“Commander, what’s wrong?” The voice of his subordinate finally woke Boe up from his shocked state.
“Nothing, I’ve just decided to fight their commander head on in one-on-one battle.” As Boe said these words, he took out his Claws of Enthriil and jumped down from the wall.
“Commander, wh-what are you doing?”
“Commander!”
All the people on the wall were shocked by Boe’s action. He was their leader, hope and a ray of light in a middle of darkness of a huge army of demons.
“Don’t let them break this wall no matter what.” Boe didn’t even look back as he dropped his last commanding words before flying straight into the middle of the enemy army, “Give me the power of the shadow attribute!” Boe chose his own attribute because he wanted to feel what was his future.
‘Ability to fly and this feeling of immense power hidden inside of my body is intoxicating.’ In this illusory world, Boe was a rank 10 wizard. In the real world, the strongest people of his continent were only at rank 9 and even they were able to rule over huge kingdoms and they wielded power to destroy continents with a single attack. Then what kind of existence was a rank 10 wizard?
Boe clenched his fists and thunderous cracking sounds resounded throughout the whole battlefield. Space around his fists cracked open and tiny black holes started sucking in everything around them. Boe waved his hand and a torrential wave of a suffocating black energy surged forth. It was a rank 10 attacking technique called “Tsunami of sorrow”, Boe found out that he didn’t need to chant anything in order to use techniques now that he was a rank 10 wizard. Thousands of demons were drowned by the wave as it continued travelling into the horizon without stopping, wherever wave went only complete emptiness was left behind. The land was dried out of water, the vegetation perished and the mountains pulverized to the fine dust. And only barely visible shadow energy specks remained behind. Even rank 9 demons couldn’t do anything in front of a casual wave of Boe’s hand. That was only a tip of 10 rank wizard strength.
Suddenly, another black wave of the same height and power crashed into Boe’s attack and they both disintegrated.
“Have you had enough fun, little Boe? Shall we proceed to our battle?” The terrifying rank 10 demon from before stopped Boe’s attack only after more than a hundred thousand demons died. He obviously didn’t care about this war or any of the demons around him.
“Who are you?” Even though Boe already guessed who was in front of him, he wanted to confirm his thoughts.
“I’m your Lord. I’m The Source of your power. I’m The Great Demon Mastema.” Each of demon’s words echoed with a voice inside of Boe’s soul and it made Boe slightly tremble. With each word, the demon in front of him was growing bigger and scarier in Boe’s eyes.
“You’re merely a dead soul trapped inside of me. You have no control over me. I will use your power as I desire. And you will obey my commands.” Boe used his soul’s full power to suppress the demon inside of him and the chilling black light emitting out of his body was fighting against demon’s murderous aura outside.
“Naïve child, you have no idea who you’re talking to.” The demon stopped leaking out any aura as he flew high into the air. Boe immediately flew after the demon, he decided that the fight against his demon was a lot more important than a trial. They both only stopped when they were high in an atmosphere. They didn’t care about anyone underneath them and this war meant nothing to them, but they needed more space for their upcoming fight.
“You’re nothing without my power boosting your strength.” Mastema’s mouth was crooked in a vicious smile as he took out a pitch black sword and pointed it at Boe.
Claws of Enthriil appeared on Boe’s hands as he took a first movement’s stance from his battle teaching. Boe could materialize any weapon he wanted in this illusory world, but he was used to fight with only claws on his hands already. Boe quickly scanned through all new memories he acquired in this illusion and came up with a battle plan. A terrifying black thick fog started pouring out of Boe’s body, it was a pure shadow attribute battle aura. High rank wizards didn’t need to chant or name anything to use techniques, but they needed to prepare their battle aura beforehand. Boe moved his hands in a strange manner so fast that only Mastema could follow his movements. He was preparing to use his defensive and attacking techniques at once.
Mastema stood motionless all that time. It seemed like he didn’t care that Boe was preparing for a fight. But once Boe started moving, Mastema’s aura suddenly changed. His usual wild and bloodthirsty aura became bone-piercingly cold. The already pitch black sword in Mastema’s hands was shrouded in dense black battle aura.
While Boe’s aura and techniques gave off a feeling of a horrifying wild beast, Mastema was like a soul-devouring devil from the deep abyss of hell. Even though both of them used the same shadow attribute battle aura, the way they used it was absolutely different.
When Boe stopped moving, a strange armor appeared around his body. It was an ancient spell “Shadow God’s protection”, which created the most perfect defense of a shadow attribute wizards.
When Mastema saw what was Boe’s first move, he sneered and suddenly vanished from the spot he stood at a moment ago, “Defending won’t help you kill me.” Mastema appeared behind Boe and his sword was already close to Boe’s neck.
When Boe saw Mastema disappear, he prepared to defend from any angle, so when he heard Mastema’s words, he focused most of his battle aura at his neck. He then brandished his left hand to defend against Mastema’s sword.
*CLANK*
When Mastema’s sword clashed with Claws of Enthriil, Boe felt an astounding pressure pushing him down. After their first collision, Mastema was standing at a place where Boe stood a few moments before, but Boe flew a few kilometers down. When he finally managed to stop his body from falling down, Boe felt an immense pain in his neck. Blood was flowing from Boe’s neck and his soul hurt as if Mastema’s strike was coordinated with his inner demon’s attack. To Boe’s shock, even though he stopped Mastema’s sword from reaching his neck, a strange cold aura from Mastema’s sword has actually went through Claws of Enthriil, all Boe’s defenses and injured him.
Before Boe had a chance to prepare any other defenses, Mastema had already waved his sword and shadow attribute battle aura condensed into a lifelike eagle, which was then sent flying in Boe’s direction. Boe had no choice but to meet Mastema’s attack head-on, he focused all his might in the right hand and a huge sphere of shining black energy flew out from it.
*BOOM*
When the eagle met the sphere, a huge explosion spread throughout the skies. Energy ripples from the explosion slashed numerous ripples in Boe’s clothes and even his skin was cut. Strange little specks of shadow energy were eating away Boe’s skin and flesh. Boe used his battle aura to destroy these little unknown things, but to his shock, he couldn’t do anything about them.
While Boe and Mastema were fighting in the sky, the war beneath them had already started. Countless demons were besieging the walls of the city, colorful rays of light from different magic techniques were flying to and from the city.
But then a huge explosion was heard from the skies and everyone looked in the direction of it at the same time. All of them understood that the most important fight was now happening somewhere far from their sight. When all of them were ready to get back into the fight, they suddenly felt that temperature around them dramatically dropped.
Just a moment later, thousands of screams of pain were heard throughout the battlefield. None of humans or demons understood what just happened, but a lot of them felt an incredible pain on their skin and then something started eating their flesh. Demons and wizards of high ranks tried to help their comrades, but nothing they did could do anything the strange specks of energy. Even though Boe’s fight was happening tens of thousands kilometers high in the sky, collateral damage still created a lot of casualties from both sides already. And that was just the beginning of the life-or-death battle of two rank 10 beings.
Mastema was standing in the same place with a mocking smile on his face, while Boe was trying to get rid of results from their previous clash. When Boe saw Mastema’s face, he was infuriated. Boe decided to ignore little specks of energy on his body and his aura exploded. A pitch black battle aura around Boe started boiling and he now looked like he was being burned by the black flames. Boe’s figure blurred and he appeared right next to Mastema in a next moment.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
*CLANK* *BAM* *CLANK* *BAM*
Boe was striking at Mastema with his Claws of Enthriil at an incredible speed, but each of his attacks were easily blocked by Mastema’s sword. After each encounter, a wave of the shadow attribute battle aura was sent in all directions.
After more than a hundred clashes, Boe had finally backed off. Even though he used his full strength, Mastema wasn’t even scratched. Boe was heavily breathing and his mind was in complete chaos.
“That’s all you’ve got?” Mastema said as his sword vanished back into his magic ring. Just when Boe wanted to reply, Mastema moved again and Boe had to concentrate his mind on defending against his opponent.
*BAM* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*
Mastema only used his bare fists to hit Boe, but the pressure from each strike was unbelievably high. Boe was using all his power and knowledge he got from entering this illusory world to defend, but he couldn’t do anything to stop Mastema.
*BOOM*
A streak of blood was left behind by Boe when he was sent flying through the sky by Mastema’s ruthless attacking technique.
Boe’s body was in pain, his mind was trembling from anger and even battle aura around him started fluctuating as if it was a paper kite in the wind.
A moment later, a towering killing intent broke out from Boe’s body. All shadow attribute battle aura in a radius of a kilometer was suddenly sucked into Boe’s body. Boe’s eyes became crimson red, his hair started crazily floating and his aura became similar to Mastema’s. He dropped his defenses, stopped caring about protecting himself and focused his whole strength, hatred and anger on increasing his attacking abilities to the maximum.
When Mastema saw Boe’s transformation, his lips curved up into a sly smile. He released his full strength out and the pitch black sword appeared in his hands yet again.
Boe moved to fight Mastema in a close combat without a care for his own life. He clashed his claws against Mastema’s sword dozens of times. Boe felt a sharp pain from each clash, but he didn’t care about that at all. Even though Mastema wasn’t injured by any of Boe’s attacks, he started backing off little by little.
*BOOM*
Boe used “Wrath of the Shadow”, which was one of the strongest attacking techniques he knew and Mastema had no choice but to use one of his mysterious techniques in response. When two powerful techniques of rank 10 wizards met, a huge blast of black energy pushed them both away. In a middle of that blast, huge cracks in the space appeared and all the clouds around were blown away. Boe’s clothes were already ruined beyond repair and his body was covered in bloody scars. But when Boe stopped his body from flying away, he glanced at Mastema. A smile appeared on Boe’s face and a bloodthirsty glimmer in his eyes as he finally managed to injure his seemingly invincible opponent.
Tens of thousands demons already died in the war and humans lost thousands of their brave warriors. Blood, guts and dead bodies were everywhere and a suffering screams of pain were resounding throughout the whole battlefield.
But all of a sudden, each and every creature on the battlefield heard a thunderous explosion up in the sky and all of them trembled as they felt a deadly danger coming their way. Before anyone could react and somehow defend themselves, a pitch black energy wave hit right into the middle of the battlefield. Anyone who was touched by the energy crumbled to pieces on the spot and only rank 9 wizards and demons could barely survive.
*BOOM*
The energy wave reached the walls of the city and they just crumbled. Thousands of people were buried underneath the collapsed walls. When demons saw what happened, all of them roared as they charged into the city. Civilian people of the city lost their hope as most of them crumbled onto the ground and started crying from despair.
Blood was dripping from Mastema’s mouth, but his face was full of happiness and delight. Boe’s eyes were even darker than before and his aura started becoming more terrifying than before. If Boe could calm himself down and inspect his aura, he would notice that it was extremely similar to Mastema’s.
Boe didn’t waste even a moment to check his condition before rushing in to continue his battle. Mastema met him with his sword’s chilling attack and their weapons clashed. Each of their clashes created cracks in the space around them and energy undulations were flying off into the distance.
With each strike, Boe’s aura was becoming colder and his killing intent was growing at an inconceivable rate. Mastema already lost the upper hand in the battle and was now retreating from each encounter of their weapons.
After a few minutes of non-stop battle, Boe was covered in blood and there was no clarity in his eyes. After a few more attacks, Boe’s left claw was shattered and Mastema’s sword started cracking. Boe didn’t even notice that he lost one of his two claws as he kept on attacking Mastema without a care for his own health.
“BREAK FOR ME!” Mastema shouted and swung his sword at Boe.
*CLANK* *BOOM*
Boe’s right claw shattered and Mastema’s sword was broken into countless pieces. A horrendous energy waves were created from the impact and explosion of two high level weapons. Hundreds thousands of demons and humans were disintegrated in the battlefield, most of the wall and few dozen buildings were destroyed. All the sky around them was clear from clouds as Boe and Mastema were staring at each other.
Boe clenched his hands into fists and charged straight into Mastema. Mastema’s smile was even more happy as he saw Boe’s current condition.
Mastema used back of his hand to defend against Boe’s fist, but when they collided, Mastema hand was caved in and he flew a few hundred kilometers away. Before Mastema had a chance to align his posture, Boe’s fist had already reached his chest. Mastema was sent flying even farther than before and a streak of dark-red blood was flowing out of his mouth.
“Annihilation.” All Mastema’s remaining battle aura condensed around him as he straightened his body and charged to meet Boe’s next attack.
When Boe saw that Mastema was using his last bits of power to struggle against his onslaught, he sneered and shouted, “EMPEROR’S WRATH!” A terrifying killing intent broke out of Boe’s body and his aura tremendously changed. It was now extremely domineering and cold. When two strongest attacks of Boe and Mastema met, there was no explosion, nor there were any energy ripples. Boe’s domineering technique swallowed Mastema’s technique, but it was greatly weakened in exchange. Mastema used his all remaining battle aura to defend against Boe’s Emperor’s wrath. When Mastema finally managed to subdue all the energy of Boe’s technique, he was ready to gather more battle aura into his body to continue the fight, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Right after Boe used his strongest technique, he used the cover from collision of two techniques to quickly move out of Mastema’s sight. Boe circled around and gathered his all remaining power to strike at Mastema’s chest from behind.
When Boe’s hand penetrated Mastema’s last protecting battle aura and flesh, he didn’t stop. Boe’s hand was already inside of Mastema when he clenched it and grabbed Mastema’s heart.
Mastema slowly turned around, Boe was standing right before him with a still-beating heart in his hand. Boe expected to see terrified or shocked expression on Mastema’s face, but Mastema was unusually calm and his mouth was crooked in an extremely satisfied smile.
“Demon Emperor never defends. Demon Emperor continuously attacks with his domineering might and crushes any foe under his feet. You now deserve a part of my power, little Boe.” When Mastema was saying these words, his body was slowly falling apart and when he finished his speech it completely shattered and transformed into a crimson fog. Before Boe had a chance to say or do anything, the fog moved in his direction and entered his body. Boe felt a scorching hot energy flowing inside of his body and his connection with his inner demon became stronger than ever.
A few moments later, Boe’s body started radiating out a terrifyingly cold aura and killing intent. Boe felt like he was a true emperor of this world and he was intoxicated by this feeling.
“Don’t let him control you.” A so-familiar voice of The Toxin Queen resounded in Boe’s mind as he suddenly snapped out of his trance-like state.
“Thank you, eldest sister.” Only now did Boe notice that the previously little soul inside of him was becoming bigger with every second of his previous condition. Boe focused on his mind and started attacking the little demon soul until it became smaller again.
‘That fellow can actually devour my soul if I will depend on his power too much…’ Boe quickly realized what happened and decided that he will use the demon’s power only if he won’t have any other choice.
Even though the battle in the sky was already finished, the war of demons and humans didn’t stop even for a second. Millions living beings died in the war already and the battlefield was drawn in blood.
“Kneel.” A voice resounded throughout the battlefield and even though it was calm, each and every person felt their soul tremble from fear.
All demons and humans stopped their battles as they all looked up into the sky at the same time. Young man with eyes as black as night, pitch black hairs flattering in the wind was standing high in the skies with a beating heart of the demon in his hand. When demons saw the heart, they all felt their legs shake and their bravery shattered. One by one, most of the demons started falling to their knees, but there were still some of them that kept their heads high.
“KNEEL.” This time, the voice carried a cold killing intent and an overwhelmingly domineering aura of the Emperor inside of it. Furious Boe clenched his hands and the heart of the demon was shattered into pieces that rotated around Boe's hand a few times, then transformed into the crimson fog, which instantly entered Boe's body. All the rebellious demons immediately knelt and those who somehow managed to withstand the voice, suddenly exploded into nothingness.
With all the demons kneeling in front of their leader, humans started cheering and crying from pure happiness. But before they had a chance to shout out their leader’s name, they heard a thunderous voice, “I SAID, KNEEL!” All humans were shocked, but after a moment of thoughts, all of them kneeled and didn’t dare to look up to the skies.
With millions of demons and humans kneeling before him, Boe felt like he was in a spot he was supposed to be in a first place. This feeling of power was intoxicating and Boe wanted to enjoy it a little longer, but when he opened his eyes, he was already standing in a middle of the magic array and everyone around him were looking at him with shocked expressions on their faces.
“Brother Boe, why can’t you be normal at least once?” Kamys was standing right next to Boe and his eyes were full of worry and fear.