NOVEL WEB Chapter 289: Helel's Tale
After torturous minutes, his chaos swirled with a fierce roar and engulfed the blaze in a vengeful whirlpool. It divided its properties, then assimilated them into Adam's infernal core. Continue reading at empire
With the blaze subdued, the void engulfing the tower's roof receded as Adam collapsed onto his back.
He gazed at the dark sky, his limbs twitching, but a victorious smile splitting his lips.
"The devouring blaze," he muttered, understanding his new power. "Flames that consume everything indiscriminately by breaking bonds between photons or particles."
The scabbard's soothing water rushed to his limbs, regrowing his lost arms and fixing the burns as he continued.
"It's the embodiment of uncontrollable fire in its purest form." His eye sparkled. "And with it, I can master plasma in less than 450 years."
While he rejoiced, a notification window burst before him to confirm his new knowledge.
[You've assimilated the Remnant: The Devouring Blaze. Your flames affect everything in creation. Mastery over uncontrollable fires achieved.]
"Hahaha. Worth the pain." He grunted, pushing himself up with a grimace as he rolled his eye. "But I'm not doing this again."
He stretched his limbs and flexed his fingers, the fresh bones popping as he checked the kill notification.
[You have defeated the tier 7 level 92 boss: Eldritch horror born from Ba'al Zevuv's discarded body. You have gained 14.000.000 experience points.]
He frowned. "Another Baal? It can't be the insidious bastard I know. Just who are those eldritchs?"
The more flames he claimed, the denser the mystery became. Would he understand everything once he reached the last layer? He began to hope so. After all, with nothing of interest and his goals limited to claiming the flames and escaping, he had space for a much-needed distraction.
Chuckling, he stumbled down the stairs and set off to the fifth layer.
****
Name: Adam
Race: Draconic Archfiend
Affinity: chaotic, infernal energy
Talent: S grade (Upgradable): I'm a gamer!
Job: Forsaken Lord
Class: Chaos Druid
LVL: 86->88
Exp: 4.700.000/25.500.000
HP: 668.770/668.770
Vitality: 19.475->23.827 (+490) (+43.050)
Strength: 19.475->23.827 (+4.330)(+375) (+43.050)
Agility: 19.475->23.827 (+4.330)(+375) (+43.050)
Chaotic demonic essence: 28.700
Free attribute points: 13.056->0
"I would have gutted Baal Peor like a pig If I met him now." Seated on a mountain of dead abyssal spawns, his lips curled into a vicious smirk as he distributed the stat points he had just gained.
He had found the tunnel to the fifth layer in a short two months this time and gazed at the horizon. The same barren scenery met his eye yet, even if he couldn't see the ruined city, a massive crater overlooking the lands drew his attention. How did it happen? What would he find there?
Those questions caused his eye to sparkle as he pushed himself off the mound and continued his journey to that out-of-place scenery.
Adam flew over the jagged edges days later, his eye widening with a sharp gasp. He had only thought it would be a few hundred meters, perhaps even kilometers wide. But reality crashed down on him as he saw the devastated land stretch as far as his eye could see—probably thousands of kilometers.
Even more shocking, the caved-in ground he had expected didn't meet his eye. Instead, he saw an abyssal hole shrouded in deep darkness.
"Even a meteor couldn't have dug that deep in the ground." He approached the hole, hesitation flashing in his eye. "Is this the traces of an ancient cataclysmic war or did this layer's eldritch blow everything up after going mad?"
An icy shudder ran down his spine. What if his second theory was true, and the flame had been extinguished in the conflagration? His knuckles whitened and his eye narrowed. It couldn't happen. He wouldn't accept it.
As uncertainties gnawed at his heart, he caught a faint light from the crater's center.
A grin blossomed as he summoned his blade and dived into the darkness without hesitation.
Dust and a chilling frost accompanied his descent towards the light, full of hope of seeing the brazier and a battle worthy of his power, unlike the miserable abyssal spawns he could now crush under his thumb.
The jagged ground, smelted and cooled into chaotic shapes, met his eye. But more importantly, the raging red inferno crackling in the brazier.
He didn't know why, but he felt it beckoned to him as if it brimmed with emotions. But he landed a few meters away, a frown creasing his brow.
"I feel unbound wrath."
A calm voice echoed behind the brazier in a surprising and coherent answer.
"Should it come as a surprise, little devil?" The voice paused, its tone shifting to intrigue. "You're a little more than that, aren't you? I've never seen anything quite like you."
Adam circled the brazier, ready to fight as the creature continued.
"You're standing before The Inferno of Wrath and the eldritch born from Helel's discarded body. I've waited four billion years for someone to reach this place."
Adam stopped before the creature, its glorious horror making him bite his lip.
It leaned against the brazier, seated and legs crossed. Four pale arms, their muscles throbbing with power, rested on the ground or cupped its ugly face. Two eyes reflecting the flame's color burned to follow his movement as tendril-like hair floated upwards, attracted by a spinning dark aureole.
But what made him gasp was its pale torso and the two round holes bursting with flames. Weren't they like his skin's crevices?
As if to answer his thoughts, Helel stretched one palm and nodded.
"Listen to this short story before deciding anything. This desolate place once strived with life. Demons ran everywhere, united against their enemies." Its eyes narrowed. "But we were too imperfect, too weak. The gods defeated us during the Great War. We escaped to our domains ready to welcome them, but..."
Adam's eye widened at the gravity of the tale and its resonance with his goal to kill the gods. Even other demons, led by seven terrifying entities, had failed in the past...
His fingers tightened around his blade. 'I need more power or I'll end like them.'