle said, her ears finely tuned by her royal upbringing.
"Headless soldiers," Vanessa muttered, recalling the tales told by the bandit group.
Chris's face turned pale. "We need to leave—now! I saw them firsthand. They're monsters! The bandits were fine until those… things appeared."
His voice trembled. "Magic doesn't work on them. Swords don't either! They march in perfect formation with deadly precision. And the sound… the war drums…"
"Boom… Boom…!" Right on cue, a terrifying drumbeat rumbled through the air.
"Gah!" Chris clutched his chest and vomited blood again, overwhelmed by the trauma. Asta immediately placed a hand on his back and infused him with chakra, calming his system.
"We're out of time. Move!" Vanessa barked, finally looking deadly serious. "If these things are real, we can't afford to stay."
"Sister Vanessa! My mana… it's vanishing again!" Noelle cried out, panic in her voice.
"Same here," Vanessa muttered. "But I can still sense the direction of the exit."
"Hold on tight!" Asta hoisted Chris onto his back.
The drums faded—but before they could breathe, a thick mist rolled in from all directions, blinding them.
When it cleared—
They were surrounded.
Countless ancient soldiers, each clad in rusted armor, surged forward from every direction. And they all shared one horrifying trait—they had no heads.
"Ancient magic armor…" Noelle gasped. "They're being controlled by magic stones!"
"They're dead… but still fighting," Vanessa muttered.
The soldiers charged with relentless instinct, slashing down giant mutated insects without hesitation. They fought with deadly precision, using enchanted weapons that radiated traces of old-world magic.
"Into the cave!" Chris yelled.
"No!" Asta blocked the entrance. "That cave is full of mana-warped beasts. We'll be trapped inside. We need to find the soldiers' weakness!"
"Check their armor for stones!" Vanessa shouted. "They might be using Philosopher's Stones to stay animated! If we break them—!"
"Got it!" Asta nodded, activating his Double Tomoe Sharingan, a rare reward from the system.
With his heightened perception, he spotted red, rune-engraved gems embedded in each soldier's chest. These gems radiated dense magic energy of different attributes.
"These aren't normal soldiers. These stones are feeding them mana—like mobile generators!"
Asta's eyes gleamed. "System! Exchange 3000 kunai!"
"Transaction complete. 300 points deducted. 1 point = 10 kunai," the system responded.
"Let's end this."
"Flowers Bloom with Five Leaves!"
"Demon-Slayer Sword!"
Asta activated two of the Eight Inner Gates, and in a flash of red and green chakra, his aura exploded like a sonic boom.
"W-Woah…" Chris stared in awe. "Is this… what a real hero looks like?"
Boom!
Asta blitzed forward like lightning, piercing through the front line of soldiers.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A dozen headless warriors immediately broke formation to engage him, their ancient greatswords crashing down.
"So fast!" Noelle gasped.
But Asta wasn't just fast—he was evolving. With each clash, his strikes grew sharper, his movements more fluid. He studied their formation with his Sharingan, learning and adapting.
Then—
Crack!
A headless soldier's gemstone shattered from Asta's kunai throw, and the armor instantly crumbled to dust.
Confirmed: The gemstone is the core!
"Kill, kill, kill!" Asta moved like a whirlwind, flinging kunai at any exposed gem he could spot, bringing down rows of enemies with surgical precision.
Suddenly, a dark blue light shone down from above.
A towering figure stepped into the battlefield—a headless general clad in ornate cobalt armor, his chest bearing a massive gemstone, and a ragged blue cloak fluttering behind him.
From the blue light, the general raised a colossal wind blade, gathering mana like a storm.
BOOOOM!
The blade crashed down.
"No!!" Noelle screamed.
The impact sent a shockwave across the battlefield, annihilating a huge swath of soldiers—including the ones fighting Asta. The land cracked, and the air howled with gales.
"Asta!!" Vanessa cried.
Asta stood his ground, bruised but unfazed. "...Now that's more like it."
"Open: Life Gate!"
He roared as the third Gate of Life burst open. His veins bulged, and his body took on a blood-red hue. Green energy roared around him like fire.
He could feel it—his body adapting, evolving with the battle.
"You're strong," Asta grinned at the headless general. "Let's see which one of us breaks first."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Steel clashed. Wind and chakra collided. The two fought like titans.
"This is…" Noelle whispered, eyes wide in awe. "He's… so strong."
"Yeah… he's more than just some peasant with no mana…" Vanessa muttered, watching the battlefield tremble under the weight of their clash.
"Come on, Noelle—we need to keep up!" Vanessa snapped, grabbing her hand.
"R-Right!" Noelle followed close behind. Thanks to the general's attack, there was a safe distance between them and the other headless soldiers.
But they didn't dare get too close to Asta either—the sheer aftershock of his battle was enough to tear the earth open.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Asta struck again and again, each slash faster than the last.
He downed a potion mid-fight, his stamina instantly restored by the system.
He was on fire.
And this time, he wasn't just surviving—he was winning.
Finally the general was defeated.
Looking back at the headless general, the magic stone embedded in his chest had turned dull and gray. But just as the group thought it was over, the glowing gem in the hand of a nearby headless soldier erupted in a blinding pillar of light, shooting directly into the chest of the fallen general.
A pause.
Then—WHOOOOSH!
From the body of the headless general, a tornado of magical energy exploded outward in a ten-meter radius, sending violent shockwaves across the ruined battlefield. The whirlwind rose like a column to the heavens, tearing at the very air and casting chaos through the darkened skies of the ancient ruins.