HideousGrain
patreon
Path to Prosperity - B3 Chapter 38
🕑 Added 2024-12-05 11:00:07 +0000 UTCThere were still some Demons left in the cavern hall. A minority, a few dozen compared to the hundreds who’d been roaming the cavern hall before, but they exuded far more pressure than the rest. The remaining survivors were the strongest Demons under the Succubus’ control.
Maybe she isn’t as stupid as I thought. She tried wearing me down with the masses to kill me when I’m exhausted. Her bodyguards are not at the Evolved Tier, but it looks like more than half of them are Mutants, probably also inflicted with Devil’s Touch.
That was interesting, but the Succubus was sorely mistaken if she thought he would be scared by Devil’s Touch. If anything, the opposite was the case. The Mutant Elite Demons feared the creature emerging from the frozen battlefield.
The Abomination burst out of Percy and expanded until Percy was engulfed by its pitch-black body. A roar escaped Percy’s lips, and the Abomination split up. It dashed in all directions and crashed with a loud crunch into the Demon carcasses. The atmosphere over the cavern hall intensified again, and the first Elite Demons backpedaled. Their bodies trembled uncontrollably as they realized what had unfolded before them.
[415 Lesser Demons (Gnylds, Minos,...) have been slain. 6,013,932 Prosperity has been added.]
[301 Elite Demons (Lifefeeder, Cursias, Doomfeeder, Pleacis) have been slain. 43,352,835 Prosperity has been added.]
Percy forgot how many Elite Demons they’d fought. In the first place, he had no idea how much time passed since the Succubus ordered everyone to attack them. Still, one thing was certain: Beth, the Succubus, could have won against Percy if she hadn’t sacrificed her Lesser Demons mindlessly. She could have done a lot of things much better to emerge victorious.
Then again, I didn’t expect there to be this many Elite Demons. There were always Elite Demons replacing the ones Hyean, and I killed, but to think there have been 300 Elite Demons…The Devil won’t be happy with the Succubus. That’s good for me, though.
Percy chuckled. He may not have ranked up, but that wasn’t important. He was a little tired, but dealing with a few dozen Mutant Elite Demons and the Succubus was possible regardless.
Beth hissed in anger. She huffed and puffed like a spoiled brat whose beloved toy had been destroyed. Percy ignored that and stepped forward. The Demons, still frightened by the Abomination as it returned to Percy, responded by stepping back. The Succubus, in a fit or fury, released a bladed whip made of shadows at the nearest Elite Demon, beheading him.
“Fight him!” She bellowed, but it was almost like the Mutants couldn’t hear her. Their full attention lingered on Percy and the remnants of the Abomination clinging to Percy’s body.
The Succubus was forced to use Charm again to suppress the fear the Abomination had instilled in the Demons’ rotten hearts.
A Lifefeeder, with a shapeshifted claw that looked like a Pleacis’ bladed arm, disappeared behind a massive Doomfeeder. Percy’s eyebrows arched as the mana net around him was torn apart. He spun around, tightly gripping Dragon Fang, and cleaved through the Mutant Lifefeeder as he emerged behind Percy.
Percy didn’t lose any momentum, and his spin ended right where he had started. He smiled at Beth, conjured a field of ice around his feet, and stopped the shadow spikes coming for his ankles without looking at them.
“You are also…” Beth put the pieces together, her demeanor changing drastically as understanding dawned upon her.”
“Devil’s Touch? Yeah, the Devil marked me as well. However, contrary to the likes of you and your band…” Percy snickered, “I’m not a useless tool of that idiot from the Seven Hells.”
The Succubus’ expression transformed into utter fear only for a moment. Her eyes rolled back, and her arms flayed around, and her skin seemed to wiggle as if her veins and muscles had transformed into worms.
Her features hardened after a second, and eternal darkness seemed to form in her eyes.
No words were exchanged, but Percy sensed something from the Succubus. Something strong, much stronger than the Greater Demon could ever dream of becoming. It looked straight at him, the cold eyes drilling into the deepest parts of Percy’s being. The eyes were cold, but there was also something else. Curiosity.
It lasted only a few moments, but there it was. Curiosity glimmered in eyes filled with eternal darkness. Then there was hunger. Unbearable hunger flooded the ice-cold eyes, and it spread out like the plague. Endless hunger filled the cavern hall suddenly, trickling into the Mutants, affecting them, changing them. A cacophony of growls and roars resounded, while Percy could only shudder.
The Devil and his endless hunger. He…wants to eat me…devour me, just like I devour others.
The eternal darkness in the Succubus’ eyes didn’t last long. The Devil’s possession stopped after mere moments, but these moments had been deeply imprinted into Percy’s mind. He broke into a cold sweat.
The Mutants were hungry, lusting for a powerful human’s lifeforce and Essence. They lusted after Percy, the endless hunger spreading through them, feeding them with power in exchange for a promise. The promise to kill and feast on the beings who’d invaded their lair.
The Mutants’ heads turned to Percy in unison. The fear they’d felt up until a few moments ago was no more. All they felt were hunger and power, and they desired more.
The Succubus was also affected by the endless hunger filling the cavern hall, but her attitude had changed. As the eternal darkness in her eyes receded, she started smiling. Shadowy whips burst out of the shadows around her. They moved along the Succubus and whisked in all directions at her command. It almost looked like they were extensions of her body. She laughed heartily as the test of her enhanced powers ended.
“Thank you for underestimating and insulting my Master. He sure doesn’t like you, cretin!” Beth chuckled, “No. It might be the opposite. He might like you too much. He’d love to eat you alive and consume the fragment that’d escaped…”
The Succubus’ expression distorted in pain at the last words. She couldn’t finish her sentence. The Devil had just punished her.
“I think he dislikes you. That’s understandable. You’re a chatterbox, and an ugly whore, after all.” Percy retorted lightly.
His provocation worked wonders. The Succubus’ purple eyes glowed dangerously, and solidified shadows burst everywhere around Percy. He had to insert much more mana into [Cyromancy] than before to stop the attacks, but it worked.
But what happened next was chaos, to put it into simple words.
The Mutants merged into the shadows and approached Percy. They moved in unison and surrounded him, leaving little place to escape. Percy saw a few openings to rush through and escape, but it was not like he could run from the Mutants’ power to jump through shadows. If anything, the open areas were obvious traps.
Percy clicked his tongue in annoyance and pushed to the closest Pleacis. The Pleacis also charged, just like the other Elite Demons, but Percy was still faster. His Tier was greater than theirs, and he was further augmented by [Dragonblood] and both Boost Augmentations. He was faster and stronger. Still, they were more hungry and much stronger than the 300ish Elite Demons from before.
Percy reached the Pleacis, twisted Dragon Fang to block two blows, and inched closer to ram the Syreablade deep into the Elite Demon’s chest. A Lifefeeder appeared right next to him. It was much faster than the remaining Elite demons and threatened to leave behind a few claw marks when Percy erected an ice wall between them. A Doomfeeder struck Percy square in the back, hurling him through the air, but Dragonscale blocked the impacting force neatly.
Percy landed on the ground several meters away, but there was no time to relax. He pressed his arms tightly against the ground, his muscles flexed and pushed his body upward right before dozens of shadowy spikes could impale him. However, a pair of bladed whips struck him. Percy blocked one bladed whip, averting its trajectory to hit his shoulder instead of cutting his throat, whereas the other one pierced his thigh.
The pain was bad but bearable. The only issue were the Lifefeeder, who could now feed on his open wounds as long as they were in his range. The other Elite Demons could stall him while the Lifefeeders would slowly take him apart, draining his lifeforce. Percy groaned and covered his wounds in ice, hoping it would slow the Lifefeeders.
Then, he used [Berserk] to push the pain occupying his mind aside by allowing his emotions and adrenaline to take over.
Percy landed on the ground, shattered a bunch of shadowy spikes on the way, and hurled Dragon Fang through the air. It pierced cleanly through a Doomfeeder’s wide skull and was pulled back before the Doomfeeder succumbed to the wounds, collapsing to the ground.
Percy had to evade a series of attacks while the Syreablade returned to him, but coating his fingers in ice, replicating a Demon’s claws, worked wonders as well. One of his hands transformed into an ice blade while his others were highlighted with long, frozen, razor-sharp fingernails.
The blade cut roughly through a Cursias’ neck before shattering. Percy breathed heavily, but he was satisfied with the attack. [Cyromancy] wasn’t made to replicate blades like Dragon Fang. If anything, Dragon Fang was a limited edition. Percy doubted any Master, maybe even Ascended, would possess something as unique as the Syreablade. It was too good to be true and couldn’t be replicated. Still, the ice-bladed arm was good enough to cut someone’s throat, even if it required much more brute force to do so.
Percy severed several bladed shadow whips when Dragon Fang returned to him. He moved smoothly but couldn’t evade all attacks. Several Lifefeeders were already feasting on him, and ice walls didn’t always work. In the first place, it was growing increasingly more difficult to conjure ice walls as he fell victim to [Berserk]’s power.
But that wasn’t necessarily bad. Percy stopped using [Cyromancy] as much when he unleashed [Berserk]. His focus returned to obliterating his enemies, which was what he did. He was faster and stronger, and [Berserk] allowed him to focus on that.
More than a dozen Mutants died at his hands since he activated [Berserk], but the Succubus didn’t allow him to inflict damage without consequences. Percy sustained a wound for every few kills, which the Lifefeeder took advantage of. They gained tremendous power by absorbing Percy’s highly concentrated lifeforce.
There was only one problem. Percy wasn’t as affected by the drainage of lifeforce as expected.
Even Percy was surprised at how little lifeforce the Lifefeeder drained, whereas the Lifefeeder were shocked about the ocean of life they found within Percy. They feasted on him and gained tremendous power, but Percy didn’t grow weaker. If anything, his hatred of the Demons increased with every injury he sustained, which strengthened him.
His blood boiled, and he rammed Dragon Fang in between a Lifefeeder’s eyes before it would grow too strong. He then took the remaining Elite Demons out one by one, ignoring the wounds the Succubus inflicted on him. The wounds affected his combat prowess, yet he cared less and less about them. Percy blocked only the most grievous attacks to protect his life while the hunting process continued.
At some point, Percy was covered in blood. Dragonscale sustained minor scratches, and the Doomfeeder’s physical hits left some minor marks that were barely visible, but the ambient mana solved that issue in no time. [Self-Repair] had already mended most scratches.
Percy craned his neck and turned around while retrieving a small vial from his storage ring. It was a simple Healing Potion with one unique property called [Mending Wounds]. Percy downed the potion and approached the Succubus slowly. The nutrients and bits of his ocean of lifeforce drained to mend his wounds as he closed the distance to Beth.
She was trembling, her eyes wide in horror.
“How are you still alive? Why is the poison not working?!” She screamed at him, but Percy only smiled.
“I think you’re forgetting two things,” He said, dashing forward.
The Succubus wasn’t weak by any means. She may be physically weaker than the Thyrx, but her overall physical prowess was still stronger than the strongest Mutant Elite Demon had been. Combined with her shadow abilities and Charm, the Succubus was supposed to be a deadly foe.
However, Charm doesn’t work on Perce, and he ignores most of her elemental attacks.
“First, I am also affected by Devil’s Touch, so anything related to Demonic Essences seems to have less effect on me,” Percy clarified, leaving out that he found out about this only today, “And second…”
He smiled, flashing his white teeth.
“Dragon blood is running through my veins!!”
