The Descent of the Four Gods

Dark power surged violently within Wawalde. He could feel the legacy of Jimi the Cruel, the inheritance of the First Heavenly King, tearing at his flesh. Excruciating pain erupted from every pore, yet it brought a terrible pleasure. Wounds self-healed, fractured ribs regenerated, and even the visible scars inflicted by the Demon Queen now pulsed with eerie dark red flames. Within the inferno, his blood writhed and mended itself.

Wawalde lowered his gaze to his hands. Something writhed beneath his skin, then with a sharp ‘snap’, black scales pierced through the epidermis, spreading upwards along the back of his hands. Each scale was as hard as iron, its edges gleaming with a metallic chill. His fingernails sharpened into claws, and from his fingertips pulsed an urge to tear flesh.

“No…”

He murmured, struggling to suppress the power, yet his body refused to obey. A searing pain erupted in his chest. He looked down to see the holy emblem, which had shielded him countless times, burning on his breastplate—no, not burning, but corroding. Black patterns spread like a spiderweb across the silver-white emblem, hissing and emitting tendrils of black smoke. Within seconds, the holy emblem disintegrated into ash, scattering with the wind.

Suddenly, Wawalde felt four gazes descend from above. He looked up. The sky had ripped open. It wasn’t the sky, but a higher-order existence that had torn through the shattered dome above the throne room. Four colossal phantoms emerged from the void.

A sanguine throne, piled high with bones and skulls; a dry-eyed raven, its wings shimmering with unpredictable light; a putrid, fleshy mass, exuding a sickly sweet stench; and an octopus-like form, interwoven from countless limbs and tentacles, shaping into a beautiful female figure, every inch of her skin trembling. These were the Four Gods.

Wawalde recognized these entities. He had seen their marks on demon soldiers, witnessed the madness in the eyes of their fanatics, but he had never imagined these malevolent deities would one day turn their gaze upon him.

They were laughing.

Countless beams of light descended from the high heavens. These lights were twisted and defiled, each carrying a terrifying “blessing.” They struck Wawalde, burrowing into his flesh and transforming his very being. His bones creaked and groaned, his muscles swelled, and the liquid flowing through his veins was no longer blood, but a scorching, magma-like substance. The vision in his left eye began to redden, the world transforming into a crimson hue before him. Every living creature now appeared as prey, exuding an irresistible allure.

Unprecedented power.

Wawalde felt capable of tearing dragons apart with his bare hands, of shattering mountains with a single punch. The power roared within him, urging him to unleash it, to kill, to embrace true “freedom.”

‘No! This is not freedom, but corruption!’

With a resolute mind, Wawalde halted the mutations consuming his body.

The Demon Queen burst into laughter. “Hahahaha!”

She hovered fifty meters away, her body engulfed in black flames—a power she had gained by sacrificing her life force. Her skin had begun to crack, revealing dark red flesh beneath, yet her eyes remained fervent, brimming with fighting spirit.

The Demon Queen laughed aloud. “I understand now! This is the Four Gods’ game! They want to turn you, Wawalde the Hero, into the new Demon King! No wonder you ants managed to reach my throne room five days ago. Why did the First Heavenly King betray me, stab me, gravely wound me? It was all their doing!”

She spread her arms, and black flames coalesced into enormous wings behind her, suspending her in mid-air. The Demon Queen’s voice sharpened. “But I will not accept this! I refuse to continue as Demon King; I will die here first! Regardless, you are nothing but a plaything for the Four Gods, Wawalde! You and I are no different—mere pawns on their chessboard!”

Wawalde clenched his fists, his black, scale-covered fingers digging deep into his palms. Blood—no, that magma-like liquid—oozed from the cracks, dripping onto the ground and burning small holes into the flagstones. Wawalde spoke each word deliberately. “I will not fall, nor will I accept their arrangements!”

With every syllable, he felt the resistance within him roaring, attempting to tear apart his will.

Echoes resounded from the depths:

“What fault is there in power? You are merely growing stronger!”

“Look at those you protect—what have they done for you? Your comrades are dead, yet you still fight for this world? Is it not because you are weak!”

“Embrace us, and you shall become the new king, ruling this world, and no one will ever again harm those you care for!”

“Kill her, kill the Demon Queen, and you can save Sovenia. She will fall in love with you. What is wrong with that?”

The Demon Queen’s laughter intensified. Her hair danced in the black flames, and her golden eyes gleamed with a frenzied light. Even while consuming her life force, her figure remained perfect, her curves subtly visible through the fire’s glow, her chest heaving violently with her laughter. However, her face was a stark contrast: the left half remained beautiful, while the right was charred and cracked.

She sneered:

“You say you won’t fall? In my long demonic life, I’ve seen too many like you! They all delude themselves into believing they can protect their fragile, powerless faith, but without exception, they eventually embrace supreme power! Because this isn’t corruption, Wawalde, this is evolution! Ascension! Only the weak use a word like ‘corruption’ to comfort themselves!”

Before she finished speaking, the Demon Queen launched a surprise attack. Her form flickered, and she instantly appeared before Wawalde, lunging with a claw aimed at his throat. Wawalde instinctively raised his arm to block. Black scales clashed against the Demon Queen’s sharp talons, emitting a screeching metallic grind. The immense impact sent him reeling back several steps, carving two deep furrows into the flagstones beneath his feet.

The Demon Queen retracted her hand, which was now bleeding. She flicked the blood from her fingertips. “Also, you were talking to me to buy time, weren’t you? What a pity, I was buying time too.”

A chill ran down Wawalde’s spine. He immediately turned to look behind her. The transparent air wall protecting Sovenia was visibly fading.

“No!”

Just as he moved to rush forward, the Demon Queen’s voice exploded like thunder in his ears: “I command you—Slow!”

[King’s Command].

Wawalde felt his body suddenly grow heavy, as if filled with lead. Every step demanded several times his usual effort, the air around him transforming into a viscous mire that clung tightly to his limbs.

Simultaneously, the air before the Demon Queen twisted. Countless dark red energies converged from all directions, coalescing into a colossal decapitating blade before her. The blade stretched over ten meters long, its surface dripping with black flames, exuding an aura of absolute destruction. She turned and swung her hand, the blade whistling as it slashed towards Sovenia behind her.

The air wall shattered with a ‘crack’, dissolving into countless specks of light. The ten-meter-long decapitating blade, emitting a whistling roar, hurtled directly towards the silver-haired elven girl, who knelt trembling on the ground.

Wawalde’s mind went utterly blank.

Sovenia.

The girl who had still reached out to him amidst despair.

The companion who had fought alongside him in the ruins of the Demon King’s palace.

The one who had given him a reason to live on, even after all his comrades had perished in despair. He had sworn to protect her, to get her out of the Demon King’s palace alive.

‘Absolutely not.’

The dark power within him roared wildly, urging him to surrender, to accept more “blessings.” Each surrender would grant him greater power, allowing him to reach Sovenia faster. Wawalde roared, “Shut up!” A bite of his tongue, the sharp pain, cleared his mind for a moment. He stomped, shattering the flagstone beneath his foot, and launched himself forward like a cannonball.

The binding of [King’s Command] was forcibly overridden in that instant. His form moved with the speed of a black shadow, leaving distorted heat waves in his wake, as he secretly summoned an enigmatic doppelganger. His speed was astonishing. The shattered stone pillars flanking the throne crumbled in an instant from the sheer force of his passage. Debris from the ground was swept up, swirling into vortices in the air. The demon banners hanging on the walls were torn to shreds, scattering like burning fireflies.

Wawalde reached her. He flung his arms around the silver-haired girl, pulling her tightly against his back. He took the Demon Queen’s blade himself.

Boom!

The immense impact sent Wawalde flying. His shoulder armor cracked under the blow, sending metal fragments scattering. He collided with a distant stone pillar, smashing a bowl-sized crater into it. The blade’s edge had cut deep into his back, exposing bone, and dark red blood mingled with black flames gushed from the wound. But he did not let go. He clung tightly to Sovenia, rolling several times on the ground until they finally came to a stop.

The Demon Queen’s laughter rang out again. “Hahaha! You’re burdened! How can you win?”

She offered Wawalde no chance to breathe. Her figure flickered, and she charged again. This time, the decapitating blade in her hand had multiplied into twenty blades! Each one was over ten meters long, its surface aflame, carving deadly arcs through the air as they slashed from all directions at Wawalde.

Wawalde, with Sovenia held in one arm, used his other hand to raise his demonic greatsword, gritting his teeth as he met the onslaught. “Clang, clang, clang, clang!” The sound of metal colliding echoed incessantly. The greatsword sparked brilliantly with every impact. Wawalde’s arm trembled, the web between his thumb and forefinger already cracked, and blood flowed down the hilt. He gripped the greatsword desperately, parrying the Demon Queen’s attacks, blade after blade. But he only had one hand. And the Demon Queen’s attacks came from all directions. The seventh blade he barely blocked. The tenth blade caused cracks to appear on his sword. The fifteenth blade saw the cracks spread across the entire sword. The twentieth blade—

Snap!

The demonic greatsword broke into two pieces, the hilt spinning away to embed itself in a distant wall. Wawalde was disarmed. A flicker of wild joy crossed the Demon Queen’s eyes as more than ten energy blades descended. Wawalde looked down at Sovenia in his arms. Her eyes were tightly closed, her face pale, her breathing shallow. Her silver hair lay scattered across his arm, shimmering with a soft glow in the firelight. He could not let her die.

The dark power within him roared again: “Yield! Just a small step, and you will gain strength. You will be able to protect her! This is not corruption; this is merely to protect! You have already lost so much; must you lose even more?”

He murmured, “I’m sorry…” He didn’t know who he was apologizing to. The next second, he yielded. It was just a small step. But that single step provided a breakthrough for the dark power within him.

Wawalde let out a beastly roar: “Arghhhhh!” The wound on his back suddenly erupted with dark red flames. Those flames were not scorching him; they were repairing him—flesh writhed and grew within the fire, fractured bones reconnected, and more black scales sprouted on his skin. Each scale was harder than before, its edges gleaming with a metallic chill. His height increased, his muscles swelled, and his entire being became gaunt, more terrifying. Power. Greater power. The Demon Queen’s attacks fell, but Wawalde was no longer there. His speed increased again. He moved through the throne room like a phantom, holding Sovenia, each step spanning dozens of meters. The energy blades struck where he had just stood, plowing deep furrows into the ground, scattering shattered stone.

The Demon Queen roared, “Still not fast enough!” Her figure flickered, and she reappeared before Wawalde. This time, she no longer condensed energy blades but directly used her hand, the black flames coalescing into a colossal, multi-meter-long blade, like Wawalde’s greatsword, and cleaved downwards at him. Wawalde placed Sovenia behind him and raised his right hand. His black, scale-covered arm gleamed in the firelight, his five fingers pressed together like a sharp blade. Wawalde roared, “Sacred Slash!”

But what erupted from his hand was not the familiar holy light of judgment, but a pitch-black blade of light, radiating an aura of destruction. “Demonic Slash!”

Boom!

The black blade of light clashed with the Demon Queen’s colossal blade, and the entire throne room trembled. The ground fractured, countless cracks spreading outwards like a spiderweb. The demon skull sculptures hanging on the walls crumbled into dust. The Demon Queen was thrown back dozens of meters, plowing two deep gouges into the ground. Wawalde was also in agony. His right arm snapped at the elbow, and his entire forearm spun away, crashing into a distant stone pillar and smashing a large hole into it. Magma-like liquid gushed from the severed limb, but soon, the liquid solidified into new flesh, beginning to regenerate.

He looked down at Sovenia behind him, only to find the girl unconscious. Dead? No, not dead, just unconscious. He had held her too tightly during the battle, essentially choking her out. A wave of self-reproach washed over Wawalde. He quickly placed her behind a relatively safe pile of rubble, then turned to face the Demon Queen. The corrupting power within his body was eroding his sanity. Wawalde said in a deep voice, “I will not yield again,” his eyes gleaming with resolute light. But just then, a strange smile curved the Demon Queen’s lips. She whispered, “Oh, really?” Then she abruptly raised her hand, pointing to the sky. “Maiden Guard—shoot that elf!”

A jolt of alarm went through Wawalde’s heart. He sharply looked up. Above the shattered dome of the throne room, five or six demonic archers had taken position at some unknown point. They hovered in mid-air, their longbows fully drawn, arrowheads wreathed in black flames. They were the remnants of the Maiden Guard. After the Demon Queen killed the Demonic Dragon and revoked her command, they were able to escape the pursuit of the Blood Skull Legion soldiers. “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!” More than ten dark flame arrows sliced through the air like meteors, heading straight for Sovenia, who was hiding behind the pile of rubble. These were tracking arrows; even if Sovenia hid behind cover, the arrows would bypass obstacles and automatically home in on their target. Meanwhile, the Demon Queen charged at Wawalde again, manifesting even more energy blades, forcing him to make a choice: either protect Sovenia and endure the Demon Queen’s attacks, or fight the Demon Queen and watch Sovenia be riddled with arrows. A choice between two evils. No, there was another option. Numerous voices of corruption whispered in his ear, urging him to yield, to stop resisting. Among them, one voice said, “I was once a Holy Knight, just like you. I once rejected this power. You should have heard my name; I am Shuma. Junior, do not resist the supreme power. It can grant you the wishes you seek to achieve.”

Wawalde gritted his teeth. “Why… why force me!” His voice echoed through the throne room, filled with despair and fury. The Demon Queen did not answer, merely laughed. Her laughter was wild, manic, reverberating amidst the burning flames, like a mockery from the abyss. Wawalde’s left eye had completely turned blood-red, while his right eye remained azure, the two colors interwoven and clashing in his pupils. His body trembled, whether from anger or because the dark power within him was frantically eroding his will. More than ten arrows sliced through the air, now less than ten meters from Sovenia. The Demon Queen’s attack was about to land. “Kill them all!” Wawalde roared, his voice causing the immense throne room to tremble. It was less a human voice and more the roar of a wild beast; his other azure eye was quietly changing color.