I now stood well over 6 meters tall, surrounded by an armor of solidified prismatic light, the two arms ending in the same kind of weapon I used before, with the blades easily reaching the floor. I trampled countless demons, charging straight through crowd to avoid the onslaught of hellfire. Each demon I trampled provided more blood, which provided more energy, which meant more demons getting destroyed. At some point I fired back with sidereal pulses, charged versions of the sidereal beam with a bit more oomph coming from between the two blades on my arms. Those carved up entire lines from the demonic legions.

I kept using prognosticator and combat master to avoid all of the fireballs being shot at me, bobbing, weaving and strafing the fiendish columns. Soon enough the centurions showed up to try to stop me, firing continuous gouts of hellfire. These I killed by straight up charging at them, and then mutilating them with my blades. Seeing their commanders mutilated in front of them certainly wasn’t the best for the demons morale, causing them to turn and flee instead of continuing their assault on me with their fireballs. My small side and large speed made it easy enough to avoid getting damaged, let alone with a good portion of the enemy showing their backs instead of firing. I began to fire sidereal blasts in missile form, small sidereal blasts that curved towards the enemy groups.

I needed to keep destroying these bastards or else I would run out of power. The mech actually drained over 100 SE a second. This, along with the ridiculous cost to manifest it in the first place, made it a very resource intensive ability. Luckily, it seemed that I had an inexhaustible supply of enemies to slaughter.

Soon enough I noticed a few different forms of demonic legionnaire. This one was like a cross between a spiny lizard and a Minotaur, built like a battering ram. Another one had a long cylindrical body, basically a pipe with a few legs attached to the bottom. It’s head was like a sharks, with a bony covering, while its spine and ribs extended outside its skin, encapsulating it’s torso.

“Demonic auxiliary (romper): a form of demon among the infernal legions, it focuses on sheer physical strength, having several abilities that increase its damage against structures.

Demonic auxiliary (ordinatus minimus): a form of demons among the infernal legions, its torso is designed to produce, shape, and launch explosive balls of hellfire at range”

Huh, neat…

the Rompers were easier to take out by blasting them from a distance, while the ordinatus were weaker to me just charging in and gutting them between the ribs, their stubby legs and extended rib cage making it difficult for them to maneuver.

There were less and less demons appearing each moment, the vast majority having fled by now. The area was arid and deserted, with the only actual landmark being the giant portal mushroom. The ground was covered in blood, even though rivers of it flowed towards me every moment. At that point, I turned off my mech suit, deciding to try what the main body did before. I still felt like I was in combat, so I decided to try and make myself some backup, using the remains of thousands of demons to fuel the creation of a few thousand prismatic stars.

I then moved to follow the largest group of demons, trying to find out where they came from. I wanted to find out where they lived as well as why they were so set on invading. If it was a simple matter of living in literal hell it was possible to just invite them into my group, since I already had the sidereal trasgu with me.

Eventually I reached what appeared to be a city. At the center of the city was what appeared to be an artificial mountain. Activating dark matter cloak, I began to approach the city. The central structure seemed to be a bunch of towers that were built on top of other towers, as if when they couldn't fit another tower on the ground they just started building on top of the other towers, with the rest of the city surrounding that structure…

On the ground level were several other buildings. One looked like a factory, smoke stacks coming out of the roof while carts full of the zombies were constantly brought out into what appeared to be a kind of open market area. In the market area there were quite a few things, like jewels that emitted magic power, strange enchanted objects, ornate pieces of jewelry, large chunks of meat, and slaves…

So that was where other humans went. I saw at least a hundred people bound in chains, maybe more in cages. The demons were not invading because they lived in a hellhole…

“Unlocked rage level 1”

They were just invading to get slaves…

I saw one of the demons from the butcher shop walk up, inspect a woman, and take her back to the shop. She wasn't treated as an assistant, or even as a servant. The demon grabbed her arm and directly ripped it off and put it on the chopping block.

Scratch that, they didn't see us as slaves, they saw… us… as… livestock…

I ordered the prismatic stars to kill as many demons as they could. They all flew towards the market in unison, combining along the way. When they finally reached the ground they formed a total of 3 black masses surrounded by massive spinning accretion discs made from sidereal blasts, using their discs like buzzsaws and cutting through demons and stalls alike. Looks like evolving sidereal blast into sidereal armament had an effect…

As soon as they killed every demon in the market area, they moved onto the rest of the city, cutting apart entire buildings, leaving a line of destruction wherever they passed. I myself moved to rescue the humans, using poincare restoration wherever necessary. I was even able to resurrect the girl at the butcher shop after she died of blood loss, leading her to the other humans.

After collecting all the humans together, I tried to think of a way to get them to safety. I began thinking of the portal mushroom and how it worked. It seemed to form a connection between the mushroom on this plane and itself, creating a stable gate. Copying that with cosmic elementalism leveled up the skill, forming a blinking gate between me and the main body, where I sent all of the humans.

It took quite a bit of SE, but luckily I was supplied by the recent bloodbath in the market. Speaking of which, I moved to collect all the loot I could, summoning a prismatic star to bring things through the portal. I would probably find a use for those things later…

For now, I closed the portal again, using the blood flowing towards me to spawn more and more prismatic stars, then sending them to go kill more demons and spill more blood. One of the prismatic star groups finally reached the factory building, ripping into it and making its entire storage into a fine red mist. I kept making more and more prismatic stars.

Once hellknights started appearing from the main castle, and giant bone boats began to surround the skies around the city, I stopped making more sidereal stars.

The bone ships seemed like they were made from shattered bones glued together, with massive skeletal wings sheathed in hellfire. Prognosticator told me each ship was filled to the brim with hell footmen, hell squires not bound to a knight. They were a tiny bit weaker than a hell squire, but not by that much, and there was a lot more footmen than squires…

I ordered all of my prismatic stars to attack the ships while I scoped out the hell knights. The sidereal stars began to fly upwards, converging on a single point well above where the ships were hovering. They began to fuse together, forming a titan sized version of what the teams formed. I could see as the black mass in the middle began to charge energy to fire a massive sidereal blast, firing a pulse at the nearest bone ship.

The ship, which was easily 400 meters long, was blown up in one shot. From the remains of the ship, even before all of it hit the ground, rivulets of blood were already swarming towards me, allowing me to remake my mech suit.

And with that, I proceeded to attack the various knights. The first was one who went around wielding a greatsword that matched its 3 meters of height. Using dark matter cloak, I ran up to him and caught his sword between the blades that came out of my hands, twisting the blade out of its hands. Once he was disarmed, he began using his own fists as weapons, nowhere near as lethal as the blade, but with a hell knight’s strength, it wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to take head on. Using dark matter cloak, cosmic power and the mech suit, I dashed behind the knight, driving my blades into the space where its helmet ended and his breastplate began, skewering its neck.

“Sneak attack skill unlocked”

So far, james leveled up once, blood manipulation leveled up five times, and cosmic power, sidereal arsenal and dark matter cloak leveled up twice. A large amount of blood was pooling around me, from the few bone ships that the prismatic stars downed. I dashed towards the next knight, consuming the excess blood to spawn more prismatic stars.

Every demon I saw was almost immediately blasted to oblivion. The next knight wielded a spear, and when I got passed the spears threat area, I was able to drive my blades into the armpits of the knights armor, with a quick blast finishing him off. The next knight wielded a club, at least until I impaled its face. Interestingly enough, the open part of the faceplate had some form of barrier over it, preventing any attacks from passing through unless they exceeded a certain threshold.

Soon enough, all of the knights sent out to fight were assassinated. It was around that point where I sensed a massive source of power.

“Interesting, I wonder which fool thought it wise to attack my city?”

Another telepath boss I see. This one appeared as a 4 meter tall behemoth of blood red muscle. It had twin sets of bull and ram horns coming out of its head, while it wore actual metal armor, covered with gems and runic inscriptions. In its hands were twin scimitars, the blades having runic lines running down them while the hilt was covered in magic gems.

“That thing in the sky is an eyesore, I'm getting rid of it”

He raised one of his scimitars up, pointing it at the combined form of the prismatic stars. A moment afterward, a massively condensed ball of hellfire is launched at the central black mass, annihilating it and over a thousand prismatic stars.

I immediately gave the order for the prismatic stars to scatter, using prognosticator on the bastard…

“Mazikeen, Baron of hell: a low ranking member of the nobility of the demonic realms. He has been put in charge of the invasion of the caribbean area, and his defeat would leave most demonic forces in the area vulnerable for at least a while. He specializes in melee combat, though with his blades enchantments he is still quite capable of wreaking havoc at range. Mazikeen is much more powerful than any other foe you’ve faced so far, even compared to the cuelebre”

“Oh, it looks like a fly on the wall decided to snoop around”

He noticed me using prognosticator on him and I had to jump out of the way of a blast of hellfire as he began to approach my position. He seemed to be playing with me, firing blast after blast. Of course while he was blasting about, I had the prismatic stars go around killing off every demon they could find. Soon enough not a single demon remained in the lower city area, the sidereal stars having swarmed everywhere and now mobilizing on top of the central structure.

I myself began to gather blood from all around the city, and the baron notices. He chuckles like a hyena, even as torrents of blood began to circle me.

“I wasn't expecting to face a vampire. Your kind usually sticks to your blood ocean, yet now you decide to attack on dry land? You may have collected a puddle to use, but i'm afraid that won't be nearly enough, as I also know a few tricks”

The baron seemed to be oblivious to the massive collection of sidereal stars above the central fortress, combined into what I will refer to as sidereal black holes. Instead he focuses on me, launching waves of hellfire from his blades. I pushed the blood I still hadn’t drained in front of me, acting as a shield.

“Interesting… why don't you join me? With my backing you could rule boundless lands on your world, with every luxury you could think of at your fingertips”

Well… that is starting to sound enticing…

“Riches, pleasures, power, anything you wish for, I could grant, all you would have to do is serve me. Join me, and I will make you king over all of your lesser kindred”

Yeah… that… sounds… nice…