Chapter 336 - Second Great War Of Hell (Part 5)
When the humans that had evolved into the demonkind had arrived to hell, the knowledge they possessed of mana was poor and lacking.. However, since mana was still present in hell despite the mysterious lack of essence treasures, there still were people willing and able to comprehend its concepts. However, these cultivators only came to a later point in time.
The ancestors of the demonkind had been forced back into a corner, and once into hell, they found themselves in a hostile territory, from which they were barely able to survive. Their numbers were in the hundreds, and they faced extinction constantly through the many initial years.
Through hell's history, the first few hundred years were the period of time in which the interest in the mysterious stone found in the core of hell, was at its peak.. And even then, they had much more important things to worry about.. Things like survival, organization, and exploration.
The experiments on the stone had gone on for thousands of years, but since the scholars were mostly weak refugees in an unknown territory, many options had been left untried. Piercing through, approaching slowly, using brute force, or even erasing the mysterious power that was emanated by the rock.. Nothing had worked, leaving this stone as a mystery for the following tens of thousands of years.. All until the answer to this mystery was answered in the form of a window that had appeared inside Daniel's mind.. Spatial essence to deviate the power, and dark essence to hide one's presence.
One of the first details discovered by the scholars, was that the power emanated by the stone was similar to a person's senses of sight, and ability to feel one's power. Approaching the stone would cause for this power to become dense to a point where it would form a stratum of unpenetrable rubber.
Daniel was standing inside the protected area around this boulder, unaffected by the rubber-like shied, which was separated from the stone by around two meters of empty space inside which he was standing. In his hand, hanging by the scruff, with all four of his paws moving around in the air, was the demonic wolf cub.
While the fact that Daniel had been able to approach the stone when nobody else could, was shocking to most of the demon lords that were fighting in the vicinity.. what caught the attention of the Lupa, and the leader of the beastmaster faction, was the small wolf.. Who was currently munching on a few dark spheres, with shards that spilled from his mouth, and all over the ground.
Many demons had fantasized about what that boulder could possibly be.. Some believed it to contain the knowledge of hell, some believed it to be the legacy of a dead expert, and some even believed it to be some sort of proof to decide which one would have the right to rule hell.
Most of the demon lords were in the middle of a fight, and therefore unable to focus on what was happening.. However, the same was not for the Devil, who after seeing Daniel enter the barrier, felt curiosity and greediness spread into his heart like wildfire.
In his mind, he was the one and true God. His powers derived by the ability to capture the spirit of the people who suffered and died by his hands, an ability that, before he had reached the stage of high demon, was a simple result of his sadistic mentality.. And that had consequently become a unique power after his breakthrough. His thirst for power was a known fact through both hell and universe, and now that he had seen a change in something he had dreamed about in the past, his reasoning began to waver. His eyes opened wide in surprise, and his smile widened as much as possible.
The spirits of the suffering humans stopped moving in Daniel's direction, and instead floated back in the direction of the sceptre he was holding. Once in, they condensed into the gems encrusted at the top of the sceptre, right before being sent in the direction of the stone in the form of a devastating beam of power that attracted the attention of most fighters around.
Daniel, who until now appeared to be solely focused on feeding the dark essence spheres to the wolf cub, suddenly turned in the direction of a couple of demon lords who were currently on the winning side in their fight against an old demon who was commanding a puppet to fight alongside him.. After looking at these two demons for a few moments, he turned to look back at the wolf cub with a complete lack of interest.
The beam that exploded out of the tip of the sceptre was accompanied by screams and cries, sending a chilling feeling down the backs of anyone who look at its gloomy purple color.
When the beam of omnious light reached the area that surrounded the stone, however, instead of penetrating through, bounced back on the surface, only to be sent in the direction of the two demons whom Daniel had turned to look moments before.
The beam hit one of the two demon lords, whom was also in the middle of sending an attack that was misdirected, and hit his companion instead. The attack of the former came just in time for the latter's attempt to defend himself from the puppet to fail, causing both of them to receive multiple heavy damages.
While the Devil was eager to obtain the secrets that were in Daniel's reach, the Parasite Lord was acting differently. The battle had been, overall, much more difficult than what he had expected. The warriors on his side kept making rookie mistakes that would cause them to end up in an even worse state tha their fewer enemies. If that wasn't enough, Daniel appeared to be impossible to kill.
His spirit was telling him to go crazy.. Unleash the highest levels of his power, and exact his revenge.. But as a member of the universal government that was facing a children of Iewah, his mind was screaming to leave as fast as he could.
His unwillingness to follow his thoughts, was the main reason that had brought him to think through what he knew about Daniel's power.. Finally, after a whole minute spent into deep consideration, a crazy idea flashed into his mind.
"It's luck!" He said to the rest of the cultivators. "He is able to affect our luck!! We need to kill him.. NOW!" His voice was filled with horror and panic, and for a good reason. While his guess was partially true, the results of the battle had lead him to believe that Daniel was able to affect Luck.. a universal concept which escaped the understanding of humans, just like karma.
At the end of the day, his guess was fairly close to the truth.
After listening to the words of the Parasite Lord, the demon lords who had ended up into an endless stream of unfortunate events, soon began to consider the hipotesys of the parasite lord as plasuble.. After all, all of them were cultivators that possessed tens of thousands of years of experience in fighting, and for them to be making that many mistakes, was too unlikely for it to be a simple series of accidents.
The demons that formed the couples that were outnumbering Daniel's allies, looked at each other, and after a simple look, each couple came to the conclusion that, if the parasite lord was correct, Daniel was too big of a threat to be left alive.. So they split into two, and decided to sacrifice the advantage in the battle with their opponents, in order to have six more demon lords to attack the barrier of the stone.
When the experiments on this mysterious power had been stopped, there was still no demon lord in hell. They had only appeared ages later, just a few thousand years before the first great war of hell, where many of them had perished at war..
Unafortunately, despite their massive power, their full force attacks were still unable to push through the rubber-like barrier.
It was only when, by complete accident, the attacks of three different demon lords struck the same point in the barrier at the same time, that the barrier was damaged.. that did not last long, however, as the barrier regenerated seconds later.
Nevertheless, it was progress.
"Look at this!" Shouted one of the demon lords while looking at the rapidly sealing damage on the stone's barrier. He then added, "We have to attack the same spot at the same time! And keep going intil the barrier is destroyed!!"
The demon lords, now desperate to capture Daniel, decided on which point to strike with all of their power, then began to send one attack after the other. Each attack could shatter a world in pieces, but was only able to add up into forming a small crack in the barrier which, if left alone for even just two seconds, would regenerate completely.
Inside the barrier, Daniel was looking at the cub with a hint of worry. In his hand were numerous dark essence spheres, too much for the cub to ingest.. However, since the cub was close to a breakthrough in his cultivation, Daniel kept feeding one sphere after the other to him, while saying, "Come on.. Come on.. Just a couple more!"
Meanwhile, one attack after the other came, enlarging the damaged area, and keeping on damaging it further after every single attack.
The more time passed, the more it became clear that the cub's evolution was not simply a matter of feeding essence spheres to feed to him.. So after coming to a standstill, he stopped feeding dark spheres to the scared wolf, and took it in his arms. He then stroked its fur gently, making him forget about the loud noises that came from outside, as well as the fact that his mother and her companion were outside, fighting to their deaths.
For a minute, Daniel looked at the cub that was hiding in his arms, until it finally stopped trembling, and looked back at him … finally feeling safe ever since he had been pulled out of the spatial ring. At the same time, while the cub looked at Daniel, the fur around his neck and head began to grow, and the base of his tail to become as dark as a starless night sky.. Just like the rest of his body.
It's size grew as well, turning him from a cub of about half a meter in length, to a fully grown wolf which Daniel quickly felt uncomfortable with carrying. So he put him down, and observed as the wolf turned to look back at him with curiosity, and affection.
"It won't last long! Keep going! A few more hits!" Shouted the Parasite King as one attack after the other turned the surrounding area into a gigantic storm of dust. The barrier was about to be breached- However, Daniel did not appear to be worried. Instead, on his face was a wide smile.
He quickly grabbed the young wolf, and climbed over the stone. Then placed the him right above it, and said, "Little wolf.. Look at them.. They are hurting your mother."
For some reason, the wolf was able to understand Daniel's words. Its intelligence had increased from when he was a simple cub.. but if there was something that hadn't changed, that was the affection the wolf felt for his overly protective mother, and her demonic companion.
The sight of his mother's fur painted red from the injuries was already too much for it to bear, but before the wolf could act rashly, the newly formed dark essence that he emanated, began to sync with the power contained in the deepest parts of this stone.
Moments later, without the wolf noticing, the power that was protecting him and Daniel turned into dark essence of the purest form, and was sent out into beams directed at the forteen individuals that were fighting against Daniel's allies.
Each ray of dark essence was too fast and powerful to be avoided, and each was able to enshroud the bodies of the thirteen demon lords, and the parasite lord. However, that immense power which not even a demon lord could compare to, was far from being the most shocking part of Daniel's plan..
Inside these beams of darkness, the demonic power of the demon lords was being absorbed at an allarming rate. A rate which shocked the demon lords to a point where they considered surrendering immediately.. Just to realize, moments later, that what was being absorbed was not simple demonic power, but their very existence as demons.
Their demonic characteristics were disappearing, and their bodies were slowly going back to being humans.