Chapter 53
As for Orathis, it was his gain from Black Dragon Mountain, with it along, the round trip to the Palace was a straight, unobstructed line.
"What about me?" Lysara asked.
"You stay as well."
"Why?" She had been nursing the idea of sharing his burdens for a while, being left behind deflated her as badly as it had Bruce.
"There is no why."
"I need to adjust my condition tonight, do not disturb me." With that, he headed for the top floor of the demonic fortress.
He had torn through the void several times today and burned deep into his demonic energy, he needed time to recover.
The pills, spiritual fluids, and spiritual fruits Grant had so voluntarily handed over could finally be put to use.
Lysara watched him go, and her heart went suddenly hollow.
Then she asked Bruce for the secret pattern that opened the room holding Althea’s trio, and walked over.
Althea and Duke were still drowning in the horror of watching Bruce beat Abel to death before them.
The door rumbled open, their hearts slammed, pupils shaking, seeing it was only Lysara, they actually relaxed.
Then, just as Althea opened her mouth, Lysara drove a sword into her abdomen, blood welled around the blade, Althea’s face twisted.
"You, what are you doing?"
Lysara asked, genuinely curious, "Is it comfortable?"
Comfortable? Are you insane! Who feels comfortable being run through with a sword?
Althea felt nothing but blinding pain.
Watching her agony, Lysara frowned and murmured, "So it’s not comfortable?"
Althea and Duke’s lips trembled as they stared at her like a madwoman, utterly lost as to why the question existed, isn’t the answer obvious!
"Could it be that I stabbed the wrong spot?"
"Or used the wrong amount of force?"
"Or is the problem... me?"
She raised the sword again, terror warped Althea’s face, huge teardrops spinning up in her eyes.
Early the next morning, Soren brought Bruce out of the demonic fortress and walked out of the clan territory.
Orathis was dozing in the forest beyond it, without the Dragon Pearl, it couldn’t shift into human form, a three-hundred-meter body, backed by Middle-Tier Spirit Emperor strength, put real pressure on the fox clansmen just glancing at it from the territory.
It caught Soren’s aura, pop went the snot bubble at its nostril, and its eyes snapped open.
Soren wasted no words, he mounted up, and Orathis shot into the sky, gone in an instant.
Bruce watched with bottomless envy, not of the blood contract with an ancient Spirit dragon, he envied that Orathis got to be stood on by Soren as a mount.
It’s because I’m too weak! That’s why Master didn’t take me!
"Big Brother Bruce, where did the Demon Emperor go?" Ethel was deeply concerned with Soren’s whereabouts.
Because Soren hadn’t kept her by his side last night, she hadn’t slept at all, passing the whole night in fear and anxiety, terrified that he secretly found her lacking, that deep down he didn’t want her as his personal maid.
Her head was full of Soren now, just thinking of him made her feel warm and sweet.
"It’s nothing, master just went to kill a few people."
"He’ll be back soon."
The Endless Demonic Domain’s Great Emperor Palace.
Soren descended like a thunderclap, for the final stretch, he’d had Orathis tear open the void with its claws and step straight through.
Roiling demonic energy and Spirit energy chewed at the sky, sweeping the entire Emperor Palace.
One after another, the Palace’s powerhouses surged into mid-air, formation after formation flared alive.
"What is that!?"
"The legendary Heaven-Robbing Black Dragon!"
"Isn’t that Soren on its back!?"
"What happened to him? He severs ties with our Great Demon Emperor, then jumps from Lower-Tier Demon Venerable to Middle-Tier Demon Emperor?"
"That doesn’t align with common..."
"Ah!"
Before they could finish, the black flames pouring from Orathis’s mouth incinerated them to ash, a pungent, scorched stench spread on the wind.
Orathis let out a weird, delighted howl, then spewed another sheet of black fire, the Palace’s defensive formations shattered wholesale with a sound like breaking ice.
Flames engulfed entire blocks of buildings, the impossible heat melting structures and ground into one, magma crawling toward whatever still stood.
The Great Demon Emperor Vorian rose into mid-air with two old servants and his five Matriarchs, face black as a storm front, he was deeply shaken.
He had never gone looking for Soren, and Soren came looking for him.
Middle-Tier Demon Emperor strength, a Middle-Tier Spirit Emperor dragon under him, did the boy truly believe he could turn the whole Great Emperor Palace upside down?
From anyone else, Vorian would have diagnosed brain damage, but this was Soren, he could not be underestimated.
For all that it was a meeting of father and son, neither spoke, none of the five Matriarchs dared open their mouths, Soren’s killing intent had pressed them shut.
Invisible to everyone else, Soren and Vorian were locked in a war of gazes and wills.
The famously composed Vorian lost to Soren’s edge inside a dozen seconds.
He spoke first. "I think we can have a proper talk!"
"I have nothing to talk about with you."
Soren was only a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor, but his overall strength exceeded most of the Upper-Tier Emperor realm.
Vorian was no ordinary Upper-Tier Demon Emperor, an outstanding figure among them, but Soren also carried the Heavenly Resentment Demonic Sword and the World-Destroying Demonic Lotus, neither yet revealed, he did not fear this man at all.
And he had his own calculations, no negotiating right away.
His goals would come easier once Vorian understood exactly how terrifying his strength was, refuse all small talk and force the other side to raise terms first, then hold the initiative in his own hands.
Soren dropped off Orathis’s back and patted its enormous head. "Eat your fill."
"Demon bones and blood aren’t as tasty as the Spirit race’s, I know, but bad food still beats an empty stomach, wouldn’t you say?"
Orathis’s mouth split into a dragon grin, white teeth gleaming. "That is true."
"Master’s command, I obey!"
Boom! One wingbeat and it shot forward, swallowing the air for ten thousand miles in its wake, space detonating behind it.
In a single bite it gulped down over a thousand of the Emperor Palace’s Demonic Guards.