God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1144: This is not a Damn Trial. This is War! (2).

Chapter 1144: This is not a Damn Trial. This is War! (2).

The Centauri’s roar of fury echoed across the battlefield as it realized the full extent of the disaster. Its mercenary force— a thousand strong, disciplined and experienced, had been reduced to scattered remnants in a matter of minutes.

And it was all because of one human mage standing in the distance, barely winded from unleashing enough destructive magic to turn a small world into a hellscape.

Lukas took advantage of the creature’s moment of distraction to strike. His enchanted knife found the gap between the Centauri’s ribs, sinking deep into the flesh beneath that bronze skin. The blade glowed with power as it activated its enchantment, releasing a burst of concentrated light directly into the wound.

The Centauri bellowed in pain and backhanded Lukas with enough force to send him flying. The fighter hit the ground hard, tumbling across the rocky terrain before managing to arrest his momentum. He came up grinning despite the blood on his lips.

"That actually hurt," he muttered.

The Centauri’s white eyes focused on him with murderous intent. When it spoke, its voice was deep enough to make the ground vibrate.

"You are skilled, little warrior. But skill means nothing against overwhelming power."

Lukas retrieved his bastard sword from where it had been thrown, testing its weight with a few practice swings. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever you say, big guy."

The creature’s response was to stamp both hooves simultaneously. The earth erupted in all directions, creating a wave of stone and soil that radiated outward like a tsunami. Lukas ran ahead of it, his enhanced speed just barely keeping him ahead of the destruction.

But the Centauri wasn’t trying to hit him directly. The earth magic reshaped the battlefield, creating walls and barriers that limited Lukas’s mobility.

Lukas found himself funneled into an increasingly small area, rocky walls rising on all sides. The Centauri advanced slowly, deliberately, each step causing the ground to shift and reshape under its control.

"Okay, yeah, this is actually getting annoying," Lukas muttered. Then, louder: "Hey boss! Feel like giving me a hand here?"

From his position at the rear of the formation, Cain raised an eyebrow. He’d been monitoring the duel while simultaneously coordinating the final

cleanup of the scattered mercenary forces.

Watching Lukas dance around the Centauri’s attacks had been entertaining, but it was clear the fight was reaching its critical phase.

"What do you need?" Cain called back.

"Something to distract this guy for like five seconds. Can you do that?"

Cain’s lips curved into a slight smile. "I think I can manage that."

He pulled energy from the lightning star in his vault and began weaving a spell. Not one of his large-scale destruction spells—this needed to be precise, targeted, and most importantly, non-lethal. Lukas had called for a distraction, not a kill-steal.

{Blue Lightning} took shape, but modified. Instead of a single devastating bolt, Cain created a storm of smaller discharges that rained down on the Centauri from multiple angles. None of them were powerful enough to cause serious damage to the creature’s enhanced body, but they didn’t need to be.

They just needed to break its concentration.

The Centauri roared as electricity crackled across its bronze skin. The earth magic faltered, the walls it had been constructing collapsing back into the ground as the creature’s control wavered.

Lukas didn’t waste the opening.

He moved faster than the eye could follow, closing the distance between himself and the Centauri in a single burst of speed. His bastard sword came up in a precise arc, aimed not at the creature’s vitals but at its knees.

The blade bit deep, cutting through enhanced muscle and scraping against bone. The Centauri’s leg buckled, and the massive creature went down on one knee with a pained bellow. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Lukas was already moving, his momentum carrying him past the creature’s guard. He planted his foot on the Centauri’s shoulder and used it as a springboard, launching himself upward while bringing his sword around in a devastating overhead strike.

The blade came down on the back of the Centauri’s neck with all the force Lukas could muster.

It didn’t cut all the way through, the creature’s enhanced durability saw to that, but it cut deep enough. The Centauri’s roar was cut short as its spine severed. The massive body toppled forward, crashing into the ground with an impact that sent tremors through the battlefield.

Lukas landed in a crouch beside the fallen commander, breathing heavily as he cleaned the blood off his blade and sheathed it.

The Centauri’s eyes had lost their white glow, returning to their natural color as the enraged state faded. It tried to move, but its body wouldn’t respond below the neck. When it spoke, its voice was weaker, strained.

"Kill... me..."

Lukas’s expression shifted, the arrogance fading into something more somber. "Yeah. I figured."

The blade fell. The Centauri’s head separated from its body cleanly, and the massive corpse finally went still.

Lukas stood there for a moment, looking down at the fallen commander. Then he sighed and turned back toward where Cain stood.

"It’s done," he called out.

Cain nodded in acknowledgment. Around the battlefield, the last pockets of resistance were being mopped up. The few surviving mercenaries who hadn’t fled were being systematically hunted down by his contracted beasts and the various squads under his command.

It was brutal. Necessary. And entirely one-sided.

Hunter appeared at Cain’s side, his expression carefully neutral. "They’re surrendering. Some of them anyway. What do you want us to do?"

Cain looked across the devastated battlefield. Bodies lay scattered across the scorched earth. The strange multicolored lights of the Graveyard of Stars illuminated the carnage in unsettling detail.

"No prisoners," he said quietly, completely stopping his bombardment.

Hunter nodded.

"Understood."

This was the Third Trial. Compassion was a luxury that did not exist.

Every call needed to be decisive and brutal.

After all, leaving survivors meant anything could happen.

The systematic elimination of the remaining mercenaries took another ten minutes. The culling was swift and efficient.