Chapter 1033: Demon Sovereign

Demon Lord!

This deity‑comparable vast aura makes the soul tremble, but unlike a deity, it is filled with endless evil, madness and darkness, like being trapped in a nightmare that can never be woken.

Within a hundred‑mile radius, the world fell silent.

Lei En turned his head and saw Borqi's expression blank, eyes hollow. In the Star Destroyer hangar, the Title: Duke's guard's ladies‑in‑waiting were like statues, motionless, not a sound; the Extreme Warriors' minds were shadowed, thoughts slowed.

Tens of thousands of demons on the ground crawled, shivering; the remaining flying demons in the sky, as if drunk, wobbled down.

Only he, the Grand Mage's avatar, and the Thundercast Celestial Soldier remained lucid.

But this is not Time Stop.

Even a deity could not maintain such a wide Time Stop; the evil‑energy vortex in the high sky still rotated slowly, sound could travel, air still moved, everything functioned as usual, only living beings' thoughts were affected.

"This is an illusion!"

Lei En's mind understood and instantly broke free from the illusion.

He looked at the giant hand protruding from the Abyssal Gate; its most notable feature was six fingers, black as ink, clawed tips typical of a demon. The palm released great evil energy, and a light push re‑stabilized the wobbling Abyssal Gate.

Then a gigantic face appeared behind the Abyssal Gate!

Though Lei En had already guessed the opponent's identity, seeing this face still shocked his spirit, and he inhaled a gasp of cold air.

This super‑large Abyssal Gate stood about two hundred meters tall, yet the whole face could not be fully shown; roughly twenty percent remained beyond the Gate.

The scene was like someone finding a hole in a wall, leaning in to look, but the hole was too small for the head, so they pressed the face against the opening to observe the other side.

Nevertheless, it was enough for Lei En to see the face clearly.

Ignoring its enormity, it was actually a rather handsome face, features similar to a human, evidently male, but skin dark, eyes flashing with a faint green light, black horns sprouted on the forehead, forming a natural crown.

Lei En felt a kind of charm.

This charm was hard to describe in words; alien, dark, yet filled with extraordinary wisdom.

"Lord of the Dark Abyss Gratzet."

Lei En silently recited the honorific, his heart quickly steadied.

The true form of the Demon Lord could not pass through the Abyssal Gate; its power was cut off beyond the Prime Material Plane, releasing shadowy illusion, already the limit of what it could do.

The seemingly terrifying evil aura was essentially an illusion, with no real pressure.

"Ah…"

"The scent of the Prime Material Plane, haven't smelled it in a long time."

The giant face in the Abyssal Gate spoke; its voice was not the imagined mad rant, omnipotent, but unexpectedly gentle and calm, its face showing a rapt expression, like an old friend reminiscing.

While speaking, it tried to push its face out a bit, but an invisible force blocked it, and the newly steadied Abyssal Gate almost collapsed.

"Plane rules are still as hateful."

The black giant face frowned, lifted its gaze to the sky.

At the moment of its appearance, Lei En had already opened Invisibility Fields on all four Star Destroyers, but obviously they were useless before it. Its emerald eyes easily saw through invisibility, as if piercing the hull of the Star Destroyer and landing on himself.

"Ryan Augustus."

Its right mouth corner rose, as if smiling and contemptuously saying: "I've heard your name, Consul of the Oriense Empire."

Lei En's heart jumped.

He found only he could hear the voice, and responded with measured respect: "Great Lord of the Dark Abyss remembering a mere mortal's name is my honor."

"You are not a mere mortal, hehe…" Gratzet sneered.

He examined Lei En behind the Abyssal Gate, his gaze lingered on Lei En for a few seconds, then turned to the Star Destroyer, swept the other three Star Destroyers, his face openly showing interest, and asked: "Your Fu Kong Cheng is impressive, even I want to study it."

Lei En gave no reply.

He could not read Gratzet's mind; this Demon Lord's personality was also odd, constantly revealing an alien vibe.

"Mortal, let's make a deal."

Gratzet's tone suddenly shifted, "You let my demon subjects return to the Abyss, and I will waive your punishment for killing Luosadi'aosi."

His words were filled with undeniable authority, as if not proposing a deal but ordering Lei En to obey.

Lei En would certainly not bite this bait.

He had already seen through the Lord of the Dark Abyss's purpose: to preserve the remaining demons. In Luosadi'aosi's domain there are tens of millions of demons, and an equal number of monsters, about twenty million total, all subjects under Gratzet's rule.

Demon Lord is a title; essentially it is still an Abyssal Lord, just stronger than ordinary Abyssal Lords, possessing power comparable to a deity.

An Abyssal Lord's power depends on the area of territory it governs and the number of demons.

Larger territories have more evil energy, and more evil energy can breed more demons, providing the Abyssal Lord with stronger power.

The relationship between demons and an Abyssal Lord is similar to that between believers and a deity.

However, the Abyssal Lord does not wield divine power nor faith‑derived power; they do not need demon worship, but draw power directly from the Willpower of the Abyssal Plane, extracting it from the souls of the demons they rule.

This power is called "Abyssal Power"!

The Abyssal Power's entity is on the same level as divine power, lacking some subtle variations, less comprehensive, almost no magical amplification, but extremely violent, excelling in destruction and killing, and extremely hard to dispel.

Each demon that dies weakens the Abyssal Lord's power by one point.

The death of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of demons is negligible for the Lord of the Dark Abyss who rules hundreds of millions of subjects; his plane sees that many demons die daily, but more are born, keeping numbers stable.

But if twenty million demons die, that is different.

Lei En replied almost without thinking:

"I refuse."

Any mortal who trades with demons never meets a good end. Moreover, the counterpart is not an ordinary demon, but the strongest Demon Lord!

If the news leaked…

The Empire's Consul trading secretly with the Demon Lord is the most shameful betrayal!

"You need not worry about being discovered," Gratzet patiently persuaded, "No one knows this, I speak only to you."

Lei En was unmoved, "Humans will never trade with demons."

I'm not a fool; I won't believe everything a demon says. If I truly agreed, it would become a lever in Ge La Zi Te's hand, threatening me step by step later, with endless trouble.

Moreover, the God of Magic is likely watching all this, and cannot be hidden from His eyes.

Ge La Zi Te's eyes flickered with dangerous green light.

He seemed to have seen through everything, his tone turning grim, "Mortal, my patience is limited. If you expect VijesCui to descend an avatar to save you, I advise you to abandon that idea; do not think that hiding in Fu Kong Cheng lets you escape my punishment."

Lei En's heart hammered hard.

Any mortal threatened face‑to‑face by a Demon Lord cannot stay completely calm; another might have already wet themselves.

Even a deity would not dare to take it lightly, let alone a mortal.

Lei En remained silent.

From Ge La Zi Te's words, it seemed he had covertly taken measures to prevent the God of Magic's holy avatar from descending in time.

Or, he was already ready to act.

The true form of the Demon Lord cannot enter the Prime Material Plane, but he can send down an Abyssal avatar that passes directly through the Abyssal Gate.

Lei En looked up, his gaze piercing the bridge deck toward the sky; there was no sign of the God of Magic's avatar descending in the heights.

Ge La Zi Te saw him waver and let out a low chuckle.

"Lei En," his tone softened again, warmly calling Lei En by name, "I like a mortal as powerful as you, and you have great potential. If you complete this deal, I'll gladly befriend you. I have always been generous to friends; whether human or demon, you're welcome to 'Zerata' and to visit my Silver Palace."

The demon's whispered voice rang directly in Lei En's mind, sounding sincere and frank, inexplicably evoking trust.

Zerata is a demon city built by the Lord of the Dark Abyss.

The city spans the 45th, 46th, and 47th layers of the Abyss; within it stands a magnificent palace called the "Silver Palace," composed of sixty‑six ivory towers, where the Lord of the Dark Abyss resides, his throne included.

Being able to befriend a Demon Lord, even knowing the extreme danger, is immensely alluring to a mortal.

With the Demon Lord's power, many things become possible.

Lei En's face showed clear interest.

Ge La Zi Te's mouth curled upward, barely containing inner delight; if he could persuade Lei En to complete the deal today, he was confident he could gradually lead this powerful human into corruption, turn him into his slave, and extract maximum value.

The Consul of the Oriense Empire, the youngest Holy Soul wizard in human history, possesses four unique Fu Kong Chengs…

All this makes Lei En, in the Lord of the Dark Abyss's eyes, seem like the most delicious delicacy.

Ge La Zi Te was about to press on, ready to make a promise and give Lei En a taste of his generosity, when Lei En's expression changed, his gaze sharp, showing no sign of being beguiled, and he shouted in a deep voice, "Evil demon, die!"

Boom—…

High above, thunder cracked, four Star Destroyers roared in unison, and the main cannons fired.

Four massive beams shot toward the Abyssal Gate.

The black giant face in the gate instantly twisted wildly, and Ge La Zi Te only then realized Lei En had been faking it, merely to stall for time.

His attention was fixed on Lei En, not noticing the Star Destroyer's main cannon charging, nor expecting Lei En to be completely unaffected by the Abyssal power's illusion.

The Lord of the Dark Abyss felt a profound humiliation, could no longer maintain the gentle façade, and shouted angrily, "How dare you deceive me… "

The Star Destroyer's cannon bombarded the Abyssal Gate, and the explosion drowned his voice.

The Abyssal Gate had long been on the brink of collapse; the Lord of the Dark Abyss's Abyssal power barely held, and under attack from four Ten-ring Spells, it could no longer stay stable.

Boom!

With an earth‑shaking blast, a massive mushroom cloud surged tens of thousands of meters into the sky.

Ge La Zi Te didn't have time to utter a harsh line before being blown back into the Abyss, his massive demon face vanishing.

Half a second later, the super‑massive Abyssal Gate exploded a second time, the evil‑energy vortex hanging in the sky ignited instantly, and air within a hundred‑mile radius ignited, rain of flames poured down, the ground shook violently, fire spread everywhere, as if the apocalypse had arrived.

Centered on Igo City, the remaining hundreds of thousands of demons perished in the explosion, with no chance to flee.

Their corpses were burned to ash.

On the bridge of the Luo Sheng Du, Lei En watched batch after batch of demon corpses burn to nothing, and felt a sharp pang of sorrow.

So many demon corpses could grow a lot of black soul mushrooms!

Fortunately, Luosadi'aosi's domain contains tens of millions of demons, only a tenth of whom died here, and there are also over ten million monsters whose bodies can also be used to grow mushrooms.

If the souls of twenty‑million demons and monsters were all harvested, how much energy could be converted?

That is also one reason Lei En refused Ge La Zi Te.

The blast's aftershock and the fire ignited by evil energy struck the Star Destroyer, all deflected by a repelling field; the Lord of the Dark Abyss's aura faded, the illusion vanished, and the world returned to normal.

"What happened?"

Borchi stared at the apocalyptic scene outside the bridge, his complexion turning pale. He only recalled that a black giant hand seemed to emerge from the Abyssal Gate a moment ago, his mind momentarily hazy, and then it became like this.

"Nothing, the Lord of the Dark Abyss just passed by," Lei En said softly.

The calm voice sounded to Borchi like a sudden thunderclap; he shivered, his terrified face darting around, and shouted, "Lord of the Dark Abyss! Where is He?"

Lei En laughed, "He's already retreated into the Abyss."

"That's good, that's good…" Borchi exhaled, then a huge curiosity arose: how did the Lord of the Dark Abyss retreat into the Abyss? The boss killed his subordinate Fear Demon King; how could he be so willing to leave? Something must be behind this!

Just as he was about to ask, a tall figure suddenly materialized before his eyes.

It was a tall woman dressed in an elegant dark‑silk robe, her waist lightly bound with jeweled cords, her skin luminous and dewy, her black hair cascading like a waterfall, tied at the back with a purple band, her face veiled by a mysterious shroud.

The aura she emitted was faint yet radiated supreme sacred grandeur, leaving Borchi breathless and his mind blank.

God of Magic!

Lei En quickly bowed respectfully, "Honored, mysterious lady."

(End of Chapter)