[Herrscher form : Dark Knight]

At first, Kevin's statue was striding forward stiffly like a robot before quickly becoming smooth until it finally appeared to move flexibly.

A name that only Kouro could see then appears above Kevin's head.

[Statue of MANTIS: Kevin Kaslana]

The name was very red even redder than blood.

Seeing the creature walking slowly toward him, Kouro then exhaled to calm himself down.

'Calm down Kouro, you should think about defeating this creature in front of you...'

For your information, Kouro was currently wearing the Divine Key of Blankness... If he was really cornered, he would use 'it' as a last resort.

After calming down, Kouro who wore a calm expression glanced at the other MANTIS statues.

There were no names on the heads of all the statues except Kevin's.

It was good that it was only Kevin's statue that he was going to fight.

'But I must remain vigilant.' Kouro thought while staring at the statue of Kevin who approached him with a stiff expression.

Staring at the new 'Judgement of Samash' shaped sword in the hands of Kevin's statue, Kouro seemed to narrow his eyes.

'I don't know if that sword has the same ability as the original Divine key.'

If this statue in front of him had all of Kevin's abilities, then he would surely die here.

But... The system would never give an impossible mission to the 'Host', at most it would be very difficult but not 'impossible'.

Therefore Kouro speculated, this statue only had Kevin's physical strength.

If it's just physical strength... Kouro thought he had a chance to win.

"Alright." Kouro muttered before turning both his swords into gloves.

He then walked slowly toward the statue with a serious expression.

ゴゴゴゴ

The two of them approached each other and when they were only 2 meters away, Kouro suddenly activated [Sprint] to gather momentum before enveloping his gloves with the Earth element.

Just as Kouro had arrived in front of Kevin's statue, his eyes widen as if he didn't want to blink before unleashing a punch that had activated [Power Strike].

He unleashed all his power just for this one punch.

Kouro who had released his punch suddenly felt time slowing down, he looked at his fist which had been very close to the statue's chest.

'Why does time feel so slow?'

After asking that, Kouro then immediately got the answer.

He saw that the statue of Kevin had been staring at his approaching fist calmly, at this moment Kouro finally realized that the statue of Kevin had allowed him to attack him first.

'Is he underestimating me?' this thought crossed his mind before understanding why.

Kouro... finally understood why Kevin was called the strongest human warrior.

When his punch was about to hit the statue's face, Kouro then saw Kevin's statue clench its fist before releasing a punch at normal speed in this extremely slow time.

Kevin's punch then collided with Kouro's punch.

The time that seemed to have slowed down, returned to normal.

*BAM!*

Both of their punches then made a small explosion that swelled the ears before a crunchy sound was heard.

*Crack!*

Kouro was thrown back and crashed into the wall at the speed of sound.

*BOOM!*

If not for the fact that the dungeon wall was impossible to break, Kouro would have been thrown out.

Kevin's statue was not like Kouro, he only seemed to be knocked back a few steps before staring at Kouro who was stuck to the wall with his head bowed.

One of Kouro's hands looked twisted like a broken branch.

[HP: 17,675/42,000]

Kouro raised his head, different from what Kevin's statue expected, Kouro was currently looking at him.

If Kevin's statue could express himself, he would definitely have widened eyes because of Kouro's current eyes, instead of looking desperation, he instead saw a ray of determination and joy from Kouro's eyes.

Kouro shakily stood up, he didn't care about the pain from his hand that had been twisted, he... Just smiled at Kevin's statue.

"Thank you... Because of you, I finally have a clear estimate of my strength now... I also want to thank you again, because of you, I finally have a clear goal to achieve."

Kouro didn't know whether the statue of Kevin understood what he was saying or not, but he didn't care.

With his purple eyes shining brightly, he looked at the statue of Kevin who seemed to stop moving and stared at him as well.

"...Well... Let's start the real fight."

After muttering that, a black mist suddenly emerged from Kouro's body and slowly became solid before finally covering Kouro like a cocoon.

The statue of Kevin didn't do anything, he just stared at Kouro who seemed to be transforming.

*Ba-dump*

A moment later, Kevin's statue heard the sound of a heartbeat from Kouro who was covered in a cocoon-like black mist.

*Ba-dump*

*Ba-dump*

The sound of heartbeats became louder and louder.

And simultaneously for the first time, Kevin's statue felt a premonition of danger.

*Ba-dump!*

The black blur seemed to spread out before finally gathering to one point, namely towards Kouro.

*Swish!*

Kevin's statue was finally able to see the appearance of Kouro who had completed his transformation.

Kouro was wearing full black armor like a medieval knight, and not only that, but black smoke was also coming out of his body.

Currently, Kouro's appearance is completely similar to Lancelot from the anime Fate series, except that his eye visor is bluish purple instead of red.

(E/D: The best thing about this servant is his skill. Knight of Owner. Anything he touches is his to control. And there is even a doujinshi where he uses it to... You all know where that is going.)

[Herrscher form: Dark Knight]

In this form, all statuses except Kouro's 'Honkai status' are tripled, and the healing factor is also greatly increased to the point that Kouro's hand which was twisted and broken was instantly healed.

In this form, the ability [Vapor of Serenity] will be activated at all times, this is what causes Kouro's body to emit black smoke.

If Kouro used this form in a large environment such as forests or cities, then within a radius of one hundred meters all life will die because of [Vapor of Serenity].

This ability also does not recognize friends or foes because Kouro has not been able to control the [Vapor of Serenity] ability which is very destructive.

But at least, the Key of blankness and the Xuanyuan sword he was holding weren't damaged, and Kouro could only use this form for a maximum of 5 minutes before his SP ran out.

"...It's showtime!" said Kouro with his visor shining brightly.

__

On the other hand, at Schicksal's main headquarters.

Otto, who was relaxing in his office, glanced at the sofa where Ashborn was sitting.

"Why did you tell her?" Ashborn asked calmly.

Otto shook the glass of wine in his hand with a calm expression, "I did it to direct their focus on Kouro-kun."

"...The reason you did it... Do you want to find the Second Key immediately?"

Otto nodded his head before saying, "Yes. After all, you also told me where the Divine key is. But... Since you know the place, won't World Serpent move the Divine key to a safe place?"

"That won't happen." Ashborn said firmly while remembering Aponia.

Aponia besides having the ability to see one's destiny, she also had another more terrifying power which was the 'Discipline' ability.

This ability allows Aponia to be able to give 'orders' that cannot be refused by a person or a group.

For example, if Aponia gives an 'order' to someone who is sad or depressed to the point of suicide to be happy, then that person will definitely be happy.

But in the end, this ability also has its drawbacks, for example, we use the previous example, to be happy a person must do something that he/she enjoys, and... If that person turns out to feel happy from killing people...

That person will become a psychopathic killer, and that person will not feel guilty at all but instead will make excuses that they feel happy when they do that.

This ability affects feelings at the subconscious level.

That's why even Aponia was very careful when using this ability.

And Ashborn knew that Aponia was using this ability and giving 'orders' to all World Serpent members not to change the location of the Second Key.

Otto looked at Ashborn's face with a calm expression, because Ashborn was wearing a mask he didn't know what his expression was.

"It's fine if you say so. If I'm not mistaken you told me that the Second Key is located in the city of London, England, or rather in a pocket dimension located nearby." Otto said.

Ashborn nodded his head.

"Then I'll send Durandal and Rita-" Otto's words were immediately interrupted by Ashborn.

"No need, I'll do it myself."

"Hm? Really? Then I can breathe a sigh of relief if you're going." Otto said happily.

He knew very well that his friend's power and ability were extremely strong.

"That's why lend me the 'Void Archives'." Ashborn said with his arms crossed.

Void Archives was the first divine key that could mimic other divine keys, it also had a library that contained all the knowledge from the previous era.

Moreover, this Divine Key was a very important weapon for Otto.

"What do you want to borrow that for? Isn't your own power strong enough?" asked Otto with raised eyebrows.

"Kevin's ELF is guarding the Second Key, so for safety's sake I wanted to borrow the 'Void Archives'. Besides, do you want to compensate for the damage my battle will cause?" replied Ashborn.

Hearing his answer, Otto seemed to remember something with a troubled expression before finally sighing.

"Fine, I'll lend it, but I think you know that my friend inside doesn't like you very much."

Void Archives was different from other Divine Keys, this Divine Key was the only Divine Key that had the consciousness of a living being, similar to Kouro's Xuanyuan Sword.

"No problem, I can talk to him on a 'kinship' basis later." Ashborn said.

Otto's eyebrows visibly twitched when he heard this. The 'kinship' Ashborn mentioned, was that he would use his fists to solve the problem.

"Alright, here, don't lose it." said Otto while throwing a gold-colored box toward Ashborn.

It seemed like Otto really had a very strong friendly relationship with Ashborn that he could give such an important weapon to him casually.

Ashborn stood up and caught the box before his body sunk into his own shadow. I'll be back in a few hours, you better send some Valkyries and mecha to transport the Second Key." Ashborn said before completely sinking into his shadow.

"Don't worry, I'll send Durandal and Rita immediately, as a backup." Otto said.

__

On the other hand, inside the 'Special Dungeon', in the boss room.

There was a statue of Kevin which was in a terrible state, its body was full of cracks and even its left hand was crushed.

Even so, it was standing and with a calm expression staring at Kouro who looked completely unharmed before it.

'Just one minute left... I have to finish it quickly!'

Kouro wasted no time and aggressively dashed off with both of his swords seemingly shrouded in black mist and smoldering blue flames.

He who had previously not been able to control the [Vapor of Serenity] ability was now able to use it to envelop the weapons he was using.

Seeing Kouro approach him, Kevin's statue immediately swung his sword vertically toward Kouro's head.

*Swoosh!*

Kouro immediately used [Sprint] to create momentum and then used minimal movement to avoid the attack.

But Kouro didn't expect that Kevin's Statue's slash would suddenly midway turn into a Horizontal slash!

Seeing Kevin's Statue's sword about to cut his neck, Kouro didn't seem to flinch and instead swung both of his swords at the Kevin statue.

"HAA!"

*Swoosh!*

*Slash!*

There was the sound of something being cut.

Kevin's sword was only inches away from Kouro's neck before it stalled and finally fell.

(E/D: The entire fight reminds me of the moment when Tanjiro cut Gyutaro's head off. It was hype!)

*Thud*

The body of Kevin's statue had been split in two.

Kouro stared at Kevin's statue body while panting, and slowly his armored suit disappeared.

"I did it! I did it!" Kouro shouted with both hands raised.

[HP: 37,675/42,000]

[SP: 1,206/15,040]

[Fatigue: 24]

He had defeated the very strongest human warrior, Kevin Kaslana!

Even though it was just a statue that only had his physical strength, but still he defeated him!

But unfortunately, Kouro didn't realize that things weren't over yet.

He who was still celebrating his victory suddenly heard the sound of heavy footsteps from behind him.

Kouro's movements suddenly stopped, he stiffly turned around before seeing that all the MANTIS statues were staring at him.

"F*ck."

Kouro realized that he hadn't gotten a level-up notification or a notification that he had defeated Kevin's statue.

That meant there was a possibility that the statues were controlled by something so it made sense that he hadn't gotten any 'exp' after defeating Kevin's statue.

Seeing all those MANTIS statues walking towards him, Ji Xuanyuan and her twin then asked frantically.

"[What should we do now Kouro!?]" x2

They could both sense that each of the statues had roughly the same strength as the statue they defeated.

They then saw Kouro sigh before pulling out something similar to a dark yellow-colored gem shard.

"Huh... I really didn't want to use this at first."

Kouro stared at the Herrscher of the End core shard in his hand before looking at all the MANTIS statues that were slowly approaching him.

He then with a determined expression then put the core shard onto his chest.

The core then seemed to glow extremely brightly.

"ARGH!"

His violet-colored eyes turned a Bright orange color.

...

[You have Slain a Shadow mimic]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

Kouro hearing the system notifications suddenly opened his eyes.

"Ouch..." Kouro held his head which felt very heavy.

He was currently lying on the floor with the core fragment of the Herrscher of the End in his right hand and a black key in his left hand.

"What?" he blankly stared at the two objects before turning his head to stare at the sight that shocked him.

He was currently still in the boss room, and to his surprise, he did not find any of the MANTIS statues including the statue of Kevin that he cut.

The place was empty as if the statues hadn't existed, if it wasn't for Kouro still finding traces of his fight against Kevin's statue, he would have thought that this was a dream.

Kouro then stood up, he first stored the core fragment back into his inventory before finally opening his status interface.

...

Name: Hanagami Kouro

Level: 55

Job: None

Title: Wolf Slayer [+]

Authority: Death and Life.

[HP: 44,000/44,000]

[SP: 15,680/15,680]

Fatigue: 15

Strength: 300  --> 310

Agility: 200 --> 210

Vitality: 210 --> 220

Senses: 180 --> 190

Intelligence: 210 --> 220

Honkai: 235 --> 245

Point(s): 53

...

Surprisingly aside from his [Fatigue], his HP and SP returned to full as if he had used [Status Recovery].

He doesn't know what happened to him but at least, he was still alive and getting stronger.

Thinking about this, Kouro then looked at the key in his hand before looking at the door in front of him.

"Is this key used to start the real [Job Change Quest]? " Kouro muttered.

He then walked towards the door before inserting the key, when he opened the door a dazzling light then filled his sight, no, filled the room.

Kouro who had his eyes closed suddenly felt a cold wind blowing through his body so he opened his eyes.

"Snow?"

As far as the eye could see there was only heavy snow.

Kouro cleaned his snow-covered hair before looking around to figure out where he was.

Suddenly Kouro's eyes seemed to widen and even his pupils seemed to shrink, he saw a towering tower.

Why was he surprised? It was because Kouro was very familiar with this tower.

Babylonia Lab, a tower-shaped Schicksal Lab in Siberia, Russia.

But the tower had been destroyed by Second Herrscher in 2000.

(E/D: Sirin is coming home bois and gurls! Woahhhhhhhhhh! Now give me bromance with Nakuru and make sure the Harem force misunderstands as Kouro being g*y.)

"Did I... Go to the past?"