Chapter 1152: Formally Begins
The hound looked rather wolfish, and its body was surrounded by plumes of purplish-black smoke. Now that the hunters of Team Zenith could sense it, they were shocked they hadn't noticed it before.
"Because of its bodily structure and its status as a higher-dimensional being, it can't be detected with the naked eye. The reason all of you were able to glimpse it so easily is because this is the eighteenth layer of space. On the first few layers, even sensing it would be an arduous task."
In other words, in 'ordinary' space, only Zhang Lie and Yang Ze might be able to avoid being killed by a stealth attack.
Nightdemon continued, "That's a mass of amorphous matter that never stops revolving: Cxaxukluth."
"An interesting name," Zhang Lie remarked.
"And that's the world devourer." Nightdemon pointed at a small fireball in the far corner, with three burning flower petals imprinted on its surface.
Yang Ze asked, "It likes to consume stuff?"
Nightdemon nodded. "More or less. It consumes worlds as snacks. It was once the nemesis of the king of keys."
Zhang Lie was very surprised. "Worlds as snacks...?"
Nightdemon clarified, "Its title is the Star Devourer. It used to be famous within the three thousand realms for sucking up worlds within the span of breaths, large and superior ones alike. It once warred with the king of keys."
Yang Ze asked, "Why didn't the superior kings of antiquity band together to take it down?"
Sun Mengmeng added, "Didn't the superior kings of antiquity do so against the death spirit king, too?"
Zhang Lie asked, "Is this fireball less threatening than the death spirit king?"
Nightdemon shrugged. "They did try to fight it off, but they were all defeated easily and forced to flee. Even the king of keys was no match for it. The Star Devourer used to be a very famous entity, one that everyone among the three thousand worlds feared. A three-year-old child would cry upon hearing its name, and adults would be so scared as to lose control of their bowels. It was taboo."
Zhang Lie glanced toward the fist-sized fireball hovering in the middle of the room, unable to imagine the source of its fearsome reputation.
Sun Mengmeng asked, "What happened to it in the end?"
"My main body was persuaded to strike and capture it. I found it interesting, so I kept it around."
Zhang Lie remarked, "Only someone like you would allow it to roam freely..."
Yang Ze asked, "How did you manage to tame it to such an extent that it would happily remain as a small fireball?"
Nightdemon explained, "Yomagn'tho has the intelligence of a child. When the three thousand worlds were created on accident, it treated the worlds like the candy in a candy jar. As long as I fed it a few worlds regularly and suppressed it with absolute strength, it quickly turned obedient."
Nightdemon made it sound simple, but this was something only the king of chaos could have accomplished.
Zhang Lie didn't ask just how the king of chaos had manufactured so many worlds.
Nightdemon pointed at a patch of dark void. "That's the World's Eye."
Seven spherical eyes floated in a circle, each reflecting a different spatial dimension.
"The World's Eye can observe all of spacetime."
Nightdemon then pointed in another direction. "Another entity with unique command of spacetime is the Void God."
A nebulous cloud of green and black fog radiated a dark blue mist, with a black-colored eye of fire in the middle.
"That's Azhorra." The guest that Nightdemon pointed to displayed the characteristics of a slug, a squid, and an insect, and it continuously emitted a rather frightening buzz.
Nightdemon then pointed at an ocean of gray sludge. "That's the Moon of Thousand Faces."
The gray sludge looked like it could very well be the origin of life. It looked featureless at first glance, but on closer inspection, there were small black dots that were like heads, and there were millions of such black dots within the sludge, floating in it. The heads were alive, and their eyes conveyed a tormented pain. Their lips murmured soundless cries, and tears rolled down their sunken cheeks.
A bird-like alien, a salamander-like one, a living amalgamation of rock and metal, a plant—all these aliens evoked a tormented pain.
Nightdemon explained, "Those killed by the Moon of Thousand Faces won't simply die. Their souls will be trapped within the sludge, their heads above it."
Suddenly, a dense, scorching cloud of air drifted toward them, bearing shrill screams and cries that threatened to pierce their eardrums. These weren't the sounds of hell, but rather of a living pile of lava.
As the lava rolled toward them, the voices became clearer. It stopped before the gathered hunters, and a 'mouth' appeared on its surface. It glowed brightly with light, and its 'mouth' asked, "Leader's clone, when will the banquet begin in earnest?"
Nightdemon turned to the lava. "Ah, is it already this late? I expect it'll start soon. Please wait patiently just a while longer."
Nightdemon turned back to Zhang Lie. "That was the Starcore Deity, a particularly strong existence among superior kings."
Clearly, the banquet was about to start, and Nightdemon was speaking rapidly.
"The pool of mercury that keeps dissolving and reconstituting over there is the Infinite Torturer." Nightdemon then pointed in another direction. "That's the Violet Smasher."
A shapeless loop of purple light, roughly the size of a human, emitted electric arcs that caused the air to crackle and pop. Looking at it long enough would reveal a few faint remnants of faces within the light.
"And that's Suc'Naath."
Its appearance was a twisting cyclone, around which spun purple and gold runes. It screeched and scraped shrilly, a nausea-inducing cacophony. Several agonized faces appeared within the cyclone.
Suddenly, an orchestra began to play. The almost-sinister music and understated, barely audible tune nevertheless possessed a sense of majesty.
A band marched into the hall. With twisted claws, the players held long, slender flutes playing madness-inducing tones. The band split up into two paired lines and walked along the border of the hall. As they played, the sinister but majestic music resounded through the hall.
Nightdemon sped up. "It's already time, and there are fewer than ten left. I won't introduce them one by one."
Actually, there were quite a few guests that Nightdemon hadn't introduced yet, like a cloud hovering in the air, a black pus-like unidentified object, a beautiful female surrounded by mirrors, each reflecting a sight that wasn't present, and a yellow-green rock...
Only a hall of this size, almost as large as an entire world, could fit all these strange entities, some of whom were of massive size.
There clearly wasn't enough time for Nightdemon to introduce all the guests; he hurriedly left.
The guests all looked around expectantly. "It's starting, it's starting!"
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