Volume One: "The Nature of the Devil Does Not Change, and the Dead Devil's Heart Regrets Nothing"
The devil stepped away from the old man's ruined house after absorbing his blood. He spoke to himself as he felt that blood sliding through his veins, his inner voice as clear as a river's current:
(Heh… that miserable old man. Begging for mercy even though he's weak and doesn't deserve it. The souls of living beings are the cheapest thing in this world—and his blood is disgusting… soaked in nicotine and alcohol. It ruined his blood and made me slightly weaker. The weak have no place in a world full of the strong… like a rabbit trapped in a cage of heavenly dragons.)
The air was still, soaked in dull, irritating colors. It bothered the devil—he had never grown used to quiet. All his lives had been screams and battles, without rest… pain, suffering, and darkness. Yet behind the cloth of the bamboo hat, his expression didn't change. Blank. Dead eyes. Dead calm.
Then he spoke in a voice so cold it made even the shadow shiver:
"Is anyone nearby, Shadow?"
The shadow shook its head. No one was close.
The devil didn't wait. He moved at once, cutting deeper into the village.
After about two hundred meters, he spotted villagers working the land. Yellow wheat filled the fields, and the farmers chatted as they worked.
"Good… this year's harvest will last us a year and a half."
The boy spoke to an older man with a mustache and a faint beard.
"Yes, Uncle. We'll sell half and live on the other half."
And then—suddenly… both of them were swallowed by crushing pain.
Two massive blades erupted from their shadows, spearing up through their bodies from below. Inside them, the blades began to extend and swell—stretching like bamboo stalks, growing sharper… sharper… until they tore the boy and the man apart from the inside.
They bled in a horrifying way—blood pouring from everything: eyes, mouth, ears… and more.
The older man watched the boy's muffled, choking scream as a black blade pushed out of the boy's mouth and kept growing… growing… until—
Crack.
The sound of the boy's jaw breaking.
His ruined jaw hit the ground.
The wheat stalks drank the blood and turned a burning red—then withered.
The devil only stood there, watching with icy indifference. He sighed and said:
"Hah… weak humans, worthless. Their souls are nothing but trash. No resistance. No will. No perseverance. In truth… they're just pawns for my goal—and pawns are always sacrificed… everyone is a pawn in everyone's hand."
The shadow burst out from the older man's shadow, seized him by the shoulders, and sank sharp teeth into his neck—ripping away a huge chunk. The throat, windpipe, and tongue were exposed as the shadow devoured the "food" with madness. The area was empty; no one heard the boy's and the man's muffled screams except the devil and his shadow.
After a few gherliha (minutes), every corpse vanished—because the shadow had eaten them, while the devil absorbed their blood. The devil rubbed his left palm and spoke calmly:
"Hah… the boy's blood is better than the older man's. My current strength is now at the level of destroying a house. But the entire village is still here… I wonder how much stronger I'll become."
The shadow slid back beneath the devil's feet.
The devil started walking toward the heart of the village to begin the massacre.
He crossed several kilometers in only seconds—until he reached the main gate and found a single guard. Without hesitation, the devil moved.
With one punch, he tore open the guard's stomach, turning the place where the belly had been into a wide cavity that exposed the ribcage, the heart as it failed, and the lungs as they went still. He absorbed the guard's blood even faster now, thanks to the evolution of his blood ability.
Then another strike slammed into the main wall—shattering it, and with it, about a house and a half.
What had been a quiet, beautiful place became choking dust, rubble, and bodies.
In front of the villagers' shocked eyes… the devil stepped out from the wreckage holding the guard's severed head in his hand. Without a word, he crushed the head in his grip, splattering the right side of his body with dark red blood.
The devil's grin turned crazed, his two different eyes widening with brutality. With speed the naked eye couldn't catch, he blew apart the heads of five villagers. He felt nothing—only hunger for power, to reach his goal. Everyone to him was a pawn… but some pawns were useful, and others were worthless.
As the ground flooded with blood, some villagers tried to run—
But the shadow appeared in front of them, taking shape as massive, razor-sharp black blades. Its insane grin showed sharp teeth and wide eyes. It began cutting villagers apart and devouring them.
One was split cleanly in half, entrails spilling to the ground. Another had his head bitten off in a single snap, his neck turning into a fountain of blood. Another was eaten alive… piece by piece.
[After a week…]
The village was completely destroyed. No one survived.
In the center of the village, the devil sat with his long black-and-white hair cascading down, perched atop a pile of villagers' skulls. He held a human head in one hand and stared at it with a cold smile, while below him the shadow devoured any corpse it found.
Finally, the devil spoke in a calm voice, as if he hadn't committed a massacre moments ago:
"Killing three thousand villagers was boring… but useful. And it seems someone new has arrived."
He lifted his gaze to the star-filled black night sky and saw something like a meteor falling to the ground about two hundred meters away.
It was a man with long blue hair, pale skin, yellow eyes, and a handsome face—though his features were stern. The young man spoke in a powerful, serious voice, completely unfazed by the massacre:
"I am Lin Yuan—one of the heroes… protectors of Earth. Speak your name, you over there."
The devil smirked in mockery, stepped down from the skull pile, grabbed a skull and crushed it, then spoke calmly as he pulled the bamboo hat's cloth back over his head:
"You can call me… Scarlet King."
End of the chapter.