Myriad Devils-Chapter 209: Undying Fire

The crimson heaven was said to be infinite in size. Naturally, it was difficult for mortals to comprehend the true nature of vast sizes and infinite spaces.

One could even say, when something reached a certain size, it would automatically be viewed as infinitely large to make it easier for mortals to absorb.

Somewhere in the expansive crimson sea, a single battle for Empyrean had arrived at its climax.

This climax, though, spanned several days.

Anon, who had been exhausted before confronting the daemon with his sword, had regained a hold on the battle upon wielding his sword.

But his hold was nowhere near as dominant when compared to the time before the daemon, bathed in dark fire, had transformed into its current state.

This daemon also had a firm hold of the battle.

Wielding a sword almost three times larger than his body, Anon showcased spikes of power even greater than what the daemon mustered; however, from the beginning of this battle’s climax, and to the current time, the dark fire was relentless and unextinguishable!

Anon stood in the air, one hand gripping his longsword, and another pressed against his chest, gasping for air.

He was a humanoid, sword-wielding, body of dark fire. Each breath was tainted in flames that charred his flesh and skewed his innards.

Even with cellular control, he’d have died at least ten thousand times if not for his mastery of blood sorcery and his endless usage of curse magic.

And still, the latter magic had such a limited effect on weakening this dark fire that it was almost negligible, almost as if this magic had been completely countered, but even the smallest assistance was assistance nonetheless.

Luckily, the six-armed daemon was currently preoccupied, giving him a short period to recover, if ever so slightly.

This was a battle of attrition.

Anon desperately awaited the end of the daemon’s current powered-up state. After all, if it could be in such a state perpetually, why would it need such a grand power-up move in the first place?

He was betting, betting on this.

Simultaneously, the daemon was waiting as well. The daemon had transformed into a trail of dark fire, weaving through a torrential downpour of chaotic sword soul power.

Each manifestation of sword soul was decorated in ancient characters that melded the two aspects of lightning, along with curse magic that had a poisonous effect when landing on its opponents.

This was a poisonous effect that dealt more damage the more wounded the opponent was after receiving the sword soul attack. It was a deplorable magic that preyed on susceptible opponents and was nullified by a stronger opponent.

However, this same curse magic grew more detrimental as the battle went on.

Several days and several nights...

Naturally, this was only a general consideration for the amount of time that had passed. There was no concept of night and day in the inverted sky dimension.

Anyway, for such a time, the daemon was waiting.

This was a powerful state; however, how could it be so easy to wield the power of an Antigod?

Even though this was but a single aspect of an Antigod’s power, and that too, only an insignificant fragment of an aspect’s power, this still tittered on the absolute limits of a mortal existence.

Wielding such a power for several days and nights had strained the six-armed daemon’s soul to the cusp of destruction.

At this point, the six-armed champion of the Antigod had grown desperate.

"Damn! Damn! How can he still resist the undying fire? By now, his soul should’ve been swallowed whole, and his strength should’ve plummeted to its lowest, so how is his soul still resisting?!"

The daemon was utterly enraged, but even more perplexed. For the entire battle leading up to his transformation, he was absolutely calm and even had the luxury of being amused.

It was because of confidence, not arrogance, but true, reliable assurance of this transformation.

This was the power of the Antigod for god’s sake...

An explosion suddenly rang out across the battle cloud as the manifestation of a sword soul landed against the dark fire that maneuvered through the rain of sword soul power.

Anon smiled.

Outwardly, he was suffering, and inwardly, he suffered even worse; however, the undying flames that seeped into his soul... indeed, they continued to burn, but at the same time, the dark world, his dark soul, did not suffer, but embraced the fire that refused to extinguish.

The Antigod’s champion, transformed into his final form, found more and more sword souls landing on him, continuously draining his strength.

This was a battle of attrition.

When strength was somewhat equal, the one who had a peak that lasted longer than the other would attain victory.

Naturally, in such a scenario, shrouded in doubt, the one who had seen hope was destined to attain victory.

He, Anon, had seen hope the moment the sword soul landed on the daemon’s body.

His soul continued to pour out magic power, his sword continued to tremble with sword soul power, and the resonance with the lightning principle only grew more powerful...

The six-armed human, transformed into a daemon for greater power, the champion of an Antigod, began losing hope, growing more and more desperate.

"Arghhhh!"

His war cry, this time, was pitiful.

His rage was palpable, and his undying fire intensified for a final time.

Anon instantly felt a premonition and transformed into a blood river that was coated in a surface-level dark fire.

He desperately stormed toward the flaming daemon!

The daemon, drowned in hopeless madness, released a crazed cackle! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Today, I fulfill my part of the contract and bestow my soul to the Antigod!" The daemon’s voice had a hint of madness as it resounded across the battle cloud.

Glaring at the blood river, he gloatingly smiled, "Today, you undergo the evolution to become an Empyrean. Let the Antigod witness whether your soul can bear both the undying fire and the dimension’s slaughterous energy!"

The rune on his forehead released a wave of chaotic forces. This single wave completely obstructed the blood river’s movements.

What followed was a world-silencing crunch, akin to the shattering of a mirror, and then the implosion of all the power contained within it.

The final trump card... one that resulted in his instantaneous death, but a fuck you from hell as well.

Confined within the battle cloud, Anon bore the brunt of this absolute trump card!

The longsword, a peerless-grade divine weapon, was embedded in the ancestor cloud, and Anon, transformed into a droplet of blood, hid behind this unbreakable divine weapon.

He survived the initial wave, but that was only the very beginning...

.....

Within a drifter cloud enveloped by a dome-shaped structure formed from slaughterous energy, chaotic forces ran rampant as an unconscious, dismembered humanoid corpse was engulfed in a flame that refused to extinguish.

In previous major evolutions, the dimension’s consciousness would descend, bringing with it an elusive, slaughterous energy.

However, the concentration of this energy, which triggered the birth of an Empyrean, was so intense that a solidified dome of slaughterous energies had formed around the cloud.

Etched onto the outer layer of the dome were such profound patterns that simply staring at them was a painful, mind-twisting affair.

One could even say that this was the manifestation of the dimension’s consciousness, and not something mortals should glance at.

From the dome above, concentrated slaughterous energy fell onto Anon’s mangled corpse, which was bathed in dark fire.

As it landed, it resembled buckets of water extinguishing a heap of dead grass ablaze.

However, the damage had already been done, and the concentrated slaughterous energy swiftly seeped into his existential self, plunging into his mind realm!

Within Anon’s mind realm, the endless power of the undying dark fire had formed a ring encircling the eternal sun star, now noticeably more docile than before.

Meanwhile, the infinite world trembled as a crimson sea radiating endless slaughterous energy poured into Anon’s dark soul.

This slaughterous energy desperately attempted to paint over the entire world; however, Anon’s dark soul greedily embraced all chaotic forces that seeped into it.

Its hunger was insatiable.

.....

Anon opened his eyes, revealing his amber pupils encompassed by dark rings. When he perceived the world, he noticed the great changes that had taken place.

A new world was laid bare before the eyes of an Empyrean.

Unknowingly, his soul had undergone another transformation. From its initial progress to now, he was on the very cusp of attaining an unfathomable soul.

He could feel it.

Who knows how much more challenging this would’ve been if he were to attempt nurturing an unfathomable soul on Earth, where the cosmic ruling was much more domineering...

"What... what is this?!"

Anytime the dimension nurtured the soul and the drifter cloud, one would awaken completely revitalized, akin to a reborn person.

This was no different than shedding one’s old self, and this shedding occurred during every evolutionary process.

Nothing was different this time as well.

Anon was fundamentally different from his previous self. This was a kind of existential evolution that was much more elusive than ascending spiritual worlds in stellar cosmic cultivation.

There were continuous whispers that would usually follow each evolution. It occurred when he evolved into a mature drifter and an ancestor drifter as well.

It was something that could’ve been ignored as his soul would devour all remnant, slaughterous energies; however, even these whispers were fundamentally different now that he was an Empyrean.

More accurately, they were whispers... no, these were chants.

It was the chanting of his fiendish army.

Anon raised his gaze toward the earth that was above the crimson heaven, where an army of demonic manifestations roamed the earth in every direction.

It was an army of fiends that covered 60,000 kilometers across the earthly plane, and it was an army that he was all too familiar with.

"Heh!" Anon retracted his gaze, bursting out in boisterous laughter, "Hahahahaha!"

"So at that time, I was reduced to such a pathetic state merely due to the residual aura of Empyreans 60,000 kilometers away?!"

At that time, the residual aura of those demonic manifestations had brought him to his knees in fear, and now, he understood that it was merely the residual aura of an Empyrean that had formed them...

Such was the concentration of slaughterous energy that made up an Empyrean’s soul.

"Hahaha, as laughable as it is, I am also an Empyrean now."