Great Demon King

Translator: Ryogawa

TLC: Hedonist

The ashen-faced Tyre and Logue beamed with excitement once more. Logue said, “We wiped out the Hegemons inside Omphalos all at once! Slank, Karp, the situation in the Fringe has now changed. We suffered huge losses so that we can get all the Hegemons in one place to wipe them out. Do you know why I did what I did now?”

“I lost two-thirds of my men and this isn’t going to bring them back,” Slank said after recovering from the shock. He no longer trusted Logue about anything especially after he admitted to using them as cannon fodder.

“Bryan, the Hegemons are done for and you have been avenged. We should no longer be fighting with each other! The situation now is urgent and we should deal with the remnant godhunters first. What do you say?” Tyre asked, finally calming himself down and spinning the situation around. As expected of a powerful overgod, his attitude immediately shifted the moment he saw that Han Shuo was far more powerful than them.

Han Shuo didn’t care about what Tyre’s intentions were and looked towards Omphalos coldly. “My Celestial Pearl Pharmacy was still operating there with many of my subordinates among the staff. You blew up the whole place without giving me any previous notice to get my men out of there and now, they have perished in the explosion. Do you think I’ll still be on your side after you just killed so many of mine?”

“Sacrifices are essential for the Fringe’s victory! Bryan, you should be more open minded about this!”

“Why do you never have to sacrifice anything?”

“Why are we the only ones sacrificed?”

The other faction leaders complained without restraint, one louder than the other. They had suppressed these dissenting thoughts for quite some time and they came pouring out towards Logue and Tyre in one go after Han Shuo triggered it.

“That’s right! Why did you sacrifice our men but never your own? Tyre, you’ve never cared about our wellbeing!” Karp snapped.

“Hahaha… Sir Logue is even better. He can sacrifice his loyal subordinates with no problem. Remember how he unhesitantly grabbed one of his men, who had served him for many hundred of years, to block a blow from Kauze before sneaking away? If he doesn’t care about his own men’s lives, why would he care about ours?” Slank said mockingly, having personally witnessed this at Osteoburg.

After witnessing Han Shuo’s power, Karp and Slank’s courage was inflated. They believed that before his impressive strength, Tyre and Logue wouldn’t dare to harm them. However, it wasn’t just the two of them.

Many more started to criticize Logue and Tyre for their sneaky actions, including even some of their own subordinates who were convinced. After years of working for them, they had come to notice such tendencies as well, especially after the rest highlighted it for them. Back then, there were no Sovereigns who could avenge their subordinates like Han Shuo, so people didn’t really think too much about it. But now, they couldn’t help comparing their masters to Han Shuo.

“What are you guys saying? Do you want to mutiny?” Logue said after noticing that even his loyal followers seemed to be going against them.

The moment he snapped, the others lowered their heads. However, Slank and Karp weren’t his subordinates and they chewed him out even more with Han Shuo backing them.

“You have a deathwish!” Logue suddenly lashed out at Slank as his venomous death energy gathered in the surroundings before a bone cage locked Slank up. Han Shuo knew that Logue would act. Watching from above, he unleashed the combined six energies towards them.

All of a sudden, the bone cage shattered apart. A great force pressed down on Logue, pinning him down so fast that he wasn’t able to evade it. The force from the push caused him to spit out blood. With but a thought, the new domain sent down an odd power that seemed to entrap Logue like a net. Han Shuo also noticed that Tyre was about to sneak away and laughed. “Tyre, I won’t deal with you now. I would like to see what kind of chaos you can cause with Dhaka and his men.”

When he said that, Tyre’s jaw dropped. “What… what did you say?”

“Isn’t Dhaka your elder brother? I bet you have already conspired with him to wipe out everyone else that survived the explosion, right? Two destruction overgods working together is sure to be terrifying. You’re trying to count on that to turn everything around, right?” Han Shuo looked at Tyre with a mocking smile.

“What? Tyre’s actually conspiring with Dhaka?!” Karp looked at the exposed Tyre with disbelief. “It’s no wonder! Tyre was among those who sold the Fringe out!”

This time around, everyone, not just Slank and Karp, were fueled with rage. The fact that Tyre was Dhaka’s blood brother was something they couldn’t even have fathomed. That meant that Tyre had been a traitor the whole time at was at least at half at fault for how badly the Fringe was faring against the godhunters.

Even Logue, trapped and as injured as he was, wore a face of disbelief. With a resigned laughter, he said, “I see… Tyre, oh Tyre, you were planning to wipe me out with your brother Dhaka, huh? Hahaha… That way, you’d stand at the top of the Fringe with nobody being able to threaten your position.”

Tyre’s expression was grimmer than it could ever be. He didn’t utter a single word.

“Don’t bother to argue your way out of this. Dhaka will be here in a moment. The truth will come to light then. I’d like to see if you’ll be able to defeat me by working with Dhaka,” Han Shuo said with a smirk as he turned to look in the distance. Someone was coming and it couldn’t be anyone but Dhaka.

“What’s with that, Tyre? Why did you only destroy a fifth of Omphalos, your fifth of the place too!” Dhaka roared before he even arrived. The Hegemons in Omphalos hadn’t all died from the explosion. Dhaka was faring really hard trying to regain control of the situation. His anger was hardly surprising, given how all his efforts over the years had been ruined.

That was all the proof they needed to show that he and Tyre were in fact brothers.

“What?!” Dhaka suddenly stopped. “Bryan, why are you here?!”

He immediately recoiled at the thought of how powerful he was, still traumatized by the whole incident back at Pandemonium.

“Dhaka, I gave you a chance, but it seems that you don’t appreciate it. Since you still haven’t left the Fringe, you will never be able to!” Han Shuo turned to Tyre and said, “Do you have anything else to say at this point?”

“Brothers, we just have to wipe Bryan out and the Fringe will be ours!” Tyre suddenly said as he laughed out of a sudden. Seeing that there were still some people who doubted him, he continued, “That’s right, Dhaka and I are indeed brothers. I have also made use of others. But aren’t you all fine? I did this all for myself. In the future, you’ll see that the Godhunter Alliance will not be a threat to us with me in charge. Isn’t that what we have all been working towards?”

He was still trying to salvage any loyalty he had left. The subordinates who had followed him over the years seemed conflicted, but not one of them promised that they would fight by his side immediately. They didn’t seem to be refusing either, choosing instead to remain silent.

Han Shuo immediately knew the reason they were hesitating. “Who rules and who falls will be decided by this fight. Hahaha, Dhaka, Tyre, all you need to do is defeat me. Your men will still remain yours at the end!”

Tyre gave it some thought and immediately knew what his men were thinking. If he and Dhaka were killed in the following battle, there was no assurance for the others’ safety.

“Brother, let us kill Bryan. There is no overgod that can match up against us!” Tyre proudly proclaimed.

Dhaka’s courage seemed to be stoked by his words. “Hahahahaha, not bad. No overgod without a Quintessence can fight us two brothers.”

The two of them turned to Han Shuo all of a sudden. They were both destruction overgods of the same blood, which would allow them to synchronize much better with each other. They could also combine their domains like what Han Shuo was doing. After they did so, their powers of destruction shot through the roof.

Now, perhaps no overgod without Quintessence would be able to resist them. However, combining domains using six different energies was a hundred times harder than what Dhaka and Tyre were doing, and consequently, a hundred times more powerful. They were still far from his match.

Even after sensing their power rise, Han Shuo still remained smiling. He waited for their power to reach their peak and said, “Dhaka, Tyre, how dare the likes of you claim to be unmatched by all overgods?”

Destruction energy exploded from Han Shuo and spread outwards like a huge wave. The power was so terrifying that it squeezed Dhaka and Tyre’s combined domain out and crushed it.

“I don’t even fear the Gods of Death and Light, so why would I fear small fry like you?” He laughed so loud that he shook the skies as even more power came surging from the void towards the two of them.

Nothing but their pained cries could be heard. Tyre was surrounded by a powerful light and transported to the odd space where Logue was kept captive. When Dhaka heard that, he immediately tried to escape, only to be struck by the wave of light, ending up bloodied all over. He didn’t dare to turn back to so much as glance at Han Shuo nor care about his younger brother’s survival. The pain he felt caused him to flee in desperation.

The thought of Han Shuo’s claim about not fearing the Gods of Death and Light made him aware of something. When he was leaving Pandemonium, he knew that Nestor was on the way there. He thought that Han Shuo and Han Hao would undoubtedly be killed by him, yet he was still alive and said something like that. The implications of that were so frightening that Dhaka fled without taking Han Shuo’s attack like Tyre did.

“Brother!” Tyre cried in the prison beside Logue. He couldn’t escape nor fight, but his vision and hearing were unimpeded. He yelled desperately as he watched Dhaka flee without caring about anything else. Dhaka had obviously heard him, but he didn’t stop at all.

Han Shuo smiled and said, “Now that’s smart of you, but do you really think you can escape?”

The reason Han Shuo didn’t make a move was that he could feel Han Hao nearby. Dhaka suddenly noticed someone ahead of him. Soon, it was apparent that it was Han Hao. “You want to try to stop me too?! Since your father hurt me, I’ll pay him back by getting back at you!”

He unleashed a gigantic Orb of Destruction using all the destruction energy gathered in his body before slinging the ‘grey sun’ towards Han Hao.

Discontent seemed to flash across Han Hao’s eyes as he stood proudly, wielding his bone spear. “You really deserve death.”

He raised the spear and shot a beam out from its tip. It contained all sorts of negative energies like death, despair and cruelty. The grey sun of destruction, Dhaka’s all-out attack, seemed so insignificant compared to the beam.

Then, a loud explosion could be heard. Dhaka’s charge suddenly stopped and before he could react, he could already see the bone spear before him. In the next instant, it pierced between his eyes, ‘nailing’ him in mid air, before his flesh and soul were all absorbed by the spear. The despair he felt before his death was converted into a mist that Han Hao swallowed. His eyes glowed brighter as if he had just been nourished by it.

Dhaka had just died like that. How did the father and son get so powerful in a matter of days?

“You dare attack my family? You deserve to die!” Han Hao said as he pulled the spear out of Dhaka’s divine body before it crumbled into nothingness. Dhaka had died after everything sucked out of him.

After killing Dhaka, Han Hao didn’t come over. Instead, he sent a telepathic message, “Father, I already killed Dhaka. There are still a few Hegemons at Omphalos. I’ll make sure they won’t leave the Fringe alive.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be there shortly.” Han Shuo then turned to his prisoners. “Tyre, your brother left first and died first. You should know that he’s gone if you can communicate with his soul.”

Tyre, who was still mired in hate for his heartless brother, now seemed flabbergasted. He tried to reach out with the magic mirror before laughing. “Haha, hahaha! He deserved to die! Let’s die together!”

All of a sudden, a great destructive force came from his body and shook the cage before enveloping it in light. Even Logue wasn’t able to escape as Tyre detonated his divine body.

Seeing Tyre committing suicide, Han Shuo hurriedly sapped their powers away and threw the Cauldron of Myriad Demons towards the cage. Even if he couldn’t collect their divine bodies or divine energies, he would be able to get their purified divine souls.

The divine soul of an overgod was far too precious. With Tyre and Logue’s, one could advance further in death and destruction energy. Once someone from the House of Han understood the intricacies of the power, they might become powerful overgods themselves one day.

Thankfully, Han Shuo made it in time. The cauldron managed to suck the two’s souls up before they were eradicated by the light. Though Tyre had said Dhaka deserved to die, he proceeded to commit suicide. Han Shuo found it rather weird. He wasn’t sure if he chose to kill himself because of his close ties with Dhaka or whether he did so because he knew there was no hope of escaping Han Shuo’s wrath.