The Wraith King was having the time of his life. After being suppressed by Asura and the Savage Earthen Ogre Tribe for so long, this was the best thing he could have asked for. Dominion over a large territory and a large amount of prey to increase his strength. It was wonderful.

Alas, the end of all good times came much quicker than he thought it would.

One day he was doing what he did best; cutting down Beasts with his deathly Scythe and absorbing the resulting Killing Essence. But then all of a sudden

BANG!

Something had crashed into his body and sent him flying.

BOOOOOM!

His body had crashed into a distant mountain and it was all he could do not to phase out of existence. And when he had finally gathered the energy to look up, the shock that ran through him almost finished him off then and there. An Elephant! An Elephant that was over 500 metres tall!

Looking at the gigantic trunk that had a faint golden glow to it, the Wraith King knew that that was what had struck him because regular physical attacks wouldn’t be able to touch him.

Knowing that he was heavily outclassed, he used his innate teleporting ability and ran away. Vowing to get revenge whenever he was strong enough. But thinking of the colossal size of the Elephant, even he knew it was a tall order.

After some more travelling and killing whatever he could on the way, he arrived at the entrance of a grand Forest that contained a Tree that shot up far above the clouds. Only the branches filled with multi-coloured leaves and strange cocoon-like things prevented it from looking like one huge sky-piercing pillar.

The forest was practically overflowing with Magic Energy and it even contained other elements. Namely water, ice, life, wood, lightning and fire. It was a Sacred Land! A land that was guaranteed to be filled with all sorts of treasures!

However, the Wraith King wasn’t dumb. He had learnt from his experience with Celestial Apis that with great territories came great territory owners. He had already learnt this in the South Continent, but with his excitement at finding a large land filled with adequate resources after many years at sea, coupled with his instinctual disdain for Beasts that he gained after slaughtering them to extinction in the South, he had completely overlooked the possibility of a local hegemony.

This time he wouldn’t make a mistake, he would go in there with the stealth he had mastered over the years, kill the best of what could, absorb the Killing Essence, take a treasure or 2 if they were on sight… then flee!

Oh how foolish and naive he had been.

But to be fair, there was no way for him to know that as soon as he walked into the Forest, the first-born of the Heavens would appear right in front of him.

‘Teleportation!’ He had thought at the time, filled with shock that someone else, especially what looked like a human, had his ability. However, he was instantly filled with disdain. A mere human adolescent dared to appear in front of him so nonchalantly?

He completely disregarded the pale white skin, light green hair and strange material wrapped and her body that he had seen no other Human have and prepared to attack. She was a human so she was weak.

But before he could even ready his scythe, her childish yet melodious voice rang out as she pointed her palm at him.

“I don’t like Monsters. Please go away.”

BOOOOM!

He was sent flying once again.

The next place he had arrived in was Jungle somewhere up North with high reaching trees that blocked the sun. The place was filled with all sorts of luscious fruits and herbs that were filled with bountiful essence but to a Monster, especially one that technically lacked a physical body like him, such things were useless. However, the Beasts within were not!

This was the place where he achieved the most success, he had managed to slaughter all sorts of powerful Beasts and subjugated the weaker ones, planning on fattening them up with essence-filled foods before slaughtering them. He did the same with the Humans within too.

After a couple of years went by, he had finally accumulated enough Killing Essence to reach the peak of the 3rd Realm, just one step away from becoming a Greater Demon. Everything was perfect!

But then one day… the only being who could face him to a stand still, the only being who kept thwarting his plans time and time again, and the only being who had managed to keep him from taking control of the entire Jungle… went through a colossal fate-changing breakthrough!

Although he had achieved hegemony in the jungle, there was one peculiar… Monkey, who had lustrous black fur and a scar over its left eye. This Monkey had an extremely tough body and that normally would have meant nothing, but when the monkey glowed with a golden aura that gave off the feeling of light and metal, its heavy thumping fists would rain all over his body, causing him great agony.

Even though he usually had a great advantage over such close combat fighters thanks to his previous tussles with Babunda,his long Scythe, and his teleporting ability, this advantage was rendered useless when he fought against the stupidly fast Monkey that possessed otherworldly reflexes and battle instincts.

So it had been a stand-still this entire time. He terrorized the Jungle and the Monkey King protected it.

But just when he was filled with glee at the prospect that it wouldn’t take much longer to become a Greater Demon, the ambient Magical Energy around him experienced a great shift, fleeing the vicinity and flowing to the other side of the forest where he knew the Monkey King was. Such a thing didn’t make sense and was a little worrying, he couldn’t allow anything to interrupt his future breakthrough so he needed to investigate whether or not that the sudden change was a threat.

If the Monkey King was pulling off something strange, he needed to stop it immediately.

But just when he was flying towards the cause of the sudden ruckus, a feeling of absolute danger flooded his soul, causing him to freeze.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!