Kai's fingers twitched as the Iron Wolf hunter reached down to grab him. The man's breath reeked of cheap ale and rotting meat, his grin revealing yellowed teeth.
"Sky-rats like you sell for good coin," the hunter sneered, his calloused fingers closing around Kai's wrist.
A mistake.
Kai's skin burned where the man touched him—not with pain, but with hunger. The God-Slaying Scrolls coiled inside his veins like a waking serpent.
"To kill a god… first become a demon."
The hunter yanked him up—
—and Kai struck.
His free hand clamped onto the man's forearm.
"Void Claw."
A whisper. A death sentence.
The hunter's grin froze.
Then—his veins turned black.
A choked gasp escaped his lips as the corruption spread, crawling up his arm like ink in water. His muscles twisted, his skin split, his blood boiled.
"W-What—?!"
Kai watched, cold and detached, as the hunter's arm ruptured, tendons snapping like overstretched bowstrings. The man screamed, collapsing into the sand, his body convulsing as the technique devoured him from within.
By the time the last shudder passed, only a husk remained.
Kai exhaled, his fingers still tingling with stolen energy.
"So this is the power of the Scrolls."
He flexed his hand. The hunter's lifeforce—crude and impure—had barely been a sip. But it was enough.
Enough to stand.
Enough to walk.
Enough to begin.
----------------------------------------------------
The Dead Star Wastes
The desert stretched endlessly, a graveyard of jagged obsidian spires and half-buried ruins. The air shimmered with cursed qi, thick enough to choke a normal man.
But Kai breathed it in.
His Void Maw churned, devouring the toxins, refining them into something usable. The Scrolls whispered in his mind, guiding him toward the nearest source of power—a crumbling tower in the distance, its black stones pulsing with residual demonic energy.
A good place to hide.
A better place to plan.
He took a step forward—
—and froze.
Footsteps.
Not one. Not two.
A pack.
From behind the dunes emerged four more Iron Wolf hunters, their axes glinting under the sickly green sun. The lead warrior, a scarred brute with a missing eye, took one look at the corpse at Kai's feet and roared.
"You DARE kill one of ours, maggot?!"
Kai tilted his head.
"More food."
-------------------------------------------------------
The Butchering
They attacked as one.
Axe blades whistled through the air, aiming to cleave him limb from limb.
Kai moved.
Not with grace. Not with skill.
But with brutal efficiency.
He sidestepped the first strike, his palm slamming into the warrior's ribs.
"Void Claw."
The man's chest caved in, his lungs shriveling like rotten fruit.
The second hunter swung—Kai caught his wrist and crushed it, the bones dissolving into blackened dust.
The third screamed, charging with wild fury. Kai ducked, his fingers brushing the man's throat.
"Die."
The hunter's neck collapsed inward, his scream cut short as his windpipe imploded.
The last one—the one-eyed leader—stumbled back, his face pale.
"D-Demon…!"
Kai stepped over the corpses, his silver hair streaked with blood.
"Worse."
His hand closed around the man's face.
"I'm the Demon Emperor's heir."
A pulse of dark energy—
—and the hunter's head burst like an overripe melon.
----------------------------------------------------------
What Comes Next
Kai stood amidst the carnage, his breaths steady, his mind clear.
The Scrolls hummed in approval.
"Good. But this is only the beginning."
He needed more. More power. More knowledge. More tools.
The tower awaited.
And beyond it—the Venom Blade Sect, where poison was art and betrayal was tradition.
A perfect place for a monster like him.