It was the responsible one who, 100 years ago, had put Vulcan through 10 years of torment.
Kaozinta has returned.
âPhew. How many years has it been. I spent 20 years in my own dimensionâŠ.So, about 100 years in this worldâs time. Damn, wasted so much time.â
Kaozinta complained as soon as he arrived at the city of Yamakan, the hotspot of Naraka.
In fact, even he didnât know that it was going to take him this long, either.
When he first went back to his own demon world of Baumtar, he was thinking about returning back here in about one year after demonstrating his power by taking care of all the traitors.
However, the situation did not go as he had intended.
When he became weaker after sweeping away all the traitors, the bastards from other demon worlds had invaded him.
It wasnât certain how he had been able to create the gate to other demon worldsâ dimensions, rather than the dimensions of his own human world, but Kaozinta had to spend a long time in Baumtar in order to defend against their invasion.
Despite that, he did not spend all that time, suffering a complete loss.
For the past 20 years, he has been able to counter invade the world of the invaders, hence expanding his influence.
The invaders war power was quite strong, but as no one had the war capability greater than that of Kaozinta, it led to their defeats.
When five of the quite powerful demon king level demons collaborated in fighting Kaozinta, they were more or less on the equal footings, and they were able to take the fight to their advantage to a certain degree.
However, through ambushes and sowing discord among them, Kaozinta was able to defeat one of the demon kings, and with that, the war sharply turned in favor of the Baumtar dimension.
Ultimately, one by one, each of the other worldâs invaders went back to their own respective dimensions without even able to close the portal which they had created, and with the ensued invasions by Kaozinta, they could not escape from being colonized by Kaozinta.
âWell, there has been much growth during that process, too. I suppose I shouldnât think of it as having missed out on a lot of things? Also, the lightning and fire temple was about to be discovered by other bastards given time, anywayâŠ.â
Consoling himself, Kaozinta began to walk.
He was wandering around Yamakanâ here and there in order to take in the Narakaâs atmosphere for the first time in a long while, when he discovered something strange.
That there was no sign of any other true demons, except him.
ââŠ.What? How come no one is here?â
With an incomprehensible expression on his face, Kaozinta moved about the Yamakan city more quickly.
It was because he thought it was out of the ordinary to see normally bustling city of Yamakan was void of any true demons.
However, as if to belittle such Kaozintaâs thoughts, he could not locate any true demons anywhere.
It was naturally in the same situation at the weapons store, blacksmithâs workshop, and even at the demon godâs statue where it was always bustling with crowds.
The Yamakan city was completely vacant as if they have all gone back to their own dimensions.
Walking through the city in that ambience, Kaozinta felt a little eerie.
It was as if he was the sole fortunate survivor as he was in another dimension while a great catastrophe swept through Naraka?
Of course, there couldnât be such a powerful being which could annihilate the entire true demons since each one of them were as powerful as gods, but under the current circumstances, he couldnât think of anything else, other than having that ridiculous thought.
ââŠ..I used to think that those ugly bastards would all die during ordinary times. Has the demon god truly made my wish come true?â
It was incomprehensible.
In the end, Kaozinta even went to talk to the newbie helpers in order to find out what was happening.
However, as he learned that even they did not know what was happening, either, he organized his thoughts and quickly left the city.
And he went to the hunting grounds, one by one, which he used to think were ineffective as there were always too many true demons.
However, true demons were nowhere to be seen.
Lost for a little bit, Kaozinta stood still and blankly stared up into the sky.
However, in the end, he smiled and murmured to himself in a playful manner.
âWellâŠ. Better they are not here. It means I can monopolize these hunting grounds! Hahahaha!â
Kaozinta laughed with thunderous volume.
He quickly moved and headed to the âOlympus Templeâ which was known for its highest difficulty level, inside Naraka.
And by engulfing himself with the demon energy, he indiscriminately began to slaughter the ancient gods in the temple.
Kwakwakwakwang!
Puuck! Puuung!
The white, sacred marble floor was instantly smeared with the crimson blood of several monsters.
However, as more monsters came into Kaozintaâs vision, he could not hide his delight.
âHahahaha! Iâll get you all!â
Kaozintaâs laughter was so aggressive that it made the hair on those who were listening to stand up.
He spent the time enjoyably for the first time in a long while as he went through delightful hunting process.
**********
The time passed by 1 year in that fashion.
Naraka was quite normal.
The monsters were endlessly being regenerated like in the past, and the NPC at the convenient facilities were all doing their jobs.
Naturally, the statue of demon god, too, endowed Kaozinta with much rewards as he had diligently ascertained so much achievements in the past 1 year, and he grew powerful and advanced one step closer to being a demon god.
The situation could be deemed much better than the time when he was monopolizing the lightning and fire temple.
However, Kaozinta was not that happy.
The situation which he had lightly thought of by passing it by thinking âthey probably all temporarily went back to their own demon worlds because of somethingâ.
It was because that situation was continuing.
âWhat? Really?â
Today was also unchangeably void, like yesterday, of anything in Yamakan city.
Kaozinta responded in an incomprehensible manner as it appeared to be a ghost city.
In fact, it was sufficiently strange when he first entered Naraka, too.
However, he could not fathom such situation to perpetuate for this long, as he also believed that the true demons would return if he was to wait and train here for about 1 year.
However, even after all this time, and after wandering around every hunting grounds, nothing had changed.
Furthermore, even after exploring every corner of the Yamakan city, and seeing no sign of any true demons, Kaozinta even felt a little fear.
It was truly a mysterious situation.
ââŠâŠâ
However, he did not have a way to find any real clues for this.
In order to find out something about it, there must be something that he could go after, but what could he do as no one, but himself, was there.
In the end, leaving the lonesome city of Yamakan, Kaozinta headed to a hunting ground, once more.
However, unlike the past when he used to train 10 years, 20 years at a time, he no longer had the drive.
Unlike the few other bravado true demons, he did not like to boast or compare his growing power to others
He was only moving forward with difficult training in order to go beyond his limitations, and reach the level of a demon god, and as a result, he used to look, with incomprehension, at the other boastful true demons who were being endowed with huge demon energy for their achievements.
However, now that he couldnât see any true demons, he, more or less, understood their feelings.
The situation was the he couldnât compare his accomplishments with othersâ, and there was no one that he could target to drive his competitive spirit.
He was getting a sense of loneliness.
ââŠ.. Still, I will do it. Training is lonesome to begin withâŠ. Wait.â
Kaozinta was rather perplexed a he was on his way to the hunting ground where he was raising his achievements.
With the sensation of something that quickly grazed by his head, he subtly opened his mouth as if he has just woken up from unconsciousness.
It was the place which he did not even think about due to the fact that the true demons have disappeared, and that he was monopolizing the most effective hunting grounds.
And the very unique monster which used to be there came to his thought.
âThe boss monster of the lightning and fire templeâŠ. Was it Vulcan? Right, he was there?â
Incredibly, Vulcan, the boss monster of the lightning and fire temple, showed remarkable difference from any other monster in Naraka.
When he thought of that name, a bright smile filled Kaozintaâs face.
Not just an NPC, a mysterious monster which had intelligence, and the one he could talk normally to like any other demons.
He was thinking that by paying that bastard a visit and talk to him, he might be able to find new information.
Kwaang!
Having organized his thoughts, Kaozinta changed his direction, and rushed towards the lightning and fire temple at the speed of a rocket.
Kaozinata had a much brighter expression, and even felt the butterflies.
However, he could not fathom it even in his dreams.
The fact that the subject he was going to see had become so much stronger, that was.
*******
Meanwhile, Vulcan, the bug monster and the boss monster of the lightning and fire temple, was busy on his skill training.
He has already taken care of the most of the powerful true demons in Naraka, and chased them out to their own demon worlds, the quest, however, was not clearing, yet.
On top of that, as it was hard to see any fresh true demons entering Naraka, he has been spending rather lonely time, training all by himself, at the earlier lava demon cave
As a matter of fact, it could be much more difficult than the earlier time, in some sense.
At least there were monsters back then to vent his anger on, but now, as he was a boss monster himself, and he couldnât even touch any of the monsters in Naraka.
Yet, he couldnât leave Naraka as he was so close to completing the quest, at this time.
Hence, rather than doing nothing while loitering around in Naraka, he decided to return to the lightning and fire temple, so that he could, at least, train on the depth lightning sword which he had difficulty with in the past.
He has been training in this boss room since long time ago, so he felt rather comfortable with this place than any other location.
Was it because of that, or was it because he has reached even higher level by leveling up through internal meditation for the last 50 years.
Vulcan was able to retain the energy of thunder god, arrival of hell king, and hell sword in much better condition.
If he was to use the house of demon god in addition to this, he has already advanced to the point that it would not be too hard to use them in real battles.
Feeling flattered, he smiled.
However, the problem was the next step.
He was still left in an unstable situation when he had to transition to using the depth lightning sword by using the energy of volcano explosion, at the moment of the smashing of the hell sword.
Of course, it has been a while since he moved beyond the sorry state of only succeeding one out of ten attempts when he first entered Naraka, he was still left with dissatisfaction for continuing to fail every so often.
âPhewâŠ. I still have a long way to smooth things out even if I can succeed 100 times out of 100 attempts in real battles, but I still fail one or two times⊠Will it be resolved if I reached 1,500 level. Well, I feel like it will get better if I could just clear this questâŠ.â
Vulcan cringed as his thoughts drifted back to âThe ruler of Narakaâ, the recent quest.
In fact, that was natural from his perspective.
It was the quest which was lacking any clear conditions for completing it.
He did everything he could to clear that stage, yet it wasnât completingâŠ.
Of course, he did ascertain rather profitable experience for capturing many true demons in the process, still, he felt he would lose out on a lot if he was just to return to Asgarde, and forego the rewards.
Especially the item called âthe key to being the true godâ.
He didnât know exactly what that was, but it certainly did not seem like a light item.
As a result, Vulcan was determined to complete the quest prior to returning to Asgarde.
ââŠ. Of course, I donât know how to do it, though.â
Vulcan felt deflated.
Naturally, the energies of thunder god, arrival of hell king, and the house of demon god which were engulfing Vulcan lost their might.
The swaying of the energy at the end of the lightning sword also weakened like the candle in the wind.
However, concentrating once again, Vulcan began to re-inject magic into the sword.
The only thing that he could do at this time was to try to perfect the skills that he hasnât mastered, yet.
Having thought that, Vulcan focused in order to execute the depth lightning sword, and it again spewed out forceful energy.
Whoooo.
Instantaneously, Vulcan transformed into a supernova like being, emitting bright enough light to cause the boss room to explode.
By focusing his mind in that condition, he summoned the energy of the volcano explosion as he pointed his thunder sword at an imaginary target.
Finally it was at the moment when his depth lightning swordâs energy was completely formed to the point of reaching deathly power, and was about to enter the swinging stage at the target.
In that volatile situation, the boss room swung open for no reason.
âHey, Vulcan! Good to see⊠Uh?â
Kaozinta, who was about to enter the room by saying good greetings to Vulcan for the first time in a long while.
However, seeing Vulcan, emitting deathly energy from his body, he could not take even a one step forward.
Something has greatly changed since he was here last.
And the very different concentration level of magic power.
When Kaozintaâs expression hardened after realizing that, Vulcan smiled.
Although it felt like a dejavu, and was about to experience something very familiar once again, he couldnât feel any happier when he saw Kaozinta, his sworn enemy.
Delighted, he shouted.
âGood to see you, too, you, son of a bitch!â
Kwakwakwakwakwa.
Removing the imaginary foe which he created, Vulcan directed the depth lightning swordâs energy to the true target Kaozinta who has just appeared.
When Kaozinta faced that awesome force, he swore badly.