“So this is the demon continent?”

A man radiating golden light entered through what looked to be a crack in the mirror-like barrier. This rift in the demonic barrier quickly mended itself as if it was never there before.

‘Good… I can still feel the connection even with this barrier here.’

He had examined it beforehand, it seemed to only bounce the energies that were from this world. His soul energies were something slightly different, thanks to this and his connection to Beatrice he could be powered remotely.

On the other side were the whole group of dwarves, elves, and humans. They were all gathered together in the grand formation that he created. This formation was even absorbing the demonic fog that surrounded the forest along with any mana that came in contact with it. It then routed this energy towards Beatrice and Isabella that powered him.

‘They aren’t using their whole power now… but I’m already in the nascent soul stage…’

Zhang Dong picked up a larger rock and crushed it with his hand. He felt a lot stronger than he ever felt before since coming to this world. This was much closer to his original power level but was still somewhat behind.

‘Nascent soul early-stage… maybe slightly less.’

After stepping forward he felt that something was off with this place. The demonic energies weren’t all that strong. He expected to be attacked by armies of monsters that were waiting for his arrival but instead he was greeted with silence. When he spread his senses he could feel some monsters hiding but they wouldn’t even pose a serious threat to anyone above the core formation level.

‘Hm, what’s that?’

He suddenly felt the demonic energy spike higher when he examined further into this demonic continent. It seemed that the dark mana was gathering in one certain location. With this in mind, he headed forward, taking his time while going on foot. It didn’t seem that anyone had seen him entering this place, the demons might have actually not been as prepared as he might have thought.

After taking some quick strides forward he started examining his surroundings. He was in a dark forest, all of the light was coming from a large purple moon that was handing in the sky. There were no old texts describing the demonic continent, this barrier had been here for quite a bit and what was on the inside was long forgotten.

‘I guess that’s the spot?’

After taking out some kind of flesh-eating plant with a little lightning bolt he came out to a clearing. There in the distance, he saw it, a massive dark castle that stretched all the way up into the clouds.

It was dimly lit and there was only one path heading towards it. It wasn’t much of a castle beside a few towers here and there. The rest looked like it was carved out of the mountain it was on. Everything was spiked and there were some window openings that were glowing in purple.

When he focused on the path leading up to it he could see some monsters patrolling around. All of them had three eyes and their skin was dark crimson like the demons he met on the other side. These demons were much larger and clearly stronger though, none of them were there to hide their presence.

‘If I take the long path I’ll have to fight my way through all these demons…’

He felt that this was the way this place was structured. The heroes would probably need to fight their way up to the summit. From down below he could even see a large open balcony at the very top. It seemed to be the last level and probably where the demon king resided.

There were many aerial monsters flapping their wings around this castle. They were there to probably keep the hero party from using any flying artifacts to hasten the journey. Regretfully for the demons, they weren’t dealing with the hero party but a cultivator that had long since mastered the art of flight. A creature that required wigs to maneuver would be quite inferior to something like the flight technique that a nascent soul cultivator used.

‘I guess I’ll be skipping the tutorial…’

Before moving forward he used his connection to Beatrice to look at what was happening on the human side. There he could see the formation that they build working nicely. There didn’t seem that the demons had taken notice of any of this.

‘Beatrice, I will be advancing towards the Demon King’s fortress.’

‘Mr. Leigong… please be careful.’

‘Don’t worry, you just sit tight and don’t worry about anything. Leave this to this Grand Lightning Emperor!’

He could feel that Beatrice was acting strange lately. The closer they got to the endpoint the more gloomy she became. There had to be a proper reason for this but he wasn’t sure. His focus was on the task at hand, after the demon king was defeated they could always have a conversation about it.

‘Okay… let me try this the slow way this time around…’

While ducking behind one of the trees he activated his old disguise technique. His body got larger and lankier and his face and demeanor changed. In a matter of moments, he turned into a certain large vampire that he fought not so long ago. He chose this form as it did possess flight capabilities.

With his new disguise now on he took up into the air and headed towards the large gates. Thanks to it he was able to recreate the original demon’s blood energies. When the lesser demons looked his way they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, they even bowed after realizing that he was an Archdemon.

He used his flight to get over the massive gate that led towards this giant mountain-high castle. This wasn’t as much of an outlandish sight to him as he came from a world with much larger structures.

Behind this gate, he saw more red demons. Some of them were patrolling around but it didn’t seem that the defenses were taken that seriously. The protective walls didn’t have any lookouts nor any siege weapons. It didn’t seem that these demons were afraid of any counterattacks from the humans.

‘Strange… I expected a welcoming party. Do they not see the people of the races as any kind of threat? or is there something else going on here...’

It felt strange, all of the demon lords have been bested in battle by him but it didn’t look like the devils here cared that much. Most of these monsters looked bored out of their mind, most were even leaning up against walls and sleeping.

‘Does this have something to do with this world being similar to a game?’

If he looked at it from the perspective of this being a game-like world then it did make some sense. Unless the heroes entered the designated area the demons wouldn’t be ‘triggered’ to act. He was perfectly disguised as one of them so they weren't reacting to him much.

He looked up to the large balcony at the very top of this mountain-like castle. While floating up he was again ignored by the flying creatures that were here.

‘If this world is a game… what does that make my own…’

Zhang Dong started to slow mid-flight. The world he was inhabiting had similar issues to this one with the biggest difference being the genre. The people there mostly did act like their counterparts in the novels that he used to read.

Young Masters with no thought for others, their parents not even worried if their offspring offended some old monster that could flatten their whole clan with one snort. A strict power-based structure where the one on top was revered as a god.

While his thoughts were wandering towards these questions the face of his daughter and son appeared before him. His strange stressful feeling washed over his chest and took him over.

‘No… I must focus.’

He shook his head and pushed his concerns to the side. There was no time to have an existential crisis right before attacking the last boss. It was time to end this and go home, his family was waiting for him.

With a burst of speed, he propelled himself up. The other demons still didn’t pay attention so he was able to arrive right at the top. His foot touched the edge of the balcony and he was finally able to see what was behind it.

This balcony took out quite a bit of space, more than a football field. To the side, there seemed to be a staircase that headed down. This was probably how the heroes were supposed to climb up here without the ability to fly.

The ground was made from uniquely shaped slabs of obsidian. There was a certain path laid out before him from slightly lighter slabs pointing him forward. Many huge pillars of hard rock guided his gaze towards the throne composed of bones at the end.

‘Is that the Demon King?’

On this throne composed of human skulls and various other bones sat a man. His legs were spread apart and he had a bored look as he rested his head on his fist. The person sitting on it was fully hidden behind a dark and spiky set of armor. The only thing that made him look alive where the two purple glowing flames coming out of the helmet's eye sockets.

When Zhang Dong’s eyes met with this man he could feel a small amount of pressure but for just a moment. It was similar to his spiritual sense.

“Why have you come here, being from the astral realm?”

A strong demonic voice escaped from this being’s mouth which sent slight shivers down Zhang Dong’s spine. He had hoped his ruse would work for a bit longer until he was able to get closer for a fatal strike.

“I see, it won’t be that easy then…”

He didn’t stop while turning back into his original form. Bright light filled this dark world as his form was revealed. The Demon King that he was seeing before him that seemed bored straightened himself out while also covering his head.

“Wretched light…”

The demon stomped his foot on the ground which caused a strange dark barrier to appear around him. This barrier absorbed all of the holy light that Zhang Dong was giving off and somehow contained it.

“Begone from this world!”

The King let out a burst of demonic energy that headed his way. In retaliation, he did the same with his holy energies. The two opposing forces clashed with each other and canceled themselves out.

‘Beatrice get ready.’

Zhang Dong called out while charging forward, it seemed that this monster was indeed stronger than the Demon Lords he had battled. He knew that his opponent was still hiding some of his capabilities before he got serious he would go straight for the kill.

The Demon King reacted rather quickly. He grasped a large obsidian mace from the side and quickly delivered an attack. Zhang Dong’s sword collided with this mace, golden light washed over the darkness which tried to extinguish it. The two combatants found themselves being forced backward by the ensuing shockwave without a victor.

‘This might actually take a while…’

Zhang Dong looked at his hand that was slightly shaking. Some of the dark energies were wrapping around his sword of light even now.

Thank you for reading!

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