"Who who the fuck are"

Swish. Cut. Drop.

A Cyclop Lord's head was separated from its torso while he was on his knees. His body had turned red with the wrath mana building inside him. He wasn't able to dispel it. But he could not get rid of it.

At this point, the Cyclops Lord had been half turned into a creature of wrath. Despite this, he still maintained his mental clarity due to not letting the mana progress toward his head. So the butcher just chopped his head off of him.

Once the head was severed, the still-alive body became the creature of wrath almost immediately. It then imploded and gave the butcher the wrath flame he was looking for.

Eren had already used his Life Drain ability on him along with his half-blood powers to refine the Blood Seed of Cyclops Leaders into Cyclops Lord. This was Eren's 16th Monster Lord kill in the Oni dungeon.

He was silently killing all over the Oni dungeon subspace. Because he had a valid reason to. The Oni festival was about to start and killing off each other's tribe members was sort of an unwritten tradition in the Oni dungeon. The missing tribe members would automatically be assumed to have been slain by other tribes.

Eren made the most of his Sin of Wrath ability and progressed in each of the great elements' attainment. He had controlled his ranking breakthrough while doing that, saving it for when he kills Har Jahar to maximize his gains.

The Monster Lords Eren had killed belonged to different races of monsters. It was possible for him to refine all his Blood Seeds as well. This way, all his monster forms had been upgraded. Now they only needed Eren to catch up.

'Hm. The way of the earth and spear arts. Not bad. My attainment lacked greatly in the earth element.'

Eren opened his eyes and commented to himself after he had finished digesting the wrath flame he had gained from the Cyclops Lord. Then he looked ahead and saw his three Orcinas.

Sharog, Lasha, and Luna had used a triangle isolation array to isolate the Cyclops Lord. Sharog had received this array layout from Durbag.

Even if he was killing under the garb of Oni festival tradition, Eren wanted to be through with his killing. After all, his final plan was more critical than gaining Wrath Flames from monsters.

Plus, he also liked not being disturbed by third parties from any side.

The isolation array had allowed Eren to kill the Cyclops Lord without any difficulty. This was how he had killed the rest of the Monster Lords as well.

"My Lord, do you want to continue your hunt?"

Sharog asked while looking at Eren. Lasha and Luna were closing in on him from different directions as well.

"Hm? No. Any more killings and the tribes might get suspicious. We have used the cover of the Oni festival enough. One should know when to quit when they are ahead.

Plus, I need to make the digested gains my own and integrate them into my path before I think of having any more. Eat too much and one would have a bloated tummy. Hehe."

Eren swung his Rigor Mortis set to get rid of the blood on it. He then kept the weapons inside and began walking toward the Durbag tribe.

His killings had disrupted many tribes' plans. Now it was time to participate in the Oni festival and start the final phase of his plans.

***

22nd day of the Oni festival. Three days away from the final event.

Durbag Orc tribe vs Jorhan Orc tribe.

A giant battle ring was formed not too far away from the Oni pyramid. The earth element monsters had done a fine job creating an arena out of nothing.

The tribe members of the Durbag tribe were staring at the Orc Leader who had been selected as one of the worshippers from the Durbag tribe with awe. The Orc Leader's name was Varhan the Orc who was first seen as a random wild card entry by the Durbag tribe.

Varhan had gained huge popularity among the Echidnae, regardless of their race. The Orc Leader was like a storm that ravaged the battle ring. This storm claimed the lives of those who were foolish enough to stand in his path to victory.

The main reason for the Oni festival was to generate sacrificial energy. As such, the audience's emotions and the defeated worshippers getting killed were a huge part of the festival.

Each tribe was allowed to send five of its members as worshippers. The winning was supposed to kill two of the worshippers of the opponent tribe. The winning side would decide who to sacrifice from the defeated tribe.

A tribunal was held in the evening before the Oni festival. The worshippers from each tribe, the opponents, and other finer details were discussed and set that evening.

The Durbag tribe had done surprisingly well in this festival thanks to its three stars. First was Borul who had effortlessly defeated all his opponents. The second was Nurbag, who dominated the battlefield with his fierce fists.

The third was Varhan who had emerged as the dark horse of the tournament. Through a variety of strategies and plays, he had defeated his opponents using weapons from other tribes.

Varhan was bold and unpredictable. He was fast on his feet and his strikes were precise. One could feel subtle suppression coming off him if they looked at him for a long time. Seeing him in battle, they soon turned that suppression into admiration.

Within these 22 days, Eren had gained a lot of fans among the audience. The children of Echidna could subconsciously feel that Varhan was one of them even if he looked like an Orc. As a result, he generated a wide range of fans across all the children of Echidna.

The tribes were allowed to send their tribe members one by one or they could battle in groups after mutual discussion. Today, the tribe had agreed to engage in individual battles.

Borul and Nurbag had already won their respective matches. Now it was Varhan's turn to seal the victory for his tribe.