"Keep up the circle formation! Maintain your defense!"
The command was a calm yet authoritative whisper into the mind of all the Gods in the battlefield.
Standing on a distant position, observing the battlefield with arms crossed, was the second persona of Sunny.
He had discarded the cosmic robes of the Sunny. Here, he wore armor, an ancient armor of SSS-Grade, made from one of the strongest tals.
He did not fight like Destroyer, instead he commanded. His purpose was not rely to kill the Demon Gods but to forge the weak Pantheon into a weapon capable of killing the demon Gods without him.
Below him, six Gods moved in a fluid, deadly dance. They circled a massive Demon God, a creature of stone and magma, far stronger than any of them individually. But against the formation, the demon was suffocating.
Wherever the demon lunged, a shield t him. Wherever he retreated, a sword was waiting. It was a grinder, a battle of attrition designed to break the spirit before the body.
"Aghh!" the Demon God roared, magma spitting from his maw. "Do you think I will die like this? Insects!"
His body began to glow with a blinding red light. The chaotic energy in his core spiked critically.
"Retreat!" scread Zir, who was leading the squad. "He’s going to self-destruct!"
The five other Gods didn’t hesitate. They scrambled back, blinking away to a safe distance, bracing for the explosion that would wipe everything near it from existence.
But the explosion didn’t co.
When the smoke from magma settled, the spot where the demon had stood was empty.
Zir looked around frantically. "He... he bluffed?"
"There!" Reflection shouted, pointing towards the direction of the demon God, who was now a hundreds of thousands kilotres away.
He was a streak of red light tearing across the space, running away with a high speed.
The Demon God had used the energy buildup not to explode, but to fuel a supre evasion technique.
"Where do you think you are going?" War’s voice was cold, devoid of amusent.
He raised a single hand. He didn’t chase the demon, instead he clenched his fist.
The red streak halted instantly. The Demon God froze, suspended against the space like a fly trapped in spider net.
His body was locked, but War deliberately left his mind active. He wanted the demon to feel the terror of absolute helplessness. He wanted him to know that running was not an option.
War lowered his hand and looked down at the Gods. His helt hid his expression, but the disappointnt radiated off him was visible, and was felt by all the Gods.
"Go circle him again," War commanded, his voice low. "And do not make such mistakes a second ti."
The Gods flinched.
"You ran on instinct," War lectured.
"You saw the light, and your lizard brains scread ’danger.’ That is what animals do. Gods should rely on Intuition"
He pointed at the frozen demon. "Finish it. Properly."
The Gods scrambled into the sky, sha burning hotter than the demon’s magma.
They rembered the last ti they had failed War. They had spent fifty years in the ntal Forge Tower, a place where the aura and killing intent from the scariest Demon Gods and lords was produced everywhere.They did not want to go back there.
They surrounded the helpless demon and only then did War released the ti lock.
The Demon God crashed back into motion, stumbling in the air. He looked around at the circle of six Gods and felt his legs shake. The escape had failed. The bluff had failed.
Only now did he understand that he was not fighting warriors; he was fighting students. And he was the practice dummy.
He could have surrendered. But if he ran or surrendered, the Demon Lords would slaughter his family back in the demon realm. Execution for cowardice was slow and agonizing.
He fought with the desperation of a cornered beast. He didn’t even think of self destruction, as that would an soul erasure, which was a fate worse than death.
He simply fought until his magma cooled, his body shattered, and the light left his eyes.
A few minutes later.
"Aghh..."
The Demon God hissed, pain flaring through his every nerve, as his consciousness returned.
He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they were glued shut with dried blood.
The last thing he rembered was the spear of Zir piercing his core. He should be dead by now, then why was he alive?
"You all should temper your minds for fifty years more." a familiar voice echoed nearby.
The Demon God’s eyes snapped open, as panic began to flood his body.
Upon opening his eyes he found that he wasn’t in the space anymore, instead he was in a dungeon.
The walls were made of gray stone that absorbed light. And he was chained.
Massive shackles made of silvery tal, the sa indestructible alloy used for Edgar’s cage, bound his wrists and ankles in the air.
In front of his cell stood seven figures. One was the armored Commander, War. The other six were the Gods who had killed him.
The six students walked away with dejected faces, heads hung low. They had won the fight, but they had failed the lesson.
They knew War was right. If they had let the demon escape, he would have reported their tactics, their strengths, and their identities to the Demon Lords.
Information was ammunition, and they had almost handed the enemy a full magazine.
"So, you are awake," War said, turning his gaze to the prisoner.
"Why... why did you save ?" the Demon God rasped, his voice a broken whisper. "I died. I felt it."
"You call this saving?" War asked in a mocking voice. "What a pitiful definition of salvation you possess."
He gestured to the shadows. "Look beside you."
The Demon God turned his head to the right. His soul nearly jumped out of his body.
Lining beside him, chained in identical shackles, were thirty other Demon Gods. They were unconscious, broken and beaten, displayed like trophies in a hunter’s lodge.
He panicked and jerked his head to the left, which was empty. He sighed in relief. At least he was the last one on this row. That ant this monster had only captured thirty-one of them so far.
"What do you want?" the Demon God asked, though deep down, he knew that he will be tortured for Information.
"Nothing much," War replied casually, checking his gauntlet. "You are now a resource. Every now and then, I will drag you out. You will fight my Gods. You will try to kill them. If you manage to kill them... I will kill you permanently. If you surrender... I will torture you for a century."
War leaned in close, the red glow of his helt visor reflecting in the demon’s terrified eyes.
"The only thing that will keep you alive is if you fight them with everything you have. Be a good sparring partner, give them a challenge, and one day... I might free you."
It was a lie, of course. Or maybe not. Hope was a powerful motivator, even for demons.
War turned and walked out of the prison, the heavy door slamming shut with a sound like a tomb sealing.
The Demon God slumped in his chains. He was a gladiator slave now. A training tool.
"Haha. Welco to the neighborhood, little one."
A voice sounded from the shadows behind him. It was heavy, ancient, and dripped with a pressure that made the air feel like tal.
The Demon God froze. He knew that pressure. It belonged to a High Demon.
He turned slowly, straining against his chains to see who was chained behind him.
He almost laughed.
Behind him was a small cage. Inside sat a demon that was barely a foot tall. It looked like a plush toy, a joke made by demonic realm.
The only reason he didn’t laugh was the aura. It radiated from the tiny creature in waves, which were suffocating him to death.
"Who... who are you?" the Demon God asked, his voice trembling despite the absurdity of the sight.
"Demons nowadays are truly ignorant," the tiny demon sighed, gazing lazily at the newcor. "They don’t even recognize a high demon god."
The pressure spiked. The Demon God’s body began to shudder uncontrollably. His bladder threatened to release. It was the aura he had felt before, but didn’t knew where.
"I am Edgar," the tiny demon declared, puffing out his chest, waiting for the inevitable praises.
"Haha... haha!" The Demon God couldn’t hold it back anymore. "Edgar? The World Eater? You? You look like a keychain!"
Edgar’s eye twitched. He was about to phase through the bars and kick this insolent whelp into the next dinsion, but he stopped.
He was weak. He was small, he wouldn’t be able to pass through the cage, and kicking the cage would just make him look more adorable.
The Demon God looked closer. He stopped laughing. He had seen Edgar once, from afar, at a gathering of the Demon Gods eons ago. The facial structure... the markings... the specific hue of his skin.
It was identical. Just... shrunken.
"Are you... really Edgar?" the Demon God whispered, the horror returning.
"You would have died just now, but it’s Good that You believe now," Edgar grunted.
He looked around, checking for Sunny.
As he looked around, his eyes glowed faintly, he sensed Thea’s particles, ’tch these particles are always here, I would have to waste my energy again’
"Listen closely," Edgar said, switching to telepathy to bypass Thea’s surveillance. "I will tell you a few things you need to know about this prison and how to escape it"
No one heard the conversation that followed. In the deepest dungeon of the City of Gods, the Royal Void Beast began to plot with the new recruits that Sunny had sent his way.
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