Chapter 88: Chapter 82: Beginning of the End
Zeke’s voice sounded in the Heavenly Demon’s head, "I’m assuming you’re here to help."
The Heavenly Demon said, "Yeah, I am. Now, I don’t know what you did, but you need the treasures right now, or your Lotus Hells will end up devouring you completely."
Zeke replied, "I kinda noticed that. I’m running dangerously low on blood. Thankfully, my blood essence hasn’t been devoured just yet, but I don’t have a lot of time left."
The Heavenly Demon said, "But there is something wrong with this Spirit Devouring Storm."
Zeke said, "So it has a name?"
The Heavenly Demon said, "Yeah, it does. Anyways, it isn’t supposed to be this grand, and there are supposed to be nine of them. It’s almost as if—"
Zeke continued his sentence, "The nine of them merged into one big Spirit Devouring Storm? Yeah, that is exactly what is going on. It must be because of the modifications in my technique."
The Heavenly Demon said, "If there is only one storm, it means that there will be only one Demonic Spirit. You have a lot of options for the treasures, so quickly choose one."
The Heavenly Demon then gave him a quick rundown of the choices that he had.
Zeke said, "The False Dragon."
The Heavenly Demon looked at the Mountain Crushing Demon Monarch and said, "Throw the corpse into the storm."
The Mountain Crushing Demon Monarch nodded and picked up the huge corpse of the False Dragon by its horns and hurled it into the storm. That was all he needed to do. The storm sucked the rest of the corpse right in. It started shrinking but stopped very soon.
Zeke’s voice sounded in the Heavenly Demon’s head once again, "Whatever you did made things easier, but it is far from enough."
The Heavenly Demon said, "Since this Spirit Devouring Storm is made up of nine storms, maybe you need nine treasures as well."
Zeke said, "That makes sense. Use the corpse of the False Phoenix, the soul and blood essence of the Nine-Headed Serpent, the blood essence of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Space Jade, the Meteor Iron, the silk from the Yin and Yang Silkworm, and the Ginseng King."
The Heavenly Demon ordered the Demon Monarchs to throw these treasures into the storm. As soon as the treasures entered the mouth of the storm, they seemed to disappear, and the storm started shrinking aggressively. The Heavenly Demon heaved a sigh of relief, but as if to mock him, the storm stopped shrinking.
He muttered, "My son’s Spirit Devouring Storm seems to be just as voracious and greedy as him."
He looked at the Demon Monarchs and said, "The rest of you, throw in the treasures that you have prepared as well. Yin and Yang Elders, you do the same."
The Demon Monarchs and the Yin and Yang Elders did as they were told. The storm shrunk once again but stopped.
The Heavenly Demon said, "I guess it won’t be satisfied until I throw that in."
He produced a medallion from his sleeves. It was octagonal in shape and seemed to have been forged from a black metal. There was a blood-red nine-petaled lotus carved out on it. The Demon Monarchs gasped when they saw the medallion. It was the Divine Demonic Medallion, a symbol of authority held by the Heavenly Demon. According to the legends, the first Heavenly Demon had forged it from a metal he had discovered in the Bloodline Inheritance Grounds of a Ninth Transformation Spirit Beast.
This medallion had bathed in the blood essence of all of the Heavenly Demons and was the master key that could control all of the formations in the Heavenly Demon Palace, possibly the entire Cult. The only restriction to its use was that it could only be used by members of the Cheon Bloodline. But the Heavenly Demon threw it in the storm without any hesitation. It wasn’t because of his fatherly love but because if Zeke died, there would be no Cult left for the formations to function.
The storm shrunk to the point that all of the people present could see the Abyss. Yes, it was still dark, but that wasn’t something that couldn’t be helped by channeling a little bit of inner qi to their eyes. It had been wiped clean. There wasn’t a single vengeful spirit left in sight.
There were only two things left in the Abyss: the storm with Zeke in its eye, and Yeomra. Although the storm had shrunk, it seemed to have no intention of stopping. It was as if one final piece was missing.
But Zeke didn’t have that much time. Because, as the storm was shrinking, its speed was also increasing. Now, that didn’t bother him before because of the treasures that were being fed to the storm, but now that there weren’t any treasures left, it had resumed devouring him. He could feel the strength leaving his body as the storm devoured his blood essence. And he couldn’t stop it.
Even with his SSS Grade Will, there was nothing he could do but watch. Watch his body be destroyed by something that he himself had designed.
He tried to hold on as long as he could. He knew that his timeline’s fate rested on his shoulders. His family’s fate. But everything was useless. His body was on the verge of death, and the only reason that he was able to hold on was because of his WILL. As his senses started dulling, he felt a bond. It was his bond to Yeomra.
Through that bond, he spoke to Yeomra, "I guess this is goodbye, isn’t it, Yeomra?"
He could feel Yeomra’s anxiousness through the bond. He tried to calm him down. It was the only thing that he truly considered family in this world. Someone who knew everything about him.
He said, "I hope that your next wielder will be a worthy one. I hope that he will accompany you on a journey of blood. I hope— Wait, Yeomra! What are you doing? No, don’t do this."
