Chapter 42: The Giant God
Demon Lord Haier Mu did not hear what Joshua said.
Because before the sound could travel far, a burning Flame Demon greatsword, carrying tens of thousands of degrees of heat, had already shattered the superheated air—heated to hundreds or thousands of degrees without anyone noticing—and arrived before its eyes along a vacuum track!
Like a hurricane sweeping the four seas, or a falling meteor from the heavens, one could only see an arc of light flash past, as the air was ignited in an instant and oxygen burned away completely. Facing this greatsword, melted into a mass of gold-red and flying at several times the speed of sound, even a mountain peak would have been blasted into a massive hole. Yet Haier Mu neither dodged nor avoided it.
Watching the sword, the Demon Lord snorted coldly. A tiny crack split open in the carapace on its shoulder within a thousandth of a second, and a red-hot high-temperature light stream shot out, striking the Flame Demon greatsword. *Was the Eye Demon's weak point its eyes?* And after fighting for so long, even a fool would know that in close combat, most beings were no match for this armored demon. It had been engaging the warrior in battle, actually waiting for its subordinate, the Insect Demon Gewagonda, to activate the final preparations in the Black Blood Fortress for dealing with powerful enemies!
The Black Blood Fortress was its territory, Haier Mu's core domain, the only territory of the Thousand-Eyed Demon near the River Styx. It housed a powerful superweapon from another world, the [Magnetic Field Rotation Cannon], as well as the energy core that powered the entire fortress! Just now, using one of its thousands of eyes, it had noticed the Insect Demon quietly leaving the fortress's vicinity, meaning the final measure was ready!
At that moment, at the very center of the fortress, accompanied by the harsh, crackling sound of energy surging, Joshua frowned and looked around. Thick, blood-red lightning bolts had formed a cage, trapping him within. The warrior felt his entire body bound by a vast, surging electromagnetic force that suddenly erupted, imprisoning him in place. Knowing this was the result of the energy core overloading, Joshua looked up at the sky, only to see blasphemous runic arrays beginning to form around Haier Mu, and a mass of blood-red light cradled in its arms. He sensed a power capable of destroying heaven and earth gestating within!
A strange, subtle tremor came—the sound of matter being torn and deformed. Haier Mu was a Demon Lord evolved from an Eye Demon. Its talent lay in various types of ray magic. Centuries of study had allowed it to merge magic with itself, and combined with a demon's natural physique, it was proficient in both spellcasting and close combat. Even if it was slightly inferior in hand-to-hand fighting now, it still possessed formidable strength!
Under the Demon Lord's manipulation, the array adjusted its position and slowly rotated. Even more terrifying pressure descended—Joshua felt an invisible shackle lock onto his body, as if being stared at by some fearsome beast, or targeted by the most dangerous weapon!
And the next moment, the true attack came!
*Creak————*
With the convergence of blood-red light, oxygen in the air was ignited by the high temperature, becoming burning flames and plasma. Matter began to break down at its most fundamental structure, causing blinding flashes to spin in the sky. Haier Mu roared silently in the high-temperature vacuum. Crimson cracks, like wounds, appeared all over its body, and golden light sprayed from within, spinning around it along with dense runes. An instant later, gale winds converged, and a fission ray that tore apart the structure of matter shot forth!
*Boom!*
No sound, no color. In that instant, Joshua felt nothing. A colossal energy erupted before him. The last thing he saw was a sky-filling, descending solar storm.
It seemed like an instant, or perhaps an eternity. With the blinding flash, a bowl-shaped energy shield slowly expanded, then formed a spot of light. Seconds later, a massive mushroom cloud slowly rose. The entire Black Blood Fortress seemed to be erased from the ground, vanishing completely.
*It's over.* The demon thought. *After great effort and no small cost, I've finally killed this troublesome enemy.*
*Letting him get close was the biggest mistake from the start,* Haier Mu reflected. *Years of invincibility made the demon arrogant, forgetting that every sovereign walks out of blood and fire, and none are easy to deal with. A moment's error forced me to self-destruct the Black Blood Fortress's magic core to kill him. Keeping distance and kiting would have been easier.*
The dense runes surrounding the Demon Lord dissipated. Its heart was filled with fury. This time, almost all of its territory's forces were wiped out, and the core Black Blood Fortress was sacrificed along with the enemy. And paying such a heavy price probably only killed one of the opponent's avatars—how could a Legendary expert be so easily killed? Unless the true body was found, killing an avatar of a Transcendent being walking the mortal world was utterly meaningless. But that aside, the opponent should now know its strength and wouldn't come to harass it again.
But suddenly, just as the Demon Lord was calculating its losses, the earth trembled.
Haier Mu looked down in shock and uncertainty. Thousands of eyes gazed at the ground. The flames and mushroom cloud from the fission ray were still slowly rising. One of its eyes subconsciously noticed the far side of the River Styx, where a black dragon seemed to sense something and was running into the distance, as if avoiding some terrifying thing.
And in that moment of distraction, the air burned. Void flames spread. The land and sky for several kilometers around turned into a sea of fire.
There, on the ground, at the very center of that blaze, the Demon Lord could see. It could see a humanoid figure of light slowly standing up, floating in midair. Countless thick silver energy veins spread out from him as a base, like tree roots growing in the earth, instantly forming a larger body. At its head, two extremely bright stars flickered, like a god descending to the mortal world. An unparalleled pressure descended.
*Pop.* As if something had been broken through. Instantly, all the remaining demon troops and Haier Mu felt a bone-chilling cold—it was the feeling of a dangerous beast locking on—no, it was a sensation a thousand, ten thousand times more severe!
They could see a vision transforming into a pair of golden giant god's pupils, flashing red light in the high sky, churning in their minds.
Energy was gathering. Here, in this endless flame, a power vast as the sea was being unsealed. It was a giant god unfolding from compressed condensation, also a fried rice liberated from human form. With the explosive roar of air bursting, a golden giant hand, seemingly made of molten rock, reached out from the flames, grabbing at Haier Mu in the sky.
Like a towering wave, a world-destroying hurricane, the mere aftershock of the grab blew away countless remaining demons along with the surrounding dirt and dust. The fleeing Insect Demon in the distance glanced back and immediately sped up. Though shocked, the Demon Lord also immediately flew to evade. But three more arms reached out from the flames, continuously grabbing at Haier Mu. The air along the way let out sharp tearing sounds, like a water furnace heated to the extreme spraying air outward. The same happened on the giant's body. Temperatures of thousands of degrees, close to the sun's surface, immediately spread. One giant hand brushed past the surviving remnants of the Black Blood Fortress's walls from the explosion. In a single breath, the section of black wall it touched instantly melted.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
Seeing this, Haier Mu cursed in shock. It immediately accelerated to fly higher, but somehow, facing those molten giant hands constantly approaching, the demon felt it wasn't rising but being pulled down by some strange force. With a roar, Haier Mu's hands split open, and two long blue ion beams shot out, allowing it to forcefully accelerate and escape.
*Hoo——————*
A long breath came. With a storm, the sky-wide flames scattered, and a giant humanoid figure emerged from within, standing on the earth!
This was a giant over eighty meters tall, with four thick, sturdy arms. Its eyes blazed with sunlight-like radiance. The giant's face was resolute and cold, devoid of any emotion. Its long hair turned into crimson light streams, dancing in the air like flames. Above its shoulders were two indistinct bulges, somewhat like the embryonic wings behind a Frenzied Demon, but it was unknown whether wings or new arms were gestating within. Behind this giant spun a faint ring of gold-red light. Complex runes formed a simple structure, like a spear, piercing through the ring of light.
*One principle running through all, just like its master's life.*
*True body!*
*Legendary true body!*
The moment he saw the opponent's body, Haier Mu felt a powerful force transmitted along with the pressure, causing the power in its thousands of eyes to boil and go haywire, painfully burning itself. But this force couldn't overly affect it as a Legendary. The Demon Lord forcibly suppressed this chaotic feeling. Now, deep in the clouds, Haier Mu immediately knew this was the true body of a Legendary expert!
*The opponent brought their true body! But whose true body is this? Which demon in the nearby Abyss has a true body like a god?!* Regardless, the Demon Lord knew this would not end simply. This terrifying existence struck with full force from the start—how could it back down!
It was one of the Four Sovereigns beneath the Abyss Lord, the Thousand-Eyed Haier Mu! Though it lacked a massive physique or a ferocious appearance, its power was not something ordinary people could measure! This giant couldn't scare it!
*——Hoo ha——*
While the demon army was in shock, the giant was breathing. Then, violent sound waves and shockwaves rolled in—it was laughing. The giant was laughing.
*—No amount of words can hide the joy born from clashing with a strong opponent.*
"Why run, my opponent?"
The laughter brought explosive airwaves, churning the surrounding earth wave after wave. This laughter created a violent hurricane. The vibrations spread, causing many small demons that had fled far away to explode and die completely. Other fleeing demons weren't spared either. Many with existing injuries had their wounds burst under high pressure. Bodily fluids evaporated the moment they left the body under the scorching heat, their entire bodies burning away. Eye Demons, Succubi, and other demons with poor constitutions were all shaken unconscious. And in this environment, unconsciousness meant death.
The Steel Giant—Joshua. What flowed in his body now was not blood, but high-density liquid metal. What drove the body's operation was the most delicate hydraulics, not fragile human muscle fibers. What supplied the movement of this colossal body was a furnace simulating a Fusion Core Star, emitting endless, scorching heat, providing the energy needed for the giant's activities.
This giant's shape had no trace of smooth aesthetics. It was jagged, like a killing machine forged from steel. Every inch of its body, every line, existed for battle, with no ornamental value. Now, the giant took a step forward, and the earth surged like waves. Joshua looked up at the Demon Lord, then slightly bent his knees. His body expanded, beginning to exert force. The sharp hum of hydraulics could be heard. Then, the entire giant's body vanished in an instant, replaced by a super-earthquake exceeding magnitude ten, a rising cloud of dust covering several kilometers, and a massive crater two hundred meters deep in the ground.
He leaped.
Thus, heaven and earth shook.