Run (3)

Step, step... Crackle crackle, sfwush... boom boom... crackle, step step step step step step.

It was a bath, a ring, and a river of flames that colored the entire perimeter of the cult's territory. In one's eyes, it could easily pass by as a mini sun burns in one's mind, reflecting on one's eyes as the sounds of those flames burn. And their crispy noises only served to numb one's mind. It was all true, not a product of anyone's imagination or the illusion of an array formation. When coming closer, one would burn and form part of the flames, fueling it as the corpses of tens of thousands of believers and core believers did and thousands of higher-ups' corpses.

A square ring of fire spanning 250 kilometers was present. The walls used to surround this cult’s territory were gone, and the flames set on their place were half as tall as the walls used to be. Even then, the incandescent hot temperature in and out of that perimeter was quite elevated.

From it, a figure with little claws the color of a blackness that engulfed the light from the flames nearby walked away from those flames. The right hand was empty, but the left held a head with no hair around it.

There wasn’t a better time to attack one’s enemy’s base than when the big guns, in this case, the strong powerhouses of said base, are not present and leave their territory entirely defenseless. It is precisely because of this that ordinary people attacked camps of armies and, when they less expect it, dealt a blow to their logistics and mentality, at the very least.

Ciemnosc came out with the flames lighting up his back. During the entire night and past midnight, up until the early morning hours past 6 am. He had gone through the complete territory and sowed disorder everywhere, reaping lives and taking the bodies of many believers directly to the flames to slowly burn to death. But the majority would word-for-word be killed off by his Claws Out or Vocón Link.

During the slaughter, he wasn’t as agile and fast as any Creature specialized in that would be. But his bodily strength still granted him enormous potency, thus speed and sudden dash potential, which he could use to traverse the entire territory without needing his bike. There was no Obsidiafying realm cultivator to at least make an attempt to defend the cult’s territory. All Conflagrate realm cultivators who went p flying with their puppets, corpses, and curses were thoroughly crushed down by a mere whiplash from Ciemnosc’s Vocón Link.

Every time the black all-consuming whip appeared, the world seemed darker as its act of presence was noiseless yet sounded tenebrous. Anyone touched by it was turned into a dried-up corpse or disappeared somehow. Of course. Those who watched that happen couldn’t tell that Ciemnosc was storing some snacks for later. He had to breakthrough soon after this slaughter before doing something he must do.

As for those dried-up corpses, nobody lasted enough to see what happened to them afterwards or were already turned around, and futility fled for their lives. What happened to them wasn’t just some drying up. Ciemnosc immediately consumed their bodies with his Vocón Link, slurping their bodies into the Vocón Link’s body, except for the filth that was instead turned into nothingness, cleaned up by his dark Power Energy.

In this way, Ciemnosc was barely wasting some dark Power Energy, as he mostly used bodily strength to move around and lash out with his Vocón Link. And when not, it was his Claws Out, either his small fangs for teeth, the former projected from the latter, or the smallish claws from his fingertips and toes.

But as he went on, the little dark Power Energy he used up was restored by the corpses he consumed with Vocón Link. He didn’t let the thing go longer than 40 meters, his utmost limit, as any more would make that headache return, and his battle capabilities would weaken. Though even as he did so a few times amidst the slaughter just to test it out, it didn’t hurt as much, and it even seemed like his ‘that something’ had… either strengthened or toughened up or perhaps just revealed its capabilities a bit more.

However, even as the Moribund Yearning Cult had sent its Obsidiafying realm cultivators out to look for Ciemnosc, it was genuinely impossible for there to not be a single strong powerhouse left to protect the cult in case of actually being invaded. Just like it was the case tonight.

And who else but the pastor, Noles, himself to have remained back to protect the cult’s territory?

When Ciemnosc faced off Noles, who in return looked furious and wanted to strip Ciemnosc of his skin, drink wine from tonight forwards from his skull and use his eyeballs to golf. As soon as he began fighting with Ciemnosc, he understood… He was hopeless to win against the kid without many additional peak Obsidiafying realm cultivator’s help.

His corpses, puppets, and ‘strong arts’ were, indeed, capable of harming and even beating the shit out of Ciemnosc. As he was constantly sent blasted away, his body rocketed from the many puppets and the like surrounding him. None of them had a strong body as he did, but with Noles’s Power Energy, they had an attacking power that threatened Ciemnosc. Even as they only lasted from 3 to 5 attacks on Ciemnosc’s bodily strength.

Yet, for every 2 wounds on his body, the monstrous, ravaging, and feral Ciemnosc clawed about and chewed fearlessly, not caring about it even as his mouth bled out from whatever he was chewing on from those puppets and corpses. Ciemnosc would instead break apart at least 10 of those puppets and corpses. No curse was effective against him, mainly because he used no weapon to fight, and though his clothes weren’t that powerful, he didn’t need them. Being totally naked didn’t affect him in the slightest. And even his eyes had an impossibly absurd protection, let alone his genitals.

The battle was so harsh that Noles was exhausted just as Ciemnosc was getting exhausted, all due to Ciemnosc eating the corpses of his believers amidst their fight. Even Noles, someone who had witnessed and committed the slaughtering of innocent, ordinary people, couldn’t hold himself from feeling afflicted as the newest pastor of the cult.

It was a long-prolonged fight, but as it neared its mid-point, it suddenly began to turn worse for Pastor Noles, whose absorption of the surrounding pure energy was just mediocre compared to Ciemnosc eating ‘useless’ Conflagrate realm and Spirit Gathering realm believers and core believers, and higher-ups.

In the end, Ciemnosc claimed his prize, clawing Noles’s chest and, without saying a thing, beheading this enemy that had become just one more number in his bloody hands. Ciemnosc was not without any injuries, though. As soon as he finished the fight and found himself with raging flames surrounding him, he stored just another peak Obsidiafyign realm cultivator in his Covert Space bags before walking out of the cult’s territory that now lied mostly in shambles and reeked of death, blood and the terror of victims.

Step step - step. Pakk, phhshk.

Ciemnosc stopped after walking over 3 kilometers away from the walls of fire, the cult’s territory long gone. Throwing Noles's head in the air, his left palm caught its neck wide open. As Ciemnosc tilted his head to the right and looked at it, unwillingness swept his eyes for a moment before he took out a top notch pike and inserted it in the ground. Following that, what remained of Noles as a human and not as a dish was impaled into the pike.

The pike was 4 meters long, counting its blade. And as the pastor’s head was left impaled on it, Ciemnosc walked away another kilometer before taking his bike out his Covert Space bags and began ‘voom voom’ far away back towards the center and towards the mountains of the south.

… Ciemnosc left the surroundings of the cult’s territory before the reinforcements arrived. But by then, the flames had also already been set off by nature itself. They would then have the issues of selecting a new pastor, restoring, and worry not about searching for Ciemnosc but that Ciemnosc may return instead. But all of that mattered not for Ciemnosc, who, instead of running eastwards, moved towards the southeast and to the mountains close to the largest forest in the south.

After hours of driving from morning to noon, Ciemnosc arrived, where the forest and mountains were interconnected, sharing terrain and ecosystem. To which, unbeknownst to him, and only himself… there was a significant party searching for him there. So big not even he would dare mess with even with his current prowess.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

. . .

Today, Ciemnosc was 13 years, 3 months, 4 weeks, and 4 days old. It was just 10 days after the Moribund Yearning Cult was dealt a blow like that of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, whose ‘strongest’ sect master was taken down and from which many thought the sect to enter dark times for the next several thousand years. Now, though the notion was the same, it had changed slightly.

It went from the ‘Self-Mutilating Honores Sect’s tragedy’ only to that of the entire Region and even the world. But not thousands of years, in dark times, but as long as the evil within, Ciemnosc, remained alive!!

If before, even before Warmlord City’s insane explosion, the news of the Region’s upheaval was more or less kept within the Region, and no ‘mortal’ was affected by these news. Then ever since the disappearance of all life within such a vast range, ordinary people came to fear that name, that appearance, and even more the things that ‘it’ was capable of doing.

Without even realizing how much the world was affected by his existence, Ciemnosc was unaware of how many tales were told about him to children and to perverted husbands who wouldn’t let the sisters-in-law alone with their eyes.

One, the children would be told of his ‘cannibalism’ and how he became the devil and formed pacts with others, unaware of his evil, becoming his first victims. Namely, the most powerful army of all times, which managed to delete more than half the armies of each major organization and even the newest, the Rocaloi Academy.

To others, the wives and fiancees whose fiances or husbands had an eye for anything that moved would talk of the bewitchingness of Ciemnosc, of the devil. They would tell them how their dress all contained darkness lately, how a person’s figure appeared in those dreams, and how their crotches would feel cold as if touched by the devil when waking up.

It wasn’t until they only had eyes for their wives and betrothed and had bags under their eyes the subsequent days that such stories would end… for some time.

On the other hand, he had become the epitome of evil in the cultivation world and hearts of many. The ‘major’ organizations began teaching Ciemnosc’s knowledge, ideals, and thoughts on what was still not discovered enough.

They didn’t hide from where that knowledge came from. On the contrary, they bragged about it. Telling stories and anecdotes. Such as the devil might have dealt them so much pain, harm, and extermination. But they had tricked the devil. And now, with ‘its’ information, they were holding a more promising future than ever and could face the devil soon after the next realm is researched thoroughly!

… Pak, thud. Pak, thud.

… Meanwhile, Ciemnosc was busy digging a cave. In truth, it was yet another rabbit hole. But this time, he was making it much longer, and the chamber, all the way to the bottom, was designed to be more spacious. It would be much easier to be in when he started writhing in pain and could even yell at ease, knowing nobody would hear him.

He had a shovel in his hands, and this was not because he, for some reason, needed to do this the ordinary people’s way. He simply chose to do this himself, feeling restless and… with a brewing rage within his chest that he didn’t seem capable of holding on his own…

Over the past few days, he finally began eating the last few Obsidiafying realm cultivators he had left, which were all in the peak of the Obidiafying realm. Now. However, though he still had a couple left, he had already reached his bottleneck. Even the solidification of his foundation was over his expectations once again. And he felt like he was bloating from head to toe, but that was only his perception of the dark Power Energy and power brewing within him.

Pakk, thud… … … …tap.

“...?” Ciemnosc, who was shirtless and doing some man’s work, like a muscled big boy but was instead still slim and only slightly muscular, slightly pale-skinned boy, threw another bout of dirt above his shoulder when he suddenly heard a tap from far away. Stepping away from his rabbit hole, which he had barely begun digging, he looked with his eyes where the sound came from.

“...” Then, more footsteps were heard by his sensitive ears just as his eyes saw the many people coming his way. However, he suddenly turned around, and around; a total of 3 times to look at all 4 cardinal points from his position. “...”

“Yeah, yeah! Why haven’t we been visited by more clergies from the cult? Aren’t we supposed to meet them every week? It’s been twice already. Do they no longer care to find the devil?” - “Mnn~, will my baby be in the group, or did he return to the cult? Aish, I shouldn’t have gone with my girlfriends this time around. What if Mr. Devil appears and pum! Steals me away from my baby? Hehehe.”

“Woaaah, how boring. How long until we get there? It’s the clergies’ fault for not coming to warn us, thinking something might have happened. Seriously!” - “Eey, don’t say that. What if something actually happened? What then?” - “They wouldn’t have forgotten us. It… just means something they had to take care of, but it isn’t threatening~.” - “Maybe the academy went back on their word? They didn’t deliver its body after all. Maybe it was our leaders who forced them to fight again.”

“Huh?? What… wait, hey?” Ciemnosc had already put away the thought of these people coming towards him. He didn’t need to be himself: so unique, perfect, and invincible to know that their direction, or meeting point, was in his general direction!

However, as he quickened his shoveling pace, they were still a few kilometers away from his current position. They could see, as cultivators, amidst trees and vegetation so far in the distance. One can only imagine the thoughts inside someone’s head as they saw dirt suddenly and practically vomiting from the ground to the sky.

“Hey, did someone get here before us? No, right? There wasn’t any news about that… could it-” - “FUCK! It’s him! It’s him! MY GOD!!” - “What?! Oh, my fucking g- get him! Ciemnosc is here! Hey, HEEEY! Ciemnosc is here and digging dirt!” - “What? Digging? Diggin’ what?!” - “Ciemnosc? Someone alert the higher-ups, hurry, hurry!!” - “Catch him!”

Nobody was an actual fool. Contrary to what they sounded and looked like as they rushed to the young boy who dominated the fight against many peak Obsidiafying realm cultivators. And if he’s willing to risk his well-being altogether, even capable of killing them. Despite the thumping injuries he suffered, he was able to kill so many peak Obsidiafying realm cultivators, all thanks to his strange black sphere, which more likely than not came from his ‘that something’ or so.

However, from each side that surrounded him, Ciemnosc noticed a hundred thousand disciples and believers working together and in a good mood as they moved through this gigantic forest. They were moving with ease. Not feeling lost or worried about losing their respective group. They showcased good discipline and order for a group as large as this, with seemingly no actual leader to guide them or order them around.

While Ciemnosc took notes of that, especially with how the 4 ‘major’ organizations had never been like this before, let alone so good in cooperation within their own ranks, Ciemnosc was doing his best to hide from this stupidly large amount of enemies.

Even if he took Cloudless Eagle out, he would be quickly caught up by Obsidiafying realm cultivators using the Rychly Transporting Array Formation. Getting himself and the Cloudless Eagle killed off then and there. And, now that he has been unavoidably exposed, he shoved the shovel away and took his Claws Out. It didn’t take away any of his dark Power Energy. Not like he could do anything cool with Claws out and his dark Power Energy in any case.

All Ciemnosc felt was drained from his body and self whenever he took his Claws Out was his body freeing itself from it all, not being constrained and gaining more power. His Claws Out has always been a threat for even Mortal weapons when certain conditions are met, let alone any other type of weapon or structure.

With his Claws Out, he was now digging deeper and deeper below the mountain on the surface. Ciemnosc had already scanned with his Spirit Sense and could tell the mountain ‘continued’ much below but also held some obvious and cold gaps here and there. They were strange. They were hollow. But more than anything, they seemed very cold somehow.

Still, Ciemnosc did not stop. He settled not to fight these many enemies, lose time, and then be encircled once again by more Obsidiafying realm cultivators, much less when he was so close to breaking through! He dug harder and faster, even thinking of using his dark Power Energy, but just that, thinking. But he, for some reason, refrained from taking out his dark Power Energy as he continued to physically dig in the most primitive ways with his Claws Out, even using his feet.

He didn’t use his fangs for this, of course, wouldn’t get his mouth full of dirt, rock, and a worm or two.

Ciemnosc dug and dug. The enemies were already less than half a kilometer from him. But he was already 300 meters deep and another 300 meters, making a curved tunnel, seemingly trying to cross the mountain from below. Though with the size of these mountains, it would be a work of a few weeks for ordinary cultivators to do and quite some days for Ciemnosc, the bad, evil devil of the world.

“Get in!” - “WA WAH WAAAA!” - “Haiyaaa!” - “Weeee!”

The enemies began falling down the entrance expertly, since they were cultivators. Once they reached the bottom, they ran into the curved tunnel with all their might, fearless to meet Ciemnosc and only caring about stopping him so that reinforcements could come in.

They rushed in, mindlessly, looking for any traces or possible spots that Ciemnosc might have hidden himself in and using what tiny Spirit Sense they could use to check. But the tunnel simply kept on going until they saw a change. This change was the form of the tunnel’s exit, which spanned longer than a kilometer by the time they reached it.

They didn’t stop, and contemplate or study it, knowing very damn well Ciemnosc could only be there. They went through this change right through. Unlike before, the tunnel ended with what seemed a void. It was all dark and had only a coldness seeping out and into the tunnel. That was all of what could be described before entering it, as once they exited the tunnel, they realized that this void was… endless… and that its cold was terrifying… so scary… too.

…