Soul of Searing Steel

[Demons never existed in the first place.]

General Helm had always thought so, even if itself was addressed reverently as the [Thousand Eyed Demon] in a thousand words.

Strictly speaking, that conclusion was not considered wrong. Ultimately, the title ‘demon’ had originally been a pronoun made by otherworld races on their own accord, and had merely spread out into the Abyss at some unknown point in time. Each layer of Abyssal demon had their own unique name for their own race as it had been their name before their world died.

Those fools that had come for a limited tour or two before quickly crowning the name demons were completely ignorant of all that had gone on behind the scenes and pridefully made their conclusion. The truth, however, was the complete opposite for no ‘true demon’ existed at all in the Multiverse, and neither was there life that was ‘born Chaotic’.

So how were there creatures that disobeyed that logic? While there were certainly aspects of inborn nature in how life behaved, nurture in life later on was just as important.

The cause for everything was this world.

The skies that had been engulfed in dust for ten thousand years and the land eroded by toxic for a few millennia. The true form of ‘demon’ may have been ordinary creatures, but in this wasteland with where there was no slaughter, plunder and yet souls would still gradually decompose, there had been no soil born in kindness and Order.

And just that.

Against the sudden, violent strike from the giant god beneath it, Helm did not plan its countermove at once as a nostalgic emotion arose within the Demon General’s heart as he faced that lava hand that closed in without stopping. Even the name of that sensation had been forgotten, but through waves of evocative thrill, its memory returned to a distant past instantly.

It was perhaps nine hundred years ago. Some powerful otherworld mage had accidentally stumbled into the Sixth Abyss due to a failed teleportation, and was forced to only wander around the barren wastelands. The Lava Inferno had neither Abyssal Lord nor Demon General at the time, with only numerous archdemons claiming various territories of their own. The mage’s ability would have allowed it to conquer a piece of land to become a non-demon lord, which was not rare since many evil dragons would tuck their lairs safely at some corner in the Abyss. However, the mage was thinking of his family in every waking moment, believing that it had to leave that wretched world at least and kept searching for a way to leave.

Finally, it found it. The mage arrived by the banks of the Nether River, and attempt to leave by relying on the long river that permeates endless worlds to leave. It believed that it would succeed, but the truth was not as one wished.

As the black rivers gushed, its flesh was eroded by the Nether River while his soul crumbled and dissipated, turning into countless wild abyssal worms under the power of the Abyss itself. Helm’s sentience had been born from the shards of that otherworld mage—it had been the finest amongst that clutch of abyssal worms, carrying wisdom and power at the moment of its birth.

With that innate gift, Helm devoured most of its siblings and pieced most of the mage’s legacy together through its soul shards, as well as inheriting its name. Through that, it kept growing—by relying on prudence, cruelty and incredible power, Helm finally became a Demon General after a few hundred years and led its army to its ‘homeworld’, thus completing its first campaign.

The Thousand-Eyed Demon completely revised its own life in an instant, experiencing once more the various striving and labor to survive when it was still weak, as well as the euphoria after completing objective after objective, promptly raising an enlightenment in it.

At some point in time, its mind had been clouded by its string of consecutive victories. Its unstoppable conquests and triumphs had bloated its confidence and made it uncaring towards otherworld beings, so much so that it did not believe that the Gluttony Lord that was crowned the title of ‘Demon King’ was not a lucky being that received pampering from the Abyss.

Conceit had caused Helm to make its first error of underestimating the Monarch before it.

Its second mistake was in believing that it could defeat its opponent without unleashing its full power.

What folly.

Pow! In that very second, a tremendous boom slowly wafted from the surface below—the Steel giant god, wrapped in an immeasurably violent cyclone, had already clawed at the Demon General that was somehow staying where it was.

“Of course, I had forgotten that the Multiverse still had many champions. Any being capable of sublimating their lifeform could not be underestimated, and it was the same whether they were demons or some other race since all of them are dangerous and formidable, wise and ingenious—capable of threatening my life.”

Ka-cha! After a moment that felt both long and brief, the Demon General that was clenched within the Steel giant’s fist spoke thus as it left its reminiscence. Its voice had a certain bizarre tone that seemed to match some unknown rhythm perfectly, causing the mana elements around to whirl. However, would Joshua hear a demon’s words? The warrior certainly mustered more strength to squish it instantly; he was not a man who would stop just because the other wanted to talk.

However, it was beyond belief that however much strength the Steel giant used, the Demon General’s body that was not so sturdy when it was given a dressing down just now was not breaking. Under the crush of several thousand degrees of heat and virtually a hundred thousand tons of force, Helm’s outer shell merely dented slightly.

Then the demon finally spoke—no longer with a raging tone, but a more threatening calm voice.

“You’ve helped me remember terror. Thank you.”

Krak, plak! The sound of shell shattering rang as endless cracks surfaced across Helm’s entire body. Streaks of searing red-gold rays turning into surging flow of light ignited the rather mundane outer shell of the Demon General before infinite heat and radiance ejected out from the cracks over the Demon General’s fingers. The shockwave shot upon the clouds and the land, abruptly kicking up tides of extreme explosions as the demon’s final voice rang from within.

“Champion, I shall do my best!”

Boom! As the sound of the entire black smoke sky being ignited resounded, the insectoid-demon Guwaganda that had already fled some distance away could not help glancing back to see a Steel giant god being constricted by a golden snake formed of pure energy that penetrates heaven and earth, connecting clouds and soil! The body of the immeasurably huge giant python was covered in densely packed eyeballs that had been closed at first, but was now incessantly opening, raising the python’s presence by a notch each time one opened. Incomparably blazing flames burnt on its body as if to destroy everything. Golden radiance was ever present, illuminating the sea of clouds.

Demons are ashes that had lost their fire. They came from dead worlds, and so unfathomably thirsty for the scent of life, intending to reclaim the glory of burning. Though rare, if the ashes did indeed reignite its illumination would probably not dull in comparison to true flames.

“That’s… His Majesty’s true form!”

Guwaganda stopped running and paused where it was. The insectoid-demon gazed worshipfully, fearfully and longingly at that Thousand-Eyed Python that was tangled against the giant god—the true form of the Monarch that had been bound in mundane form. Helm had turned into a pure energy being centuries ago, using no more than ray magic that was little more than flowing heat that spilled out from the cracks of its body.

At that very instant, giant and python plummeted to the ground from the skies above, their colossal bodies igniting tremendous waves of sparks and fog through friction over the atmosphere. As the two terrifying beings finally landed, the entire central region of the Sixth Abyss trembled resoundingly, with endless echoing thunder and blowing up a blanket of dust that covered the world.

“What’s going on…”

High above, the balrog that had thrown out and only awakened now opened its eyes under obscurity and agony throughout its body. Syndicate noticed that it had reverted from greatsword to its original form some time ago, and was falling from the darkened skies. It was still alive, although one-third of its body had evaporated while the flames over its body had also turned pure-white. However, the balrog did not have the time to decry the state of its body or rejoice that it was still alive as it plummeted overhead, for it was staring in astonishment at the huge spots of light shining in the distance. Infinite pillars of light had broken out violently, penetrating the clouds and swept with no pause to dice the entire sky into ribbons.

“How dreadful… How dreadful!”

At the very heart of battle, a demon that had survived by luck shrank fearfully behind a large boulder. It was a succubus that had a body resembling humans and enjoyed traveling different worlds, hiding within crowds to spy on souls. They had an affinity for magic and were the main characters of different tales of demon contracts, and yet the juvenile body of the young succubus was quivering violently as magma splattered all over the ground surrounding it, creating one crater after another.

The searing heat had also melted half the banks of the Nether River into a sea of fire. The demon, hiding at the only safe spot, did not dare to turn and look towards the fight between to incredible beings. It could only curl within the cracks between rocks, sobbing through phlegm and swearing that if it survived this time it would never stay within the Abyss anymore—it would simply find a spot and live in seclusion.

It would be fine even if it had to go through the rest of life without consuming souls.

*****

“Barnil, don’t you think that presence is rather familiar?”

Meanwhile, two Legendary mages raised their heads in suspicion within the Squirming Forest at another corner in the Sixth Abyss. William, the wandering poet, slightly adjusted his waist belt that was rather lopsided and looked towards southeast where a golden-red glint was showing. “Stop looking at those trees that could crawl—look up!”

Hearing his friend’s urging, the old man who had a head full of silver hair looked up reluctantly. Barnil had been studying the countless unique living things that seem to be both animal and plant at the same time, and had a feeling that they would definitely discover clues related to Ancient Dragons. However, unable to stand his best friend’s urging and the curiosity in his heart, he looked southeast too.

Thus, both Legendary men widened their eyes at the illusionary scenes at the edge of the horizon. A four-armed giant that pillared the world was grabbing a blazing python that penetrates the clouds too, although the python had wrapped itself around the giant too.

The friction between the two unleashed streaks of thunder. The giant brandished his fist and kept pummeling the giant python as if on a forge, while multifarious blinding pillars of light was unleashed from the endless number of eyes over the giant python’s entire body and slitting various vitals of the giant. The two’s attacks blasted out immeasurably dazzling white sparks, illuminating almost half of the Sixth Abyss so that even the mages could witness the scene clearly.

In a world on another end—the continent that the scaled-people lived and named ‘Jogar’, innumerable demons that were rampantly slaughtering and invading stopped in their tracks.

Berserk demons that were mounting city walls stopped right in the middle of it, and were thrown off by scaled-people city guards who took full use of the opportunity. An insectoid-demon that had been devouring a scaled-person’s brain and soul too suddenly withdrew its mandibles and stared blankly where it was. The scenes repeated itself in every corner of the Jogar Continent. Even as they killed, assaulted and binged in celebration, each demon brought by Helm to that world felt a rising fear within the depths of their soul without exemption.

They looked in astonishment at the Abyssal Doorway in the sky that resembled a cavernous eye—opened by the Demon General, the large-scale portal that transcended two worlds was slowly closing since its master was drawing out every energy placed externally as it fought in full force. And as the Abyssal Doorway closed, the scent that came from the Abyss rapidly dispersed too—losing the invading energies of the Abyss, these otherworld creatures undoubtedly would be subjugated by the local world.

Thus, the gap in ability between them and the local citizens swiftly closed.

Pop, pop, pop. The field of vision kept changing incessantly. With the bursting sound as if balloons were being burst, thousands of beings that hid at every corner of the Abyss as well as spread through many worlds abruptly changed into eyeballs that resembled fire. Following the indistinct guide in the Void, they returned to its own true form within breaths.

Before that, they may have been some silent waiter in a restaurant or some quiet miner in a mountain mine, or some soaring seagull or a boar that was rolling around in a swamp. All of them, without exceptions, were eyeball clones of Helm the Demon General, spread to gather intelligence.

And now, all those clones were vanishing, their strength withdrawn. That might have delayed certain plans for centuries and directly exposing schemes that were long put in place and causing abject failure. Even so, Helm did not think about that much—it was using every iota of its power to battle its enemy, and the enemy before it was worth its effort.

The Demon General had said that it would go all out, a reality especially against the warrior that was also doing just that. If the Thousand-Eyed Python did not intermittently unleashed rays that could melt hills to parry, it was likely that it would be torn apart by its opponent’s four hands. On the other hand, if the Steel giant did not solemnly focus all energies to defend the energy waves from the python, its super-dense body would have been blown off by the enemy’s attack as well.

The center of the fight between one man and one demon was brimming with ionic plasma before long, with large chunks of matter fragments exploding out of thin air from time to time—parts of the Steel giant’s body that was collapsing.

The body of the energy python was glimmering too. Although its psionic physicality did not lose out to any real body of flesh most of the time, it could not build on the advantage that it could trigger its energy and self-heal against the monster that was completely formed from high-density matter, especially since the speed at which the enemy was being damage had been far less than the speed of its energy recovery.

Boom boom boom! —it was as if a thunderous blast was cut off into innumerable little portions. As the unrestrained and distorted air resounded, the environment was dealt a destructive blow as the two Legendary champions battled on a physical plane.

Joshua silently endured uncountable offensive from the Thousand-Eyed Python; his skin was bombarded with explosions that could level towers without stopping. That was nothing to him, however, as the warrior’s skin was similar to reactive armor and could store energy—it would self-destruct after enduring an impact of a certain threshold, reducing most damage from the pure impact and heat. At the same time, Joshua would minutely adjust his skin so that it gradually smoothened like a mirror and reflected part of the rays.

Still, Helm was certainly not a weakling—not only that, it was powerful enough to ignore it all.

The python’s body suddenly shuddered violently as a materialized ray shot out from its tail and struck the Steel giant’s body. The magnitude of the impact could collapse a mountain or carve out an immense crater over a flatland—and of course, force the warrior back. The giant raised its hands and made a cross that caught that blow steadily, but its entire body also moved almost a thousand meters, dragging out two stretching ditches on the ground.

And in that very moment, having pulled some distance away, Helm spoke.

“A sturdy body so powerful it’s enough to startle me… pity.”

Leaving his line unfinished, the thousand eyes over the true form of the Demon General scanned the giant that was slowly lowering its hand that emanated with green smoke. The innate talent of the Legendary demon [All Knowing Eye] was taking in every single composition, atom and construct high-density particles, the energy radiating from its entire body along with the electromagnetic field of its opponent. Each energy joint and direction of energy flow on the warrior’s body was immeasurably distinct as if it could be touched.

Flawless , it thought thus. That fearsome enemy that came from an unknown place was a genuine champion, able to maintain its defensive posture that left no opening having gone through such an intense fight, as if reaching the threshold of perfect.

Even so, Demon General took not mind. Helm was aware that it was a class above.

Between brief breaths, the radiance over the incomparably colossal energy python that was almost two hundred meters long began to dim, with the golden glint over the black sky abruptly disappearing. Under Helm’s control, the endless numbers of eyes of the Thousand-Eyed Python began to close starting from its tail, with tremendous, dim energy beginning to condense and assemble without limit, for it was precisely the path chosen by the Demon General.

Condensing. Unlimited condensing. To pressurize energy and heat with no upper limit until the sheer blaze and stress could turn adamantite into nothingness and pulverize the most fundamental of matter, so that the shattered object would be pressed anew into a whole-new being!

Ultimately, all eyes closed. The radiance was so dull as if the entire Abyss had returned to darkness, with a speck of luminescence from a golden star that could blind normal people if they looked directly upon it.

Prak . An indescribable tremor reverberated. The minute dust in the air was the first to break—the transparent atmosphere shifting into gray-white fog under the microscopic movements.

They were the most basic constructs of matter. The sub-atomic constructs were utterly parted, the photon that orbited in its core thrown into a state of agitation amidst its high-energy surroundings, utmost energy compressing those cores forcefully, until their fused into—

Instantly, a force that was unexplainable and immeasurable arose from the spot with matter at its smallest. Under the Demon General’s control, the inconceivable fusion power turned into a volatile and explosive burst of light, and simply unfurled thus at the Steel giant imposingly!

“You don’t understand my power.”