Black Moon – 6
[Reign. Reign. Reign!]
The black moon rebelled against me, pouring out evil thoughts onto me. But I was already standing at the top of the underground. If I wanted to go further, I had to trample over it and climb on top.
“Why keep fighting?!”
[Reign! Reign! Reign!]
This is why heaven tried to strike at me. They sensed that the Demon King, filled with Gluttony and Greed, wouldn’t be satisfied with just crawling on the earth. He would raise his head to the sky. Heaven reacted fiercely to the creature’s coup, working hard to trample over our lives, emotions, and wills. The world had collapsed, my past and future ruined. All that was left for me was the body of a goblin and the hidden anger of lost desires that led me here. To correct everything.
The moment I faced the black moon, I was convinced. If I wanted to rise up there, I would have to devour it first.
[Reign! Reign!]
The wolf’s wide-open jaws began to gnaw at the black moon. Each time a hole was torn into it, and each time it diminished little by little, a shock rocked my body. No matter how much I regained, compared to the black moon that was a part of the heavens, the difference was too great. Despite building the Tower of Destiny to overcome it, the shock was still transmitted. I felt pathetic, thinking I tasted the most extreme of pain before. I was still just a frog struggling at the bottom of a well, unaware of the strength of those above me. But, in such a pathetic manner, I had survived so far.
Goblins, wolves, trolls, spiders, ogres, elves, angels, Lucifers. I ate all those struggling beside me and stood on top of them all. I had designed this tower with the purpose of survival and attracted all those below me to the underground. Was I really going to kneel down to the pain now?
[Reign! Reign! Reign! Reign!]
“Shut up! Shut up!” Resonating with my yelling, the tower vibrated violently, and the wolf shaped by Gluttony swelled in size. A huge hole was torn through the moon.
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]
The evil will that echoed in my head was lifted, replaced by a scream of pure agony. Was this guy just like my other prey, after all?
[Ahhhhhh!]
It was the scream of a child being burned for the first time. It reverberated all around me, fueling my burning appetite. The wolf ran wild, taking larger and larger bites. The number of holes in the moon gradually increased.
[Ahhhhh!]
“Without leaving a single crumb, I will devour all of you!” The reign that the black moon wanted so much, I would achieve it. So long as there was something above me, I wouldn’t be the ruler. Just because I could eat things that were weaker than me didn’t mean I could rule. I had to eat all things stronger than me and reach the highest point I could so that no one could oppress me.
[Kha…you, you are…Fate, the cursed one. The one who craves endlessly…deviating from reason…!]
“Now will you finally face me?” Was this the fragment of the celestial will left inside the black moon? Or were they directly connected? It didn’t matter.
[Your endless greed will bring ruin. All reason and providence will be shattered, leading you and everything around you to death.]
“You’ve already been doing that.” I endured the pain and ground my teeth. This was a truly shameless guy.
“But it will be different from now on. Everything will change.”
[Will you drag everything else down with you? All that awaits at the end is nothing more than destruction.]
“That’s no different than the world we’re experiencing so far!”
[Ahhhhhhh!]
The wolf roared fiercely, rage filling it as it ran right into the middle of the moon, drilling a hole into it and silencing the moon for a moment. It was a critical hit.
“Kuh…haha…!” I was the one to groan, however, filled with too much mana. The mana surge struck me with more force than the mana I collected when fighting Lucifer, threatening to disperse my soul. I desperately grabbed onto it.
[Groaaaaa!]
The wolf didn’t stop, swallowing up the black moon more ferociously. The pain swelled as the mana increased, my body twisting in the air like a marionette as I tried to accept the energy into my body. The primal feelings of greed, jealousy, and wrath remained where the pain led me to. The tower below me vibrated violently as if it would collapse at any moment. It endured, however, keeping me up.
[Fall…what to do…]
When I looked up, there was only the dark underground sky before me. The black moon was nowhere to be found, completely consumed by me. The wolf lost its strength, having completed its mission, and scattered into the air. Once more, a huge shock rocked me as the power that made up the moon was completely absorbed into me.
“Kak…kuha…!” I couldn’t tell if it was a laugh or a moan that left me. Despite the pain, I was filled with joy at finally succeeding in confronting my heavenly foe. How could I be happy? The pain still raged inside of me, indicating I was growing as the mana filled me. It wasn’t an amount I could handle with my current body. Which meant either it would kill me or forge a new body that could handle it. That was evolution. The thought of the former was funny to me. Dying because I couldn’t handle what I ate? I was and am Baal, the Lord of Gluttony!
“Hahahahahaha!” I could sense it, the power that had been hiding deep inside of me. I had met the qualifications to earn it.
[You now stand at the top of the underground.]
[Evolution is now possible.]
“Should I refuse?!” Feeling the huge flow of mana inside me, I affirmed its will. I was willing to step into an unknown realm that no one had reached. I thought that the mana I had inside me was enough, but more mana flowed into me from everywhere. The mana that composed the underground, which was still sealed, burst into the air and rotated around me with the wrathful mana of the black moon. My body was torn away instantly by the resulting explosion, leaving only my will and my mana in its place.
Only
The tower vibrated, synchronizing with that flow of mana. It couldn’t even be compared to the black moon now, slowly gathering in the place where I was to form me. The mana mixed chaotically without distinction before forming a distinct shape. Greed, Gluttony, and Jealousy found their territory and began to take root. Even after engorging myself, I still hungered for more.
However, those weren’t the powers that took up the most mana. In becoming the true king, a new power awakened. My new body was built around the power of Wrath, the Wrath that symbolized the ruler of the underground. A body optimized for the release of magic was created. Blood formed of mana, muscles full of destructive power, hard bones, and a skin that couldn’t be cut by anything. The Wings of Jinma materialized from my shoulders, and sharp horns of compressed mana appeared out of my head. The mana that made up my new body was too dense to be called a demon’s mana. It was the mana of a king.
“Whoo.” I let out a laugh as I opened my eyes to examine my new body. I almost resembled a devil from a cartoon, although my skin was paler and softer than any humans. I now stood atop the underground.
[You became the Demon King, Satan.]
[You have gained Wrath.]
A notification window popped up as if responding to my feelings. I could feel the power of Wrath flowing through me.
“I reject the Great Fusion!”
It was a declaration that marked the beginning of our war against Heaven.
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