CHAPTER 75: | THE BIRTH OF DEMONIC ZEN

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  The world turned into a searing white as veins bulged from every corner of my body.

  I stood still, glaring at Zypher, feeling my transformation begin.

  The wind rippled violently.

  The heat escaping my body made everything within tens of meters distort as my skin shed with every passing second, revealing a golden-orange flesh that unleashed a torrent of heat.

  But I remained composed despite the severity of the situation.

  Then I felt something escaping from my back, as my six wings of brilliance looked nothing like what they had been before.

  Now, they were like the wings of a fire demon, set ablaze and devoid of any feathers.

  It wasn't my style to appear so ugly.

  Hell, even my face began to melt as my shells started to fall apart, revealing my bare flesh.

  The tentacles that held them had died the moment I ingested my sacred pill.

  But I didn't care about any of that.

  But then pain racked my forehead as an exoskeleton, shaped like a set of demonic horns, protruded from my head.

  It made my current appearance that of an ugly demon, more solid, oh, how I miss my handsome self.

  While it was regrettable that I'd become some ugly freak, it was an understandable sacrifice, since my opponent was a mere lesser dragon, and I acknowledged him for his strength.

  I stomped my feet on the ground.

  Then the earth around me split, sending a tremor across the floating island.

  As massive debris began to fall into the ground below.

  Only then did I realize that my beautiful tail from when I was a young whark had emerged yet again.

  "Truly... how fascinating. Don't you think so, Zypher?"

  Zypher couldn't muster a single word.

  His opponent was insane enough to find amusement in his tail, while his body was breaking down from the immense energy of the disastrous skill that he'd ingested.

  He couldn't believe it.

  Zypher just couldn't believe it.

  He denied it, it wasn't true.

  Since when was a mere whark capable of this kind of insanity?

  So he pointed his finger at the whark, not the human he once was.

  When had he forgotten the horror of those spotted tails, the ones that had smashed him when he was still alive and not a mere construct of this dungeon?

  Yes, he remembered.

  The memories he'd forgotten after he died and became a construct that bent to the dungeon's will.

  That tail, he hated it, since it was the exact same one that the emperor of the wharks had used to kill him in a single attack.

  He gritted his teeth until blood exploded from his gums from the immense pressure.

  He shouted with rage as static electricity exploded outwards.

  "YOU DAMNED WHARK! JUST WHY? JUST WHY COULDN'T YOU LET ME REST, EVEN WHEN I'VE DIED!!!"

  His rage was understandable.

  He, a dragon, had died in a single sweep of the emperor of the wharks.

  It was shameful, too shameful for a dragon whose pride was as immense as Mount Tai, to experience.

  His muscles were screaming with pain as he leaped.

  In that instant, he reappeared inches away from the whark, like lightning incarnate, his claws aiming for his damned opponent's heart.

  But in an instant, his face contorted in shock.

  His opponent casually followed his attack, then in the next second, tapped his fist to block it.

  Crash!

  The air and the ground shook violently.

  Solia, that was tens of meters away, was flung back by the pressure of the impact.

  Then Zypher gazed below his chin as his opponent's fist only tapped it, and he heard him muttering.

  "Bull gang..."

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  Then, silence echoed in Zypher's head.

  He felt that he was finished in this instant.

  Even with his accomplishments in the world of intent, which was on the eighth realm [Transcendence of Intent], it was still pointless.

  This monster of an opponent rendered it powerless in a useless manner.

  Even whe he had masked his intent with both of his accomplishments, the eighth realm [Eight Circle] of the world of magic and the eighth realm [Transcendence of Intent] in the world of intent.

  His smile broke.

  Since for the first time in his life, he felt an overwhelming sense of despair and the inferiority of knowing that he was nothing but mere trash in the rubble if this monster had the exact same strength as his.

  "Hahahah..."

  He laughed, feeling that he was far too incompetent to be called a dragon.

  But it wasn't time for him to die yet.

  He knew it.

  Even though he was this powerless or useless, he would have to serve his purpose as a being granted the privilege of unlimited potential by the world.

  "I see..."

  He felt relieved that the monster of that era of disaster was gone.

  He felt that fate itself had plans for him to be a stepping stone for this young emperor's growth.

  How did he know that what he was facing was the emperor of the wharks, of the race he despised so much?

  Well, it was obvious just based on his opponent's accursed spotted tail, as he smiled, then shouted.

  "Come at me, young emperor!!!"

  I smiled at Zypher's enthusiasm after he recovered from a setback swiftly.

  As his attacks had become fiercer, but none of them hit me.

  As I easily saw through them, and with a single strike of my palm, I dissolved his every plan as he pointed at my forehead and muttered.

  "Spear of the gods! Gae Bolg!"

  A condensed spear of lightning appeared inches away from my face.

  I smirked and muttered.

  "Lightning Incarnate Step!"

  Bzzzzz!

  Time seemed to pause, and a mechanical sound echoed as I stepped into the void like a lightning incarnate.

  I had tried this theory of mine, a combination of skills that wasn't like what it was years ago.

  It wasn't a mere combination of [Void Step] and [Tempest Lightning Rush] but it was the creation of a new technique, and it succeeded.

  Tap.

  I placed my palm on Zypher's back, then closed my eyes.

  As I redirected all of my force into the center of my palm and began to envision all the techniques of [The Heavenly Claw of the Mad Demon] into a singular technique.

  I opened my mouth.

  "..."

  I hesitated for a moment, then calmed myself in the time-frozen state of the world, where everything was in slow motion.

  Then I nodded.

  "Demonic Zen."

  It was the right word for this new technique.

  Then the world flashed into whiteness as the mechanical sound of time continued.

  Bzzzzzt!

  In the next second, Zypher's pupils lost their light.

  He felt the destruction of his body as blood exploded violently from his mouth.

  He then coughed violently and flicked his hand.

  "..."

  But silence was his only answer.

  Magic disobeyed him.

  Then he felt it, someone had skewered his mana pathway beyond repair.

  Even with his dragon heart, wielding mana had become hopeless.

  But no, it wasn't just that, his body was also burning from an immense heat.

  Since what I did earlier was ttransferring fifty percent of the rampant energy in my body into his to unleash [Demonic Zen], which was true to its demonic stature.

  Since the technique creator designed it solely to burn his mana pathway and body, it becomes impossible to heal even with the best elixir in existence.

  I chuckled and glanced at his pitiful state.

  "Truly, what a pitiful whelp you've become, Zypher..."

  But Zypher only chuckled.

  As he laughed like an insane person.

  "Hahahahahahahahahaha..."

  He smiled, then closed his eyes.

  As his flesh had already melted seconds ago as he then muttered in a sane voice.

  "Finish me... new emperor of the wharks, in an honorable manner befitting my stature..."

  I stopped mocking him and gazed at him with contempt.

  I sighed, then tapped the back of his head with my finger and muttered.

  "Any last words, Zypher?"

  He shook his head and smiled.

  "No, I don't... But be aware of hi..."

  Crash!

  Zypher's head exploded into a paste of blood, splattering onto the ground.

  His body didn't fall to the ground but stood in an upright posture, like a man of honor.

  I smiled.

  "I see... So all of these events are linked to them."

  Pointing my finger at Zypher's body, I pulled the rampant mana of my skill [Torrent of Extinction] out of it.

  I flicked my hand and dispersed it into the atmosphere as I chuckled.

  "Truly, a skill too dangerous for the current me."

  I looked at my naked self, then down there, with a proud face.

  "Master, cover yourself!"

  Solia shouted as she rushed toward me in her new clothes.

  The sleeves on her outfit mimicked a Japanese kimono but were only cut to her arms, and the gown replicated a qipao, a Chinese corseted evening dress that embraced her bust without conditions.

  I nodded with satisfaction.

  "You have a great sense of fashion, my dear apostle."

  Solia, flustered, covered her face.

  "Master, have some shame and please let me cover your glorious body first."

  Her voice and actions had matured compared to a few days ago.

  It was an admirable growth that I admired and encouraged in my subordinates.

  Then I gazed at her moving around to dress me in a loose, long-sleeved robe.

  "Solia, feel free to share what's on your mind... since I, your master, am fortunately in a good mood."

  Solia smiled, then trembled.

  She hesitated to even look me straight in the eyes, ashamed of her incompetence.

  "M-master, a-am I really useless? To have only realized what you'd been wanting to tell me just now? To have killed my tribesmen because of the pressure you'd given me, when all you wanted was... for me to forcefully insubordinate them? I..."

  She stopped, too ashamed of her shortcomings and incompetence to see the bigger picture.

  I embraced her, then whispered in her ear.

  "You don't need to ask me, Solia... You've already known the answers beforehand. It was your decision to kill them. It was your inexperienced self that made you unable to see the bigger picture. So, blame yourself for your incompetence so you will strive to improve yourself and not settle for something like that... Become something greater, an apostle of mine who will lead a world. For my people are not incompetent, and this is my first trial for you, an ignorant Titan. So embrace it and don't shun it away, my lovely apostle."

  Solia finally broke down, crying under my robe with intensity.

  She blamed herself for being so useless.

  "Just why am I so stupid! Master, tell me! Just why didn't you tell me!"

  I smacked her head and pushed her away, annoyed by her attitude.

  I grabbed Zypher's charred corpse and muttered with disdain.

  "Cry in a corner or something! Don't bother me with your problems or incompetence, as I, Alister von Fai, have never failed in life!"

  Solia, seemingly revitalized by my words, giggled while crying as she questioned herself.

  "Hic... a-am I crying or laughing? Dammit, Master, just why are you so cruel and loving at the same time! You're making this ignorant woman fall harder!!"

  I chuckled and muttered.

  "Then become a concubine of this terrible master of yours. Maybe I'll give you a child or two if I'm in the mood? Don't you think it's a good deal?!"

  Solia chuckled as she wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

  She sighed, then pouted.

  "Hmph! Dream on! Who's sane enough to become your concubine when I can have tens of husbands if I wanted?"

  Well, it was true that she was a drop-dead gorgeous beauty that anyone would die for just to spend a night.

  But to me, she was quite on the average side compared to those two whose appearance was the incarnate of a vixen herself.

  So I took a bite, then another, and another, as I gazed at the hologram sitting in front of me, waiting for my attention.

  I chuckled.

  "Finally, it's time for me to choose... huh?"

  Maybe give it a try? ??