Kyle entered the Fort without any issues, and his emblem immediately received coordinates.

Fort S-878 was mostly open space with a couple of buildings. Kyle could see a great number of groups charging in and out of the Fort. It looked about as busy as a beehive.

Kyle landed in front of a smaller man who wore a grey uniform. His aura felt similar to the auras of the other Shields, but more powerful and profound. His emblem marked him as a Commander.

This was his future boss, Commander Sirius Vult Meristo.

Sirius Vult Meristo was a powerful Spirit Lord. In fact, he felt even more powerful than the other two Spirit Lords he had seen. Yet, according to his orders, Kyle was not allowed to share his true identity or his true mission with him. He had to act like a regular member of Humanity.

“Black Sin Hammer 37, reporting for duty,” Kyle transmitted. There was no time for normal conversations. To keep efficiency high, everyone had to talk via voice transmission here. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The Commander scanned Kyle’s emblem for a moment.

“Accepted,” he transmitted like a machine. “Black Sin Hammer 37, your file states that your assigned kill count should be put at 50 times the standard. No matter if this is voluntary or not, Fort S-878 will follow this recommendation.”

“Here are your orders. You are ordered to start your Second Refinement immediately. During your Second Refinement, you are on Decimator duty. If you accept this order, swear the Decimator Oath. Refusal of this order will not come with any punishments, and your orders will be amended.”

Usually, refusing orders was not an option, but for the job of Decimator, this had to be an option.

“I accept my orders,” Kyle transmitted. “I solemnly swear that I have voluntarily decided to kill countless beasts of a lower Realm that have never attacked me or shown me any hostility. Humanity is not forcing me down this path. I chose this myself and will carry all the consequences.”

“Humanity thanks you for your sacrifice,” the Commander transmitted. “Your sacrifice will save thousands of lives.”

Then, the Commander took the time to respectfully salute Kyle for his sacrifice.

A Decimator’s duty was to kill as many Demons of a lower Realm as possible. Decimators were viewed almost as highly as Honerers.

The biggest reason why the stronger Seekers allowed the weaker Demons to pass through was Karmic Luck. Yes, this was a war, but even during a war, excessively killing beings in a lower Realm came with negative Karmic Luck.

This was especially bad here. After all, the Demons were all Divine Beasts. The punishment of killing a weaker Divine Beast was severe. Just one day of working as a Decimator would lead to the creation of a True Sin Aura.

Being a Decimator represented destroying one’s Karmic Luck to an irrecoverable degree, which also meant that one would be subject to Sin Flames for the remainder of one’s life.

The vast majority of people couldn’t live with Sin Flames. Because of that, they viewed the fates of Decimators as even worse than death. After all, a Decimator would continue suffering for their entire life.

Ayuvar was one of the very few worlds in which people with True Sin Auras were viewed as heroes instead of monsters.

“Report back after you’ve finished your Second Refinement. Good hunting!” the Commander transmitted.

Kyle nodded and pulled Energy out of the atmosphere. The Energy rushed into his head, and a moment later, he felt a burning pain. The Second Refinement had started.

For a Mortal, this pain would be unbearable. However, for a Sage, this pain was like a standard headache. It was definitely bearable, but one also had to remember that the Sage had to feel the pain for an entire century. This was not a sprint but a marathon. That was why some Sages failed the Second Refinement on their first attempt.

Yet, to Kyle, this pain barely made a difference. The overwhelming pain of his Sin Flames eclipsed the pain of the Second Refinement.

As long as Kyle kept pulling Energy into his mind, the Second Refinement would continue operating. Luckily, he didn’t need to focus on it. After just a single second, his instincts took over. If he wanted to stop the Second Refinement, he would need to give a conscious command to his instincts.

Then, Kyle flew out of Fort S-878.

He had already checked his emblem, which contained all the details of his orders. ‘I need to fly and/or teleport a billion kilometers to the north before flying two billion kilometers to the south before flying two billion kilometers to the north and so on. While doing so, I’m supposed to kill as many Demons as possible. Their Realm is irrelevant. A Sage Demon is worth just as much as a Transcendent Demon to a Decimator.’

When Kyle saw his assigned goal, he felt like he was in some kind of dream. The fact that he was supposed to do this didn’t feel real. It was difficult for him to believe that he would end that many lives, and it was even more difficult to believe that reaching this target wouldn’t even be that difficult.

‘Within one century, I’m supposed to kill 1.5 trillion Demons,’ Kyle thought. ‘This number is just unfathomably high, and yet, it’s actually realistic.’

Earth had an area of a bit over 500 million square kilometers, and it had a lot of life on it. This world was ten trillion times ten trillion kilometers big, which meant it had an area of about 100 septillion square kilometers. That was a one with 26 zeros. This meant Ayuvar was 200 quadrillion times bigger than Earth. This meant that it probably also had 200 quadrillion times more lifeforms than Earth.

There was a big gap between 1.5 trillion and 200 quadrillion. Additionally, the timeframe of the mission was not a single instant but an entire century.

There were a bit more than three billion seconds in a century. As long as he killed 500 Demons every second, he would reach that number.

Kyle’s Energy Sense covered a sphere with a radius of 25,000 kilometers. Within that area, there were bound to be more than 500 Demons, and even if there weren’t, he could still teleport several times in a second.

In order to kill a Transcendent or Primal Demon, Kyle would just need to create a tiny fireball beside them. As a Sage, conjuring 500 weak attacks every second was not very difficult. He wouldn’t even need to focus a lot.

Killing 1.5 trillion beasts felt unreal and unreasonable to Kyle. Yet, as he looked at the numbers, he realized that it was actually realistic and feasible.

As soon as he left the Fort, Kyle looked at his surroundings. Fort S-878 was pretty close to the eastern border of the frontlines, which meant the majority of battles were fought between Sages and Sage Demons. However, there were also a couple of battles between weaker Demons and some weaker teams.

Yet, even though there was a great number of battles, there was an even greater number of Primal and Crusher Beasts rushing past the individual battles.

These were Kyle’s targets.

Kyle targeted around 300 Primal Divine Beasts.

BOOOOM!

300 explosions happened simultaneously, but barely anyone noticed.

At the same time, Kyle saw a huge wave of red washing towards him.

Negative Karmic Luck.

‘Well, there go my chances of ever getting positive Karmic Luck again,’ Kyle thought. ‘The next century will probably cripple my Karmic Luck for all of eternity.’

‘Yeah, well, the Karmic Luck system is broken anyway. I am literally saving countless lives, and yet, I’m seen as an irredeemable sinner.’

‘This entire Cosmos is fucked.’

Then, Kyle teleported forward before destroying another 250 Primal Demons.

And again.

And again.

And again.

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