Heavenly Demon Descent Step
"The Heavenly Demon?"
"That is so. I am the Heavenly Demon."
The woman who had introduced herself as such leapt lightly through the air and came to a stop right in front of me.
Her attire wasn't particularly flashy, nor was her appearance striking, but one look was enough to tell she was a martial artist who had honed her body through relentless training. There wasn't a trace of makeup or ornamentation on her, and above all, her power was remarkably stable compared to the other rankers.
It's tranquil.
Her strength lay as still and smooth as a windless lake.
"I'd assumed you'd stopped playing entirely. I take it you've returned, then?"
"I merely devoted myself to training for a time. With an age of calamity approaching, it seemed right to bring my seclusion to a close."
"A calamity?"
Was she talking about the Great Cataclysm? When I asked, the Heavenly Demon gave a slow nod.
...At this point, her Penalty feels even heavier than Leo's or Candy Star's. Those two transform in dramatic bursts whenever their penalties flare up — but the woman in front of me simply seems to live like this, as though this state were perfectly normal.
If not for her 'Heavenly Demon' gimmick, I'd honestly believe she was just a native of this world.
"I have come to see you, Lily Elbrit."
"...Me?"
"First, an apology. There was no other way for me to face you. You may have gotten your hopes up for a moment — for that, I am sorry."
The Heavenly Demon dipped her head slightly, then raised it again with unshaken composure.
So what she's saying is... to meet me, she deliberately targeted my matchmaking queue?
When I asked her exactly that, the Heavenly Demon's face brightened.
"Correct. You understand precisely."
"That's insane?"
You could call it sniping, sure, but one careless step and it crosses straight into abuse. Get flagged for queue abuse and you lose nearly thirty points — in the Challenger bracket, that's worth at least fifteen wins.
When I stared at her in sheer disbelief, she only tilted her head, genuinely failing to see what the problem was.
"Why should a handful of points matter? An age of calamity is upon us."
"They matter to me."
I don't live a double life as Rafina for nothing. Matching is already a nightmare; if my score starts bleeding too—
...Ah.
Maybe I should just kill her.
"...What exactly do you mean, you came to see me?"
"The calamity to come. Six gates of ruin, six locks. The locks must be gathered to seal the gates of the apocalypse."
"Locks?"
The calamity to come was, naturally, the Kraken that would appear after the Great Cataclysm. The six gates of ruin had to mean the Kraken's six eyes — block the creature's light sources, and nearly seventy percent of its power could be sealed away.
But the six locks were something even I knew nothing about.
"The reason I sought you out is simple: you already hold one of those locks."
"And what lock would that be?"
"That is..."
Flutter.
The Heavenly Demon's black training robe billowed. Black energy streamed from her fingertips, swirling like the wind before shooting toward me.
It was not mana, nor any form of magic.
Internal energy.
Similar to mana, yet an intangible force accumulated through an entirely different method — and I caught it out of the air.
Rustle.
A sheet of pristine white paper rested in my hand. A map was drawn upon its inner face: white clouds wreathing a black mountain. Only the color of the mountain differed — otherwise, it looked remarkably like this place.
Black Lotus Mountain?
"Once this duel is over, I shall tell you."
Shff—
The Heavenly Demon's figure dissolved like water. In the blink of an eye she had vanished — and reappeared directly in front of my nose. A fist laden with black internal energy swung straight at me; I caught it on my spear's shaft and was flung backward, hard.
Her force carried my body along with it, helplessly.
BOOM!!
The impact arrived a heartbeat late, its roar filling the entire Duel Stadium.
Once I'd recovered from being launched into the air, I immediately checked my condition.
This was a PVP coliseum — a sparring arena where stat balancing and equipment balancing were enforced, which meant the rankers who fought here were leveled to roughly comparable footing. Of course, that was only ever a correction; Deoen counted things like gear and hard-won enlightenment as part of one's strength, so it could never be stripped away entirely.
The various restraints loosely wrapping my body right now were proof of that. If I truly wanted, I could shed every limit and draw on my original power at any moment — but I didn't. This was, after all, a ranked match, and I had no intention of unsealing anything just to fight.
Even at this level, I was performing at roughly the same tier as Michael or Choco at their usual best.
In other words—
Crackle.
"As expected of you."
The Heavenly Demon before me was strong enough to trade blows bare-knuckled with the players ranked third and fourth in the world.
Her internal energy seeped into the White Savior where fist met shaft. The energy raced along my body, trying to suppress me from within — the qi that pierces the heavens itself, Heavenly Demon Qi.
Her signature energy attempted to neutralize me... but unfortunately for her, this was not a body that could be disabled by something like that.
As if she'd anticipated it, the Heavenly Demon liquefied her form once more and vanished. I drove my spear precisely into the spot where she would appear.
Crack!
Using the shaft as a springboard, the Heavenly Demon launched herself high into the sky. Spear after spear came surging after her, but the black internal energy swirling around her body warded her flesh.
Slice!
One spear grazed past her shoulder. It had been a dangerous moment, but the sheath of qi meant she escaped without serious injury. Better than that — she seized one of the onrushing spears mid-flight, poured her internal energy into it, and hurled it right back at me.
Viiing—!
I batted the spear away with my own.
I AM fighting her for real.
It was simply that she was the first genuinely unusual opponent I'd faced in a while, so I was engaging her with genuine interest. Against Michael or Choco I kept things reasonably serious; with her, I was merely matching her tempo in return — she, after all, was probing with small techniques rather than committing to anything grand.
The tip of the Heavenly Demon's boot touched the ground without a sound. Her eyes were fixed on me, waiting.
Fine, then.
If it's an invitation she wants—
Viiiing...!
"Then come."
The spear twisted, and a storm born of that twist came crashing down.
A technique of the celestial race, modeled after a dragon's breath. Along with the storm tearing through the space ahead, the mounds of rock around it were shredded to ribbons.
At the storm's far end — at the very point where it bore down upon her — the Heavenly Demon, facing the maelstrom head-on, slowly raised her right foot and settled into her stance, both fists clenched.
The energy that the storm had been devouring flowed back toward her, gathering into her body once more.
The earth groaned.
KUUUUM!!!
The storm stopped dead.
The Heavenly Demon's secret art.
The crystallization of her every technique.
The footwork that could be called her very foundation — a name draped in endless epithets: Heavenly Demon Descent Step.
The moment she first learned of this strange world called Deoen, the emotion she felt was neither joy nor bewilderment.
It was disappointment.
This world was not a wuxia realm overflowing with internal energy — it was a fantasy world of mana and fantasy races, and that disappointed her deeply. In a martial world, she could have awakened her internal energy long ago, and with it mastered the secret arts and divine techniques of the Heavenly Demon.
It stung, but she refused to give up. If there was no Heavenly Demon in this land, then she would simply become the Heavenly Demon herself. She would shatter the heavens with her own hands, create the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, found the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult — what more was needed?
Some might have laughed it off as empty delusion, but this world possessed the power to turn even delusion into reality.
She resolved to become not just a namesake, but a true Heavenly Demon.
She imitated the Heavenly Demons of the countless stories she had loved to watch. She never managed to obtain a hidden class, so she chose the Qi Practitioner — the closest thing this world had to the martial path — and cultivated her internal energy. She founded the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult with her own hands as well.
But in the end it was no different from any other guild. It did not revere the Heavenly Demon or the heavens; it was nothing more than a gathering of people drawn by petty profit or the chance to watch her.
And above all, she lacked the one thing that mattered most: power.
'I'm still far too short of surpassing the heavens.'
Compared to the mighty Heavenly Demons of all those stories, she was nothing but an imitator playing dress-up. Even the Descent Step she had relied on as her signature technique was no different from a simple downward stomp.
The moment her guild collapsed, she abandoned the hollow shell of it without a trace of regret and entered closed-door cultivation — to complete the technique that had captivated her so long ago: the Heavenly Demon Descent Step.
She settled in Black Lotus Mountain, the place she liked best in this entire fantasy world, and carried her seclusion onward. All the way until she became the Heavenly Demon of her own imagination.
Eighteen hours of training, every single day, for three long years.
KUUUUM!!!
"...It is done."
In recognition of your relentless tenacity, the ancient master of Black Lotus Mountain acknowledges you.
«One Who Defies the Heavens»
«Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult»
Class Advancement — One Who Defies the Heavens (Hidden)
📍 Objective: Attain a share of the spoils above a set threshold in the subjugation of the coming calamity (World Boss).
(Required share varies by each boss's difficulty: 3%, 13%, 66%)
🎁 Reward: Class — Heavenly Demon
The Heavenly Demon Descent Step was complete.