Doom Slayer

Endless! They just kept coming!

Li Tang felt himself growing tired. His frail body grew stronger with every punch, and the time before the demons instantly killed him grew longer and longer, but his exhaustion came not from his body, but from his heart.

"0000"

"0001"

"0002"

"0003"

Time here seemed to have no end. There was only the blood-colored sky and the Crimson Desert forever. Li Tang used relatively accurate second-counting to gain some semblance of reality.

Every rebirth, every death.

The demons' attacks came not only from the physical, but also from the corruption they emitted—the evil whispers that eroded the human heart.

They were not violent, swift, or obvious. Yet they never stopped for even a moment. They were everywhere, wearing away at him like dripping water piercing stone.

The demons were endless. Wave after wave crashed forward like a tide, tirelessly battering the defenses built by Li Tang's hands and heart together.

Li Tang was utterly exhausted. His entire body was covered in wounds, and blood streamed down him—some his own, some the demons'.

His left hand had been bitten off by a demon, exposing stark white bone. His right hand gripped a demon's horn as a weapon.

His nerves were taut every moment, but there was always a time when his vigilance slackened.

In an imperceptible gap, a demon as large as a mound of flesh grinned viciously and fired the cannons embedded in its arms, blasting him into scraps.

He returned whole once more, and the demons pounced again!

"What exactly do you want? What are you trying to obtain? What are you trying to make me prove?" Li Tang's mind collapsed. Amid the cycle of death, his repressed heart and taut nerves erupted completely.

He screamed hysterically, spittle flying.

No one answered him across the wasteland. The demons cackled, while the whispers in the darkness mocked him and urged him to set down his fatigue and rest properly.

"Fuck you!"

At that moment, Li Tang abandoned his mind. Instinct replaced thought, and his fists began greeting the demons' entire families.

"Cowards!!!!!!" A roar that shook the heavens rang across the Blood-Colored Wasteland. The primal howl held no thought anymore.

"Trash!!!!!!" With a berserk roar, he thrust his left hand into the screaming demon's mouth and tore out the tongue that would not stop babbling.

"Pathetic!!!!!!" With another furious curse, he kicked a pink, dog-like demon off the mountain of corpses, then snapped off a demon's horn and drove it into the creature's eye socket.

In the operating room of the physical universe, a terrifying howl that chilled the blood rang out. The hateful roar felt familiar to the Custodes.

No one knew how much time had passed before the roars and curses of the Blood-Colored Wasteland finally ceased.

It was still the demons. It was still that man.

The man had fallen silent—silent to the point of numbness. He swung his fists and feet by instinct, each punch striking flesh as he continuously slaughtered the demons surging forth.

From silence to numbness, Li Tang vented his violence. The endless killing made him stronger, but it also made him fragile.

He sank into eternal rage and the desire to kill, becoming no different from the demons until there was no cure.

At last, rage set him ablaze. His soul erupted into a raging fire and burned into a mass of ashes.

Flames gradually rose from his body. In the operating room, the scent of sizzling fat burst into the air.

"He's finished!" The gold-armored Custodes shook their heads regretfully and silently dragged over a hose, preparing to wash the ashes off the operating table later.

Once he burned to ash, the next trial would involve three hundred people together. They would spare no expense to create three hundred warriors.

"Kill! Kill! Kill them all! Kill them clean!" The evil whispers urged him on beside his ears.

Pain came bit by bit. His soul began to scatter, gradually returning to coldness and silence.

"What do you want in the end? What do you want to see?"

Li Tang's last shred of reason asked. He wept bitterly, sobbing until he could no longer speak, questioning the Blood-Colored Wasteland again and again.

As always, there was nothing. No one answered.

He gave up and fell to his knees in exhaustion. He did not want to die, but he did not know how to survive in the Blood-Colored Wasteland.

Darkness came at him, carrying a bone-deep cold.

As he neared death, Li Tang unconsciously shuddered. Profound images from his memories surfaced before his eyes again and again.

He seemed to see his former self. The biting, frigid wind of the Himalayas surrounded him just like this, as he pressed forward across a deserted wasteland beneath the piercing cold.

Why keep moving forward?

He suddenly shuddered. Under the stimulus of the cold, Li Tang seemed to regain a little clarity amid his daze.

To stay alive!

To stay alive as he moved among Terra's warlords, to stay alive by evading the wars, to stay alive as he walked toward the operating table.

And now he was submitting to death?

"No! No! I'm just too tired!" Like a drowning man struggling blindly underwater, Li Tang's consciousness was hazy as he asked and answered himself in confusion.

Then were you submitting to exhaustion?

This time Li Tang did not answer. He only panted, then slowly rose to his feet, staggering as he straightened the spine that exhaustion had bent.

"Come on, demons!"

Panting heavily with drool running from his mouth, he was reborn once more into another endless slaughter.

This time, Li Tang had a clear goal: to kill in order to stay alive.

"Huh?" A colleague's astonished voice drew the Custodes' attention. The blazing body and greedily licking flames seemed to have restrained themselves somewhat.

The Custodes' powers of observation could not be wrong. They realized that the young man might still have hope.

"9998"

"9999"

Li Tang began counting the seconds once more. He clearly remembered how many times each numerical cycle had repeated.

As he resumed counting, his consciousness gradually became much clearer, and the fatigue in his body slowly receded.

He escaped the brink of death, struck back at the demons with his fists, and treated the noisy whispers that added fuel to the fire as nothing more than wind beside his ears. He had gained a sliver of realization: at least there was hope only if he stayed alive.

The terrifying ordeal continued. No matter how he maintained his state of mind, the endless slaughter still caused despair to well up in his heart.

Ten years!

Li Tang counted the passing of each year. He endured for ten years. His body no longer felt tired, and his consciousness remained clear.

The demons accompanied him, wave after wave, group after group.

He did not submit to exhaustion or death. He had done it. But where was the end?

Twenty years! Li Tang continued to remember the passing of time. His body had grown strong, and he could now wrestle with the demons.

The humanoid demons that had once killed him effortlessly were troublesome now, but posed no great threat.

Thirty years! Countless times, he wanted to give up—to end this endless resistance and escape the unchanging cycle of killing and being killed.

One hundred years!

"Keheh heh! It doesn't matter anymore. I'm still alive! I can still laugh! I can still kill demons!"

One thousand years!

Li Tang fell silent again. Day after day, year after year, he killed demons every moment. But he discovered something interesting: demons could feel fear too!

His voice, cold and utterly devoid of fluctuation, swept across the Crimson Desert, making the demons shiver from head to toe. "Come! It's time to repay your debt! I will drink my fill of your fear! Trample your pitiful courage!"

Then Li Tang began to do one thing: torture demons, slaughter demons, and make the demons fear him!

Three thousand years!

"Demons~ Demons~ Where are you? Make sure you're hiding well~ I'm coming to find you!"

A cold, low voice echoed across the Blood-Colored Wasteland. A tall man walked across the Crimson Sea of Sand, searching for the demons hiding away.

When no demon could withstand his strength, and his torture made them feel pain and fear, they gradually hid themselves and dared not appear again.

Loneliness! Li Tang clearly felt it. The demons no longer played with him. Only loneliness accompanied him across the Blood-Colored Wasteland.

But this time, he did not submit to loneliness. Instead, he searched bit by bit for the few pleasures available, began thinking independently, and used the demons to temper himself.

His martial skills grew increasingly powerful, gradually returning to simplicity. He saw through the weaknesses of life and used absolute efficiency to help the demons find release.

"9999"

Another numerical cycle ended, and Li Tang awoke beside a rock. The demons had already dared not approach this place for thousands of years. They could only watch and worship from afar.

Actually, Li Tang rather liked playing with the demons. They feared the strong, yet worshiped the strong.

After ten thousand years, Li Tang had grown accustomed to everything here. His consciousness went from normal to deranged, then from deranged back to normal, becoming unbreakable through countless cycles.

He had even placed a demon's head beside him, using the incessant whispers to help himself fall asleep.

He had long since understood the ultimate purpose of this boundless barrier and trial.

It was tempering eternal resilience. But only an unyielding will was worthy of being forged into true gold!

He would not submit to slaughter, exhaustion, madness, death, or the cold solitude of ten thousand years!

"I endured the trial!"

"Boom!" After Li Tang had passed through ten thousand years of tempering, the instant he spoke his own name, the eternally unchanging Blood-Colored Wasteland began to collapse, finally entering the rune mark on his chest.

Outside, his dying body trembled slightly, and life returned to it!

"How long have I been lying here?"

Li Tang opened his eyes. After confirming that he had returned to the Terra laboratory, he asked in a toneless voice.

He had originally thought he would be excited, perhaps even shed tears of joy. Yet now he was as calm as still water, without the slightest ripple in his heart.

The superhuman minds of the gold-armored Custodes paused briefly. They could not understand how the man who had just been sizzling and dripping with oil could now stand there without a wound and ask them the time.

"One Terran week, three hours, seven minutes, and twenty-one seconds." The Custodes named Plato spoke to the awakened Li Tang.

The ten thousand years of trials had been so real, so full of pain and despair, yet only a week had passed in reality.

Li Tang said nothing. He sat silently on the operating table, waiting for the Custodes' master to arrive.

Just as he expected, amid a radiance of golden light, that glittering man arrived once more.

"An inconceivable miracle!"

The Emperor's voice was filled with astonishment. He saw through Li Tang's current state and marveled, "The level of your life has changed!"

"You have surpassed the limits of biological genetic engineering." He walked around Li Tang three times, his hand brushing over Li Tang's broad shoulders and sturdy arms, making even the Custodes struggle to conceal their envy.

There was a truth the Emperor had not spoken. He could no longer sense Li Tang's soul in the Warp, nor could he see through his memories or thoughts.

His soul had fused with his own being and would not be affected by the Warp. The soul supported the body's strength, while the body protected the soul, forming a perfect closed loop.

"Put in the remaining gene-seed. I can't wait to see them!"

"Yes, my lord!"

"No!" Li Tang reminded the Emperor in a low, concise voice. "You don't know how terrifying that trial is. You'll kill everyone!"

The instant Li Tang left the trial barrier, a wondrous connection had arisen in his mind. He sensed the other two hundred and ninety-nine gene-seed samples, as well as a bright star across the endless void.

He knew clearly that creating his brothers without regard for the cost would require more people than Terra's entire population combined.

"Then select them in an orderly manner."

The Emperor compromised with the man who had personally experienced it, then looked toward his tall, powerfully built body. "Custodes, get him a suit of armor first. For now, conceal his true existence."

"Also, notify my personal artisans. I will personally design the armor for the Twenty-First Legion."

"The Firstborn of the Legion." The Emperor turned toward Li Tang and said solemnly, "The Twenty-First Legion has a name given to it by fate! I hope you will not fail it."

"Doom Slayer!"

(Thanks for the tips! If you have recommendation votes, please cast one. This humble author is begging online. The Terra arc is over, and from now on it will be the protagonist's storyline. The Terra arc was necessary, but the collection and performance have been terribly bleak.)