Devil's Rank

Lucas shivered in excitement, witnessing the appearance of many wisps of red shade. There were too many of them, and only thirty minutes had passed since he meditated. Thirty minutes was already long since he had done nothing but wait.

Taken aback by their appearance, Lucas quickly clears his head and breathes in slowly from his chest, attempting to inhale the wisp of red shade.

Obviously, the wisp of red shade was the Aether Evil Element, and it existed everywhere, even the nook and crook of the Devil's Realm. They were the Aether Element Lucas attempted to absorb, change into essence, and be digested from his small intestine to recuperate from hunger and thirst.

If it would turn out successful, then he didn't have to find food and water to keep himself from starvation and dehydration and would only perform breathing Aether Evil Element once he felt the need to do so.

Why?

According to the book, the environment was a must to perform breathing techniques – a common breathing technique to absorb Aether. Some environments have a high concentration of Aether Evil Element, while some have a low concentration.

But what would happen if the high concentration Aether Evil Element was consistently used? Without a doubt, the density of Aether Evil Element would decrease, and as stated in the book, it takes much more time to recover than its consumption.

Therefore, Lucas was conflicted about whether he should be fasting or absorbing Aether Evil Element to form his core.

That's right! To start the path of gaining supernatural power: first, he had to attain the lowest realm, forming a core, better called a bead due to its size.

But the consumption would increase twofold since he had two uses for absorbing Aether Element: For food and water and forming a core.

Despite discovering that the environment of the small room appeared to have a high concentration of Aether Evil Element, he didn't know how long he would be locked up. Therefore, he had to be prudent when it came to Aether Evil Element consumption.

The book also stated that living beings had different rankings, but they were similar since the ranking division relied on the amount of core they possessed.

The book doesn't have knowledge regarding the ranking of other beings, but they have records of the Devil's rankings.

The Devil rankings were divided by: Fiends, a devil with no core, but they were formed solely by Aether Evil Element, so they were stronger than other low-ranking beings, who even have a core.

Minor Lords have one little horn and a single solid stage core.

Before moving on to the next Devil ranking, it would be better to explain the stages of the core. Core was divided into three stages: gaseous, liquid, and solid.

From low-density to high-density Aether.

Lords have one long horn, and two cores, while the second core was in the gaseous stage.

Then came next, the Arch Devil, a high-ranking devil that Lucas knew very well. When realization slapped him in the face, the scene of attempting to smack him with a meager strength and the heavy object made Lucas shudder. Thankfully the Arch Devil wasn't violent and wasn't angered when he was attacked by Lucas.

Well, it didn't anger him but felt hilarious instead, knowing an ant tried to bite the leg of an Elephant. Though, such creatures didn't exist in the Devil Realm.

Arch Devil has two long horns as a result of forming another core, resulting in them possessing three cores, which of course, the third core was still in the gaseous state.

The next would be Archduke or Archduchess; they have three long horns and have formed four cores, and still, the fourth core was in the gaseous stage. The book also stated that Archduke and Archduchess have an unblemished appearance and perfect bodies, causing Lucas to relate them to an immortal existence.

The next ranking doesn't have a lot of information except they have four horns like a crown and five cores, and it was called Primordial Devil. Lucas recalled the Goddess calling the devil inside him a Primordial devil and shivered when he remembered the Devil's reply.

His deduction was right then about the Archdevil was comparably weaker than the devil inside him. However, he assumed the devil inside him was in his lowest state, making even the Archdevil stronger.

Sadly, there were no more rankings aside from being the Primordial Devil the highest, so Lucas couldn't determine the rank of the devil inside him.

No matter what, Lucas didn't want to let it control his body anymore, and he was racing against the devil inside him of who would grow quicker.

Will the devil inside him recover to his peak? Or will he attain the highest realm first?

Lucas was so excited after having such a thought. Finally, the Aether Evil Element entered his nostrils. Lucas' empty mind showed the image of a wisp of red shape flowing inside his body. He guided it to flow towards the small intestines and forcefully break the Aether Evil Element to essence, and only then his small intestine would digest it.

To form a core, he first had to gather all the Aether in the dantian and then formed it into a gaseous stage core.

But Lucas was not attempting to form a core, yet since he had to satiate his hunger and thirst.

He had been experiencing the side effects, and it wouldn't be long before he turned insane. Therefore, satiating his hunger and thirst was a must, and it was more important than forming a core, that is, according to his predicament.

The process was flowing smoothly, and Lucas felt inexplicably happy.

The Aether was about to convert to an essence, and it would then be digested by his small intestine when a startling booming sound interrupted him.

Bang!

Lucas opened his eyes, widening, startled, and quickly looked towards the right, and saw the upfront appearance of the Arch Devil.

He looked at the door and gulped. If he only stood to the other side, without doubt, he would be reduced to a pile of pulp.

He wanted to speak, but it hurt when he attempted. Therefore, he could only stare as he saw the ArchDevil taking its reddish legs forward and finally fully entering the small room. Lucas could do nothing but stare, awaiting the Archdevil's verdict.

'Is this it?'

He recalled the Devil's words and couldn't help but feel despair.