Myriad Devils-Chapter 217: Slaughterous Salvation... (1/2)

Fitting for the events that would soon follow, Anon was adorned in a tight-fitted red jumpsuit that emphasized his muscular frame and a high collar that added a unique flair.

The clothing had the middle portion of his chest and upper abdomen exposed.

Due to the nature of the Empyrean cloud, he also wore ruby colored gauntlets and boots, resembling some kind of armor and signifying his combat readiness.

With his twin blades attached to either side of his waist, his palms gently rested on them as he casually interacted with an entity likely above the apocalypse and antigods from the infernal realm.

This was his first time meeting the literal god of the infernal realm, the true conscience of Seth Constantin, and the purest incarnation.

His fingers rhythmically tapped on the hilt of his twin blades, and he said with a gentle smirk, "I doubt that you’re unable to even figure out something so simple?"

"Why does my soul contain mysteries of an unfathomable soul? Obviously, it’s transforming into one. Doesn’t my soul cloud’s evolution toward a Primordial cloud make it obvious?"

The many Empyreans were silent for a time. Thereafter, what followed this silence was a light chuckle, and then unbridled laughter.

"Hehe," they chuckled in unison, "You outwardly resemble your mother; however, innately, you and your father are the same."

Anon’s eyes gleamed, "What can I say? Like father, like son."

The Empyreans smiled meaningfully, and they asked, "You sound as if there is no hatred between you two. Don’t you hate him for killing your mother? After all, didn’t you say that you would kill him?"

"Dead mother?" Anon’s gaze flickered with some emotion.

Seeing this, the Empyreans appeared even more pleased. However, these emotions faded away relatively quickly.

"My dear mother must’ve reached the end of her path," Anon paused before saying, "Kill my father? Hate my father?"

"Almost five hundred years have passed, and I do not have a hating bone in my body."

"When the time comes, killing him or not, it would depend on my mood. Anyway, a father-son scuffle has nothing to do with you daemons from the infernal realm."

With a gloating pair of eyes, Anon shot a radiant smile. There was little respect and even less reverence within these eyes.

In the face of a daemonic god, he did not show any concern.

"Indeed, you both are overbearing, too overbearing." The Empyreans scowled in unison, and they said as one, "Your father went so far as to manipulate my incarnations to assist you in grasping an unfathomable soul. He knew I would notice the changes in them, and yet, he still went ahead."

"Thereafter, you were even sent into my territory because of a flimsy ploy that was planted into my incarnation’s mind by who else but your father?"

"Tell me, little one, do you think I should seek out any remuneration or just let it go?"

Hmm...

’So that’s how it is.’ Anon’s face hardened.

If these incarnations were manipulated from the very beginning, including Seth ever since their first meeting, then everything that occurred would’ve likely been to his father’s wishes.

How far did this manipulation go, though?

Was he, Anon, also manipulated?

Very likely.

Then, for how long?

At this point, Anon even wondered if his mother was truly dead.

After all, if he was manipulated to such a degree, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for his father to do this, and then label it as bestowing Anon with motivation.

Wasn’t vengeance the best way to get one to seek out power?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Anon looked towards the many Empyreans, seeing through the first layer of the Infernal god’s light scheme, ’How sly. Do you think that my mind will waver, and then interrupt my soul’s transformation?’

"Let’s stop with this nonsense," Anon plainly said.

With a deadpan expression, he continued, "You know I’ve achieved Supreme mastery, so I’ll put this plainly. With pseudo-Supreme mastery, I could slay a few Empyreans by myself..."

"Now that I’ve taken this step, Empyreans are nonentities." Anon’s blades released a breathless hum that traversed the entire material dimension.

Empyreans are nonentities!

All living beings prostrated towards such supremacy!

"I’d like to see how you slaughter these non... entities..." The black and red auras shrouding the eyes of the many Empyreans faded away.

Though their eyes returned to normal, they were all, without exception, bloodshot. Staring toward Anon, they remained mindless beasts only desiring one thing...

Tear him apart, rip him to shreds.

Eight Empyreans reacted the quickest, rushing towards Anon’s figure.

Seeing this, Anon still had the leisure to ponder whilst rhythmically tapping on the hilts of his blades.

’He definitely knows that I can slaughter this group of Empyreans,’ Anon squinted his eyes, and very rapidly, before the eight Empyreans had closed in on him, he concluded.

’Over sixty Empyreans... A battle cloud of 25,000 kilometers...’

’To slaughter all of them, the slaughterous energy would be not one, but several layers more incomprehensible than anything I’ve ever devoured. So this is what he’s plotting.’

’Oh, great Infernal god, it’s hard to say whether it’s my soul, or your slaughterous energy that would become the other’s nutrients.’

The eight Empyreans swiftly reached within striking distance. They circled him and formed an inescapable net.

In his eyes, time seemed to slow down to a deathly stillness. He slightly crouched his back and gripped the hilts of his blade.

Thrum~

A resonant hum followed...

Boom!

The eight Empyreans were instantly cleaved in half, and then into four, eight, sixteen...

Slaughterous energy fell onto Anon’s figure and created a muffled boom that spread across the entire battle cloud.

The mutilated bodies of five of the eight Empyreans were quickly rebuilt; however, the slaughterous energy from the simultaneous deaths of three Empyreans was utterly overwhelming.

The residual aura alone caused the other Empyreans to become even more crazed. The five that had rebuilt their bodies through unknown magic showed no fear and attacked Anon once more.

However, even they were slower than another group of more than a dozen Empyreans.

Ranged attacks came right behind this incoming group of Empyreans. Daemonic magic that assailed the soul, spirit, and fleshy body fell onto Anon’s figure.

In his perception, the entire battle grew silent.

A figure in the far distance appeared.

This figure...

Her back faced him, but he could instantly recognize who she was.

Tch!

Cleave!

All illusions shattered, and in the process, the two closest Empyreans were severed into chunks of flesh, and each piece of flesh was slashed into radiant particles.

’So spirit attacks are merely mirages and illusions?’ Anon cackled loudly.

The entire battlefield was brought to a standstill. The deathly aura that radiated from his eyes caused the bodies of the many Empyreans to freeze up.

Anon roared, "On this day, through the slaughter of Empyreans, I transcend mortal existence and forge an unfathomable soul!" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

There was no flashy lightning or dark fire.

He did not use curse magic nor blood magic.

The aura of death only escaped through his eyes; this was merely a residual aura and not him actively using death magic.

Anon’s blades alone weaved through the battle cloud.

Apparitions of mighty twin blades swept through the battle cloud, and the slaughter intensified.

The slaughterous energy across the entire dimension was concentrated onto this battle cloud, building a sea of crimson fog that obscured the vision.

Anon danced like a haunting asura, spilling the blood of Empyreans left and right, those that swarmed from above and below, those that assaulted from afar and close.

Like a god of slaughter within his own god’s domain, enjoying the gifts brought to him by his underlings, a ceremony to commemorate his success, Anon cried with a daemonic grin plastered on his face.

Empyreans who attempted to reforge their bodies, and those who had assistance from other Empyreans in reforging their bodies, were given no time as Anon’s blades fell on them.

The slaughterous energy across the dimension was sucked dry by this battlefield.

For the first time across the vast history of this dimension, the evolution of unknown entities was brought to an abrupt halt.

The slaughterous energy had concentrated into a river of slaughterous energy across this battle cloud.

As time passed, the sheer weight of the slaughterous energy that continued to seep into his soul finally achieved a breaking point.

Anon’s speed of slaughter dramatically decreased; however, the damage had already been inflicted.

His body was riddled with daemonic markings radiating immense slaughterous energy. Like an entire body covered in tattoos, they littered his body, etching into his skin.

Even more patterns were engraved into his flesh and bones, attacking his spirit.

Such a spirit was certainly his weak point.

After all, his body and soul were of the Empyrean stage, but in this dimension, the spirit was suppressed, and before even entering, his spirit was merely that of the second world.

Anon gripped his twin blades and stood atop the battle cloud in silence. Enveloping his figure was a pillar of slaughterous energy that connected the battle cloud and the earth above.

It was eerily similar to the many pillars that held up the earth and pierced into the crimson seas, said to carry god’s blood, which in turn nurtured the growth of the crimson heaven’s expansion.

Anon exhaled endless slaughterous energies.

There was too much, so much that it filled the entire dark world.

This was a first.

There were only six Empyreans that remained; however, the slaughterous energies were completely focused on transforming Anon’s soul, and some sliver of reason had returned to their minds.

The voice that boomed in their psyche; attack, kill, shred him, tear him, rip him... such a voice was not especially hypnotizing at the moment.

The slaughter Anon had displayed had gripped their hearts with so much fear that their subconscious used its full strength to resist the invading power that had taken hold of their minds.

Anon’s blades locked in place against his waist.

His arms spread out wide, as if he sought to embrace the entire dimension.

His soul worked on overdrive, and like a bottomless pit, it devoured the endless, slaughterous energies, accelerating its transformation.

Thereafter, a sensation began to sprout in the very core of Anon’s soul. This was an indescribable sensation, an unfathomable sensation, a profound sensation...

Six Empyreans bore witness to an existence achieving the fabled salvation through slaughter!