Volume One: "The Nature of the Devil Does Not Change"
Arc One: "The Devil Finally Leaves Earth"
The four advanced through the long corridor. When they reached the final door, Ikalat stepped up to open it—only for the door to slam him back with brutal force, sending him crashing into Lin Yuan. Scarlet King avoided the hit and pulled Yu Ru Ming aside, keeping her clear of the collision.
He looked to the door. An eleven-pointed star was carved there, and within it, eleven red eyes stared at them. Scarlet King spoke to himself, calm and almost amused.
(I guess I overdid it with the traps in the Sealed World.)
With casual ease, he gripped the handle and released black energy. The eyes thrashed wildly, then shattered one by one—death. Under that primordial, existential darkness, there was no escape.
When the last eye crumbled into dead black ash, Scarlet King didn't bother opening the door. He kicked it in. The crack of wood and the slam against the wall echoed down the corridor.
He stepped into a room paneled in dark wood. A small table sat in the corner, and on it lay two new daggers—one marked with the emblem of the Golden Dragon, the other with the emblem of the Snow Phoenix. Scarlet King and Ikalat spoke at the same time.
"Dragon and Phoenix Daggers."
Ikalat said it with shock. Scarlet King said it with indifference. To him, the sight was familiar, repeated across countless long and different lives. He had seen every kind of weapon, from the rarest to the most common. A saint-grade weapon was no longer something that could surprise him.
Scarlet King walked up and took the two black daggers. They gleamed in his hands. He cut his finger, and the glove re-formed itself as if it had never been damaged. Then he placed a drop of blood on the blades, refining them smoothly and binding them to himself.
A chain of text appeared, carrying the true owner's name—a feature and a flaw at once. Yet what appeared to Scarlet King was:
[Information Removed][Name Narrative Manipulated]
Scarlet King smiled faintly. Another trait of these weapons was their awareness. If they were given a name, their power increased. Scarlet King spoke, declaring their new name.
"Your new name is Ming Hao."
He hung the weapons on his back, turned, and left the room. The other three followed. Fog rose around the four of them and carried them outside the cave.
But behind Lin Yuan, Ikalat, and Yu Ru Ming, a gigantic shadow formed. When they turned, the giant from before was there—its screen showing an expression:
" ' — ' "
The giant shifted and faced a nearby mountain. A metal cannon shaped itself on Titan King's arm, then fired a black shot that erased every mountain in its path—around forty-seven different mountains—in a single blast. They vaporized; not even ash remained. The giant—now one kilometer tall after fully fusing with Scarlet King—had reached Phase Two, when it had previously only been in Phase One.
Fog wrapped around Titan King again. Then Scarlet King emerged from it, flying with his jetpack, and landed calmly on the ground in front of the three. Lin Yuan and Ikalat stared with their mouths open, too stunned to speak.
Scarlet King walked up to Yu Ru Ming and asked,
"I know you have more disguises, and more secrets. Tell me—before I force you to tell me myself."
As he waited for her answer, his thoughts stayed sharp and steady.
(I've learned the simple nature of humans—and demons. Yu Ru Ming is hiding secrets. Across countless lives, I've met every kind of person: the stupid, the clever, the strong, the weak, the ambitious, the despairing, and the persistent. But they all agree on one thing: power is the foundation of perseverance and progress. This world acknowledges only the strong. It's a demonic jungle inhabited by beasts—some rabbits wear the masks of beasts, some rabbits leap over the beasts' heads, and some rabbits are simply foolish and ordinary. This world recognizes nothing but the food chain: if you're stronger, you're higher on the chain, and you can eat those beneath you without question—unless a shared interest exists.)
Yu Ru Ming's voice shook with tension and agitation as she shouted at him,
"Fine, I'll speak!! After we were trapped inside this world, my father—strangely—went insane and tried to attack us. But I escaped, and my sister escaped in the opposite direction. That's the only thing I'm hiding."
Scarlet King remained silent. Without changing expression, he stepped back and gestured for them to move. A black, octopus-like limb unfurled from his back and wrapped around Yu Ru Ming's waist. His jetpack roared, and he shot into the air, with Lin Yuan and Ikalat following after him.
Still stunned, Lin Yuan drew closer and asked with curiosity,
"Where are we headed?"
Scarlet King answered evenly, accelerating even more,
"We're heading to the Middle Region, because the Sealed World is divided into three regions: the Far Lands, the Middle Lands, and the Central Lands."
Ikalat measured their speed and realized they were moving four hundred thousand times faster than light—yet it still felt slow.
The wind's roar battered their ears, clouds swallowed their vision, clothes snapped and whipped in the air, and the smell of dampness filled all three of them.