Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 256: Hell Dive - Derrek's Turn

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On the vast and desolate battlefield known as the Purgatory, a young man with a rather rugged face and long, billowed scarlet hair stood tall with his sword stabbed at the ground.

He wore heavy-plated armor with a scarlet and gold motif and an illusory scarlet and gold cape draped behind him, making him look like an outstanding, fearless, and experienced army general facing a grave threat to his home.

Behind him, a huge golden halo made of flames formed a sigil that represented his status. The sigil looked like a depiction of the rising sun; it released an intense brilliance, making it difficult to look at the man directly.

This man is Cedric disguised as Derrek, and currently, he's once again facing the seemingly endless horde of undead creatures, yet none have managed to touch him so far.

He wasn't even doing anything other than standing there. He just released a fraction of his aspect's power, yet apparently, that's enough to make him untouchable.

Even a few rays of the sun released by the aspect were enough to dissolve the undead into nothingness. Even though a sea of undead consistently swarmed towards him, none were able to get close to him within a 10-mile radius. They're like moths entraced by the flames.

There's probably no other person who could replicate this kind of dominance in their Hell Dive aside from him, and he's facing a fairly challenging trial too. At least in his opinion, others would find it impossible, though.

"Saaaaaaaaggeeee...!"

Cedric, or Derrek, raised a brow after hearing that. He gazed at the location of the voice and sneered.

"Oh, look, there's a pervert," he spat in disdain. "What is it this time, hm?"

"Your death... is approaching." The voice sounded harrowing, and deliberately so.

"Really? I look forward to it," Derrek replied. "But honestly, that line is getting old and sad; can't you think of something else? Also, if you can, tell that Grim Reaper to hurry it up; I'd like to see it up close and personal."

Unfortunately, that's all there is to it. He had lost count of how many times they'd tried to scare him like this, yet nothing came after it.

"We know who you are..."

"Oh, shit! Really? What a coincidence! I know who I am too! Isn't that just great?" Derrek exclaimed with a deadpan expression.

"You will die!"

"Yaay!"

"We will kill you and everything you know and love."

"Oh no..."

"There's no hope for you, humans!"

"Uh huh."

This kind of bickering continued for a while, and Cedric remained unimpressed. These empty threats were meaningless to him. The blander his reactions were, the more frustrated the spies felt.

Yes, of course, it is inevitable that the Young Sage will get the attention of his enemies. Despite their bravado lies their insecurities. The Demon Race is wary of Sages due to their immense potential, and their wariness is at an all-time high because this generation's Sage just happens to harness something incredibly fatal to them—the power of the Sun.

The spies never intended to kill the Sage by using threats. Hell, if that happens, then this Sage was probably the worst one yet. No, they never expected to get any good results by scaring him, but at the very least, they want to scare and intimidate him, so much so that he'd lose composure once at least.

Yet even that proved to be challenging when faced with the Young Sun Sage.

Aside from his name, which they learned to be Derrek, and his status as Sun Sage, they've got nothing on him. Sure, they can probably gauge his age and so on, but physical appearances could be faked. They had no concrete leads to use against this person, and that's what really frustrated them.

The worst part is that the Sage himself knows that they had nothing on him, and that allows him to be smug and his insults to hurt even more. The Demon Race could only watch helplessly as the Young Sage becomes stronger and stronger with every appearance he makes; even then, they have no idea just how much he's hiding.

At some point, the bickering ended, and Derrek was once again bored. He thought about taking a nap right here and how to piss them off because he could, but he sensed something coming.

An amused expression appeared on his face as he said, "Oho? Well, well...look at this!"

He saw a giant clump of flesh amassing over at a distance. He felt the sharp fluctuations coming off of that thing and was genuinely surprised for once.

That clump of flesh turned into a giant zombie with rippling muscles and a dreadful aura. The moment it was born, it threw its head up into the skies and released an earth-shaking roar that shook the very earth beneath it.

"Mn! How lively!" Cedric commented as he stared at the giant zombie. "I didn't know that you guys think so highly of me. Sending a Demon Lord-level enemy to deal with me? My, I'm flattered, really."

Indeed, the Giant Zombie just now had the strength of a Demon Lord, which was equivalent to a Planar Traveler Human Expert.

"Be afraid, Sage!"

"The Demon Lord is here! Wash your neck!"

"You will die!"

"It's over. Hand over your life to us!"

"Kill the Sage!"

"Death to the Sage!"

The spies who're borrowing the bodies of the undead snarled and cursed him. They didn't stop; they continued berating him, but their voices fell into deaf ears.

They felt uneasy, especially when the Sage's expression didn't even change. They truly have no idea if he's bluffing or if he simply does not care at all.

Meanwhile, the giant zombie finished materializing completely. Its existence stabilized when it saw its target. It snorted harshly as it saw the smug human standing in one place. The Giant Zombie felt insulted to see the human not cowering before its presence, so it wasted no time teaching him a lesson.

The giant zombie was at least 20 meters tall. Its body was massive; it almost seemed like a moving mountain. Logically, something that huge shouldn't be able to move very fast, but this Demon Lord level undead defies that logic and traverses large distances within seconds.

...only to stop the moment it entered the 10-mile distance from its target.

The giant zombie flinched and retreated. It looked shocked and mildly horrified. It felt the scythe of death aimed at its neck just now, and it reacted instinctively.

It then looked down and saw one of its legs charred very badly. It was still smoking as it looked at it, and this was just from entering that zone, which barely lasted a second. If the giant zombie had stayed there longer, this leg might've been gone by now.

This sight silenced the spies and caused their expressions to turn ugly. To think that not even a demon lord could breach that zone was horrifying to them. It seems that they have every right to treat the Sun Sage as their mortal enemy.

Meanwhile, the Giant Zombie found this unacceptable. It was a Demon Lord; it was big, strong, and capable of crushing that flimsy human. How can it be scary? That said, the giant zombie was also smarter; it knew that it couldn't be reckless.

Therefore, instead of forcing its way in, it instead chose to grab a handful of its kind. It molded them into a ball like play dough and threw it towards him.

The Demon Lord's throw broke the sound barrier. As intimidating as that was, however, it was useless in the end.

It didn't matter how fast or how hard it threw balls of undead flesh towards the human; the moment the ball entered that forbidden 10-mile zone, they turned into wisps of smoke; none even made it close.

The Giant Zombie Demon Lord switched to throwing chunks of rock, but the outcome didn't change.

Derrek remained untouched and unfettered on his spot, still wearing that irritating smile on his face, much to his enemies' dismay. They truly couldn't do anything against him.

This fiasco lasted for quite some time before the sage grew bored of it. He then released a sigh and said,

"You know, for a Demon Lord, you are a very sad existence. I thought you'd at least make this a little bit exciting, but I guess I was wrong. You're just as weak as everyone else was."

The Sun Sage then pulled his sword out of the ground.

"I grow tired of this farce," he uttered with indifference. "Just as well, the allotted time was nearly over."

"Begone."

The Sun Sage slashed his sword. The attack was so fast that no one was able to react to it. They just felt their consciousness blurring, which was a sign that they had died.

This kind of strength was too horrifying. The sage was growing too fast, and the worst part is that they can't do anything to stifle his progress. They've got nothing on him.

The spies were helpless; they knew that they'd be blamed for this again, but unless they could invite a Demon King to descend to Purgatory (which was impossible), nothing could halt the Sage's growth.