Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 133: Solo Leveling
As always, a bunch of chapters ahead at [email protected]/theogbasilisk
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- Felix -
"I will grow stronger with Luminous's aid, Felix-sama!" Saeko said with determination as she faced the portal.
"I know you will. Remember, you can always speak to me with our soul corridor." I reminded her.
Saeko nodded and swiftly stepped through the portal. She turned around to look back at me.
I could feel her lingering emotions with Lover. She was hesitant but determined to accomplish whatever she had set her mind to, and who knew what that was. Even I had trouble reading Saeko, but the most prominent emotion of all was her deep care and love towards me, and to that feeling I could only give her a reassuring smile that conveyed my emotions.
Out of all my lovers, Saeko was by far the most emotional.
She gave me a firm nod and stomped off.
With that, I closed the portal.
After a moment, I gathered myself. Now it was time to visit another world.
In the blink of an eye, I warped space, appearing in my study.
I quickly sent a Thought Communication to Arcueid, Lalatina, Megumin, and Sukuna.
"I'm leaving for the other world now if everyone is ready."
Arcueid wasn't coming, but I still wanted to let her know and see her off. I had already said goodbye to Ingvild and told her about how the preparations for the concert she wanted were going.
Right now, she and Glenda were on a vacation of sorts, one that Glenda requested a little time ago. She wanted to tour the Western Nations and Tempest with Ingvild, and I saw no reason to stop them.
I wasn't going to bother Ingvild on her vacation when I had already said goodbye.
"Very well my Lord. I wish you well travels." She paused for a moment. "If it would not be presumptuous, may I come to see you off?"
"Of course, Arcueid. That's why I included you in the Thought Communication."
I could feel the spike of happiness in Arcueid from Lover, even through the Thought Communication. She was happy that I wanted to see her just as much as she wanted to see me.
She really was quite adorable.
"I'm ready, Master~!" Lalatina chimed in with a sing-song tone of voice.
"As am I, Milord!" Megumin said with excitement.
"I will be there shortly, my Lord." Sukuna responded.
Within a few moments, everyone was in my room. Megumin looked excited, Lalatina was just happy to be here, Sukuna seemed mildly interested, while Arcueid was as graceful as ever.
I looked at Arcueid first. "Kurumi, Raiden, and Saeko will be staying behind. They know to listen to you since you'll be in charge while I'm gone. Though Saeko is with Luminous at the moment."
Arcueid nodded. "I understand."
"After you finish up your important matters, I'll pick you up as well, at least for a little while."
Arcueid smiled. "I'd like that."
I nodded as I turned to the other three. "I'll be storing you three in my Infinity Space at the start so I can get a bit settled in and see what's going on in the other world."
Lalatina nodded. "Yes Master!"
Sukuna merely nodded in acceptance while Megumin pouted but nodded.
"You'll be able to see the outside world so it won't be too boring, I think."
I walked to each one of them, placing a hand on their shoulder and sucking them up into Infinity Space leaving just Arcueid and I in the room.
I stepped forward and gently brushed a strand of silver hair behind Arcueid's ear. Her crimson eyes gazed up at me with love and adoration.
Each of my lovers had a sort of different way they would have liked to say goodbye. Raiden and Saeko were more casual about it, especially since they would be distracting themselves with training.
Luminous would be seeing me shortly anyway, and she wasn't the emotional type in the first place.
Arcueid seemed to just like gestures of affection, which really didn't fit a Primordial Daemon like her.
"Take care of the others. I trust you."
Arcueid nodded firmly as she leaned into my hand like an affectionate cat. "I understand; I will not let you down." She said firmly.
"I know."
I separated from her as Othinus began running the final calculations for the world trip. "I'll see you then, Arcueid. Remember you can always speak to me via our soul corridor."
"Fufufu, I understand, my Lord. Do enjoy your trip." She said with a smile.
"Hopefully I will."
'Othinus.'
"I have calculated the path, All parameters are stable. Initiating dimensional shift in 3… 2…"
All of a sudden a surge of energy pulsed around me in a wave. The process of going to Solo Leveling was more energy intensive than going to Jujutsu Kaisen because of the world of Jujutsu Kaisen being "closer" to the Cardinal World, whereas the world of Solo Leveling was much further.
I bet that had something to with how, in the manwha, the Itarim were responsible for creating that universe, and it was one of the last ones that specific Itarim created, so it was likely towards the edge of the multiverse.
"1."
Space bent and folded around me as Othinus activated Planeswalker to its fullest extent.
I felt myself taking a deep breath out of pure instinct, even if I didn't need to breathe to survive. It almost felt as if I were underwater, passing through a soft membrane that was sort of enveloping me in its embrace.
It was warm and cold, both comforting and distant. It was almost as if I were slowly sinking into the nothingness of the void and the everything of the multiverse. A feeling so strange, yet familiar. It almost reminded me of the first time I had woken up in the Cardinal World, or well, the Daemon Realm.
It was different from how I went to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. Though it made sense, considering that the world of Solo Leveling was extremely "far" from the Cardinal World in comparison.
That was also part of the reason I had let Othinus manage the trip. While I could handle portals and whatnot to other dimensions, I wasn't gonna risk getting stranded in the middle of literal nowhere for no reason.
I couldn't help but open my eyes, yet I could see nothing. Even then, I felt my body slowly drifting. It was being pulled by a strange tug that I could feel was Othinus at work.
Then, as suddenly as I had felt it before, the strange feeling of passing through a membrane coursed through my body once again. The feeling of being underwater quickly being replaced by that of falling.
In an instant, the dark void that covered my vision was replaced by the ridiculously fast sight of countless stars and galaxies passing by me. Were it not for my enhanced senses, I might have only seen a blur.
It was an amazing sight to take in, though it was short-lived. Before I knew it, I found myself floating high above the ocean, with no land or people in sight.
Finally, exhaling the breath I had held in from my world, I took in another breath.
"There's mana in the air." I hummed.
Othinus wasn't really able to specifically choose a time or place for me to appear without a better analysis of this world's timeline, which she wasn't able to acquire. So for all I knew I appeared decades before canon, or decades after canon.
Either way, I think I'd enjoy myself since there was still quite a bit going on in this universe even before anything happened on Earth.
Like the war between the Rulers and Monarchs, though I would have to worry about the Absolute Being.
However, the moment I appeared, I knew that the Absolute Being most likely wasn't a threat. I could feel the mana in the air after all, and mana only appeared centuries if not more after the Absolute Being's death.
Interestingly enough, I could feel more and more mana slowly, very slowly being pushed into Earth, reinforcing it by an extremely miniscule amount with every second that passed.
It wouldn't ever reach the levels of the Cardinal World of course, but it was growing.
As of right now, I would say the world had a decent chance of not being too affected by a fight between two strong Saints if there were no barriers in place.
The mana in this world was different from the magicules I was used to, but I could tell that it was still rooted in spiritrons, so it wasn't too different. Probably just Veldanava's filters at work.
I floated there for a moment, high in the atmosphere as I let my senses stretch out a bit. I couldn't sense any of the Gates I knew probably existed, but I was in the middle of the ocean, so that wasn't surprising, and my senses weren't stretched that far at all.
I smiled as I sensed quite a few interesting sources of power to my east. There were thousands of distinctly nonhuman energy signatures, then a few Human energy signatures, some of which were decently strong for this world from what I understand.
It was pretty difficult to scale people in Solo Leveling since there weren't a whole lot of feats to go off of. The Monarchs and Rulers were likely at minimum as powerful as Saints since it was said their Aura alone would crush a normal unprotected Earth which was why the Rulers had been filtering in mana into this world to reinforce it.
But that still wasn't a whole lot to work off of. I'd have to examine them in person to get a better idea.
The Rulers and Monarchs were all powerful though, of that I had no doubt. They were similar to the Primordial Angels and Primordial Daemons.
The Primordial Angels and Primordial Daemons were basically split off from the Great Holy Spirit of Light and Darkness respectively. As for the Rulers and Monarchs, the Absolute Being split this universe's primordial light and darkness into 16 individuals. 8 fragments of Brilliant Light and 8 Monarchs to battle each other and entertain him.
It was rather interesting how similar the Rulers and Monarchs were to the Angels and Daemons of the Cardinal World. Both were Spiritual Lifeforms and needed proper vessels to materialize in the world, both originated from another dimension, both were literal opposites, etc.
Perhaps the Absolute Being took some inspiration from the Cardinal Universe?
As I focused my senses more on my east, I noticed one energy signature among the bunch that stood out to me. The person in question had a limited amount of power, but inside of him there was far more than what he was showing, and I had a feeling I knew just who it was that I was sensing.
I laughed as I felt the power inside of the energy signature I was observing lash out, shielding him from my senses. I could ignore it if I wanted to, and there was still some more interesting stuff, so I did for the time being.
To my west I could sense even more decently strong people, but there was a single one who stood out far more than the rest.
The amount of energy this person was radiating was honestly impressive. They were at least at the level of a Demon Lord Seed.
I was able to quickly figure out just where I was, and I couldn't help but laugh as I realized just where I was and at what time period I appeared.
After all, to my west was China, and there was only one extremely powerful person that fit the analysis I had done, and that was Liu Zhigang, one of the National Hunters and a vessel of the Rulers. And then, of course, that meant to my east was Jeju Island.
I was situated between China and Jeju Island.
There was only one event in canon where there would be plenty of powerful people on both Jeju Island and China, and that was the Jeju Island raid.
Quite the timing for me to appear; just in time for things in this world to get pretty interesting. This could be an AU, of course, but even then I was looking forward to what I would find.
Before I went to Jeju Island, I decided that I wanted to do something different from my last world trip. On my last one, I was hilariously stronger than any person around. While I'm not exactly sure about the power levels of this world, I still felt rather confident that I'd be fine.
I came to this world to have fun, to fight, to observe new techniques and meet new people. A large portion of my enjoyment would be gone if I just bulldozed through every obstacle, so I decided to roam this world in a Body Double of sorts, similar to the one Veldora is incarnated in.
One with a fraction of my actual power so that I could enjoy myself a bit more. If things got dire I could always materialize in my main body with all my power, so there was no real risk.
As of right now, I was leaning towards allowing myself Monarch/Ruler levels of power. Unfortunately, I didn't quite understand just what that level was, but my educated guess was that they were probably around the 1,000,000 - 2,500,000 EP range, with the Monarch of Destruction, Antares, and the Shadow Monarch, Ashborn maybe stretching up to 3,000,000 - 4,500,000.
That was enough EP that they were at least capable of continental scale levels of destruction, and that was at minimum. Antares and Ashborn could likely scale all the way up to planetary for this Earth that was reinforced with quite a bit of mana.
In the Cardinal World they would be far lesser, but they'd still be decently strong. Enough to wipe out a few country sized settlements at least, though none of the land beneath the settlement as destroying any sort of land connected to the world was far easier said than done for the Cardinal World.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if Antares and the Shadow Monarch had more EP than the Primordials I had under me. The Shadow Monarch was literally created to be one of the Absolute Being's more interesting toys, while the Dragon Monarch had been training almost nonstop for eons.
Whereas Arcueid, Megumin, and Lalatina got complacent with their power levels in the Daemon Realm and had only recently taken up training to grow stronger.
Though I was still confident in them winning in a fight, as despite growing lax in their time in the Daemon Realm, their techniques were no joke, not to mention they had Ultimate Skills.
I wasn't sure if the Monarchs and Rulers could fight on the Ultimate level, but I suppose I'd be finding out soon enough.
I closed my eyes and began focusing on creating a Split Body. My plan was to basically move my consciousness to the Split Body and give it a portion of my power, while my primary existence was stored in Infinity Space while I piloted the Split Body.
The entire method was kind of scuffed, but it would work.
"The Extra Skill: Parallel Existence has been acquired." Othinus said with some amusement.
I blinked in confusion as I processed the data of the new Skill Othinus created.
"I was already aware of your desire, so I created an optimized version of what you had in mind." Othinus explained.
'Huh, thanks then.'
Skills generally wouldn't be awarded to people in worlds other than the Cardinal World. It wasn't that it was impossible, just that the Voice of the World was based in the Cardinal World primarily. The whole Skill function was reserved for the Cardinal World, and so Skills generally only appeared in people in the Cardinal World.
There were still abilities of course, they just weren't in Skill form.
Othinus could bypass that entirely though.
I quickly went through the data for the Parallel Existence Skill. It was a rather convenient Skill.
It basically allowed me to split my consciousness and create a body for my split consciousness, so there could be two, or three, or four, or more of me at one time. This didn't violate the rule of only one soul at one point in time being allowed to exist, as all the bodies were essentially split off from my soul.
There were two modes I could take with Parallel Existence. I could make it so that each body had its own independent consciousness that was basically me, and acted without my supervision, but was still connected to me via a soul corridor. Or I could make it so that my main consciousness piloted all the other bodies at once.
Though this required a lot of focus and wasn't viable for me in a combat scenario as this Skill functioned off my own processing power, so I would be the driving force behind all the bodies.
My computational power was great, far beyond what most could dream of, but it wasn't quite at the level where I felt comfortable piloting multiple bodies with each fighting a high level foe, which is what I wanted at minimum to be comfortable using Parallel Existence in a combat oriented way, otherwise I'd just be losing some of my power with nothing to gain,
In this case, I would be storing my main self in my Infinity Space and just piloting an extra body via Parallel Existence.
On top of this, each extra body that had its own independent consciousness could become a main body if I wished.
So I could transfer my main self between bodies. Even if my main self somehow dies, one of my other bodies would become my new main self, though I didn't want to test the mechanics behind that…ever.
Though this wasn't present in the other bodies I controlled, only the completely independent ones.
On top of that, since all the bodies are deeply connected to each other through a special type of soul corridor, all the other bodies have full and unrestricted access to all Skills, including Unique and even Ultimate Skills. There would be a small delay which would likely affect high level fights, but it was sufficient for my current purposes.
Though I didn't plan to abuse my Skills in this world for combat, as I feel like that would take a lot of fun out of this world. I wanted to play around with techniques more than Skills in this world, but it was a useful option to have, since some of the techniques I planned to try out did involve some aspect of my Skills, they just weren't the primary applications of them.
I also wanted to play around with some of the True Dragon Magic I now had access to, like Veldora's Storm Magic, and Velzard's Frost Magic.
Though the plus side was that Othinus would be with me due to those effects. I didn't think I'd need her for any fights or anything, but it was always comforting having her around.
"!!!!"
I laughed at the emotional spike I sensed from her. She was too easy to tease.
The way Parallel Existence actually works though is that while individually each other body only has as much energy as I give the body, I can easily replenish and even add to the energy from anywhere by drawing it from any of the other bodies through the soul corridors connecting them all.
The only limit is that the maximum energy of all the bodies combined is limited to the maximum energy capacity of the me, that being around 83,000,000 EP, and it would likely stay around that level as well.
My EP, power output, and magic power all received a buff via Beelzebuth's Food Chain that strengthened me when my subordinates grew stronger, but my gains were getting smaller and smaller. Now, they were almost minuscule.
That told me I was reaching my upper limits of strength.
Even being at my current level was unheard of for a Daemon, especially a non Primordial Daemon, but it seems this was as far as my potential would take me for now, at least concerning EP alone. Even then, my potential allowed me to reach a point where I at least have more raw energy and raw power than Guy Crimson, and that was absurd.
My original potential was far lower, but my potential grew as I evolved, until I eventually became a Devil Lord and True Demon Lord. At that point I'm guessing my cap was around 20,000,000 EP, and that too with thousands of years of training most likely. It was below Guy's current EP, but he was a Primordial so that was expected.
My potential expanded dramatically after incorporating three Dragon Factors into my being, allowing me to shoot way past Guy even in my base form. Then there was Othinus who was always upgrading my soul.
If I wanted to expand my potential further, I'd probably need the last Dragon Factor, the Scorch Dragon, Velgrynd's, or I would have to reach a similar stage of existence as the True Dragons. Those were the two main methods that I could see having a substantial impact on my potential.
Seeing as that wasn't likely, I didn't think further about it. Instead, at least at this point, the best thing I could do was create more complex and difficult to deal with techniques, and so I was here in this world to mess around a bit with some of the techniques I came up with.
And unlike others, I had the raw power to make more absurd techniques, which is a limitation most others couldn't get past. While EP isn't the most important part of a fighter, having a low EP could be very limiting.
And since most people aren't going to have the potential to be on the level of a True Dragon, their techniques aren't going to have a lot of oomph behind them.
Even Rimuru was far below that level, and so his techniques were a bit limited due to the overall amount of power he could output. Though I'm sure he could fight on that level with some creativity, similar to Guy.
I quickly went over every facet of Parallel Existence before I closed my eyes and began using it.
There were two real downsides of Parallel Existence. One was that there was a limited amount of bodies that could be created at once.
For each other body created, 5% of my maximum energy is used as a collateral, an energy maintenance cost which is subtracted from my total energy pool.
This collateral will return to me upon undoing the other body, subtracting any damage sustained by said other body as well. If said other body is destroyed, this energy is lost and must be recovered normally. Though with Magicule Breeder Reactor, that wasn't an issue.
Still, that means at minimum the total EP I need to give is around 4,000,000.
The second restriction that I possessed is that I need to be near the Parallel Existence body for it to have consciousness, otherwise it would just be like a Split Body, but slightly better.
But that was fine for my purposes. I could even think of a couple ways something like this could be useful in combat.
With that, I closed my eyes and focused inward.
My Infinity Space responded immediately as I separated a piece of my soul and created a brand new body around it via Parallel Existence.
It felt rather odd, but I got used to it quickly.
It wasn't like I was duplicating myself entirely, this was more like creating a new branch of myself.
I anchored the fragment of my soul to the new form, then poured in the requisite energy, all 4,150,000 EP.
My perception of the world around me almost blurred as I felt the new connection between myself and the new body snap into place.
Instantly I felt the flood of new information, sight, sound, sensation. I could feel all of it from the new body, though there wasn't much to sense in my Infinity Space, but I still managed it with relative ease.
I snapped my fingers, sending the new body flinging in front of me from my Infinity Space. The perspective was definitely odd since I was looking at myself from two points of views.
I waved my hand with my new body all while punching forward with my main one.
"Definitely trippy." I muttered aloud, in both my real self and my parallel self. Both of our voices synced accordingly.
I closed my eyes and focused on the special soul corridor between myself and the split body.
The flow of energy between my main self and the new existence was incredibly natural. There was zero time delay between us and at any moment; I could withdraw or reinforce it.
It was a true extension of me.
I'd stalled enough though. In the blink of an eye, I stored my main self into my Infinity Space, put myself into a low energy mode of sorts, and focused my full consciousness into my new split body.
The translation was pretty seamless overall, and I could immediately abandon this body and focus back on my main body in a moment if I wanted to.
In the first place, it wasn't as if my consciousness was leaving my main body. I was just controlling this split body through the soul corridor from my main body. Due to the nature of Parallel Existence, the control itself was perfect with no delays at all.
I clenched my fists, wincing slightly at just how… weak I felt.
I still had strength many couldn't even imagine, but I was so much weaker than before. The only time I was weaker was before my Harvest Festival. After that, I had shot beyond even my current power level.
My EP alone was a fraction of my true EP, and I could feel the effects of that.
But I quickly shrugged it off. It was a bit trippy to go from my former dimension rendering levels of power to what I was at now, but I could deal with it. I did this to myself, after all.
I allowed a little bit of my Aura to leak around me, just enough to show off a bit, but not enough to make everyone shit themselves in absolute terror.
The waves rippled outwards as my Aura began to soak into the environment. The air grew heavier as my energy permeated throughout the area.
I had to make a good introduction after all, anyone with style could attest that meeting someone with your Aura blazing around you was the way to go. Shanks did it against Whitebeard, Roger did it when facing down Whitebeard, Garp did it when going to save Koby, Goku basically turned into a star when he became a Super Saiyan for the first time, and Ichigo's Bankai could speak for itself.
The only question is, would my Demon Lord's Haki be too much?
I'd figure that out later. I focused inward and began trying to channel some of my Skills.
A condensed black hole formed above my palm before I quickly erased it by chucking it into my Infinity Space.
As expected, it had full access to all my Skills, including my Ultimate Skills.
'Othinus?'
"I'm here." She responded.
With Othinus accounted for, I extended my wings behind me and immediately boomed forwards towards Jeju Island, at speeds far slower than I was used to.
I didn't plan to make a similar entrance to the one I made in Jujutsu Kaisen, with just immediately getting into a fight and not explaining anything at all.
I didn't have a particular plan persay, but I planned to introduce myself to the S-Rankers on Jeju Island. I mostly wanted to analyze Sung Jin-Woo. I was pretty curious about how the System worked and if I could see Ashborn within Jin-Woo.
After that I'd decide what to do based on how they acted. Perhaps I could play Demon Lord, or a benevolent Hero from another world. The latter would admittedly be pretty funny being who I was.
I didn't have any solid plan, but at least I didn't plan to be hostile, not right off the bat at least.
- Sung Jin-Woo -
"Cancel Extraction." He said as he reached his hand out towards Min Byung-Gyu.
It was a shame that he would lose a capable healer, but he didn't plan to keep a man who didn't want to fight anymore as part of his army, especially a man that had done no harm to him.
Min Byung-Gyu was one of the greatest Hunters to ever live, all because of his absurd ability to heal almost any wound. He was desired around the world due to how rare his power was, and just how potent it was.
"Thank you." Baek Yoonho, the Guild Master of the White Tiger Guild and one of the best Fighter Class Hunters out there, said.
There was a genuine look of thankfulness on his face as the last wisps of Min Byung-Gyu disappeared.
It was rather humbling to see the rapid progress he'd made, with even S Ranks thanking him.
Jin-Woo merely nodded, accepting his thanks.
His gaze wandered down to Hunter Cha Hae-In. Her state was still not ideal, but thanks to Min Byung-Gyu's healing, she would recover.
He had managed to arrive just in the knick of time. He only found out that things weren't going well on Jeju Island due to the Shadow he left on Goto Ryuji being killed due to there being a delay in the broadcast and what was truly occurring live.
His gaze wandered to all the Korean S-Rankers who were present. Each of them were brutally wounded by the Ant he fought. Though oddly enough, the cameraman was perfectly fine, other than being terrified of course.
Just how did the cameraman avoid injury when even the experienced S-Rankers didn't? A true mystery.
His gaze wandered to the Ant's corpse. He had a feeling it would become a rather useful Shadow.
In the first place, the fight with the Ant was definitely one of the few that truly pushed him. If his Skill: Vital Strike didn't evolve into Mutilate, then he would have far more trouble due to the sheer toughness of the Ant's exoskeleton.
His status sheet materialized in front of him, and he couldn't help but feel satisfied at seeing the increase in his level and stats.
It was only a few levels, but levels added up quickly.
"You all should leave." He told the other S-Rankers. He wanted some privacy when he resurrected the Ant and the Ant Queen. Not to mention his concern over their well being.
Choi Jong-In, the man called the Ultimate Hunter and one of the best Mage Class Hunters, took the lead and nodded. "He's right; we all need medical attention." He said as he gripped the wound on his torso.
However, before he could make his move to escort everyone out before coming back for the Ant, he froze completely stiff.
"Hunter Sung?" Ma Dongwook, the Guild Master of the Fame Guild called out. Ma Dongwook was one of the greatest Tanks in the world, even if his performance against the Ant was lacking, though no one would blame Ma Dongwook for that.
Most others didn't have senses as attuned to mana as his was for some reason, but he felt the presence of someone extremely powerful enter a one kilometer radius of Jeju Island.
After a second more, all the other S Rankers froze up, even the A Rank cameraman was frozen. It was hard to not sense the overwhelming amount of mana the being was releasing.
After another moment he could feel the source of the absurd mana directly above the mountain they were in.
He heard someone take an audible gulp.
Baek Yoonho clicked his tongue. "Tsk. Of course we aren't done yet. Could it be another Ant?" He asked with some worry.
Jin-Woo shook his head. "Not likely. The mana doesn't feel like that of any of the Ants' in the area." And there were quite a lot of ants fleeing the island now.
"It may not be another Ant, but it doesn't feel Human either." Lim Tae-Gyu, the Guild Master of the Fiend Guild and their resident S Rank Archer said as he tightened his grip on his bow.
He clenched his fists as he looked towards Hunter Cha. While the worst of her injuries were healed, she still needed to see a medical professional. Another battle would be detrimental to them right now.
Not to mention he was worried about the rest of the crew on and around the island. This being had remained undetected until just now. For all he knew, the being may have slaughtered those in charge of recording today's events before heading here to finish them off.
He would like to get away, but his Shadow Exchange was on cooldown at the moment. Not to mention he wasn't sure if he could bring others with him through that.
He held his hands out as the two Demon King's Daggers materialized in his palm. The system classified them as S Rank items. He could only hope they would be enough.
Baek Yoonho assumed his Beast Form. Choi Jong-In's hands lit up with searing hot flames, Lim Tae-Gyu drew his bow back, and Ma Dongwook took his place ahead of them as the Tank.
Of course, the cameraman took his place just behind them, though he noticed the blinking light on the camera, indicating that they were live once more.
He could feel his heart beginning to race as a low rumble echoed through the cavern.
He could feel his palms getting sweaty, something about the entire situation was off to him. He wasn't worried at all when facing the Ant King that destroyed the Korean S Rankers, yet now he was intimidated when he hadn't even seen his newest foe?
He could only guess it was something about the Aura the being was releasing. Something about it was off putting and extremely… deep, he couldn't quite explain it.
The energy output alone was extremely vast, but still something he felt they could all handle as a group, especially with his Shadows. However, he couldn't get rid of the pit in his stomach.
They watched as a crack formed in the ceiling above them, sending small pebbles tumbling to the ground.
They all froze as all of a sudden the top portion of the mountain was sliced completely through, as if it was made of butter.
"Did any of you see anything?" Baek Yoonho grunted.
"I saw nothing. Maybe it was some sort of invisible wind blade?" Choi Jong-In said, immediately getting to work on analyzing their opponents abilities.
What Jin-Woo wanted most right now was to get a line of sight of the being. That way he could at least analyze them and get a general threat level.
They all watched in stunned silence as a massive section of the mountain that was cleanly cut was lifted into the air as if it weighed nothing.
A figure too distant to truly see was holding it by the edge. For a moment, the piece of the mountain was just held in the being's grasp as they looked down at their group. All he could confirm was that the being was not Human, as no Human would have the demonic wings he could see the shadows of.
Jin-Woo immediately tried to observe the figure. He usually was able to check the threat level of an individual by looking at their name that would be floating above them.
The name would be white for no threat to his being, strength wise only of course, not motive wise. Then there was yellow for a moderate threat, and red for a definite threat that there was a chance he would not survive against.
Jin-Woo froze as the being lazily flicked their wrist, hurling the mountain chunk away. The world seemed to shake as the massive chunk of land crashed into the sea, probably sending a geyser of water hundreds of meters into the air.
The resulting shockwave sent powerful gusts rushing through the shattered cavern forcing them to brace themselves.
"What the hell?" Lim Tae-Gyu said in awe.
As they tanked the shockwaves, the being floated down into view, close enough for him to observe.
He blinked in confusion as nothing appeared. It was as if the system didn't even recognize the being in front of him.
"Oh? Are you attempting to analyze me?" The figure said with some amusement as their cloak billowed behind.
Jin-Woo froze, partly in fear, and partly in pure shock.
No being had been able to know that he was observing them, not even the Demon King Baran.
This was the first time his system had failed at anything. And oddly enough, he felt an odd feeling of panic coming from within him, but it wasn't quite his own panic.
He shook his head, pushing that thought away for later, even if it was rather concerning.
He knew they should be attacking right now, but some part of him told him that would be a foolish mistake. And going by the grim looks on the other S-Rankers, they knew the same.
Attacking right now would not work. Their instincts that had been honed in many life and death battles told them so.
The best they could hope to do was stall at this point and wait for reinforcements.
Damn, and he said he wouldn't be long to Jinha.
His shadows were still hidden around the cavern as he hadn't desummoned them.
As the man floated into view, Jin-Woo looked over his physical features. He was tall, easily over six feet, his form was athletic and refined. He seemed to have the build of a Ranger, though that strength he demonstrated was far more suited to a Tanker.
His hair was whitish-silver and was flowing loosely in the wind. However, it was his eyes that were the most off putting. They were wonderful blues that he had never seen before. It almost felt as if those eyes could look straight into his soul, but the contrast with the black sclera made it off putting.
"He's not Human." Choi Jong-In muttered grimly, and he didn't blame him.
As the being landed on the other side of the cavern, Lim Tae-Gyu let loose an arrow towards the man.
He watched as the magically constructed arrow shattered the sound barrier.
The man merely tilted his head to the side, allowing the arrow to pass him by harmlessly and crash into the wall behind him.
They all ignored the subsequent collapse of that side of the cavern.
"Now that wasn't very nice. I'm here in peace." The man said in perfectly fluent Korean as he raised his hands in mock surrender, his wings seemingly folding into themselves before vanishing.
Despite the man's actions, none of them relaxed at all.
He eyed everyone else. They were all low on mana except for him, so the situation was not ideal.
The Aura around the being almost seemed to weigh the atmosphere down, the mana in the air somehow felt heavier than before.
His eyes widened in realization as he realized what felt so familiar about the energy of the man.
It felt similar to how the atmosphere in the Demon Castle felt… demonic.
"Another intelligent one?" Baek Yoonho said.
The man raised a brow as he looked towards the body of the Ant King, his arms now tucked into his pockets. "Please don't compare me to the bug, no matter the fact that Beru, is in fact, best girl. I'm being nice here." The man said as he took a step forward.
All of them immediately straightened up, preparing for any incoming attack. The shadows around them seemed to come alive.
All his Shadows coalesced around them, leaving the being surrounded. They all had their orders and would move to cover their retreat should a fight happen.
The best case would be no fight at all happening.
"So that's how they look." The man said with an impressed hum as he paused his movement.
"Be careful, he's a Demon." Jin-Woo said grimmly. He knew full well that not all Demons were necessarily bad, but he couldn't afford to take a chance now, not with one so strong.
"Oh? That's quite close." The man said with an impressed smile, confirming what he already knew.
"This is not good." Choi Jong-In said. "Can you take him, Hunter Sung?"
"I don't know."
"Ghahaha, you're a few millennia too young to be talking about fighting me." The Demon said with a laugh. "That Baran guy couldn't even touch the bottom of my toes, so you're shit outta luck if you wanna start a fight." The man said with some amusement while Jin-Woo stood in shock once again at how the Demon even knew about Baran.
"Here, as a show of good faith I'll let you try your whole analysis thing again."
No one said anything as they all waited for him to make a move. Despite him being the least experienced one here, they all were seemingly looking at him to take the lead, and so he did what he had been wanting to, and a part of him was wishing that he hadn't.
Felix White
It was pitch black, his name was pitch black, something he had never seen before. This being was so out of his league.
ⓘ NOTIFICATION
[Urgent Quest - Survive]
A quest window appeared in front of him and opened on its own.
ⓘ QUEST INFO
[Urgent Quest - Survive]
Goal:
Survive
Reward: Survival
"You're kidding, right?" He found himself voicing out.
___________________________________________________________________
I am highly motivated by your guys' reviews and likes, so do that! I'll probably keep writing or something.
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Author's Note:
Sup everyone, back with another chapter of Daemon. We finally get into the next world trip! I'm looking forward to messing around a bit in this world, went with a bit of a different entrance in comparison to the last world trip.
Sung Jin-Woo is overthinking things, dude does not know what to do now that aura farming is not possible.
The other S-Rankers are pretty shit scared, they just got bodied by Beru, and Felix is releasing an aura larger than Beru's so they aren't in the right state of mind right now, or else they would have set up a coordinated attack right away. They're pretty much running on fumes right now.
Anyways, thanks for reading, peace.
Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta'ing this chapter.
Last bit of editing -Omnax
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