Chapter 53

"Then let's see what's your made of. Bravery or stupidity, I don't care which is it so I'll allow you to freely attack me three times."

Seeing that Zephyr took a certain preparation, the demon simply said because for him, even Zephyr changed any weapon he like, it was insignificant at all.

Zephyr then dashed and immediately used [Blink] instantly appearing in front of the demon. In truth, Zephyr didn't care if the demon would retaliate or not. For him, it was just a mini boss he had to kill and didn't think much.

Activating [Crescent Stream], Zephyr immediately let out numerous slashes. Despite the powerful mana that was emitted by the Bane Sword, the demon remained standing with its arms crossed and without batting an eyelid.

[You have dealt 34,030 damage to the target.]

[You have dealt 25,111 damage to the target.]

[You have dealt 29,600 damage to the target.]

[You have...]

Bane Sword slashed at the demon in its path. The bleeding didn't stop like the demon would have expected. He was shocked as his regenerating ability was not so fast like it used to. Sweat started to fall from his forehead noticing that he made a grave mistake on underestimating Zephyr.

Zephyr then said with a calm and expressionless face. "I thought you were confident in your regenerating abilities? I guess you're not invincible at all."

"You....a mere human...How dare you!"

Tyrannical demonic power immediately exploded from the demon's body as its expression was twisted with intense anger after feeling insulted by Zephyr's words.

"I'm going to rip you apart...!"

Zephyr casually dodged the fast claw that was incoming to him. None of the demon's attacks landed on Zephyr. The demon became even more frustrated as none of his attacks were working.

Due to Zephyr's high super sensitivity stats, he could sense the attacks or where he was about to be hit.

Roarr!!

The demon roared in frustration as the demonic energy were forming into numerous spears. It levitated like the swords of Zephyr. The demon pointed his finger at Zephyr and all black spears flew at Zephyr with extreme speed.

Zephyr wanted to use [Sword Manipulation] to counter the spears but his swords was outnumbered. Lightning immediately surrounded Zephyr as he used [Lightning Body] charging straight towards the demon.

The demon was surprised why he was suddenly surrounded by lightning but grinned on his foolish decision on confronting the spears head on. However, he immediately widened his eyes as the spears just passed through Zephyr without dealing a single damage.

What he did not know was that Zephyr was invincible every time he uses [Lightning Body] but just uses it on movement skill as he hadn't encountered a desperate situation where he needs to utilize the invulnerability effect of the skill.

Arriving in front of the demon, Zephyr then used [Illusory Sword] which the demon were unable to block. Suffering from the intense damages, the demon fell into a realization.

Even though demons were known for being the insanely powerful, he didn't expect he would encounter a human who could fight a demon on equal standing. No, it can't be called an equal standing as Zephyr had the upper hand and completely overwhelmed the greater demon.

The demon was struggling against a human who was still a Tier 1. He then remembered what kind of existence he was facing right now.

'Devil Slayer!'

Suddenly the demon's eyes met Zephyr's gaze and he then flinched. He felt a suppressing assault that would want him to submit. As if the world turned dark for the demon as he gazed at the pair of majestic eyes that looked down at him as if he were an insignificant ant.

"W-What the hell are you? You're not a human!"

A being like itself, which was a greater demon felt fear? This couldn't be real. A demon was a being that lived off of other living being's fear and other negative emotions. For such a being to fell fear, it meant he was contradicting his whole existence.

The demon experienced fear for the first time as he had never experienced being looked down by the [Emperor Eye]. He mistook Zephyr was a monster in human skin.

Seeing the demon who was immediately frozen in fear, Zephyr understood what just happened. He was impressed with the ability of the [Emperor Eye]. As long as he had higher status than his target, this would be the result.

However, Zephyr didn't say anything at the demon who were completely frozen in fear and all it wanted now was to submit and serve him. Suddenly, a thought flashed in his mind as he wanted to test something.

Zephyr putted his hand on the face of the demon. The demon regained his senses but was still unable to move. He felt a chill as if he sensed an ominous feeling.

"What is this, what are you going to do to me?"

The demon roared loudly in a panic manner. It struggled to gather his strength but cannot. Zephyr then spoke in a calm manner.

"Who knows."

Magic power then gathered in Zephyr's hand as he said.

"Devour."

[The Soulstone of Gluttony's 'Predation' has been activated.]

[The Soulstone of Gluttony is attempting to devour the target.]

The demon fell on his knees powerlessly as he was still affected with the after effects of the [Emperor Eye]. Without any resistance, Zephyr completely absorbed the demon along with the body of the Demon's Contractor.

As descending into the body of the contractor was a form of the demon coming down on mortal realm himself. Of course, there would be limitation on the contractor's body because it was channeling the power of a demon directly.

The vessel they had chosen could be broken easily. If a contractor died, it would greatly damage the contracted demon too. This also applies to transcendents which was why a transcendent cherishes his contractor or incarnation.

As the predation was now finished, notification appeared in front of Zephyr.

[Strength stats has increased by 275.]

[Agility stats has increased by 240.]

[Intelligence...]

[Vitality...]

[The demonic factors are being awakened.]

[The demonic factors are being awakened.]

[The demonic...]

[The demonic factors had successfully settled.]

[The demonic power has been added to your Demon Lord's Seed.]

[You have acquired Hollow skill.]

[You have made an achievement that is not easily accomplished. Additional karma will be provided.]

[You have acquired 5,000 karma.]

[You have acquired 7,500 additional karma.]

Zephyr was silent for a while as he didn't expected this. As he had absorbed all of the power of the greater demon, Zephyr perfectly absorbed all the demonic power without any incident because of the Soulstone of Gluttony.

Zephyr's level also rose until level 48 as he gained a massive amount of experience from the greater demon. He then checked out what the new skill he gained from earlier.

[Hollow Lv.1]

Rating: Legendary

[Release and gather the demonic power. Concentrate the demonic energy into a single location, which will then form a mask.

* While Hollow is activated, all stats will increase by 200%.

* The user's skills and abilities will become even more powerful.

* While Hollow is activated, maximum health is reduced by 30%.

Type: Active

Skill Proficiency: 0%

Skill Resources Consumed:350 MP

Cooldown Time: 2 hours.]

Zephyr became interested of what the skill could do. He thought it would also gonna be interesting if his buff skills overlapped with each other like if he activated it together with Sage Arts or Dragonification.

Seeing that he was still on the middle part of the dungeon, Zephyr decided to proceed as he changed the sword he was holding to Blitz Thunder Ray. Zephyr encountered many Demon God's followers but none came out as a demon contractor.

Zephyr guessed not everyone of them was capable of getting a contract with a demon as one has to offer their soul to achieve it. Slashing and cutting the head of the Demon God's follower, Zephyr cleared his way as he looked at the door that he had guesses a boss room.

Zephyr opened the door without a second thought. What awaited Zephyr was all remaining Demon God's followers who were gathered together.

Seeing them, Zephyr took a stance but contrary to what he had expected, none were in their battle forms. They were kneeling in front of a statue and didn't even noticed Zephyr.

Zephyr silently made his way as he observed what they were doing as he had no intentions of disturbing them as he was very curious on what's going to happen.

After a while, the entire room shaked which was centered by the statue. All the Demon God's followers let out a moan of ecstasy as light appeared in the eyes of the statue.

The statue began to crack and shed. Intense demonic power exploded as it was released. After a while, a demon with 6 pitch black wings and sharp 2 horns was revealed. It's eyes was blood red that could make one shiver in fear.

With his curiosity, Zephyr inspected it.

[Orias (Descent)]

Rating: Legendary Boss

Level: 74

Tier: 2/4

Species: Demon Earl

HP: 2,000,000

MP: 1,658,973

(Currently Weakened)

'A legendary demon.'

Seeing the status of the demon, Zephyr thought as he now he understood what the Demon God's followers were doing. They were summoning and making a high tier demon to descent but he did not know why.

Currently it was incredibly weakened because of Tensura's law of casuality because if a demon came to the mortal realm, their presence would be weakened but for the Demon God's followers, it was more than enough.

More importantly, it was a named boss. Named Bosses also known as Hidden Boss.

In the case of Named NPCs, that exert a big and small influence on the worldview on this world. They are enemies where only one exists and are the only ones who do not respawn again after dying.

Once killed, they will not respawn again. Named bosses are usually humanoid NPCs, but they are divided into Named NPCs and Named Monsters. The name of named boss monsters shines in gold just like it symbolizes named NPCs.

Named bosses are absurd and unbalanced enemies that can be fought. They are particularly special compared to and different from mass-produced bosses where many exist. A named boss is by far the strongest.

The peak of the named bosses are the Demon Kings. Even the weaker Demon Kings have transcendent physical abilities and are among the top 100 named bosses.

The decisive difference between named NPCs and Named Monsters is their health. Assuming they have the same level, the health of a named monster is 100 to 1,000 times higher than the health of a named NPC. But this does not mean that named monsters are stronger.

Named monsters are extremely reluctant to waste time on passive actions. Named monsters focus on attacking and crushing the target instead of consuming their strength on defense, evasion, and counter-attacks. They believe in their innate physical ability (health) and fight more aggressively.

Unlike monsters, NPCs have an inherent limitation in their low health. It cannot really be pointed out as a weak point. Their artificial intelligence is also high, so they are real bosses with close to zero weaknesses. It is easy to understand considering the legends that Zephyr encountered in Elysia are NPCs.

Named NPCs polish their 'technique' and they are skilled in defense, evasion, and counter-attacking through the application of technique. They fully realized that their health is limited and they are careful in battle.

This is a difference in combat style. It is not easy to tell which is superior between named NPCs and named monsters. The target being a monster or an NPC is not a significant factor. Both are tough opponents with a few exceptions that possess a powerful attack and are more comfortable dealing with named monsters than named NPCs.

It is easier to hit named monsters compared to named NPCs where it is easy to miss. The biggest weakness of named NPCs, the limited health of humanoids.

Zephyr then hide in a corner as intense curiousity was filled in his mind as he glance at mass of Demon God's followers and the Demon Earl.

"Do I have to fight them all?"

He pondered if he really have to fight as he had big chance of failing. However, for the current Zephyr, failure never came to his mind as there was another thought that came to him.

"This is exhilarating."