Demons Among Gods

Eric slowly opened his eyes.

The surroundings were partially dark, but he had no problem seeing.

"Where am I?" he murmured, slowly sitting up.

His body was a little out of his control, as if he hadn’t used it for a few centuries.

"Wait, who am I again?"

The gears inside his head were also moving at a snail's pace, almost as if he hadn't used them for ages.

Eric covered his face with his right palm and tried to recall which ranked devil he was before losing consciousness.

After pondering and frowning for a while, his eyes widened as he finally recalled his final memories.

He had been cleaning his house when a big-ass, holy-looking spider jumped out of nowhere. It was so huge that he wouldn't even be surprised if all the Australian spiders prostrated in front of it and called it their Great Ancestor!

He had immediately tried to crush it and steal the spider's amazing position so he could become the true ancestor of all spiders! But it was not only swift, it was also very tough, and it knew exactly how to fight with its limbs and webs.

After a legendary battle that would go down in the history of all spiders' ancestry, his evilness came out victorious over the holy spider. And just as he was about to crown himself as the true Spider King and make spiders great again... he lost consciousness.

No, he was poisoned!

Eric tried his best to recall what happened with a deep frown etched on his face.

He was sure that he hadn't been bitten, so how was he poisoned?

He recalled that after his hard-earned victory, his heart suddenly blew up and too many tiny reddish spiders burst out from his chest. He had helplessly fallen back like a character in a movie scene while even more spider babies spawned out of his chest and attacked him, their mother!

Eric chuckled. The past Spider Ancestor wasn't bad; it had even secretly passed its babies inside his heart without him noticing. But sadly for it, since he had awakened and the Spider Ancestor was clearly dead, it meant he was victorious. Now he could rightfully become the one and only true Spider Emperor! His next stop would be to kill the Spider God and become the Spider Devil!

From this day forward, he needed to be extremely cautious and make steady plans. He first needed to unite all the spiders under his absolute rule, appoint Spider Generals, and so on.

Sigh, too much work to be done. It won't be that easy to fight the Spider God.

Hold on...

"...I think I am remembering exactly how it happened, but I strangely feel like there is something wrong. What is it?"

Eric didn't think there was anything wrong with his memory itself.

He looked down toward his chest, seeking confirmation of where the spider's babies had burst forth.

After noticing the condition of his chest, his brain shook, and his eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

He was bare-chested, and there were many long, grotesque marks all over his skin, covering his chest entirely and stretching beyond it.

The scars looked like long, twisting worms spread across his flesh, gathering right in the center—almost as if someone had punched right through his heart with a fist or a thick pole.

These horrendous scars began below his neck and reached the upper-middle portion of his abdomen. In width, they covered his entire chest.

Overall, his chest now looked like a sun, except the scars and gashes were not in straight lines; they twisted around like snakes or worms.

Eric wasn’t disgusted; in fact, he found it remarkable. But at the same time, it was so shocking that it shook his mind, tearing apart all the webs inside his brain until his true memories finally surfaced.

After waking up to reality, he couldn't help but let out a long, disappointed sigh. Just as he was thinking of creating spider armies and making spiders great again, it turned out to be nothing but a dream…

Leaving that aside, he recalled that the three of them had fought and killed a Newborn stage Rank 3 Crimson Tide Spider. After that... he had broken through his third bracket of training stats, and felt his heart was about to explode with an unstoppable force that couldn’t be contained by any means. So, in a hurry, he had used his entire strength and focus to rip open his chest, diverting the pressure outward as much as possible while also using his Mana to protect whatever he could...

'So... this wound was made by me?'

If that was the case, then by now his chest should have healed normally instead of becoming such a hideous sight. Even if some scars remained, it shouldn’t be this abnormal.

He touched the scar and felt no pain; in fact, it felt like that was exactly how his chest was supposed to be. It was a weird sensation, almost as if his body's genetics and coding had changed entirely.

Eric was flabbergasted. He could clearly sense that his body didn't even register the current deformity as a wound or scar anymore.

"Riya, what do you think?" Eric asked while feeling his new heart, which was beating with a normal rhythm.

It seemed a new heart had perfectly recreated itself. His other injured organs, nerves, and whatever else was damaged also seemed to have healed perfectly. He felt no discomfort in his physical body, and he could feel that all of his stats had increased tremendously.

"Riya?" Eric called again, but there was no response—only silence.

He stopped touching his chest and started having a bad feeling about this.

'Don't tell me it was never a "Mind Space" but rather a "Heart Space"?!'

Since his old heart was gone, was Riya gone along with it?

He quickly closed his eyes and tried to enter his Mind Space.

After successfully entering it, he breathed a sigh of relief; at least it was a Mind Space.

The place looked exactly the same: completely dark, empty, and vast—almost endless.

After taking a quick look, his chest tightened; there was no sign of Riya!

'Wasn't she a part of my soul? I feel no discomfort, so this means my soul hasn't rotted yet. Then...'

Eric scanned thoroughly and finally noticed something. He quickly dashed toward it, slowing down as he came closer, before finally coming to a complete stop.

In front of him was a transparent but clearly noticeable coffin. Inside it, a beautiful woman with long black hair lay sleeping peacefully.

Eric stared at Riya silently, feeling a bit emotional.

He recalled when he was merely a few years old, he had stumbled upon this place and seen a girl sleeping in a similar posture. She had been protected by a similar transparent coffin, and no matter how much he tried to break it back then, he couldn't, nor was he able to wake the girl up.

Eric's gaze stayed on the sleeping Riya for a long time.

For the first time in both of his lives, he suddenly felt a little lonely. He had never felt or known loneliness even when he was completely alone in his past life with no human contact for long periods, but for the very first time, he felt he was missing something—or someone.

He sighed and, without any hesitation, tossed all such feelings and emotions away. It wasn't because he was trying to be emotionless, but because he didn't need sad emotions to appreciate someone. He would appreciate anyone by his own choice.

Eric knew that unlike in the past, he could actually break the coffin now. However, he felt that this coffin was actually protecting Riya, acting like a self-healing or self-preservation mechanism—much like how people have eyelids that close to protect their eyes. If he broke the coffin right now, Riya might end up heavily injured.

At least at this moment, she was still fine and harbored the hope of waking up someday.

Eric silently watched Riya sleep peacefully for a bit longer. Then, he slowly turned around and muttered, "Take a good rest."

He left the Mind Space.

Staying there felt quite stifling, as it made him realize that the place used to be lively, even though only a single person used to live there.

Riya had probably pushed herself too much during the last training bracket, and now that he was done with it, she needed some proper rest.

After exiting his Mind Space, Eric kept his eyes closed and focused on examining himself more thoroughly.

No matter how much he tried to sense it, he didn't seem to have developed any new 'arms'. Just as Riya had predicted, he instead felt his stats increase massively.

Twice?... No, thrice!

Eric's eyes snapped wide open.

With his senses and his deep understanding of his own stats, he was ninety percent certain that all his previous training stats had tripled!

Abilities were indeed amazing, but they also depended on stats, and the four basic stats were the backbone of anyone's capabilities. So, having them multiplied thrice meant he had gotten three times stronger!

Eric raised his hand and clenched his fist tightly. After repeating the motion a few times, he nodded to himself.

He clearly felt that he was now abnormally strong.

Unlike in the past when his stats doubled, he was now a lot more stable and in control. It was like driving a car: if one could drive steadily at 10 mph, they could also drive at 30 mph completely calmly.

Eric glanced around and realized that he hadn't been kidnapped; he was inside his space tent.

He looked toward his bedside table, and indeed, his space ring was quietly resting on it. Lyria or Livy had probably removed it to ensure better blood flow.

He grabbed the ring, pulled out a pen and paper, and started scribbling down the details.

His previous stats were - 60, (150), (50)

So, his current stats should be-

Strength - 60, (600)

Agility - 60, (600)

Intelligence - 60, (600)

Constitution - 60, (600)

Hiss...

Eric took a deep breath and stared at what he had just written in utter disbelief.

All his training stats were now ten times his Mana Wielder stats!

After the recent battle, not only had his four previous abilities leveled up, but even his basic stats had become monstrous!

His new heart trembled with anticipation. He quickly closed his eyes and tried to sense how much his 'arms' had improved and what new things he could achieve now.

Unlike the previous time when they were left confused and uncertain about what their abilities could do, this was no longer a big issue. They could now differentiate and understand their abilities in depth, mainly because they had accepted their abilities wholeheartedly and no longer subconsciously rejected them using past memories of what they could and couldn't do.

Just as Eric was about to inspect his abilities' improvements, he heard a pleasant voice from outside the tent.

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