Chapter 670: Absolute Control - The Storm Awakens
Chapter 670: Absolute Control – The Storm Awakens
The path to the Iron Maw dungeon wasn’t particularly difficult for their group, but dealing with people who weren’t demons reminded Asmodeus of the past. He couldn’t help but sit quietly while thinking about the past.
‘I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to be human.’
Although he ate food, other functions no longer existed. Mana purified and burned all food and most liquid waste, which meant demons rarely needed to excrete liquid, and they didn’t need to poop like humans. He could also use his divine aura to cleanse his sweat and all unwanted germs, bacteria automatically.
“Phew, Lad, this meat is good!”
Logan enjoyed the monster meat that Asmodeus kept in his item storage, some of it from over a year ago, before he became a demon lord. “Do you like it? That’s kobold meat you know?”
“Eh?! How did you remove the disgusting gamey scent?” Zahir gasped while chewing the kebabs made of kobold meat.
“Haha, do you see those peppers and onions? They’re specially grown in mana-enriched earth. When cooking, the water becomes full of mana which seeps into the meat, tenderising and neutralising the taste.”
Nerim tilted her head.
She ate some Great Bear meat, a high-level monster with a sweet, plump, sauce-like gravy.
“Is it the same for this?” Nerim’s fingertip dripped a bright blue droplet of water that she dripped into the cooking pot. “Does it mean if we pour mana into the meat while cooking, it’ll still work?”
He nodded back to her. “Although people’s mana carries a unique aroma and taste, it should dissolve the nasty taste and smell. I think your mana carries a nice salty scent like the sea, so it should be great with red monster meats.”
Nerim’s cheeks became pink, while her scales a deeper blue, the moment he spoke.
‘Hmmm?’
Logan’s lips curved into an annoying grin when he noticed, but Asmodeus didn’t bother. He knew he was handsome and that mermaids wouldn’t find it told they smell like the sea, a negative thing, but it was a huge compliment.
“Tomorrow we scale the mountain to that dungeon, huh…” Asmodeus changed the subject to help the shy mermaid enjoy her meal. After a wink to the mermaid, he turned to Logan and Zahir. “So I’ll keep watch tonight, you two should rest well.”
“Eh, Lad, are you sure..?”
Zahir just nodded while munching on the kobold meat. Asmodeus started to enjoy the young man’s actions and felt comfortable with the party. He looked at the dark rings beneath Logan’s eyes and the dry skin he tried to hide badly.
“Of course, get some rest.”
‘Well, thanks to the sleeping powder in the meal, you’ll all rest well.’
He wanted them all to rest properly.
After smelling the Abyss from the Iron Maw, he believed that this might not end with them clearing this dungeon.
‘It’s a dungeon close to the sea where the accident happened…’
To change his mood, he shook his head and ate a small portion of the meat to at least enjoy the nostalgia of when he was a normal human. To remember what it felt like. It wasn’t like he would fall asleep; once he ascended to godhood, there was no need to sleep… ‘Even if I want to sleep, I have to force myself using magic…’
Asmodeus knew he could easily handle these monsters; with his power, he could clear the dungeon with a single Sanguine Devastation. However, as he concentrated his divine aura into a small nest that encompassed his organs, bones, veins and muscles… He started to sense things beyond his previous ability.
‘I can feel it… this strange sensation of the Aura being refined, constricted and then as if it’s fusing with my body. Closer, and closer with each movement I take while restricting my divine aura to a tiny amount of my full power….’
His muscles cramped with a sharp ache, but Asmodeus ignored the pain because for every hour he endured, the strength he could use while still condensing and holding his power back increased a small amount.
‘It’s like I am refining my body, beyond its limits…’
He watched Nerim and Zahir, their unique combat styles clearly foreign to anything he’d seen in the past. The movement of her muscles, how they twisted… he quietly hid his arm inside the wide kimono sleeve, and pulled on the muscles with his condensed aura net and twisted them.
‘I can feel the dense power inside growing… but it feels like someone is tearing off my arm.’
His eyes followed Nerim, who skewered a piece of pork with her small, makeshift fork and scooped it full of sweet gravy with a wide grin, closed eyes while she hummed in delight.
“How do you endure that pain with such a frail, mortal body?”
“Eh?” She turned to him and dropped gravy down her lips, the natural gloss of her lips much shinier than even Lumina and his wives when they used makeup. ‘Is this the charming point of a mermaid?’ He wondered.
“Nothing, make sure you use that medicine on your arm.” Asmodeus stood from his spot and grasped his axe. “I’ll go and patrol, Logan, once I step out, pour your mana into that black gemstone to form a temporary barrier against monsters.”
“Are you really leaving?”
“…”
The two youngsters his age seemed reluctant to let Asmodeus go, but he chose to ignore them this time.
He stepped out into the darkness.
The warmth of the fire, crackling grease with the scent of mana-enriched peppers, faded behind him. Beyond his barrier, all that awaited him were the icy winds with a thick salty scent that blew over him.
“Dark grey clouds… is there going to be a storm?” He shook his head and clenched his abdomen, sending a pulse of divine aura to coat his skin from the elements.
He moved a few paces away from the camp until the firelight dimmed behind him. The mountain loomed above, a black silhouette split by mist and faint, red glimmers leaking from cracks in the stone. The wind carried the scent of brine and rotting flesh.
It reminded him of the Taken from earlier.
“How many of you have been corrupted by the abyss?”
Asmodeus didn’t tell the others… he could sense over ten miles using his divinity, and the few taken they fought were barely a fraction of the ones lingering in the forests.
“There are thousands of them…” He muttered while lifting the blood reaver over his shoulder, a flicker of bloody aura enveloping his form. Asmodeus crouched and pressed his palm to the ground. Mana pulsed beneath the rock in irregular beats. It wasn’t like a heart, but the strange sound of a stomach digesting something. “Should I just wipe them out?”
He traced a sigil in the dirt with his finger, leaving a faint golden line that spread outward until it vanished. A map of energy patterns unfolded in his mind, each flicker revealing pressure points and movement.
Each of the Taken appeared in his sight, enveloped in a golden aura.
‘Well, they seem to be heading here anyway.’
Asmodeus looked back at the barrier, a huge golden beacon of light that only he could sense. He grinned at the three tucking themselves into sleep. Despite telling Logan about the black barrier, the truth was, he left a strong holy one to protect them.
‘The demonic barrier will explode and remove any threats… while the divine barrier gives them time to react.’
There wasn’t a reason to go so far, except the strange voice and whispers that asked him for help, told him of danger and worried about those around him.
‘These voices… are they from the dead?’ He wondered.
He drew his axe into both hands quietly, lowered his breathing and prepared to fight. The faint crack of a twig broke the silence, and instantly he shot forward like a missile. He swung the axe in a single arc. No mana or aura. Instead, he just used precision, power and speed. Three bodies fell before touching him, cleaved into pieces.
But as they hit the ground, their skin cracked, and something writhed underneath, and the thin metallic filaments knitted the corpses together again.
“Persistent trash.”
He kicked the nearest one back into the darkness and snapped his fingers. A faint red flash sparked between his fingertips before vanishing into the fog. The sound that followed was dull but deep… a thud, then a pop.
Asmodeus didn’t move until the last one dissolved into ash.
‘This is going to be a loooong night.’
He looked upward. Far above, lightning crawled across the clouds in branching veins of purple light, flashing against the fog, and in the distance a titanic figure appeared each time the light vanished for a split second…
“The hell is that!?”
Asmodeus tightened the grip on his axe. A pulse of divine aura spread across his body, as the pressure from the gigantic figure, almost two mountains in size, put pressure on both himself and the barrier he formed.
With the flick of his wrist, he slammed the axe on his shoulder, and with a faint grin, he stepped into the darkness seeking the golden lights.
“Time to hunt!”