Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 307: The Devil Awakens

Chapter 307: The Devil Awakens

April 8th, 177 HE.

The mist that blocked the world. The mist that the Administrator of Humanity placed to find the one with the Valknut. Hundreds could wander and never meet. Hundreds could kill and never find themselves where they wanted to be. That was the mist that plagued humanity. That was the mist that was placed by the Father of Science—by the one who defied the gods.

Rage swirled. That was natural.

But this rage was not toward the world or the mist or the nature of the Heavenly but toward a single man.

"I’m going to kill him, I will...!"

A blonde in a black blouse and a ripped knee-length skirt. A woman who led her own guild and seethed from failure. In the month of wandering, she had reunited with those missing. In total, there were twenty members in her guild. Aside from the brief glimpses of relief from the extra protection, she felt only rage. Vengeance coursed through her and she would achieve it.

"Um, Samantha? Are you sure he’s still here?" Caleb the Animal Tamer asked.

"Of course he’s here! He has to be! All of us have been wandering this fucking place, so of course—" Samantha cut herself off and stopped. The mist didn’t make it easy to see but she knew the shock plastered on their faces.

She wore a façade of love. For her to feel hate was not who she was. That was what they thought.

"He killed Wilma. He was going to kill the rest of us too." Her voice became low, thickening with sorrow. "I almost lost you all. I...if he’s still around, I think I’ll..." Her eyes flicked to Liam who was utterly downcast. In his arms was the corpse of his twin sister, Wilma.

"She couldn’t even say her last words," Liam muttered. Samantha couldn’t bear to look. The disgusting puncture of her throat was too gruesome. "Wilma..."

The name hung in the air like a frozen shard ready to break. They didn’t want to accept it. They wished that they could exchange the masked man’s life for hers. But they couldn’t. So, Samantha stood still, waiting.

"Sorry to say this but I wanna be real here. We’re all out of potions and food."

Skullmask. As always, his voice was mocking her. Samantha clenched her fist. Out of everyone, he was their strongest player—and her biggest proponent. He listened to her, sure, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of her head that he could disobey her at any point. Dee was another strong player with a degree of defiance. In her case, however, it was not out of ego but moreso because of a deep-seated trauma in her past that Samantha did not care for.

"Samantha?" Dee asked out of concern. "I don’t think we can go on. We should stop."

Stop and lose? Lose? Her?

No. This...this was a tactical retreat. The masked man, that traitor, had walked away in midst of the battle. Something happened that caused his retreat. Did some previous attack reintroduce itself? Highly unlikely. The reality was that even though he could have killed her and everyone else in the party, he didn’t. Whether it was luck or something else did not matter; they lived. They, in some way, won.

"...you’re right," Samantha murmured. As great as vengeance felt, living to see another day was greater. "We should stop and conserve our energy."

The redwood trees were hulking behemoths. So wide that chopping them in half seemed impossible. Samantha was advised to grab as much as she could but faced with the tree, she wanted to ask, "How?"

Even Skullmask couldn’t do it and if his scythe couldn’t chop it, then nobody else could.

After twenty more minutes of walking, through some miracle, they found a redwood tree. Skullmask equipped his scythe and carved out a hole for the party to rest inside.

’God.’ Samantha’s nose wrinkled. ’Does he really have to bring her everywhere?’

Wilma’s corpse stank. It was like the worst kind of shit and the cloth of white on her did nothing to block the smell. Samantha tried to be understanding but that understanding only went so far.

"Food check?" Samantha asked Dee.

"We have one last canister of water."

"Right, we ran out of actual food yesterday," Samantha said, sighing. "Okay. Okay, we’ll be fine. We only have to wait out a day. You are certain twenty-nine days have passed, right Skull?"

"I counted every second. I’m at two million, five hundred, sixty-six thousand and twelve seconds. Thirteen seconds, fourteen seconds..."

Nobody wanted to say it but Skullmask was a fucking weirdo.

"Fifteen seconds, sixteen seconds, seventeen seconds..."

"Okay, we get it," Samantha said. "Let’s get some sleep. Dee, Skull, do you mind keeping watch?"

"Sure!" Skullmask was happy to hop out. Dee nodded and joined him.

Samantha hated nightly watches and tended to delay them for herself. She was hoping to earn an exception from them entirely at some point, when her guild trusted her more. She made herself comfortable and closed her eyes. After a long walk, her legs were aching.

Samantha closed her eyes and let darkness consume her.

The mist thickened.

...

...

...

On the other end of the world, the darkness disappeared.

In isolation, he found nothing.

In nothing, he found the world.

In the world, he found discomfort.

In discomfort, he sought perfection.

In perfection, he saw himself. In himself, he saw the mask. The flaw that was slowly breaking apart. The lesser the flaw became, the greater his understanding until finally he understood it.

The world was his.

Dasha Pang awoke from his month-long meditation. The unopposable mist slowly drifted from him. From his shoulders was smoke and heat. In the left eye exposed from the white mask were swirls of shadow. He devoured it, let it simmer in the pit of his stomach, and exhaled.

The mist drifted away further. Thirty days were up.

Among all those that had entered these plains, he alone was feared.

A flicker of emotion flashed through him when he saw the announcement. He closed his eyes, then allowed himself to be swallowed by the Heavenly Tower.

[ Returning to White Abyss! ]

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