A Demon's Journey-Chapter 3 - Triquetra Ardor
The Demonic Energy Azaroth had left behind at the end of his life force had now entirely exhausted.
Even though Azaroth failed to reach the Demon Lord level, he was satisfied with his progress.
The quantity of Ardor in his body was nearly 4-5 times that of an average individual. Just the quantity wasn't great, but the quality was also wildly superior. If Azaroth had to assign it in numerical terms, it would be nearly 6 times denser than a normal Elite Class Demon.
It was natural that the quantity would be quite great since the Ardor was created from the Demonic Energy of Azaroth when he was a Demon God.
Meanwhile, the Holy Energy in Edwin's body had just awakened and flared up since it wanted to prevent the Demonic Ardor from flooding the body.
"It's time to test some things. I wonder if the Demonic Skills work efficiently with this energy or will I need to create some new skills." Azaroth mused to himself as he raised his arm.
He could feel that the energy within his body still gave off the aura of Humanely Ardor. It would be a pity if his Demonic Attributes and Holy Attributes strength were lost while strengthening the Humanely Ardor.
"Hmm…Let's try 'Violet Hell Flames.'"
Once he whispered the name, Purple flames shot out of Azaroth's body. These flames were quite dense, and once Azaroth saw these flames, he was surprised.
"Interesting. Even the Violet Hell Flame that I found in Purgatory and fused with my Demonic Energy has grown slightly denser. Also, it is giving off the aura of Demonic Ardor. Can I keep the power constant but change what aura it should give out?"
The flames' color changed, and instead of the Purple Flames, they were now Azure in color. The aura of these flames had changed from Demonic Ardor to Humanely Ardor.
Azaroth was quite excited once he noted this. He immediately tried to change it to the Holy Ardor.
The Azure flames had now changed their color to Golden. Now… These flames gave off a Holy aura.
He recalled the flame soon enough.
"This is quite an interesting thing. So, the Demonic Ardor skills have grown stronger, while I can effortlessly change its attribute technique. This is excellent. With this, whether I face a demon or a celestial, I can retain the upper hand all the time."
"Moreover, with the number of techniques and secrets I know, it won't be too difficult to return back to my peak."
Azaroth had fought against many Celestials and Humans in the past. He studied their techniques in an attempt to create new ones for himself. The most effective way to learn new methods of other races was to mind-read their strong fighters.
As he read their minds, he knew numerous forbidden secrets of Demons, Celestials, and Humans. This was also why the Celestials joined hands with the Demons to kill him once and for all.
As he remembered how the Celestials and Demons joined hands to kill him and yet failed, a smile broke out on Azaroth's face.
Contrary to what anyone might expect, he held no real hatred for the Celestials or Demons for joining hands to kill him.
Azaroth knew what he was doing and was aware of the risks. Since he was forced to such an end, he knew he only had himself to blame. Perhaps he overestimated himself or maybe underestimated his enemies.
No matter what, the fact remained that he was nearly forced to a dead end. Now that he had another chance at living, he would once again work hard for his grand ambitions.
The one ambition he seriously wanted to fulfill was Invincibility. And not just invincible against an enemy… Azaroth wished to be invincible against everything. Whether it was time, space, destiny, fate, and so on.
When he was reincarnated of Frascoia Continent, Azaroth had felt as if the world was still too extensive. He wanted to be in control… To be the one who would be capable of deciding everything.
Perhaps it was an ambition far too great for an individual. Maybe his ambition could be considered stupid.
However, Azaroth considered a rare stupidity to be better than commonplace wisdom. If nothing else, the journey might be entertaining. 𝗳𝒓𝙚e𝓌e𝚋𝙣𝚘𝐯𝙚𝙡.𝑐૦ｍ
"I can check out the other skills later. First comes the matter of what I should do now. Should I return to the Noble House of Rhodes or not?" This question puzzled Azaroth quite a bit.
Edwin Rhodes's father, Jonas Rhodes, had a power level of a Demon King. The authority this Noble House held was also quite significant.
To grow, Azaroth knew that he needed resources, status, and kill… Kill a lot.
Each one of these things was interdependent on the other. If Azaroth had status, he would hold the resources and kill people for his growth as well, and it won't affect him.
However, an empty status that gave no resources or protection was useless. And this could be considered the position of Edwin Rhodes in his Noble House.
There were multiple heirs of the Rhodes Family, so it was inevitable that there would be many enemies on the surface and underneath the surface.
The question which puzzled Azaroth was whether it would be worth it to return to the Rhodes Noble House and try to fight these people now or should he leave for another Kingdom and do everything from scratch.
As a Demon God who had once terrorized this world, he held many skills in his mind. With the strength of an Elite Demon, he shouldn't have much trouble in starting over. He could join a Guild as an Adventurer or maybe find some of the Assassination Halls or perhaps some other secret organizations.
However, this path had its cons as well.
The path would depend a lot on luck. The Adventurers or Assassins were just underlings at the end. If the Noble Houses or a Kingdom feels that they are becoming too strong, they are suppressed through force.
This was why Azaroth wasn't interested in working for a Guild. The rewards would be feeble as compared to the mission's importance.
"It appears that the choice is clear. To return." Azaroth calmly spoke as he stared at his Totem one last time and added, "Maybe I should take the thing I left behind first."
3 purple rings were hanging on the Totem. These were Spatial Rings. They could be considered portable storage that he could carry around.
The first ring held edible things that could be ingested. Well, those things had rotten by now. The second ring had a few of his weapons. And the third ring contained the resources, minerals, and other things.
He had naturally made his preparations for this revival before his demise. The only thing outside of his calculation was that he would fuse three attributes of Ardor.
Once he had taken all the things he needed, silence followed as he started walking out of the cave.
Once outside, Azaroth heard many footsteps.
For their sound, Azaroth could feel that these footsteps were coming closer to himself. However, he wasn't anxious.
There was merely a calm smile on his face.
Suddenly, an orange body appeared in front of Azaroth's eyes. It was the body of a tiger. It was exuding an orange aura, killing intent glinting in its eyes.
Before any warning, it pounced at Azaroth.
However, just before it could touch Azaroth, its body stopped. In mid-air, apparently.
"What a sad fate you have, beast. If not for you, I wouldn't have awoken today. Perhaps my awakening would be delayed by another century."
Azaroth calmly spoke to the tiger while looking straight into his eyes.
If an onlooker were to see this scene from a distance. He would see a pure green aura shrouding the tiger and keeping it frozen in mid-air.
At this point, the tiger couldn't even open its mouth, much less growl or attack Azaroth.
Azaroth slowly places his hand over the tiger's head. He seemed to be caressing its head, "What a pity that instead of thanking you, I need to kill you."
Suddenly, the hand which was caressing the tiger's head had a golden power around it.
The tiger's head was pierced easily by that golden energy around Azaroth's hand and impaled its brain.
Blood spurted out of him, but none of it drenched Azaroth's clothes as a Purple Aura shielded him from this blood.
The tiger's body started shaking as it was held by that pure green aura, but he could still not move.
Blood started to overflow from the tiger's mouth, and it died instantly.
"Perhaps the instant death could be my only gift to you."
Azaroth finished speaking as the tiger's body fell down.
He looked delighted as he thought, "My energy is strong enough to completely overpower an Elite-Demon Rank Monster with the Golden Eyed Tiger's bloodline. This was something I couldn't have done with my demonic Ardor alone. This fused Ardor is truly strong.. Perhaps I should call it the Triquetra Ardor."
