Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.
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After feeling all his Basic Attributes increase by a few hundred points, Feng was finally done with the Swift Fortuitous Death Shrine for now, choosing to leave it and fly down the mountain towards the Inferior Legendary Shrine area.
Even though Feng still hasn't fully recovered from the Heavy Star Celestial Trial, he had rested enough to be capable of flight, and with his current attributes, the speed at which he soared through the air was tremendous.
Feng's giant wings with a wingspan of nearly forty meters created whirlwinds as he flapped them at a fast pace, quickly flying through the Legendary Shrine region. With his flying speed, it only took around twenty minutes to reach the border between the two Shrine regions.
Upon entering the Inferior Legendary Shrine area, Feng immediately took a turn among the top-most Shrines of seven hundred meters, heading for a specific one not too far off in the distance.
He quickly arrived at the tall Shrine that was his target and landed in front of its gates. Illustrations of demons and devils were everywhere across the Shrine and the giant doors, creating a horrific scene, while an extremely dense and powerful Power of Darkness emanated from the Shrine, causing unrest in all those who neared it.
System: Legendary Shrine Key detected. You are qualified to open the doors of the Inferior Legendary Shrine. Do you wish to spend 20,000 minutes to open them?
System: Vice Administrator Authority detected. You are qualified to receive a 25% discount on opening the Inferior Legendary Shrine's doors. Do you wish to spend 15,000 minutes to open them?
Upon Feng reaching for the gate, a system confirmation popped up, to which he agreed and spent nearly half of his minutes to enter the Inferior Legendary Shrine.
The moment those giant doors parted, a flood of darkness emerged and seemed to engulf Feng. Despite not being able to see anything, Feng showed no signs of concern on his face as he walked forward into the Shrine.
Following him walking ten or so yards forward, a bang from behind of the gates loudly shutting told Feng his way out had been closed off, with leaving no longer being an option.
There was nothing but complete darkness as Feng continued walking forward for some time, with no other sounds or even fluctuations happening while the ground below him felt nonexistent despite seemingly being solid darkness.
After aimlessly wandering in the darkness for a while, one's senses would be warped and they'd all lose track of time, with seconds feeling like hours. Feng, though, had the Savitarian Carnation Bloodline, which gave him a much better sense when it came to the warping of time. Thus, he knew that, although it gave off a subjective feeling as if he had been walking for hours, only five minutes had passed since he entered the Shrine.
Suddenly, Feng stopped and glanced in a certain direction, asking coldly "Are you done playing games, little demon king?"
Despite there not being anything in sight, Feng could clearly sense a powerful presence next to him, along with a gaze oozing of malice and disdain.
A moment of silence, and Feng immediately unsheathed the Abyssal Blade from his waist, activating Heavenly Dragon's Power, whose cooldown had been reset upon entering the Inferior Legendary Shrine, as the Magic Weapon erupted with a bright golden glow.
Worldly Purification illuminated the surroundings, scattering the endless darkness in its wake following Feng slashing the Abyssal Blade forward.
Faint sizzling could be heard upon the purifying light cutting across the encroaching black aura, revealing a giant claw that was reaching out at Feng and a large burn-like wound across it.
The claw retreated as if in caution, returning to the darkness that flooded back in to fill in the Power of Darkness Feng's skill had erased.
"You seem to have some capabilities after all, little human." A deep hoarse voice seemed to echo out in the surroundings from all directions, its disdainful tone having some surprise in it. Following which, a large being with black goat horns coming out of its forehead and body entirely covered in pitch-dark scales seemingly fazed into existence from the darkness.
"For a mere Tier 1 Swordsman to have walked through this dense Power of Darkness without losing yourself and being able to notice my presence, not to mention do me a bit of damage, you must have quite many secrets." The demon fully revealed himself from the darkness as he spoke and noted Feng's accomplishment with interest.
Though, the demonic being that towered over Feng at thirty meters in height did not seem to take him seriously, merely treating that Feng as such a low-tiered creature had an ability that could harm him to be something odd and interesting.
Feng looked towards his attacker with indifference, not in the least finding the demon's presence here something unexpected since he was well aware beforehand when entering the Inferior Legendary Shrine.
[Synrse] (Demonic Creature, Great Demon King)
Level 100
HP 80,000,000,000/80,000,000,000
Apart from the demon's terrifying look, Synrse's vast aura washed over Feng, a being possessing Tier 5 Peak power radiating from incredible strength that would strike fear in lower-tiered creatures.
But Feng gave the Great Demon King no reaction whatsoever, having known Synrse was an existing enemy and about his power that he'd be up against.
Bringing out the Spectral Animacell, Celestina, in her noble clothes, was summoned into battle as Feng gave her the Absolute Demon Set, the outfitted Demon Empress glancing at her surroundings in confusion.
"Where are we now?" Asking offhandedly while sensing their location and the thick darkness around them, Celestina commented on the peculiar atmosphere "The Power of Darkness sure is thick and pure here. I don't recall any place among the Inferior Legendary Shrines having such a good environment."
With her arrival, the intense Power of Darkness gathered around Celestina as if she automatically became the master of the space, shocking Synrse by her presence.
His prided Power of Darkness within the Shrine that the Great Demon King controlled instantly began obeying a different demon the moment it mysteriously appeared.
Synrse had begun cautiously observing Celestina as soon as she was somehow summoned by the human, finding her presence and the power he sensed from the female demon quite odd.
To begin with, the thick Power of Darkness here would have very adverse effects on non-demonic creatures that enter it, weakening some to a varying high degree or straight up suffocating and killing weaker ones.
As a Tier 1 human, the Swordsman should have long since died due to exposure to the high concentration of Power of Darkness as it invaded his body, or at the absolute very least, found himself completely suppressed and lost in it.
Yet, not only was the human fine, he could freely move within this darkness, seemingly unaffected and even being able to sense the presence of a being like him that was hiding.
This was why Synrse believed that Feng had some very interesting secrets to allow someone of his low tier to survive and operate in such an environment.
Of course, the fact a mere Tier 1 ant had the capability to throw out an attack with enough power to injure a Great Demon King, no matter how little damage to no damage it actually dealt, was the most shocking of them all.
But Synrse naturally didn't consider Feng any kind of threat at all, since even the attacks imbued with a very powerful Holy power used by the Swordsman only left a small amount of damage that had already basically healed.
With the demon girl's appearance, though, Synrse's attitude greatly changed. A demon that could not get overwhelmed by the thick Power of Darkness would not be that surprising in this situation, but Celestina seemingly took control over all the darkness inside the Inferior Legendary Shrine quite easily while he had spent years living in and mastering the Power of Darkness.
Her mere presence was enough to instill all the darkness into obedience as it followed the female demon's will, and even Synrse felt an instinctual influence to worship her.
Moreover, there was an ancient aura that Celestina gave off which greatly frightened Synrse, familiar with this feeling as it wasn't his first time encountering demons of such a grandiose presence.
It made him wonder just who this Great Demon was to possess such an immense level of control over this Power of Darkness and make him feel fear with her presence alone.
However, that confusion lasted for only a fraction of a second as the Great Demon King inspected the duo, his eyes widening upon further observing Celestina and noticing her face, horns, and armor, with Synrse nearly screaming out in fright.
"E-empress, you're still a-alive!?"
"You know me?" Celestina finally acknowledged the other demon's existence, asking with a modicum of surprise upon hearing Synrse address her and seemingly recognize her from just looks.
Few beings even know of Celestina's existence in the modern age, and most would have simply heard about her from legends of the past. Though, those people would believe she was dead and would not think of the long-fallen Demon Empress while guessing the identity of an unfamiliar demon.
Even if they were aware of how she used to look, with Celestina's current state, no one would come to the conclusion it was the still-alive empress; probably assuming this female demon just resembled her.
Furthermore, those who didn't truly know Celestina would refer to her by name or Empress Celestina at most. But this Great Demon King called her Empress with a tone as if he knew her, speaking about her unexpected presence with the surprise of seeing a dead woman.
She could tell that the demon must have at least seen her in the past from his reaction, but Celestina had no idea who the Great Demon King was, since anyone as weak as him would have died by now from the time she was still alive, and he didn't seem familiar.
That being said, it's been a minute.
Celestina could have very easily forgotten many people if they weren't significant or relevant; while creatures change over time and the people from eons ago could be very different from what she remembered.
"It's me, Empress, Synrse!" Synrse himself seemed somewhat taken aback by Celestina's question, but brushed it off, his shock and glee growing upon the female demon's identity being confirmed "How come you are not dead?"
"You seem to think too little of me. I'm not so easily killed." Celestina maintained an attitude of absolute arrogance and superiority, while internally wondering who the fuck Synrse was.
Celestina genuinely had no recollection of the demon, which made her feel slightly embarrassed.
"No matter, this changes nothing." Synrse seemed to recollect himself with a sense of casting away old memories, his expression changing from the surprise of seeing Celestina as it darkened, while his aura spiked with the Power of Darkness in the surroundings gathering around the Great Demon King.
"You're just a relic from the past and a fragment of your former self now. Having been stripped of your title and demonic authority, my dear Empress, you have no power over me. Lord Geest has already claimed the throne and declared you a fallen ruler, ordering any signs of your and your clan's existence to be reported and eliminated."
Out of the darkness, a long spear twice Synrse's size came out, being pointed at Feng and Celestina as the Great Demon King made his intent clear "Since you've resurrected from the grave, I shall deliver Empress's head to Lord Geest when I return to his side."
"So it's like that." Showing no particular reaction to the demon's dialogue, Celestina simply grabbed the Pandemonium Lashblade from Feng and prepared for battle. Nothing Synrse said was a surprise to the Demon Goddess and it was about what they had expected would happen if they encountered a high-ranking demon; apart from this one actually being familiar with Celestina.
Even if Synrse hadn't insulted her and didn't wish to kill them, he had to die now in order to prevent news of her return being spread, so whatever the Tier 5 demon said was irrelevant to Celestina.
Still, she found his behavior a bit odd; a part of the Demon Empress's mind occupied with who this random is.
Synrse wielded the extremely long spear expertly as its head burst into blue flames, stabbing the spear towards the two of them from afar and shooting out lasers that lit the space around them on fire.
Tier 5 Skill, Blazing Order!
Without a change in expression, Celestina swung the Demon Sword forward, its mechanism splitting apart the chain sword into several sections. She didn't even bother to use some powerful ability to block the attack, merely swinging the sword at the lasers with the dense Power of Darkness gathering and activating a Tier 4 skill that summoned a torrent of murky water in front of her.
The lasers burned through the dark water, evaporating it, while the darkness around the Pandemonium Lashblade smashed into the incoming attack and erased all of them.
Easily dealing with Synrse's Blazing Order, Celestina swung back her sword and made it come back together into its normal state before slashing at the opposing demon twice.
Two faint purple swordlights were created by the two diagonal slashes and formed an X that flew towards Synrse.
Tier 5 Skill, Indistinct Srale!
Shouting, the Great Demon King made a downward swing that collided with the purple X, his spearhead glistening with a dark metallic glow as it grew three times in size.
His expression changed following the sound of metal colliding ringing out through the air, Synrse's long spear shaking as he held off the transparent X which continued pushing against his weapon, causing the demon to begin sliding back on the ground made of solid darkness.
Putting more strength into his arms, the Great Demon King attempted to deflect the purple X, but it remained stuck to the spearhead like glue and carried a tremendous force that pushed him back.
Cracks appeared on the enlarged metal spearhead, and simultaneously, a dozen razor-sharp spinning wheels came flying at the demon from afar, splitting into groups to cover all sides, causing Synrse to frown.
Ghostly hands suddenly began appearing above his spear and grabbed the X, pulling it apart while the Great Demon King stabbed forward once more, shattering the two swordlights along with the large spearhead that then returned to its normal size.
With no time to spare, Synrse swung his spear, which became coated with red lightning, at the closest incoming wheel. When the two collided, the blades on the wheel cut at the spear and forced it aside, while the force behind the electric weapon bounced the flying wheel away.
Over ten other wheels flew at Synrse, whose defense was down, from all sides, seeming like they were about to shred him into pieces.
There was no fear on Synrse's face, though, and after taking a stance, the Great Demon King brandished his spear while executing a Bronze Combat Technique, creating lines in space wherever the tip passed and forming a web of lightning around himself to block the threatening attack.
All the spinning wheels smashed into the web and created dozens of sparks that tore the space around them.
Hastily, Synrse created an opening and escaped the enclosure of wheels as the space in the vicinity shattered.
Before he could relax, though, a pitch-black sword was cutting at Synrse's neck. Having just escaped a dangerous situation, the Great Demon King could only swing his spear at the figure that had appeared out of nowhere in hopes of blocking Celestina's attack or forcing her to stop her own slash.
Surprisingly, the demon girl did not react to the spear nor did her sword reach Synrse's scale-covered neck faster than his own weapon, the spearhead stabbing through Celestina's abdomen.
Synrse wasn't given a chance to rejoice as the demon girl he had pierced suddenly turned into a shadow and disappeared. At the same time, the Great Demon King felt a presence, but before he could react, pain blossomed from his ankle while Synrse's right leg gave out from under him.
Collapsing on one knee, Synrse attempted to strike Celestina, who had reached his flank without the Tier 5 demon's notice, but the Demon Empress easily evaded and slashed the same place on the back of Synrse's ankle that she had just cut, deepening the injury and setting it on fire.
Just as she was about to attack again, Celestina abandoned her position and jumped high into the sky. Not a moment later, icicles emerged from the ground where she had just been standing in an instant, continuing up out of the darkness and fusing into a large ice lance that flew at the demon girl while rotating like a drill.
At the same time, Synrse turned around and commenced another attack, numerous spear images being created and surrounding Celestina in the air with no opening for her to evade.
However, as if she were some agile bird, the Demon Empress effortlessly weaved through the spears that Synrse thought impossible to dodge, quickly approaching the Great Demon King through the air while a bright three-fold red Magic Array finished forming in her hand, which she pointed at the incoming ice lance.
A flaming baby chick flew out from the array with a cluck and fell on the lance akin to a meteor, causing an explosion to erupt. The flames erased the ice lance and gathered in a cone that made a ninety-degree turn and shot through the air at Synrse.
The Great Demon King's attention shifted to the sudden flames that were coming at him for only a split second, but in that short moment, Celestina had disappeared from his view and he could no longer sense her presence.
He could feel the pain coming from his arm half a second later, though, the demon maid having made a deep cut across his wrist. Celestina immediately continued her attack by summoning a powerful gale that came at Synrse's face, threatening to shred it apart.
Pulling away from the Demon Empress, Synrse's spear became enveloped in pitch-black aura as a vast amount of the Power of Darkness around them gathered, cutting forward at the gale of wind and cone of flames that perfectly merged together to create a flaming tornado of destruction.
He didn't attempt to block the tornado directly, but created a rift in space between them, the crack expanding and devouring the flaming attack that flew into it.
Regardless of the space tear, an attack emergence of two Tier 5 Spells cast by Celestina could not be neutralized so easily, and when the tornado flew forward, the rupture expanded.
Within seconds, the space within fifty yards was shattered and turned into a dark void that blended in with the Shrine's regular darkness, making it seem as if not much had changed. But a suction force pulled all the darkness towards the void, forming a vacuum that made the Great Demon king, who had distanced himself further, grow both frightened and frustrated.
He didn't have time to mull over it as Celestina came in once again, faster than he could properly react to. The Demon Empress's sword slashed forward with lightning speed, Synrse barely blocking the attack with his spear.
One could not guess the outcome from just looking at the two demons, with Celestina looking very small, dainty, and harmless in front of Synrse, who stood over thirty meters in height and wielded a giant spear larger than himself.
Unexpectedly, however, there was a huge difference in their strength despite Celestina being a tier lower and wielding a one-handed sword while the Great Demon King used the long weapon.
Synrse's spear was instantly knocked away and the demon was off balance from blocking the blow, while Celestina continued flying forward with her demonic wings.
Mana surged towards Celestina upon her reaching Synrse's chest in an instant, the Pandemonium Lashblade's pitch-black blade suddenly becoming enveloped in a sphere of rainbow-colored whirling Mana that she pushed towards the opposing demon's heart.
Saint-ranked Mana Technique, Rassrip Sphere!
The rainbow ball pushed against the thick darkness shielding Synrse and erased it, along with continuing forward to dig a hole in the Great Demon King's chest. All the scales and flesh in the way were ripped apart and destroyed without obstruction, the Demon Sword Mana Ball making a giant hole in Synrse's chest.
The pain and fear caused by Celestina's attack caused Synrse to quickly retreat while attempting to force Celestina back.
Tier 5 Taboo Skill, Krinin Blow!
Tier 5 Defensive Skill, Horn's Cube!
Synrse's entire arm transformed into an orange saber that oozed with malice, splitting space apart and releasing a bright glow that scorched everything around them as he slashed it at the demon maid. Simultaneously, a dark cube appeared around his entire body, the Power of Darkness in the surroundings pouring inside to strengthen the cube.
Celestina stepped back to avoid the saber, her rainbow ball having decreased greatly in size and falling apart a moment later, but she rushed right back at the retreating demon, seemingly moving through the broken space in an instant using a Gold Footwork Combat Technique and slashing at the Horn's Cube with an Offensive one.
The dark cube shattered under her attack, revealing Synrse with a much more concerned look on his face behind it. The damage done by Rassrip Sphere was fairly severe, and the hole in his chest was so big one could see the part of his ribcage that wasn't destroyed by the Mana Technique along with the Great Demon King's heart and other organs.
Now faced with Celestina's brutal onslaught without a moment to rest, Synrse realized that the situation had developed much differently than he had expected.
At first, the Great Demon King thought that even if it was the Demon Empress, in her current state and with his home advantage, he'd still be able to manage against her. Only now did Synrse come to understand the true power wielded by a being of her caliber and how naive he had been before this.
Slashing the saber arm at the approaching demon, Synrse wished to quickly run away and recuperate, but Celestina gave him no such opportunity, maneuvering past his attacks and slashing from a distance. The chain sword in her hand split apart and cut at the Great Demon King's neck.
Just as the Pandemonium Lashblade's separated parts reached their target, Synrse disappeared, reappearing over five hundred yards away using a skill.
Celestina rushed forward to reengage her foe, but a giant Magic Array appeared in the space between them, from which hundreds of thin rays of light shot out to pierce the ground below them. A dark blue mist then began to spread in the air from the lights, expanding further in the area.
This did nothing to discourage the Demon Empress from chasing after the fleeing demon, internally wondering if he thought this would achieve something as she prepared to do so.
"As expected of the Empress. Even though I'm a tier higher and you're far from at full power, I'm still no match for you." Synrse naturally knew his little retreat would not do much, but he hoped to at least buy himself a brief moment to catch his breath and recover as much as possible using the Power of Darkness around him to quickly fix the incurred injuries.
In that wish, the Great Demon King attempted to strike up a conversation as well under the possibility of further stalling Celestina and preparing another move for his victory.
The Demon Empress ended up being far more powerful than he had initially thought, and the difference in their power was very clear from their short exchange.
They had only done battle for less than ten seconds, but in that quick fight, Celestina had done much damage to him. Apart from the massive hole in his chest that would be life-threatening for lower-tiered creatures, several other cuts and slashes covered Synrse's body from the demon girl's attacks, blood dripping from the small fresh one on his neck.
Additionally, she had taken away over four billion of the Great Demon King's HP while pushing him back the entire time, forcing Synrse to use more skills and deplete his Concentration and Stamina at a much greater pace.
In comparison, Celestina was entirely unharmed, with Synrse not having managed to land a single hit or even touch a strand of her hair. She wasn't even out of breath and remained full of energy despite launching multiple powerful attacks.
If things continued on like this, Celestina would kill him within a couple of minutes. A change in strategy thus had to be made, and Synrse was trying to give himself some breathing room and recollect himself for something else.
"It is not something surprising. Did you really think that a lowly being such as yourself would be capable of facing me in combat?" Luckily for Synrse, the Demon Empress did not take him seriously and responded despite fully knowing what the Great Demon King was attempting to do "You are far more foolish than I thought."
"Is that so?" The Tier 5 demon didn't seem to get upset over her words, instead feeling glad that she had stopped, and a faint smile formed on Synrse's face "However, regardless of your strength, Empress, you're still only Tier 4, and your gleaming weakness is that human who had brought you into existence."
Having thought about it thoroughly, Synrse realized Celestina could not have come about and appeared in the Shrine on her own. Moreover, something off about her presence that the Great Demon King hadn't noticed before was that the demon girl didn't feel fully physical.
Other creatures would have been fooled, but as a demon, Synrse was very well attuned to the sense of souls, and after a proper observation, he came to the conclusion that Celestina's current body was a semi-physical one constructed from her soul.
The revelation told Synrse that the Demon Empress hasn't truly been revived yet, and that she was existing in the physical world through some other means; most likely some kind of rare item that could form a physical body for a soul.
He then recalled that Feng was here and how he had taken out some kind of orb before Celestina was summoned, while his presence here overall was quite odd.
It wasn't difficult for Synrse to put two and two together, so he quickly realized that all he must do is kill the Swordsman. While fighting Celestina would be very difficult for him, murdering a Tier 1 human is a trivial task for a Great Demon King; resulting in Synrse's confidence returning.
"I'd like to see you try getting to him." Celestina was well aware of this fact as well, however, she had no intentions of allowing Synrse or his attacks to get anywhere near Feng and put his life in danger.
Just as she had said that, though, a miniature world descended upon them, causing all the Mana and Power of Darkness around them to swirl and resist Celestina's control, leaving her without the ability to control the ambient Mana.
Furthermore, both she and Feng were now getting actively suppressed after being caught inside the Mana Domain that enveloped everything within a 5,000-yard radius.
"Hehehe, Empress, your fate was sealed the moment you chose to fight me. It doesn't matter how powerful you are or even if you can still fight me while caught in my World Creation; that human is as good as dead." An extremely cocky expression appearing on his face, Synrse acted as if their fight was already over.
World Creation was an incredibly powerful ability that beings who had achieved a very high level of control over Mana could perform.
Once other creatures were caught within it, their bodies would turn indescribably heavy as if they had sunk into a swamp due to the suppression, and all the Mana within the Domain would operate by rules favorable to the user and disadvantageous to hostile forces.
Those who couldn't use World Creation as well would only be able to control their own Mana while the ambient Mana would work against them.
With this, Celestina won't be able to fight Synrse nearly with the same power as before, and would even be in danger. But regardless of whether she could still hang on and fight him, Feng, being only a Tier 1 human, could easily be eliminated with a simple thought from the Great Demon King while inside his World Creation.
However, before Synrse could boast more or do just that, another world descended and clashed with Synrse's, the two colliding for a few moments until the second miniature world overwhelmed the first one and broke through it.
A Mana Domain of over 10,000 yards enveloped Synrse, now it being him who was getting suppressed and rendered unable to control any of the ambient Mana or Power of Darkness.
"Impossible!" The Great Demon King's shock returned in droves as he stared at Celestina in fear, stupefied by her own Mana Domain.
Synrse knew something like this would happen if the two of them had a clash of World Creations due to the enormous difference in Mana control and overall skill between a being like the Demon Empress and himself, which was why he hadn't bothered deploying it before seeing that Celestina wasn't either; even feeling glad that she didn't think of him powerful enough to get serious.
After later observing her during the pause and coming to his realization, the Great Demon King changed his mind and used World Creation, thinking that his original thought process was wrong.
In her current state, Synrse had deemed it impossible for Celestina to be capable of using World Creation while at Tier 4 considering she was only a fragment of her original soul and had to use some special means to act in the physical world.
Hence, it wasn't that Celestina didn't want to use World Creation during their initial fight, but that she couldn't.
Yet, catching the Tier 5 demon completely off guard, the Demon Empress completely crushed his Mana Domain as soon as he chose to deploy it with a World Creation vastly more powerful.
This development wouldn't have been so unexpected had Celestina been of a higher tier or at least possessed a vessel, but that wasn't the case at all.
He couldn't even begin to imagine how such a thing was possible.
Not to mention killing Feng and defeating Celestina, without the ability to control the ambient Mana and dense Power of Darkness in the Shrine space, Synrse would struggle to even survive against the Demon Empress.
Without saying another word after manifesting her World Creation, Celestina shot forward and reached the thirty-meter-tall demon in an instant, stabbing at his still slightly exposed heart before the wound could fully heal.
Synrse began getting his ass kicked even more heavily, unable to compete with the demon maid in the least while her World Creation was suppressing him. Fighting on the defensive for his life, Synrse cursed his fate and wondered how the situation had gone so wrong.
Watching all this go down from the back, Feng wasn't surprised by the development, having fully known and predicted what would happen before even stepping into the Shrine.
This Inferior Legendary Shrine had been first discovered by one of Zero Wing's experts during the previous timeline, and they reported on it after choosing to challenge it, saying that they had walked through an endless darkness for days until they suddenly died and returned to the City out of nowhere.
When they checked the time and date after respawning, the player saw that only an hour had passed ever since they entered the Shrine.
Curious about the Shrine, Zero Wing sent more powerful experts to the Inferior Legendary Shrine, eventually learning some more about it after suffering several losses to the mysterious Shrine that forced them to send a Tier 6 expert.
It was a Shrine filled with an incredibly dense Power of Darkness that would obscure one's senses and greatly suppress them. A Great Demon King served as the boss of the Shrine that players must kill. But the demon was cunning and liked to play around with whoever entered before killing them.
Apart from Synrse's already fairly high strength, the Shrine's environment was extremely dangerous, and unless one was a high-ranking Demon Player, a Tier 5 player with a powerful Mana Body, or a Tier 6 God-ranked expert, one would find their combat power suppressed into nonexistence.
Feng chose it as one of his two remaining Inferior Legendary Shrines despite knowing of its difficulty and how unsuitable it was for his low tier, with the thick Power of Darkness even beating a threat to his life if exposed to it, because not only were the Shrine's rewards quite good, but also due to the Shrine actually being quite easy for him to clear.
He was currently carrying the Bible of Darkness with him, which protected Feng from the encroaching Power of Darkness, with the bible even absorbing all the darkness that attempted to enter Feng's body and growing stronger thanks to its new Passive Skill, Darkness Influx.
Hence, he wasn't in any danger or under a lot of suppression.
Moreover, Feng had Celestina at his disposal, so there were no problems.
One normally wouldn't be able to summon creatures for help due to the Shrine's and environment's suppression, while if the help one does summon isn't of a demonic origin, then it would be greatly weakened as well.
Being the Demon Empress, though, Celestina thrived in this dense Power of Darkness and grew even stronger than usual.
In fact, the boost she received was even greater than her opponent, who was getting beaten up by the demon girl, since Celestina's control and proficiency when it came to the Power of Darkness was likely the highest in the entire universe; with only her low tier limiting her.
She was also wearing the eight-piece Legendary ranked Absolute Demon Set, which increased Celestina's power by a huge margin.
Taking into account the difference in their skills and experience, along with Celestina already being extremely powerful for her tier, Synrse stood no chance against her.
Moreover, although he was powerful, Synrse was only a Great Demon King on a technicality. A demon being a Great Demon King meant they possessed a very pure Bloodline to reach that level and an incredibly high control and attainment over the Power of Darkness, as well as a high level of Mana control.
Normally, Great Demon Kings would first be regular Demon Kings who developed over time in departments like Power of Darkness and Mana while growing stronger in both attributes and other means such as techniques.
Synrse, from what Feng knew, had spent a very long time inside this Shrine and attuned himself with the dense Power of Darkness, causing his control and aptitude for it to rise exponentially more than other Demon Kings and, due to him apparently being from a much older era, he possessed a very pure demonic Bloodline, resulting in him becoming a Great Demon King.
Howbeit, he had skipped a few steps that other demons would normally go through in a natural order while increasing their power and becoming Great Demon Kings. This led to him merely possessing the Power of Darkness and Life Rating of an actual Great Demon King without the Tier 5 Peak attributes, power, and vastly more powerful skills and Mana.
Nonetheless, Synrse could easily defeat any Demon King thanks to his vast control over the Power of Darkness.
But that advantage of his was neutralized when faced with a demon like Celestina, making him no different than a regular Demon King in a fight against her.
Though, the situation wouldn't change by a great amount even if he was a true Great Demon King, since it would only take more time and effort on Celestina's part to kill him with her current strength while equipped with the Absolute Demon Set and Pandemonium Lashblade.
He stood no real chance of beating the Demon Empress regardless of him being a tier higher, a fact Feng was sure of the entire time.
The only thing that came as a surprise was Synrse seemingly knowing Celestina personally, yet the demon girl did not seem to remember him at all. At least it told Feng a bit more about the Great Demon King's age.
His words also affirmed a few things Feng already knew about concerning Celestina and the situation in demon society.
Since she was a high-ranking Noble and possessed a demon Bloodline of the highest purity that the modern age did not even have a ranking for, other demons would normally obey Celestina regardless of her and their tier.
The demonic authority of the Demon Empress would compel demons to serve, or at least listen to, her out of instinct.
However, when she was betrayed and ambushed by multiple Primordial Demon Gods and Evil Gods, Celestina was stripped of that authority using some special means that rendered her unable to command or force other demons into servitude.
Celestina was no longer able to even form such or any other types of contracts with other creatures, aside from players, so she couldn't make any being sign anything to work for her.
She had been entirely stripped of her throne and authority with even low-ranking demons not being willing to obey her, leaving Celestina with no place in the demon world unless she retakes it through force.
Of course, in her absence, other powerful demons had fought over the demonic throne, wishing to be the next ruler. Wars were fought, which resulted in many deaths, and the battle was one of the large causes that led to the Great Destruction, with demons growing weaker during it as a whole.
Many powerful beings also ended up disappearing across the universe in the fight over the throne, largely shaping the state of today's world.
No true victor actually emerged to become the ruler, but among the main demons who were competing, Geest was one of the most powerful ones and had the strongest force out of them all.
Synrse seems to have sworn his loyalty to Geest and wished to serve the demon after dealing with the Shrine's current situation and completing whatever he's doing here, which naturally wasn't going to happen.
Choosing to oppose Celestina was about the dumbest thing he could have done, the gulf between them being very large and evident once he attempted to kill the Demon Empress.
Using World Creation only worsened the situation as well following another unwise choice.
Previously, due to her weak state and low tier, Celestina could only manifest a Mana Domain close to the standard of World Creation. After absorbing the fragment of her consciousness in the World Summit Trial and putting on the Legendary Absolute Demon Set, however, the demon maid could now fully deploy her World Creation-level Mana Domain.
Even at Tier 4, Celestina's control over Mana and the power of her World Creation still far surpassed anything Synrse could manage, and she easily overwhelmed him.
At the moment, the Great Demon King was getting suppressed and couldn't even use the ambient Mana, causing him to lose even more badly than before due to the difference in their skill.
The only advantage Synrse had was the duration he could keep his World Creation active for, since a Tier 5 being of his level and expertise could deploy it for a fairly long time, possibly a few hours as long as he limited the range and pushed himself; while Celestina, who was still only Tier 4 and couldn't exercise her full power at the moment, would only be able to maintain it for around half an hour.
But that was more than enough time for the Demon Empress to kill the offending demon multiple times.
"Arggh!"
More and more injuries appeared across the Great Demon King's body as his HP continuously decreased. Under Celestina's onslaught, he was given no breathing room and was forced to defend for the majority of the time without being able to strike back.
"Damn it!" Synrse grew extremely frustrated as another slash from Celestina blinded his left eye, the wounds further slowing him down and needing recovery as they decreased his combat power.
Suddenly, pitch-black flames started burning around Synrse to ward off the demon girl, fireballs of the black flames forming in the Tier 5 demon's hands that he threw at Celestina.
Another very poor decision on Synrse's part.
Similar black flames appeared on the Pandemonium Lashblade, these ones burning even brighter and giving off a more dangerous aura than all the Great Demon King's attacks combined as Celestina slashed forward.
Her Demon Sword collided with the dark fireballs and dispersed them, the black flames even coming together to merge with Celestina's own and causing the flames on her sword to grow. It erupted into a raging inferno that she attacked Synrse with and caused even more grievous damage.
Attempting to fight Celestina using Soul Fire was a grave mistake that Synrse should have known better from considering the wide disparity between them that he had already seen for himself.
The natural conclusion was that Celestina's ability to use Soul Fire was far greater than his own even in her current state, so bringing the Black Destruction Flames to the table was a stupid move.
However, Synrse hardly had any better options if he wished to do more than just slowly get whittled down to death. His only hope was to somehow quickly kill Feng, and Soul Fire was his best bet.
Only, nothing he tried worked, and any attempt would be dashed since Celestina was continuously forcing him back without the opportunity to approach the human who was casually watching all this go down from afar.
Ranged attacks achieved nothing since any Spell or Soul Fire he shot at Feng was quickly destroyed by Celestina as she forced all the Mana out of the attacks using her Mana Domain; Synrse's manipulation of Mana proving far from enough to cast long-ranged attacks for a significant distance while within her World Creation.
Synrse wielded his Soul Fire-covered spear and created spear images to impale Celestina in a desperate attempt while trying to come up with another strategy, when the Demon Empress suddenly spoke out in the midst of her barrage of attacks.
"I remember you now," A faint light of realization shone in Celestina's blood red eyes as she addressed the Great Demon King before her indifferently "To think that talented little Evil Spirit would have survived for so long. Though, seeing as how you didn't manage to become even a Demon God after all this time, and your weak strength, it would seem I had overestimated your potential. How disappointing."
"Shut up!" Synrse grew enraged after hearing Celestina's words and the layer of disdain over them "You're the reason I and all those who followed you had to suffer. If not for you, as the Empress, dying so foolishly and due to such an obvious betrayal that all of us warned you about, something that everybody apart from you apparently could see coming from a mile away, the clan would not have fallen into such a mess."
"Is that so?" The Demon Empress's voice remained cold without any emotion as her former follower yelled out, seemingly uncaring for his words, which served to infuriate Synrse even more.
"YES! Most of us were hunted down and butchered while the rest were forced to beg for mercy, submitting to others' rulership no matter how bad and serving under them once you got killed. That's why I didn't have the chance to grow stronger and am stuck as a Demon King."
Synrse's anger was at full display as he swung his spear with renewed rage and hatred, as if he was letting out years of bottled rage "Even now I'm locked here as a guard dog and forced to serve by the-"
"I don't care." Celestina's sharp reply cut the Great Demon King off as she delivered another devastating blow that nearly decapitated Synrse.
Without showing any regard to the demon who had suffered due to her fall, the demon maid mercilessly dove in to finish the job.
"As I thought, you're still the same idiot as before. Once I deal with that human and take his body for myself, I'll finally be able to walk out of this prison and leave, with you in my hands no less. Then some vengeance will be in order once I leave you at Lord Geest's will."
A cold look appeared in Synrse's eyes, and a moment later, the Power of Darkness around him seemed to escape Celestina's control and gather around him, forming a cocoon. Despite landing a heavy blow on it, Celestina barely disturbed its surface, only for more darkness to gather and block her out.
After a few seconds, the cocoon turned into a dark fog and dispersed, three thirty-meter Synrses appearing from behind with each one possessing 40 billion HP and radiating a slightly more powerful aura than the singular one before.
"Demonic Bridging Hell, huh? I see you're at your wit's end." Casually commenting as she observed the three Great Demon Kings, Celestina seemed to still not take her opponent seriously.
Remaining silent, the three Synrses rushed forward while stabbing their spears at the demon girl.
Effortlessly dodging the three different Bronze Combat Techniques they all performed, Celestina weaved through their formation and slashed her chain sword that blazed with Soul Fire at them, aiming to cut and burn all three demons at once.
But before the Pandemonium Lashblade could reach the Synrses, they all suddenly turned into a fog that merged with the darkness around them and disappeared, the Demon Sword hitting nothing.
Celestina looked across her surroundings but couldn't catch sight of the three Great Demon Kings or locate them in the thick Power of Darkness, making it seem like they had become a part of the darkness. She could still sense that they were around, though.
Lifting her sword, the Demon Empress blocked a spear that attempted to stab her from above, making the sixty-meter-long spear slide aside and pierce into the ground as Celestina moved and circled it, dodging another spear while slashing her Demon Sword at the two Synrses who had appeared and cast a Tier 5 Spell at them.
Neither of her attacks managed to reach the assaulting demons as they both immediately merged back into the darkness, continuing to lurk around.
More attacks came out of the darkness in an attempt to take down the demon girl while not giving her a chance to retaliate.
Upon them attacking once more, the first Synrse forced Celestina to block and put her in a position for the second one to break her defense, creating a clear opening for the third demon to land a hit on her.
"Let me guess. The third one is actually going after him."
As Celestina was making her prediction, Feng suddenly jumped to the side for no apparent reason, only for a long spear to emerge from the darkness behind him and make a stab at his previous location.
Without being dismayed or stopping, the third Synrse continued his attack on the Tier 1 human, believing he could still easily kill the Swordsman. Meanwhile, the other two Great Demon Kings attempted to keep Celestina from going to her master's aid.
They sent a barrage of attacks her way to occupy the Demon Empress's attention in order to buy time for the third one to kill Feng. But since they could no longer slink back into the darkness without allowing Celestina to break free of their blockade, the demon girl could finally do some damage to the two demons.
Her attacks became heavier than ever before, striking the Great Demon Kings and forcing them back while creating multiple injuries across them that burned with Soul Fire and did much more grievous damage. As soon as she broke the demons' stance and made an opening, Celestina rushed past them at a speed neither Synrse could keep up with while simultaneously throwing back a powerful Tier 5 Spell to slow their chase as the demon girl hurried to assist Feng.
Surprisingly, a four-tier difference did not render Feng helpless against the Great Demon King as he evaded Synrse's attempts to kill him, dodging about and blocking the lightning-fast spear while wielding the Tier 4 Abyssal Blade and his backup Fragmented Legendary sword.
In terms of attributes, the two were actually fairly evenly matched, but since the Power of Darkness suppressed Feng while empowering Synrse, and with the Tier 5 demon being able to use the Mana inside his body to boost the power of his attacks, Feng was forced on the defensive.
As the Great Demon King used Tier 5 Skills and brutal nonstop attacks in an attempt to eliminate Feng, the Tier 1 Swordsman fared fairly well and remained untouched by the threats.
Even if this continued for a while, Feng would not lose thanks to his superior techniques and loads of powerful skills.
Though, he wasn't capable of doing any serious damage to his opponent due to the tier difference, so Feng would never be able to kill Synrse unless he used some incredibly powerful means, such as the Limitless Boots' Black Hole; but that wasn't very likely to work either considering the demon wasn't stupid enough to get killed by the skill that was under Feng's lacking control.
Nevertheless, Synrse also wasn't capable of killing Feng as of right now.
Knowing all that, the Great Demon King invested all his energy into offense, leaving many openings that Feng didn't hesitate to exploit.
Upon dodging another wide swing that created a spatial tear, Feng slashed his two swords at the spearhead whose momentum had just faded, his Magic Weapon surrounded with the power of thunder and flames whereas Feng's other sword turned into a bolt of solid lightning.
Thunder Flame Explosion!
Bolt of Extinguishing!
Synrse was slightly surprised by the human's choice to make an attack of his own, and the power Feng's weapons carried came as another shock, but the Great Demon King didn't care much for it, nor did he believe a mere Tier 1 human could ever match up to a being like himself.
Without thinking much, Synrse tried to swing his spear around while executing an Advanced Combat Technique, but Feng's attacks accelerated and reached his weapon before the Tier 5 demon could complete his move.
The unexpected force that interrupted his swing knocked Synrse and his spear off balance, nearly causing the Great Demon King to lose grip of his weapon.
Enranged by the humiliation of almost getting his spear knocked out of his hands, Synrse wished to quickly murder Feng, but without giving him time to recover from the blow, a voluptuous figure flew over his arm that was still reeling back due to Feng's attack, and a dark chain sword burning with Soul Fire wrapped around the demon's arm.
Pulling the split Pandemonium Lashblade in one fluid motion as she reached Synrse, Celestina directly cut off his arm, the Great Demon King's flesh being set ablaze with the destructive flames.
Now one arm down, Synrse couldn't wield his spear properly, and before he could steady himself or put up some kind of defense, the Demon Empress sword cut across his neck.
Retreating back, the wounded demon attempted to merge back into the darkness and escape Celestina's onslaught.
"It's not so easy to run." This time, the demon maid did not let her target slink back into the fog, extending her hand forward and tightly clenching her fist. The darkness in front of Celestina suddenly started solidifying, exposing a terrified Synrse who was now stuck in it.
Celestina's sword transformed into a python that shot forward and dove into Synrse's chest, biting down on his heart. Letting go of his spear since he couldn't use it against Celestina with only one arm, the Great Demon king now relied on his claws to attack the demon girl, but with a flap of her wings, Celestina flew above Synrse's hand and dodged it while smashing the back of her fist on the incoming claw.
Black Flash!
Black sparks erupted, and the space between their hands twisted, destroying Synrse's claw and rendering it useless.
The two other Synrses finally caught up and attacked, one attempting to force Celestina away from his trapped comrade, whereas the other attacked Feng.
However, he wasn't the only one who had cloning skills. Five doppelgangers of the Demon Empress suddenly appeared around her, Celestina sending two against the incoming demons each while she and the fifth doppelganger continued bullying the one who was stuck in the darkness.
That Great Demon King managed to free himself during Celestina's brief pause, but the onslaught of two Demon Empresses quickly whittled him down.
Within twenty seconds, the armless Synrse's HP bottomed out, and he turned into a black fog that split up and went to fuse with the two remaining Great Demon Kings, who were getting beaten close to death as well.
Upon the fog merging with them, all of the injuries they had incurred recovered, the Synrses' HP increasing to 80 billion and their aura growing stronger.
Demonic Bridging Hell was a rare and powerful Tier 5 Taboo Skill exclusive to high-ranking demons that splits the user into three bodies that possessed 50% of their HP and 110% attributes from the original. When one body died, the other two would automatically recover from all damage and gain another 50% HP and 10% attributes; and if a second body died as well, one body with 150% and 140% of the original's HP and attributes, respectively, would remain.
However, despite its power and great usage, the skill only had a duration of twenty minutes, and following its end, the user would end up in a Weakened state for ten minutes. Hence, demons usually only used it as a trump card in difficult fights.
Synrse knew he was bound to lose to Celestina while caught within her World Creation, so his only choice was to use Demonic Bridging Hell in an attempt to restrict her and kill Feng using one of the bodies.
His attempt failed as Synrse could have never expected the Tier 1 human to be so strong, and it even led to one of his bodies getting picked off and dying.
The other two bodies had received an increase in their strength following the body's death, but it didn't do much to help since when they both faced three Celestinas each, the two Synrses received heavy damage and getting beaten up no matter how they tried fighting back.
After around another ten seconds, Celestina's five doppelgangers disappeared, leaving only one Demon Empress to do battle with the two Great Demon Kings.
They tried employing a similar strategy as before, with one stalling Celestina and the other going all out on Feng, but Synrse quickly realized this fight couldn't be won so simply.
Feng was too nimble and strong to quickly kill, while a singular body could not keep the demon girl at bay for long, causing Celestina to rush back to Feng's aid before the body attacking him could achieve anything.
In fact, splitting up the bodies only served to make the situation less favorable for the Great Demon Kings as it allowed Celestina to wholly overpower one of them and do a lot of damage before the other could come to help.
Along with their injuries and damage from fighting the doppelgangers, having the bodies switching between combat with the Demon Empress would only delay the inevitable at this point, without a chance to win.
Considering Feng's strength and ability to survive against them, Synrse's only choice was to first kill Celestina before focusing on dealing with him without any interruptions from the demon girl.
But that was impossible.
Fighting together changed nothing, and in ten or so minutes, the second body fell. The third Synrse was close to death himself as they had worked together to split the pressure.
Nevertheless, thanks to the effects of Demonic Bridging Hell, he instantly recovered all the incurred damage and injuries, the Great Demon King's HP rising to 120 billion and attributes to 140% of the original.
Now he could fight Celestina head-to-head in Strength, but due to getting suppressed by her World Creation, Synrse could only desperately cling to his life and resist her onslaught.
Already close to getting killed once another ten minutes passed, Demonic Bridging Hell ended, resulting in the Great Demons King's HP and attributes dropping by a decent amount as he fell into a Weakened state.
Shortly after that, Celestina beat him within an inch of his life with less than a million of his HP remaining.
To the Great Demon King's surprise, she didn't immediately kill him, instead stepping back and throwing the Pandemonium Lashblade in the air, only for Feng to appear in front of Synrse using Ethereal Blitz and grab the Demon Sword.
A golden light surrounded Feng's body while his sword erupted with the brilliance of a thousand suns. The purifying light of Worldly Purification erased the Great Demon King who was already Weakened and had been heavily injured by Celestina, allowing Feng to easily finish him off.
Apart from the enormous amount of EXP he'd get, which all got transferred to the Levellume Capsules on him, the reason Feng had wanted to be the one to kill him was so that he could activate Divine Providence before landing the killing blow, greatly boosting the incredible loot one would already receive from a Tier 5 Great Demon King.
Suddenly, a ray of holy light descended from the sky, and Feng heard a divine chant sounding throughout the Shrine space. As if the heavens were celebrating Synrse's death, over a thousand globes of light fell from the sky, landing around the Great Demon King's corpse. Their brilliant light illuminated all of the darkness in the vicinity.
Unsurprisingly, a Holy Chant had occurred.
In God's Domain, the appearance of loot was not something rare, but most players didn't know that there were different ranks of this phenomenon that varied depending on the creature killed, the slayer's Luck, and the feat achieved.
The most common was the glow that enveloped dropped items. After that was a Dragon's Roar that heralded the items' arrival, and it came about for slaying particularly powerful beings. Above it was the Holy Chant, which normally only preceded loot from Tier 5 Great Demon Kings, Tier 5 Saints, and Tier 5 Adult Dragons. These Bosses had already taken half a step into the realm of Gods.
Even though Synrse wasn't really that powerful for a Great Demon King, he still apparently qualified for a Holy Chant, and with Feng's high Luck, it was only natural for it to occur.
Though, regardless of the usual ways they happened, Feng had triggered multiple Dragon's Roars and Holy Chants thanks to Divine Providence in the past, especially during Zero Wing's grand Mythic Hunt where every kill he got resulted in at least a Dragon's Roar, while over ten Holy Chants had sounded that day despite not killing a single Tier 5 creature.
Unfortunately, a Holy Chant was the highest he ever got. Above it was God's Rage, which could occasionally occur when exceptionally powerful Tier 6 Gods or Ancient Gods were slain. Even with Feng's enormous amount of Luck, he could not trigger God's Rage while killing low-ranking creatures.
Heavenly Goal, which is a step above God's Rage, was believed to be the highest possible phenomenon that could happen, and only a few instances of it are recorded in history as it rarely occurred, usually only appearing following the death of a Primordial God or Primordial God-level existences such as the Universal God's Domain's Fifty Great Taboos.
Unlike the human race's Great God's Domain's Twenty-two Taboos, which greatly varied in strength with lower-ranking ones only being on par with top-tier Ancient Gods while the higher-ranking ones were on par with Primordial Gods, the Great Taboos of the Universal God's Domain all at least had power comparable to Primordial Gods.
They were beings from all across the universe including some of the Taboos of the various Greater God's Domains, as well as others that didn't belong to any specific one, either living outside of any territory or moving about from one Greater God's Domain to the other.
One creature belonging to the latter category was the Gargantuan Void Leviathan, ranking second among the humans' Taboos and usually being second, third, or at least fourth for other Greater God's Domains, and was ranked ninth among the Fifty Great Taboos.
Killing such beings was practically an impossible undertaking, and even the Universal God's Domain's Six Great Royal Powers would usually avoid battle with even the low-ranking ones unless absolutely necessary.
Thus, a Heavenly Goal rarely ever occurred.
However, few people know that above a Heavenly Goal was something called the Universe Song. Feng had only ever borne witness to it once in his previous life, and from what he knew about the phenomenon in general, it usually happened when beings on an entirely different level die.
Beings who had Full Mastery over a Peak Law, beings who had mastered a Half-step Rule, beings that governed over Half-step Rules, and creatures like the Three Grand Taboos.
Only such entities qualified for a Universe Song.
Icarus's Heart was an even bigger cheat item when considering that Feng could artificially increase the ranking of the phenomenon for items appearing without having to kill creatures of a fully appropriate level.
System: A Tier 5 Great Demon King's heart has been detected. Do you wish to allow the Pandemonium Lashblade to absorb the Great Demon King's heart?
As Feng was gazing at the items that fell from the sky, a familiar system notification appeared, to which Feng agreed.
He had previously only fed the Pandemonium Lashblade hearts of two Great Demons, which had improved the sword's power by a small margin. Now, though, Feng had stumbled across a Great Demon King's heart to feed the Demon Sword, which would undoubtedly provide a much greater boon.
A pitch-black aura spread out from the Pandemonium Lashblade as soon as Feng agreed and rapidly advanced through the air towards Synrse's corpse. Enveloping whatever was left of the Great Demon King, the dark aura, along with the Pandemonium Lashblade, seemed to release a pulse.
This continued for half a minute, the pulses growing stronger with each passing moment, until the pitch-black aura retracted into the Demon Sword, whose pressure increased by a noticeable amount after absorbing Synrse's heart.
Apart from a large increase in its raw attributes, the Pandemonium Lashblade even saw some small improvements to its other abilities, which increased the Demon Sword's power by a considerable amount.
Sheathing the pitch-black sword, Feng went over to collect the drops, summoning the Salvage Corp's ghosts to pick them all up while he turned to the Demon Empress.
"Can you find the source of all this Power of Darkness?" Although they had taken care of Synrse, the Inferior Legendary Shrine has not been cleared yet.
Feng still had to find the source of the darkness inside the Shrine, which was also the Inferior Legendary Shrine's main prize, and neutralize it to claim it.
However, he received no response, the Demon Empress seeming to be in deep thought while a gloomy and brooding expression colored her breathtaking face.
"What's up with you?" Poking the demon girl's cheek, Feng called out to Celestina again, causing her to snap back to reality and slap his hand away.
"Nothing. But as we suspected, we can't risk the news of my revival spreading and reaching them." Celestina's expression remained somber, clearly not at all pleased with the situation she had fallen into.
"That's to be expected. With the throne still unoccupied and the demons competing over rulership, your appearance would throw everything into disarray. Any Demon God would be against you and leave no stops in getting rid of you for good. It's likely that we'll be up against the entire demon race once your existence is discovered, and we'll have no choice but to fight them all in order for you to reclaim the throne." Feng remained calm as he talked about becoming the enemy of the entire demon race, having known full well what he was signing up for when making his contract with Celestina.
"What? Are you scared? It's too late for regrets now if you want to back out of our contract." Mistaking Feng's words for veiled concern over their future, Celestina looked at him with mockery and disdain.
"Of course not," Feng remained casual, a cheeky smile on his face as he looked at Celestina "Since we made a contract, you and I will be together through thick and thin. I'll remain by your side no matter what as we take down those losers and bring you back to being an Empress."
Celestina's eyes widened upon hearing Feng say so, an odd light he had never seen before flashing through them as she stared at him with a stunned gaze.
Turning away, the Demon Empress almost seemed flustered as she sharply said "Whatever. Just get stronger so that you can be of some use. Follow me, the source is this way."
She started walking forward without waiting for a reply, giving Feng an odd reaction he wasn't quite expecting. Sensing a subtle change, Feng walked after the demon girl and used Eros Vision.
Looking through the information, he saw that there had indeed been a transformation in some of the stats.
[Celestina]
Tier: 4
Level: 99 (Contract Bound)
Gender: Female
Race: Demon (Noble rank: ???)
Title: Demon Empress
Age: ???
Cup Size: H
Virgin: ???
Mental State: Flustered, Slightly Embarrassed
Physical State: Normal
Stamina Remaining: 71%
Affiliation: Dark Forces, Empress of the Demon race
Relationship Status: None (Contract Bound to player Ye Feng)
Favorability: Hostilely Favourable (Wishes the most painful and torturous death upon the player. There are some grudges against the player. Tsuntsun)
Sexually Attracted: 50%
Fetish: Masochism
Seeing the vastly more pleasing transformation from Celestina's original feelings towards him, Feng was quite surprised.
He had originally thought that some much more intimate course of action would be necessary if he wanted to push Celestina's Sexual Attraction towards him past the 50% mark.
Yet, unexpectedly, simply saying a few words had done the job splendidly, and even changed her Favorability to a much friendlier one compared to her previous pure Hostile attitude.
'It seems emotions and romance play a much bigger part in this than I originally thought. Who could have expected that?' Feng realized that he might have had the wrong thought process when it came to seducing Celestina.
Apart from sexually stimulating her and creating tension, genuine romantic feelings had to be cultivated if he wanted this to succeed.
Admittedly, this was not Feng's strong suit, and he had no real experience in such a topic since he never engaged in romance that wasn't purely sexual or transactional during his past lives, without taking into account his current relationship with his women that was build during the previous timeline, so the idea of seducing Celestina through affection and romancing had not occurred to him before.
What he had just said to her wasn't some kind of play, instead simply being what Feng truly thought, since the Universal God's Domain's Mythical Main Storyline Quest gave him no other choice but to stick it out with Celestina and complete his end of the deal.
His words had accidentally caused Celestina to view him in a different light and feel a real sense of partnership and closeness, which led to her change in favorability towards Feng.
Though, she herself clearly wasn't entirely aware or familiar with that sensation, so the Demon Empress just buried the feelings and scoffed him off.
Feng's smile grew as he came to the realization, a whole new door of possibilities for seducing Celestina opening up to him. But it was questionable how much success he'd have using it considering his experience on the matter.
Deciding to strike while the iron was hot, Feng quickened his pace and caught up to the demon girl, wishing to further tease and get a reaction from her.
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