Chapter 159: Challenging The Abyss
The moment Damian stepped onto the desolate land of his abyssal talent tree, an oppressive weight pressed down on him. It was suffocating, heavy, and absolute, the kind of presence that would have made his past self freeze in place.
But that version of him no longer existed.
He had stood beneath this pressure before when he was weaker. Now, he was stronger, the same presence that once inspired fear now felt lesser.
It had not weakened.... He had grown.
The abyssal talent tree towered before him like an endless wall, its dark structure swallowing everything around it. Behind it, partially hidden, stood the smaller Asura tree, silent and untouched.
Beyond them stood two figures.
Duke Haborym, still and empty, and Bathin mounted on his gray horse, both frozen like puppets waiting for a command that had yet to come.
And behind them all, a wall of dead trees stretched endlessly, their twisted forms forming a prison. Within that prison, a single massive crimson eye stared out, vast and ancient, pressing against the boundary as if testing its limits.
It watched him silently and then it spoke.
"Our previous arrangement has served both of us. Now you give in to your greed and want more?"
The voice was calm, yet the entire world trembled beneath it.
Damian’s eyes hardened instantly.
"An agreement that should never have existed in the first place!" he snapped back, a vicious light flashing through his gaze.
The massive crimson eye narrowed slightly, falling into silence as if weighing his words.
"You wish to take it all back?"
This time, the voice was colder, sharper, laced with a quiet threat.
Damian did not hesitate.
"Take it back? It is mine already. I am here to remind you of that."
Boom.
The ground shattered violently as seven massive black wooden spikes erupted from beneath the earth, twisting and lunging toward him with murderous intent.
"YOU WILL SUBMIT!" the Abyss hissed.
Bam.
Damian stomped down with force, the ground beneath his feet sinking as a violent surge of white flames exploded outward from his body like a shockwave. The flames tore through the incoming black wood instantly, reducing them to nothing before they could even reach him.
The attack vanished as if it had never existed.
Silence followed.
Only the faint crackling of white fire remained, consuming the remnants of what once stood.
Damian exhaled slowly, his expression settling into something calm, almost indifferent.
"I am beginning to understand how this whole god, demon, and deity nonsense works," he said quietly. "I am beginning to understand how all of you think. Honestly... I am not impressed."
He began walking forward, his arms spreading slightly at his sides.
"Intimidation, bullying, racism, bigotry, greed, deceit... You are all more human than you think. That is why I do not find any of you terrifying anymore."
His eyes were heavy, worn, yet clear.
"So yes... everything changes from here."
[Infernal Transformation: Three-Tailed Kitsune Physiology]
Buzz.
His presence surged violently.
Damian’s body lifted off the ground as his form shifted. Black fox ears rose from his head, sharp and alert, while his eyes narrowed into predatory slits. His nails darkened and lengthened, his aura twisting into something wild and ancient.
Behind him, three black tails unfurled, each one thick and fluid, decorated with flickering purple flames that danced along their length.
The air itself seemed to recoil.
Casually, he extended his hand toward Duke Haborym.
"YOUR ASURA POWER, I HAVE COME TO COLLECT IT. OBEY!"
His voice carried authority.
For a brief moment, Duke Haborym’s pitch-black eyes flickered. A faint trace of purple surfaced within them, struggling to emerge before fading completely back into darkness.
There was no response.
The Abyss laughed. Low at first, then rising, shaking the entire realm with its cold amusement.
In front of the abyssal tree, a massive mass of black flames erupted into existence. The fire twisted and condensed, and within it, the heavy clanking of steel echoed through the void.
Damian’s heart tightened instantly.
He knew that presence.
It was the same suffocating force he felt every time he called upon abyssal power. The same entity that had crushed Duke Haborym and Bathin without effort.
And now it was being turned on him.
"You would not dare," Damian hissed, his eyes turning cold.
The Abyss was actually going to fight him within his own domain.
The insult burned deeper than any wound.
"They can only take as much as you give," he reminded himself firmly.
Swoosh.
The black flames were torn apart violently as a figure emerged.
A ghastly black knight stepped forward, its armor warped and unnatural, a crimson scarf hanging loosely around its neck. Two pairs of black wings extended from its back, flapping slowly as it hovered above the ground.
Its presence was absolute and its gaze empty. The Abyss had manifested its will and it had come to fight him.
"Authority without strength is useless. Power only obeys the one who can command it. That is why power always returns to us, no matter how many times the universe tries to replace us with mortals."
The Abyss spoke in a hoarse, grating tone, but its voice did not stand alone. It overlapped with Damian’s, Duke Haborym’s, and Bathin’s voices all at once, blending into a single distorted echo that reverberated through the desolate world.
"Every millennium, I watch your kind rise with borrowed power, only to crumble beneath it. They grasp at forces they cannot control. They try to suppress what is greater than them. And every single time... they fail. Your situation is no different."
The weight of its words pressed down like a verdict already decided.
It expected fear and hesitation. Instead, Damian laughed.
Not a quiet chuckle, not restrained amusement, but a full, unhinged burst of laughter that echoed across the empty plains. He clutched his stomach, bending slightly as his body swayed from side to side, his laughter sharp and relentless.
The Abyss fell silent.
Then, just as abruptly as it began, the laughter stopped.
Damian straightened and his expression shifted. Cold and sharp.
"And yet, after all that time," he said slowly, his voice steady but carrying an edge that cut through the silence, "you now stand before a mortal who wields both the inheritance of the Abyss and Lust at the same time. Tell me... have you ever seen that before?"
Buzz.
The entire realm went still. Even the crimson eye within the darkness narrowed, its earlier confidence faltering for the first time.
It did not answer.
Damian’s gaze hardened as he stared directly into it.
"Things are changing. You are just too arrogant to see it. But that is fine. You have spent tens of thousands of years believing your own lies simply because you existed before us."
His body began to rise. The air trembled as his presence expanded, his figure lifting higher into the void until he towered above the Abyss itself. From his back, two pairs of black wings unfurled, stretching wide.
The ground below cracked under the pressure of his ascent.
"I have decided something," Damian continued, his voice dropping lower, heavier, carrying a weight that no longer belonged to a mere mortal.
His eyes burned with intent.
"I will reshape the way all of you think."
The tails behind him swayed slowly, purple flames flickering along their edges like silent witnesses.
"And I will start..."
His hand lifted, pointing directly at the Abyss, his gaze unwavering.
"...by taking back what you stole from me."
Swoosh!
In an instant, Damian vanished from his position and appeared before the Abyss. There was no build-up, no visible acceleration, only the sudden collapse of distance as if space itself bent to his will.
His hand moved forward casually, fingers stretching toward the Abyss’s helmet. The motion looked simple, almost careless, yet beneath that ease was a violent surge of demonic force. Power flooded into that single action, compressing into his arm until the air around it warped. In that brief moment alone, a hundred points of demonic force were consumed without hesitation.
BOOOM!
The collision shook the entire realm.
Damian’s dark purple aura erupted outward, crashing against the Abyss’s pitch-black aura in a violent explosion of force. The impact rang out like two massive metallic shields slamming into each other, the sound sharp and heavy, echoing endlessly across the desolate land.
The ground beneath them cracked, splitting outward in jagged lines as the pressure crushed everything around them.
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
His fingers hovered in place, barely ten inches away from the Abyss’s helmet, yet no matter how much force he pushed forward, he could not close that gap. It was as if an invisible wall stood between them, an absolute boundary that refused to yield.
The distance remained.
"Your control has grown," the Abyss spoke, its voice calm, almost approving. "As well as your demonic force output. Your evolution into a Greater Demon truly makes all the difference."
The words carried no mockery, only a cold acknowledgment.
Damian’s gaze hardened further as his aura flared again, pressing harder against the unseen barrier, testing it, challenging it.
It was sturdy but it can be broken!