Volume One: The Devil's Nature Never Changes
Arc: Ascension to the Second Dimension
Scarlet King and Long Wei stood facing one another.
The atmosphere between them was completely still.
Scarlet King stood with both hands behind his back, looking at Long Wei with almost no expression at all.
Only his eyebrows were lowered slightly.
Long Wei, on the other hand, stood there with a grin so wide it nearly split his face.
His brows were lowered in an intense, excited expression, while both hands were clenched tightly at his sides.
The wind passed between them, stirring their hair and clothes.
Scarlet King spoke to Lin Yuan and Ikalat.
"You two go deal with the remaining competitors."
"I'll stay here."
Lin Yuan reached out and tried to speak.
"But—"
Scarlet King interrupted him with complete calm.
"There's no discussion."
Ikalat grabbed Lin Yuan and quickly pulled him away.
Meanwhile, Long Wei and Scarlet King stepped forward until they stood directly before one another.
Long Wei said:
"I didn't expect you to be brave enough to send your allies away and fight me alone, Gu Yue."
Scarlet King looked directly into Long Wei's eyes.
"I don't need allies to deal with an insect like you."
Scarlet King moved the arm that had been resting behind his back.
And another part of the plan began.
[Outside the Universes — The Observers' Side]
The observers continued watching.
Some time earlier, they had noticed the small black hole pass by them and move farther away.
So they simply ignored it.
That was the greatest mistake they made.
The black hole had not gone far at all.
Instead—
it suddenly expanded.
It stopped only a hair's breadth away from the observers, an enormous smile stretched across its face.
This was Scarlet King's Black Hole Transformation.
He had temporarily separated it from his body.
Scarlet King could merge his transformations together or separate them into independent bodies.
However, a transformation needed to possess a consciousness of its own before it could be separated.
The black hole silently moved closer.
Then—
it opened its mouth.
By the time the observers realized what was happening…
it was already too late.
The black hole devoured them.
Within seconds, their bodies were completely broken down and absorbed by the Heaven-Devouring Battle Law fused with the black hole.
The black hole spoke:
"Well, I should return to Master now that my task is complete."
[Back to Scarlet King and Long Wei]
Long Wei raised his fist and threw a direct punch at Scarlet King's face.
But Scarlet King moved at insane speed.
He appeared behind Long Wei and struck him in the back, launching him away with enough force to shatter several trees.
Scarlet King thought:
(Well, the effect of Primordial Chaos is overwhelmingly powerful.)
(Especially now that it has adapted to my body during the time it has remained inside me.)
Scarlet King moved his arm.
"Hegemon's Touch."
Long Wei was lifted into the sky.
Scarlet King slammed him directly into a mountain.
Then he tore an enormous number of trees from the ground and hurled them at tremendous speed toward the crater created by Long Wei's impact.
Scarlet King thought:
(Well, since this evolved into an Eternal Universe because of the Writer when he repaired half the Dimension, its structure has become far superior.)
(That means the damage is much lower.)
Several seconds later—
a crimson aura in the shape of a dragon erupted from the crater.
The dragon opened its mouth.
All the incoming trees shattered.
Part of the mountain shattered with them.
Long Wei emerged from the destruction.
He landed heavily on his feet, digging slightly into the ground.
He stared at Scarlet King while gritting his teeth.
Scarlet King's expression remained exactly the same.
He was not surprised.
Long Wei suddenly moved.
He was so fast that Scarlet King barely registered that he was already standing directly in front of him.
Long Wei struck him violently in the stomach.
The blow launched Scarlet King several kilometers away with a single hit.
Scarlet King tore across the ground, smashing through every tree in his path until he finally regained control and planted his feet beneath him.
Even then, his momentum continued carrying him backward.
His feet carved two long trenches through the earth.
Scarlet King finally stopped.
He wiped the blood from his mouth.
Then he looked toward Long Wei—
who had already arrived only a few meters away.
The two began walking rapidly toward one another.
The instant they met—
their fists collided with each other's faces.
Both of their heads snapped backward.
But Scarlet King immediately brought his head forward again.
His eyes began glowing with brilliant black light edged in white.
He fired his laser directly toward Long Wei.
The blast violently launched Long Wei backward, burning part of his neck and turning it red.
Long Wei wiped away the burn marks with his hand.
Then he smiled.
He moved forward and grabbed Scarlet King.
The two tore out of the Eternal Universe and moved away from the six universes.
They entered a weak Mortal Universe.
The moment they entered—
their fists collided.
An energy wave erupted.
And erased the entire universe.
Scarlet King thought:
(Damn it.)
(We destroyed an entire Mortal Universe with a single collision.)
(I like this power…)
(But it's dangerous.)
(We erased a universe along with all its infinite narratives, infinite timelines, and infinite possible and logical possibilities.)
The wave continued expanding.
More universes were erased.
Scarlet King and Long Wei moved slightly backward.
Then—
at speeds approaching Immeasurable—
they rushed toward one another again.
Their fists collided.
But this time, instead of releasing destruction—
the collision produced creation.
A new universe formed.
It possessed a completely different physical structure.
A different material structure.
A different imagination.
A different reality.
Just like the other universes within the Dimensions, where each universe differed from another materially, existentially, qualitatively, realistically, imaginatively, conceptually, and in nearly every other aspect.
However, the universe they had just created did not possess the infinite structure of naturally existing universes.
Even so—
it was still a newly created universe produced by two people who did not belong to the Dimension itself.
But it was not as powerful as a universe created directly by the Dimension.
A universe created by the Dimension drew its energy from Primordial Chaos.
And Primordial Chaos was infinite.
Thus, when the energy was infinite—
the resulting structure was infinite as well.
Scarlet King and Long Wei, however, did not currently possess limitless energy.
That was why they had produced a nearly ordinary universe.
Even so, it still contained multiple layers—
or rather, proliferating internal universes with different possibilities from one another.
The hand-to-hand clashes between Scarlet King and Long Wei continued.
Scarlet King focused on exhausting Long Wei's energy until he weakened enough to be defeated.
That was why Scarlet King preferred exchanging blows and blocking attacks rather than launching direct attacks of his own.
Their clashes erased new universes.
And created new ones.
Scarlet King ducked beneath another strike and thought:
(That idiot Long Wei had the advantage over me inside the Eternal Universe.)
(But out here, we're almost equal.)
(He'll probably realize the same thing eventually and try to force me back into the Eternal Universe.)
Their battle continued with tremendous intensity.
Waves generated by their clashes distorted the space-time of the First Dimension around them.
Wormholes and black holes formed from every collision.
They would enter a universe—
clash inside it—
and erase it along with several neighboring universes.
Then they would collide again within the void—
and create entirely new universes.
And this continued for…