Thousands of years ago, a powerful demon cut his way out of the Netherrealm with the aid of his trusted spear in a quest to search for a purpose beyond endless battle. Upon fighting his way out of the hellish dimension, this demon found himself in a world blessed by the gods, filled with honey, life, and endless beauty. Upon witnessing this reality, the demon swore to never return to the abyss and gore-filled reality that was the Netherrealm.
The demon toured the unfamiliar realm in the form of an ordinary man to not alarm the several races he came across during his journey, called humes, favored by Aethir, mother of creation. He found these short-lived creatures’ everyday lives fascinating and decided to spend time amongst them to learn their ways and understand why the gods granted these races so much favor and grace than those who made their homes in Netherrealm.
Unfortunately, the demon was destined to face disappointment. Humes were no more special than any other creature out there. They cheated, stole, and killed each other over the stupidest of issues. Sure, some loved and gave their lives for their friends, family, or country. But as far as the demon was concerned, there was nothing special about any of that.
Warriors in Netherrealm often gave their lives for their brethren. In fact, the demon found Netherrealm’s locals much more trustworthy than these so-called favored humes. In Netherrealm, you knew everyone was out to kill you, and thus you could react accordingly. Partnerships and the like were often based solely on profit, leading to few cases of outright betrayal.
Humes, on the other hand, often made emotional decisions that went contrary to any logic. They would happily forego long-term goals in place of short-term satisfaction. They were irrational but fascinating creatures. However, there was nothing so special about them that warranted special treatment from the gods.
Disillusioned with the world, the demon left civilization and traveled to the far fringes of the planet, to the forgotten, untamed forests and wildernesses. These areas of the world still followed the law of survival of the fittest.
Beasts and plants fought for their lives with a fervor that only those who frequently danced on the edge of life and death could understand.
The demon finally found his home in this chaotic landscape. The constant fear of death, coupled with the desperate, bloody battles, made the demon feel right at home. While touring these regions, the demon came across a savage race that looked similar to him. These creatures had the torso of a man and a horse’s body.
They called themselves centaurs.
Like most creatures in the forest, the centaurs were wild beasts engaged in endless tussles against others for supremacy of the land. The centaurs reeked of blood, and their eyes held a demanding glare that promised death to anyone that wasn’t their kind.
The demon took an instant liking to the centaurs and decided to live among them. Using the knowledge he gained from observing other civilizations, he taught the centaurs the art of farming and weapon crafting.
Under the demon’s tutelage, centaurs soon transformed from a band of savages to a well-organized community. This allowed them to conquer the forest in record time and set up a thriving economy built on selling rare items in the woods to outside civilizations.
Over time, many centaurs left their village to venture out and build new lives within the civilized world. However, quite a few remained to stay and live with their god. The years passed peacefully as the centaurs continued to grow in both stature and prominence in the world.
The demon eventually grew content with his role as god of the centaurs. Seeing these creatures who looked like him rise in the world filled him with more accomplishment and pride than any victory in the Netherrealm ever could.
Unfortunately, it was this very growth that doomed the demon. The centaurs’ rapid rise alerted the Adjudicators, who arrived at the centaurs’ village to investigate the source of their rapid increase in stature. As expected, the Adjudicators found the demon, who was an illegal being in their realm.
The Adjudicators immediately ordered his return to the Netherrealm. The demon did not dare refuse. He knew how powerful the Adjudicators were. Fighting them was akin to suicide. But at the same time, he was reluctant to leave the centaurs behind without a means to protect themselves in the event some catastrophic monster or demon like himself chose to attack.
To combat this possible scenario, the demon channeled a large portion of his power into his spear. This process severely weakened the demon, as it was not a matter of merely transferring some mana.
Mana could finish, and that would render the spear useless in the event of continuous attacks. No. He needed to be sure the spear could be used indefinitely regardless of the number of times it was used. So, what he infused the spear with, was a permanent portion of his lifeforce. The spear would live as long as he did and would contain a part of his powers for all time.
Naturally, this meant that the demon would forever be in a weakened state, which would increase his chances of getting killed in Netherrealm. However, as far as he was concerned, this was a worthy sacrifice.
However, to prevent his power from being misused, the demon laid down a formation in the forest, connecting six major clans in the shape of a spear. This formation ensured his spear’s power could only be used within its boundaries, thereby preventing the centaurs from going to war against other races.
Finally, he broke his spear into six parts and shared them among the top centaur clans’ chiefs. Each spear part contained unique cultivation methods and skills, which would later become these clans’ unique characteristics. The spear would only regain its previous glory when joined together. The centaurs might have tested its powers, but the demon gave a stern warning before he left.
The centaurs were only allowed to use the spear in the worst possible situation. The demon warned the centaurs that if they carelessly used the spear’s power, he would take it from them.
Denizens of Netherrealm were a proud bunch. Even if they lent their power to mortals from the world, they would never permit it to be used for mundane purposes. Due to the demon’s warning, despite the passage of several centuries, and a few extinction-level situations, the centaurs had not dared to combine the spear parts to summon the demon’s full power.
At least this had remained the case… until today.
Lymar Village.
8:00 a.m. 15 th Banem 1092.
Shadow’s expression hardened after Balasius recounted the tale of their great demi-god. The assassin frowned as he looked at the chiefs who wore sullen expressions as they placed their left hands on their right arm and softly chanted. The centaur chiefs’ arms began to glow with bright, yellow light. Seconds later, spear parts emerged from each of their arms, like they were gates to another dimension.
The chiefs stumbled, looking decisively haggard as they placed their respective spear parts on the table. It appeared the ritual had taken a significant toll on their body.
“What do we do about Ranius’ spear point?” a chief asked with concern as he examined the parts on the table. So far, the handle and pieces of the spearhead had been assembled, but the final tip was missing. This part used to belong to the chief of Aethon. But who knew what happened to it after he fell in battle with no one to pass it on to?
“Do not worry, I have it with me,” Mando said, drawing curious and slightly suspicious glances from the other chiefs. “I will explain later,” the chief stated as he pulled out the missing spear tip from his arm. “For now, we must focus on what is important.”
Mando placed the spear tip on the table…
BOOM!
A massive gale exploded outward from the table, sending the centaur chiefs skidding backward. The chiefs and shamans coughed up blood as their bodies were assaulted with vast amounts of dense and violent mana.
However, Shadow stood his ground, violently gritting his teeth as he watched the broken spear slowly fix itself with crazy flourish and fanfare. A few moments later, the gale died down as quickly as it started. There was nothing to show that it ever existed aside from the magnificent green spear that now floated above the table.
“My god,” Mando exclaimed as he gazed upon the beautiful spear with shock and disbelief. The centaur chief could admire but did not dare approach the spear, as even now, the mana storm surrounding it was far too violent for any living being to approach.
*cough* *cough*
A series of loud coughs brought everyone’s attention back to the daeben, who was still lying on the table. Surprisingly, the daeben was unaffected by the chaotic storm. No, wait, that wasn’t it. Although the mana was chaotic everywhere else, it was eerily calm in a small radius surrounding the daeben and even had a sense of warmth.
Shadow’s eyes narrowed, and he was about to move toward Kashi, but to his shock, Kashi suddenly reached out and grabbed the spear. BOOM! The building shattered as a massive burst of mana exploded from the spear.
The dust eventually cleared to reveal the building’s occupants protected by mana shields quickly erected by the shamans. Shadow peered into the dust cloud as it cleared. His eyes were drawn to a glowing silhouette within the smoke.
One of the shamans summoned a wind spell to dispel the remaining dust. The dust cleared to reveal Kashi floating a couple of feet above the ground with the spear tightly clasped in his right hand. An ungodly amount of pressure oozed out of Kashi, forcing all who looked upon his visage to suffer pain.
It was like a god had descended upon the mortal realms and did not permit the mortals to gaze upon him.
Luckily, this phenomenon did not last for long. Kashi suddenly pointed the spear at his heart, and before anyone could react, ran it through. To their shock, the spear drove into his heart but did not come out of his back. To the observers, it looked like Kashi’s heart had devoured the spear.
The loss of the spear caused Kashi to lose the powerful halo. He fell to the ground, still unconscious as Shadow and the shamans ran up to his side. The shamans quickly examined the daeben’s body and frowned.
Shadow did not like the look on their faces. He frantically asked, “What’s the problem!?”
The shamans shook their heads. “We’ve done all we can. The battle raging within your friend is not something we can interfere in.”
Shadow frowned. He could sense the shamans were hiding something. “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”
The shamans shared a look and sighed. “The powers within your friend are too much for any normal hume to handle. Even if he wins in the end, we cannot tell how much damage he would have incurred. In the worst-case scenario, he could perish regardless of whether he wins or not.”
Shadow’s expression stiffened. This was not something he could accept. “Earlier, you said there’s a world inside him, right? Can I get in there?”
The shamans shook their heads. “No. Only the daeben can summon into that world. We do not have any way of entering.”
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Shadow gritted his teeth and stared at the unconscious daeben. “Don’t you dare die, Kashi. Lune will never forgive you.”
Kashi’s World.
Meanwhile, within Kashi’s world, the daeben sported a wide grin as he grasped the demon’s spear in his right hand and gazed at a colossal monstrosity. This monster was as tall as the Tokyo Tower and was covered in dense vegetation, making its original form impossible to discern. Dark aura oozed gushed out of the monster and battled against Yggdrasil’s green energy, each fighting for supremacy over the world.
“This is yours, right?” Kashi said as he handed the spear to someone by his right.
A white, bony hand grasped the spear as a voice replied, “Yes, it is… Master.”
Two Hours Earlier…
Seconds after Kashi fainted, he was forcefully transported to his inner world, where he was faced with a terrifying sight. Monstrous, malevolent blanketed the sky, blotting out the sun. Black lightning thundered through the skies as tornadoes roiled the seas into large tsunamic waves.
Kashi’s gaze traveled to the demon centaur who floated in the sky at the center of the storm. The demon’s skin and fur had turned purple, eyes glowing red with a sinister glare. The daeben could sense an unfathomable power bursting out of the crystal in its chest.
It appeared that defeating the demon had somehow caused the crystal to explode with even more power. Could it be that the demon was suppressing the crystal’s power this whole time?
“In that case…” Kashi muttered as he stretched out his right hand. The eyes of the dragon that laid curled beneath Yggdrasil snapped open, fire and lightning burning in its eyes. “I’ll just have to remove that crystal myself,” Kashi said, as he took out FPB and nocked a mana arrow.
ROOOAR!
The black-scaled dragon’s roar shook the dimension as it roused from its slumber. The divine beast glared in the direction of the centaur, and then, with a heavy flap fo its wings, instantly took to the sky.
Kashi grinned as the dragon burst past him. He tapped his feet against the air and also shot toward the centaur with blinding speed. Within his world, Kashi was a god. It seemed the ability of flight was one of the added perks of owning his own world.
The demon centaur let out a crazed roar as it charged toward the incoming foes with wind and lighting surrounding its enlarged frame.
CRACKLE! BOOM!
What followed next was an epic battle of disastrous proportions. The sky was split in twain, oceans vaporized, and entire swathes of earth were excavated as tempestuous lightning, wind, and fire clashed and exploded. The battling beings moved across the dimension in seconds, leaving only destruction in their wake.
It seemed Armageddon itself had arrived, and if it were not for Yggdrasil’s healing energy, the dimension might have already been destroyed by the attacks. The monsters Kashi had captured hid within Yggdrasil’s tree trunk, alongside the Hydra egg and Kira’s cocoon, neither of which could afford to be exposed to the violent energies.
Assured that no harm would come to Kira, Kashi and his dragon intensified their all-out assault against the demon. The centaur’s body grew several feet to match the enormous dragon as it clashed in a brutal melee. The beasts savagely punched, clawed, and bit at each other, lacing each of their attacks with the elements to produce even more damage.
There was no strategy to their attacks—just pure savagery and instinct. When they met in a melee, they would drag each other to the ground. They would then smash each other on the earth or throw themselves around. Several mountain peaks were flattened in the process, and the landscape was forever transformed.
Within all of the chaos, the dragon suddenly bit down on the centaur’s shoulders. It then spun around and flung the demon into the air. The dragon reared its head and then spat out a pillar of flames coated with lightning.
The centaur roared as it gathered mana to create a shield in front of it.
BOOM!
A massive explosion followed as the beam crashed into the shield. The shield did not last long as it shattered mere moments after the initial impact. However, it had managed to do its job neutralizing the dragon’s attack. The demon raised its hands, and thousands of lightning spears shot down toward the dragon, who retaliates with thousands of lightning-fireballs.
“NOW!” Kashi’s voice suddenly burst out amidst the chaos. The daeben’s diminutive form weaved through the lightning bolts, fire dragons, and tornados to appear before the demon with his bow fully drawn.
In the eyes of the demon centaur, Kashi was no more than an ant, but it was precisely this ant that suddenly filled him with the most tremendous sense of dread he had ever experienced. No, it was not so much the daeben as it was the arrow nocked on the bow. The amount of pure mana concentrated in that single mana arrow was beyond frightening!
No standard bow should have been able to store that much mana! But how could the centaur have known that this was Ferulic’s Practice Bow? This was a bow used by a god. There was simply no need to consider just how much mana it could hold.
Ignorant of the demon’s thoughts, Kashi said with a snide grin as he released the arrow. “Why don’t you take a nap?”
BOOM!
ROOAR!
The centaur let out a terrible roar as the arrow struck the crystal dead center. Even worse, the bolt suddenly expanded in size and then began to rotate in place like a gigantic drill. The arrow dug into the crystal, pushing it through the centaur’s chest and toward its back.
Racked by inexplicable pain, the centaur attempted to reach down and grab the bolt, but Kashi’s dragon suddenly pinned him to the ground and held his arm in place with its legs. The demon’s cries shook the earth as the arrow drilled through its chest and blasted out the other end with the crystal at its tip.
BOOOM!
A cataclysmic explosion erupted, blasting all within a three-mile radius to dust. Moments before the explosion, the dragon sensed the danger and protected the daeben with its body. The dragon let out a pained cry as it was sent tumbling across the sky by the impact. It crashed to the ground a couple of miles away, bloodied and heavily injured.
Kashi stumbled from its embrace with a grim expression. He gazed into the dragon’s weak eyes and gently patted its snout. “Thanks. You saved me,” the daeben muttered. “You can rest now. I’ll take it from here.”
The dragon softly growled as it nodded in response. It then let out a moan as Yggdrasil’s healing aura enveloped it and began healing its injuries. The brief respite was broken moments later as Kashi spotted the demon hurtling towards them, leaving a distinct blood trail in its path.
Whoo… Boom!
Kashi blinked in shock as the demon crashed next to him. Having lost the crystal, he had shrunken to just over nine-feet tall. A gaping hole bore through his chest where the crystal once laid, a microcosm of the demon’s severe injuries.
The demon suffered the most damage as a result of being at the epicenter of the explosion. He was missing an arm, both his horns had broken off, and several lacerations cut deep to the bone, dying the centaur’s fur red with blood.
Kashi could tell that if left alone, the demon would certainly perish within moments. The daeben did not know what compelled him to do so, but he suddenly found himself walking over to the fallen centaur. He examined the demon’s unfocused eyes and fatal injuries and then asked with a sigh, “Can you save him?”
A soft breeze blew past him, and Kashi knew the answer to his question. A definite yes. Kashi smiled and then said, “Please heal him. He should be the centaurs’ god. They’ll owe me one.”
Yggdrasil’s aura seeped into the demon and began rapidly healing his injuries. Suddenly, however, the healing stopped, and Kashi blinked as Yggdrasil revealed that the demon’s brain had been severely affected by the crystal’s corruption. Yggdrasil could heal the injury, but if Kashi had any intention of subduing the beast, this was the only chance he would have.
Immediately the centaur regained its full faculties, he would retaliate much harder than the hydra eggs. Kashi would most likely not survive the backlash unless he threw the demon out of the realm.
Upon hearing this report, Kashi did not waste a moment before ordering, “Subdue him.” This was the entire reason he had put this demon in his inner world in the first place. Well, he did not expect the crystal to make a sudden comeback, but all things considered, it could be considered mission accomplished. Would this experience teach him to think carefully before shoving interesting things into his inner world?
Maybe? Only time would tell.
Following Kashi’s confirmation, the healing aura doubled in intensity and swiftly enveloped the centaur. The daeben watched as the demon’s missing arm and broken horns regenerated until his injuries were fully healed. The entire process lasted several minutes, but Kashi did not move from his spot, unwilling to miss even a moment of this historic moment.
Eventually, the daeben smiled when the demon opened its eyes with vague confusion reflected in them.
Moment of Truth.
Kashi kept a distance of about six meters from the demon and greeted him with a smile, “Hey there, my name is Kashi. I’m the one who just saved your life. What’s your name?”
The demon’s gaze traveled to Kashi and then lay fixed on the daeben for a moment. Just when Kashi began to prepare for combat, the centaur suddenly kneeled on all fours and bowed his head.
“I am called Drixali, master,” the demon greeted with a solemn voice. “You have my eternal gratitude and loyalty for freeing me from these thousand years of torment. I swear to cut down whoever stands in your path and lead the charge against any army. My spear will forever be yours to command, and all my powers shall be at your disposal.”
Kashi smiled as he approached Drixali and then placed a hand on the demon’s shoulder. “No need for the formality. I am grateful for your help. Please stand.” Inwardly, he wondered whether there was a correlation between Drixali and Drixlia’s names. They were too similar to be mere coincidence.
BOOOOM!
Unfortunately, Kashi did not have time to consider if this was true or not, as accompanied by a massive explosion, a gargantuan, green mossy creature arose from the area where the crystal had fallen.
Despite having a human form, this monster was mostly covered in rotting vines, foliage, and trees, all of which was surrounded by toxic fumes.
Kashi took one look at the monster and guessed it was most likely the source of the Blight, what with the venomous aura and plant-like anatomy. Kashi also knew that as he was, he stood no chance against that monster. If that thing went berserk in his inner world, Kashi would most likely perish from the backlash.
Kashi gritted his teeth and looked at Drixali. “How strong are you? Do you think you can take down that monster?”
“Not as I am,” Drixali replied with a shake of his head. “Most of my power was siphoned away by that demon over the years. The other half of my power is securely stored in a spear I gave to the mortal centaurs. But I have no way of summoning it while it is disassembled—”
Whoooosh!
Drixali’s words suddenly froze in his throat, and he jerked to look in front of Kashi, where a small portal had appeared. He could sense a familiar power calling out to him, just asking him to reach out and collect it. However, before he could call out to the daeben, the spearhead of a beautiful spear cut through the portal.
Kashi grinned as he grabbed the spear and pulled it out of the dimensional gate. The daeben whistled with praise as he admired the exquisite green spear, within which he could feel a monstrous amount of roiling mana. He looked at Drixali and said as he leaked out a cheeky grin. “This is yours, right?”
“Yes, it is… Master.” Drixali reached out and grasped the spear with his left hand. Mana burst out from the demon, shrouding his figure. The demon’s silhouette swelled in size and stature as the mana stored in the spear quickly restored him to a bit of his previous strength. Shortly after, the mana cleared to reveal Drixali. The centaur’s powerful muscles and dangerous gaze gave him the appearance of a war god: strong and ready to challenge the world.
Kash grinned as he turned his attention to the monstrosity on the horizon. He wound his arm as he joked, “Alright. No one’s here, so I can go all out for once.” He glanced at Drixali as a terrifying aura exploded around him. “Support me.” The earth cracked beneath the daeben’s feet as he took a step towards the monster with a bright smile. “Now, let’s have some fun…”