It came out of nowhere. One day, he was peacefully relaxing in his home, dreaming about his ambitions coming to fruition and picturing the face of a dead green Phoenix, but then all of a sudden, a few of his subordinates audaciously ran into his room with distraught appearances and panicked faces.
He had immediately known that something was wrong. Talk less of their agitated demeanours, unless they were tired of living, they wouldn’t have dared to barge into his abode without adequate reason.
It was shortly after that that he heard that not only were they being attacked by the Devils who had disappeared 21 years ago (Year 151), but they were also attacked… by the Fae.
The Fae! The mysterious race that had appeared on the continent a few years ago. You see, despite the fact that the war with the Phoenix of Envy had long ended, from time to time there would still be interesting figures coloured in green that would arrive in the continent and unhesitatingly fly, run, swim or whatever form of movement towards the Phoenix’s territory, a territory that he and other Blood Fiends called the Domain of Envy.
But sometimes, those people would bring along their own subordinates and brethren, and the Fae were one of such groups. They were a race that looked like a more visually attractive version of humans who also had long sharper ears and large butterfly wings on their backs of different colours. They had been led by a man who had long green hair, imposing green eyes and luminous green wings. Green, green, green.
The first time he saw him, despite the fact that the strange Fae had a more inferior cultivation to most of the other invaders, something around the late stages of the 3rd Realm, Ghost had been more wary of him than he was of a lot of the other invaders.
This was because he knew that rather than judging their cultivations in conjunction with their ages like he did with other people, the best way to examine their talent and most especially their closeness with the Phoenix of Envy… was their colours.
The more green they appeared, the more mutations they had obviously endured, signifying how close they were to Envy. Which of course, was not something that Ghost liked to see. He had long ago made the decision to acquiesce to any of such figures if they came with demands and avoided getting in their way. But it was most preferable that he avoided getting in their way.
Unfortunately however, it appeared that apparently, if what his subordinates were telling him were to be true, one of those grand figures had finally come to his doorstep with obvious hostile intentions.
…But that was actually not the case!
When he left his home to rush to where the fighting was occurring, Instead of seeing the diversely coloured wings of the Fae that he had been expecting… they were all coloured red! Every last Fae had uncharacteristically pale skin, crimson red wings and ruby red eyes, possessing bloodthirsty auras that not only gave off the unmistakable vibe of the Blood Essence Affinity that every Blood Fiend and Devil had, but also the Demonic Energy that was native to the continent. How could this be?!
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On top of that, the green winged Fae, their ruler and perhaps progenitor, was nowhere to be seen! What was the meaning of this? Where had the Fae obtained this power?!
Seeing the entire Fae race radiate power that was multiple times greater than the power that they had walked into the continent with was extremely aggravating. Ghost had looked high and low for anything that would grant him a qualitative boost in power to no avail, but these half butterfly half human mongrels that had come into the continent only a few years ago had found something that had turned them into such cruel and bloody things.
Infuriating! But that wasn’t even the last of it! The Devils that seamlessly fought alongside them had ALSO experienced unnatural transformations!
It was different from Devil to Devil, but on a random part of their bodies there were intricate, beguiling red markings that glowed with potent Demonic Energy. Some of them had the markings on their arms, some had the markings or their legs, some had the marking on their chests and there were even a few who’s markings had twisted to form peculiar symbols that lay on small areas of their body like their forehead, cleavage or shoulder.
These markings apparently possessed remarkable power because the Devils were not only tearing apart Blood Fiends of similar cultivation levels like it was nothing, but they were also fighting head to head with Blood Fiends of higher levels without suffering a loss! Unimaginable!
These were the same Devils that had to scurry off to who knows where like rats? How. Could. This. BE?!
He had been filled with so much rage at that moment that he personally went out to massacre swathes of Devils by himself using his sharp claws. Sometimes, he would even devour their heads whilst they were alive, and it was only then that he was able to calm down.
Loss after loss after loss. That was what he had been facing for many years without reprieve. But in that moment he had obtained a moment of clarity! The attack of the Devils was not a curse but instead a blessing! Not only could he finally obtain the revenge that he had almost been praying to a higher power for… but he could also experiment with their bodies like he had done with many Monsters in the past to perhaps harness their secrets!
Marvellous! He would do it to the Fae too because clearly they had somehow deserted the banner of Envy, and then he would use their powers to finally come up with a method to deal with the Phoenix!
As for the attack of the combined Devils and Fae? Meaningless. They had impressive power indeed but neither of them had prospered for long enough yet and their cultivations weren’t high enough. The strongest of them, other than the pesky Paragon Devil of theirs that was surrounded in red lightning, was in the first stage of the 3rd Realm. Whereas on his side, there were more than 10 Fiend Lords. On top of that, even their numbers were lower.
Looking at such lopsided odds, one couldn’t help but think that the actions of the Devils and the Fae was nothing other than courting death.
{𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: For those wondering, Zalucard had been exiled in year 155.}
{𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: From now on, I will be referring to standard cultivation as ‘Essence Cultivation’ instead of just Cultivation (Unless of course I’m talking about someone's overall Cultivation). This is because I want to highlight the fact that Essence Cultivation and Anatomy Cultivation are different but equal Cultivation paths. Neither of the 2 could be considered ‘more’ effective, even if Essence Cultivation is the mainstream in most Worlds.}