Chapter 166

Lumos

I ducked underneath an acid spray, swishing my hand to the left. A tentacled monstrosity split in half, and a descending Light Spear pinned him to the ground. It writhed underneath the heat but recovered at extreme speeds, pushing the back of the spear.

Shutting my palm, I crushed the monster's head and heart. Before its struggling seized, I was bombarded with three more streams of acids.

I transformed into Light and materialized behind the monstrosities who'd attacked, sending spears through their heads and hearts. They fell to the snow, lifeless.

Four more monsters replaced the dead ones and hissed at me, sending forth an avalanche of tentacles. I snorted and brought my hands down, crushing them with the full weight of my telekinesis. My glowing eyes darted to the horizon, fixing on the lingering presence that had watched me while I decimated its horde. There had been over thirty of them at first, all overwhelmingly powerful. They were far too much for my entourage, so I'd commanded Val to portal them away, leaving me to fight off the horde, but only after they incurred a few injuries.

It took more effort out of me than I'd care to admit, requiring me to draw deeper into my demonic energy pool than I had in a while, but I wasn't worried.

My pool was vast, second only to Corvus himself. I spent entire years of my youth forcefully expanding my energy pool and meditating under the sun.

What I lacked in sheer power, I more than made up for in precision and volume.

This unknown foe would be the latest in a long line of monsters who'd fall by my hand.

"You can't hide from me," I said. "Show yourself. End this farce."

Reality inverted, and I came upon a sight that caused even me some pause. It was a myth come to life. The Kraken laid before me—or, more accurately, some abstraction of it. It had 12 eyes, each pair shining with an unknown power and tentacles to match those eyes that were as thick as school buses.

"Your kind is far more powerful than I've been led to believe," a voice rumbled. It came across as chaos, designed to scramble the mind, but I was well beyond paltry tricks. Its strength was vast like mine, but where I knew the limits of my energy pool, his seemed to eclipse my senses and grow stronger with every pulse.

My eyes narrowed, and I pinpointed the cause of it—some creature buried underneath its bulk. He was siphoning energy from it.

"You do not belong here," I said. "Return to the void from where you came or I will be forced to remove you."

Its twelve eyes wandered in every direction, but mine and it took a long moment to answer. "No. Far too rich, far too promising. After I harvest you and the Nephilim, I will scour this planet, then perhaps turn my attention to your home world."

I narrowed my eyes. It had to die here and now.

With a flick of my finger, I summoned my Devil Arm, SoL. It was a golden Partisan spear with a modified spearhead and a glowing white gemstone at the center. It helped me gather sunlight and transform it into Demon energy, amplifying all of my Light-based and mental attacks by a wide margin.

My body enhancement technique, Ruler's Cloak, swaddled me, raising the surface temperature of my skin to a ridiculous degree. The snow around me for nearly a hundred feet instantly melted, releasing steam.

Ruler's Cloak was my crown jewel. It enhanced all of my physical parameters by over 200% and my magic by 350% by my latest estimates.

This technique transformed me into a god of war on the battlefield, and I was delighted to see how the monster would handle me.

I twirled the spear, pointing the tip at one of the monster's eyes, and cast a Light Spear. It appeared in front of it instantly, nearly six times more potent than it was before. Its eyes flickered before it impacted, and the world was drowned in white. The Earth shook, and steam gushed into the atmosphere endlessly.

It wasn't dead. I doubt it was injured. Its psychic presence barely fluttered. Unwilling to risk a mental battle with him, I settled for observing his shift in emotion from a distance.

I floated above the chaos, summoning ten more Light spears and bombarding the monster with all of them. The ground roared at the devastation, but the beast seemed immune to my assault.

The tenth spear finally earned me a reaction. Six tentacled lashed out deceptively fast. They were all covered in some blackish film of energy fraying at the edges. That had probably been its shield. My spear lashed out; an ultra-condensed thirty-feet long energy blade manifested on the very tip. It sheared through the first tentacle like butter and went halfway through the second one, surprising me a fair bit.

I channeled my telekinesis into the blade, giving it a real edge, and swished out with actual effort. Five of the six tentacles sheared off, and I closed the distance between myself and the beast, displacing the air around us.

All twelve of its monstrous eyes blinked at me in calculated amusement before one glowed. They were a deep blue.

I suddenly froze, trapped mid-lunge, unable to physically move, suspended by some power that terrified me.

It was like I was trapped in one of Corvus's domains.

The monster cackled. "12 hours ago that was only strong enough to prevent teleportation. Now I can hold the likes of you. I wonder how much more powerful I will become."

A second set of eyes glowed. They were green, and new tentacles began to sprout in the place of the severed ones. They were a slightly deeper shade and moved with more weight. I could instantly tell they were stronger.

It was like its spawns. It evolved given enough time.

Its renewed tentacles began to reach for me.

"You've been an amusing distraction," it said. "I've enjoyed our time together."

"I've not," I sent to it through my telepathy, surprising it briefly before I detonated a chunk of my demonic energy, flaring both of my affinities. A wave of Light, heat, and Telekinetic force rippled out in all directions.

The monster's hold on me intensified, snapping my limb and puncturing several organs, but just before it could finish me off. The attack reached it, and it screamed. It was a guttural, disorienting thing that shook the air so much I nearly fainted.

It was gone by the time I regained control of my body, and my natural regeneration kicked in, and I stood in the middle of a crater very familiar. I spat a clump of blood.

To think I did just as good as the Nephilim. Whatever this thing was, it took precedence over eliminating the boy. We couldn't let it gather more power, even if that meant collaborating with Dante Sparda.

---

Rin

After the first horde, we hit our stride, maintaining a fairly steady advance into the desert.

Tony assumed the role of guard, but I remained as vanguard, and I was our first and only defense against the hordes. Waves after waves of them crashed against my body, but none of them lasted more than a few seconds against my sword or hammer.

Every hit I tanked, blocked, or ate filled me up, replacing energy that I lost, allowing me to maintain Cloak indefinitely. All of the gamma and life energy I gained went into upgrading every aspect of my body to ensure I was strong enough for our final confrontation.

Dante had deliberately sent me down the path where he observed the most monsters, and it had been paying off. Already, I noticed I was about 5 percent stronger than when we started the mission. In addition to pure power gains, I was also using the opportunity to sharpen my weapon's skill and drill down on the basics.

Dodges, parries, stances, effective strikes.

It all got equal attention.

Our toughest fight so far was with a group of mutated seals, like the very same ones Dante fought when he got here. They put me through the paces physically, and my demonic energy control got a real workout as I tried to absorb every incoming strike.

However, I ended things by channeling energy into the hammer form of Rose and enhancing my strike with Arcane amplification before bringing it down on the toughest monster's head. The explosion took most of its upper body.

We were a quarter of the way through our designated route when it happened. A portal opened in front of me, and a group leaped out.

"Back off everybody!" I yelled. I felt the demonic energy rolling off them before I even got a good look at them. They were Cambion and demons.

The group consisted of two knights dressed in armor covered in demonic energy—one fire and one Ice. Two mercenaries stood at their sides, wearing protective armor. The one to the right was holding up an unconscious Cambion. Finally, at the rear was an unmasked dream runner with a mask covering his lower face and holding a pair of bloody daggers.

All were wounded except the mercenary in a metal skull mask.

"Make any sudden movements, and I will gut every last one of you," the assassin said in a raspy voice. He was bald with ash-white skin, and his tone reminded me way too much of that jackass, N'tesh."

I snorted. "You sound pretty sure for a guy who is outnumbered and tired. How about I make you the same fucking offer. Drop your knife or—"

Ahhh!

A scream ripped from the throat of our group sorcerer as the Cambion appeared in front of him, dagger sticking out his throat. Fear gripped my heart. I hadn't even seen him move.

Move?

No. He hadn't moved. Had he? He'd simply appeared in front of him.

The soldiers surrounding the dead man turned their guns on the demon on instinct and would've almost pulled the trigger had the Captain not raised his voice. "Hold."

"Shit," Tony barked into the comms. "Transmitting feed now. I'm calling the brotherhood for help."

He was initiating the emergency measures we'd put in place. In the cases where our sorcerer died, and we needed help, we'd transmit a video feed from our current location and have a skilled sorcerer open a portal.

Of all the scenarios the leadership had cooked up, I'd never thought it'd be a dream runner that'd push us to use the portal.

"Val!" The fire Knight roared. "We're in no position to start a fight."

"The fight came to us," Val said quietly. "You know we can't let them live. Our presence here can't make it back to him."

"You're one of those Dream runner fuckers, aren't you?" I seethed, channeling energy into my blade and body. "It's been a while since I've killed one of you."

All of the demons turned to me, eyes wide with surprise.

"I thought my senses were deceiving me?" The Fire Knight said.

"I do not recognize you," said Val, pulling the dagger free from the dead soldier's neck. A man almost pulled the trigger, but Captain America shot him a look. "Which Faction do you serve."

"Is that a fucking joke?" I scowled, ramping up my energy output even higher. Val froze, and the eyes of the sorceress who'd been unconscious darted open.

"Ascended," she whispered, and I dashed forward. The ground exploded under me as I charged toward Val with the tip of my blade. He vanished, rejoining his group just before I ran him through.

"He's fast," Val muttered.

"Keep him alive," the Ice Knight said, pulling his longsword free. "We'll take care of the rest."

"No, you won't," Clint said. "Open fire."

Tony, the rest of the soldiers, and Cap sent a wave of energy bullets that set the space in between us on fire. I charged into the madness with a cold determination and urgency to put every last one of them in the ground.

Dante had told me what would happen if the demons learned of my evolution before we could spring our trap. Their focus would shift entirely.

Dante would stop being their first priority. I'd be.

The demons hissed when the first few energy bolts struck but soon went on the defensive. The Ice Knight stuck his blade into the ground and pulled it free, raising a wall of Ice that shielded them.