Defiance of the Fall

He was one of the few in the clan with a Rare class . Combined with his achievements in the Tower of Eternity his progress would outpace almost everyone in the Clan . Normally it would have been a cause for celebration , but for his branch it was a death sentence . But now he could finally grow into the limit and focus on his constitution . He grimaced at the fact that the human who snatched both the fruits now was gone .

Ogras could only hope that he could find the body and the Cosmic Bag as soon as the poison cleared out in the mountains . If the fruits were lost he would have to slowly cultivate his body until it evolved , and that would likely take years and years . And that would be the smallest of the losses from not getting the fruit .

He cursed himself for not simply snatching the bags when he had the chance up on the mountain . He was already stressed out from killing Rydel and subsequently killing himself , and he might have made an error in judgment . Ogras felt something dangerous in the human’s eyes and instead had opted to cajole the human into using the poison . Besides , if any straggler lived to tell the tale it would be clear that it wasn’t Ogras who did the deed , but the wretched human .

Soon he arrived at the area where the scouts found the human’s small camp . He activated Omniscient Eyes] and after walking around for a few hours he finally found the bubble of the illusion array . After testing it out he found it was a simple one-layer array , with no defensive or offensive options .

He entered and his eyes fell upon the base of operations of Clan Azh’Rezak’s nemesis . Even though things had turned out somewhat okay for him , Ogras couldn’t help but become pissed off at the sight . This human lived like some kind of animal in a dirty metal hovel and still had managed to bring about the downfall of their invasion?

There were scraps of items and rags strewn about the campsite and the domicile the native lived in was actually a large can . The can was dented and in disrepair , and there were even splotches of blood on it . As he walked inside it Ogras immediately was too depressed to continue the search , and quickly left the cage . To live like this and not go crazy must have required certain mental fortitude as Ogras was getting stressed out just thinking about spending the night in there .

There was another metal contraption in the camp and after going over it for some time Ogras realized that it was not another odd domicile , but rather a transportation device . It seemed like it was an extremely rudimentary version of the contraptions the Technocrats use to traverse the multi-verse .

He knew that some baby-planets had gone an impressive depths into what the Technocrats called the Dao of Technology . But of course , The Ruthless Heavens didn’t acknowledge that Dao , so most newly integrated worlds soon discarded it for the pursuit of the true Dao and to wield cosmic energy .

But this wasn’t why he was here . He quickly walked up to the large crystal , which should be the Nexus Node he read about . The City Lords in his own homeworld each had one as well , but they were fiercely guarded treasures , so he had never seen one before .

The missive stated that when the mission failed he and the other demons would be barred from attaining System-sanctioned properties and towns for roughly a decade , but he needed to make sure . If he could gain ownership of the crystal he would gain the tools to not only survive , but to thrive in this new world .

While they were on a desolate island he knew he wasn’t safe . The Ruthless Heavens wouldn’t allow the peace to continue forever and force some events into being . It thrived and existed for conflict after all .

He touched the Nexus Node , infusing it with his cosmic energy . But it was as though it hit a wall , and couldn’t enter the crystal . He bit his finger and dropped some blood on it , but it wasn’t absorbed , and only ran along its smooth surface . Ogras even brought up a small vial of blood and poured it on the crystal , but it didn’t have any effect as well . The vial contained blood from the human that scouts had collected in the mines , and Ogras thought it might be the key to gain access to the Town Shop-system .

Ogras sighed in disappointment . It seemed that he couldn’t integrate his town after all . They would have to do everything themselves . At least there were quite a few demons who stayed behind that would be useful in building up a sphere of influence , sanctioned or not by The Ruthless Heavens .

A movement in the distance immediately grabbed Ogras’ attention and he whirled around . His eyes widened as he saw the very same human that he met in the mountain valley . How the hell had he survived? Was he a walking behemoth that just couldn’t be killed?