Chapter 1769 - 1043: Demon Prince

Crackle crackle—that’s the sound of flames flaring up. Anyone who’s adventured in Sain Dungeon wouldn’t find it unfamiliar.

In Sain Dungeon, fire can stand for a lot of things: the safe bonfire, the ambitious Sin Fire, and the Chaos Flame that breeds Demons. No matter which meaning, it’s enough to make people want to study it properly.

Leon isn’t a researcher. Right now he’s only got one question:

Namely, why the hell is there the roaring sound of flames blazing up behind me!?

After Bottom of the Cave Demon and Wounded Demon both died, their bodies lost all flame like burnt-out ash. The items he’d just thrown at them couldn’t have acted as fuel either, so there was only one possible answer—

"I’m out!"

This whole chain of logic zipped through Leon’s head in barely a second and locked in. His brain sent the command and his body instantly fired off Swift Slash, which pulls more distance than Hound Step. In the blink of an eye he was already tens of meters away.

Swift Slash leaves Sword Qi exploding along the path to cut enemies, but this time the Sword Qi didn’t even get a chance to pop before the erupting flames swallowed it in the cradle.

Fire exploded out, covering a radius of over a hundred meters. Leon and Gael were both caught in it; the powerful shockwave wrapped in high heat forced them back again and again. The Armor they wore wasn’t exactly high-defense gear, and at this point it pretty much just added a "burning" debuff to their bodies.

I ran that far and still got clipped by the AoE!?

The blast of flame only blocked their vision for an instant. When they forced their eyes open to look ahead—

They saw, right in the center of the explosion, a pair of absurdly wide burning wings suddenly spread open, and the Demon in the firelight let out a roar.

[Demon Prince] has spawned!

That silhouette, spreading its wings in the blaze, for a moment almost made people hallucinate it as Mad Dragon Beler.

But compared to Mad Dragon Beler’s over-the-top performance, this move by the Demon Prince had a different flavor altogether.

"Which Demon just got revived?"

Leon muttered to himself while doing his best to hold back the wall of fire in front of him.

He’d already been a bit face-blind between Wounded Demon and Bottom of the Cave Demon, only able to tell them apart by the color of their flames.

But looking now, the Demon that had just regained Life basically turned into a red-hot furnace core, its whole body giving off a terrifying temperature no less than a Chaos Breeding Ground, and its aura was completely different from before.

Like it had gone from a little electric scooter to a heavy-duty truck!

In that case, there was absolutely no way to tell which Demon exactly had revived.

But agonizing over this newborn Demon’s identity was pointless anyway. Leon immediately noticed the other Demon’s corpse had vanished without a Shadowless trace, which meant that...

"Could it be the same situation as Ostansmo, it absorbed its other buddy and powered up?"

Judging by Leon’s usual adventurer experience in Sain Dungeon, that was the only conclusion he could come to.

What shocked and pissed him off most right now was that he could feel the enemy’s surging Life Force; his Fighting Qi Perception was reporting back that the enemy was in better shape than it had ever been.

Damn it! Isn’t this just like me popping Residual Fire!?

This is cheating!

It was even worse than popping real Residual Fire, because its strength was still climbing, step after step, like it had no ceiling. The dark cavern around them had its air warped by the heat pouring off its body; just standing there was enough to make breathing hard.

From Leon’s perception, this Boss battle target had already gone from a regular Boss Monster to an "Ember King"-class powerhouse—absolutely no joke.

And this fight might even be tougher than other Ember Kings, because you had to beat the double Demon opener first.

"What the hell happened to this guy’s body..."

Leon felt like Sain Dungeon was messing with him, and the more he thought about it the more annoyed he got.

Even Ornstein and Smough only absorbed power right after their partner died, not wait until they themselves went down and the adventurer thought they’d won, then suddenly pull a Jesus-style resurrection stunt.

This is just pure griefing!

"What exactly is going on here?"

"When there’s only one Demon left in the entire world, the Chaos Flame, and the Demon Prince’s Glory, will all reappear on the last remaining Demon."

Right then, Gael suddenly spoke up beside him, his voice carrying the worn-out tone of an old man, perfectly matching his appearance.

"Demon Prince?"

Leon was a bit surprised that Gael suddenly talked, then turned his gaze to the Demon opposite them.

"Demon Prince" sounded generic as a title, but in this situation it had quite a bit of pressure to it. Would they run into some kind of Demon King next time?

"Raaagh!!!"

The Demon Prince threw back its head and let out a twisted roar, the light blasting out of its body in an instant illuminating the entire battlefield. It was the first time Leon had seen this place so clearly.

"Hm?"

Wait—once the Demon Prince’s arena was lit up, he seemed to catch sight of something familiar, so familiar he almost didn’t dare confirm it.

The ruined structures scattered across this arena—why did they have a bit of that Fire Transmission Ceremony feel to them!?

Not the Fire Transmission Ceremony with the Fireproof Woman and the Fire Transmission Throne, but the first-gen Fire Transmission Ceremony he’d encountered when he initially entered Sain Dungeon. The layout of this battlefield was just way too close to that place.