Multiverse: A Journey Beginning with the Supreme Sovereign

If he merely threw an object, the instantaneous burst could even double its speed again, reaching the third cosmic velocity!

Demons and True Vampires

Two figures who had long surpassed the limits of human sight and reaction speed flashed past each other. Violent winds spread in every direction, and the shaking heavens and earth roared.

Saigō and Jada Kukulkan fought from the city district all the way to the outskirts, leaving devastation everywhere they passed.

Buildings collapsed, and the ground caved in. Some people could not even scream before they rapidly aged and died beneath the pitch-black flames.

Others were frozen into ice statues, then shattered into fragments.

Still others were swept by the force of their fists and turned into mangled piles of flesh.

Fortunately, the place where Saigō and Jada had encountered each other was not the city center, but already close to the outskirts.

Otherwise, after such a battle, the entire capital of the Kingdom of Aldegia would likely have been ruined, just as it had been when the vampires of the War King's Domain stormed the capital years ago.

This was the power of a True Vampire. To defeat one, one needed strength on the national level to contend with it.

For example, against the Third True Ancestor, who had already surpassed the first cosmic velocity, anyone who truly wished to defeat her first had to restrain her speed.

To withstand the power formed by the fusion of so many Familiars, one would at least need a large-scale ritual on the level of a nation.

That was the terror of True Vampire progenitors, the terror of vampire Familiars.

Even True Vampire progenitors had not completely conquered their Familiars. They used their own lives to nourish them in exchange for wielding their abilities.

"Crimson Ice of the Demon Princess!"

Behind Saigō, the beautiful monster formed from a gigantic demon bird and a mermaid spread her wings once more.

Like a fish darting through water, she released a chill cold enough to freeze mountains.

"Appear here, Xolotl!"

Behind the Third True Ancestor, a gigantic skeletal giant rose from the earth. There were no eyeballs in its sockets, while its exposed ribs were swallowed by pitch-black darkness.

This was the first non-possessing Familiar belonging to the Third True Ancestor that Saigō had seen.

The moment the skeletal giant appeared, it opened its gaping maw and inhaled deeply, drawing all the freezing wind blown forth by Crimson Ice of the Demon Princess into its belly.

After a brief pause, the frigid wind spilled from the gaps between its ribs and instead blasted back toward Saigō.

Saigō's expression did not change. Incomprehensible black flames carrying the true essence of Aging enveloped the oncoming cold wind.

The next instant, even the cold wind was affected by Aging. Its freezing temperature vanished, gradually turning warm, and even the gale became gentle.

"A Familiar that reflects an enemy's attacks, huh... But Familiars and abilities of this type must have their limits. Otherwise, wouldn't they already be invincible?"

Saigō chuckled as the Third Star Particle flowing within him began to circulate rapidly.

A delighted expression appeared on the face of Crimson Ice of the Demon Princess, who floated behind him, as though she were savoring the delicacy Saigō had given her.

"Kree...!!"

Crimson Ice of the Demon Princess let out a cry like a phoenix's call. Beating her wings again, she fired a beam from the mermaid's mouth that froze all things.

The Third True Ancestor's Familiar opened its gaping maw again and swallowed Crimson Ice of the Demon Princess's attack.

But this time, it could not reflect the attack back.

After several seconds, frost began to emerge from inside the Familiar, freezing it completely in place. Saigō then smashed it with a punch, the cracking air shattering the Familiar into pieces.

Just then, the rocks beneath Saigō's feet rapidly melted, and a lava-like pillar of fire erupted from below him.

Thick storm clouds appeared above his head, flashing with lightning in the sky.

"Reveal yourselves, Xiuhtectli, Camaxtli!"

Jada summoned more of her Familiars once again—the clash of heavenly thunder and earthly fire!

The thick black clouds and the pillar of magma beneath his feet were Jada's Familiars themselves.

Thick bolts of lightning made the heavens rumble, while the pillar of fire, over a thousand meters wide, radiated heat that could burn everything to ash.

"Crackle...!!"

"Boom...!!"

Lightning fell, and the pillar of fire surged upward.

Saigō, caught between them, was practically in a fatal predicament.

This strike from the Third True Ancestor's Familiars was enough to shatter an entire city!

Yet faced with an attack capable of destroying a city, the black flames around Saigō flared violently.

The flames were immensely strange, carrying the utmost essence of Aging.

Whether it was lightning, fire, or the two grotesquely shaped Familiars, all rapidly weakened beneath the Aura of Aging until they turned into pure magical power and dispersed.

"Eh?"

Jada cried out in surprise. Clearly, she had not expected Saigō's ability to be so bizarre, and wariness filled her emerald eyes.

Then she realized that the manifested flames of Aging had also tainted her mind.

Without her noticing, Saigō had already poisoned her, using Aging to erode the mind of a True Vampire.

"When did you do that?"

The discovery drastically changed Jada's expression. She tried to use magical power to drive away the will of Aging.

But as one of the Six Great Devils created by the Mother of Evil Gods, Aging possessed an extremely high order. It was not something that could be expelled merely through the quantity of one's magical power.

Once she realized she was helpless against Aging, Jada stopped holding back. She unleashed all her power, determined to defeat Saigō before her mind reached its limit.

"As expected of a demon's ability. It's bizarre to the extreme—an ability unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"...Let me see how many more surprises you have for me, Zarathustra!"

The Third True Ancestor laughed wildly. Her mood had reached its peak, and she could not resist unleashing all the firepower she had never used since becoming a True Vampire.

Saigō was not doing well either.

His ability was bizarre and of a high order, practically like a cheat.

But although Saigō possessed sufficient strength and inexhaustible magical power, his mind had its limits.

No matter what, Saigō had only lived for several decades across two lives. He was not even as old as some elderly humans.

In terms of life experience and mental cultivation, Saigō might not even surpass some aged elders, much less the Third True Ancestor before him.

No matter how much the Third True Ancestor's mind had worn down over thousands of years, or how distorted her thoughts had become—

Jada had truly lived for thousands of years, witnessing all the warmth and coldness of the world, all its changes and unknowns.

The mental resilience honed over that long life was absolutely not something Saigō could compare with.

This was Saigō's greatest weakness at present. His explosive power might be immense, enough to destroy cities and devastate nations.

But Saigō's mind could not fully control such power, making him a man with fierce bursts but little endurance.

Though Saigō himself did not want this either, there was little he could do about it.

Mental tempering could not be completed overnight. He needed to hone his mind over long years and turn it into a sharp spear.

The Third True Ancestor was thrown into disarray by Saigō's true essence of Aging and wanted a swift battle.

Saigō's own mind was likewise unable to sustain a prolonged fight, so he also wanted a swift battle.

Their intentions collided in that instant. Magic power that swept across heaven and earth erupted, flattening mountains and scattering the clouds.

Until the two grappled with each other, rolling through shattered mountain ranges.

Before they knew it, the two had become completely entangled, impossible to separate.

My Hands Corrode All Things!

The earth shook and the mountains swayed. The outskirts of the Kingdom of Aldegia's capital had already been completely reduced to ruins.

The mountains in the outskirts had all been shattered by the clash between demon and True Vampire, turning into dilapidated fortresses resembling the ruins of ancient city-states.

"Pant... pant..."

Saigō gasped violently. It was not purely physical exhaustion, but rather a kind of mental fatigue.

Anyone would be unable to bear remaining in an intensely tense mental state for a prolonged period.

Saigō was currently in such a state. He sat against a broken stone pillar, his elbows resting on his knees as his upper body leaned slightly forward.

Black flames burned fiercely across his body, trembling in the breeze. His deep eyes, formed from flames, stared ahead at the Third True Ancestor.

Jada was in no better condition than Saigō.

The Third True Ancestor sat slumped amid the rubble. Her white gown, bearing the distinct flavor of Central American culture, had already been torn to tatters.

Through the tears in her dress, her smooth, flawless wheat-colored skin could be seen.

Jada had one leg curled up, and even her white high heels had been lost somewhere.

One of her delicate little jade feet rested amid the rubble, covered in dust. The sight was almost painful to behold, making one want to cradle that lotus foot and carefully wipe it clean.

Tiny black flames were emerging from the surface of Jada's skin. Whenever the flames flared, she let out a muffled groan, pain appearing on her face.

Along with the pain came a drastic decline in her strength, as though even her power had aged.

Jada slowly raised her hand. Those once slender and powerful hands now looked like the claws of an aged chicken, wrinkled and unsightly.

Faced with the extreme signs of Aging appearing on her body, Jada did not panic. Instead, she said with great interest, "...So this is a demon's ability? It truly is incredible."

"An ability that can age all things is enough to make any living creature fear it, because Aging means death, and Aging means the decline of strength and mental condition."

"...No one can endure watching everything they once possessed vanish beneath the power of Aging."

"The strong lose their muscles, the tall bend their backs. Just thinking about no longer being young, about one's strength disappearing beneath Aging, is enough to make anyone afraid and uneasy."

"...Especially for long-lived races like vampires, who have already escaped natural Aging. When the terror of that loss appears once more, vampires will fear it more than anyone."

Jada leaned against a broken stone behind her, pressing the back of her neck tightly against it as she raised her beautiful face toward the sky.

The Third True Ancestor ignored the Aging rapidly spreading across her hands, turning the skin of her wrists and forearms into the wrinkles of an old woman.

It was not that Jada did not want to stop it, but that she had discovered she could not. Even when she used magical power to resist the erosion of Aging, the magical power itself would age.

To a certain extent, Aging—the most terrifying of the ten forms of death—was simply incurable, like a law of nature.

Because Aging and death were gifts of nature itself.

"Even a vampire's negative life force is useless. This ability is nothing like ordinary sorcery. It is more akin to Cain's Holy Annihilation, something that acts upon the Heavenly Principles themselves."

"...I had thought your ability was like poisonous gas, requiring time to slowly erode your enemy. That was why I chose to fight you quickly."

"But it seems my fighting style was completely wrong. Even at speeds exceeding Mach twenty, your dynamic vision and physical abilities could still keep up."

"...And the strongest aspect of your ability lies in your hands."

Jada's emerald gaze fell upon Saigō's hands, which were formed from black flames.

Their battle had allowed the experienced Jada to completely understand Saigō's ability.

Anything touched by Saigō's hands would undergo accelerated Aging.

The reason her own hands had become so withered was that their hands had repeatedly come into contact during battle.

It was not just living things like bodies. Even physical phenomena or concepts such as rock, lightning, and fire could be negated by those hands.

Just like Jada's Familiars that summoned thunder and rain, all of them had turned to dust beneath Saigō's hands.

Battle was about exposing each other's trump cards, then breaking them one by one.

Now, the Third True Ancestor had seen all of Saigō's current trump cards, yet she had not found a way to counter them. She could only watch as the flames of Aging eroded her body.

"If you surrender now, I might be able to remove the 'Aging' that is eroding you."

Saigō clasped his hands together before him as he sat on a stone block, elbows braced on his thighs. He appeared calm, but his brow was faintly furrowed.

His head was splitting apart with pain, and his mind was even growing hazy. He could no longer fight with the same full force as before.

It could be said that his battle with Jada had ended in mutual defeat.

As one of the Six Great Devils created by the Mother of Evil Gods, the Great Old Demon would be more like a "support" if it had to be assigned a role.

The true combat-oriented abilities belonged to the traits of the other demons. What the Great Old Demon displayed was the bizarre and terrifying side of demons, rather than simple combat power.