Chapter 453: Shortest Rebellion In Velmora History

Below Damian, the streets were completely empty, but he could still feel the countless eyes watching from behind tightly closed windows. Curtains shifted whenever someone moved too quickly, and silhouettes could occasionally be seen peeking through the gaps.

The people of the capital had obeyed their Prince’s command, but fear and curiosity had kept many of them from looking away. They wanted to know what was happening. They wanted to see whether the Order of Demons could truly challenge the Prince of Lust inside his own capital.

Kanda hovered several dozen meters away, his ragged robes fluttering gently in the night wind while his ghostly white face remained fixed on Damian. His smile gradually widened, exposing rows of unnaturally sharp teeth.

"Siiiiiirrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeee....." Kanda hissed slowly, stretching the word until it sounded almost like something being dragged across stone. "For you, I came prepared...."

He had barely finished speaking when Damian vanished.

The air exploded behind him as Damian crossed the distance between them so quickly that even the people watching from the windows failed to follow his movement. His hand reached Kanda’s chest, but instead of finding resistance, his entire body passed straight through the Dreg as though Kanda were nothing more than mist.

Damian continued forward for several meters before stopping in midair. His brows furrowed deeply as he slowly looked down at his palm.

Nothing.

He clenched his fingers, then opened them again as if trying to understand what had just happened. He knew what he had felt. He had reached Kanda. He had felt the contact. Yet there had been no physical resistance whatsoever.

Damian slowly turned his head over his shoulder. Kanda was still standing exactly where he had been.

The Dreg’s upper body was hunched slightly, and a quiet, eerie giggle escaped his throat as though he had just witnessed something amusing.

Neither man moved or seemed concerned about exposing his back to the other. There was no fear in either of their postures.

Kanda simply continued laughing while Damian stared at him with growing irritation.

"Sire... The Dreg is not a clan that can be dealt with through normal means." Kanda giggled eerily, his voice carrying across the empty street.

Damian’s eyes narrowed.

"Cocky brat."

He flicked his wrist.

A black and white hand fan appeared in his grasp, its surface decorated with an elegant fox design. Damian slowly opened it, and the moment the last section unfolded, white flames began crawling across its edges. The flames were strangely bright against the darkness of the night, burning without producing smoke while the air around Damian began to distort from the heat.

"Samsara Wild Fire!"

Damian swung the fan and the world seemed to turn white.

An absurd quantity of flames erupted from the fan, pouring forward like an enormous ocean unleashed from the heavens. The turbulent sea of white fire swallowed the space between Damian and Kanda within seconds, roaring through the streets and rising high into the sky.

Kanda merely glanced over his shoulder. A cold smile remained on his face. He didn’t dodge or defend himself. He simply allowed the flames to consume him.

The white inferno engulfed his entire body, erasing his silhouette beneath the raging flames. Damian continued pouring power into the technique, allowing the fire to surge farther and farther across the battlefield until it reached Rah and Rin.

Yet the flames immediately parted around them.

The raging inferno split into two enormous streams, rushing past either side of Rah without touching her or Rin before joining together again behind them.

Rah stared at the fire surrounding her with wide eyes while Rin merely sat comfortably on her shoulder.

Then laughter erupted.

"Sihishishishishishishishi!!!!!"

It came from everywhere.

The sound echoed through the streets, bounced between buildings and seemed to emerge from every direction at once. It wasn’t coming from the flames alone. It sounded as though the entire capital had suddenly begun laughing with Kanda.

Damian’s frown deepened as he stared into the raging flames. He had watched the fire consume him yet it seems something went wrong.

Buzz!

The black ring around Damian’s finger suddenly became scorching hot. His eyes immediately sharpened.

Behind!

Damian’s head snapped around as a ghostly figure emerged from the darkness behind him, its pale body stretching unnaturally as it raced toward him with its mouth open in a crazed grin.

Kanda crashed into Damian.

"Gah!"

A groan escaped Damian’s mouth as his head snapped backward. The white fire burning across the hand fan disappeared as well, leaving his eyes ghostly pale while his mouth hung slightly open.

His entire body froze in midair.

The scene was so sudden that even the people watching from the windows were left speechless.

Rah’s face went pale.

"Damian!"

The realization struck her a moment later.

"His Majesty has been possessed by the Dreg!"

Someone screamed from a building but Rin, however, didn’t move.

Instead, the little fox calmly watched Damian floating motionless in the air before releasing a quiet chuckle.

"It’s not something you have to worry about. In fact, this was the dumbest move he could have made."

Rah immediately turned toward him with confusion written all over her face.

__Inside Damian’s Sea of Consciousness__

Kanda opened his eyes and darkness surrounded him.

This normally wouldn’t mean much except that it wasn’t an ordinary darkness.

Raging winds tore through the endless void while crimson lightning continuously crawled across the black clouds above. Thunder shook the entire world, but there was no ground beneath Kanda’s feet. He simply floated within the terrifying storm, staring around in confusion as his confidence began to disappear.

Then he looked downward.

A massive storm of darkness churned beneath him. At its center was an enormous crimson eye. It was so large that Kanda’s entire body seemed insignificant before it.

The eye stared directly at him, not with anger or hostility but curiosity.

Kanda’s lips trembled.

"A... Abyss?"

His voice came out barely above a whisper.

A moment of silence followed then laughter echoed throughout the darkness.

The Abyss laughed.

It sounded like countless voices laughing together from every direction, and the sound shook the entire Sea of Consciousness. The enormous crimson eye narrowed slightly as it examined the tiny figure standing before it.

"Don’t tell me a mere Dreg dares struggle for control over this host?"

Kanda froze as every trace of confidence disappeared from his face. His breathing became frantic as he finally understood where he was.

The Abyss had been residing within the Prince’s body all along. The realization was so absurd that Kanda’s mind struggled to accept it.

How?

How could a human possibly possess the Abyss?

How could a Demigod contain something like this inside his body and still remain sane?

Kanda slowly backed away but the enormous eye continued following him.

"You have nothing to say?"

The Abyss chuckled.

"Then I will take your silence as an answer."

The crimson eye suddenly began expanding and Kanda’s pupils contracted as th crimson eye filled his entire vision.

___ Real World ___

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

A scream suddenly erupted from Damian’s mouth in the real world and his body violently jerked, then something shot out of him.

Kanda emerged like a projectile, his ghostly body tumbling through the air as he desperately attempted to escape. His expression was no longer confident. Terror had completely consumed his face.

He didn’t even move a meter when Damian’s eyes suddenly snapped open and his purple irises returned.

Without hesitation, his hand shot forward.

Snap!

His fingers closed around Kanda’s throat and the Dreg’s entire body jerked to a halt.

*Burn, you demon scum!"

Brrrrrrr!!!

The Samsara Wild Fire erupted again, except this time it didn’t spread outward.

It concentrated entirely around Kanda.

The Dreg’s body was completely engulfed.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

His scream traveled across the capital, passing through the empty streets and reaching the ears of everyone still hiding behind their windows. People who had been watching through curtains instinctively stepped backward as the enormous pillar of white fire rose into the night sky.

Damian held Kanda firmly within the flames and watched him burn.

The Dreg struggled desperately, but the flames continued consuming him until his body began breaking apart.

Kanda, one of the Twelve Pillars of the Order of Demons, had fallen. Just like Bargi of the Damika Clan before him. And all of these happened in less than two weeks!

The battle had barely begun.

Yet one of the Order’s strongest figures had already been reduced to nothing but screams and ashes.

How?

How could a figure powerful enough to be counted among the Twelve Pillars of the Order of Demons lose to the Prince of Lust in mere seconds?