226 Rise (2/2)

This personage did not approve. Power should be consumed with one's own might. The rite of devouring should not be tainted by petty mortal tactics meant for the weak to muster themselves against those naturally mightier than them. And yet, this personage could not truly reprimand the whelp, for then a century of nurturing and potential would have gone to waste.

Until that is, during the fourth Rite of the Swarm one hundred fifty years past, a tipping point was reached. The whelp had grown mighty enough to join the upper echelons of demonkind, and it served directly under Asmodai, the Burning One of the time.

Yet as the swarm moved, the whelp only faced frustration. Anger at the old ways of sending hordes of lesser demons to their deaths for no tactical benefit. Anger that no Heralds would listen to it, even ones more free minded such as Gluttony and Lust.

And when Asmodai insisted upon dueling the Shining Hero for the right to devour the mortal, it was the whelp that stood against the decision, believing it foolish that a general should sacrifice himself when siege and plague tactics would weather down the mortals over the years.

With Asmodai's defeat and the dissolution of the Swarm, the whelp exiled itself, believing the old ways impossible to mend. This personage could not have imagined that half a century later, the whelp would return powerful beyond measure having attuned itself with the power of the Abyss, demanding to call upon the Rite of the Swarm once more.”

”A young upstart, eh?” said Old Thane. ”I imagine there was much resistance against his call to arms.”

”Much,” nodded Zagan. ”The whelp took to traditional rites. It challenged all seven heralds to prove its supremacy, and it did, even when we used our Herald Shards against him. At that point, this personage, bound by tradition, could not object. The whelp had gained the privilege to call for the Rite of the Swarm, and it did, and with that authority, began to corrupt my kind with the ways of the Deep, seducing all hordes but mine own, Wrath and Pride's, and this personage served as its herald until he saw reason to break from his accursed servitude through you, Great One.”

Zagan gave a little bow of his canid head to Li.

”Very interesting,” said Li. He knew that the demons of this world essentially followed the lore of Elden World. Beings of primordial chaos that feasted on the chaotic emotions and energies around them. They formed a fighting society where they devoured each other to get stronger and reach their peaks, and the strongest among them could call upon a mass invasion of mortal lands.

The heralds, as they were called, were the seven strongest demons under the demon lord, or Burning One as it was called here, and they each had a shard of chaos within them that represented a crystallization one of the seven follies of mortals. Each herald thus had an unique and formidable power depending on their shard.

If this current Burning One could best seven heralds, then it was definitely in the realm of a level 100 monster. That alone was not that impressive. The Darkbeast Hand could easily squash a level 100 monster with its boss tier stats. Whether this Burning One had other special aspects to it like boss tier stats or a broken boss ability would determine if it was going to be a legitimate threat or not.

But most of all, what did worry Li was the fact that its power was not its own. It had gotten them from something beyond itself.

”In the end, it all comes down to where the Burning One got his strength, because evidently, it is not entirely his. Tell me, Zagan, about the Abyss.”