Transcending Realms With My Leveling System As A Demon-Chapter 118: A Stepping Stone Retract

An Orthus. The Orthus stood low to the ground, massive and lean, its body built like a predator meant to run forever. Two heads rose from the same powerful frame; one calm and watchful, eyes glowing a muted violet, the other twisted in a permanent snarl, fangs bared and dripping with shadow. Its fur was dark as a starless void, split by faint, glowing cracks of purple light that pulsed slowly beneath the surface, like something alive was struggling to break free.

Smoke curled from its shoulders with every breath, the air around it bending and dimming as if the creature drank the light itself. Each step was silent despite its size, claws sinking into the ground without a sound. When it moved, both heads turned in opposite directions, seeing everything at once, missing nothing.

This was not a beast that barked or charged wildly. The Orthus waited. patient, inevitable; like a sentence already decided, only waiting to be carried out.

"Roarrrrrrr!" The mythical creature, also known as The Orthus, growled, spreading both its heads into the air.

The aura illuminating off of its ginormous silhouette didn’t frighten Zylus, because he couldn’t feel fear. He was still wondering what would be best in his current situation.

Zylus had been stripped of almost everything: no forms allowed, no Demonic techniques, and his stats were heavily reduced by fifty per cent. It was like a nightmare, one bound to occur.

But for some reason, Zylus kept a malicious grin on his face, staring deeply at the beast standing in the desert far from Zylus. The Orthus stared back, it waited, and continued to wait as if Zylus was neither a threat nor an opponent. The two-headed monster stared at him as if he were a new item added to an old restaurant menu.

The blood on the sand soaked; he didn’t quite understand where it came from, although it did work in his favour.

[Speed Reduced To 1,000Km/h]

"Let’s begin," Zylus jumped from side to side, "Katana, form."

[Demonic Weapon: Forming]

[Demonic Katana Status: Formed]

Zylus gripped the now-formed katana, and he stabbed the tip into the sand. Removing his hand from the grip after balancing his Demonic Weapon, he sighed. Zylus jumped from side to side for a couple of seconds, closing his eyes, breathing in, taking the current situation at hand.

The Orthus radiated with overwhelming Systemic Flow, more than Zylus in his original form, but less when he utilises Demonic Kin, much less. Zylus then stopped jumping, closing his eyes, as he gripped the handle of his Demonic Weapon once more.

Zoom!

Just like that, he began moving forward towards The Orthus, preparing to swing his katana around both necks. He lowered his stance to gain more acceleration, but it didn’t help much, because...

He was much slower than The Orthus.

As Zylus reached just [200 Meters] apart from the creature, it disappeared.

"Where the fuck..."

Zylus widened his view, looking around him, trying to figure out where it could have gone. But then again, there was simply nothing in sight to help.

And just then, he felt it, from behind. Just in time to dodge. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Bammm!

Zylus was lucky enough to feel the breath of the right head on The Orthus, just barely enabling him to dodge below, and sprint back to another end, away from the terrifying creature.

[Systemic Flow Will Remain Because There’s Nothing It Can Be Affected By]

"That was a close one," Zylus breathed in and out, turning around to look towards The Orthus’s eyes.

He could’ve sworn he had more stamina than this, though, at the same time, they were battling under the sun. Which made him sweat even more.

Since Zylus couldn’t use any techniques or his [Demonic Kin], his [Systemic Flow] will remain at [100%], which, on the upside, he won’t fall unconscious after a move.

Zylus began closing in on the distance, where The Orthus remained. This time, the creature didn’t bark or growl; it just stayed there, logically waiting, as if it had a brain.

He began sprinting back towards the beast, at [1,000 Km/h], but nothing changed. It disappeared again. It felt as though the creature took away [False Body Deception Technique] and claimed it for itself.

Though now, Zylus decided to look all around him in an instant, making sure he was more aware this time. Yet, he couldn’t see anything.

"Can’t stop here," he paused, wondering out loud, "No way..."

He felt the terrain right below him slightly shake as he began to wobble around, trying to move away.

"It couldn’t be," he looked down, then tried sprinting away rapidly, but the ground’s constant movement didn’t let him, "Fuck!!!"

"Grrrrrr!" The Orthus’s growl came from below Zylus’s feet, below the sound, and into the ground’s soil itself. "Grrrr!"

Zylus tried going away, but he couldn’t; it felt as though he was attempting to climb up a vertical mountain without a horizontal axis, just a one-way Y-direction.

"You Fucking Bitch!" He yelled out, stabbing his Katana into the ground, which was a terrible miss, as the creature began coming out of it.

Once the Orthus showed both its heads beneath the ground, the terrain started to calm down again, but it didn’t matter; their white, sharp teeth were chasing right after Zylus, who was right beside them.

Both heads went at him, and he was trapped; he couldn’t do much, not at all.

"Shhhhhhh!" Their teeth jittered from the bottom to the top. Zylus tightened his katana’s grip, which wouldn’t do much damage considering the defensive scaling on The Orthus.

They would’ve killed him, here, and now.

But then, for some odd reason, Zylus stabbed his big toe.

"Ahhhhh!" Pain and anguish still applied to him after all. "I’ll kill you where you stand!"

Zylus let out a calm breath after screaming. The two beasts were right beside him, layering themselves just low enough to get a bite.

Their necks stretched outwards, while Zylus closed his eyes and murmured just one thing while sneering.

"Human System..." Zylus raised his katana into the air, "Activate."