Chapter 164: Demon Lord
Nightfall.
The glowing bone dragon flew through the clouds.
A massive shadow swept over the peaceful villages and rivers beneath the fields, heading toward the black demon tide.
The clouds were sliced apart by shattered wings, as if a sharp blade had cut them neatly in two.
Beneath the bone dragon surged the demon tide. As it flew over, the surging demonic energy calmed. The shadow creatures within the black tide seemed to throw themselves into blazing flames, burned to ash.
Wade stood on the dragon’s neck, looking down at the ravaged land. His right hand rested on his left chest, his index finger slipping into a small pouch tied there.
Mia hid inside that pouch, peeking out with her small eyes to look down below. After a brief moment, she would pull her head back, only to poke it out again after a while.
She had never experienced such a high-altitude journey since birth, so she clung tightly to Wade’s index finger.
Mia probably didn’t understand what Wade was doing. Explaining the whole situation to a little ghost younger than two years old was nearly impossible. Fortunately, not explaining didn’t cause her any strange feelings.
Wade could sense what the little ghost was thinking. Riding the bone dragon for the first time, seeing the demon tide for the first time — these were all novel experiences for her.
Though she felt a bit scared, excitement and curiosity filled her more than fear. Nothing else mattered.
For her, what Wade was doing was unimportant; what mattered was being together with him.
Even if the world ended, as long as she could stay with that bone frame who had been by her side since birth, her heart would remain clear and bright.
Wade silently scanned the view below from the heights. The bone dragon’s speed was fast but not unsettling.
An invisible force field, like a magical barrier, protected Wade’s position, preventing the wind from blowing him off.
To be honest, the flying experience was pleasant. He barely felt any vibration, much better than riding a carriage in Kunard.
Only, the scenery from the sky could not compare to the rural fields and mountain villages beside the carriage road.
What he could see was only withered land, dense magical energy, and elemental condensations. Wade noticed many abnormal monsters in the distance.
These creatures were born from the fusion of concentrated magic and shadow elements. Their bodies were shapeless, like flowing mud, resembling elemental slime monsters but far more dangerous.
If caught by a slime monster, at least you could struggle and escape before suffocating. But if touched by these monsters, your skin would rot and dry out. Their bodies possessed intense corrosive power.
From the Fairy Dragon’s memory inheritance, Wade learned that these were byproducts catalyzed by the demon tide.
After sacrificing his own soul and connecting with the Fairy Dragon’s remains and the life-breath-infused scale, he gained the right to access those memories.
As the influence of the demon tide deepened, by the second and third waves, these monsters would further evolve into various forms.
They were products between demons and elemental life—formed from the grudges of the dead souls entangled with demonic energy—called “Grudging Spirits.”
It was difficult to harm them effectively with just the Force Sword; magic or holy light was necessary to fight them.
Wave after wave of demon tides strengthened their power. At the tide’s peak, each Grudging Spirit could reach Silver-rank monster hunter level, and some even developed intelligence and consciousness, becoming unpredictable high-tier demons.
The bone dragon flew over the monsters, breathing out scorching dragon fire.
The Fairy Dragon’s power purified those newly emerged monsters. The scorched earth briefly revealed soil but was soon submerged by the surrounding tide again.
The bone dragon emitted an aura loathed by demons. Ugly low-tier demons and imps below spat fireballs and released poison gas at it.
But even though the Fairy Dragon was reduced to just a skeleton, it was not a prey for these low-tier demons.
Specks of scale light scattered, and those demons couldn’t even cry out before turning to charred charcoal.
Before dawn, the Fairy Dragon halted what should have been a ten-day or longer demon tide.
The huge bone dragon extinguished its light and landed on a desolate highland.
The glow from the scale in Wade’s hand dimmed. Up until now, that newborn consciousness had been cooperating with Wade to manipulate the dragon bones.
Wade adjusted to the sensation of losing his left hand and left foot. His soul had become incomplete, or rather, part of it had fused with the dragon bones.
The “faith power” condensed on him could now be shared with the dragon bones and that newborn consciousness. They had formed a kind of symbiotic relationship.
But the cost was that Wade lost his left hand and left leg starting from the shoulder and hip.
Though the bones still connected firmly to his body, he could no longer feel his left hand and leg, as if they had been severed.
He took some time to adapt to his new body. He wasn’t completely unable to move; the joints were still connected by soul fire. By pulling on the soul fire, he could make his limbs move again.
But he couldn’t find the feeling of total control over his entire body anymore. It was like manipulating a puppet on strings, moving his joints to bend or stretch.
Bending his knees and elbows was still relatively easy, but controlling his palms and fingers was extremely difficult. His fists were stiff like those of a disabled person with severed tendons.
Theoretically, he was now a disabled person—or rather, a disabled skeleton.
He needed more time to adapt to his new body. Though he could walk without falling, fighting with this new body would probably yield less than half his usual power.
He slid down the bone dragon’s neck with some difficulty and landed on the hard rocky ground.
After landing, Mia finally floated out of the pouch.
She pressed against Wade’s head, puzzled at why his movements had suddenly become so awkward.
Wade touched her forehead with his right hand and placed her on top of his head.
The little one curled up and stayed still with Wade, no longer flying around.
The unfamiliar surroundings had sapped her desire to play.
Wade took out the emblem given to him by the elves—the Crimson Emblem belonging to Toven, engraved with an eye. It was now the key connecting the wasteland and reality.
Through the Fairy Dragon’s memory inheritance, Wade had learned how to open the door.
Currently, he could only open the door leading to the underground fortress because the glowing moss he cultivated had grown branches of the Divine Tree, connected to the green leaves on the emblem.
He had to send the dragon’s remains back to the wasteland, but he didn’t rush to open the door.
He couldn’t do it alone. The small branch could only open a door about human height—there was no way to fit the several hundred meters of dragon bones through it.
Moreover, even if the door was large enough, he couldn’t move the dragon bones. He had to wait for Yulia to use her “Teleportation Magic” to send the bones back.
He had arranged to meet the elves when the demon tide stopped. While waiting, a group of about twenty winged low-tier imps flew over from the demon tide’s direction.
They had deep black skin, bat-like small wings, hunched backs, and curved pointed tails. These low-tier imps looked very similar to the Flame Imps Wade had seen before but lacked the magma-like patterns and the strong fire elemental aura.
Wade sensed these imps were different from the demons he had seen during the flight. The demons in the demon tide were chaotic—though they attacked the bone dragon together, they also fought amongst themselves.
But this group of imps was quite orderly.
On their foreheads was a fork-shaped mark, resembling the symbol of a certain demon lord.
The Fairy Dragon’s memory inheritance revealed to Wade the ecological relationship of demons in the Shadow Realm.
Though Wade had collected much intelligence on demons before, to prevent anyone from summoning demons via sacrificial rituals, deep information was strictly controlled by the church.
What he could find were only pictorial propaganda depicting demons as terrifying, along with cautionary educational stories.
Even the learned dragonkin knew little of the deeper secrets.
But the Fairy Dragon’s inheritance contained very clear details about demons.
When Wade saw those imps and their forehead symbols, information about demon lords was transmitted into his mind.
The information came from the consciousness within the scale in his hand. Though it was only a scale without eyes, wings, or body, it seemed to use the symbiotic connection to better understand the outside world.
It analyzed the situation and filtered relevant information to share with Wade.
No wonder it was the legendary Fairy Dragon. Even in a human embryo, it could consciously respond to various stimuli.
Wade quickly read the demon lord-related knowledge. In the Shadow Realm, power was everything. Demons evolved through constant devouring and slaughter. Their growth came from consuming other demons.
Thus, low-tier demons were viewed as “resources” by powerful demons.
Analogously, low-tier demons were like mines, fields, and livestock to a demon lord—resources to be exploited.
Though the demon world was chaotic, it was not without order.
Powerful demons used their marks to claim their “resources,” much like humans dividing kingdoms. Many demon lords partitioned the Shadow Realm’s “resources” for their own growth.
Demon lords constantly fought and usurped territory from one another.
This was a strict hierarchy judged solely by strength. If you weren’t strong enough, you would become food for others.
The most powerful demon lords known to humans were called “Demon Dukes.”
During demon tide outbreaks, among these Demon Dukes, there was often a “Celestial Lord.”
It was like a natural law—like a hive with a queen bee. The Celestial Lord gained unprecedented power from the demon tide, becoming an entity superior to other demons.
However, these concepts were somewhat distant from the imps flying toward Wade and the bone dragon.
In short, through the Fairy Dragon’s second-generation memory sharing, Wade understood that these imps belonged to a demon lord.
The fork-shaped mark was not recorded in the Fairy Dragon’s memory. That demon lord’s power was far weaker than legendary names like “Scorching Demon Em” and “Lord of Nightmares Gimonli,” who appeared in many myths.
These imps belonged to an obscure minor lord.
After the demon tide arrived, demon lords followed.
In the Shadow Realm, they might be oppressed by the Demon Dukes’ pressure, struggling to seize resources.
But the vast material plane was a delicious cake to them. After descending to the material plane, demon lords eagerly divided lands, slaughtered everywhere, and even built “breeding ranches.”
There had been demon lords who raised humans and other intelligent races like cattle and sheep.
These imps were the vanguard of a demon lord. Marked low-tier demons could gain intelligence under the influence of high-tier demons but had to obey their masters.
They were sent to scout the bone dragon.
Because the demon tide was interrupted, the demon lords couldn’t easily descend to the material plane yet and could only command their subordinates to explore.
Wade heard the imps chattering loudly. They saw Wade and the bone dragon, flapping their wings anxiously as they hurried over.
A flash of cards appeared in Wade’s hand. After a burst of brilliant light, ten fully armed elves appeared beside him.
He recalled all the skeletons back to the underground fortress in the wasteland. Though opening the door could release all three hundred-plus of them to fight, he didn’t want to expose the wasteland’s situation or the door to the demons, so he only used the summoning cards.
At the same time, he drew his wooden bow and fired a magic arrow.
But the first arrow missed, the green arrow grazing the edge of an imp and flying past.
In that split second, he lost perfect control over his body.
He looked at the wooden bow and put it away, instead drawing the elven spear on his back.
The imps sensed something was wrong and tried to flee.
But the elves all raised their spears and hurled them like shooting stars.
In an instant, ten imps were pierced and nailed to death.
Wade no longer used his left hand or foot to exert force. He condensed his power in his right hand, burning soul fire to concentrate his combat skill’s strength.
Mia cooperated, infusing frost magic into the elven spear, which had excellent magical conductivity. The frosty white weapon traced an arc in the dawn light.
Cold air erupted. The remaining more than ten imps were caught in the frost storm, instantly frozen into hard, cold ice blocks.
They fell from the sky, shattering against the rocks.
Even in death, they no longer turned to ashes like the shadow demons Wade had encountered in Tania.
Their demon fangs and wings remained intact. Wade knew this time, they had truly come to the material plane. More and stronger demons would follow.