Chapter 173 – Predator

[2009 – October]

Looking around his realm, a displeased expression couldn't help but appear on his demonic face.

After the tremor, that had shaken the entire Darkforce Dimension, had appeared, his realm had been in ruins and it had taken him a lot of effort to save even a small part of it, preventing the Darkforce from corroding and devouring it in its entirety.

Predator had even been forced to exhaust a lot of his Demonic Essence to do so, as the ambient Darkforce resisted his attempts of manipulation, letting him only use a silver of it where he had once been able to summon a raging storm.

In the end, he only managed to save less than a tenth of his realm while the rest had been lost to the endless hunger of the darkness that inhabited this dimension.

It was an incredible loss as he had spent millennia building up his realm using Demonic Essence and Darkforce as fuel for his demonic magic. To see it be gone just like that, how could he not feel anger?

After all, Demons were known for being wrathful and greedy creatures, their existence a living manifestation of sin.

"Interesting, a sub-dimension within a dimension. You are trying to wrest away the control over the space that this place occupies from the Darkforce Dimension, making it your own realm so that you can borrow its power.", a calm voice suddenly sounded out behind him, making him freeze in place as Predator had not felt any kind of presence behind him, nor was he sensing something now.

Turning around slowly, his breath caught in his throat as he realized only a being much more powerful than himself could hide so perfectly from his demonic senses and instincts.

What greeted his eyes though was the dark shadow of a humanoid male with flaming white eyes, looking like an apparition made up of nebulous darkness.

"Rather bold of you.", the shadow added lightly before mountainous pressure suddenly bore down on Predator's shoulders forcing him to his knees, the dark stone on the ground shifting and rising to imprison his limbs and clamping down on his neck.

His fear spiked immediately as he knew that whoever the shadow was, his power was far greater than his own as he hadn't even sensed the other party's strength. His own realm just seemed to suddenly have developed a will of its own, resisting his call and instead attacking him.

Predator felt as if he had been dragged back to Hell and was facing one of the Demon Lords, his own power inconsequential in front of those high and mighty existences.

"W-Who are you, my L-Lord? I-I did not mean to offend.", his sharp and grating voice sounded out as he used the inborn ability of all Demons to speak any language to form words of the human tongue with his adaptable vocal cords.

Predator didn't dare to show anything less than humility even though the other party spoke the language of a race that was widely acknowledged as prey amongst the Demons.

Like all members of his race, his own life was of the highest priority to him and even the most despicable and humiliating actions could be excused for the sake of survival. Pride was only useful amongst their kind when it didn't hinder their benefits.

"I am the Lord of Darkforce.", the shadow answered simply, though what accompanied its words was a tremor that shook the whole Darkforce Dimension, making it clear that the being in front of him was truly who it stated.

This time, Predator could hardly contain his fear as he knew that no Realm Lord would look kindly at a weakling that dared to open up his own realm inside their dominion. In Hell, death was considered a mercy once one was found guilty of such a crime.

"F-Forgiveness, my Lord! I did not know of your existence, otherwise, I would have n-never dared to act so p-presumptuously!", his serpentine voice called out, hoping that if he was to die on this day, it would be over quickly and happen painlessly.

A few long moments of silence spread between them as the shadow's blazing eyes just stared at him dispassionetly, the pressure on his form tearing at his ligaments and joints causing him great agony.

Eventually though, the shadow's voice sounded out again: "Tell me, if I choose to let you live and continue your existence in the Darkforce Dimension, what are you willing to give to me in exchange for my mercy?"

…

Watching the long-faced horned Demon with blue-green scales and fur growing all over his body kneel in front of me, I was curious to see his answer.

I never intended to kill or just expel him from the Darkforce Dimension. In the same sense, I had no intention of stopping all those borrowing power from my domain.

Nobody could use Darkforce without paying the equivalent price besides myself, which meant that everyone that used the power of this dimension, would inevitably also feed the Darkforce Dimension and help it grow stronger, which was something I was obviously not opposed to.

This was the inherent nature of Darkforce – to devour and consume, and I had no intention of suppressing the natural growth of this dimension since it followed the 'cycle' like all of existence did.

Not to mention that it was impossible for someone that used Darkforce to escape my control since my soul was basically the nexus core of this dimension, meaning the Darkforce Dimension was just an extension of myself, and I had absolute control over myself as long as my mental shield was intact.

In case any entity was capable of breaking my mental shield, I was fucked either way, so I wasn't too worried about that.

There also existed maybe only a dozen beings capable of forcefully breaching the mind of a Realm Lord, much less one whose powers were focused on shielding and barriers.

Still, I wasn't benevolent enough to protect others from being devoured by Darkforce, even though I myself was not going to do so arbitrarily. I wasn't a hero nor did I feel responsible for what others did with the power they borrowed from the Darkforce Dimension.

They could use it to fight evil or to commit atrocities themselves, as long as they paid the price for the power they borrowed, all was permitted.

This might seem brutal or near-malevolent but the truth was that I had no intention of convincing others to act 'righteously'. I wanted to be neutral.

The balance would be kept by the 'cycle', as it was always working to achieve a type of equilibrium between destruction and creation, good and evil. So I would let fate judge those that had to be judged, and reward those that deserved to be rewarded.

As long as I wasn't personally involved or threatened in some way, I had no desire to touch foreign karma that had no relation to me.

The only reason that I even came to meet the Demon before me, was that I remembered him as one of the only inhabitants of the Darkforce Dimension.

I now knew that there existed many more in this endless expanse of darkness but he was one of the few beings from the comics that had a relation to this dimension, so I was curious about what he had to say.

Predator was also the only Demon and the only one that tried to separate a piece of this dimension from the rest and erase my control over it while building his own Realm.

His power was insignificant in comparison to mine, especially considering that I was almost invincible when inside the Darkforce Dimension, but I remembered well that Demons were not to be trusted nor to be underestimated.