Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord
Chapter 380: A Demon
That single word shook the whole darkness. It moved and unfurled around Herdmaster, trembling and shuddering. The voice came from all around him with a vibration that made his own soul shake.
Herdmaster froze. An horrible expression crossed his face and, without hesitation, he turned to run. His figure blurred through the darkness like a falling star, but no matter how far he ran, the darkness was always there.
Laughter bled through, following him as he ran. "You wanted to see me, here I am!"
"No! No, no, no, no! This is impossible! How is this possible?" Herdmaster could feel himself breaking down from the sheer weight of what he was witnessing. Something that should not have been possible.
The darkness around him wasn’t actually darkness. It was the soul of Tong! He’s currently in the man’s soul!
"What are you!" he howled. Any plan of battle fled from his mind as it was replaced by terror.
The darkness didn’t reply. This time, it simply collapsed. The darkness warped around Herdmaster and smashed him out of existence.
In the real world, Herdmaster flinched and his body went still, his eyes vacant as he fell.
Isolde watched this with a complicated expression on her face and didn’t know how to act. Is Herdmaster dead?
But just as Herdmaster’s body touched the ground, the three Master rank soul creatures collapsed and their souls, together with the one still holding Vale’s, were returned to Herdmaster.
Herdmaster jerked awake and stopped himself from falling, stabilizing himself. He gasped, his eyes instantly finding Tong. "What are you.."
Herdmaster was currently weak, his face pale and his aura feeble.
Tong smiled. "Interesting. You split your soul and use the souls of those you devour as fuel so they can function separately. You are very skilled, but now you are weak. What are you going to do now?"
Just then Vale groaned. Although he still couldn’t move any parts of his body and couldn’t count the number of shattered bones he currently had, his eyes were beginning to clear, and glaring.
It was set on Herdmaster.
Herdmaster took a step back and forced a smile. "Do we really have to fight now?"
His words were so unreasonable that it stunned everyone. Did he just say that?
Before anyone could say anything, the man laughed nervously. "Come now, we’re all Knights and I haven’t killed anyone here. Just flesh wounds, those can be easily taken care of. Why are you all so hung up on it...."
Suddenly a voice cut him off. Isolde pointed. "He’s buying time! He has an artifact on him!"
Herdmaster froze, then his face turned ugly. Without hesitation, he whirled towards Vale, his movement faster than his rank should produce. His tattered robe suddenly burst with ghostly lights!
The robe he was wearing was actually an artifact!
He reached Vale and grabbed him by the legs, easily lifting him as he unceremoniously lurched into the air, making his escape.
His master had impressed upon him the importance of getting Vale back no matter what. That was why the artifact was personally provided to him.
And now, as he saw the odds turning against him, he quickly began to make his escape, dragging Vale behind him!
His speed was astonishing, so fast that even he had to create a shield around himself to protect against the wind. The billowing robes shooting him forward abnormally fast.
Vale was left in an awkward position. He had already endured so much humiliation earlier, and now he was being dragged through the air by his leg? And he was even powerless to stop it!
Below, Tong and Isolde stared at the ghostly light that was disappearing down the desert sun. It happened so fast that they didn’t even have time to react. An artifact like that, increasing speed to who knows what level.
Even then, Tong shoved his surprise back. His own clothes rippled around him. The enchantments on them lit up one after another, bright red and gold. And unlike human enchantment words of power, these were different—other and ancient.
A type of illusion slid off Tong and his inherent nature was actually revealed!
The clothes moved like liquid and suddenly his back burst open as wings like those of a bat appeared, made entirely of cloth and enchantments. With a single flap, Tong disappeared, leaving only a shockwave of dust behind.
Isolde stared in shock. "Just what... is happening?"
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
"A Demon?" Dim Light was shocked, and there was no laughter in her voice this time. When the tide of battle turned against Vale, she had come to Cold Ash to mock him in her usual laughing way. They had since left the meeting area, and yet she still went to find him just to mock him.
Cold Ash stared at the magic screen, his face motionless. He hadn’t expected Vale to lose so fast and so easily, and he had already counted his scheme as a failure.
Then Herdmaster got defeated in a battle of souls, and things were tilted in his favor once more. But who would have thought that he was hiding such a marvelous escape-making artifact?
Now though, everything was muddy again because a Demon appeared! Demons are creatures that are bound by the laws of the world, restricting them and firmly suppressing them. They cannot act freely.
And all of this is because they are inherently much stronger than humans. Removing essence and magic, demons are stronger, and the addition of power to the two only leaves a gap between them.
Once the demons wanted to enslave the world, and they would have succeeded, but the gods—when there were still gods—stepped in and wrote a restriction into the very law of the world.
Not only demons, but many entities were forbidden.
None of them had ever seen or heard of a demon crossing over since then. Although there are courts that borrow their powers and strength, all of that is done through portals, not inviting demons into the world.
But now, they were looking at one. Unmistakable. Their hearts shook.
Because the implication remained that someone must have authority to alter the law—someone with strong divine power!
Suddenly Cold Ash and Dim Light focused on Vale Athrimir.
And not only them, all the secret powers that had been watching focused intently and gleamed at this.
What does this mean? There are lots of powers in the world—strange and marvelous, terrible and ancient. Old monsters and new dragons. Vast and hollow. But none could compare with divinity.
The gods are gone, and humans are their own gods. But there are traces of these gods—sparks and fire of divinity scattered around. They are sources of incredible power and the backbone of world powers.
Each that is found is guarded, and those that couldn’t guard theirs paid for it with blood.
How could such a thing be found in a backward world like this? Why should it be found?
The Hollow Grave members quickly glimpsed one of the true reasons they had been sent to find Vale Athrimir!
In truth, every Forbidden Knight that claimed a Shard has a touch of divinity, but almost none have managed to touch the laws like Vale. Thus, they remained relatively hidden.
But now... Vale just showed himself! How long before the whole world knows about it and comes to tear the young Knights apart?
All this passed through the Hollow Grave members’ minds. Even then, there was a hint of greed, but they knew better!
Suddenly the stunned Dim Light and Cold Ash disappeared from where they were sitting and appeared in the meeting area as if they had never left.
All of them were there, including the leader.
The Hollow Grave Leader of the Hinterlands region stared at the remaining four members and said in a grave voice, "We will act."
Nobody said anything.
"I have an idea of all those who are currently spying on the Hinterlands. We will kill them all, and then we will wipe out the Beloved branch in this place, destroying them entirely."
All the members’ hearts shook.
Beloved of the World is an organization considered a world power, with a landed territory of their own. In the earlier meeting, didn’t they say they were going to keep a low profile?
But the leader wasn’t done. "Every information broker that knows about this will be killed. Anyone with a hint of knowledge about this will die. Only those you trust will be kept alive!"
After a bit of silence, Murky Mist asked, "What about... those with Vale Athrimir? All his companions, although they might not know the significance, they still..."
The leader snorted. "We don’t have to do those personally. We’ll use a borrowed knife to deal with those kinds of people. But every organization will be destroyed."
"This will spell our doom, Leader," Dim Light said in a cold voice.
"After this, if you survive, I’ll lead you into a crack and witness the magnificence of the Old One."