Demonic Advent: Multiversal

Arc 1(Prologue Arc)

Chapter 5: Corruption

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It was nighttime. Everyone was asleep, and the moon shone brightly, as if to mock the Sun. It was time for evil to prevail.

At such a time, inside the bedroom of Douglas, there was no one to be found. His bed has a decoy in case someone decides to be a busybody and check on him.

A pillow arranged in order to deceive a person into thinking he was sleeping peacefully and a blanket to further enhance the level of disguise.

Well, it hardly works everytime, am I right? Hahaha!

Beside the bed is a window. It was a simple one; a glass window with wooden edges and a pair of curtains on each end.

The window was opened and the curtains were cleared out of the way, giving the impression that the owner of such room was a star gazer.

That was true to an extent, since Doug likes to sometimes gaze at the stars and remember the good days with his grandpa. After all, everybody has the rights to remember good days, no matter how much atrocities one commits, right?

*

The house was located at a high ground on the plains near the city. It was fairly well-decorated, orderly and clean. Near the house was a garden, a beautiful one; where all kinds of unique and beautiful flowers were cultivated.

Beside the house is the slums, where all shit goes down. It wasn't close enough that one would mistake the house to be a part of it, there was a considerable distance between them, but close to each other nonetheless.

All of them were part of the Crown City, just slightly outside of the City boundaries where Knights would patrol less often.

At daytime, it was a place where beggars would be out begging, merchants resting and displaying their goods for those brave enough to come here; and some thugs roaming about, but that's it. Only thugs, con artists, scammers and beggars were there.

Nighttime was when it was truly dangerous. Masters of the night come crawling out and illegal transactions occurred secretly. They weren't stupid enough to make it happen in broad daylight.

After all, they knew knights patrol around the slums in the morning, however less often, but they weren't paid enough to look for criminals at nighttime. Or perhaps they were too lazy to do it.

Illuminated by the Moon, in an eerie alleyway, there was a duel between magicians. One of flames and the other of wind.

"O', Great spirit of flames, I beseech thee! Grant me thy flames! Fireball!"

*Fwoosh!*

A fireball, the size of a basketball appeared on the man's hand. It was a bizarre sight for Douglas, who had never once seen a fireball created from scratch.

'A fireball...I had created it before with my little brother. We were mischievous back then, and created a fireball out of clothes compressed into a ball. We once played soccer with a flaming ball. Stupid, now that I think back.'

Recalling a past event, Douglas was a little bitter, but he shrugged it off. It was all in the past, after all. Moreover, he got his revenge, so it's cool now. However, if he find out that bastard was still alive, God knows he would tear even reality apart to get him!

"O', wind spirit, bless me with thy breeze! Wind Blade!"

It was invisible, but Douglas clearly saw the fireball that was shot, being sliced in half. It was quite strange to see a magical duel between actual magicians.

And inside his head, he was calculating ways to counter magic.

From what he had seen, he was confident enough to evade the Wind Blade that was able to slash the fireball with his advanced senses, but he would make sure to tread carefully.

'If only I had a firearm, I could kill any of these low level magicians easily. It wouldn't even be a chore; but right now, I'm unarmed and inexperienced. My only option is a sword since I haven't found a way to unlock my mana. Plus, what could stop my growth? I have an artifact. Well, if its as good as told.'

After contemplating, he has created plans in his mind, how he would face them in a fight and effective ambush plans in case of being chased like a dog.

The duel was coming to an end as both sides were exhausted. The place was littered with holes and craters as big as an adult male. Average adult.

'Inside my scope of expectation. I knew magic wouldn't only be limited to Fireball or Wind Blade or anything of that level. They've cast Flame Eruption, Wind Shield, Fire Wave, Wind Arrows, and Flame Javelins previously. And they could cause such damage to the environment. They aren't to be underestimated.'

As they were dueling, Douglas was collecting all the information that he could see, using his eyes to the full extent.

Do you know? Our eyes, they often deceive us; mainly because we are wasting a lot of their potential. Why do we need to focus on certain objects far smaller than us humans? Why do we not see a full scope of 200-220° that out eyes are capable of?

That is because we waste a lot of potential in our eyes.

Most people can clearly see 120° of their vision field and remember a small percentage of it. A big waste considering we could see 220° of what's in front of us.

Now what would happen if you could see 220 degrees and actually see them clearly, vividly remembering every detail? That is exactly what Douglas could do, and what made him a terrifying detective.

So, from the start till this point, he was observing everything that was happening and imprinted all details he was capable of remembering, into his brain.

Everything has a time when they could be useful. A cucumber could not be used in a fight, but it gives us energy when cooked and eaten. A sword is not used in the kitchen, no one in their right mind would, because it is a weapon made to kill.

For sure, they would come in handy later on.

"O', flame spirit, embrace me with thy divine warmth, and reign down hell on this pitiful man. Extinction."

"Argh!!"

Before his eyes, Shun saw the person slowly heating up, almost melting and then turning to ashes—only leaving behind a set of clothes and items—with the flame magician falling to his knees.

'The 4th, no, 3rd most eye-catching disadvantage of a magician is their chant. Not only does it give out names of spells, giving away the element of surprise, they are invulnerable. In case of unpredictable occurrence like no-chant, I have no countermeasure yet.'

With a hum, Douglas felt that he had seen enough and decided to take action.

In a swift movement, he came out of his hiding, which was a garbage pile, and cut off the head of the flame magician with a kitchen knife. The magician barely had time to react.

"Fucking cun-!"

He couldn't even finish cursing as his head rolled onto the ground like a ball, bouncing a bit for a while and then rolling away. You know, roll away, roll away, roll awayyyy! Haha.

You could see the resentment, regret, anger and frustration in the eyes of the fallen head, but Douglas ignored it all. He only had three goals, and they were all satisfied after killing the flame magician.

First was to see just how corrupted the slums were; he wasn't disappointed. This was a gathering place of scums who would discard friendship and love at any given point of their lives for money.

Second was to earn pocket money and magicians were sure to be rich considering the fortune it would require to become one, and the perks it brings with it.

Checking their corpses, he found tons of gold. Currently, he doesn't have any knowledge of how money works, and something which he didn't think would happen, happened.

'I think I should've agreed with Cain about the common sense thing.'

He regretted not being lectured about money; something which, no matter the world, would always be the most important. No matter it be love or power, money is essential in obtaining them.

You need to know that playboys and sugar daddies need money to keep their women; playboys also need to at least be handsome and well-dressed, so money is the most important.

After all, although there are women who would unconditionally love you, you should know that they are only encountered among 1 in 10000 women, or maybe even more ridiculously low.

But women aren't what's in Douglas's mind, it was that he achieved his second goal, as well as the last goal, which was to see just how powerful magicians are and observe to plan countermeasures.

He couldn't conclude yet, but for now, he could guess that most of them were as much of a threat as the special forces of a nation; thus, military level in Douglas's mind.

In terms of raw power, they were somewhere around Building Level. Their threat level could go up depending on their creativity, strategies and skills.

'It's time to head back, dawn is breaking.'

Gone now was the moon, and light was seeping through the horizon. It would eventually be daytime, and Douglas didn't want to find out the hard way of how early Cain could wake up, or any of the family members.

Giving one last look at the corpse and the now gone corpse of the wind magician, whose only remains were clothes and items, he left.

Nobody would give two fucks at a corpse and a bundle of items. Well, maybe beggars would be happy to see the clothes and their belongings, but that's it.

*

'Thankfully, nobody is awake yet. Though, that is to be expected.'

If the calendar and what he was told was right, then it was the 5th of May, 12 of the New Era Calendar. If memory serves right, dawn comes early around this time and the sun also sets early.

Then it couldn't be later than 4:00 am, so he was sure nobody would be awake yet at this time of the day.

Quickly heading for the bed, he laid down. Even if he woke up late the next day, they wouldn't suspect a thing since a lot happened the day before, and they could only guess his mindset.

After all, most children wouldn't like their foster parents after seeing both the good and bad side on the same day.

Just the day before yesterday, Cain hit him with his truck and adopted him so that he could take responsibility. He was kind to him throughout the day as well.

In the afternoon the previous day, Cain's child provoked him and was treated accordingly, but that night, he was scolded by Cain.

Not a simple scolding, no, the dude released a full-brunt killing intent on a child no older than 12, and he was in the wrong.

If it was the case of most children, they would be depressed and stressed; and would even consider running away. This mindset was a good enough shield for him.

For now.

But anyway, it would be soon forgotten, or maybe it would just be another talk of the table one dinner night. Who knows.

It wouldn't be long-lasting, most importantly.

Thinking about such a silly thing, Douglas closed his eyes. He began to recount what had happened.

A lot happened.

At one point, he died and then woke up in a strange place, where he didn't feel safe and definitely didn't feel like home. It could be a crazy event that would scar a grown man, or it could be just another crazy experience; it all depends on perspective.

'Tomorrow, I would definitely have to ask Cain to teach me how money works around here...'

As K fell asleep, the Sun rose gradually, as if nothing could stop it, unbothered by all mockery; it was a period of peace.