Demon (1)

Not long ago, when Urek was facing the Red-Eyed Eel, Uriel took Headon's advice and watched the two fight. This was a great choice, he was able to visualize the eel using shinsu, concentrating it in his eye, and then firing in Urek's direction. By watching this attack and focusing on how the eel controlled the shinsu towards its eye, Uriel was able to get a vague idea of how to control the shinsu.

With that vague idea, Uriel also understood how Headon wanted him to control the shinsu based on 'instinct'. He understood this after he was able to read the flow of shinsu from the eel's attack.

In general, he was able to understand how the eel controlled the surrounding shinsu to trigger an attack.

Based on this, Uriel tried to visualize and feel the flow of the shinsu around him.

Perhaps because he was an Irregular, he managed it with relative ease and formed a small bubble of shinsu in his palm.

The little bubble of shinsu was so small that he didn't even dare to consider it a baang, the most basic unit of measurement for measuring shinsu. However, he was proud of himself and even became more confident.

And when he entered the cage and was able without any problem to move through the extremely dense shinsu, where even a Ranker has difficulty moving, his confidence grew even more.

Uriel thought that he could somehow defeat the ball guardian that Headon will assign to him and move on to the next floor.

"Sieeeeeeeeek──!!!"

That was before he heard this roar that shook his eardrums, along with a fear welling up inside him.

In front of the black ball that Headon had rebuilt so that he could take the test, was a huge familiar eel as it was the same eel that Urek had faced in his test.

A Red-Eyed Eel.

Until recently, Uriel had been confident in facing even this eel. However, now that he had met it in person and seen its colossal size and fierce gaze carrying a great bloodlust...

'It's over...'

Uriel's face turned pale.

His confidence and joy at being able to control the shinsu for the first time, his hope of climbing the tower just like his favorite Tower of God───── all shattered in an instant.

Being able to control the flow of shinsu to form a small shinsu bubble, he almost laughed as he felt proud of such a small accomplishment.

Would such a shinsu bubble be enough to take on the terrible monster in front of him?

'It's over.'

'I'm going to die here.'

This was closer to a premonition when he saw the eel begin to swim towards him swinging its huge tail at the dense shinsu.

──Come on, Uriel...

'Father?'

A sarcastic smile formed on Uriel's face. Once again he would hear his father's voice before he died?

──Apologize to this poor boy.

'...'

──While you are under my wing, you must absolutely follow what I say, understand?

'...'

A frown formed on Uriel's face.

Last time it appeared only as a distant dream, so it didn't affect his emotions much. But to hear it, completely lucid, was unpleasant.

It felt like he was chewing shit hearing those words.

"Sieeeeeeeeek──!" The eel let out a thunderous roar, it was already extremely close to him and in a few more seconds one bite from it would be enough for Uriel to be devoured.

Uriel looked at it.

This eel had superior physical strength to him, superior shinsu control to him, hell, even the way it looked at him was the same look a predator would give a small prey, full of contempt.

'Again... I'm going to put my head down again?'

Even Baam, whom he often derided for being pathetic, dared to face a White Steel Eel to meet a blond-haired traitorous bitch. Yet he, who sought to be free of rules and orders, was going to bow his head and let himself be killed by this eel?

"Pfft... Hahaha! What am I thinking at a time like this?"

Uriel found his thoughts hilarious. However, his look had changed.

'Since nothing I do will change the fact that I'm going to die, then I should at least try.'

He took a step forward.

Uriel didn't know if it was the adrenaline rush of the pre-death moment or the madness he had awakened from escaping one moment of death only to encounter another minute later. But, he formed a bubble of depressingly small shinsu in his hand and did not dodge or try to escape as soon as the eel came in front of him.

The eel rejoiced. Its prey would not even try to dodge or escape, making it easy for it to feed.

'Huhu. You certainly look very excited, don't you?'

The side of Uriel's lips went up.

The eel opened its huge mouth as if it were about to devour a huge dragon egg. Its huge, sharp rows of teeth would normally have left Uriel paralyzed with fear, however, he raised the small blob of shinsu and waited to be swallowed by the eel.

"Sieeeeeeeeeeeek──!"

"Aaaaaaaaaah────!!!"

It sounded like he was launching a miniature Rasengan dope...

Wooong──!

Cruck──!

Uriel pushed his hand holding the shinsu bubble and the eel closed its huge mouth.

The result, of course──────

Uriel was swallowed in a single bite.

'It's not dark like I imagined it would be in here...'

No, he thought he was swallowed.

Unlike the endless darkness he expected to find, the place was well lit. To be exact, the color Uriel could see most was white.

He soon realized that his feet were far off the ground.

He was floating, or standing in the air, with an endless white smoke-like haze surrounding him.

The vastness of the clouds that came and went like fish in a lake decorated the celestial horizon with a mysterious and provocative beauty that invoked the feeling that it would rain soon. However, Uriel had the feeling that in this place, no matter how much time passed, the rain would never come.

Stepping back before the majestic and mysterious beauty of the place, Uriel looked around.

"Is this heaven?"

He died and ended up in heaven?

Uriel's lips rose upward, forming a crooked smile as he turned his head to the side.

"You don't look like an angel, though. Who are you? A demon?"

[...]

Uriel looked at the being before him.

[You. You are the son of a bitch who imprisoned me in this place.]

Its brownish-gray skin filled with cracks like rocks looked like the bark of an ancient tree that had become rotten from heavy rains. The ends of its mask-like head went diagonally upwards like a pair of horns. The upper part of its body was similar to a human rib made of bark, with a green glow that shone between the openings. And his lower parts were not legs, they were tentacles resembling crooked tree branches sticking out from the bottom of his rib and moving as if they had a life of their own.

He had long arms that extended from his shoulders to just below the end of his body, along with long, sharp fingers. Hidden by the mist of the place, a pair of wings protruded like a shadow on his back.

Moreover, its fingers alone were already much larger than Uriel's body. Even close to the Red-Eyed Eel, he would probably be extremely larger than it.

[You don't seem all that surprised to see me, for someone afraid of a mere worm.]

Uriel narrowed his eyes as he heard the voice that seemed to penetrate the depths of his mind.

'What is it?'

Though curious, he answered the mysterious being.

"After technically dying twice in less than half an hour, I don't think I'd be that surprised even if I died one more time."

[So, you wouldn't mind if you died one more time, would you?]

"What you───────"

Uriel's words were interrupted.

KUWAAAANG──────────!!!

A thunderous roar resounded in the place as if a gigantic explosion had occurred, along with a gigantic gust of wind that dispersed some of the mist around Uriel. A huge palm resembling a tree trunk lay open in contact with his body, indicating that the mysterious being had just tried to slap him.

Uriel's heart skipped a beat.

'That...'

He almost died.

'He attacked with real intent to kill.'

'However, why can't I feel pain?'

Although his body was in contact with the palm of the mysterious being, Uriel was completely unharmed────he didn't even move from the spot.

There was no doubt left.

'Similar to some manga and webtoons, this monster cannot harm me directly.'

In the Tower of God, he had seen a similar situation, although it had its differences.

'That means─────'

Uriel narrowed his eyes, having some idea of what location he was currently in. However, there was still more doubt.

"Who are you?" he asked the mysterious being.

The mysterious being looked enraged. He did not act again despite this, just like Uriel, he realized that he could not harm the human in front of him. Of course, that didn't quell the anger he felt, but it did cause him to pull back with his arm.

[I am Jaldabaoth. The demon that devoured seven of the elemental spirits. The demon of doom that was sealed within the tree of life.]

Sounds impressive... Uriel murmured softly, but that still hadn't erased all his doubts. His doubts had only increased.

"I will rephrase my question, how did you get into this place?"

Uriel's gaze was filled with suspicion. If this place was what he thought it was, it should be almost impossible for this demon to be here.

What Uriel didn't expect, however, was that his question infuriated the demon even more.

[What?! You really asked me that? You were the son of a bitch who imprisoned me in this place!]

"I imprisoned you?"

Uriel frowned at this response from the demon, he couldn't remember something like that.

[Yes, you son of a bitch! Just as I was about to break free from my imprisonment in the tree of life just as someone dared to summon me, I appeared in this place out of nowhere, with you here!]

"You appeared here out of nowhere?"

[Yes! There is absolutely nothing here! Just clouds and nothing else! Even the tree of life was better than this strange place.]

"Hey, don't call this place strange────"

As soon as he said those words, Uriel was surprised that he felt offended by them. As he thought about it, Uriel was even more certain of his suspicions.

'Just clouds... An endless sky...'

'Freedom.'

Noting Uriel's arched eyebrows, Jaldabaoth immediately picked up that Uriel had figured out what this place was.

[What's up, human?]

"...I know where we are."

[Then tell me.]

Uriel looked at him.

"We are inside my inner self. Inside myself."

[What nonsense─────]

"It's not nonsense. We are at this very moment inside the real me."

Uriel remembered a similar situation where Baam, the protagonist of Tower of God, went inside his inner self to search for his true self. Baam had found a demon inside his inner self, however, this demon was something totally different from the one in front of Uriel.

'How did it get in here? It shouldn't be possible unless I absorbed it just as Baam absorbed Red Thryssa. But, it's unlikely.'

'Did someone seal him into me?'

No, he had a feeling it wasn't that.

'Hmm. He said he was summoned to the tower and was imprisoned in a place called the tree of life...'

'Ah─────!'

Uriel's eyes sparkled as a sudden thought flashed through his mind.

"Is that your physical body?"

[What?]

"Just answer it," he said to Jaldabaoth.

[There is no harm in saying this to you, so I will tell you. My physical body was destroyed and my soul sealed inside the tree of life, that is, this is just my spirit.]

Jaldabaoth continued.

[My physical body would be the cost that the summoner would have to pay to get me summoned. Either he would lose his physical body to me, or he would have to have thousands or millions of bodies for me to form my new physical body────]

In the middle of his sentence, Jaldabaoth suddenly stopped and looked at Uriel, who smiled looking at him.

"You seem to understand as well," Uriel confirmed his suspicions to Jaldabaoth's unhappiness.

"The same instant I opened the tower door, you were summoned. We probably went through the same channel or path to get to the tower. And since you didn't have a physical body and needed to get to your contractor to get one, you were fused inside my body. I am serving as a medium similar to the tree of life you were sealed into. That is──────"

'And that means...'

Uriel's smile widened even more.

"I die. You die."

[...]