78 Finally A Clean Slate
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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Feng slashed down.
Tier 3 Skill, Thundering Flash!
Unlike Thunder Flame Explosion, Thundering Flash was a Sword-type skill, so aside from getting its strength boosted by the Pandemonium Lashbalde from the Tier 3 Peak standard to the Tier 4 Basic standard, the Swordsmanship Great Grandmaster Title also increased its power.
Thus, the Thundering Flash Feng was currently using nearly reached the Tier 5 standard, causing a sea of lighting to descend upon District Five.
---
Discipline Paradise looked down at the timer counting down to the end of his Quest's time limit.
Around half a month ago, he had triggered a high-ranking Quest by accident. At first, Discipline Paradise was ecstatic over his discovery, thinking that he had stumbled across an incredible opportunity. If he could complete the Quest, the rewards he could possibly obtain would allow him to become the overlord of the Evil Ghost Domain.
However, only later did he realize that this Quest was a curse in disguise of a blessing. With his strength, even getting any information on how to complete the Quest had been incredibly difficult, let alone actually doing what was required of him.
Despite his efforts, he was unable to complete the Quest he had foolishly accepted, and was now regretting his life choices as the last minute of the Quest's duration ticked.
Of course, he wasn't planning to go down without a fight, and had ordered his forces and the other parties of District Five to be battle ready, hoping that their combined strength and resources would be enough to endure whatever the penalty for failing the Quest was.
As the last seconds passed by, Discipline Paradise stood up and steeled his resolve, bracing himself when the time limit finally came to an end and the system notified him of his failure to complete the Quest.
Before Discipline Paradise could take a step or give any orders, unusual sounds of thunder came from the sky.
Crack! Crack! Shatter!
Dashing towards a window, Discipline Paradise took in the sound and sight of District Five's Magic Array breaking, followed by an intense light brought about by a sea of lightning that crashed down onto the town and eradicated everything in its path.
He activated a Lifesaving Skill, but the leader of District Five's Third Party didn't have a single shred of hope in surviving this heavenly disaster.
System: Thundering Flash Completion Rate 200%, resulting in 100,000% of Skill's effect.
Instead of a Tier 3 AoE skill, when used by Feng, Thundering Flash was more like a top-tier Tier 4 large-scale destruction skill.
Looking down at the destruction he had caused, the previous prosperous town now nothing but a charred crater, Feng nodded in satisfaction, descending majestically with his pure-white wings.
To put it simply, District Five had been an area enclosed within a gigantic Magic Array. There was a small town inside this area, and the number of players residing within this town was relatively low. Still, there had been several thousand players living here, their deaths having gained Feng many units of Life Force.
Breaking the Magic Array and killing everyone was the easy part, though, and now the troublesome task, which had been plaguing Feng for quite a while now, came. Picking up the drops.
Piles of loot littered the ground everywhere on the land previously known as District Five.
Oddly enough, however, there was no equipment anywhere within the items dropped by the thousands of players which had been killed.
After all, the equipment these players were wearing was all below Dark-Gold rank and around Level 25. Faced with a skill whose power was near Tier 5, all of the equipment was instantly vaporized.
Though, Feng didn't mind that, as such equipment wasn't of any value to him, and he had already obtained a large amount of Level 40 items of various ranks during his previous slaughter of Dark Den's monsters.
His aim, and the thing Feng focused Probability Manipulation's effects on empowering the number of drops increased by Divine Providence and potion of Haunted which Feng had used in preparation before smiting down District Five, were other items like Soul Crystals and skill books within the slain players' bags.
This single sword swing had gained him a sizeable amount of Soul Crystals, even if most of the players only had one or two crystals on them, it eventually added up, while he only managed to get a couple of Tier 1 Taboo Skill Books from some unlucky bastards who had purchased them but didn't manage to learn the Taboo Skills in time. Aside from those two, most of the loot was just materials, while his largest gain was the players' Life Force.
The only piece of equipment that survived Feng's Thundering Flash was a pitch-black ring engraved with innumerable inscriptions. This ring was also the item Feng needed, and the reason he had destroyed District Five himself instead of waiting for the Great Demon to arrive and do the job for him so that Feng could just swoop in and claim all the spoils.
As he picked up the ring, Feng used the Eyes of Truth on it.
[Moloch's Ring] (Ring, Legendary Rank)
Sealed by the Lord of Balrogs, legend has it that this ring contains all of the Lord of Balrog's secrets and power. By wearing this ring, one can obtain this power. After Moloch's Ring had been sealed away, the Great Demon Knettel stood guard over the item. The Ring holds the Great Demon Knettel's mark, allowing the Great Demon to sense its location periodically.
System: Legendary Quest "Lord of Balrog's Fall" activated.
Quest details: Lift the seal on Moloch's Ring.
Quest rewards: Unknown.
Unsurprised by the Legendary Quest which he had triggered, Feng took out ten Soul Crystals.
System: Moloch's Ring has detected the presence of the Power of Darkness. Do you want Moloch's Ring to devour the Power of Darkness?
Feng clicked "Agree." without any hesitation.
In the next moment, the ten Soul Crystals that Feng had taken out disappeared.
Meanwhile, due to having devoured the Soul Crystals, the inscriptions on Moloch's Ring glowed slightly.
System: First seal on Moloch's Ring lifted.
[Moloch's Ring] (Ring, Legendary Rank)
Sealed by the Lord of Balrogs, legend has it that this ring contains all of the Lord of Balrog's secrets and power. By wearing this ring, one can obtain this power. After Moloch's Ring had been sealed away, the Great Demon Knettel stood guard over the item. The Ring holds the Great Demon Knettel's mark, allowing the Great Demon to sense its location periodically.
First seal lifted. A fragment of its power has been released. Power of Darkness required to lift the second seal: (0/100)
All Attributes +10%
Fire Resistance +30
Additional Skill- Gate of Darkness:
Opens a teleportation gate to the central area of the Dark Den.
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 24 hours
Although he could now leave and head to the World Summit in order to obtain the Bible of Darkness that was needed for the completion of his Epic Quest after replacing one of his Epic ranked Rings with Moloch's Ring and using its Gate of Darkness skill, Feng instead chose to sit down and relax.
Massaging his slightly sore arm with which he had used Thundering Flash, the effects of using a skill nearing the Tier 5 standard with his current Physique being fairly taxing on his body, Feng waited for the arrival of his prey.
What Feng didn't notice, however, was that after he had lifted the first seal on the Moloch's Ring and equipped it, the beginning of a fierce battle commenced inside of him.
---
A pitch-black fog radiating an evil aura spread out and moved towards a blue ball of flames. When the fog came into contact with the blue fireball and attempted to enter it, a faint holy light suddenly erupted from its blue interior, specifically from the pure-white holy area that radiated an incredibly divine feeling being its origin, and repelled the intruding fog.
Within, the pure-white light, a small figure stood. The chibi Goddess suddenly opened her golden eyes, her heavy gaze landing on the pitch-black fog that was trying to encroach upon the soul she was residing in.
Detecting her presence, the black fog stirred fiercely as if in warning to the Chibi Sharlyn, but the manifestation of the Creation Goddess's God Factor's energy wasn't deterred in the least, a valiant expression appearing on the Chibi Sharlyn's little face as a miniature seven-colored staff appeared in her hand.
Resuming its attack, the pitch-black fog's form changed, many gassy tentacles extending from its surface and moving towards Feng's soul at fast speeds.
In response, the Chibi Sharlyn tapped the butt of her staff on the imaginary ground, a holy barrier rising around the blue soul's surface and creating a powerful shield. When the black tentacles struck the holy barrier, several dangs echoed out as they bounced off, some of their foggy structure becoming disrupted and breaking apart.
Not giving the evil fog any time to recover, Chibi Sharlyn waved her seven-colored staff, sending out over a dozen pure-white beams of light that ripped apart the black fog tentacles and reduced them into faint mist, while a few beams continued onward to the heart of the enemy.
More dark fog rushed in from the outside, allowing the intruding energy to endure Chibi Sharlyn's attacks. A seemingly infinite amount of pitch-black fog continued to pour in as it got thinned out by the holy attacks, making all of the chibi girl's attempts futile.
She wasn't discouraged by her being unable to finish off the thing intruding on her territory, though, unwilling to take a step back as the entire area around her lit up. A huge ball of pure-white, holy energy gathering around the Chibi Sharlyn.
Pointing her staff at the black mass, Chibi Sharlyn controlled her ball to fly towards the fog. Just the holy ball's radiating power caused the pitch-black fog to sizzle, and when the two energies came in contact, the outskirts of Feng's soul were bathed in an incredibly bright glow.
When the light faded, peace was once again brought to the blue fireball.
Triumph and satisfaction colored Chibi Sharlyn's small face after finally getting rid of the pesky attacker, looking dignified inside her holy area that occupied Feng's soul.
But before she could celebrate any further, pitch-black fog once again came from somewhere and moved towards the soul's exterior. Chibi Sharlyn was no longer able to keep her cool, her expression darkening slightly when she saw the enemy she had just vanquished return.
Raising the seven-colored staff firmly grasped in her hand, Chibi Sharlyn and the fog commenced another round of battle over Feng's Immortal Soul.
---
Unaware of the epic battle meant for the legends happening inside his soul, Feng rested on the cold, uncomfortable ground, which had been completely charred and looked nothing like its previous colorful environment; looking through the items in his bag to clench the building up boredom inside of him.
After spending a couple of minutes waiting, Feng faintly sensed a large number of beings approaching from the far away distance.
In spite of noticing the disturbing number of high-ranking monsters coming in his direction, Feng remained completely calm, merely stretching his mostly recovered arm while continuing to sit with his legs crossed and patiently wait for the approaching enemies to arrive.
Soon he was able to see some large figures appearing in the horizon, but they seemed to have stopped upon coming across the wrecked area that was previously District Five's borders. A pitch-black Demon with bat-like wings and blood-red eyes then took the lead as it hovered high above the destroyed land.
[Knettel] (Demonic Creature, Great Demon)
Level 60
HP 50,000,000/50,000,000
Behind Knettel was an army of Level 40 monsters, with the majority of them being Elites, while there were also plenty of Special Elites and Chieftains as well. Around a dozen or so Level 40 Lord rank monsters marched at the head of this army.
When the monster army got within two hundred yards of Feng, his body suddenly felt heavy. It was as if he had just jumped into a quagmire. This was a Mana Domain summoned by the Tier 4 Great Demon that could weaken its opponents and strengthen itself.
When Knettel reached the area where Feng was sitting, surveying the surroundings on the way and wondering how the town had fallen into this state, it looked at the relaxing human in slight confusion, as if the Great Demon had expected someone else, before its gaze grew indifferent and the demon spoke out in warning.
"Human, I'll give you one chance to live. Surrender the Moloch's Ring that you have and submit!" Knettel glared down at Feng and said coldly, "Otherwise, I will give you a taste of Soul Fire, destroying your soul."
Not saying anything or paying the Great Demon any mind, Feng slowly stood up to his feet and patted off the dust on his cloak as he activated Divine Providence. Then, too fast for Knettel to react, Feng unsheathed the Abyssal Blade and slashed in the direction of the monsters.
Thundering Flash!
Even at Tier 3, Thundering Flash still had a short cooldown of thirty seconds, so it was once again ready to use after Feng had waited a while for the Great Demon that had just threatened him to arrive.
Seeing the sea of lightning coming in his direction, Knettel was at first shocked, not knowing how an ant could suddenly use such an attack, but the demon's shock quickly turned into panic when it sensed the power in the lightning sea.
The strength of this skill was infinitely close to Tier 5, while each of the thick thunder bolts carried power at the Tier 4 Advanced standard. Any of these bolts posed a certain amount of danger to even a Tier 4 Great Demon like itself, let alone the entire sea of lightning.
If this attack struck it, even if it was able to survive the skill, it would still put the Great Demon in a crippled state.
Thanks to his Mana Domains, Knettel was able to quickly react and avoid the sea of thunder rushing towards him, but the army of Level 40 monsters wasn't as lucky. All of them were instantly eradicates by Thundering Flash's power, Lords being no exception, leaving behind piles of loot.
Looking down at the destruction caused by the human's attack from high in the air, Knettel felt a chill run down his spine, knowing his fate would have been tragic if he hadn't gotten out of the thunder sea's range in time.
Before the Great Demon could fully relax, however, he suddenly sensed extreme danger once more from behind him, this time being much greater and reaching the level of life-threatening.
Heavenly Dragon's Power!
Instant Strike!
Moonchaser!
A blood-red battle axe with a thorn-covered handle appeared in Knettel's hands, which he immediately tried swinging behind him, attempting to block the incoming attack that was too fast to dodge while activating any skills that could assist him in his current predicament.
But Knettel's speed dropped the closer his battle axe got to Feng, getting slowed by Yog-Sothoth's Chrono Ensnare, whose other passive effect had already taken some speed from Knettel and given it to Feng. The Great Demon's weapon was eventually unable to match Pandemonium Lashblade's speed as it stabbed into Knettel's back.
Boom!
A large figure was sent flying down from high in the air, crashing heavily into the charred earth and creating a crater in the already battered ground that had been previously abused by several hundred lightning bolts.
Moments later, a tattered creature with its pitch-black scales broken apart and a large hole on its back crawled out of the crater, stumbling as it tried to steady itself while its murderous, blood-red eyes glared up at the human which had reduced it to this state.
Currently, Knettel had less than 10% of his HP remaining, the attack also sending him into a Heavily Injured state.
Technically speaking, Knettel, a Tier 4 Great Demon whose strength is high ranked even among other Tier 4 beings and someone capable of using a Mana Domain, was much stronger than Tresik, the Tier 4 Orc King, who Feng had been forced to use Threefold Berserk against in order to finish off; so the fight between the human and demon should have been an intense one.
However, Feng had grown much stronger between the time of his fight with the Orc King and now.
Aside from gaining the Fragmented Legendary ranked Icarus's Heart and Legendary rank Nightwalker's Cape, he had also filled up his Ring slots while replacing many of his weak Rings with very powerful ones; now having five Fragmented Legendary Rings, Heavenly Dragon's Breath having been repaired to a great extent and nearly becoming a Legendary item since then, four Epic Rings and one sealed Legendary Ring.
There was also his absorption of the Tier 4 Burning Argent Mysterious Flame, not to mention upgrading his One-handed Sword Mastery to Basic Sword Saint, greatly increasing the damage he dealt, and gaining the Swordsmanship Great Grandmaster Title; along with several other lesser increases to his strength. [1]
Now, with his already high Strength getting increased by Heavenly Dragon's Power, along with Instant Strike's Damage boost, Feng's Moonchaser, which had its power increased from Tier 4 to the Tier 5 Basic standard by the Swordsmanship Great Grandmaster Title, did a dumbfounding amount of damage by itself to even Tier 4 creatures, worlds beyond what Feng was capable of achieving at the time of his fight with Tresik.
Moreover, being a demon, the damage Knettel received from Feng was increased by another 400% due to the Creation Goddess's Blessing.
As if this match up wasn't bad enough, Feng also had the Pandemonium Lashblade, which, despite being a Demon Sword, was to demonic creatures, especially demons, around as deadly as Sacred Weapons were in its own way.
In fact, it was a miracle Knettel had even survived such an attack reaching Tier 5 strength from point-blank range. If not for his Mana Domain that suppressed Feng and his utilization of Mana while boosting his own abilities, the Great Demon would have just been one-shotted by a Tier 1 human.
Though, making use of such a strike that reached the Tier 5 standard when the Tier 4 Moonchaser was already somewhat challenging to execute placed a heavy burden on Feng's body, and he currently found it difficult to even move his right arm with which he held the Pandemonium Lashblade.
Nevertheless, in Knettel's current state, without any underlings and being on his last leg while Heavily Injured after Feng's strike, the Great Demon wasn't a threat to Feng anymore, nor did he have a chance at getting out of here alive.
Without even waiting to land, Feng used Ethereal Blitz, not planning to give the Great Demon a chance to recover as he appeared in front of Knettel and slashed forward the Abyssal Blade in his left hand while achieving a 200% Completion Rate with Thunder Flame Explosion.
Knettel could only raise his arms and stare at the combination of thunder and flame in defiance and unwillingness as it enveloped him, his speed and all other abilities having been greatly reduced after falling into a Heavily Injured state, becoming completely unable to dodge or resist when faced with Feng whose attributes with Heavenly Dragon's Power activated weren't much inferior to the Great Demon's in its normal state.
With the last of Knettel's HP being taken away, Feng's EXP skyrocketed even though he had increased his Level to 50 beforehand in order to bridge the gap between himself and Knettel, the Great Demon's death boosting a Tier 1 player like him to Level 61.
System: Congratulations! You have killed a Tier 4 Great Demon. You have obtained the Demon Slayer[2] title, Humanity Reputation +100.
Setting aside the Demon Slayer Title that gives him a minor noble world wide and suppresses dark creatures that Feng had obtained, mountains of loot also formed in the surroundings, with Feng having sacrificed 500 points of Life Force when he had activated Divine Providence due to knowing he'll be killing many monsters and a Great Demon.
Once all the drops had appeared, Feng sent the Salvage Corp's summons to collect all the drops from the monsters slain by Thundering Flash while he approached Knettel's body to pick up the loot dropped by the Great Demon.
However, when he was about to start hastily collecting his spoils of battle, the sound of a system notification reached Feng's ears.
System: A Tier 4 Great Demon's heart has been detected. Do you wish to allow the Pandemonium Lashblade to absorb the Great Demon's heart?
The notification caused Feng to pause for a moment, not having known the Demon Sword could absorb the hearts of demons below Tier 6, but he immediately chose to let the Pandemonium Lashblade absorb the heart, since he could neither carve it out of Knettel's body himself nor did he have a use for the demon's heart.
A pitch-black aura spread out from the Pandemonium Lashblade as soon as Feng agreed and rapidly advancing through the air towards Knettel's corpse. Going into the Great Demon's body through the hole Feng had made in its chest, the dark aura, along with the Pandemonium Lashblade, seemed to release a pulse.
This continued for a couple of seconds, the pulses growing stronger with each passing moment, until the pitch-black aura retracted into the Demon Sword, whose pressure increased ever so slightly after absorbing Knettel's heart.
Pulling up the system interface, Feng saw that although the Pandemonium Lashblade's abilities haven't changed, the raw basic attributes that it gave him had increased by around 25 or so percent. Although not too huge of an increase, considering he had only needed to kill a Great Demon's to obtain it, Feng was satisfied nonetheless.
Apart from his initial surprise at the system notification, the Pandemonium Lashblade's ability to absorb the power from other demons wasn't anything unknown to Feng, as he had seen Celestina use it to strengthen herself and the chain sword during the previous timeline several times after killing Demon Gods and Ancient Demon Gods.
This was possible due to the Pandemonium Lashblade's uniqueness, as its main component was the power source of the First Demon Emperor, who is the first and strongest demon in all of the Universal God's Domain's history.
According to legends, the First Demon Emperor had reigned supreme during the oldest eras of God's Domain as one of the strongest creatures to ever exist, the entire demon race having originated from him, and he was also proclaimed as the inventor of the Black Destruction Soul Fire, which he had passed onto his heirs; having gained the title Lord of Destruction after using it to decimate many opponents and destroy multiple civilizations.
He became feared as a result of the Soul Fire that could destroy any creature's soul and prevent most forms of resurrection, which had been completely new at the time and a work around the conventional way of using brute force to destroy a person's soul. Naturally, the entire demon race then became feared after the First Demon Emperor granted them the ability to use the Destruction Soul Fire.
Meanwhile, being a weapon that utilized such a being's Divine Source, the Pandemonium Lashblade had been one of the strongest weapons and Divine Artifacts in existence during its peak; especially when it was being wielded by Celestina who had been capable of showing its true power.
Unlike most Divine Artifacts that had control over Laws, the Pandemonium Lashblade, in spite of most people thinking it used the Intermediate Law of Darkness[3] at an extremely high Mastery standard, actually utilized a Source Power.
Source Powers were a very unique form of power in God's Domain, being essentially energy, and not something even Laws could contend against when their true power was revealed.
Mana was one such Source Power. Though, the Mana everybody knew of and used was merely a diluted fraction of a Source Power, or more like the byproduct of a Source Power.
Most Source Powers exist everywhere and are infused with many of the world's mechanics, but, unlike Mana, were simply unable to be used by regular people to a notable extent, while even those that could perceive and utilize them aren't able to show their true capabilities.
Only through a concentrated amount and a medium could a Source Power's true might be revealed.
However, items that had proper control over such powers were some of the rarest things in the entire game.
Nearly zero Divine Artifacts possessed Source Powers that could be fully utilized, and it was something Godly Relics were more known for being capable of using, as well as one of the reasons some Godly Relics had powers surpassing Divine Artifacts.
Even when considering the extreme rarity of all Godly Relics, though, those relics that used Source Powers were incredibly rare.
Naturally, the Pandemonium Lashblade which was a Divine Artifacts that could use the purest form of the Power of Darkness, one of the strongest Source Powers out there, had been practically unrivaled, only items that could use other Source Powers or Peak Laws having a chance to contend against it.
In spite of falling to the ranks of Fragmented Legendary Weapons and losing most of its power, the Demon Sword was still a top-tier weapon among those of the same rank, and could be repaired to its peak as long as a sufficient quality and quantity of Power of Darkness is absorbed thanks to the power source of the First Demon Emperor within it.
After inspecting the Pandemonium Lashblade's changes, Feng didn't waste any more time on checking his gains, deciding to level himself back up to Level 99 in order to push his attributes to their peak, before sprinting around and picking up all of the drops from Knettel and the hundreds of monsters along with the Salvage Corp troops.
When less than thirty seconds of Heavenly Dragon's Power's duration remained, all of the loot was finally collected and stored in Feng's Spatial Bag.
Immediately afterwards, Feng recalled Salvage Corp's ghost summons and activated the Gate of Darkness, Moloch's Ring's only skill that would get him to where he needed to go in order to obtain the Bible of Darkness and complete his Epic Quest.
Boom!
The ground suddenly trembled as dark smoke slowly emerged from the forest floor. After a moment, the black smoke formed a pair of gates that was over five meters tall. There were countless golden runes engraved on the gates, radiating a frightening pressure.
As the gates were currently locked, Feng took out the Chapter of Darkness that had been guarded by the Great Lord Noya and placed it into the small groove on the center of the gates.
When Feng pushed the black slate tablet into the groove, the golden runes on the gates suddenly linked with each other, releasing a golden brilliance. The gates began to open slowly.
The instant the gates opened, Feng felt as if something were emerging from within the gates. A powerful pressure coming from the other side pushed against him, making it difficult to move, but Feng just shrugged it off and advanced to the other side of the Gate of Darkness.
After Feng entered the Gate of Darkness, it seemed as if he had entered an entirely different space.
A mountain, so tall that he could not even see its peak, loomed before him. He could also see many magnificent temples on the mountainside. These temples grew larger as one approached the top of the mountain. The temples at the foot of the mountain were merely ten meters in height. The largest temple that Feng could see from here was over a hundred meters in height. Other than their massive sizes, these temples also radiated a powerful Divine Might.
While Feng was still observing his surroundings and preparing for what was to come, a figure suddenly flew down from the peak of the mountain. The figure descended with lightning speed, and in the blink of an eye, it appeared before Feng.
Feng's gaze grew heavy as looked up at the enchanting woman, who had two[4] pairs of pitch-black wings on her back, an obvious sign of her being a Fallen Angel, hovering above his head.
Fallen Angels were considered Higher Beings in God's Domain, and they were born far stronger than Ordinary Beings. They were also known to be invincible against Ordinary Beings of the same Tier.
Even a Tier 5 expert with a Tier 5 Taboo Skill could only run when facing a Tier 5 Fallen Angel.
Meanwhile, this Tier 5 Fallen Angel, Serena, with whom Feng was fairly familiar with, in particular, had managed to achieve something no other creature in the entirety of the Universal God's Domain had been able to do.
Which was actually kill Feng.
Serena was the first and only person to have killed Feng during the previous timeline, marking one of the few stains on Feng's track record during his career which he had never been able to erase.
It didn't matter what type of situation he found himself in, what opponent he faced, what insurmountable obstacle was placed in front of him. Feng always managed to get through it one way or another.
Sure, he may have lost a couple of times to enemies stronger than him, and of course, he wasn't able to always get the result he wanted or complete an objective, failing a large number of times and making many mistakes during his second life.
But Feng had never died.
Not against impossibly powerful adversaries during his earlier stages.
Not later on once some start viewing him as a threat.
Not when surrounded by Ancient Gods, or against Primordial Gods, or even when faced with those beings who had surpassed Primordial Gods and grasped Half-step Rules.
Not even in dungeons.
He may have had to run like a bitch too many times to count. He may have had to desperately cling onto his life often. He may have gotten incredibly close to dying and been on the verge of losing everything he had spent his entire life fighting for practically every day.
Nonetheless, he had never died!
...Up until that time he got killed for real in real life and reincarnated.
But at least not in God's Domain!
Thus, Serena, a Tier 5 creature, killing Feng and giving him his first and only death in his previous life had left a permanent scar on his otherwise clean death count.
Of course, Feng wouldn't lose any sleep over something like that or really care about it, as he had died an uncountable number of times during his first life in order to grow stronger and fight for various things, while many of those deaths had been in incredibly noob or stupid ways, and sometimes both.
Such a death, though, did put a sore spot in the back of his mind that would slightly bother Feng whenever he thought about it, as well as find it slightly funny that a person he could easily slap to death at the time had at one point been able to kill him without him even being able to react at all.
Albeit, in Feng's defense, he had only been a Tier 1 human up against a Tier 5 Fallen Angel when that happened, so the situation had been pretty much beyond his control.
Be that as it may, Feng wasn't going to have a repeat of what had happened ten years ago this time around as he faced the Tier 5 Serena as a mere Tier 1 Swordsman once more.
Obviously, the idea of killing Serena like how he had dealt with Knettel didn't even occur to Feng.
After all, he might have been able to kill a Tier 4 Great Demon, but against a Tier 5 Fallen Angel, he had no hope of achieving such a feat. In front of a Tier 5 Fallen Angel, even the Tier 4 Great Demon Knettel was an insignificant speck of dust.
Within a Domain established by a Tier 5 being, most of his skills would be useless, and even getting away using the Seven Luminaries Ring's Space Movement would be nearly impossible.
Well... if Serena was a Tier 5 Fallen Angel of the same level as him, Feng might have considered giving a shot at fighting the Higher Being.
However, the information Feng received when he used the Eyes of Truth on Serena immediately erased all notions of even attempting to put up any sort of fight against her from Feng's mind.
[Serena] (Fallen Angel, Legendary)
Level 200
HP 700,000,000,000
A Level 100 Tier 5 Fallen Angel would already be an existence Feng had zero chance at fighting against, let alone a Level 200 one.
Hence, Feng was merely planning on getting away from the Tier 5 Fallen Angel with his life intact.
"Human, it seems that you are quite courageous. Despite being only a Tier 1 Swordsman, you have actually dared to steal Moloch's Ring from Knettel," the Fallen Angel said, wearing a mischievous expression. She looked like a child who had just gained a new toy to play with.
Hearing Serena say so, flashbacks of her flawless white hand piercing through his heart before he could even realize what had happened started coming back to Feng, and he instantly activated Blade Liberation.
In comparison to the huge boost in attributes Blade Liberation had previously granted Feng when used on the Pandemonium Lashblade, the increase Feng received from the Legacy Berserk Skill was now even higher after the Demon Sword had absorbed Knettel's heart and Power of Darkness.
Although his sharp instincts warned him of extreme danger, the Fallen Angel disappeared from the sky and appeared right in front him before Feng could react. Regardless of his combat standards in the Realms of Refinement and Realms of Truth, in front of absolute strength and speed, it was all worthless.
But while Serena stood around one yard away from him, the Fallen Angel's speed dropped by 20%.
Even though it is destroyed and its control on the element of time was now feeble, Yog-Sothoth's effects weren't something any Tier 5 creature could ignore, as it still contains traces of the Law of Time within it, and one would have to reach at least Tier 6 in order to resist them.
As such, Serena had taken the full brunt of Chrono Ensnare, her entire being becoming slowed and her Agility, Movements Speed, Attack Speed and Reaction Speed getting decreased by 20%, while the decrease in speed of her jade-like hand, which was currently quickly approaching Feng's chest, grew the closer it got to him.
With that sizeable drop in the winged woman's speed, along with Feng stealing some of it from her through Temporal Siphon, gaining 1% of a Level 200 Tier 5 Fallen Angels Agility and 2% of all her speed-type stats, while his own attributes were fairly high with Twofold Berserk in action, Feng was finally able to barely keep up with Serena's movements.
Of course, that didn't mean he could dodge her approaching hand that had not the slightest excess movement in it, the Fallen Angel having physical control comparable to that of a Domain Realm expert, and he could only perceive her attack now.
Nevertheless, that was enough for Feng to take a course of action which might just save his life.
Mysticsteel Body!
Void Shield!
Absolute Defense!
Divine Steps!
As Feng activated multiple Lifesaving Skills at once and attempted to switch positions with one of the doppelgangers, the sound of Serena's white hand piercing through Void Shield as if it was made of paper sounded in his ears.
In spite of reducing the Damage it took by 90% while also having an HP of over one hundred times of Feng's regular HP thanks to Mysticsteel Body increasing it by 1,000% and Void Shield forming a shield with ten times that, there was only so much even a Legendary rank item can do against a gap of four tiers and 101 levels.
Still, Void Shield had managed to slow down Serena's incoming casual attack by a fraction of a second and reduce its power, so when the flawless hand and the Fallen Angel's nails collided with the Tier 3 Absolute Defense, they didn't instantly break it apart and dig Feng's heart out.
The Seven Luminaries Ring's Lifesaving Invincibility Skill had bought Feng the time he needed to switch places with a doppelganger fifty yards away from Serena, so that he would be close enough for the Fallen Angel to not get immediately serious and use any of her extremely powerful abilities in order to kill him, as well as still having Serena within Temporal Siphon's range so that he doesn't lose the miniscule portion of her overpowered attributes, while still being far enough to have a chance at escaping from here alive.
"Oh?" A surprised sound was emitted from the winged woman upon seeing her hand harmlessly pass through Feng's doppelganger that was impervious to damage after shattering Absolute Defense's barrier just when Feng had managed to switch positions. She then turned towards Feng's real body, easily locating his presence within her Mana Domain, saying with a faint, curious smile, "I'm shocked you were able to avoid my strike. Now just how did you manage to achieve something like that as a mere Tier 1 Swordsman?"
Despite her attack failing to kill the person before her when she had intended to take his life, Serena didn't seem at all upset about it, and the winged lady seemed more curious than concerned about how Feng was able to survive after facing such an insurmountable gap in strength between them.
The Fallen Angel showed zero worry of Feng getting away from her with his life, nor did she entertain the thought.
After all, she had previously merely stretched her hand out casually towards him in a piercing motion while placing barely any strength in it, which was the only reason Feng was able to get away in time from the reaper's grasp.
However, now that he had her attention, with her already suppressing the space around them with her Mana Domain as soon as she had located Feng's real body, preventing all teleportation and cutting off his connection with the other doppelgangers away from them, there was no possible way Feng could leave here alive without her permission.
As for running away?
Just the notion of that is hilarious.
In front of her focused gaze, a Level 99 Tier 1 human looked no different than moving in slow motion.
Thus, Serena was in no hurry to slay this intruder, and instead wished to first properly inspect him for just what kind of secrets the human has up his sleeves to be capable of avoiding the strike of a Level 200 Tier 5 Fallen Angel.
Unbeknownst to Serena, though, this arrogance of hers, although befitting of a creature with her strength and reasonable, had created the perfect opportunity for Feng, who had previously worried the Fallen Angel would decide to just immediately kill him, to do the impossible.
"Although I have no qualms about chatting with a beauty such as yourself, I'm, unfortunately, in a bit of a hurry at the moment, so I'll be taking my leave first, Miss Serena. Fret not, however, as you'll have the pleasure of talking to me once I come to collect the Bible of Darkness from you a short while from now." With a friendly remark, Feng used Spatial Shift; not planning on trying his luck in front of a Level 200 Tier 5 Fallen Angel any further.
The response she received to her question only caused Serena to raise an eyebrow in amusement, and even though she could sense the spatial fluctuations around Feng as he activated Spatial Shift that was normally instantaneous, the four-winged woman did nothing to prevent the human from attempting to use his escape skill, knowing her Mana Domain would stop any form of teleportation a Tier 1 creature could possibly achieve.
But when Feng disappeared right in front of her eyes without the Fallen Angel having a chance to react until it was already too late, her faint smile froze. She stared hard at that spot for a couple of seconds, having no idea how the human had used a teleportation skill without having activated any means to resist her Mana Domain.
Moments later, though, the realization that she had just allowed an intruder who hadn't used the proper way to enter this place to get away dawned on Serena, her blunder causing the Fallen Angel to grow anxious as she knew the possible consequences of not fulfilling her duty.
However, it was still not too late to correct this situation, and she'd still be completing her job as long as she kills that adventurer before its too late.
Thinking of so, the Fallen Angel scanned the entire World Summit with her senses, but she found no traces of Feng's presence anywhere on the mountain.
Serena's previously healthy and flawless face suddenly paled when she couldn't locate Feng, knowing that the only possible answer was that he has already fully escaped from her.
Deciding that, since the situation had already progressed to this state, she'd simply have to take some more drastic measures, the expression of the Level 200 Tier 5 Fallen Angel that had been fooled grew firm, her pitch-black wings flapping and causing Serena to disappear from her spot.
---
Much further away from the towering mountain, Feng was currently dashing across the golden avenue that was paved through the endless plains around, avoiding the countless monsters moving along this avenue towards the towering mountain.
The monsters' Levels varied greatly, with the lowest being Level 10 and the highest being over Level 100. A single glance told one that there were tens of thousands of monsters moving along the golden avenue.
Moreover, these monsters consisted of a wide variety of races; the majority were not linked to the forces of darkness. There were even human NPCs. These NPCs also did not belong to the dark forces, and they looked more like Adventurers. Like the monsters, the NPCs' Levels ranged from Level 10 to over Level 100.
But Feng payed no attention to all these creatures moving along, knowing no one could attack anyone while inside this region and that there was no danger to him running like a mad man, jumping over and cutting off anybody that was too slow and got in his way.
Thanks to the Space Helmet's Spatial Liberation, Feng was able to resist the effects of Serena's Mana Domain and use the Fragmented Legendary Helmet's active skill, Spatial Shift, in order to teleport to the bottom of the mountain. After all, the Space Helmet was a treasure created by the Goddess of Space as the ultimate spatial tool, so even at Fragmented Legendary rank, it was still capable of pushing through the suppression of a Tier 5 Fallen Angels Mana Domain.
Though, this would normally be impossible for anyone who was here in the Dark Den for the first time to achieve even with the Space Helmet, but Feng already knew all the possible coordinates that he could teleport to from his previous life, so he was able to pull off his escape from the clutches of a Tier 5 Fallen Angel over a hundred levels higher than him.
Of course, had Serena bothered to try and stop him from teleporting instead of just watching on, Feng would have been fucked even with the Space Helmet's spatial abilities.
The reason Feng was currently running like a man with the devil on his heels was that, even though he was fairly certain Serena wouldn't leave the mountain and the World Summit due to the duties assigned to her there, he wasn't completely sure the Fallen Angel wouldn't chase after him in order to complete his punishment for using an improper method to arrive at the Dark Den's central region.
So, not intending to risk anything, Feng ran at his top speed towards the mountain, planning to get to the World Summit and enter a space where he would be safe from Serena while Blade Liberation was still in effect, of which still much duration remained due to his exchange with Serene being extremely quick and short.
Arriving at the foot of the mountain, Feng finally slowed down a bit as he continued up the golden avenue which led towards a massive altar. Above the altar, countless monsters fought viciously, tearing each other apart. Occasionally, victors would emerge from the ceaseless battles, holding a golden key. These victors would then scale the mountain, reaching Feng's original arrival point.
There weren't any high-tiered monsters guarding the mountain, nor were there Tier 5 Fallen Angels patrolling the sky, so Feng felt relived, thinking that Serena wasn't planning on chasing him all the way out here.
In the next moment, however, Feng's sixth sense warned him of incoming, fatal danger.
Without any hesitation, Feng activated Void Walk and entered the void.
Boom!
An incredibly powerful shockwave spread out from the place Feng had just been standing at, but due to him entering the void, Feng was unaffected by it.
A figure descended from the air towards Feng's former location, scanning the unscathed golden avenue and nearby surroundings for the missing human.
Serena couldn't believe that she had failed to kill that adventurer once again, this time not the least bit amused by Feng's impossible capabilities and merely wishing to finish him off.
Although Feng had been in a rush and didn't act exactly discreet in his approach towards the mountain, he hadn't forgotten to change his appearance with the Demon Mask while completely erasing his presence and suppressing his aura during his run, dashing soundlessly through the crowd and using the creatures on the path as cover from any obvious watching spots.
Thus, Serena had been unable to locate him on Feng's way here, while he had slowed down at the end and wasn't as obvious. Only when Feng was about to step up on the altar and be out of harms way did the Fallen Angel who was about to go mad finally manage to discern his location.
But the human had once again escaped right in front of her eyes, and Serena still had no idea where he had disappeared off to.
The flying woman's pitch-black wings suddenly froze in mid air when she sensed a familiar presence on the alter. But when she turned around and was about to complete her punishment dealing...
Feng had already activated the test for entering the World Summit, marking the end of her chance to kill him.
System: Defeat all enemies before you, and you will be given entry into the World Summit.
System: You will gain 1 minute for every Common Monster killed, 10 minutes for every Elite Monster killed, 30 minutes for Special Elites, 100 minutes for Chieftains, and 500 minutes for Lords.
System: You may choose 10 monsters to serve as your opponent. If you fail to defeat all of your opponents, you will die.
System: You have 19 minutes to decide. Failure to do so will result in automatic forfeiture. You will die if you forfeit.
"Just barely made it in time." Feng breathed out a sigh of relief as he immediately selected ten Lords as his opponents.
System: Opponents confirmed. Based on the analysis of your combat power[5], this test's difficulty is SSS-rank. Once victorious, you will obtain a key that can be used to open Shrine Gates that are Legendary rank or lower. Do you wish to confirm your choice?
Feng took out several Levellume Capsules, filling up all of them and dropping to Level 50, before hitting "Confirm", not having any more time to spare with less than two seconds of Blade Liberation remaining.
A moment later, ten monsters appeared before Feng on the altar; all ten of them were Lords. All of the monsters were combat puppets of the same shape and size as an average player.
[Golden Puppet] (Lord Rank)
Level 50
HP 6,000,000/6,000,000
As soon as the battle started, and before the ten puppets could even take a step forward, they were instantly met with a sea of lightning in their faces.
Thundering Flash!
The ten Golden Puppets were instantly decimated by Feng's attack, their HP bars emptying out, while the system notified him of his victory.
System: You have completed the SSS-rank difficulty test. Rewarding Legendary Shrine Key. Time awarded increased by 100%. You have received 10,000 minutes.
After the test ended, Feng stepped onto the mountain, and Blade Liberation immediately ended, throwing Feng into a Heavily Weakened state for two hours.
When Feng stopped to rest, an enchanting beauty with two pairs of pitch-black wings appeared before him. As the woman hovered in the air, she radiated an aura that suggested that she could triumph over all beings; yet such a suggesting presence can obviously be misleading.
This woman was none other than the Fallen Angel Serena, who was currently looking down at the only person on the World Summit with a disgruntled expression on her beautiful face.
"Tch, since someone has obtained the Legendary Shrine Key, activate the Divine Staircase!" Serena's voice echoed throughout the World Summit. Every player, a total of a whopping one, in the World Summit could hear her clearly. "If you wish to obtain power, perform Exploits that even the Gods will acknowledge!"
When Serena's deadpan voice of someone who didn't want to be here fell silent, the World Summit began to tremble. One pitch-black shrine after another rose from the ground. They hovered in the air and were connected by pitch-black staircases. This spiral chain of shrines extended to the World Summit's peak.
The formation of these spiraling shrines had lasted several minutes, and throughout the process, Feng watched these shrines form while resting his burdened arms with which he had been executing Thundering Flash and Moonchaser all this time ever since his destruction of District Five and the fight with Knettel.
When the spiraling shrines were complete, a grounded, pitch-black shrine manifested among the many Bronze Shrines.
Feng began to walk over towards the grounded shrine, planning to check if everything is the same as he remembered, when he noticed Serena still hovering in the air and looking at him.
Her gaze forced Feng to freeze in place. Even though he knew it was pretty much impossible for the Fallen Angel to do anything to him now that he had already passed the test and entered the World Summit unless he broke any more rules, going by the irked winged woman's previous behavior, he couldn't write off the possibility of her choosing to kill him right now anyway; and he'd be utterly powerless to resist.
Thankfully, Serena neither did nor said anything else, simply turning away. But before she disappeared from sight, Feng saw a glint in the Fallen Angel's eyes, and he had a bad premonition, knowing it was fairly likely Serena has yet to give up on executing the punishment on him for using an incorrect method to enter the World Summit.
After all, she'd be on the receiving end of the stick if she didn't properly complete her responsibilities.
Shaking off the thought and choosing to worry about it later, Feng approached the pitch-black shrine on the ground and examined the rules on the stone monument beside it.
Unlike the Shrines around the World Summit, the Divine Staircase's Shrines didn't require corresponding keys or time to unlock. Rather, players had to rely on their own power to ascend to the next shrine.
Since it didn't cost time to climb the Divine Staircase, players could explore its shrines as long as they had time remaining. However, the number of times they could climb the Divine Staircase depended on the type of Shrine Key the players carried.
Players could only climb the Divine Staircase once if they had a Bronze Shrine Key, while Mysterious-Iron Keys would allow players to climb the staircase twice. Secret-Silver Keys granted players three entries, Fine-Gold Keys granted four, Dark-Gold Keys granted five entries, Epic Keys would allow players to climb seven times, Inferior Legendary Keys allowed players access to the Divine Staircase ten times and Legendary Keys provided players with twenty goes at the Divine Staircase. However, once players exhausted their entries, they'd be forced out of the World Summit regardless of how much time they had remaining.
Meanwhile, each time players cleared a pitch-black shrine, they would earn a corresponding number of Shrine Points. They could then use these Shrine Points to purchase various items available in the World Summit. Players didn't need any specific qualifications to purchase these items; as long as they had the required number of points, they could buy any item they wanted.
The most shocking thing was the fact that players could use these Shrine Points to improve their Life Rating!
It was common knowledge in God's Domain that improving one's Life Rating was extremely difficult. Improving one's Life Rating wasn't just a matter of a stronger physique. Rather, it was a life transition. For example, if one compared an Archaic Species to a normal human being, the Archaic Species' Basic Attributes would be several times higher than a human's of the same level. This was the difference of a higher Life Rating.
This was also why Archaic Species became more difficult to deal with as they rose in level.
Although players could improve their Life Ratings by upgrading their tiers, the improvement was minuscule. For example, an ordinary Tier 5 player's Life Rating was only slightly higher than an ordinary Tier 1 player's. This was also the reason that Tier 5 players were significantly weaker than Tier 5 monsters.
The Attribute difference wasn't much during the early levels, and players could easily close the gap with top-tier weapons and equipment. However, as players rose in levels, particularly after passing Level 100, the advantage of a higher Life Rating would become apparent and would only become more evident as players progressed in the game.
At which point, players might be able to kill other players of higher tiers, but they'd be dreaming if they thought they could take out monsters of higher tiers.
Only after reaching Tier 6 would players truly transition. Tier 6 players' Life Rating was worlds apart from ordinary Tier 5 players. At Tier 6, players would also qualify to challenge Tier 6 Gods.
Meanwhile, players could actually improve their Life Ratings with the Shrine Points from the Divine Staircase. Why wouldn't that be shocking?
However, the price of improving one's Life Rating would leave anyone speechless.
Even the cheapest Bloodline required 100,000 Shrine Points and one Exploit.
Passing the first pitch-black Shrine only awarded 10 Shrine Points. Although the others would award more, one still had to pass a considerable number of Shrines to accumulate enough Shrine Points to purchase the Bloodline. Furthermore, there was no information on how to perform an Exploit, while the rules didn't mention anything about it.
Even if someone collected 100,000 Shrine Points, without an Exploit, they wouldn't be able to purchase a Bloodline to improve their Life Rating.
Meanwhile, players could purchase various other items, such as potions, designs, recipes, Mounts, siege weapons, God Crystals, and other precious items. There were even Fragmented Legendary items up for trade.
Naturally, the Fragmented Legendary items were extremely expensive. Even the cheapest cost 70,000 Shrine Points, while the more expensive items could cost up to 240,000 Shrine Points and three Exploits...
Moreover, players had to spend the Shrine Points they earned with each visit as their counter would reset to zero when they returned. Fortunately, Exploits were permanent and would only disappear when players spent them or deliberately deleted them. In other words, if players had a certain item in mind, they had to earn enough Shrine Points in one visit to purchase it.
Even so, the people would drool over the prospects of these treasures.
After all, even Epic items were currently practically illusory to regular players. In fact, there hadn't been any news of a Super Guild obtaining any thus far; not to mention Fragmented Legendary items.
Seeing that all the information was the same, Feng didn't dilly-dally any longer, unequipping the Blood Emperor's Armor and spreading his wings as he began flying up towards the Epic Shrines at high speeds.
Since he had 10,000 minutes at the moment, Feng first planned on using up all his Epic Shrine challenges, before spending the rest of what time he had remaining on the Divine Staircase.
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1. If someone hasn't seen this already, here's a document of Feng's current equipment and other stuff. Updates over time.
2. I know the effect of the Demon Slayer title that he originally got when he completed the Darkness Descends Quest from the wiki, but I don't remember the exact details or when it was used. If someone still remembers or has a way of finding out, please comment.
3. From what I know, the Law of Darkness is an Advanced Law in the SS, but that's because LOC is, how to put it kindly, an idiot.
There is not a single way in fuck that the Darkness element is on the same level as elements like Destruction, Space, Time, Death, Creation and such. Not a single chance in hell.
Of course, it's clearly superior to basic elements like Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and such regular stuff, but it's definitely not on the level of Advanced Laws. So, the most fitting rank for Darkness is something in between like Intermediate rank.
But since LOC is apparently allergic to consistency, he decided that there should be Basic Laws, then, skipping an entire rank that's appeared many times in the series even though it should clearly exist due to the difference in power between many elements, Advanced Laws, AND THEN, by my understanding which I hope to God is incorrect which please comment and correct me if I'm wrong, came up with some complete and utter bullshit rank called Goddess Laws that makes absolutely zero sense.
I refuse. I simply refuse to have something so stupid and retarded in my fanfic. So, Darkness is an Intermediate Law.
4. In the OG chapters, it was said that Serena had three pairs of wings, but then that would make her a Higher Fallen Angel, while she was repeatedly stated to be a regular Fallen Angel, which I think have either one or two pairs of wings going by regular Angel ranks, in the OG, which also made more sense for Feng to be capable of beating during the shrine fight than a Higher Fallen Angel, which should be much stronger than a regular Fallen Angel and have strength close to that of Dragons.
Though, I'm not sure if it was intended for Serena to be a Higher Fallen Angel or if LOC had simply written three pairs of wings before the ranks for Angels was properly established, or if Higher Fallen Angels even exist since it was never stated that Fallen Angels had a rank aside from regular Fallen Angels and Fallen Archangels, with there only being Higher Angels/Higher Valkyries which had been described as having power close to that of Dragons, which was the same power level given to Serena, or if Fallen Angels are maybe simply stronger than regular Angels.
It sure would have been nice if LOC ever bothered to expand a bit on the lore and actual power scaling, and not just repeatedly add more ranks without clarifying if any of his previous statements which don't make sense in the current context still apply, but whatever; maybe I'm just being bothered with some details that don't really matter in the great scheme of things.
5. I know this isn't exactly accurate, but it has never quite made sense to me how this is calculated for the test considering the Party Tests.
