The wave eventually ploughed past him, sinking back into the wider darkness behind him.

Qianye’s figure was relieved of its torment, bloodied, cut and cursed, with threads of darkness coursing through his body.

He had been forced to his knees once more, spilling blood stained in darkness onto the liquid floor beneath him.

Despite the great impact, he had not been sunken and drowned under it.

It supported him while drinking down the darkness.

And reduced to such a state, Qianye’s body quivered, grabbing for breath.

His mouth was slobbering blood, his eyes bled darkness stained red, and his figure was sheared as he supported himself with his hand over his thigh to rise.

And despite that, he laughed.

The sound gurgled through blood, breaking in his throat, as his legs straightened.

The darkness threading through him began to swiftly recede to nothing, reverting his flesh to its pale emaciated state.

The wounds over his body began to close, though the red lingered, and his head snapped up, daring a wide, barbaric, bloody mouthed grin at the glaring demoness.

His laughter grew, grumbling, then drumming through the darkness.

And his body though curtained in blood was now unblemished by darkness.

"Insolent boy!"

Right as he heard the demoness roar once more, that painful gong of her voice thundered through his body.

It snapped his mouth shut and his face grimaced sharply as his vision was wrenched, spinning wildly.

Suddenly, the demonesses foot rose, crashing down onto the darkness once more.

The stamp tremored through his body, sending waves of pain even through his bones.

His mind was twisted hard one way then the other and he had to catch himself from falling back down.

The darkness that the demoness had surged bubbled up throughout his surroundings, however this time it did not rise to become a giant wave.

Hundreds of demonic, dark figures took form, horned, thick or thin, both tall and short, and all entirely threatening.

They surged after him, roaring and thrashing amongst themselves with great malice.

Ouyang Qianye, barely as he readjusted himself, despite the pain, burst off of the ground.

The strength his body displayed was far from what a cripple should have; that invigorated, bloody figure of his threw itself into the throes of the dark, manifested demon horde.

His fist crashed against the clawing arm of a demon, shattering through the congealed darkness of it.

He spun on the ball of his foot, whipping a backhand that broke through the head of another.

Then right as one was moments from clawing through his chest, his free hand caught it, and he roared, pivoting hard as he threw it’s body across, breaking through the darkness of each figure within his immediate radius.

The dark arm of the demon tore off of its body, and the body itself was flung against one section, crashing through it with its large figure over two metres.

Qianye, before the darkness of the arm could lose its solidity and fall back into the dark, liquid ground, used the arm as a bat to kill another demon.

Then he jumped himself up high, clutching the head of one of the taller demons between his thighs and immediately throwing down his upper body, launching it across to break through a large section of the group as well.

All of these demons, whether they were taller or shorter than him, should have seemingly been stronger considering the thin and feeble look of his soul body.

In all their vicious looking forms, with those gutting claws and serrated maws, they should have themselves to be an insurmountable enemy for him.

However, through their carnage, none could match his strength and speed, the gory battle raging on.

But, with that said, it was not as if he had become an untouchable warlord.

Qianye did not at all kill through them unscathed.

He suffered through each pair of kills, being slashed through, kicked back so hard that his ribs caved inwards, puncturing his lungs, eaten through their maws, and held in the grasp of one where he had to endure through helping the demon tear off his arm so that he could escape.

However, even through this butchery, the thousands upon thousands of demons that he fought through wounded him only for him to heal, they severed an arm or leg only for him to use what remained to attack once more as the limb regenerated.

And not once did the great, titanic demoness herself approach to fight herself.

That malicious countenance only fell colder and more solemn with time, maintaining its distance as the darkness of the space her arrival had carved out to trap him was smeared with the red of his blood.

As the savage battle drew on, gradually, the dark space was filled by a thick mist.

The darkness beneath his feet was transforming to a lighter colour. Then, the expression of the demoness began to fall into a deep, aggressive frown.

Qianye did not know how much time passed as he fought on the waves of demon spawns.

He tore through with his nails and often, desperately with his teeth he would chew through them as they did him; he fought skilfully and wildly, and raged. It was a horrific time, laden with pain that only persisted.

He did not know how long his miraculous regeneration would hold up for. It was not as if it would be infinite, after all, it was a power that was drawing from something.

However, he did not allow himself to be hindered by the fear of it.

If he stopped, he would give the demoness what she wanted.

She would be able to take over his body if he allowed the slightest hesitation to creep in.

And so, he raged! Oh, how he raged so savagely!

Despite his great suffering, Qianye slaughtered without tiring, for the life of his soul!

And eventually, despite not all of the demons being killed—they had seemed endless by this point—the darkness shattered like the glass of a fractured mirror.

A sea of red bloomed, and the manifested darkness demons that had been running to continue their onslaught suddenly froze. The fragments of the broken dark space crumbled, and the demons began disintegrating.

At that same moment, Qianye had torn through the neck of one demon with his teeth, while the severed head of another was clutched in his hand.

The sharp cracking of the darkness snapped him out of his barbaric reverie as he landed back down, splashing over water without falling into it.

The red had parted itself for him, and he was standing over a luminous white sea.

His mouth spat out the lingering darkness within it, and the head in his clutch began disintegrating.

All around, the air was laden with a thick mist that barely allowed one to see much beyond red.

And yet Qianye found himself able to clearly see through it, and glare at the looming demoness standing silently scowling down at his blood draped figure grinning up at it.

His head was spinning; his soul body ached constantly with an agonising pain.

One of his arms had been severed and it was waterfalling blood, and there were severe claw gashes across the side of his torso.

And yet, he stared so triumphantly, with that same victorious, daring and bloody grin, at the great demoness towering above him.

"Is that all? I expected worse from a Demon Empress."