Chapter 369 - 367:“AAAAABBBBBSSSSOOOOLLLLUUUUTTTTEEEE!!!!!”
Red.
That was all it was.
The sky. The earth. It was all a bleeding crimson red.
The smell of copper and iron saturated the atmosphere so thoroughly that I could actually taste blood on my tongue.
"What...?" Even Salazar, that knowledge-obsessed freak, was shocked at the sheer amount of blood hanging in the air.
I looked around, taking in more of our surroundings. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing. No structures. No vegetation. Just a devastated landscape that seemed to have witnessed enough slaughter to drown an entire civilization.
"Master..." Shulvan called out, his voice gravelly.
"I know." I turned my attention toward the distance ahead, where a thick haze had begun to form.
"What... are those?" Salazar’s question hung in the air as my gaze locked onto the entities emerging from the fog.
"Blood demons," I uttered grimly.
Blood Demons, something I’d learned about a while ago from Aunt K. Unlike the corrupted, mana-wielding blood demons of the Demon Continent, these were different. They were said to have first appeared during the Age of Blood, constructs created by none other than...
"Dracul Twilight. Heh! Seems I’m indeed in the right place." I chuckled.
"What was that?" Salazar asked.
Before I could answer—
SCREECH!
A deafening shriek tore through the crimson air as the blood demons materialized right before us.
"Hahaha... less talk, Salazar, more fighting!" I laughed, letting loose a catastrophic punch.
BOOM!
The horde of bloody constructs that had spawned before us was instantly pulverized. But I didn’t cheer. If these were anything like what Aunt K had described, then...
SCREECH!
Multiple shrieks echoed throughout the realm as, from all sides, the blood constructs rose like an omen. The entire expanse was literally crawling with them.
"Hahahahahahaha! Alright then! Let’s see how you hold up!"
BOOM!
I rocketed forward, fist cocked back. The moment I closed the distance to another horde, I struck.
BOOM!
Deleted. That easy. But they didn’t relent.
Although individually lackluster, their true strength lay in their sheer numbers. Blood demons were said to thrive in environments with heavy blood density. That’s why they were so dangerous in the hands of the Devourer. Their individual strength capped out around the peak of the Transformation stages, but on a blood-soaked battlefield, their numbers were virtually endless.
They always said a million ants could topple an elephant, and these blood demons took that saying quite literally.
BANG!
Another punch decimated a newly spawning horde.
"Dante! Don’t you dare hog all the fun!" Salazar’s irritating voice echoed as a massive runic inscription materialized across the crimson sky, its golden radiance driving back the oppressive atmosphere.
<ᛖᚱᚨᛊᛖ (Erase)>
The inscription fell like judgment from the heavens. The entire horde that had spawned as far as the eye could see was instantly... gone. No fanfare. No explosion. Just erased.
"Damn it! I really need to learn Dragon’s Tongue!" I muttered in frustration at Salazar’s display.
He was combining laws with runes to achieve the exact same effect as Dragon’s Tongue, something that, for some reason, I still couldn’t grasp. Something that continued to elude me despite having witnessed it multiple times.
"Fuck!" I growled, my annoyance surging as another horde began spawning without pause. "Time to vent."
Ignoring the flaunting Chronari, I shifted my focus back to the blood demons.
"Absolute Series..."
Elira materialized in my grip, and I swung her horizontally in a sweeping arc.
"...Extinction."
The crimson atmosphere turned a pallid gray for a brief instant as every blood demon that had just spawned crumbled into gray particles, dispersing into the wind.
"Suck it, you bastard." I shot Salazar a grin. Two could play at this game.
"Alright, Dante. I may not be able to match you in sheer destructive capabilities, but on a large-scale battlefield?" Salazar’s grin shifted, from a scholar’s fascination to an expression I recognized all too well.
He hovered higher into the air, his hands moving at blinding speeds as multiple runic inscriptions stamped themselves onto reality like absolute law.
<ᛖᚱᚨᛊᛖ (Erase)>
<ᛒᚨᚾᛁᛊᚺ (Banish)>
<ᛒᛖᚷᛟᚾᛖ (Begone)>
"I am uncontested..."
The moment the words left his lips, the entire sky flashed a blinding crimson-gold as the runes duplicated exponentially. From one to two. Then four. Then eight...
Before I knew it, the show-off had covered the entire sky with runic inscriptions.
"You fucking..."
I wasn’t even given time to finish cussing before—
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
They descended like rain.
The entire realm shook and teetered as the runes baptized the land in radiant punishment. I could only watch in jealous irritation as the horde of blood demons was wiped out completely. And before they could even attempt to respawn, another volley arrived to send them straight into oblivion.
It wasn’t until a good five minutes later that the carnage finally slowed. When the runes were exhausted and the realm stopped trembling, all that remained was utter desolation.
The blood demons couldn’t even reform because the bastard had erased a massive portion of the terrain so thoroughly that the blood-soaked earth had been completely purged.
I stared at the cratered landscape, more annoyed than impressed.
"Heh! How was that? Impressive, wasn’t it?" The lunatic actually had the nerve to ask.
"Tch... it wasn’t all that. I could’ve done the exact same thing," I growled.
"Oh! Wonderful! Then do it, please! Let me see. I didn’t know you possessed runic expertise as well."
"Ack—" I choked.
Now, this would be the point where any other main character would proudly demonstrate their mastery over multiple fields. But I believe I’ve already established that if my comprehension tries to force anything into my head that doesn’t involve maximum damage and absolute destruction, I automatically delete it.
"You feeble little man! You dare challenge Master’s expertise?" Shulvan barked.
"This idiot... who asked you to speak up?"
"Just stand there and watch as Master puts your feeble display to absolute shame!"
"This motherfucker..."
"Oh! He must be well-versed in runic inscriptions then! I can’t wait to see. Perhaps I’ll learn a thing or two." Salazar’s eyes began shining with that manic thirst for knowledge, genuinely invested.
So now I was stuck.
Knowledge of runic inscriptions? I definitely had that. Technical application, on the other hand... was something else entirely.
Seeing no other way out, I did the only logical thing I could.
SLAP!
"Ahhh! Master!"
SLAP!
"Motherfucker! Who told you to hype me up?!"
"But... Master!"
SLAP!
"Agh!"
You can’t blame me. The fool had it coming. Setting me up like that was pure evil.
....
"Haah..." I finally let out a long breath.
"Done bullying your assistant?" Salazar asked, amused.
"Quiet!"
"Fufufufu... alright then. Where to ne—"
His words were cut short as the sky above us suddenly darkened.
"Hmm? What the—"
I looked up just in time to see a colossal, pillar-like arm descending upon us with catastrophic force, followed by a roar that thundered through the entire secret realm...
"AAAAAABBBBBSSSOOOOLLLLLUUUUUTTTTTEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"
CRACK!
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
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A/N: Pfft.... Well, do we have any doubts as to who the newcomer could be? Lol.
Anyways....
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Thanks for reading...