-----
The Heavenly Demon stood in silence above the rooftop of his Dark Heaven Palace. The people of his sect had been rather noisy since the strange bald ape girl appeared. He had tried to simply send her off somewhere else by giving her an impossible challenge. She was strong, but he simply couldn’t trust someone who appeared out of nowhere.
Even less, someone so bold as to ask him to make them his disciple! It was unheard of! Not even the Demonic Cultivators that served him inside of his own sect would ever ask such a bold thing because they knew he was quick-tempered.
However, as his sharp red eyes looked at the sky, his senses could see and feel something different—something strangely odd at that!
The quest he had given her was something utterly impossible; no person would ever be able to accomplish it, not even him now that he was so weak.
It was just so she would give up on her stupid delusion. He didn’t have bad intentions either; he just wanted the girl to go back to the Heavenly Empress.
He knew deep down that she was better off learning from the white crane than from him. She was strong, and he had to admit it; she could become a pillar for the future that the two Venerables might not live long enough to see.
Yet.
“What?”
His eyes widened as he sensed what was happening down there. In less than an hour, over six thousand robots were wiped out, a feat that not even he could accomplish easily in his weakened state.
However, the news didn’t stop there, no!
“What is going on?!”
He looked down into the underground, his crimson eyes shining as they showed six pupils each. This was one of his powerful Demonic Techniques, the {Twelve-Eyed Asura Gaze}, the power to see through physical matter and from incredibly long distances.
“Impossible…”
Despite having detected she was quite strong, he was unable to calculate her ever doing as he asked her to do. After all, the quest itself was utterly ridiculous! Who would ever be able to slay over thirteen thousand robots and then destroy all three factories in less than twelve hours?
However, reality is sometimes stranger than fiction.
“She’s… doing it.”
His face was quickly filled with disbelief as he sensed powerful beings appear. His eyes widening once more as he saw her, and her large group of familiars fight off robots empowered with small fragments of the White and Black Heaven!
“She won against two of those?!”
It had only been two hours, but Anna not only defeated almost ten thousand robots, but she had also killed two powerful new droids that had never appeared before, made specifically to kill immortals, carrying small fragments of the Heavens of this world that fueled their mechanical bodies with large quantities of energy.
Yet Anna… defeated them both.
And now she was going for the third factory. Her advance was quick; she was even able to repurpose the robots to make them fight for her side, a technique he had only done with corpses long ago, known as the {Demon Soul Infestation} which, by using Demonic Ki, he created artificial Demonic Souls and infested corpses with them, raising them as temporary undead.
“Her armies and her Familiars, so strange!”
He watched as she defeated the two “Heaven Androids” and then proceeded to clean up the last four thousand robots that all rushed to stop her. In particular, there was one of Anna’s minions that caught his attention: a man made completely out of golden metal, wielding a golden spear made out of his own body.
His usage of Ki was exquisite, and he was able to easily shape it into many forms. He was good at spear techniques as well, the same weapon in which the Heavenly Demon had specialized; therefore, he felt naturally drawn to his talents and prospects.
“The way that young man uses the spear is superb! And his techniques are incredible! His Aura can summon minions? Has he mastered the Martial Soul Legion Technique?! And his abilities…”
The Heavenly Demon was having the same feelings as that girl, the bald ape girl. Both of their fighting styles and abilities were completely alien to him! Even more, the golden fighter was the most interesting, because he knew the girl just relied on Skills, while the young man used techniques that he could tell were sharpened for thousands of years.
“He’s a true old monster... How did that bald ape girl get herself such a powerful minion?!” He wondered, feeling a slight sense of jealousy. However, he calmed down after realizing something was wrong. “Wait, no… Why are they actually managing? They’re… winning; they’re doing the ridiculous task I gave them! CRAAH!”
He ended up letting out some of his crow instincts, giving out a loud cry of frustration. The people of the Demonic Sect all panicked as they heard their master’s furious scream.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“D-Do I really need to make her my disciple if she wins?!” For a second, he hoped the girl would lose so he wouldn’t have to waste his remaining energies teaching her whatever stupid thing she wanted to “learn” from him. “Is her purpose... Truly, to save this world that she didn’t even know about a day or two ago? This otherworldler…”
Almost against his own will, the Heavenly Demon slowly started to grow more interested in Anna and her minions than ever before.
How long has it been since he ever had a disciple?
“…”
However, his face remained stoic as he recalled the one that had already made Anna into her disciple before him.
The Heavenly Empress, his greatest enemy and rival, is the leading head of the Orthodox Faction.
A disciple that shared the teachings of the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Faction—such a thing was unheard of all across the world of Bestia!
“Perhaps she believes that only by combining both teachings... Can she defeat what looms within that wretched tree?”
His eyes slowly calmed down; it was as if his anger and frustration were never there.
He looked into the distance, over that gigantic, metallic tree growing where the only continent of this world was once located.
Inside that tree, there was something.
Something that…
“Being weakened might not be the only reason why we haven’t resolved this issue altogether.” He laughed almost cynically. “If the rest of the survivors were to ever know why... They would surely change their perception of who we truly are, don’t you think, Hue Xian?”
.
.
.
(Anna’s POV)
CLASH!
With a mighty {Cleave} from my Nameless Axe-Sword, I shattered the second barrier that protected the factory. Just seconds after defeating almost every robot within the vicinity, we all ganged on the barriers of electromagnetic fields protecting the factory.
It was easy to destroy them; by overcharging them with energies such as Ki and then hitting them really strongly, they would quickly gain cracks. And with the overpowered weapon tied to a skill I acquired, a simple {Cleave} took care of one barrier completely.
Crack, crack…!
CRACK!
And even weakened severely the last barrier out of the tree. The Heaven Androids had yet to show up, but we knew they would appear at any moment. There was no point in stalling for time anymore anyway; we went all out.
“Bring them already; do you think you stand a chance with a single barrier?!” I roared, both of my weapons and my horns slamming against the barrier.
BAAAM!
Crack, crack…!
“If you don’t hurry, your little facility is going to blow up into pieces.” I smiled.
The factory immediately opened its gates after I spoke those words. It knew it was already going to be destroyed, and the big boss of today finally showed up. It wasn’t two, as I thought; it was one, a combination.
White, gold, black, and purple-colored metal made its entire body. Six jewels, three gold and three purple, decorated its front, and it had eight limbs.
It still had the same “frail-looking” body as the others, but it looked much larger than them as it was the combination of its sums.
[The [Mechanoid Factory] has summoned its last resort! The [Black and White Heaven Mechanoid Prototype 2.0 (SS+++ Rank)] has appeared!]
[Combining the Essence of a Black Heaven and a White Heaven Fragments, it has achieved almost Perfect Harmony between the Essences of Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Yin and Yang.]
[The Essence of both the small Fragments of the Black and White Heavens exudes a powerful {Harmonized Aura}, increasing All Stats by +150% and Movement Speed by +300%, while all Foes within range will have their stats drop by -30%.]
It had some interesting Ability, buffing itself while debuffing others, a bog-standard ability, but it seems it can do more than what the system has told me.
“That thing… What is that?” Agares asked.
“That’s exactly what you see.” Bael sighed. “It seems our last foe will be… A fusion between the two Androids we were forced to fight before. This will certainly not be easy.”
“The same formation as before. Fang Shuan, stay in front of me. The Primordial Yang Beast, fight by his side!” I commanded. “Shiro, Violet, Snow, keep yourselves stuck to me and-”
FLASH!
Before I could give any other command, the android moved. Its movements were so fast that they resembled a blur of golden and black light. It quickly slashed through all my undead, their bodies exploding into pieces as its sharp, spear-like limbs pierced their bodies with ease. Light and darkness engulf it all, leaving flames of the same color behind.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“EXTERMINATE.”
It appeared right above me a split second later. It was aimed directly at me, ignoring everyone else but me. I should have guessed this was going to happen. And, in fact, I did!
Its attack was imminent; it hit me like a truck—no, more like ten airplanes smashing over my own body at the same time. I had my shield, but my movements weren’t fast enough to place it in front of me. Instead, I received the hit with my arms. I felt the bones breaking instantly, even with my armor and the gauntlets protecting them.
CLAAASH!
Fuck!
I landed on the walls right behind me; the rocks that took the entire impact were all shattered, falling apart. My body left behind a huge crater. I barely recovered myself but couldn’t hold my weapons anymore. My two arms had gone completely limp; the pain was excruciating. I gritted my teeth and quickly leaped away. A second later, the robot appeared, smashing the ground where I was standing.
BAAAM!
“KILL…”
The robot’s six bright eyes stared directly into my soul as several arms made of golden lights surged from my Ki Aura, the effects of my equipment and skills combining together.
“{Myriad-Armed Asura’s Aura}”
I concentrated on the battle, grabbing both weapons with my arms and holding the shield right in front of my body. The robot rushed towards me, but I disappeared, becoming temporarily invisible as a void veil covered my body.
“AH?!”
The robot landed where I was, finding nothing at all. A second later, a large portal of darkness and void opened as a myriad-tentacled abomination surged out of thin air.
“HOW UNFORTUNATE YOU ARE. MY MASTER HAS CALLED ME!”
I had given it the false impression that I was going to fight it head-on. However, I prefer to live another day rather than do that!
Yeah, it was time to get the trump cards going, while I regenerate my broken arms, at least.
[You have exchanged 10.000 Abyssal Energy and activated the [Abyssal Demonic Phantom Eye Gauntlet]’s Ability: [Summon Voidling]! For 10 Minutes, a servant of the {Seamless Abyss} will come to aid you in battle.]
Its tentacles wrapped around the robot’s arms before it could move away, miasma and void essence covering its entire body. Black and white clouds fought back as the robot tried to escape desperately, firing beams of light and darkness against the Voidling.
“IT IS USELESS.”
The Voidling only smiled with its countless jaws as its many red eyes opened, harnessing the Abyssal Energy and firing a dozen beams of red light against the robot, spreading many cracks over its body before tearing apart its arms.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
-----