Revelation

by Sisa, Michael

  When the demon army was only several hundred meters from the village, Naberius ordered everyone to halt. The lesser demons, flesh eaters, tormentors, parasitic demons, and wraiths stopped in their tracks. The sky demons hovered in the sky.

  Sitting on the shoulder of a fire giant, Naberius looked at the old demon standing at the entrance of the village. He amplified his voice with magic. “It’s been a while, Agreas.”

  Agreas also amplified his voice using a spell. He said in an unhurried, calm voice, “Indeed. How many years has it been?”

  Naberius looked at the village. For some strange reason, it felt unnaturally empty.

  “I don’t see Kel’ Vual and the other Arzomos,” said Naberius.

  “Kel and the young ones left this village some time ago. You won’t find them here, Naberius.”

  “They fled the village?” Naberius couldn’t believe it. Had he known that this demon, close to death, was the only one guarding the entrance to the Great Cavern, he wouldn’t have bothered bringing all of the tribe leaders here. He believed that the hundreds of fire giants and several millions of lesser demons from the capital would have been enough to suppress Agreas.

  “Fled? No, I asked them to leave the Demon Realm,” corrected Agreas. “The warriors of our tribe are no cowards. Had I not insisted that they leave the Great Cavern in my hands, those brave warriors would have fought with me until their bodies turned to dust.”

  Naberius was no fool. He realized that Agreas had done something to the portal. He wouldn’t have been as confident revealing that the other Arzomos had left this realm, otherwise.

  “You! What did you do to the portal?” snarled Naberius.

  “I wonder?” Agreas chuckled as he lightly tilted his head to the side. “Naberius, what would happen if the pathway connecting the portal to the mana well is cut?”

  Naberius shuddered.

  The answer was simple: the portal would continuously shrink in size, until it became small enough to prevent anyone from crossing over to the other realm.

  Although closing the portal completely was impossible, cutting the supply of mana coming from the mana well was more than enough to limit entry into the portal.

  But how did Agreas do it? Cutting the pathway connecting the mana well to the portal was no easy feat.

  Naberius was enraged. “This old demon! Until the very end, you chose to side with those humans! This damn traitor!”

  Naberius released the restriction spell binding his body. Slowly, he turned into a fifty-meter tall fire giant—almost twice the size of the regular fire giants at the rear of the army.

  Naberius’ golem body was filled with flowing, molten lava, and fire continuously spewed out of the sockets of his eyes. Two large horns protruded from his forehead.

  With a voice far deeper than before, he roared, “Kill him!”

  The fire giants at the rear of the army also roared, and the sky demons above screeched. The flesh eaters jumped toward Agreas as the parasitic demons started burrowing themselves underground.

  Naberius sent a telepathic message to the Lord of the Sky Demons. “Fly over the village and enter the Great Cavern. I’ll keep Agreas occupied.”

  Malphas nodded her head and replied, “Understood.”

  She flapped her wings then swooped down, but before she could even cross the village, a massive barrier suddenly appeared and barred her from entering the Great Cavern.

  The pinnacle-grade barrier—Heaven’s Dominion—had been activated and was currently protecting the Great Cavern. Malphas fired several spells at it, but the barrier wouldn’t even budge.

  Agreas grinned. “We’ve been preparing for this day for hundreds of years. Fools.” He roused the mana and miasma in his body and forcefully opened all of the pathways within his core. Like a raging river, mana gushed out of Agreas’ body and amplified his strength severalfold.

  Agreas’ twig-like limbs grew bulkier, and the tattered wings on his back grew in size.

  Without uttering another word, Agreas shot toward Naberius, reaching him in seconds. He grabbed his head, and despite the vast difference in size, slammed it toward the ground, creating a large crater upon impact.

  The speed displayed by Agreas far exceeded anything they’d expected. Even the Lord of the Fire Giants couldn’t react to his attack.

  All of the demons who saw it were stunned at the surreal sight. A two-meter large demon had just thrown the fifty-meter giant to the ground.

  And Agreas didn’t stop.

  Before Naberius could even stand up, a massive ball of energy had already formed in Agreas’ hand. The ball of energy shot toward Naberius and upon making contact with his body, exploded into numerous shards of ice.

  The fire shrouding the body of Naberius was rendered useless, as the ice continued encasing the Lord of the Fire Giants’ body.

  “H-Hey, you’re kidding right?” said Malphas.

  She’d heard that Agreas had never fully recovered from the injuries he’d sustained during the Great War. But what’s this? He took out Naberius with just two attacks.

  “What are you fools doing?” Naberius shouted to all the demons around him. “Help me!”

  The sky demons swooped and attacked Agreas from all sides. Several parasitic demons shot out of the ground and tried ensnaring Agreas’ body, while the tormentors swung their axes at him.

  And all of them missed their target.

  To their surprise, Agreas suddenly vanished. Malphas shuddered, her instinct was screaming that she should fly far away from this battlefield. She looked back, and to her horror, saw Agreas right next to her. Malphas released a flurry of attacks using her claws, but they did nothing but scratch the body of the old Arzomos.

  Agreas grabbed Malphas’ hand.

  “W-Wait! Listen to me!” said Malphas.

  Her hand quickly turned into ice, and the freezing cold flowed through her whole body. She was certain that at this rate, she would meet the same fate as the Lord of the Fire Giants.

  “Protect me!” Malphas shrieked at the top of her lungs.

  Several sky demons heeded her call. They flew toward Agreas at a frightening speed, but the old Arzomos simply summoned thousands of ice spears and shot them toward the sky demons.

  The sky demons who were impaled by the spell turned to ice, dropped from the sky, and shattered upon striking the ground.

  Malphas was horrified at this sight.

  Unlike the Demon Lord Barkuvara, the Immortal Demon , she wouldn’t survive the moment her body turned to ice.

  Malphas squirmed as she tried breaking free from Agreas’ spell, but her body—half-frozen by the spell—refused to listen. Eventually, her whole body turned to ice.

  Agreas clenched his fist, drew his arms back, and struck her with all his might.

  Malphas’ frozen body shattered into numerous shards of ice upon impact, before falling toward the ground.

  She saw the Lord of the Red Tower grinning as he watched her falling from the sky. The Lord of the Parasitic Demons had already hidden himself underground—as expected of a coward. The Lord of the Corrupted Land started summoning a corrupted tower. Only the Lord of the Wraiths tried to help her and Naberius, whose body was now almost completely encased in ice.

  Damn it.

  Had she known that she would meet a pathetic end here, she would have opted out of this war.

  Moments before her death, she cussed at the other tribe leaders.

  VOLUME 7: PROLOGUE PART III

  Although he looked perfectly fine on the outside, Agreas could feel that his core was reaching its limit. The amount of mana he’d expended when he altered the portal, coupled with the injuries he’d sustained during the Great War had taken their toll on his body.

  “I’ve become too old,” he muttered to himself.

  He remembered the times when he was still in his prime. As a demon who specialized in ice magic, he was tasked by the former tribe leader to investigate the Frost Mountains of Yleonor over a thousand years
ago. And there, he met that human.

  Looking back, it was indeed one of the most exciting moments of his life. He remembered the times when they journeyed through Marut and visited various monster settlements in the wasteland. They ate together, fought together. A bond that transcended the boundaries of both races.

  “With this, I’ve fulfilled my promise to him.” Agreas gently smiled as he reminisced.

  He looked at the flock of sky demons surrounding him and at the sea of demons below.

  Now that he’d managed to take down Malphas and Naberius, he decided to end everything using the strongest spell he could muster in his current state. He decided to take as many enemies down with him as possible.

  Agreas started casting his spell and a colossal magic formation that covered a large portion of the sky manifested itself. Without hesitation, he poured all of his remaining mana into it, wringing his core dry in the process. The magic formation continued sucking the torrent of mana coming from Agreas. Slowly, Agreas’ muscular body reverted to its former twig-like state. He didn’t stop, even when he became nothing but skin and bones, even when the sky demons started attacking him and cutting his body with their claws.

  And finally, the spell was activated.

  The magic formation glowed brightly for a moment, shattered into numerous particles of light, and turned into a massive spinning vortex of ice.

  “I’ll take at least half of you with me,” said Agreas.

  This was his farewell gift, as the Elder of the tribe, to the other Arzomos who’d managed to escape.

  He clasped his hands together as though in prayer and willed the ice vortex to swallow everything in sight. The sky howled as a massive hailstorm struck the region and quickly froze everything it touched.

  Even the fire giants, who’d been trying to break Naberius free from the ice, were helpless against the attack. Several dozen of them managed to run away on time, but more than a hundred instantly turned to ice.

  The leaders of the army issued the order to retreat, but it proved futile. The wraiths and tormentors quickly managed to move back, but most of the lesser demons, flesh eaters, and a third of the parasitic demons couldn’t evade the attack.

  Even the corrupted tower that had been summoned by the Lord of the Corrupted Land froze before it could infest the ground.

  Eventually, the ice vortex vanished and the hailstorm receded, revealing millions of frozen demons in its wake. The demons who saw this sight shuddered not just from the cold, but from sheer terror.

  They wondered how strong that old demon had been in his prime.

  So, this was the might of the demon who sealed the Demon Lord Barkuvara and killed the Demon Lord Kalkarus.

  Even the Lord of the Fire Giants and the Lord of the Sky Demons were rendered helpless against his might.

  They looked up to the sky and saw the demon who’d cast the catastrophic spell. He looked so shriveled, as though the spell sucked not only his mana but also his remaining lifeforce.

  The old demon wobbled in the air, lost consciousness, and finally fell toward the ground.

  “As expected of the one who sealed the Immortal Demon.” Elrenar, the Lord of the Red Tower, chuckled. His three faces, which had been stitched together, were smiling broadly. The first face was that of a lesser demon, the second was that of a beastman, and the third a grotesque-looking monster.

  It was a well-known fact in the Demon Realm that the Lord of the Red Tower used to be a lesser demon before he became the monster he was today. But unlike those mindless brutes, Elrenar had been blessed with intellect far surpassing his peers. Despite being a lesser demon, using his own abilities, he rose in rank and eventually founded the Red Tower. A place where he conducted experiments to satiate his never-ending thirst for knowledge.

  Due to the limit in the lifespan of a lesser demon, Elrenar even went as far as merging himself with the body of a windigo—an ancient monster who could live for thousands of years. Even the beastman head he’d been using was a prominent figure who’d lived more than a thousand years ago. A beastman who once united all of the beastmen tribes.

  Unlike the other tribe leaders, Elrenar had expected something like this to happen when he’d heard that only Agreas remained in the village. He ordered the tormentors under his command to move toward the rear of the army, preventing most of them from being swept up by the spell. Unlike the other armies, his tormentors were practically untouched.

  ‘ My beloved pet. Secure the bod y , ’ Elrenar gave a mental transmission to the creature hiding underground.

  The creature had the head of a death worm, the body of a gryphon, and the core of a high-ranking parasitic nest.

  A chimera.

  The culmination of all the research Elrenar had done in the Red Tower. The strongest creature he had ever created. Elrenar was confident of surviving this war accompanied by this monster.

  Under Elrenar’s command, the chimera quickly moved underground, as though it was running on flat ground. It unburrowed itself next to where Agreas’ body landed. Using its mouth filled with serrated teeth, it grabbed the unconscious body and brought it to its master.

  The chimera gently placed the body of the unconscious old demon on the ground and gazed at its master with expectant eyes.

  “Good work.” Elrenar stroked the monster’s head as he looked at the unconscious body lying on the ground.

  Finally, he’d obtained the body of an Arzomos. And not just anyone—he’d obtained the body of one of the strongest in the tribe.

  Judging by Agreas’ withered body and the faint mana oozing out of him, this old demon had very little time left to live. Since he was going to die anyway, why not become the Lord of the Red Tower’s fourth head?

  Elrenar could already imagine how powerful he would become once he’d merged with this demon.

  “Elrenar, we should kill him while we still have the chance,” said the Lord of the Corrupted Land.

  Elrenar said, “No. It’s up to me to decide what will happen to this Arzomos.”

  The Lord of the Corrupted Land glared at Elrenar. “Don’t be a fool. Didn’t we agree beforehand that we’ll be killing all of the Arzomos!”

  Elrenar haughtily replied, “Now that Naberius is dead, we’re free to do whatever we want. This body, it’s mine. Instead of grabbing my prey, shouldn’t you focus on breaking the huge barrier protecting the Great Cavern instead?”

  Indeed, right now, the pinnacle-grade barrier was still protecting the cavern.

  The Lord of the Corrupted Land didn’t like what Elrenar was saying. In a deep voice, he spat, “Kill him. You’ve seen how dangerous that old demon could be.”

  Although Elrenar could merge with an already dead body, according to his research, merging with a creature on its deathbed would always produce the most ideal results.

  “I will,” said Elrenar. “But not until I’ve merged with the body of this Arzomos.”

  The Lord of the Corrupted Land was clearly dissatisfied with Elrenar’s reply, but seeing the chimera by his side, he backed down. He clicked his tongue. “Do what you want.”

  The Lord of the Corrupted Land looked around the battlefield. He roared, “Plagas! Where are you! Come out!”

  From the ground, a tentacle demon squirmed out.

  “You damn coward! There you are!” said the Lord of the Corrupted Land.

  Plagas looked left and right. He stuttered, “I-It’s over, right? He’s… He’s dead, right?”

  “How long are you going to keep hiding? Azrath already started breaking the barrier.”

  Plagas looked at the entrance of the Arzomos village. Azrath had summoned tens of thousands of phantasms—a higher form of wraith—and ordered them to simultaneously attack the barrier protecting the cavern. Even the sky demons, flesh eaters, and the fire giants that had managed to survive started attacking the barrier.

  Still, despite the number of demons trying to break it, the pinnacle-grade spell refused to budge an inch. It started forming cracks
—but that was it.

  “That barrier was probably created using the mana from the mana well,” Elrenar concluded. “It’s even more powerful than your typical pinnacle-grade spell.”

  Plagas looked at Elrenar, and upon seeing the withered demon he was carrying over his shoulder, he shrieked in terror. Color drained off his greasy face. “T-That’s! What are you doing? Why is that monster still alive?” shouted Plagas, his tentacles pointing at the unconscious demon Elrenar was carrying.

  “Calm down, fool. He destroyed his core with that last attack,” said Elrenar. “Even a weakling like you should be able to kill him right now.”

  Although Plagas had several complaints, he chose to shut his mouth. The chimera sitting next to the Lord of the Red Tower was too domineering. He was afraid of becoming its meal if he overstepped his bounds. Although Plagas was a high demon, he was still the weakest among the tribe leaders gathered here right now.

  Elrenar grinned as he looked at the barrier. “Now, let’s free the so-called Immortal Demon, shall we?”

  Elrenar issued out his commands. The hundreds of thousands of tormentors under his command, along with the chimera, joined in with the attack.

  ***

  [Behemoth City—Capital of the Kingdom]

  It had been several months since the king’s health had recovered. Thus, he decided to partake in the hunting competition, held annually at the end of spring.

  At the forest edge near the capital, just outside the barrier, over a hundred nobles gathered. Accompanied by a guard and a few servants, they all held bows—while some of the younger ones brought knives and swords.

  “There are a lot more nobles attending the competition this year,” remarked Marquis Carlos. The retired general stood by the king’s side and served as his personal guard. “Disgusting turncoats. Now that Duke Kelvin’s imprisoned in the dungeon and His Majesty has recovered his health, they’re trying to jump to the royal faction.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” King Alvis said wisely, “Even if it’s only a pretext, as long as it brings peace to our people, shouldn’t we embrace it with open arms? When we were young, didn’t you hate me too, Carlos?”