Becoming the Dark Lord

Chapter 542: Dominion of the Black Serpent

Luke summoned his Spectral Beast. The black thread unfurled from his abdomen, lifted into the air, and coalesced into a creature shaped from pure [Wraith Form]. The Abyss King materialized beside the corpse of its former physical self.

"Looks like your trick actually worked, human," Franky muttered, eyeing the serpent.

"Now I have a pet snake."

The massive dark serpent, made of smoke, shadow, and living night, regarded him with two glowing yellow eyes, recognizing its master. It hissed, tasting the air, its fangs glinting. Luke kept it under strict mental control for safety, refusing to let it switch into autonomous mode just yet.

"It's a little smaller," Franky noted, comparing the two bodies.

"Probably because of my core."

His Spectral Beast was Rank F, and it had devoured a Rank D core. The power had compressed, resulting in something slightly weaker than an Abyss Prince but still carrying the full suite of the Abyss King's skills.

I need to evolve my beast's core as fast as possible.

Luke had only wanted to test [Form Devourer], and the results exceeded expectations. After experiencing the entire fusion ritual himself, he understood the risks more clearly. He couldn't just feed it any random core; the process mirrored the same volatile fusion he endured. A single mistake could kill him.

[Form Devourer] essentially recreated the core fusion ritual inside his soul, which made it dangerous. But some things were becoming obvious. It was far safer to use cores from creatures he personally defeated. Perhaps it had something to do with experience points or soul imprinting. He couldn't be sure. But instinct screamed a warning: Only devour what he killed, and preferably what he killed alone.

Since he had to defeat the creature again inside his soul, choosing something he couldn't handle physically would be suicide. Still… the realization stirred something primal inside him. Any beast he killed could become his Spectral Beast. Whenever a new and interesting monster appeared, he could take it for himself. A true predator.

"Kneel," he commanded, releasing direct control and letting the serpent operate autonomously.

The smoke-serpent hissed, eyes drifting across the cavern, lingering on its own massive corpse. Then it turned to Luke. Slowly, deliberately, it lowered its head to the ground in submission.

Luke leapt onto the serpent's skull, standing proudly atop his new mount.

"Come on, Franky," he said. "Let's hunt every last serpent in this place."

The enormous beast roared in agreement and surged forward through the abyss, and Luke rode into the hunt on the back of his newly claimed monster.

***

Vaelor pulled his consciousness fully back into his physical body in his own universe. He found himself standing in an office buried under piles of paperwork. He rose abruptly.

I actually spent all that time with two Primordials. And one of them was the Primordial of Darkness?

Even he couldn't quite believe it. He had fulfilled the dream of every demon god. He strode out of the office without hesitation.

"Lord Vath'Ironak," one of his assistants said, standing as Vaelor passed.

"Lord Vath'Ironak," the assistant repeated, hurrying after him.

Vaelor walked straight through doors using intangibility while the poor assistant scrambled behind him, opening and closing them in a panic.

The w-demon quickened his pace.

"Lord Vath'Ironak," the servant said again, suddenly at his side. "My lord, is something wrong? You never interrupt your work like this. Please, tell me what needs to be done and I will handle it."

"I'm not doing paperwork today," Vaelor replied.

"No?"

"In fact, I won't be doing that kind of work for a while. I'm going to my forge."

Vaelor vanished and reappeared within a massive castle on another continent, perched atop a frigid mountain. This was his personal refuge, a place no one visited except him.

"A cloud of smoke with many eyes," he repeated aloud.

During the brief conversation he'd had with Luke Moon, he had asked for the creature's true appearance. And Luke had given him only that description. A gigantic black cloud filled with grinning white eyes. A shape that seemed eager to expand.

"It shouldn't have manifested like that," he muttered.

Vaelor was a scholar above all else, a specialist in Spectral Beasts. Long ago, eras ago, he had been trapped in a forest where the creatures first appeared. Spectral Beasts came from another dimension, something ancient and native to regions of reality bordering the Void.

They began as small hauntings slipping into the physical plane, feeding on the fear of sentient beings around them. They adapted. And eventually one among the brood would grow strong enough to possess a beast and cross fully into the physical world. They existed to destroy and to hunt. They functioned like ants, thinking as a colony.

When they attacked Vaelor's country, he had been the only survivor. He lived only because he used their own power against them. He seized control of a Spectral Beast and severed its connection to the "queen", redirecting the bond to himself. That was why the black thread linking soul to beast no longer reached into their dimension. It bound to the one who dominated it.

For eras, Vaelor studied these creatures, trying to map their hauntings. What began as duty became obsession. He wanted to eliminate the equivalent of their queen bee, the commander behind them all, the one he named the Apex Typhon. If Spectral Beasts were predators of all life by nature, then above them existed an Apex. He cataloged the four types of Spectral Beast in order of power: Specter, Sinister, Nightmare, and Typhon. The more a Spectral Beast devoured, the stronger it became. And the Typhon was the most dangerous of all.

Vaelor unrolled the old scroll and read through the descriptions. Written there were the secrets and the wounds of his race. As wraiths, they had been capable of sensing a haunting forming in reality and killing it before it fully manifested by possessing a beast. They had been the hunters of Spectral Beasts in the physical realm, and for that, the creatures had chosen to exterminate them. What shocked Vaelor at the time and set off a deep alarm within his people was the truth that these beasts were not irrational. They learned. They adapted. And they obeyed orders from the Apex.

He needed to know now. What type of Spectral Beast did Luke Moon create?

When I created mine, it wasn't anywhere near that size. It was tiny, small enough to rest in my hand. I had to feed it, strengthen the core, let it grow slowly over time. But his… started like that.

Vaelor moved through his books, notebooks, and journals. The more faces a haunting possessed, the more dangerous it was. A living legion compressed into a single entity.

I was lucky to create a Sinister-type Spectral Beast. But that thing…

There were only two possibilities left. Luke Moon had created a Nightmare… or a Typhon.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

***

Luke stood beside his Spectral Beast, now wearing the full form of the Abyss King. The giant serpent hissed and clashed violently with an Abyss Prince, the two massive bodies coiling and striking like thunderous whips. Luke guided his creature like a puppet on invisible strings.

"This snake is stupid, human!" Franky barked. "That's not how you attack! She's supposed to hiss, flash her fangs, then strike!"

"I don't know how snakes fight. I'm figuring it out as I go!" Luke shot back.

The Abyss Prince slammed its tail into a chunk of stone, sending razor-sharp fragments flying. Luke immediately released direct control, letting his beast switch into autonomous mode. The shift was instant. The serpent moved differently: faster, more fluid, ducking and snapping with real killing instinct.

He conjured two throwing knives. One he infused with [Shadow Mana Explosion]. The other he focused with [Burst Throw]. He hurled the shadow-charged blade first. It streaked through the air, swallowed in noir light.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The knife drilled into the serpent's neck and erupted. The blast was far stronger than anything the crude [Mana Infusion] had ever created, tearing open a smoking hole in the Abyss Prince's flesh.

Luke flung the second blade, stacking another [Telekinetic Impulse] on it. It punched through the fresh wound like a high-powered rifle shot.

[You have slain an Abyss Prince – Lvl 94]

The serpent collapsed, lifeless. Luke's Spectral Beast didn't even pause; it lunged past the corpse, sliding through the cavern network, swallowing, tearing, ripping apart every serpent that crossed its path. Luke and Franky leapt onto its back as it surged forward.

When they reached another cluster of serpent-beasts, Luke unleashed a barrage of throwing knives fueled by [Shadow Mana Explosion]. The cavern lit with black detonations, serpents thrashing and dying in violent bursts. Franky even swooped overhead to contribute, spitting fire at anything that moved.

They hunted deeper until, mid-charge, Luke's Spectral Beast abruptly dissipated into smoke and was gone.

Great. Somewhere in this massive nest, and now without his giant snake mount.

The remaining serpents had grown fiercer the moment the Abyss King vanished. Luke carved his way forward alone, hurling knives skyward that detonated in flares of abyssal light. He sprinted through the chaos, kukris flashing as he carved open serpents and harvested whatever cores survived the explosions. Several cores had been obliterated entirely.

"Lucky we ran into that Abyss Prince," he muttered to Franky. There was no sign of another.

He checked his notifications, skimming the day's progress.

**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 47!**

**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 48!**

**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 78!**

"That little snake of yours is stupid. And weak. Doesn't know how to be a real serpent," Franky grumbled.

"I'm still learning how to control it. It fought better once I let it act on its own."

"Still pathetic," Franky insisted, nose tilted upward in disdain.

Apparently, he wasn't a fan of Luke's current beast form. Luke crouched to collect the remaining intact cores.

"Without Artemis here, I don't have access to my cooking supplies or even a plate. I'd love some snake meat with a decent sauce," Luke said. "Or maybe I could make a snake-meat burger."

"That annoying woman? She's only good for one thing, storing junk in her stomach," Franky muttered.

"You really don't like her. I get it," Luke replied. "Though honestly, I don't think you like anyone."

Franky clicked his tongue. "I haven't met anyone worth respecting. The closest was that human rat who stacks enemy corpses in her den."

"My sister and her dolls?"

"Yes. The human rat is far cooler than you. She has style and tortures even the enemies who are already dead."

Style? Is he talking about her tying pink bows on the dolls and having tea parties with them?

Luke chose not to go anywhere near that topic. He'd tried explaining dolls and toys to Franky before, and every attempt only made things worse. When he finished gathering the mana cores, he handed them to Franky. Now they had everything they needed.

"Not only am I getting stronger in this abyss. You are too, and you're even going to evolve."

"Yeah…" the hatchling said quietly. "This'll be goodbye after that, won't it?"

"No. Not as long as we're in this dimension. Unless you want to stay here forever. And you wouldn't be alone. You'd have plenty of snakes for company," Luke said.

"I hate snakes," Franky grumbled. "The only snake I ever liked was me."

"That's… deep. I don't like most humans either. Just a few."

[Your familiar Frankzaroth has successfully absorbed a Rank E Mana Core.]

[Rank E Cores (92/100)]

Franky touched another core, and with each absorption the number ticked upward.

[Rank E Cores (93/100)]

[Rank E Cores (94/100)]

[Rank E Cores (95/100)]

[Rank E Cores (96/100)]

[Rank E Cores (97/100)]

[Rank E Cores (98/100)]

[Rank E Cores (99/100)]

He paused at the final core, then absorbed it.

[Rank E Cores (100/100)]

[Your familiar Frankzaroth has awakened a new skill]

Franky began to glow.

[Your familiar Ancient Wyvern (Rank F) is evolving into Ancient Wyvern (Rank E).]

The light intensified, his silhouette stretching larger and larger. If Artemis were here, Luke was sure she'd make some joke about Pokémon, then probably add she wouldn't say the actual line because she didn't want to pay royalties or get sued.

[Your familiar has evolved into Ancient Wyvern (Rank E).]

Franky had grown; he was now the size of a horse.

"Am I a snake?" he asked Luke.

"Absolutely not."

"Damn…" Franky muttered.

The wyvern inspected his new body with mild disappointment. "I'm not as big as that Midnight Lord guy. I guess… I just have to wait a while."

Familiars could grow in two ways: natural development over time, or through mana cores. Even with natural growth, the core method was still required to evolve in rank.

Franky had successfully evolved his core rank, but he was still very young, so the physical growth was limited.

"Nothing left but time now," Luke said.

[Familiar: Frankzaroth]

Race: Ancient Wyvern

Rank: E

Familiar Skills: [Accelerated Flight (Rare)], [Fireball (Common)], [Wyvern Roar (Epic)], [Wyvern Bite (Epic)], [Charged Aerial (Rare)], [Wyvern's Breath (Epic)], [Core Transposition (Legendary)]

[Evolution to Rank D]: To evolve from Rank E to Rank D, the familiar must consume Magic Beast Cores of Rank D.

D-Rank Cores (0/1000)

A thousand D-rank cores?

Luke stared at the interface, almost laughing. He'd gotten lucky with the Abyss King's core, but expecting another monster at that level to drop one was pushing it. More realistically, he'd be hunting D-rank beasts in the mid-to-high hundreds. Many would sit comfortably above level 150. Franky would need to hunt monsters stronger than the archangel Luke had barely survived. Even Luke couldn't picture himself bringing down creatures like that at his current level and walking away afterward.

"It's going to be one hell of a journey for you to reach Rank D," he murmured.

"This new power of mine feels… strange," Franky said. "Different."

Luke opened the wyvern's updated skill list. His eyes caught on a new line.

[Core Transposition (Legendary)]: Because the Dark Lord's Familiar completely absorbed the second core, it can now alternate freely between the two cores.

"Alternate between cores…? No way…"

A bright light flared around the wyvern. Franky shrank rapidly, the glow contracting with him until it vanished entirely.

"What? You've got to be kidding me."

Franky was small again, but—

"I'm a snake! I turned back into a snake!"

The interface shifted in front of Luke.

[Familiar: Frankzaroth

Race: Jormungandr

Rank: F

Familiar Skills: [Serpent's Leap (Rare)], [Corrosive Venom (Ultra-Rare)], [Acid Jet (Epic)], [Core Transposition (Legendary)]

[Evolution to Rank E]: To evolve from Rank F to Rank E, the familiar must consume Magic Beast Cores of Rank E.

E-Rank Cores (0/100)

"I turned back into a snake! Ha! Told you, human!" The little serpent wriggled in circles, chasing his own tail like an overexcited puppy. "They said it was impossible, said their precious science proved I couldn't turn back, but here I am! Snake again!"

While the tiny Jormungandr kissed his own tail in celebration and hopped around like a deranged kangaroo, Luke remembered something Azazel had mentioned casually.

He claimed to have invented the method of creating a second core… That explains everything.

Franky had never stopped being a serpent. He'd simply been locked into the form of the core he absorbed.

***

Franky couldn't immediately switch back to his large wyvern body. As a newborn serpent, he was painfully slow and had to be carried. Normally he would have complained nonstop, but he was far too thrilled about being a snake again to care.

On their way out of the tunnels, Luke managed to summon his Spectral Beast once more, and the creature served as a mount, speeding their travel through the maze-like caverns. After climbing to the tunnel's upper exit, the pair continued along the path atop the giant snake.

Luke grew more accustomed to controlling his beast. It consumed something he began calling soul energy. Movement, attacks, and skills all drew from that reservoir. The power partially drained from Luke's own Soul Core and flowed into the secondary core that housed the Spectral Beast. As that second core ranked up, it would store more soul energy and grant stronger, longer-lasting transformations through [Form Devourer].

Using the creature lightly, as a mount, barely consumed anything. Fighting, however, burned through the reserve fast.

The Abyss King had granted two new skills to Luke's Spectral Beast.

[Neurotoxic Venom (Epic)]: The Abyss King's fangs are infused with a potent neurotoxin capable of inducing rapid paralysis. Originally evolved to bring down massive prey, this venom overwhelms the nervous system, leaving victims immobilized and vulnerable to execution.

That second skill is interesting.