Myriad Devils-Chapter 210: Apostle of apocalyptic death

Within the bounds of a dark cosmic void where shattered stars drifted and broken planets deteriorated, flames of all colors, and colors incomprehensible, burned endlessly.

"Oh?" A voice bathed in an air of antiquity originated from all directions perceptible and directions that were not.

"Severing a fragmented piece of my power and devouring it whole?! What is the nature of that thing playing around in His territory?"

Silence fell for only a moment before the voice uttered in understanding, "Too many unspeakable gazes surround that thing..."

"I did not see anything."

.....

The initial wonder of transforming into an Empyrean passed. Anon looked around, searching for something, but what he sought out had already shattered and disintegrated.

Unlike him, the peerless-grade divine weapon did not own a dark soul that devoured all energies, so when facing power that was beyond the fifth world, it fought desperately to protect Anon, and in that battle, it was destroyed.

Cursing under his breath, Anon’s face twisted into an unsightly frown.

The anger of an Empyrean saw the wrath of an entire army of fiendish manifestations. The slaughter amongst the members of the fiendish army that marched across the earth suddenly intensified.

With an angered fiend army marching across the earth and an angered Empyrean drifting across the crimson heaven, any unlucky drifters would receive a mind-numbing scare.

Anon inhaled deeply and exhaled a breath of dark fire.

On his forehead, a rune appeared. This was a dark rune, and it released waves of heat that caused space to sizzle as if on the cusp of catching fire.

A trace of amusement flashed through his eyes.

’There does not seem to be a limit to what my dark soul can devour. Even the power of an Antigod can be devoured, and it completely falls under my authority.’

Anon sighed with amazement.

This rune represented many things. Although it could not compare to the power of an Antigod, not even partially, or metamorphically, or theoretically, it gave Anon the authority to be considered the source origin of this flame.

However, this was still only a fragment of undying fire, which was but one aspect that made up an Antigod. Yet still, its connection had been severed from the rest of the aspect.

Simply put, there now existed two separate undying flames. Anon could, theoretically, nurture this undying flame into a complete aspect of the source origin of fire magic.

This was not something that would usually be plausible.

After the birth of an Antigod, the source origin of an entire element, all forces within that element fell under the authority of that Antigod, so no matter how one developed their magical element, it could never reach the source origin.

Yet, the dark soul devoured this fragment of power and severed its connection to the infernal realm entirely.

’Is my dark soul a universe or something?’ A crazy thought, but Anon could not help but nurture such a thought. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The concept of fire existed as a source origin within the Infernal realm, and it also existed as a Principle within the Cosmic Space.

These two concepts were unrelated because it was separate universes.

For Anon to devour a fragment of power from the Infernal realm and sever its connection, wouldn’t that be akin to...

Anon didn’t continue his train of thought.

This was still too far away.

Anyway, the concept of the Cosmic Space and Infernal realm being two separate universes was something he casually created to make sense of things.

Whether it was true or not, and he subconsciously felt that it was, none of it mattered to the current him.

After all, even if he was an Empyrean, at the end of the day, he was within the bounds of the cosmic ruling, still trapped within mortality.

He could not even venture beyond the material dimensions, much less beyond the universe to other universes, if his theory was correct...

.....

Anon lost a peerless-grade divine weapon, but he had gained a flame with the potential of transforming him into a pseudo Antigod character.

Pseudo because this was only an aspect; however, who knew whether more types of flames would be born from the undying flame, allowing him to acquire the status of a genuine Antigod figure.

Anyway, Anon’s situation was currently slightly precarious.

His strongest form of power came along with the longsword, but now he had no longsword. One could see it in the previous battle.

His situation was hideous after the daemon transformed, and only became better when he began wielding his sword, which had touched the ceiling.

After losing the power he wielded with that weapon, Anon couldn’t suppress a sigh of frustration.

Sealing his eyes shut, he squatted down and took a seat. His legs were folded, and he assumed a meditative posture as he pondered deeply.

Though it was a pity to lose his sword, he had gained the rune. The dark rune on his forehead shone with infinite power, and he really did not feel any limits to its energy.

Meditating on this connection, he grew more and more familiar with the resonance between his soul and the rune mark.

The mark itself contained the mysteries of flame magic, the undying aspect. For example, meditating on the glowing patterns had bestowed the white lightning on Anon.

Similarly, upon meditating on this rune, Anon’s familiarity and mastery over the rune deepened.

Though the rune contained infinite power, one could attribute this to his lack of strength. Maybe the rune had a finite amount of power, but said power was beyond his realm of understanding.

Naturally, anything to do with an Antigod was incomprehensible to his mortal existence.

The power within this rune suddenly stirred. Without opening his eyes, he opened his right palm, and sparks of dark fire appeared.

’I see,’ Anon mused. ’The soul is the foundation for everything, and the will is the core of the soul, so the stronger my willpower is, the more power I can draw from this rune. If my willpower is strong, to nurture such a strong will, it means that my soul is more and more mysterious and unfathomable.’

The more complex a soul was, the greater the power nurtured within the rune mark.

The stronger the willpower, the more power one could draw from the rune mark.

This rune differed from that of the flame daemon. While the power contained within was weaker due to its disconnection from the rest of the aspect, this very disconnection allowed for growth.

It held potential... infinitely so.

Its potential was directly linked to Anon’s soul, meaning it did not strain him, as it wasn’t a foreign power bestowed upon him.

Though the rune contained infinite power, it was not comparable to the strength of the previous rune.

One could argue that the current rune possessed infinite power, but the nature of that power was inferior to the nature of the previous rune.

The infinite power of the current rune was derived from Anon’s soul, whereas the power of the previous rune was derived from the source origin, an Antigod.

Pleased, Anon slowly retracted his perception from the rune. Unbeknownst to him, several weeks had passed during his inspection.

This rune was too mysterious. Simply examining it could have consumed years or decades, or might have been impossible for others.

But several weeks? Only achievable due to Anon’s extraordinary comprehension.

During this time, the power of the undying flames he could extract from the rune was multiple times greater than what the flame daemon could ever wield.

This was simply raw power, and not power refined into his battle arts.

The flame daemon could only wield the level of power he did because he had already refined it into his battle art... and even that could not compare to the primal, unrefined power Anon could unearth.

Rubbing his chin, Anon thoughtfully mused, "In case anything unexpected occurs, I should first perfect my damaging daemon battle art. Once it reaches the limits of the Empyrean stage, I can relax a bit."

Who knew when the drifter cloud would resonate with another?

"Then, I’ll develop a battle art to amplify the power of this undying flame. Whether I can merge that with the damaging daemon battle art... well, I’ll ponder that later."

With his plans set, he entered another period of development. Without a spear or sword, he focused entirely on his body, creating multiple battle arts that resonated with the principle of lightning.

Those not aligned with a principle could not do this at will; however, we had already discussed this...

Time passed, and six months after the battle for evolution, Anon’s attention was suddenly pulled away.

"Resonance!" he frowned.

It had only been six months.

"Ah, I need to hu..."

His words were caught in his throat.

The moment the resonance occurred, the Empyrean cloud trembled. Anon sensed a connection between the cloud and his soul.

If he wished, and if his opponent also assisted, they could forcefully resist the resonance. But if one did not desire to resist, any attempts would be futile.

Yet, it wasn’t this that silenced him; it was the fact that after the Empyrean cloud trembled, the crimson sea began churning, and the speed of the Empyrean cloud caused space to warp.

Who was Anon?

Even with the perception of an Empyrean, he watched in stunned silence as the world seemed to stretch unnaturally before his eyes.

This phenomenon lasted only a few moments, but when normality returned, the Empyrean cloud had approached another, massive and over a hundred thousand diameters in size.

This was another crimson cloud; however, the remains of fallen warriors littered the thousands of meters atop it.

Whether due to human skulls or those adorned with daemonic horns, the Empyrean cloud, under the weight of Anon’s gaze, radiated a deathly aura.

At the edge of the Empyrean cloud closest to Anon’s approaching cloud, a large banner attached to a bony pole flapped in the winds.

Though only a handful of characters were inscribed, the entity that wrote them was undeniably powerful.

Even if one did not recognize the characters, their meaning was clear:

Apostle of Apocalyptic Death!