Chapter Ninety, Seeking Darkness.
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The water dripped, echoing off of the far cave walls as the earth rumbled. The cavern was wide, open, and filled with darkness. Fortunately, as creatures of the underworld, they had all evolved ways to navigate this darkness.
But the darkness within this specific cavern seemed to be different.
A bipedal devil stood tall. There were armored tails and tendrils sprouting from it's body, hovering within space. One of these thick tails was extended from its back, dug deep into a massive creature.
The creature was dragged, despite being hundreds of times larger than the humanoid.
It was a titanic fleshy entity. A sphere of red meat and spiked muscle. It had tendrils sprouting from it as well, all of them squirming around uncontrolled.
The creature was silenced, but it's massive mouth was agape. It's tongue was chaotically flailing itself, as was its entire body.
Looking at it, it wasn't very hard to tell that it was in pain.
The humanoid came to a stop halfway into this cavern, the ground coming to a gravelly halt as the earth stopped shaking. The creatures body limply sunk into the ground, it's tendrils involuntarily flailing around, not having stopped any of their motions.
The humanoid looked up, gazing into the darkness. He was hooded, and he face could not be seen.
But all of the high ranking demons knew exactly who this man was.
As he stared into the black shadows, a small feeling of unease crept up upon him.
Chills ran down his spine, and with a small jolt to counteract them...
Something spoke.
"A pleasure to see you, Edit." The darkness said, it's smile being heard through the words it spoke.
It was a calm voice, the voice of a man, an unbothered individual. From the tone he spoke in, he seemed to be carefree, undisturbed.
"Greetings, Darkness." Edit bowed his head, his hands behind his back.
The darkness was silent for a moment.
"...What brings you to me?" It asked.
"I have an inquiry." Edit replied.
"I am sure you are aware of the mistakes brought forth by this demon. Behemot." He continued. "Fortunately, through his foolish actions, I have been able to glimpse the prowess of humanity's top prospects. In doing so, I have observed an entity that I cannot understand."
"Oh, and... I have brought Behemot to you so that you can decide what to do with him. He is still a second order demon, I do not have complete free range to eliminate them. There is only one hundred after all." He finished.
As before, the darkness was silent for a few moments.
"The entity you cannot understand... It is the individual that the Monkey King's descendants have dubbed as an... Alchemist? Correct?" Darkness spoke.
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"Correct." Edit nodded, "I wanted your help in understanding what, and who he is. Oh, and... If I did decide to make a move on the surface world myself... Would you be able to provide me with protection from the sights of the Earth Gods? The Vitarian and the Titan Son..."
In this world, there were less than five entities that knew of the existence of all the Earth Gods.
Namely... Alacor, the Titan Son, the Beastkin's Earth God. Sirft, the Vitarian Earth God. Darkness, the Banished Son, the Demon Earth God.
As for the last? Of course, it was Edit, the Demon King.
In essence, Edit actually knew more than Sirft. Sirft was not capable of completely perceiving the Demon Earth God.
He was well hidden.
Similarly, he couldn't completely perceive the Beast Earth God either. Though, that was because it's power was just so high beyond his own.
Thankfully, Edit was the protege, and closest individual to the Demon Earth God.
Not many were aware of Edit's true background, but...
Edit had been scouring the underworld for more than one hundred thousand years...
Edit was a direct genetic descendant of Ygdridium, the final human king of the ancient dynasty.
The result of crossbreeding between this human, and the most ancient demonic entity.
Even to this day, these two entities are kept in cryostasis, purely because of the respect they hold within the fables of the underworld.
The human and demon that founded the Demonic Empire.
The Progenitors of the Underworld.
Edit was proof of their grandeur. Being able to persist for roughly one hundred and fifty thousand years.
Few knew he was their offspring, but they all knew he was elected by the two themselves.
Edit was truly one of the most ancient and powerful people within the world, but few knew that.
"You asked for protection from the Earth Gods, and information on the mysterious alchemist..." The Banished Son spoke.
Edit nodded.
"I will not protect you, but I will give you the information you seek." Hearing this, Edit couldn't help but show a frown.
But he opened his ears.
"The Alchemist is not an entity you should mess with. I advise against you yourself rising against humanity. They may call upon his assistance, and in that moment, even I won't be able to help you..."
For a moment, Edit's heart seemed to skip a beat.
"What?"
The words of the Ancient God before him did not answer anything.
It only brought more questions.
"That Alchemist is not... the Titan Son and I, are children of God... the Alchemist is not the same, but I can say that his background deserves even greater respect."
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The area was silent for quite some time, Edit standing in complete silence.
"As for Behemot. Leave him, the humans may be able to find his location with the assistance of their new demon toy... I will decide what to do with him."
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Edit continued to have no words.
His silence filled the room.
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Arthur stood by, watching as Diana hovered over a clump of meat.
The Alchemist stood by her side, spitting words of information and opinion as she extended her hand towards the writhing creature.
Arthur glanced down to his hand. He had equipped the Demonic Armament at his sisters request. It had only been a few hours, but it had changed once more. The glove no longer seemed like a glove...
Arthur's right hand had changed, becoming red, muscly, spiky, and rather hard. Just looking at it, the muscle did not seem soft.
It almost shone beneath the light, showing its sleek and metal-like attributes. He twisted his hand around, examining it.
It was eerie. It looked like a red metal, but at the same time, it looked like flesh.
His other hand was brought towards it, his finger pressing into the armament.
It was cold, and solid. Yet it gave way in the same fashion as normal skin.
"Interesting." He muttered.
Yet, what was more interesting was not the visage of the armament.
It was the weight, and perhaps the mind that accompanied it.
It was unbelievably heavy, likely the weight of twenty men. Though that didn't really bother him.
What bothered him was the persistent whispers invading his ears. They weren't coherent thoughts, completely unintelligible.
But it was proof of the emerging intelligence within the artifact.
He looked up at Diana and the Alchemist, watching as the clump of flesh started to float above Diana's palm. She turned towards him, steadily bringing it forward.
"The eleventh node..." She muttered, watching as the torso sized ball of flesh jumped around in space.
"Hopefully with this... We will witness a true and fully realized Demonic Armament."
There was a beaming, almost scary smile on her face.
When looking past her and taking note of the Alchemist's expressions alongside hers.
It was a stark contrast.
His face was calm, and completely unbothered.
"Oh how interesting things are..." He spoke.
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