Chapter 43: THE CRIMSON DEMON GENERAL
The portal shimmered like burning glass, its crimson light pulsing with barely restrained heat. Each ripple twisted the space ahead, radiating heat like a forge’s breath. I stepped through, exhaling slowly as the world reassembled around me.
In my past life, I had only cleared the first challenge. I remembered the fear. The confusion. The helplessness.
Now, six trials down—and still moving forward.
But this one felt different.
The moment I landed, an oppressive wave of heat hit me like a furnace. The ground was cracked obsidian, glowing with molten veins that pulsed like a living creature’s heartbeat. The sky above twisted with red-black clouds, churning in unnatural patterns. Static filled the air. Something ancient stirred beneath the surface.
Then I saw it.
Standing still, as though it had been waiting, was a nightmare carved from hellfire.
A demon.
Eight feet tall. Muscles like armor plates beneath skin the color of dried blood. Horns curved back from its skull, jagged and scorched. Its eyes were twin pits of lava. It gripped a massive obsidian axe, etched with runes that glowed and flickered like fire trapped in stone.
The system’s mechanical chime echoed in my ears.
[Crimson Demon – General Rank]