Becoming the Dark Lord

Chapter 540: Abyss King

Luke stepped out of the chamber after opening the door with his Spectral Beast, a thin black thread stretching from him to the creature.

"So, how did it go in there?" Azazel asked.

"Nothing a bit of intelligence couldn't handle," Luke replied.

"And as always, you survived," Azazel muttered.

The beast evaporated, its essence retreating back into the core nestled in Luke's abdomen like an organ.

"Congratulations on your achievement, Luke Moon," Vaelor said. "Truly surprising that you made it out alive."

"The beast dissolved," Luke murmured, glancing down at his stomach.

"You're a beginner at this. You'll need to learn how to manage the consumption your beast demands. It uses soul energy to function. As its core evolves, it grows stronger, and your own core increases its storage as well."

"And how exactly do I evolve my second core?"

"Let the beast feed on cores, creatures, and whatever else crosses your path," Vaelor explained. "Just like a familiar beast."

Luke opened his system interface.

"Your beast should have come with an innate skill, born from you and the materials you used. It's called the Core Skill."

He tapped on the beast's skill.

"This is…"

"Very interesting," Azazel said, peering at Luke's display. Of course the Primordial God could see it.

A part of Luke wanted to test that power immediately. But he knew he couldn't yet. Luke was notified how long he had remained inside the chamber, at least a month The hunger gnawing at him made sense now. He felt like he could devour an entire banquet on his own. They moved to the temple's main hall. Time for goodbyes.

"Do not forget your side of the bargain, little demon," Vaelor said. "You will bring me an apprentice worthy of inheriting my forging arts."

"I promise I'll bring not just one, but many apprentices when I establish my kingdom," Luke answered.

He extended his hand, and the demon took it.

"And don't forget my invitation," Azazel added. "You'll be free to enter my realm anytime once you leave this dimension. And there you can complete the deal you made with Samael."

Luke had everything he needed now. He'd even learned about Spirit Tools.

"And my eye… did you know this could happen?" he asked.

Luke now had one deep brown eye and one blue.

"And did you want it to happen?" Azazel countered.

"I'll admit, for a long while before coming here, I thought that thing was meant to be a weapon for Angie, not for me."

"Now that you have it, make good use of it."

"And about Charlie and Angie… can we talk?"

"Anything regarding that subject can be discussed only in my realm," Azazel replied.

Luke had expected that answer.

The temple doors opened. "Leaving without saying goodbye to your uncle?" Asmodeus asked.

The demon approached and held out his hand. "Well done, my nephew. You passed the trial and even acquired a new eye. Who would've guessed? Aren't you going to shake your uncle's hand?"

Luke clasped it firmly.

"I knew you wouldn't leave me hanging. But if you had, I would've let it slide. You're my nephew, after all. Vaelor, were you considering leaving me hanging?"

"No, Primordial Asmodeus."

"You see, nephew?" Asmodeus flicked a hand toward him. "Now tell old Azazel to head back to whatever corner of existence he crawled out of. He's breaking some rather inconvenient rules by standing here."

"We're technically in a gray zone, and I haven't even left the temple," Azazel replied calmly.

"Rules? You mean the one about an external god not being allowed into my universe?"

"Oh, that rule?" Asmodeus waved dismissively. "Please, I can think of a thousand ways around that before breakfast. Not that rule. I'm talking about the Rule. The Big Rule. You know, the one that says Azazel is banned from reality." He said it casually, as though commenting on the weather.

"We'll continue this discussion another time," Azazel cut in. "You've finished what you came here for. There's no reason to linger. Nothing left you can learn."

Luke had a thousand questions burning in his mind, but he understood the dismissal.

"I'll see you all around," he said, and the three demons turned and vanished, leaving him standing alone in the quiet, empty space.

"Huh. That was… kind of anticlimactic," he muttered.

Then the summoning chalice flared with light, and another figure materialized.

"Oh, me leaving? Oops, forgot something," Asmodeus said.

Luke stared at the demon.

"Relax about the hand thing. I'm not climbing out of it again. Promise," Asmodeus added.

"Yeah, Azazel already guaranteed that."

Asmodeus glanced at the ceiling. "If you ever want to learn something interesting, ask Azazel where he came from."

And with that, the demon disappeared.

***

Outside the temple, Luke walked through the camp and found it empty. No sign of his group.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

They must be hunting in the forest to level up.

"What are you doing here?" Franky asked.

Everyone except this one.

"I finished what I needed to do."

"You look different, human. Your hair's longer."

"Yeah. It grew while I was… gone."

"You were gone a long time, human. Not that I was worried or anything. And I definitely didn't ask the rats about you or wait here almost every day," Franky blurted, far too fast.

"I'm sure you didn't," Luke said, glancing around before looking down at the wyvern. "I'm going after the biggest snake in this place. Want to come with me?"

***

"You feel different too, human," Franky muttered as they walked through the abyss.

"Yeah. I earned something that made me a bit stronger."

His Spectral Beast had its own core, Rank F, fed by his Rank E soul core. It even had its own system interface.

I'll need E-rank cores to keep it fed.

"Come on, pick up the pace," he said, lifting the wyvern with one arm.

"D-don't carry me like that, human!" Franky squawked.

Luke jumped, hurled a knife at a tree, and the tether yanked him forward. He swung through the abyss, racing toward the cavern systems. He passed places where serpent corpses should have been and followed the trail farther in.

"They dragged the body away," he murmured, tracking the path deeper into the dark.

The snakes had been offering food to the Abyssal Princes, but Luke followed a trail far too large to belong to the others.

An Abyssal Prince dragged the corpse of another one away.

He and Franky moved deeper into the web of caverns, following the massive track. Along the way, more serpents crossed their path. Luke cut them down, and even the young wyvern joined in, tearing into a few with sharp enthusiasm. Driven by hunger, Luke tore off a chunk of meat.

"I'm heating up, but not because you're eating, human," Franky muttered.

"With the hunger I'm feeling, I'd eat it raw anyway," Luke said, biting into the flesh without hesitation.

They kept moving, following the wide smear left by the giant serpent's passing. Eventually they stopped at a tunnel that opened into a vast, shadowy chamber. Blood soaked the rim of a pit ahead, scattered with chunks of meat and shed scales.

Luke smiled. "Found it."

He'd wiped out most of the Abyssal Princes that crawled through this place. But he'd left one alive on purpose, just so he could track it when the time came.

Looks like the king got a little upset and ate the prince.

The cavern beyond was pitch black, but the air reeked of serpent. The pit led down into the king's lair.

"Stay here, snake," Luke told Franky.

He dropped into the hole, free-falling until he spread his bat cloak and summoned [Demonic Predator Throwing Knife]. The blades materialized in his hands as he fell from a long height. Below, an enormous serpent slept sprawled across the cavern floor, surrounded by dozens of smaller ones, some alive, some torn apart.

[Burst Throw activated]

Luke fed stamina and mana into the knives, charging each throw.

[Demonic Predator Hands activated]

Black blood crept over his arms, coating them, sharpening the knives until they sizzled with corrosive power. Grinning, Luke hurled both blades at the giant serpent.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The knives slammed into the monster's skull with a deafening crack. The creature shrieked, jolted awake, the sound reverberating through the cavern. A gaping wound burst open where the knives struck, blood spilling down its scales. Luke hit the ground and faced the serpent's massive yellow eyes. Its roar sent the smaller snakes trembling, frozen in place.

"Yeah, that big wound? I gave you that," Luke said, smiling up at it.

[Abyssal King – Lvl 106]

The monster fixed both eyes on him, and he felt something slam into his mind, a crushing psychic force. He focused everything into [Clear Mind], steadying himself as he sprinted forward and hurled more knives.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The serpent reeled as each blade struck. For a moment it seemed surprised Luke could still move, then it roared and lunged. The massive creature surged across the cavern, striking like lightning, but Luke slipped past its jaws with a grin. He poured his awareness into the Eye of Sariel. With it, the darkness vanished. He saw every detail, every mana outline of the serpent's body.

Luke could zoom in on it as if the world were adjusting to his focus. His reflexes sharpened, his movements becoming almost instinctual while using only that eye. He dodged another lunge. The serpent slammed its head into the stone so hard the impact carved a crater. Then it shot forward again, mouth wide, sliding at terrifying speed straight toward him.

[Burst Throw activated]

He hurled two more knives at the monster, but one of them he had flooded with mana through [Mana Infusion]. It detonated against the serpent's face, bursting like a magical charge. Luke drew both kukris and sprinted forward, carving into the monster as he closed the distance.

He and the massive serpent clashed in a brutal dance. It struck with murderous precision, lunging again and again, while he dodged, vaulted, and countered. Luke landed on its head, driving a kukri down and tearing through scale and flesh.

He dashed between the other serpents, those already being slaughtered by the Abyss King, while the giant continued snapping at him, huge fangs slamming into the ground wherever he had been a heartbeat earlier. The kukris orbiting him under [Weak Telekinesis] spun like eager predators, and he kept generating throwing knives, flinging them nonstop.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The knives fired like sniper rounds, piercing deep into the colossal serpent's body. Luke tossed two blades straight up, then sprinted at the monster. The Abyss King tried lunging for him again. The falling knives detonated midair with [Mana Infusion], blasting down onto its skull and smashing its entire body against the ground.

He gripped a kukri tight as demonic power flared across his arm. [Demonic Predator Hands] pulsed, and the blade ignited in crimson light.

[Crimson Fang activated]

The moment the enormous serpent slammed its head into the dirt, Luke leapt like a feral animal. It tried to swallow him whole, but he kept advancing, eyes burning—one brown, one icy blue. He drove the glowing kukri straight into the wounded spot on the creature's forehead. The serpent shrieked.

[You have slain the Abyss King – Lvl 106]

**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 75!**

[You have unlocked a Class Skill]

**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 76!**

**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 77!**

**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 45!**

[You unlocked a Second Class Skill]

**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 46!**

**[You have reached Level 72! Half-Demon (Rank E)]**

**[You have reached Level 73! Half-Demon (Rank E)]**

Luke had burned through practically all his mana and stamina, but the result was worth every drop.

"Another king down. One of many more to come."

By the time Franky reached him, Luke was already splitting open the massive serpent's chest.

"Human, you actually killed something this big and this strong," Franky muttered, genuinely impressed. "And without any dirty tricks."

"This thing's about twice your size," Luke remarked.

"Yeah, but it didn't have my incredible acid. Or fangs as majestic as mine used to be," Franky replied.

Luke pried out a massive core, a Rank D beast core. His first kill of that rank, and he'd done it alone.

"I don't even know if I can absorb something like that at Rank F," Franky said.

"This isn't for you. The serpents that fled probably have cores of their own. I'll track them and bring those back for you. This Rank D core is mine."

"For you?"

Luke activated his Spectral Beast. A figure of living smoke emerged from within him, tethered by a dark thread. It was a swirling shadow with two bright white eyes and a wide, gleaming grin, with no body or limbs, only a shifting mass of darkness.

"This core is for my battle partner," he said, smiling as he examined the skill tied to the creature born from Sariel's Eye.

[Form Devourer]: By consuming the core of a magical beast, the Spectral Beast assimilates its essence directly through its own core. The absorbed power is fully integrated, causing the beast to abandon its previous form and assume the shape of the creature whose core was devoured. The transformation is complete and total, reflecting the nature, primary skills, and elemental affinity of the consumed creature. Stability of the transformation depends on elemental compatibility; mismatched cores may result in failure or instability during assimilation.