The Head, under the oppressive cloak of night, found himself imprisoned within the grips of a vivid, almost tangible dream. The landscape he ventured into was something extracted from the most sinister of legends, a realm that twisted the very essence of reality into a scene of hellish horror.
'Where am I?'
He wandered through a landscape that seemed to pulse with malice, the ground beneath his scorched feet cracked and blackened as though the earth itself had been burnt to its bones. The air was thick, laden with the stench of sulfur and decay, and heavy enough to claw at his lungs with each laborious breath.
'This dark aura, the overflow of demonic qi..this feels too real to be a dream.'
As he progressed, the sky above roiled with a storm of ash and ember. It cast a baleful, perpetual twilight that bled across the horizon, staining everything with hues of deep crimson and obsidian. From this infernal gloom, sinister forms emerged—creatures that defied description. One beast slithered along the charred ground, its body an amalgam of rotting flesh and seething maggots, eyes like blistering coals that burnt with hatred. Another entity, towering and skeletal, its wings ragged and ashen, screamed into the darkness, a sound that fractured the air like broken glass.
'Demons.'
The Head moved with a purpose he couldn't understand, drawn deeper into this nightmare world. Mountains of bones rose in the distance, casting long, ghastly shadows that twisted around his path like the fingers of the dead, reaching for salvation they would never find. The lakes he passed were not water but boiling blood that bubbled with the cries of the damned, echoing the chilling wails that permeated the atmosphere.
He arrived at the heart of this forsaken realm, a large, flaming platform that stood defiantly amid a sea of black and red flames. The fire danced with malevolence, casting twisted shadows that writhed across the scorched earth. The flames seemed alive, whispering secrets of destruction in a tongue lost to time, their heat oppressive, searing yet not consuming.
Above this infernal stage loomed a towering structure that seemed to scrape the very sky, crafted from brimstone and despair. Upon this throne of horrors sat Azazel, the demon of forsaken lore. His form was a tapestry of terror, his flesh etched with ancient runes glowing a sickly red. Horns arched back from his forehead, framing a face that bore a semblance of angelic beauty twisted by millennia of malevolence. His eyes, deep and endless pits of darkness, regarded The Head with a curiosity that was as unsettling as it was penetrating.
Azazel's smile, slow and deliberate, was a masterpiece of menace. The expression distorted his cruel features into a semblance of mock warmth, yet the coldness in his gaze could freeze the very fires around them. His voice, when he spoke, would not be heard but felt, a reverberation through every fiber of The Head's being, a resonance that promised dread and despair.
The Head sighed, "This isn't really a dream, is it?"
Azazel smirked, "Ugh. You reek of blood. That affinity is strong within you, especially that gravity…hehe. It's amazing."
"You're not as weak as I'm perceiving you. What's a demon doing in my dreams?"
"Your dreams don't belong to you."
As Azazel's monstrous smile widened, his lips parted to utter a chilling incantation, the words weaving through the air in a sinister font of an ancient, forgotten language: "þū sculan forwurðan", which echoed ominously across the fiery platform.
No sooner had the demon king spoken than the ground of the fiery realm trembled, heralding the arrival of a horde of demonic entities. Leading the charge was a towering beast covered in scales of blackened iron, its eyes a consuming fire. Behind it, slithered creatures with bodies of twisted humanoids, their limbs elongated and tipped with razor-sharp talons. Among them, creatures cloaked in shadows, their forms shifting and churning like smoke, yet their eyes glowed with a baleful light. Ethereal wraiths with tattered wings of night and clawed hands reached out with a starving desperation.
The air filled with the stench of sulfur and brimstone as the horde converged upon The Head, their cacophony of roars and shrieks forming a symphony of nightmares.
But The Head, standing firm on the summons of his implacable will, stretched his arms wide. From the depths of his own life-force, two long swords of swirling blood materialized in his grasp, runes glowing an ominous red etched along their lengths. He swung them with a masterful grace, each movement a deadly dance of decimation. As the first monstrous figure lunged towards him, The Head slashed diagonally across its torso. The sword's magic activated, causing the beast's body to burst apart as red vines sprouted from the wound, then wrapped and squeezed until with a sickening pop, the creature exploded in a shower of corrupted ichor.
'Seems I can't use my gravity here. I can't warp reality in a place where reality doesn't exist—dreams.'
Spinning swiftly to his left, The Head engaged a duo of humanoid demons. His sword traced intricate arcs in the air, leaving trails of shimmering blood that transformed into clones. These clones lunged forward, each mirroring The Head's lethal precision, and in a flash, decimated the attackers, leaving nothing but remnants of dark power dissipating into the air.
A wraith descended, its claws aimed at his face. In a fluid motion, The Head teleported behind it, the air cracking at the suddenness of his movement. With a clean sweep of his sword, he bisected the wraith, its two halves falling to the ground before dissolving into the cursed earth. Encircled by snarling beasts, The Head executed a series of backflips, his swords swirling autonomously around him in a deadly ballet. Each swing met flesh, and with every contact, explosive blooms of blood vines erupted, entangling and compressing each beast until they were nought but gore and bone.
Facing a giant demon, The Head carved a rune in the air before him. The rune shimmered a golden red, pulsating with power. From this glyph burst forth scores of blood-formed clones, each a mirror in ferocity and strength, overwhelming the demon with a barrage of synchronized strikes, leaving it a shattered husk. A dark power user launched a corrupt energy sphere at him. The Head sliced through the projectile, splitting it into a hundred harmless fragments, then rushed forward, his speed a blur, to deliver a devastating uppercut with the base of his sword, sending the demon crashing into the fiery ceiling above.
As shadow beings converged, The Head's swords danced through the air unaided, their paths calculated with supernatural precision. Each swing cleaved through dark forms, their essences screaming as they were banished back into the void. A beast attempted to overpower him from behind; without looking, The Head teleported above it, driving his sword downward. The impact forced the ground to tremble, and the beast was impaled, completely immobilized as the blood vines crawled over its body, squeezing relentlessly until it burst.
A squadron of humanoid demons advanced in formation. The Head swept his swords across in a wide arc, the tips of his blades barely touching the ground. The contact summoned an array of blood runes that erupted into a legion of clones, each charging forth to meet their mark, rending through demonic flesh with explosive precision. As Azazel watched, amused, The Head faced the remaining demons in a final stand. With a roar that matched the surrounding flames, he plunged his swords into the earth. A massive wave of blood surged forth, engulfing the enemies in a tidal wave of destruction, their bodies disintegrating under the overwhelming force.
"Your dreams don't belong to you, human. Those galaxy eyes of yours, that pretty long hair, you're kin to the deity of the stars."
"I know that."
"Strange you would make a contract with the Blood Deity to have her affinity, when you bear powerful abilities yourself. You did not NEED her."
"I did not need her, I needed her power. The dark trio is consisted of her, in which makes up the deity that ruled the other deities of the Rune Conclave. And that deity was the second most powerful deity in the universe, who wouldn't take advantage of that? But then a boy comes along, and has the power to devour her entire essence and use her abilities."
Azazel sat up, smirking, "A boy you say?! Did he have long brown hair?"
"Joon."
"Yes, Joon. He's still alive? Haha, that's crazy. How d if he survive after being consumed by those hounds power?"
"He's dead now."
"Oh? Killed by whom?"
"The Lust Deity."
"Ooooh. I've heard of that one."
"What do you want?"
"A deal."
"Are you crazy? I aim to destroy the demons walking around in our world. I abhor you bastards."
"But whyyyyy?"
"Nothing you say can make me join you."
"What if I told you information of your enemies? Whatever you want, whatever you want to find out, I'll answer you."
"…Why? What's in it for you?"
"I have my own goals, and it relates to the other two deities of the dark trio, Light and Darkness."
"Why would I help you? You could end up completing the task of hell."
"What task is that? To rule? That's not what we want. And I don't know what the High One wants to really do, but I have to do what he says. And I have to kill the Darkness and Light deity. The Luminous Vanguard's deity of light is Aurion, and they're hunting all blood users. If they summon Aurion into a battle against you, you will lose, and you know it. The only way I'm able to kill them is through you."
"….Demons are known to lie."
Azazel laughed, "HAHA! I wouldn't have gone through all of this trouble to lie. That's why I wanted to see you fight. Anywaysssss, you want to get rid of us, right? Don't you feel the world would be in a better state if everyone listened to you?"
"I know it will be. But no matter what, I will keep killing demons and those who manipulate demonic qi."
"And you can do that. I don't care. As long as we make a contract."
"And if I say no?"
"I'll slaughter everyone in the Blood Sect. Easily,"
"…The Blood Deity Xiahou Anara used us to get rid of the demonic influence, and you expect me to make a deal with a demon himself?"
"Trust me! You already have three affinities: Star, Blood, and gravity. Imagine having dark power along with it. The Luminous Vanguard wouldn't stand a chance."
"And after we finish the deal?"
"Me and you can fight it out to the death. How's that?"
The Head thought, 'He's not lying. Even though he had a deeper motive. If I fought him, it would end in a stalemate. It's already annoying enough that the Luminous Vanguard is hunting the Blood Sect, I don't need this bastard hunting us as well. I'll use him myself. I don't care if I do anything to break the contract, I'll make sure he and all of hell gets eliminated. But I'm sure he knows that already. We both are thinking the same thing. A mutual nod to one another, we're both holding secrets.'
"Fine then." The Head said.
"Splendid! Also, there's another dilemma."
"What?"
"The Cult. Or otherwise known as the Demon Sect. They have sanctuaries all over the world, taming demonic beasts and helping corrupt leaders find ways to successfully harness demonic qi."
"You've wandered in our world for a while, of course you're with them. Seems I have to kill them too."
"I don't care. You can do whatever you want. As long as my goals are met, you can do whatever. That cult can turn the souls of those who successfully harness demonic qi into fragments, which can be used to open a door into hell to unleash its full wrath upon your world. The High One is using them as his agents, promising them immortality. They aren't normal humans I should say. They're extremely powerful and the most insane humans I've ever come across. They tried to tame me, but I didn't let them. Let me guessss, you've never heard of them?"
"I don't know how I don't know them."
"Hehe, they're good at hiding their notoriety, as you are. They are the main source of these corrupt leaders you and the Blood Sect are killing. Taking them down would surely dwindle the corrupt leaders."
"What caused all of this? The demons, the deities, hell, the dark trio, what's the connection?"
"I'm giving you too much information now. How about that deal, huh?"
"….This is for the honor of the Blood Sect."
"Hmmm, I can feel that bloodlust coming from you. Is that normal or..?"
The Head was staring into Azazel's eyes with malice, but Azazel wasn't affected. They locked hands, and they both were consumed in black flames.