Second Genesis

The other Demons had all stood somewhere between eight and ten feet tall, huge things with broad shoulders and bodies that looked built for ripping people apart with their bare hands.

This one was shorter, though not by much, standing somewhere around seven feet, and far more slender than the others. Its skin was darker too, almost like someone had poured black tar into the shape of the pinnacle physique of a man and then let it harden there.

Grey’s gaze narrowed.

The bastard’s abs had abs.

Its obliques looked like someone had taken a chisel to every individual block of muscle, carefully carving out every line, every vein, every little separation until there wasn’t a single wasted ounce of flesh anywhere on its body. But what really stood out were the circuits.

The other Demons had possessed dark-gold etchings that looked like raised scars burned across their skin.

These were trenches. Deep ones.

They covered one side of the Demon’s face before branching down its neck and along the length of one arm, each line at least a centimeter deep and half that wide. They felt too clean to be natural, perfect rectangular-prism channels cut into flesh, and from somewhere deep within them Grey could feel hints of power pulsing outward from the creature’s Neural Frame.

He didn’t know enough about Demons to understand what that meant.

If he did, he would have realized immediately that this thing wasn’t anything like the others.

A Ranked Demon.

For most Races who knew what those words meant, hearing them together was enough to melt the resolve of veteran warriors. Ranked Demons stood beneath only Noble Demons and Divine Demons, but those latter two were so absurdly rare that most people could live entire lifetimes without ever hearing of one appearing, let alone seeing them.

Ranked Demons were different. They were the monsters stories were actually written about.

There were dozens of legends surrounding them, tales about cities disappearing overnight, armies being torn apart, and entire bloodlines ending...

But there was only one truth that mattered.

Even the Empress Goddess Grey had been racking his brains trying to figure out how to kill wouldn’t willingly fight a Ranked Demon at her own tier.

In fact, she would hesitate even if it was an entire Class beneath her.

Such was the reputation of a Ranked Demon.

Grey didn’t know any of that.

All he felt was the pressure. And honestly, that was enough.

His expression became serious.

’I’d have to actually try.’

That hadn’t happened against someone in the Vanguard Class for a while now.

Grey had grown used to opponents around this level feeling like speed bumps, annoyances he could dismantle once he understood whatever little trick they were relying on. Even Xerchen, for all the respect Grey had gained for him, hadn’t made Grey feel this sort of pressure before the Mechanical Jaw Spirit decided to start handing out charity.

This Demon was different. Then Grey finally understood why.

’Oh.’

His gaze shifted toward the Elemental.

The halo wasn’t randomly throwing harder enemies at people.

This entire thing was a culling designed to judge the future strength of an Empire, but that strength couldn’t simply be measured by the single strongest person they had brought.

It had to be averaged. That was why bringing too many people was dangerous.

Grey had already learned that lesson when The Immovable’s brilliant idea to shove half the fucking Holy City into the Instance had resulted in them getting more than a dozen Demons.

Every extra weakling diluted the value of the group. But the opposite had to be true too.

If an Empire could only produce one person worthy of moving forward, then what did that say about them?

One talent couldn’t hold together an entire civilization. One person couldn’t become an army, a government, an economy, every future powerhouse and every pillar a world needed to survive.

Unless...

Grey looked at the Elemental again.

’Unless that one person is fucking ridiculous.’

The Ranked Demon’s grin widened.

Then it disappeared.

Grey’s pupils constricted. His senses twisted.

For the first time in what felt like forever, his combat instincts didn’t immediately know what to do. His body twitched toward the left, then backward, then toward the right, three different reactions fighting for priority before one finally won.

’Left.’

Grey was certain.

The Demon would appear on the Elemental’s left.

His instincts had corrected themselves.

He saw the line of attack. Then the Demon swayed.

Grey’s eyes widened.

’What?’

It appeared on the right.

There hadn’t been a visible pivot, no obvious change of direction, nothing Grey could point to and say that was where he had been fooled. One instant his senses had told him one thing, and in the next the truth had simply become something else.

The Demon’s jaw opened. Rows of blood-stained teeth stretched toward the Elemental’s neck.

Grey leaned forward slightly.

The teeth never landed. A shield of flame appeared.

A tiny plate of red-gold fire formed directly between them, shaped almost perfectly to the size of the Demon’s mouth.

Its teeth clamped down.

For half a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then the Demon shrieked.

Its entire head vanished inside the flames.

There was no dramatic clash, no desperate exchange, no burst of power as the Elemental fought to push it away. Fire simply crawled over the creature’s skull, swallowing everything above its shoulders while the Demon clawed at itself, its scream becoming wet and distorted as its flesh disappeared.

The Elemental had already turned around.

Grey stared.

The bastard was walking back toward his rock.

Behind him, the Ranked Demon continued burning.

Every step left another flaming footprint on the ground, and three steps later, each one faded into a small pile of soot.

The Elemental didn’t even look back.

"The infernal flames of hell wash away all sins."

His voice was soft, almost tired. Weary, even.

Grey’s eyes narrowed as the Demon finally collapsed behind him.

’...Fuck me. This bastard is aura farming better than me.’

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