Jin stabbed his blade into the serpent as he slid down its throat, he is completely doused with saliva, blood, and the poison it sprayed on him. The smell is rancid and metallic.

“Ew this is so fucking gross!” He shouts as he falls towards the Serpent's stomach.

Jin finally lands in a pond of its stomach acid and withdraws his sword from the Serpent's throat.

The acid is up to his knees and is slowly melting through what was left of his clothing and burning his skin.

“And it just keeps getting worse!”

Jin looks around for a way to get out of the acid and sees a half-digested corpse of a cyclops.

He waded through the stomach acid and climbed to the top of the corpse.

Blood is pouring in waves down the throat of the serpent into its stomach.

The serpent thrashed wildly in pain and knocks Jin back into the acid.

Finally, the serpent collapses from blood loss, Jin regains his footing and rushes to the wall of its stomach and starts to slice his way out of the belly of the beast before the acid burns through his legs.

He slices through the serpent's side and is squeezed through the wound then stepped back into the outside world. He then used his robe to wipe away the blood from his face and acid from his legs, it slightly damaged his robe.

Jin then rushes to the head of the serpent, climbs on top of it, and plunges his blade all the way to the hilt into its eye to make sure it was actually dead.

He pulled his bloodied blade from the Serpent's corpse, then a glowing golden white stream of mist rushed from the Serpent's body and rushed towards Jin.

‘What the hell?!’

Jin put up his blade and attempted to slice the force, but his blade went through it and the force shot into his chest, then the tattoo of a snake wrapping around his middle finger appeared. It didn’t cause him any pain, it was the opposite, he felt stronger. He pulled out the God of Knowledge’s Notebook to see if anything appeared and there was a new entry.

[Blessing of Death’s Serpent]

Those blessed by the serpent are granted the ability to absorb the spirits of those they slay. The strength and abilities gained are proportional to the enemy slain.

“A blessing from a Devil?!” The realization that Devils had the ability to bless humans was world changing. Unlike with the Gods, it seemed that you could only receive a Devils blessing from killing them.

Jin wondered if receiving this blessing would make the Gods reject him since it came from a Devil. He also questioned why this was the first time he had received such a blessing after killing so many other Devils that were undoubtedly more powerful than this snake.

He then considered that it might have been luck that this enemy was so easy, had he not found the ring that granted him immunity. Now that he gave it more thought, this Devil was strong enough to scare off a horde of Cyclops Devils.

Jin looked around at the poison splattered and pooled throughout the streets.

‘If only I had a way to bottle this, who knows how useful this would be. Oh well.’

He dipped his blade into the poison and soaked his robe in it.

‘This’ll have to be enough for now.’

Jin was close to the citadel now and the serpent must have scared off the rest of the Devils in the area because the streets had become dead silent now.

The citadel buildings were in complete ruins, burned and broken, only one towering building remained. Although it was far from pristine, the outside of it was scorched and blood covered its walls.

“Yeah, this looks like the right place.”

Jin quietly maneuvered to one of the windows and peered inside. When he laid eyes on the Devil King, Jin felt his heart skip a beat.

The Devil King was half dragon and half man, red scales meshed with his pale skin. He had large obsidian horns coming from his head, the face of the man was gaunt, and he had a long black beard. His eyes were living flames, along with the wings on his back. He had monstrous claws for hands and his tail was pinning a lower-level Fire Devil Orc against the wall.

A Devil looking half human was something that Jin had never seen, he could feel the power emanating from the Devil King, heat poured out of the building, and it made the air feel heavy.

Jin wasn’t sure how the hell he was supposed to kill him without his power, this Devil seemed on par with [Red Death] and [Fallen Angel]. Maybe even stronger.

The building shook and Jin heard a scream, he looked back inside and saw the Devil King plunged his claws through the orc.

He watched in horror as the Devil King lifted the bleeding orc over his head and began drinking its blood as it poured out.

Jin considered retreating and killing more enemies in order to get stronger with his new blessing, but he had no idea how long he had been in this nightmare for and was desperate to get back to the world.

Not only did he want to get revenge on King, but his loved ones must be suffering from the news of his death.

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‘No matter how strong his enemy was, I’ve always won, and this time won’t be any different’

Jin pushed the unease out of his mind and got ready to fight.

He leaped through the window and charged the Devil King.

The Devil King noticed Jin and threw the corpse of the orc at him.

Jin ducked and avoided the corpse, then left into the air and swung his sword down towards the Devil King’s head.

The Devil King summoned a great sword of pure flame from thin air and blocked Jin’s attack, knocking him backwards.

Jin landed and the Devil King swung his sword sending arcs of fire in his direction.

Jin used the fireproof robe as a shield, but the blow almost knocked him down.

The Devil King flew forward and lifted his sword to strike Jin.

Jin avoided the attack and slashed his sword into the Devil King’s side.

It barely scratched him, and the Devil King laughed at Jin’s weakness, but his veins began to turn a greenish black beneath his skin. The Devil King began to feel pain in his side and the look of amusement turned to rage.

“YOU DARE?!” The Devil King’s voice made Jin’s ears ring.

“You can talk?” Jin exclaimed, he wasn’t sure if he should be surprised or horrified. First a blessing from a Devil and now a talking one. His whole view of them was being turned upside down with these discoveries.

The Devil King began to wildly strike at him.

Jin was managing to block the hits, it was not the speed of the Devil King, it was his power. Every hit knocked Jin back and made his arms vibrate, it felt like his bones were cracking with every strike he blocked.

The Devil King finally landed a hit on Jin’s side, sending him flying through the wall and back into the streets.

Jin’s robe prevented the hit from turning him to a crisp, but it felt like the left half of his ribs were in pieces.

The Devil King flew overhead and was rushing towards where Jin was laying in the street.

Jin’s head was still spinning. he barely managed to roll out of the way when the Devil King impacted the ground and avoid being turned into nothing more than a bloody stain on the ground.

The Shockwave of the strike sent Jin flying before he could get to his feet. Jin continued to fly helplessly through the streets and bouncing off the ground. When he finally lost momentum, Jin got to his feet as quick as he could before the Devil King was able to land another attack.

Jin watched the Devil King fly through the air towards him and thought of a strategy to combat him.

‘If I fight him in the open like this I’m done for. I can’t do a damn thing with him flying around like this.’

Jin retreated into a nearby building and rushed through to the other side, he could hear the Devil King smashing through the walls behind him.

Jin continued running through the streets and ducking in out of buildings to slow down the Devil King, retracing his steps.

‘There you are!’

He rushed to the dead serpent, he had put some distance between himself and the Devil King, but the Devil King was catching up. Jin quickly broke off some of the serpents' teeth and pocketed them. He then climbed onto the serpent's head and waited for the Devil King to catch-up.

The Devil King broke through the side of a building, and it collapsed behind him.

“I’m over here, dumbass!” Jin taunted him.

“You run away and then insult me. I am the [Devil King of Power], boy! Know your place!” The [Devil King of Power] became even more enraged and flew into the sky.

Jin waited until the [Devil King of Power] was speeding down too fast to change course and he jumped out of the way.

The [Devil King of Power] crashed down from the sky and completely smashed the head of the serpent sending blood and poison everywhere.

The [Devil King of Power] had become doused in the poison and blinded. He screamed, his sword disappeared, and he clutched his face.

Jin rushed towards him and threw the serpents' Fangs like knives into the back of the [Devil King of Power]. The Devil King fell to his knees as the poison circulated through his body

“You wretched- “

Jin swung his sword down with all the strength he had and decapitated the [Devil King of Power].

The Devil King’s body erupted into a fire as a stream of red energy poured out of it. Before Jin could react, the Devil King’s body exploded violently and sent Jin flying.

Jin laid in the street, completely drained of energy, and covered in burns. His robes that were supposed to be fireproof had been completely destroyed after taking the majority of the explosion. His pants were nothing more than a pair of tattered shorts and what was left of his boots had been incinerated. Yet his necklace and ring remained undamaged.

The red stream of energy that came out of the Devil King flowed into Jin like with the serpent.

His wounds healed as he absorbed the spirit of the [Devil King of Power].

Jin shot up as he regained consciousness, he felt like he had died and came back again. Then his left shoulder started to burn and throb with pain, he clutched it and rolled onto his side.

Black scales started forming on his shoulder, they kept growing out until a new arm formed, replacing the one he had sacrificed to the God of War all those years ago.

The pain stopped and Jin looked down at the newly formed arm. Unlike his old one, this one resembled the arm of the [Devil King of Power].

He got to his feet and retrieved the notebook from his pocket.

‘This thing really does belong to a God, even after everything it’s remained undamaged.’

Jin opened it up and looked over the new entries.

[Devil King of Power’s Spirit]

The spirit of the Great Demon King and former Hero of Power who slayed the Dragon Emperor. Grants immunity to fire, increased regeneration, and strength that is second to only the Gods.

‘If only I still had my blessings, the strength I’d have would be unimaginable combined with this spirit. I wonder just how good this regeneration ability is though?’

Jin used his newly acquired draconian claws and cut himself, it wasn’t immediate but after 10 seconds the cut had fully healed.

He then flipped to the next entry.

[Arm of The Dragon Emperor]

An arm that was cut from the Dragon Emperor by the Hero of Power. The arm is armored with obsidian scales that are impenetrable to everything except celestial weapons and grants the ability to summon a sword of Dragon fire at will.

‘What the hell, is all this about a Dragon Emperor and if these entries are true then the Devil King used to be a hero. So… he wasn’t a Devil?’

No one had ever discovered where Devils came from, everyone just assumed they were monsters from an unknown world. The realization that some might have been people was a harsh truth as Jin reflected on all the Devils he had killed.

Jin’s train of thought was interrupted as a sudden exhaustion overcame him. His eyelids grew heavy, and he collapsed to the ground. He could hear footsteps rushing towards him and then a horde of Fire Devils came into view.

Jin tried to move, but he couldn’t find the strength. It was like some greater force was holding him down.

The Devils drew closer.

‘Dammit, am I really about to get killed by these guys after killing that monster.’

Jin watched the Devils run towards him, but he couldn’t resist the exhaustion any longer and closed his eyes.