Being forced to stay in this cursed forest for a thousand beats, I've finally found a way to escape.
Staring at the blue-skinned, blue-haired demon in front of him, a cute smile appears on the face of the rabbit demon.
-flashback-
A thousand two hundred beats ago, on the seventh layer of the abyss, a 1-meter tall, rabbit demon entered Ishgrail city to escape from his pursuers.
After finally getting away, the rabbit demon wanders the city in hopes of finding a method of increasing his strength.
While exploring the city, with his amplified hearing, he heard rumors about a soul stone appearing several hundred kilometers away from the city.
With greed in his eyes along with the determination to become stronger, the rabbit demon leaves the city, rushing in the direction of the supposed stone.
Unbeknownst to him, tens of thousands of demons heard the same rumor. Each with their own unique method, arrives at the destination.
Countless demons surround a clearing where a huge azure rock floats a dozen meters off the ground. Standing amongst the demons, the rabbit demon casts a passionate gaze at the still-maturing soul stone whilst trying to think of a way to escape with the stone.
Soul stone, an object desired by all demons below the rank of demon general, is capable of pushing a demon directly into the demon general rank. Soul stones are made from the accumulation of remnant resentful wills of demons before they die.
Once a soul stone fully matures, its color changes to a blackish red and it shrinks to the size of a pebble.
While surrounding the stone, the demons refrain from getting into conflict with each other. They are all aware that the first to make a move will be collectively attacked by everyone.
As time continues to pass and the stone begins to shrink, all the demons start becoming restless. Fearing that someone will grab the stone whilst simultaneously afraid of making the first move. The tension quickly reaches a boiling point.
The rabbit demon, thinking this is his opportunity, uses his mental abilities to reduce the cautiousness and increase the anxiety of the nearby demons.
With his current level of power, he can only influence seven demons at most. But, that's more than enough.
Swoosh
As soon as the stone matures, the seven demons collectively jump towards it. With them taking the lead, like a spark in a dry forest, everyone immediately erupts into action.
A seven-meter-tall purple skeleton demon with a spiked-bone battle axe intercepts the closest demon.
Swish
the skeleton swings his axe at the head of the demon in front of him. The attacked demon raises both his scaly arms to block the attack.
Before the two demons could make contact. They were both split into two by a silver-winged red-eyed bear demon.
Fights continued around the soul stone. Every time a demon enters within half a kilometer radius of the stone, they are immediately killed by another demon.
Corpses continue to pile up, pools of blood litter the floor, decorating the ground in a myriad of colors.
The rabbit demon, hiding under the ground beneath the soul stone, waits patiently for an opportunity to strike. As he waits he suddenly hears muffled booming sounds beneath him.
With a bit of hesitation, the rabbit digs deeper, only to find himself suddenly falling into an underground cave.
Landing on his feet, he quickly looks around for another demon. Not finding anything, the rabbit's gaze becomes instantly attracted to a floating purple orb. The orb, about half a meter in diameter, levitates gently above an ancient-looking alter. Soft Booming sounds echo in the cave from the pulsing of the orb.
Staring intently, the rabbit finds the orb familiar, after a bit of thinking. The eyes of the rabbit widen in shock.
If a soul stone is born from the accumulation of remnant wills, then this orb, the jewel of essence, is made from the accumulation of complete souls.
Like a soul stone, the jewel of essence has the ability to promote a demon to a higher level, but unlike the stone, the jewel promotes directly into the demon lord realm.
A jewel of essence needs to collect around seven hundred billion souls of high-level demons or one million general-level souls.
Looking at the size of the orb it has already collected around 80% of the required amount.
With that idea, a shiver suddenly runs down the spine of the rabbit demon. This is a conspiracy, definitely a conspiracy. Again looking around, the rabbit demon was about to escape when he suddenly stopped.
Casting another gaze at the jewel, a sudden greedy impulse flashed in the rabbit's mind.
With a determined leap the rabbit reaches for the jewel, just as the rabbit's hands touch the jewel, the soft booms suddenly stop. The Jewel then becomes transparent and enters the body of the rabbit demon. And then…
Pain
A ridiculous amount of pain fills the rabbit's entire being.
"Bastard"
Following the disappearance of the Jewel came the shrill cry of a demon. Accompanying the cry was the pressure of a demon general. The demons fighting above suddenly stop. Even a demon that was chopped from the shoulder down, previously wailing in agony, suppressed its cry in fear.
The rabbit below, still enduring the pain and struggling to remain conscious. Gathers his remaining psychic power and sends it toward his teeth.
The demon's teeth suddenly begin to glow in a purple hue, illuminated by strange runic symbols carved on the back of the upper left tooth.
The glow then encompasses the entire demon and then…
Swoosh
The rabbit demon vanishes.
As soon as the rabbit disappears, a ghostly female ox demon charges into the cave in anger. The ox demon glares at the top of the altar where the jewel of essence was supposed to be, then scans the room with her spiritual will. Not finding anyone the demon lets out a morbid cry and charges to the surface, massacring the demons above to quell her anger.
-1st layer of the abyss-
The rabbit lay unconscious for around a hundred beats in a strange forest, a terrifying aura encompassed the rabbit causing nearby demons and strange abominations to not dare approach.
Waking up, the rabbit first looks around at the unfamiliar environment, then he inspects his body. Feeling the strength that's nearing a demon lord, along with with increased hight and changed appearance, a trace of excitement appears on the face of the rabbit, making it look even cuter. Then, the rabbit suddenly felt the weak corruption energy in the air, and the excitement vanished. A look of horror flashed In the eyes of the rabbit.
He is on the first layer of the abyss.
The rabbit was about to once again inject his teeth with psychic energy to escape while hoping he was not already being targeted by a demon king when he suddenly felt a bad premonition, perhaps he was not yet targeted and the demon kings didn't know he's on the first layer, but if he uses teleportation to leave, he will be definitely targeted.
Looking around at the strange environment, surrounded by grey ashy soil and the trees surrounding every direction in the distance, the demon suddenly came to an understanding.
When he arrived in the first layer, perhaps he was still a high-level demon so the demon kings weren't alerted. This place, if he's not wrong should be a cursed forest. A cursed location is a place that gives birth to strange phenomena every three beats.
The phenomena act like viruses and bacteria to the abyss, so the abyss naturally suppresses it by layering the location with a dome of suppression. Being within the dome, the phenomenon is unable to leave, and likewise the aura of a half demon-lord.
Surprised by his good luck, the rabbit realizes that as long as he doesn't leave the forest then he'll be safe. But this idea isn't sustainable. After three thousand beats the dome will collapse, eradicating the phenomenon along with everything within.
The good news is that phenomenons are easy for psychic demons to kill and aid in increasing their ability, but the bad news is the rabbit doesn't know how long till the next three thousandth beat.
He can only come up with a plan to make it out of the abyss
-flashback ends-
Now the final step of the plan
Take over the body of the demon in front of him…