Chapter 10: The Unseen Tide Turns
The death of the Behemoth was not a quiet event. Its demise sent a psychic shockwave through the demonic ranks, a ripple of pure fury from the entity that commanded them. The cautious fear Leo had cultivated was replaced by a directive of absolute, ravenous annihilation. The Reaper was no longer a ghost to be feared; he was a cancer to be cut out, no matter the cost.
A massive war party was assembled. Not a patrol, not a hunting pack. An army. Hundreds of Stalkers, scores of Brutes, and at its head, a new horror: a 'Dread Vizier', a gaunt, four-armed demon clad in tattered robes, its head a mass of writhing sensory tentacles. It was a commander, a creature of strategy and potent, focused dark magic.
Their orders were simple: find the Reaper, and scour the land until nothing remained.
Leo, recovering in his sanctum after his near-death metamorphosis, felt the shift immediately. His Echo-Location, now more sensitive than ever, picked up the coordinated movements. The discrete patrols were gone. Instead, he sensed a slow, grinding tide of malevolence spreading through the canyons, systematically sweeping the land. They were burning the fungal forests, collapsing caves, and leaving no stone unturned.
They were coming for him.
He couldn't fight an army head-on. Not yet. He became a phantom again, using his intimate knowledge of the terrain to stay one step ahead. He led them on a chase through the most treacherous parts of his map, using toxic vents and unstable rock formations to whittle down their numbers. But they were relentless. The Vizier's strategic mind countered his every move, herding him, tightening the noose.
The demons drove him eastward, away from the deeper Abyss and toward the foothills—the buffer zone between the Forbidden Zone and the human world.
It was there that the tide of demons met another force.
A human army.
Leo's Echo-Location painted the scene from his perch on a high ridge. A contingent of cultivators, perhaps two hundred strong, their Qi auras flaring in a disciplined formation of golds, blues, and greens. Banners of a soaring phoenix snapped in the toxic wind. They had come to staunch a demonic incursion, likely drawn by the unprecedented activity.
They were not prepared for an entire demonic legion.
The two forces collided below him in a cataclysm of light and darkness. Swords of condensed Qi met obsidian claws. Elemental techniques—fireballs and ice shards—exploded against the hardened hides of Brutes. It was a brutal, chaotic melee. The humans were skilled, their formations powerful, but they were outnumbered and being slowly overwhelmed by the sheer, mindless fury of the demonic horde. The Dread Vizier hung back, directing the assault with cold precision, its tentacles weaving spells that corroded human formations and bolstered demonic rage.
Leo watched from the shadows. This was not his fight. He could slip away now, while the two forces were locked in combat. The demons were distracted.
Then he saw the Vizier unleash a spell. A wave of black energy shot across the battlefield, and where it passed, human cultivators didn't just die; their life force was ripped out, their bodies turning to dust, their Qi siphoned to empower the demonic front lines. It was efficient. It was monstrous.
The soldier in him saw a high-value target. The Annihilator in him saw an immense EXP reward.
The human general, a man in brilliant golden armor wielding a spear that shone like the sun, saw his lines crumbling. He fought like a demon himself, but he was being pressed back, a Brute's axe shattering his golden shield.
Leo made his choice.
He didn't join the human army. He didn't charge their lines. He simply appeared.
One moment, the Dread Vizier was surveying its victory, confident and untouched at the rear. The next, a blind man with a staff materialized from the shadows behind it, moving with a silence that defied the battle's roar.
The Vizier's sensory tentacles twitched a second too late. Leo's staff struck, not at the body, but at the space around it, shattering a previously invisible protective ward with a sound like breaking glass.
The Vizier shrieked in surprise and whirled around, its tentacles lashing out with spells of paralyzing fear and soul-rending curses.
They washed over Leo. And did nothing.
[Demonic Curse Negated. High Vitality provides immunity.] [Psychic Attack Negated. Neural Fortitude (Intelligence 10) provides resistance.]
His stats, while seemingly low, were quality. His 10 Intelligence wasn't about knowledge; it was the System's optimization of his neural pathways, making his mind a fortress. The Vizier's greatest weapons were useless.
Panic truly set in for the demon commander. It tried to retreat, to call its guards. But Leo was already inside its guard. His staff became a blur, a whirlwind of precise, shattering strikes that broke arms, shattered tentacles, and crushed the Vizier's frail body. It was a clinical dismantling.
He ended it with a thrust through its chest, silencing its psychic screams forever.
[Defeated: Dread Vizier. EXP gained: 15,000.] [Title 'Demon's Annihilation' effect amplified. Demonic morale breaking.]
The effect on the battle was instantaneous. The demonic horde, its commander dead and its psychic link severed, faltered. The aura of predatory terror that Leo now radiated washed over them, and their coordinated assault dissolved into confusion and primal fear.
The human general saw his chance. "Now! Push them back! For the Phoenix Crest!" he roared, his voice filled with renewed hope.
The human cultivators, witnessing the impossible—a lone, blind man appearing from nowhere to single-handedly slay the demon commander—found a second wind. They surged forward.
Leo didn't stay to fight the rank-and-file. He became a reaper harvesting a field of fear. He moved through the disoriented demon army, his staff a instrument of absolute efficiency. He didn't fight; he executed. Every swing, every thrust netted him thousands of EXP. The numbers in his mind soared.
He allocated it all, pouring the torrent of experience into his attributes, driving them higher and higher toward the milestone he felt looming.
[Strength: 389 -> 400] [Dexterity: 385 -> 400] [Vitality: 392 -> 400] [Perception: 395 -> 400] [Intelligence: 390 -> 400]
As the last attribute ticked over to 400, the world stopped.
[ALL CORE ATTRIBUTES HAVE REACHED TIER 3 THRESHOLD.] [INITIATING SYSTEM-WIDE METAMORPHOSIS.]
It was not pain. It was an unraveling. Leo felt his very existence come apart at the seams. His body, his mind, his senses—everything dissolved into pure potential. For a timeless moment, he was nothing but data and will floating in a void.
And then he was rewoven.
He came back to himself on the battlefield, but the battlefield was different. He was more.
His Echo-Location was no longer a scan; it was a perfect, real-time, high-resolution tapestry of the entire world around him, extending for miles. He could see the individual pores on the face of the human general a hundred yards away. He could feel the flow of Qi through the cultivators, the ebb and flow of demonic energy. He could sense the latent minerals in the rock beneath his feet.
His body hummed with impossible power. His 400 Strength wasn't just a number; it was the absolute authority over kinetic force. His 400 Vitality was a boundless well of life, making him virtually unkillable by conventional means.
[Metamorphosis Complete. Host has evolved to 'Perfected Vessel' Stage 1.] [New System Functions Unlocked:]
· [Attribute Synergy]: Attributes now enhance each other. High Strength improves Dexterity's striking power. High Perception improves Intelligence's processing speed.
· [Combat Simulation Engine]: Can simulate battles against logged enemies with high accuracy.
· [Energy Perception]: Can now perceive and analyze all energy types, including Qi.
The battle was over. The demons were routed, fleeing back into the depths. The human cultivators were battered but victorious, staring at the lone, blind man standing amidst a mountain of dissolving demon corpses.
The golden-armored general approached cautiously, his sun-spear held low but ready. He removed his helmet, revealing a face lined with battle but sharp with intelligence and awe.
"I am General Kaelen of the Phoenix Crest Sect," he said, his voice respectful but wary. "We saw what you did. Who... what are you?"
Leo turned his head. Though blind, his new Energy Perception let him see the man's powerful, golden Qi core, bright and unwavering. He was strong. Honorable.