457 He was here, right?
The people in the sky, including the twin divine-rank demons, plummeted to the ground when a tremendous force descended on the planet.
Countless panicked cries echoed in the air as the land beneath them also started to crack. Then, spatial tunnels started forming in the air as violent currents surged out of them, sucking everything in their surroundings inside.
The dark sky soon turned murky with a mixture of purple and red hues that danced around like electricity. At that very moment, a colossal crack ripped through the sky, stretching wider and longer with lightning-fast speed.
Onicuss's eyes quivered as he instinctively knelt because the black five-petal flower engraved on the back of his hand had begun to react once more, urging him to bow in front of the powerful presence.
His strength felt insignificant as a cold and empty gaze, which sent shivers down his spine, bore down on his back.
He cursed at the twin demons as they started fleeing in different directions, along with many other divine-rank individuals. The gaze was so powerful that all those with strength lower than pseudo-divine lost consciousness under its influence.
If only someone looked up right now, they would have noticed the massive, obsidian eye with two purple slits in the middle peering out from the colossal crack.
The eye possessed an aura of detached indifference as it surveyed the planet, yet a ripple of disturbance traversed its vacant gaze when it couldn't find what it was searching for.
After a few seconds, which felt like an eternity to those under its gaze, the eye closed, and the crack began to mend itself. Onicuss breathed a sigh of relief as the gaze on his back faded and the countless spatial tunnels around him started disappearing one by one. But the shadow general's thundering heart nearly leaped out of his chest when he nervously glanced upward and saw a figure materializing in the sky, as the red and purple hues converged together.
Onicuss couldn't help but let out a hiccup at the sight, his body swaying as he fought to maintain his balance. Despite his restless heart, a complete figure materialized from the red and purple hues within seconds, dressed in a plain white shirt and dark trousers.
It was a young man, no older than twenty, with purple eyes and black hair. The man stared down at every person on the planet before fixing his empty gaze upon Onicuss, who scrambled to make sense of what the heck was happening.
His form disappeared, only to reappear before Onicuss in an instant. The shadow general bowed his head until it touched the ground to greet him, but the man appeared indifferent as his gaze swept across the desolate and ravaged terrain that surrounded them.
Onicuss whispered under his breath as he discreetly raised his head to gaze at the man opposite him.
"Mast...er?"
However, he soon realized that the person in front of him wasn't exactly the same he had met in the past.
More precisely, the man's appearance looked a little off because he seemed like just an ordinary human... only if one ignored his empty eyes.
Onicuss shut his eyes as a deep and resonant voice came out from the man's lips, and he strode forward in a particular direction where a tent had formed in the middle of a massive boulder.
"He was here, right?"
Onicuss had no idea what he heard because his head was a jumbled mess.
"Huh...?"
He cleared his mind of all unnecessary thoughts and tried to grasp the man's words. Yet, even after understanding them, he couldn't help but ponder over whom the man was referring to. However, when he raised his head and saw where the man was going, a sudden realization dawned on him. He stuttered as he hurriedly stood up and followed the man from a distance of one meter.
"Th...at human...?"
Onicuss held his breath with a pale expression when the man walking in front of him nodded.
'Wahhhh, but I killed that human!? Right now, I can't even sense his presence... Don't tell me... he is someone master knows...? No no no, I am dead if it's true!'
He screamed internally as he watched the man who waved his hand to clear the dust and bent down to inspect the tent on the boulder. Onicuss let out a frightened gasp when the pair of purple eyes turned around to gaze at him, and the man stood up.
"He was here, but I guess he escaped. I can't believe he risked his life and used the spatial tunnels that were created due to the presence of my original body. If he used the tunnel... he probably went to the no mana land."
Onicuss watched as one of the man's hands started fading into a red and purple hue, but it stabilized once again when the man blinked and glanced at his hand while speaking.
"What's your number?"
Onicuss answered with a barely audible voice, feeling aggrieved that his master didn't even know his name.
"5th..."
"So, you are the last one? I was wondering why you are so weak."
Onicuss felt his knees weaken as the man grabbed his shoulder and looked at him with a face that held little to no emotion.
"Increase your strength because you just made an enemy of my future friend. Just a few more years and he's going to become someone who will mercilessly kill everyone who ever dared to lay a finger on him."
Onicuss stuttered with a stunned and bewildered expression.
"... friend?"
Just when the hell did his master, the person he barely even saw twice in his life, have a friend?
'Wait, hold up, master said future friend... does that mean that silver-haired human is someone master's going to know in the future?'
Onicuss watched with a blank expression as the man began floating towards a round portal that materialized in the air.
"I shall take my leave and go meet him because my body is made of pure energy. It won't remain stable for long and will soon return to my original form."
The moment the man stepped into the portal and the portal vanished into thin air, Onicuss dropped to his knees and let out a sharp exhale to calm his heart. In just a day, he had experienced so much and his mind couldn't fully comprehend it, no matter how hard he tried. He quickly used the black five-petal flower engraved on the back of his hand to contact the other shadow generals.
"I need the inform them all, master... Azazeal has come out from his seclusion after all these years."
He lowered his voice as he mentioned the man's name, the one who didn't even bother to remember his name.