Reborn Financier-Chapter 36 - 35: The Demon God Awakens

The woods were quiet now. Unnaturally quiet.

There had stood a battlefield drenched in blood, darkened soil from the flames, and the remnants of magic too powerful that it was comprehensible to mortals. Charred trees were like specters to a combat that had shaken the earth to its very foundation.

And at the center of it all was Kaidën.

His breathing was steady, his daggers spinning idly in his hands. One glowed with a divine golden light, and the other pulsed with shadowy darkness--two things that shouldn’t be near each other and yet moved to him in perfect harmony.

Before him lay the unconscious body of the Demon Lord.

The demon wore a black robe that glistened with an unnatural sheen. the demon’s pale face was still contorted in disbelief. White hair, tangled with blood and filth, lay scattered around him upon broken earth. No tail, no horns—no monstrosity. He looked human. Too human. And yet his power had been terrifying.

Kaidën stared down at him, still in the position of one prepared to strike if necessary. But the blades descended slowly. He didn’t know why he’d let him be. There was no scheme, no mercy, no compassion. There was only a feeling.

****

One Hour Earlier

The trees still carried the stain of the commander’s blood. The woman who had summoned this monster into being had long since been burned to ash, consumed in the sacrifice ritual that brought the Demon Lord into the world. She’d wanted to summon a god of death.

Instead, she brought Kaidën’s warmup. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The air had twisted, and from the swirling rift in the sky came a figure that floated down with casual grace.

The Demon Lord stood tall over kaidën, his face pale with a deathlike pallor with no hint of anything demon-like except from the suffocating aura that came off him like a storm. His eyes raked the battlefield wondering what was happening until he found Kaidën.

"So... are you the person that chopped down my loyal servant."

Kaidën kept quiet. He stood there with arms crossed and face blank.

The Demon Lord smiled. "Silence? Fine. I’ll crush your spirit first, and only then you’ll beg to die."

The demon struck.

10% Power.

Kaidën sidestepped with complete ease, his posture all but relaxed. The demon’s claws ripped through air, cutting gouges into trees and rending the earth—but not Kaidën. The boy moved with flawless grace—meticulously choreographed, precise.

And Kaidën was precise and clean when he hit.

The Demon Lord was sent crashing through two trees with a punch to the stomach.

The demon appeared, laughing and with dark flames engulfing him.

You are more than your looks.

20% Power. Kaidën increase his power

On this occasion, Kaidën extensively employed his fists.

Every strike shattered the air. Shock waves ripped apart the earth. The demon’s body was tough but not impenetrable. Cracks formed upon his body with Kaidën delivering punishing blows to his ribs, to his neck, to his chest.

Still, however, the Demon Lord continued, constructing, in darkness, in turmoil.

30%.

Kaidën’s demeanor shifted. Light played off him, and a soft flame burned in his eyes. The earth itself, where he stood, pulsed.

The Demon Lord unleashed a column of dark energy that consumed the sky.

Kaidën emerged from the explosion, clothes burned but body unbroken. He didn’t say a word. His eyes told all.

40%.

He ran faster now.

His kicks hurled the Demon Lord flying through the air like a rag doll. Blood burst. Bones cracked. The demon tried to summon monsters using his dark magic, but Kaidën shattered the incantations with brute power and cut them apart like paper.

50%

The woods quieted.

And there was light—and darkness.

Kaidën drew his daggers.

One was forged of divine essence, bright and pure. The other hummed with a chilling void, as if it had devoured stars. When he held them together, the air around him distorted. Space bent.

The Demon Lord stumbled back. For the first time, his confidence faltered.

"What... are you?"

Kaidën didn’t answer. He disappeared.

In a blink, he was in front of the demon.

With a strong slash to his right upper limb, splashing blood everywhere and his limb falling off.

Follow was a mighty blow to the demon lord chest breaking his ribs.

The Demon Lord spat out blood, hardly able to respond. Every time he raised a limb, Kaidën broke it. Every time he tried to make a dash, Kaidën was there.

The blades sliced through the flesh, not just cutting, but rending apart the demon power within. Regeneration ended. His body fell inward upon itself.

"No. this can’t be."

"Thi... Can’....b"

The Demon Lord collapsed.

****

Two hours later

Far beneath the mortal realm, where time slithered like a wounded serpent and the sky bled violet, the Abyss groaned.

Their innermost recesses—ancient, long unused, and sealed away for millennia—began to stir. The Old Lords of Desolation, the Ancient Sorcerers, each in turn opened their eyes. Not a word did they utter. No word was necessary. The tension between them hung thick with foreboding.

All of them had sensed that.

A shock, no, a tremor, that ran through the web of spirits that spanned the planes. A pressure that was so massive that even seasoned demons bled at eyes and ears. A power that was not divine, yet not demonic... and both. And more.

A divine glory. concealed amidst darkness.

The climate in the Abyss was dissimilar. The rivers of flowing hatred shook with rage. Skies churned between the shades of red and black, trying to purge the aberration.

The First Demon Lord, a towering creature with skin like obsidian glass and eyes like dying stars, spoke slowly.

"He has returned..."

Another replied, voice laced with reverence and dread.

"No... not returned. This is not him. But it is... his echo."

"The Demon God...?"

The thousand demon voices chanted the title in chorus like a sacred imprecation.

In all of the Nine Abyssal Realms, the demon lords and their forces began to mobilize. The summoners were preparing forbidden rituals. Scryers were mapping the ley lines, hoping to determine where the catastrophic surge was coming from.

In all of the Nine Abyssal Realms, the demon lords and their forces began to mobilize. The summoners were preparing forbidden rituals. Scryers were mapping the ley lines, hoping to determine where the catastrophic surge was coming from.

And they discovered that.

A woodland. Earthly kingdom. Near the surface.

The strongest among them—commanders, devourers, demon generals—pierced the veil and crossed realms, descending upon the forest like shadows blotting out the moon.

They were prepared to battle. Prepared to confront the source. Prepared to see with their very eyes if the rumors were true. If the Demon God had been awakened to life... or if something worse had taken his place.

They arrived.

And found...

Nothing.

No enemy. No god. No army. Just the remnants of a battle far beyond mortal comprehension.

The trees were incinerated to charcoal gray, divided down their centers. The earth was ripped apart, like by divine monsters. Scorching furrows ripped the earth, and huge craters were excavated where power had erupted in miniature suns.

The air remained thick with lingering mana—suffocating, unstable, sacred and profane at the same time.

Ash fell, blending with the smell of burned blood and hot rock.

Both shocked and amazed, they walked in silence.

One of the lesser demons collapsed to the floor, shaking, mumbling under parched lips.

"It was... it was here. I can still feel it. The weight... The will..."

Another demon with six jagged horns snarled and struck him down.

"Fool. The one who did this... is gone. Do not worship what you cannot kill."

A general stepped forward, his wings coated in black flame. He placed his claw against the scorched earth, sensing the residual trace.

His tone was subdued.

He only used... half his strength."

They all turned to him, horrified.

"Half...?"

He nodded.

"The source. The anomaly. It wasn’t at full capacity."

A long, unbearable silence.

Then we prepare ourselves, a voice grumbled.

Another one said, "No. We must hide."

"We need the Council. We need the Ancients. If this was the Demon God, reborn in mortal flesh..."

".Then we are already too late."

They stood there, amidst the graveyard of giants and gods, with one thing certain to them:

Something had awakened.

And the balance of the realms had just shifted.

****

Back near the campfire, Kuro chomped on a still-sizzling hunk of grilled meat.

He’d felt it too. That brief explosion of power.

He too had felt it. That quick jolt of power.

"Hah, the young boy really has really grown"

He smiled, spreading grease over his claws, and pushed the next bite down his throat.

Not once did he worry.

For Kaidën was not merely powerful.

he was becoming something much more than this world. And everyone, man, demon, dragons or god, was going to discover it.

To be continued...

Chapter 36: Pawns and Goodbyes