Chapter 407
Chapter 407
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 407
Chapter Title: Demon Realm Temple (1)
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Black smoke billowed in.
It was like darkness given form, stirring up various memories depending on one's perspective.
The ceiling gazed up at right before sleep, the secret hideout crafted from blankets in childhood, the warm embrace of a mother's arms, and the like.
Darkness is respite.
An impulse boiled up to hurl oneself into it and claim eternal peace.
The chaotic silhouettes faintly glimpsed amid the smoke appeared as welcoming gestures from familiar faces.
Thus, Ken joyfully greeted the slowly encroaching darkness—
"Hey! Snap out of it!"
"Gah!"
He couldn't even muster proper resistance against the brutish force yanking his nape.
His body fluttered along like a paper doll whipped by the wind.
Boom—!
At that instant, a single tentacle of pitch-black smoke slammed down exactly where he had stood moments before.
It merely resembled a smoky mass, yet it carried tangible physical force, resounding with a deafening explosion.
"This guy's lost his marbles, huh?"
"Gotta be that thing's fault, right?"
Voices mingled into the rush of wind from their swift movement.
Ken remained limp, dragged helplessly by the iron grip on his nape.
Frowning faintly, he laboriously craned his neck to look.
One of Davidson's heads had his collar clamped in its jaws, scampering along busily.
"Damn, my head's spinning..."
His headache intensified from the violent jolting, forcing him to grit his teeth.
He could scarcely control his body while suppressing the flesh's desperate urge to surrender to that darkness.
"Hey, you alright?"
"Not... at all. Damn, now I get it. Was this why it handed over the body? Feels like I have to merge with it right this second... Urk!"
The black mist's true nature was the original owner of the body Ken now inhabited.
For the moment, he resisted its claim with over two decades of squatter's rights, but he couldn't swear how long that would hold.
'This is bad.'
Davidson scowled at Ken's response, his legs pumping relentlessly.
[————!]
Even now, the black mist hounded them without respite.
The temple's ceiling soared dozens of meters high, yet the onrushing fog devoured one entire side of the vast corridor like a tidal wave.
Rumble— Boom!
Of course, they hadn't fled without a fight.
No matter how intangible, his 「Shikigami」 and 「Authority of Gluttony」 were potent enough to devour even formless concepts.
But wielding them came with constraints...
Namely, they demanded the act of shoving targets into the mouth and swallowing.
'Not totally ineffective, but way too inefficient.'
The amorphous haze, smoke-like in form, was low-density due to its sheer volume.
There were limits to how much he could cram into one bite.
And since it wasn't mere smoke, tricks like slurping up air en masse wouldn't fly.
'Can't just bulk up for a head-on clash either; opponent's no pushover. Curses pierce anti-magic barriers on contact alone...'
As he devoured chunks of it, the smoke siphoned his energy in retaliation.
And that wasn't the extent of the trouble.
Its real target was Ken, not him.
'Can't let it have this guy, no matter what.'
His beast-surpassing instincts screamed it outright.
Allowing it to absorb Ken would spell disaster for him.
That was why he shunned direct confrontation, opting for flight.
"Bro. Any clue why that thing's holed up here?"
"Hoo, who knows. Looks like he got backstabbed by the Mad Dragon Duke or something. Details escape me too."
"Ugh! Some help you are?"
"...Ugh, sorry about that. Just keeping this body in check is my limit. One slip in focus, and it'll seize control in a heartbeat."
He'd already pieced together its identity.
The prime culprit behind the abrupt vanishing act that plunged the entire Demon Realm into prolonged chaos.
The 15th Demon King, Tanuin—elected after Rrellei.
'Locked away here... Ties back to that apostle who visited the Mad Dragon Duke, huh?'
Via 「Xenoglossy」, he'd deciphered the prayers etched across the temple, swiftly grasping its patron deity.
'One busy bastard. Never figured he'd plant a full base like this.'
A temple devoted to a human god—now entombed in the abyss.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't newly erected in the Demon Realm.
Merely a sly linkage of this space's entrance to a Demon Realm locale.
The pillar-gate glimpsed before entry served as that conduit.
'Mad Dragon Duke's aid made it feasible... Still a feat. And corrupting the actual Demon King to this degree?'
One had to wonder what the Demon Gods, stewards of the Demon Realm, were up to.
Unlike this anything-goes maniac, intact divinities bore regulations and bindings aplenty—fair enough.
"Hup!"
At that moment, fresh black tentacles lashed toward them; the limply dangling Ken swallowed dryly.
Davidson twisted mid-stride to evade, retaliating by chomping the appendage to bits.
Yet the dispersing mist wrought no small harm on them both.
Crack!
"Urk—! Damn it!"
Ken convulsed, bones audibly grinding as his body writhed; the limit loomed.
Davidson spared a glance at his own form and scowled.
Curse erosion had ravaged his sleek pelt beyond brittleness, now shedding in clumps.
'Can't keep this up. Need a plan.'
Intangibles made for a poor matchup.
Real-time regeneration let him endure if he willed it, but Ken teetered on the brink.
He had to act before total collapse.
But how to tackle a former Demon King who'd transcended spirit into a walking curse mass?
'Hans is the only shot? Immortal King Hans could manage...'
Not without qualms, though.
This being a human god's sanctum interior.
Even fallen, this space held special sway over it.
It could palm-read every happening here.
'Might even be dissecting it down to atoms, lab-grade.'
His current 'Davidson mode'—powers curtailed, 「Seed of Madness」 deep-suppressed—posed no great risk if spied upon.
Yet baring Hans, his ace against Outerica's archfoe, chafed sorely.
'Hans's 「Immortal Heart」 stems from that abyss-bound entity's divinity, after all. Ownership fully seized now, but best leave no cracks.'
Thus mired in deliberation.
Suddenly, one possibility sparked across his mind.
'...Hold up? Curse mass?'
The 15th Demon King Tanuin—body forsaken, soul warped into curse incarnate.
Power and stature remained sublime, yet boxed in as 'Demon King-tier curse,' not true 'Demon King'—fact was fact.
'This might just...'
His thoughts whirled, crunching scenarios.
Not merely Davidson's trio of middling brains, but every avatar's full cerebral might mobilized.
The verdict...
'Doable.'
High odds.
Plan greenlit.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Having clawed through hellscapes to claim the mantle of 15th Demon King, Tanuin.
Yet even enthroned as the long-coveted sovereign, joy eluded him fully.
He knew the schemes his fiercest rival—and prime candidate—Mad Dragon Duke Crushaier hatched to oust the prior king, Rrellei.
As a fellow duke then, Tanuin had lent a hand; ignorance was impossible.
But purging a defeated subordinate who'd bent the knee, merely for being a 'threat'? Optics soured.
Freshly crowned, did he fear a rival's shadow?
Thus he bided, scheming pretexts, awaiting openings...
The Mad Dragon Duke sniffed it out and preemptively groveled.
Complete with lavish tribute.
"A fragment of a god?"
Irresistible temptation.
A shard straight from divinity!
Having ascended with quasi-divinity, Tanuin grasped its worth at a glance.
Divine essence from an entity rivaling—or surpassing—the Demon Gods.
Absorb it whole, and his ancient ambitions weren't dreams.
That yearning, born gazing at Demon Realm skies long ago—
To lie with heaven as his pillow.
Of course, he didn't gulp it blindly.
Gift from his top suspect, the Mad Dragon Duke.
Wielding kingly prerogatives, he assayed risks repeatedly, contingency upon contingency.
Poised to uproot any treachery at the root.
And at last, convinced his quasi-divine frame could assimilate this ownerless essence safely...
He drew the shard into himself—
[Kuhuhu—Greed's summoned its reckoning, Tanuin!]
An unforeseen crisis erupted, unraveling all.
Ownerless divinity, yet an apostle of its true lord materialized.
"Crushaier! You scum!"
Apostle's chants bridged shard and enigmatic god as one.
Tanuin, having devoured it wholesale, fused alongside.
He too had accrued personal divinity upon enthronement, but overreaching snuffed familiarity before it bloomed—swept under vastly superior essence.
"You think I'll just roll over?!"
Yet forged in infernos to Demon Realm's apex.
15th Demon King Tanuin refused simple defeat.
To deny them gains through him, he rent his form asunder, scattering across Demon Realm; his soul he transmuted into curses barring their whims.
[...Tanuin. Useless to the end.]
A grand final sabotage, yet apostle and Mad Dragon Duke pressed on.
Having expended such precious divine splinters, could they abandon ship?
Parallel schemes advanced; scattered remnants maximally regathered to extract Demon King power.
For grafting into his own flesh, akin to his devil-transformation.
[Demon Gods' sanction be damned! I'll ascend beyond kings myself!]
Corpse of a king, plus de facto Demon Realm dominion and sway?
King he would be, regardless.
Demon Gods' will be damned!
Centuries trickled by.
Demon Realm duly convulsed; Mad Dragon Duke hustled gathering remnants, prepping rites.
One day, tantalizing tidings reached him.
Otherworlders flouting cosmic laws.
Earthlings like Ken began abductions to Demon Realm soon after.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ ⚠️ HIGH-ENERGY APPROACH ALERT! ⚠️ <High-Energy Approach Alert!> <High-Energy Approach Alert!> <High-Energy Approach Alert!> Myriad warning overlays flooded his vision.
Hesperon, clad head-to-toe in metallic suit, fully armored in Titan alloy while on standby, glanced at the details.
-Measured Energy: 326,711,730
-Threat Level: SS
-Terra-class vessel reactor-equivalent energy signature detected. Initiate emergency escape sequence immediately.
"Whoa."
An involuntary exclamation escaped.
Terra-class ships were kilometer-plus behemoths.
Future sci-fi pinnacles enabling warp travel, space combat with main guns and barriers.
'One entity packing that punch?'
Even in utter decline, this output.
Demon Realm or not, absurd.
Rumble— Thud!
Distant tremors drew nearer.
Tension mounting, Hesperon loosened up, then drew a slow deep breath to finalize prep.
With a metallic clank, the Titan parts encasing his right arm disengaged, vanishing into thin air.
Now remained only his bare arm, wrapped in bandages etched with arcane runes.
He stared at his right hand—pale and frail against the suited bulk.
[————!]
Then, a hollow roar reached his perch.
A peek revealed the three-headed hound nearly upon them, a demon dangling from its maw.
"Well then, shall we get started?"
Shrrk—
Bandages unraveled of their own accord, recoiling past his shoulder.
Bared fully—a jet-black dragon coiling his arm like a tattoo.
But no mere ink.
Whoosh!
As if to prove, the serpent stirred along his skin, erupting outward wreathed in ebon flame.
The long-dormant, ever-sealed 「Right Arm of Craving」.
Its indwelling Black Flame Dragon kindled murderous glare, swelling in size.
"It's been a while, eh? Well then..."
Truth be told, his current level couldn't handle a 'Demon King-grade curse.'
Realm disparity too vast; clash meant swift absorption and erasure.
Hesperon, its host, included.
But add one more ability, and the equation flipped.
"Let's see you gorge till you burst."
Late to mention now, but...
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ 「Curse Predator」 Immunity to all curses.
Hesperon bore a body immune to every curse.