Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 66.5: My dinner with Zac

Ogras swatted some flies out of his face as he walked through the alien landscape. His decisions were born out of desperation, but it was just now the fact that he was stranded on this foreign planet truly hit home.

The two suns in the sky were even more glaring now that the soothing canopy of the incursion disappeared, and the bombardment of colors was unsettling. Everywhere he could only see forests, and no civilization was in sight. He missed the bars, the pruned hunting grounds, and the whores. Gods, the whores! Why hadn’t he insisted on bringing along a brothel instead of a few of the farmers?

Even though he had cultivated a horrible reputation in his Clan he wasn’t the type of man who would force himself upon an unwilling woman. Unfortunately, the very same reputation was what now kept the town’s women at arm’s length. Well, there was Namys who was more than willing, but she had the face of a netherbeast. He spat in annoyance and could only continue.

Still, though he lost many things, he had gained perhaps something even greater. Freedom. He brought up his heavenly screen and took a look.

Name

Ogras AzhʼRezak

Level

53 (73)

Class

Shadowblade (F)

Race

Demon (F)

Alignment

-

Titles

Demon Slayer I, Adventurer, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Tower of Eternity – 3rd floor, Astral Pond – 20m, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Betrayer

Dao

Seed of Shadows - Early

Strength

112

Dexterity

134

Endurance

63

Vitality

63

Intelligence

38

Wisdom

35

Luck

23

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

300

Gone was the Alignment to his old Clan, leaving the space a liberating blank. Gone was also the constant need for machinations and pretension. Gone was constantly looking over his shoulder, afraid that he would be the 8th and last sibling to be killed by jealous clan members.

The surviving demons would soon understand the true Ogras. There already were some murmurs of discontent from the search parties that were stuck in the tunnels when the countdown began.

It was on his orders that they entered the mines, and now they couldn’t leave this baby world. Many of the warriors didn’t wish to stay here, as their status would have kept them somewhat safe even in the case of a return in defeat.

But soon they would understand that even without his ancestor his title as leader was unshakeable.

Ogras inwardly groaned at the fact that The Ruthless Heavens actually confiscated the Nexus Coins of everyone when they stayed behind. He never read about this and swore at the information missive he bought at the Pavilion of Myriad Eyes. It had been exorbitantly expensive and should have covered everything one needed to know about venturing into a baby world.

He was approaching the level and attribute limits as well. He had been furiously leveling up from his unimpressive level since he arrived at the island. With the limitations in place he could quickly gain levels without anyone finding out. He had done so in secrecy by absorbing the E-Grade Nexus Crystals his grandfather helped him bring along, allowing him to shoot up a few levels per day. He had kept himself at a low level on purpose earlier in order to not let anyone realize his high stat growth.

He was one of the few in the clan with a Rare class. Combined with his achievements in the Tower of Eternity his progress would outpace almost everyone in the Clan. Normally it would have been a cause for celebration, but for his branch it was a death sentence. But now he could finally grow into the limit and focus on his constitution. He grimaced at the fact that the human who snatched both the fruits now was gone.

Ogras could only hope that he could find the body and the Cosmic Bag as soon as the poison cleared out in the mountains. If the fruits were lost he would have to slowly cultivate his body until it evolved, and that would likely take years and years. And that would be the smallest of the losses from not getting the fruit.

He cursed himself for not simply snatching the bags when he had the chance up on the mountain. He was already stressed out from killing Rydel and subsequently killing himself, and he might have made an error in judgment. Ogras felt something dangerous in the human’s eyes and instead had opted to cajole the human into using the poison. Besides, if any straggler lived to tell the tale it would be clear that it wasn’t Ogras who did the deed, but the wretched human.

Soon he arrived at the area where the scouts found the human’s small camp. He activated [Omniscient Eyes] and after walking around for a few hours he finally found the bubble of the illusion array. After testing it out he found it was a simple one-layer array, with no defensive or offensive options.

He entered and his eyes fell upon the base of operations of Clan Azh’Rezak’s nemesis. Even though things had turned out somewhat okay for him, Ogras couldn’t help but become pissed off at the sight. This human lived like some kind of animal in a dirty metal hovel and still had managed to bring about the downfall of their invasion?

There were scraps of items and rags strewn about the campsite and the domicile the native lived in was actually a large can. The can was dented and in disrepair, and there were even splotches of blood on it. As he walked inside it Ogras immediately was too depressed to continue the search, and quickly left the cage. To live like this and not go crazy must have required certain mental fortitude as Ogras was getting stressed out just thinking about spending the night in there.

There was another metal contraption in the camp and after going over it for some time Ogras realized that it was not another odd domicile, but rather a transportation device. It seemed like it was an extremely rudimentary version of the contraptions the Technocrats use to traverse the multi-verse.

He knew that some baby-planets had gone an impressive depths into what the Technocrats called the Dao of Technology. But of course, The Ruthless Heavens didn’t acknowledge that Dao, so most newly integrated worlds soon discarded it for the pursuit of the true Dao and to wield cosmic energy.

But this wasn’t why he was here. He quickly walked up to the large crystal, which should be the Nexus Node he read about. The City Lords in his own homeworld each had one as well, but they were fiercely guarded treasures, so he had never seen one before.

The missive stated that when the mission failed he and the other demons would be barred from attaining System-sanctioned properties and towns for roughly a decade, but he needed to make sure. If he could gain ownership of the crystal he would gain the tools to not only survive, but to thrive in this new world.

While they were on a desolate island he knew he wasn’t safe. The Ruthless Heavens wouldn’t allow the peace to continue forever and force some events into being. It thrived and existed for conflict after all.

He touched the Nexus Node, infusing it with his cosmic energy. But it was as though it hit a wall, and couldn’t enter the crystal. He bit his finger and dropped some blood on it, but it wasn’t absorbed, and only ran along its smooth surface. Ogras even brought up a small vial of blood and poured it on the crystal, but it didn’t have any effect as well. The vial contained blood from the human that scouts had collected in the mines, and Ogras thought it might be the key to gain access to the Town Shop-system.

Ogras sighed in disappointment. It seemed that he couldn’t integrate his town after all. They would have to do everything themselves. At least there were quite a few demons who stayed behind that would be useful in building up a sphere of influence, sanctioned or not by The Ruthless Heavens.

A movement in the distance immediately grabbed Ogras’ attention and he whirled around. His eyes widened as he saw the very same human that he met in the mountain valley. How the hell had he survived? Was he a walking behemoth that just couldn’t be killed?

Ogras watched this grimy-looking man look at the footsteps of the search parties and lumber around trying to act sneaky and he couldn’t stop himself from grimacing. This is the man who caused the downfall of Clan Azh’Rezak? He looked like a thoroughbred lunatic, without any hair at all on his face, and dressed in rags and a ripped up lady’s gown.

Sometime since the mountains he appeared to have lost his ratty shoes as well, walking along with his impractically soft bare feet. Was he intentionally looking like an idiot in order to lower his enemies’ guard? Genius. He also looked like he had been living as a battle slave for a decade, with scars covering all parts of his exposed skin.

But the scars were far less pronounced compared to when he saw the human up in the mountains. Before they were grisly jagged lines along his body and face, making him look mutilated, and now they were simply thin white lines.

The human had eaten a Fruit of Ascension. Ogras’ teeth immediately started to itch when he saw that this human had gobbled up a supreme treasure, probably without knowing its value. His eyes soon moved to the pouches on the human’s belt and his eyes lit up with greed. His Fruit of Ascension had delivered itself to him. At least he hoped the stupid brute hadn’t eaten both of them.

He retrieved his spear from his pouch. It was made from a rare metal that could only be found thousands of meters down in the depths of the Black Sea and weighed over 200 kilograms which gave it a nice feeling compared to normal ungraded metals. Most importantly it could absorb shadows and help him unleash his attacks in a far more deadly manner.

This was a great opportunity for him to break through his limits and truly become someone with great prospects, eclipsing even those of Clan Azh’Rezak. But as he watched the human fumble around his eyes moved to the Nexus Node in hesitation. After a brief pause he placed his weapon back into his pouch and quickly wiped off any traces of blood from the large crystal.

He instead brought out a large table and a comfortable chair and sat down. Soon a tray of fruits was placed on top of the table. Ogras knew that these fruits from his home-world were of limited quantity now that the Nexus Hub was closed, but one needed to make strong first impressions.

Of course, he also charged up tens of shadow blades in the shadows below the table, just in case it came to blows.

Soon the human seemed to have come to a decision to enter the illusion array. He brought out one of the standard regiment axes he likely had taken from some scout, and then a mottled shield. For Ogras the whole thing looked like a play, as he could watch the whole thing unnoticed behind the array.

But he knew that this was no joke. This human seemed to be close to the limits in at least strength, and maybe endurance as well. He was a monstrously strong cockroach that was prohibitively difficult to kill. He mentally controlled his shadow blades to be ready to strike at moment’s notice but adorned a lackadaisical face.

Soon the human charged in through the array, weapons at the ready.

“You natives truly are barbarians, so aggressive,” Ogras said with a theatrical sigh, as the almost unnoticeable blades inched closer. It was time to get creative.