Khaos froze for a second as he saw Ugrozad standing before him with his arms crossed. Ugrozad sneered at the masked man and commented. “Took you long enough.”

 

“How did you know I would appear here and not the front entrance?” Khaos asked as he tried to stall for time and slowly reach into his backpack for a mask.

 

“Would you be that dumb?” Ugrozad remarked as if he knew Khaos’s personality really well…and he did.

 

“True.” Khaos agreed as he gently pushed Lady Luck behind him.

 

“Oh ho? You ready for another beating?” The horned demon smirked as he started flexing his bulging muscles and cracking his knuckles.

 

Khaos whipped out a miniature mask and injected magic into it, enlarging it to its original size. The mask had the features of a powerful wolf. When Ugrozad saw this, he couldn’t help but sigh in disappointment. “Werewolf mask again? Don’t you have anything else?”

 

Khaos shook his head while he eyed the mask endearingly. This mask was the first mask he had ever created and it was the one that he had used the most during his adventures as an adventurer. “Werewolf is enough to take you down.”

 

“Hmph! I’ve beaten you once. What makes you think this time is different?”

 

“You’ll see.”

 

Khaos removed the plain mask from his face and placed the werewolf mask directly on his face. and immediately, the mask started to merge with his face. The masked man squirmed about as he felt his body contort and shape into that of a bestial monster.

 

“Oh, now that is different.” Ugrozad murmured. “Why didn’t you use that before?”

 

Yes…it was different. Initially, Khaos had worn the werewolf mask over his plain mask, which restricted the transformation process. And by doing so, the werewolf powers were halved. Now, he wore it directly. His capabilities were maxed.

 

Flowing like the wind, Khaos stepped towards the demon and appeared by his side without him noticing…or at least he thought the demon hadn’t noticed. Right as he was about to punch Ugrozad in the side to return the favor he had suffered earlier, the demon turned around and caught his fist.

 

With a playful swing, Ugrozad threw Khaos aside. Though the demon didn’t use too much force, Khaos still tumbled a bit before stopping on his knees. Khaos leaped to his feet and lunged with a fierce Dragon Leap.

 

However, before he landed, Ugrozad clotheslined the masked man and knocked him back. “Is this all you got? Disappointing!”

 

“Fine, you asked for it.” Khaos stood up and wiped some blood from the corners of his mouth.

 

The masked warrior gathered some Dragon Essence and unleashed a flurry of hand movements to manipulate the Dragon Essence into an eastern dragon-shaped aura avatar. Once the dragon avatar was formed, Khaos sent it flying towards the demon.

 

While the dragon kept the demon busy, Khaos activated OverLuck. With this ability, his luck skyrocketed. Everything would go his way regardless of anything. Unfortunately, this overpowered skill only lasted a minute.

 

With no time to waste, Khaos rushed towards Ugrozad undetected for some good old close combat. However, he won’t just be doing punches and kicks. Khaos intended to cripple the demon’s movements.

 

“Meridian Destruction Art!” Khaos growled as he pierced the demon with his toughened fingers, aiming at what he believed to be key points of the demon’s nervous system.

 

Now, generally, Khaos might have trouble since a demon’s physiology worked different from a human’s physiology. But with OverLuck in play, he did not have any worries. Luck would guide his fingers in the right direction.

 

Khaos thrust out and pierced at the demon’s lower back, feeling and hearing a boom. Ugrozad winced in pain when he finally noticed Khaos’s presence and tried to swat the menace away. However, that second of letting his guard down costed him greatly as the dragon avatar broke through his defenses and came crashing down on him.

 

“UWAAH!” Ugrozad screamed in agony as he was cratered by the raw power of the Dragon Essence.

 

Before the demon could gather his bearings, Khaos hopped back to a safe distance and started casting his bloodline ability. “Innate Phoenix Technique - Burning Meteor Strike!”

 

Khaos held up his open hand and aimed it at the sky. As the clouds swirled about, his arm began to shake uncontrollably, causing him to grip his arm with his other hand to stabilize it. Soon, a powerful, fiery meteor descended from the skies and made its way towards the dazed demon. Before Ugrozad could react, the meteor struck.

 

BOOM!

 

Defenseless and unable to escape, the demon took the brunt of the attack. His physical vessel shattered to pieces and his soul dispersed. But before the demon’s soul could fully disperse, Khaos reached out and forcibly grabbed a hold of the soul.

 

Ugrozad looked back at Khaos in surprise. “How can you still touch me? Are you a shaman?”

 

“No…I’m a Mask Maker.” Khaos smiled as he unleashed the Maker’s Domain, surrounding the space at a ten-meter radius around him and acquiring all authority over the domain.

 

With authority over the domain, Ugrozad could not move or leave the domain. Khaos released the soul and rummaged through the demon’s shattered corpse. Luckily, he found the demon’s magic core intact.

 

Khaos quickly pulled out a carving knife while his OverLuck was still in play and reshaped the magic core into a face mask, resembling that of a typical stone mask. Next, with an engraving knife, the Mask Maker marked the mask with ancient runes of binding and summoning.

 

Then, Khaos reached out and manipulated Ugrozad’s soul into a stream of Soul Essence. With a few expert flicks of his fingers, he filled the engraved runes with the Soul Essence. Next, Khaos splashed the mask with a few drops of liquid Dragon Essence to ensure the completion of the mask.

 

As soon as Khaos finished making the mask and deactivated his domain, his OverLuck ran out and the Mask Maker suffered a backlash known as Luck Strain where he would have a higher chance of suffering from bad luck than usual.

 

Khaos stored away the new mask and led Lady Luck away. They put quite a distance away from the archdemon’s castle, but Khaos kept having a sinking feeling that something was wrong.

 

Suddenly, he sensed an intense bloodlust directed at him from his right. Khaos turned around while pulling Lady Luck behind him and raised his other arm up to block the incoming blow.

 

CRACK!

 

Khaos spat out a mouthful of blood as he flew back from the attack, his arm dangling broken at the side. The archdemon was back!

 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Eblis snarled as he swung his broadsword at Khaos.

 

However, Lady Luck raised her hand and cried out for a miss. After regaining some of her magic, the goddess was able to deliver a spell of bad luck. The archdemon missed his swing, giving Khaos time to mentally call for Blackie – his trusted companion and mount.

 

In a matter of seconds, a firebird as dark as the night flew towards Khaos and Lady Luck. With one fell swoop, Blackie snatched up the duo and they speedily flew away. The archdemon tried to give chase, but Blackie could fly at the speed of light. Soon, the trio disappeared from sight.

 

Archdemon Eblis gave up after persistently following for nearly twenty minutes with no success. In frustration, he let loose a piercing howl that caused all animals in the vicinity to suffer massive headaches. Some weaker ones even had their heads exploded from the intense pressure.

 

The archdemon returned to the castle and found that the enemy army had already dispersed. While his army – or what’s left of it – picked and scavenged through the remains of the battle, Eblis headed to the throne room to think.

 

Soon, his trusted advisor – Kelgron – arrived to give him a brief report of what had happened while he was away.

 

“Milord, while you were away, we were attacked by that masked man and an army of flying monsters that we had never seen before.” Kelgron started with a bow.

 

“Never seen before? In this land or in this world?” Eblis interrupted when he heard this statement.

 

“In this world. I’ve checked with our intelligence from each country across the world. Nothing matched.” Kelgron explained as he proceeded with the report. “The man’s aim was the goddess at the farthest corner of the dungeon. We’ve suffered many casualties. Nearly half of our troops were killed in combat. Ugrozad tried to stop the masked man, but he was killed.”

 

“Was anything stolen? Besides the goddess?” Eblis mused over the report.

 

“None, your lordship.” Kelgron shook his head.

 

“Then, he came for the goddess. Or rather, the goddess must have called for him, which most likely meant that he was the goddess’s apostle.” Eblis concluded with a snap of his fingers. “But I’ve already killed off all of her apostles and followers…in this world. Hmm, that masked man must have been from another world!”

 

“Your eminence is most wise! What should we do next?” Kelgron praised.

 

“Summon the hellhound! No matter where or when they run off to, my hellhound will track them down!”

 

“At once, milord!”

 

*******

 

Blackie flew towards a giant tree deeply rooted on top of a tattered golden shrine and smoothly landed on a sturdy branch. Khaos and Lady Luck slid off of Blackie’s back and walked towards an inconspicuous hole in the tree.

 

The hole was about Khaos’s height and if one was to look into the hole, he or she could see the shimmering of a black portal. This was the connection…the doorway between Khaos’s world and the present world.

 

“Blackie! Has the army returned?” Khaos asked his friend about his army of flying monsters.

 

“They have. It’s just us now.” Blackie chirped with a grin.

 

“Good, then let us hurry as well.” Just as Khaos was about to take a step towards the portal, his werewolf mask snapped in half and he reverted to his human form. “That’s not a good sign.”

 

Khaos looked around and spotted something in the distance. “Incoming! Blackie, take Lady Luck and enter through the portal! Now!”

 

“What about you?” Blackie asked with a hint of worry.

 

“I’ll be fine. I’ll catch up to you later. Go!”

 

“Alright.”

 

Blackie shifted to human form and led Lady Luck through the portal. Meanwhile, Khaos focused on his hand and summoned a ball of dark flames. It was his Flames of Wrath. Anything that touched his dark flames would burn until nothing was left.

 

Looking at the hellhound in the distance with the army of monsters following close behind it, Khaos threw the fireball at the hellhound’s general area. Thinking that the fireball was just a regular spell with only a different color, the fiery hellhound charged right through. Or so it thought.

 

Before Eblis could warn the hellhound, the fireball struck the hellhound and spread across its body, burning all. The hellhound yelped with pain and tried rolling around to snuff out the flames, however, it was no use. The flames continued to burn despite the hellhound’s screams of misery. Soon, nothing was left.

 

The archdemon frowned at the lost of his hellhound. This animal was very hard to train. Not to mention, acquiring one nearly cost him an arm and a leg. Archdemon Eblis gritted his teeth and glared at the Mask Maker. With speed faster than sound, Eblis lunged at Khaos.

 

However, Khaos backed into the hole behind him and froze the entrance. Before Archdemon Eblis could break apart the wall of ice, Khaos disappeared into the portal. On the other side of the portal, Lady Luck closed it as soon as Khaos emerged.

 

“What about that archdemon?” Lady Luck asked. “He has the capability of summoning a portal.”

 

“No worries.” Khaos reassured the goddess. “Even if he does find our world, what’s to say he could get past our barriers. The barriers around Adventurer’s City are set up by high gods and high goddesses. A mere archdemon won’t be able to break through not to mention portal in. Don’t worry, Lady Luck. You’re safe here.”

 

“Okay. I hope so.”

 

*******

 

“Damn it!” Archdemon Eblis roared in anger and tore the giant tree in half.

 

“No worries, your lordship. I was able to trace their signal. I know roughly where they went.” Kelgron appeared by Eblis’s side with reassuring news.

 

“Well done, Kelgron! As expected of my left-hand man!” Eblis praised with a clap of his hands.

 

“I’m unworthy of your praise. This is only my duty to you.” Kelgron bowed deeply, but his face blushed with pleasure.

 

“Quickly, trace the signal. We leave as soon as the portal is up!”

 

“At once, your lordship!”

 

Though summoning portals wasn’t his specialty, as a professional strategist and ass-licker, Kelgron was quick to please. The horned demon approached the area where the portal was initially and started examining for traces of magic. As he moved his hands around, he soon found the leylines and started reconnecting them. In roughly a couple of minutes, an unstable portal appeared.

 

“Your lordship, it’s done! Quickly and enter. I cannot hold this up for long.”

 

“Wonderful work Kelgron!” Archdemon praised once more. He turned towards his army and rallied the doubtful troops. “Warriors! Follow me!”

 

Those three words dispelled any doubt from the army as they placed their utmost loyalty and respect for Archdemon Eblis. As soon as they saw him enter the portal, the warriors rushed in to follow. When Kelgron followed after the last of the troops, the portal collapsed on itself and exploded outwards, reducing everything within a kilometer radius to ash.

 

*******

 

Somewhere in a land far from Adventurer’s City, a bolt of lightning pierced through the skies and opened a tear in space. Thousands of demonic monsters emerged from the tear and rained down on the village below.

 

A powerful looking archdemon emerged from the portal with a bellow. “Khaos took what’s mine! Now you puny ants will suffer because of it! For every day you don’t return what’s mine, they will suffer each day with hardships and bad luck! Khaos! Do you hear me? KHAOS!!!”