Nether Feast - Chapter 4

My perceptions grew to a level where I could sense all life within a couple kilometers in every direction. If something truly dangerous was coming my way, I’d feel it and could choose to run or fight. It saved my life on multiple occasions.

My strategy stayed the same for my next couple realms until I reached the pinnacle of what the monsters of the Nether Wilds could provide without facing their lords. At level 899, there were still ancient monsters in the wilds that could challenge me, but their existence was so rare that I decided it was time for me to leave. I felt I owed this wild place a debt of gratitude, so I left its peak existences alive and well.

When I arrived near the outskirts of the demon realm, I was greeted by a being I felt the presence of more than one hundred kilometers away. His face was the most human-like of any creature I’d seen since first arriving in the Netherplane. He had two bull horns coming out of the sides of his head and his neck was thickly muscled like the rest of his hulking physique. As I examined him with identify, I wasn’t surprised at what I saw. Under monster type, he was described as a Demon Lord. His level was over 900.

“Kneel human,” the demon lord commanded. “If you dutifully die, I’ll make it quick. But I prefer that you resist. I’ve allowed your advancement all these years for this very purpose—to profit from your death, and feast on your empowered flesh.”

“I see,” I replied with a listless stare. “The more I advance, the more power you’ll gain from killing me, yes?”

The lord simply smiled in response.

“Then why not give me a taste of your own blood and let me advance even further? Will that not be of even more benefit to you?”

His laughter was rough and deep as a bottomless gorge. “Letting you advance too far wouldn’t be wise. Even something as base as a human can become a threat with the help of a demon lord’s blood.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle in response, though my laughter was much higher pitched and almost harmonic in tone. The constant advancement and healing I’d undergone hadn’t caused me to grow old in body, but kept my image similar to that of my seventeen-year-old state. The only distinction from my original form was my new rippled physique.

One last time, I replied. “Then I supposed it’s appropriate that we both die today.”

Lifting my hand, mana gushed out of me like the water from a fallen dam. Suddenly the gray cloud-covered sky lit up with countless specks of light that would’ve seemed like stars if the clouds weren’t their backdrop.

“You fool,” the demon lord roared as I issued my spell its command and the sky began to fall.

I rushed forward, breaking the sound barrier before I’d even completed my first step. At my command, the falling stars came to a halt. Appearing before the entity that would be the death of me, I allowed him to plunge his human-like hand covered in the sharpest of claws right through my chest and out my back. Hugging him to myself with one arm, I stabbed a shard of the strongest substance I’d ever seen and left a deep gash on the side of his neck. My mouth found the wound immediately. I bit down with all my might. Lapping up blood from the wound, I drank of him.

I drained him and healed myself with magic while I drank. He possessed the most potent of blood. It burned as it plunged down my throat like acid. I began to advance.

Besides claws his raking at my sides and back, there was nothing the demon lord could do as I embrace him and drank. When I finally let him throw me off of him, the hole in my chest healed completely before I’d even hit the ground a few hundred meters away. Landing in a crouch, I read the popup that appeared before me.

Blood Tempering complete!

You have become a Demon Lord. Correction… You are undergoing purification.

Purification complete!

Humanity restored. Assimilation of new unique trait has begun.

You have received a unique trait!

Demon Subjugation

You have brought the corruption of the demonic race into subjection within your own body. Instead of being weakened or destroyed, you have taken its power for yourself. You have the strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, and wisdom of a demon lord, but your nature remains the same.

Demon Lord’s Body

Demon Lord’s Mind

Demonic Digestive System

There was one more thing I received in which I’d never seen before.

Title Given

The Human Who Feasts on the Netherplane

I would’ve cackled like an actual demon if my opponent hadn’t already bridged the space between us.

With a turn of my wrist, I pushed his claw covered hand to the side and stopped holding back my spell Falling Stars from surging toward the earth.

Fire burst out from my person in all direction, creating a tempest of fire to shield myself from the coming destruction. As the shower of stars touched down, the explosion shook the earth, cracking it open like the shell of an egg. Anything alive within a radius of a couple kilometers was immediately burned to ash. Even my own mythical ranked fire was wiped away. I began healing the heavy damage I took from my own spell. Exiting the crater in the ground, I soon found the demon lord with my perceptions.

Instead of a pile of ash, he was covered in what looked like obsidian platemail that had melted in countless places. He too was forced to regenerate a large portion of his body. Instead of dying or retreating, he waited a long moment, then he attacked.

Days later, as if we’d come to an unspoken agreement, we both retreated to recover from the aftermath of our stalemate. It seemed that we’d both reached a level where our life was as robust as a normal mortal’s was fragile.

It was another week before he returned with a great sword in hand. It was blood red and one and a half times as long as I was tall. That should’ve been the day I died, but as had become my redeeming characteristic, I defied whatever mortality I had left when he cut me in half. Draining the demon lord in a similar embrace as before, he was forced to try to pry me off with his sword. My body regenerated its lower half, and I threw myself at his arm. Placing one foot against his neck and the other again his ribs, I pushed and pulled with all my strength, ripping his arm from his body. I took his sword for my own, and his arm for sustenance.

The weapon was too large for what should’ve been a reasonable size, but with a demon lord’s strength, I could fracture mountains, and divide hills. I couldn’t finish my opponent that day, but I’d forced him to flee. Then I went about devouring my prize—the arm I had taken from him.

It wasn’t the last time I saw him. Every couple weeks he’d return and challenge me again. Sometimes he had new weapons or armor, but more often than not he was the one forced to flee, and I gathered whatever prizes he left behind.

Then one day, after years of conflict, he showed up in a new armor of pitch and scale, but for the first time, he didn’t attack.

“Do you wish to return to the realm from which you came?” He said, catching me off guard.

I didn’t answer right away but used all my means to try to decern any deception. Then he spoke again. “Between the two of us, there can be no victory. I’ve been forced to conclude you are a worthy advisory after trying every way I know to defeat you. And yet still, here we stand.”

He pulled out a stone that I’d seen once before long ago. I’d even collected many of them in my inventory. Thousands of them.

“If you prefer to continue fighting, “he continued, “I’m willing to join you, but any benefit either of us could’ve gained from that has already passed. We have drunk of one another’s blood and pushed our martial abilities to the limit. What say you?”

I realized then that there was no deception. There really was nothing else either of us could do against one another in our current state. “And how do I know that this will return me to my home and not another more dangerous plane of existence?”

He laughter rumbled from the depths of his chest. Despite our conflict, I’d also known him for many years now. I immediately heard the difference in his tone. “There is no plane more dangerous than this one human. You have done the impossible and reached the height of demonic power. What would I gain from sending you to the wrong realm except for annoying you and setting you down the path of wanting to return here someday to return the favor. It is my desire to send you home so that I will never have to see you again.”

Bowing my head in response, I couldn’t help but believe his words. “Then we are done?” I asked, not sure exactly how to respond.

“Yes, my great enemy. It is finished.”

I walked toward the portal he was quick to open and even felt the familiarity of the world beyond with my perceptions. I was going home…

When I was a step away from returning to my old world, I stopped and looked back, taking in the gray of the Netherplane one last time. I’d been there, lived there, many times longer than I’d been alive in my original world. This was a place I despised with all my being, but it was also all I knew.

I then looked to the demon lord who I’d been battling for years. He was giving me a priceless gift and I suddenly felt like I owed him something in return.

Pulling the original crimson great sword I had taken from him in our second battle, I spun it around and offered it to him. “In exchange for passage.”

“I cannot take it,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “It is something you earned through combat. To take it back would be the height of dishonor.”

“Then…” I said, trying to think of something that might be appropriate. Nothing of substance fit the mark, so instead, I asked his name.

He snorted as if offended but thought better of it and gave me an answer. “I am Kiafer, the Lord of Perpetual Dread. You will likely never see me again, for I have no desire to visit your lesser realm, but I will also leave you with a warning. I am one of many demon lords. There are some stronger than I. It is only a matter of time before one or more of them find a way to enter your realm. If you wish to stop them, you must grow stronger.”

When I glanced back at the portal, he answered my apparent hesitation. “You can easily return to your realm because you are a being that belongs to that plane. Only the weakest of demons can easily cross over. For one such as I, it would cost me an incredible amount of mana. Many times that than I possess. It’s the same for you once you step through that portal. Without some great intervention, it will be nigh impossible for you to return.”

I felt a wave of remorse, which surprised me as much as it revolted me. Steeling my mind, I bowed my head to my long-time opponent. “My name is, Ailen Reaver. Farewell.”

Without waiting for a response, I stepped into the portal.