Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 192

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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192
I yearned for greater speed, greater strength—the power to bring Gaff to his knees.
My arms and legs grew proportional in length, allowing me to run faster, while my armor thickened further.
The form that burned vividly in my memory materialized: a basilisk, a four-legged dragon.
Until now, I had resisted transforming into such a monstrous shape. I had wanted to preserve my human form as much as possible, but what meaning did weakness hold? If I could only be strong, then being human no longer mattered.
“Tch, have you abandoned your humanity entirely?”
Gaff compressed demonic energy into a colossal fist and drove my head into the ground.
The tremendous force was enough to bury my charging head into the earth. My body, still carrying the momentum of my charge, crumpled and was lifted, only for Gaff to slash across my back again.
I was sent flying backward by the impact. My bones shattered, but they mended instantly. I regained my footing and charged at Gaff once more.
It wasn’t enough. I needed more power. I had to grow stronger.
In response to my desire, a tail erupted from my body and slashed at Gaff with razor-sharp precision.
“A tail?! This bastard’s taken on the form of the Destruction God from his dreams?!”
Gaff cried out, dodging my tail.
Since achieving unity, my attacks had proven effective even against Morax. Now, having absorbed souls and grown stronger, Gaff was beneath my notice.
“Stop this!”
Gaff seized my tail and severed it at the base.
If one tail wasn’t enough, I would simply create more.
The severed tail regenerated, and additional tails sprouted forth.
My tails struck at Gaff from all directions. His unarmored body was damnably resilient—the tails couldn’t pierce through, only leaving shallow gashes.
If I couldn’t penetrate him, I would restrain him instead. I coiled my tails around the arms that blocked my assault.
I wanted to tear him apart. A ravenous hunger gnawed at me, as though my belly might split open.
“Roooaarrr!!!”
I opened my maw wide, attempting to devour not only Gaff but my own tails as well.
“This damned creature… I show mercy, and you crawl ever higher.”
Gaff seized my tail and hurled me backward.
“Lord Gaff! You mustn’t!”
Razgas cried out as she watched me plummet into the River of Souls.
My power was insufficient. My thirst for strength burned in my throat.
Then I would absorb more power. Rather than escape the river, I surrendered myself to its currents.
Sinking deeper and deeper, I devoured souls like a starving ghost, insatiable and ravenous.
* * *
“… Where am I?”
I regained consciousness in a forest beside the River of Souls.
The body that had transformed into something like the Destruction God from my dreams had reverted to human form.
“What happened?”
I had been struck by the waters of the River of Souls while protecting Razgas, and the corrupting essence of those souls had consumed my sense of self.
Rage and greed, gluttony and arrogance had wrapped around me, and in that moment, I felt no sense of wrongness whatsoever.
“Damn it… I came here to temper my soul, only to be consumed by it instead.”
They had said that absorbing souls would distort one’s original form, but something felt off. Now my body felt merely heavy, yet I sensed no corrupted thoughts, no twisted emotions.
“What is this?”
I pushed myself up. Unless I knew how to return from the Demon Realm to Earth, there was only one place to go.
“Gaff, hello.”
“H-hello? Hello? Did you just say hello?”
Gaff looked deeply displeased.
Before the throne, Razgas stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her head bowed. Watching the powerfully built demon succubus trembling, it seemed she had been in that position for quite some time.
“Hmm… How long was I out of it?”
“About half a day. But… hello?”
“No, I didn’t do it on purpose either!”
“I’m beginning to wonder if bringing you to the Demon Realm was a grave mistake. But why are you unharmed?”
“I don’t know, I just woke up like this?”
“You fell into the River of Corrupted Souls and your soul’s original form remained intact?”
Gaff approached me and examined me from every angle.
“You’re quite the peculiar one, truly.”
“W-wait a moment.”
Suddenly, my stomach lurched violently.
“Bleeegh!”
A thick, tar-black liquid poured endlessly from my mouth—far more than my stomach could possibly contain.
“Ugh!”
Gaff quickly retreated backward.
“You wretched human! All over my fortress!”
Even as he shouted, he kept his distance, unwilling to touch the filth.
“Cough… What… is this?”
After expelling everything, my heavy body felt light again.
“Did you… purify and absorb the soul? And expel the impurities?”
“How should I know? You’re the Demon King—you’re the expert on souls.”
“Talking to you makes me feel like my head will explode. Razgas.”
“Yes!”
Razgas, who had been bowing, sprang to her feet.
“Clean that up.”
“Yes!”
From bowing so long, her voluminous bangs had been flattened.
She quickly fetched a bucket and scooped up the filth.
“I’m sorry.”
“Please don’t worry about it. I’m alive thanks to you blocking the attack.”
When I tried to help, Razgas smiled gently and declined—an expression unbecoming of a demon.
Other demon servants entered and helped Razgas clean up the mess.
“Eat this and rest. I’ll call you when the next trial is prepared.”
Gaff tossed me a black orb that transformed into demon food, then left. Had this incident not occurred, I would have asked for the next task, but I held my tongue, burdened by my guilt.
* * *
Razgas invited me to dinner. Since Gaff didn’t attend, only she and I sat at the long table.
Demons sustain themselves primarily on demonic energy, treating meals as mere entertainment.
The problem was that what they enjoyed eating bore no resemblance to anything a human would consume.
Shattering the common sense that eyes came in pairs, dozens of tiny eyeballs clustered densely across some unidentifiable demonic creature now sat upon my plate.
Whether still alive or not, the countless eyes writhed and turned toward me.
“You’re not eating?”
Razgas elegantly carved out the creature’s eye with her blade.
“…I’ve lost my appetite. Razgas, please enjoy my portion as well.”
I couldn’t refuse without experiencing another culture first, but it was simply too revolting to stomach.
“I apologize for failing to prepare food to your taste.”
Razgas’s spirits visibly dampened.
I squeezed my eyes shut. For Razgas, who had guided me thus far, I carved out an eye.
Dark green liquid oozed forth, while the remaining eyes flushed crimson with blood vessels.
I placed the eye in my mouth.
Setting aside the bursting texture, I couldn’t discern whether it was hot or cold, and its stickiness resembled tar.
“Mm….”
After forcing it down, Razgas smiled gently.
“There’s plenty more—please, eat your fill and have seconds.”
Cold sweat beaded on my skin. Torture… No, after finishing the meal, I returned to the chamber they had prepared.
I lay on the bed but rose immediately—it was too uncomfortable. The bed was jagged and rigid, so uncomfortable for me; an ordinary person would have had holes pierced through their back.
Had I not seen the throne Gaff occupied, I would have thought this bizarre bed was meant to torment me.
Fortunately, before even a day had passed, Gaff summoned me again.
“About that chicken you killed.”
“…What about that chicken?”
Had they discovered what I’d secretly taken?
“It was definitely the work of those Heavenly Kingdom bastards.”
“The Heavenly Kingdom?”
“When I traced the purified land backward, it led to the Waterfall of Souls. They must have sent it down from the Heavenly Kingdom through the waterfall. Really, without even checking, it’s obvious no one else would send a sacred beast spreading light across the Demon Realm.”
Gaff ground his teeth.
“That waterfall connects all the way to the Heavenly Kingdom?”
“Both sides can traverse it. Though doing so means being tainted by the spiritual thoughts of souls and burned by opposing attributes.”
“….”
Demons are exposed to intense light, and celestials to intense darkness. Most demons would turn to ash in an instant. They clearly created that darkness-burning chicken and sent it—exploiting that very principle.
“What were they trying to accomplish?”
“To mock us, I suppose. Had it not been you, I would have dealt with it myself, though truthfully, given the attribute conflict, it would have been troublesome for me as well.”
“Hmm….”
I’d have to use this as leverage later.
“We cannot simply endure—the name of the Demon Realm’s king would be shamed. Bepar, you shall obey my command. This is your fourth trial. Exact vengeance upon those featherbrained fools of the Heavenly Kingdom.”
“Are you insane?”
“…Did you just call the Demon Realm’s king insane?”
“The Heavenly Kingdom means going where Metatron dwells, doesn’t it? Isn’t that suicide?”
“I’m not asking you to meet Metatron. All you need to do is place the jar I give you in the Heavenly Kingdom and leave. You don’t need to go deep inside.”
As Gaff flicked his hand, the Attendant brought a small jar on a tray-like object.
“If a demon carried this through, we’d all burn and the jar would shatter. But you use life force instead of demonic energy, so light attribute damage won’t affect you much, right? Just protect the jar with your aura, cross into the Heavenly Kingdom, and breathe life force into the jar. That’s it. Simple, isn’t it?”
“Life force instead of demonic energy?”
“It’s specially crafted for you, so life force will suffice.”
I couldn’t return without completing the task. With no right to refuse, I accepted the jar.
“Yes, you made the right choice.”
I wanted to punch that grinning face.
Gaff kindly guided me to the waterfall. Countless souls fell and flowed into the River of Souls.
“This is the center of the Demon Realm. When people die in the mortal world, their souls go to either the Heavenly Kingdom or the Demon Realm, so the passages are connected. That’s why you can swim upstream.”
Before, I would have been consumed by the souls’ obsessions, but after regaining my senses, I developed resistance to them. Now, even approaching the River of Souls didn’t repel me. Rather, it seemed like an opportunity.
“Well then, I’m going.”
“Safe travels~”
Gaff waved his hand with a grin.
Unwilling to look at Gaff’s irritating expression any longer, I turned away and threw myself into the waterfall.
As I entered the waterfall, I felt resistance, but as expected, I wasn’t consumed by the souls’ obsessions.
I considered absorbing more of the souls’ power, but I abandoned the idea, fearing the obsessions would seep in as well.
As I continued swimming upstream through the Waterfall of Souls, I reached a massive space where souls flowed in.
The souls pouring in chaotically separated like oil and water—light and darkness, ascending and descending.
The black souls descending were crushed, fallen souls, while those ascending were like white light. Their original forms weren’t preserved as they went to the Heavenly Kingdom.
Perhaps because so few people lived righteously, the white souls were far fewer than the corrupted ones.
I weaved through the gaps in the white souls and continued ascending.
The higher I climbed, the stronger the light enveloped me, and my body sizzled and burned. At this intensity, demons would naturally be consumed by flames.
The transformation effect of the black orb Gaff gave me burned away and disappeared, so my body’s burning also diminished.
Just as I was beginning to grow bored, I finally saw the end.
Tensed, I emerged from the opening.
I was anxious that angels might attack me to kill me, but fortunately, there was no angel guarding this opening.
The Demon Realm didn’t have much defense either, likely because almost nothing ever passed through in the first place.
Outside was what I could only describe as a heaven painted in a picture.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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