Chapter 197: The Devil Emergence [Part-1]

Far away from the bustling city, inside a dark, unknown space where no sense of existence could be felt, a boy lay covered in bruises. Blood flowed freely from his wounds. One of his arms, torn off earlier in a vicious struggle, rested limp on the floor beside him. One of his eyes was already empty—just a hollow, gruesome socket where a striking Azure eye filled with life once existed.

His remaining eye was dull, staring down with a lifeless, blank gaze. He didn’t even know if he was still alive. His silver hair rested messily on his head, and his once handsome face was scarred, with bones visible through the torn skin. His entire body was in no better condition.

He was none other than Alen, or more appropriately, Alen’s physical manifestation. He turned his blank eye around the damp place, which looked exactly like an underground prison. Chained to the walls were various skeletons of humans and other unknown species.

A disgusting smell filled the prison cage and the dark corridor outside—the sharp stench of rotting flesh and bones.

Alen couldn’t comprehend where he was. For a long moment, he just stared around in a daze, not knowing what he should do next.

His one remaining hand was tied with a chain hanging from the wall. The metal bore an unknown runic imprint which not only blocked his mana but also restricted the use of his other powers, including his Crimson Essence.

’Where am I? How did I end up getting here?...’

How did he fall into such massive trouble? To find out where all of this started, we have to look back just a few days.

...

A few days ago, a small girl who looked no older than ten walked through the city streets with calm grace, casually eating blue cotton candy.

She looked around with an intense gaze. Her crimson eyes scanned everything, holding a silent curiosity. Her silky black hair flowed down her back, remaining motionless despite her walking, as if it was controlled by some invisible energy.

She was none other than Ravena, Alen’s notorious spirit and, by true identity, the terrifying weapon feared by the very order of the world: ’Godless’.

She wandered around the city, taking small steps. After traveling for a while, she stopped near a narrow alley where almost no people could be seen.

She didn’t turn around, as she already sensed exactly who was following behind her.

"Why are you chasing me? I told you not to follow me."

She turned back and glared at her chaser, who had been tailing her for a few days.

In front of her stood a skinny brown cat, looking up with big, hopeful eyes. It was the same cat she had mistakenly fed once because she bought way too much food to eat.

The cat took that as a sign she was a kind person and decided to trail her, hoping for another meal.

Ravena walked toward the animal with light steps and bowed down, staring at the cat with cold, blank eyes.

"Hey, I have nothing to give you anymore. Go back."

She waited for the cat to turn around and run away. But the animal remained stubbornly in place, meowing softly.

After staring at the cat for a long moment, she stood up, turned around, and started walking away.

Behind her, the cat began to follow her again. But suddenly, its tiny steps halted. The cat stared at her retreating figure.

Crimson lightning started to leak from inside the animal’s body. An instant later, its body blew apart. Fragments of skin and internal organs blasted outward, spilling blood all over the ground and the surrounding alley walls.

Up ahead, Ravena walked on calmly as if nothing had happened. There was no sense of guilt or pity in her expression—only pure ruthlessness and finality.

She strolled through the alley and merged back onto a wider street where people were bustling around, quietly conversing with each other. A few women looked her way and decided to approach, finding her to be a cute, adorable little girl.

"Oh, hello kid. What is your name? Where are you going?"

"My, my, she looks so adorable! She must be some noble girl who lost her way..."

Ravena stopped midway as the two young women blocked her path. She looked up at them with blank eyes, deciding whether to kill them or not.

After a long moment of silence, she finally spoke up with a freezing cold tone, devoid of any childish innocence.

"Get lost, you f*cking bitches. Mind your own business."

The women’s expressions twisted into sheer shock. They never expected such crude words to come from a child’s face. They looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Ravena ignored their dumbfounded faces and moved past them, walking away while taking another bite of her cotton candy.

As she kept walking, a dropping sound echoed behind her back. Her steps halted again. Feeling curious, she looked back. The two women, who were smiling at her just a moment ago, fell hard onto the ground. Blood spilled from the center of their chests, where massive, clean holes had just been formed. Their lifeless eyes stared out into the distance.

Ravena felt a sharp prickle on her skin. She felt a real sense of danger for the first time since arriving in this city. She looked around, searching for the hidden force that caused the two women’s deaths, all while calmly eating her candy.

’Hmmm... Who is the one killing them? Is someone else following me? Or did that cat’s ghost do it?’

She didn’t know. As she waited in the silence, she suddenly felt a heavy presence stepping out of nowhere right behind her back.

She immediately pulled away, dropping her candy in the ground. Her senses went on high alert toward whoever stood behind her.

*CRASH!* *BOOOOM!*

A massive chunk of the ground broke apart, spiderweb cracks spreading in all directions as thick dust and debris flew into the air.

Ravena peered through the dust cloud, wanting to identify her opponent.

"Oh. So the little shit knows how to fight, it seems. Well, it isn’t every day we find such a strong spirit wandering around freely."

Just as the heavy, gravelly voice echoed through the dust, another distinct voice followed.

"You seem to hold quite a bit of spiritual presence too. To have such a strong spiritual power, you must be much older than you look..."

In just a few seconds, figure after figure began to appear out of nowhere, stepping out of the shadows. It seemed they had been following her for a long time and finally chose to reveal themselves to deal with her.

"She looks so delicious. I could suck her spiritual body dry. Slurp-ha!"

As the dust cleared slowly, Ravena finally got to see her ambushers. Tall men with different colored horns protruding from their heads surrounded her.

They gave off a oppressive presence. She felt a massive sense of danger radiating from their bodies, and it didn’t take her long to recognize exactly what they were.

’Devils... They are a forbidden race across every continent. They are the very race that nearly seized half of the Human Continent and caused massive damage around the world in the past...’

’From my ancient knowledge, they are also the first race to have someone reach Stage 7. They are not the strongest race, but they are far from weak. And they are also a race that hates spirits to the very core... Which means I am in trouble.’

"Oh, don’t scare the little spirit. She might run away."

"Oh come on, it is fun to watch them run! It will just increase our excitement. Hehe..."

Ravena finally opened her mouth, no longer wanting to hear their disgusting voices.

"Hey f*ckers. Move away. I don’t have time for your small chit-chat. Just f*ck off and move your asses, you shitty devils."

The Devils looked at each other, their expressions shifting to pure amusement at her crude cursing. They didn’t seem even the slightest bit intimidated or surprised by her words, acting as if they knew the full extent of what she could do.

"Hahaha, she looks like quite a stubborn girl. It seems she won’t come quietly. We have to use a hard method."

One of the men with dark, jagged horns stepped forward. His body was lean but packed with concentrated, bulky muscles. He stepped closer to her and raised his large hand to grab her neck.

Suddenly, Crimson lightning sparkled around his outstretched hand. His cocky expression changed to surprise.

*BOOOOM!*

His hand blew off in a violent explosion of blood, skin, and bone spilling everywhere. Ravena looked at him blankly, not moving an inch.

The man looked down at his ruined stump and tilted his head calmly, assessing the bloody wound.

"Oh, so you really have some unique power too. That makes you way more special! Hey everyone, hear me out. She is not just any normal spirit. Her true form is somewhere else. It seems she is just a spiritual manifestation of it... But a very useful one."

As his words fell, dark, swirling energy began to coil around his bleeding wound. The demonic energy shaped themselves into a brand-new hand in seconds. There was no hint of a wound left, as if the explosive attack had never happened.

The Devils looked at each other, their eyes gleaming with dark malice. They all stepped forward, tightening the circle around her and making sure she could no longer run away.

"Hehe, it will be fun to absorb her whole power. I can feel the extent of her energy is far beyond what we imagined..."

As all of them fixed their hungry gazes solely on her small figure, a shadow blurred a short distance away.

Moving with incredible speed from their blind spot, a figure emerged. He stepped onto the back of one of the Devils, channeling dense Crimson Essence around his hand. He slid the flat edge of his hand straight into the Devil’s neck.

His hand split the neck like a sharpened blade, cutting the head clean off. The severed head fell to the ground with a thud, rolling across the street. Every Devil’s attention instantly snapped toward the new figure’s emergence.

"Sorry to come a little late, my dear weapon. Don’t worry now, your master is here."