The Damned Demon

Chapter 775: Overwhelming The Master



Asher stumbled back slightly, gesturing frantically for her to quiet down, "Sshh, don't make any sounds. We're safe for now... I think," he said, his gaze flicking toward the undead in the distance.

"Safe?" Lori hissed, lowering her voice but maintaining her tone of reprimand, "You call thisss safe? Skully will now kill us both! Why didn't you just run? Keckkk!"

Lori let out a rasping cough, her massive serpentine body began to shimmer faintly, her scales pulsing with a dim purple light. With a low hiss, she shrank in size, coiling her smaller form tightly against the cold floor. Her head rested wearily on her coils as her eyes narrowed with

fatigue.

Asher sighed, sitting down beside her, his flaming green gaze dimmed with concern, "I couldn't run and leave you to die, Lori," he said softly, his voice tinged with guilt, "I told you I'm not going to do that. I should be the one asking why you came down here when I told you not to. The air here... it's even worse for you, isn't it? I thought you said you won't come down here to collect my corpse."

Lori let out a defiant hiss, her forked tongue flicking as she glared at him, "Ssss, of course, I can't risk losing my breeding vessel. If, for some reason, that draconian woman doesn't deliver my child, I still need you." Her tone was sharp, but her words carried an underlying warmth, even if masked by her usual sass.

Asher blinked, disbelief washing over his skeletal visage, "You're still on about that in a situation like this? Didn't you notice what we're up against?"

"That ugly sssskully? Don't tell me it's your relative or something," Lori retorted with a scoff, though her voice held a slight tremor of unease.

Asher let out a dry chuckle, "My relative? Not a chance. But..." His voice trailed off as he glanced toward the distant figure of the undead, now still but looming ominously, "Its powers... they are eerily similar to mine. Or rather, to the undead I can create."

Lori's eyes widened, her head lifting slightly, "Y-You can create undead? Brat, how many powerssss are you hiding?" she asked incredulously, her tail flicking in disbelief.

Asher shook his head, his tone matter-of-fact, "I'm not exactly hiding it. I just rarely use them. But those undead I've created-they're nothing compared to this thing. The resemblance is uncanny, though. How is that even possible? I'm not capable of creating something this powerful. If I were, we wouldn't even be here."

Lori narrowed her eyes, her tail twitching thoughtfully, "Then maybe your relative really did live here at ssssome point. You're always boasting about your 'immortal bloodline.' Maybe someone related to your race turned that human into an undead?"

Asher's gaze darkened as he processed her words, "That doesn't make sense. Just because someone shares my race doesn't mean they'd have the same powers." His mind flashed to the source of his Hellbringer abilities-the Ring of Damnation. He knew his powers didn't simply just come from his bloodline.

However, it was true that someone did create this undead. But where was its master? If they were alive, they would have shown themselves. But if they weren't...how could this undead not turn to dust?

Or were his powers really not unique? Did someone else also possess them?

Lori hissed with mild exasperation, "Sssss, you think you're that sssspecial? Fine, then what'sss your theory, smarty?"

Asher turned his gaze back toward the undead, his fingers clenching into a fist, "I don't think it matters. That thing is guarding whatever's behind that rock. Whether it's a way out or something important, it's worth risking everything to find out. So many people died here trying to get through, and it killed them all effortlessly."

Lori's eyes followed his gaze, her serpentine form trembling slightly, "You aren't sssseriously thinking of fighting it again, are you?"

Asher reached into his Damned Dimension and pulled out multiple health potions, their glowing liquid swirling ominously. His dark yellow eyes flickered with grim determination as he said, "You know me. I'm someone who can afford to cheat death a few times." He raised one of the potions to his mouth, chugging it down with a grimace before bracing himself for what was to come.

Lori's eyes narrowed as she watched him grimace and begin to sacrifice his life force, "Brat, what kind of sssstupidity are you doing now? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Asher gritted his teeth, the veins on his skeletal frame pulsating with dark green light as his life force drained away, "Just...trust me, Lori," he rasped, his voice strained but resolute. He grabbed another potion and drank it down, his mana reserves replenishing incrementally with each sacrifice.

"You're going to burn yourssself out, you idiotic brat!" Lori hissed in alarm, her smaller form coiling tighter in frustration, "Thisss is madness!"

Asher finally tossed the last empty potion bottle aside, his eyes lighting up with renewed vigor. He stood, his dark green eyes glowing ominously as he looked toward the undead, "I'm ready now."

Lori shook her head in disbelief, her scales bristling, "You're not listening, brat! You can't defeat it. Even I couldn't hold it back, and you saw how easily it overwhelmed both of us."

Asher offered her a small smirk, though his skeletal expression couldn't fully convey his confidence, "Don't worry. I've got a plan this time. Just stay here and go easy on those potions, alright? I don't want you getting mana poisoning."

Lori hissed indignantly, "You're inssssane, you flaming fool," she muttered under her breath, watching as Asher strode forward. Her tail flicked in frustration, but deep down, she admired his tenacity. But in the end...it was probably the best shot they had to get out of here.

The oppressive air of the dark hall seemed to still as Asher faced the approaching undead. Its hollow sockets glowed with a baleful, dark green light, flickering like the embers of a dying fire. Its slow, deliberate steps carried an uncanny menace, and every move it made seemed to draw the surrounding shadows closer to it.

Asher watched it with narrowed eyes, his skeletal form blazing with dark green flames. He tilted his head slightly and smirked, his voice echoing with grim confidence, "You know the disadvantage of being dead?"

The undead continued its steady march forward, its disjointed gait accompanied by the eerie crackle of bones and faint whispers from the void. It ignored his words entirely, raising its charred fist to strike, the air itself groaning under the force of its intent.

But Asher's smirk didn't waver. He calmly finished, "...It's that I can bring you into my hell without defeating you."

With a flick of his wrist, he touched the undead, the air shimmering unnaturally, and the next moment, both figures vanished into thin air.

Lori, still recovering, coiled up and hissed in shock. Her serpentine eyes widened as she scanned the empty hall, "Ssss! Where the hell did you go, brat? You dare leave me alone here??" she muttered to herself, her coils tensing with unease. The darkness pressed closer, more suffocating in Asher's absence, and her tail flicked nervously.

She couldn't fathom where they had gone. This wasn't simple teleportation-no teleportation magic should work against such a terrifyingly powerful undead. Not unless one

was able to overpower it.

"You better return, brat, or my ghost will haunt you here forever..." Lori muttered bitterly, her worry palpable despite her sharp words. Her tail coiled tighter around her body as the oppressive silence of the hall seemed to mock her.

Meanwhile, in the Damned Dimension, Asher and the undead materialized amidst the chaotic, molten wasteland. The atmosphere here was suffocating, a hellscape of twisted shadows and dark green lava. The air vibrated with the screams of damned souls, their faint, ghostly forms occasionally swirling through the cracked sky.

Victor and Agonon's damned forms were watching this scene from afar like statues with no emotion in their eyes but ready to obey their master's command at a moment's notice.

Asher wasted no time. He flung the undead away from him with a surge of dark green mana, sending it tumbling across the jagged, molten ground. The undead landed heavily but rose with mechanical precision, its hollow gaze locked on Asher.

"This is my hell," Asher declared, his flames flaring brighter, "and no matter how strong you are, you will fall here."

Raising his hands, Asher commanded the Damned Dimension to obey. A deafening rumble shook the landscape as massive waves of molten lava surged from every direction. The fiery green torrents converged on the undead, swallowing it whole in a devastating cascade. The force of the attack formed a massive tomb of solidified magma over the creature, sealing it beneath layers of molten rock.

Asher straightened, his flames simmering as he stared at the magma tomb, "Now, have a nice little nap down there until I get back," he muttered, his tone laced with grim satisfaction. Maybe later, he can return and figure out how to put this thing under his control.

If he could do that...then dealing with all his enemies would be a cake walk. With that, he willed himself out of the Damned Dimension, vanishing in a ripple of dark

energy.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Back in the dark hall, Lori let out a gasp of relief as Asher materialized far ahead, right at the spot he vanished from. Her serpentine body uncoiled slightly, her eyes narrowing as she cried out aloud, "Brat! What wasss that? Where did you go? You really got rid of it?" she demanded, her voice sharp with a mix of worry and shock.

Asher dusted himself off, the flames on his skeletal form dimming slightly, "Told you I had a plan. It's not coming back," he said with confidence, turning his attention to the massive black rock once more, "Now, let me figure out how to move this thing. We can talk once we are

out of here."

Lori hissed, still uneasy, but she couldn't deny the relief coursing through her, "Ssss, well, at least it'ssss gone. But I hope you know what you're doing, brat."

Asher didn't respond, his focus entirely on the rock. But just as he began to assess it again, the air around him grew unnervingly cold as a sudden, oppressive presence made his instincts

scream.

He froze before he slowly turned. His eyes widened as he saw the undead standing only a few feet away, its dead gaze fixed on him.

"No..." Asher mumbled, disbelief washing over him, "This cannot be... I trapped you in

there..." His voice was barely above a whisper, his mind racing to comprehend how the undead had escaped the Damned Dimension-a feat that should have been impossible.

Lori's jaw dropped, her serpentine form shrinking instinctively as she hissed in shock, "How...How did it get back here? You said it wasss gone!"

'As if I know!' Asher wanted to shout back at her, but right now, he was too shocked to do that.

The undead began to approach Asher again, its movements just as methodical and menacing

as before. The faint green light in its hollow sockets flickered, casting a spectral glow that made the oppressive darkness even more unsettling.

Asher gritted his teeth, transforming into his Hellbringer Form, "Fuck it. I'll just trap you in a

bigger cage," he growled, raising his hand to drag it into his Damned Dimension once more and give it another try.

But before he could complete the motion, the undead moved with blinding speed. Its charred

hands shot forward, gripping Asher's wrists in an ironclad hold. Asher's flames dimmed under the sheer force of its grip, his skeletal form struggling to break free. "What the hell?" Asher hissed, his voice laced with frustration and shock. He tried to summon

the Damned Dimension again, but the undead's grip seemed to disrupt his connection to it.

"You... You're not just an ordinary damned slave, are you?" Asher muttered, his voice barely above a whisper as he stared into its hollow sockets. He knew that no undead-especially the damned slaves commanded-should have the ability to leave the Damned Dimension on their own, let alone block his powers.

How could they when he was supposed to be the Hell Master of the Damned Dimension!