chapter3

  A violet light streaked through the vast universe with an extreme invasion and overwhelming havoc, shattering all meteorites crossed its path.  Eventually it landed on a planet; sandstorm and stardust filled the whole sky.

  “Vulthoom, you bitch! Get the hell up, little trash!” The violet light revealed a slender man named Shudde M’ell, an ancient demon twined by a gigantic squirmy worm, which occasionally opened its bestial, venom-dripping mouth. 

  Shudde waved his staff like a lunatic, bashing a few dents on the ground with deafening noises.  Then a curvy figure was forced to crawl out of a huge flower bud.

  “Ooohhhmmm.” The coquettish Vulthoom stretched and asked the angry Shudde with a smile, “what’s up Shudde?  Bad mood again?”

  “Dreg! You forgot Laplace asking us to devour the planet, didn’t you?” Shudde rolled his eyes, pacing back and forth and talking to himself like a jitterbug.   “Why do I have to stay with you bunch of low, trashy creatures!  WHYYYY!  I HATE IT!——”

  However, Shudde’s grumble came to a stop suddenly after his head was smashed to bits by a giant hammer.

  “Shut up, you’re annoying!  Haha!” A young boy Zhar jumped to the front of Shudde, howling with laughter.

  “Shudde sucks!  Hehe!” Coming was a young girl called Lloigor, jeering at the headless Shudde while clinging to her brother Zhar.  Off guard, yet the twins were choked off the ground by him.

  Weird rustles sounded from Shudde’s disfigured head; blood started churning and his head was re-formed in a second.

  “How dare you break my head I’m gonna skin you two bit by bit cut your fresh one by one and drink all your blood…” 

  As Shudde choked their necks harder, the twins could not help but groan with pain.  At the moment, someone put his “hand” on Shudde’s shoulder.

  That “hand” was made of stems and rusty metals; some parts had already withered with the stench of death.  Not only his hand, but the whole body was twisted, deformed.  He was North.

  Like no other, North was unable to perform a complete mimicry, for his overwhelming inner power of destruction would destroy the genetic sequence of that species instinctively in every mimicry, making him the unorthodox one.

  North was self-abased about it.  Every day he went through his self denial, eventually turning himself into a dark, restrained individual.  Expressing dissatisfaction with behavior was the best he could do, instead of voicing out.

  “Tut!  Stop looking at me with your dead eyes!” Shudde’s fury was not put out because of North, but added fuel to the flames, which made him glare at North.

  When the situation reached close to the critical point, a huge noise came out of someone’s stomach.

  “Oh, I’m starving.” Vulthoom did not really care about how everyone felt.  “Shudde, let’s hunt,” she touched her stomach to say with her eyes squinted.

  “But these two brats——”

  “They didn’t target your heart.  Come on, it was just a short pain.  Don’t be fussy.” Vulthoom licked her lips.  “We should get the mission done before Laplace comes back.”

  Dispeased, Shudde tossed the twins away and left alone.  Then Vulthoom, North, Zhar and Lloigor followed him to the destination.

  Triggering power, Vulthoom’s shoulder sprouted a large flower bud.  Then she plucked and planted it into the soil of the planet.  Stems grew and spread at high speed to all over the globe.

  North, Zhar and Lloigor split to look after the growing stems at different places, while Shudde and Vulthoom stayed to take care of the flower bud.

  “Ah, a taste of boredom again.” Vulthoom whispered disappointedly.

  “This dumb only cares about eating...Em?” Shudde felt something strange suddenly, so he pulled Vulthoom away from the bud at once.

  Bang!  A strong, aggressive power was cast onto the bud taking in the planet's energy, blasting it into dusk in a split second.  As the dust was dispersed, a group of shadows descended from the sky.

  “We’re the Eldus, species from the universe. Aliens, tell me why have you been consuming the vitality of the planets?” A man Saint stepped forward to question Shudde with sincerity and love.

  But Saint’s goodwill only got him an arrogant answer. “Ha, what’s the problem with it?  The weak is bound to be the stepping stone for the strong to build the future.” Shudde replied.

  “Meaning the strong can manipulate the destiny of the weak?”

  “Of course, this is my gospel.”

  “So you won’t stop anyways...” Saint closed his eyes and started to be serious.  “A pity. I really wish you could put away your own desires...To protect the future of the weak, we Eldus shall call you the enemies!”

  The declaration of Saint lit the fuse to trigger the first war between the ancient demons and the Eldus.

  At the moment, North, Zhar and Lloigor sensed something off and joined the battle.  At the beginning, both sides were restrained in order to test the strength of each other.  However, the situation began to turn later on——the Eldus led by Saint gained the upper hand.

  “Why are these bastards so powerful?  Nonono!  It’s because Laplace and Vorvadoss are not here.  That’s why we’re losing...Dammit dammit DAMMIT!” Shudde understood he was in trouble when dealing with Saint.  “I can’t.  I can’t die I ain’t no weakling…”

  Glancing at North fighting with the other Eldus, he wore a cunning smile. “YES.  Let the weak be the stepping stone of the strong.”

  To get himself out of Saint’s attacks, Shudde led Saint to North’s position on purpose.  Just as Saint struck again, Shudde used North as a shield to take the hit and sprinkled corrosive fluid to help escape.

  Not only Shudde, Vulthoom, Zhar and Lloigor could make it successfully, back to the base of their kind.

  Laplace and Vorvadoss have already returned after searching for the others.  Standing next to them was a young, pale boy with red eyes that Shudde had never seen before.

  “Why are you looking so embarrassed?” Laplace gazed at the bloodstained Shudde, who spilled the battle against the Eldus out angrily.

  “They are trying to stop us from engulfing the energy of the planet…” Laplace pondered for a moment and then wore an innocent smile, so pure that touched every single ancient demon present.

  “Interesting.  Let’s see what they can do to us.” Laplace looked around but found him absent.  “Where is North?”

  North had been with Laplace since the beginning.  He was special to Laplace. 

  “Eh...I don’t know.” Shudde did not dare to speak the truth.

  “I know I know!” Zhar raised his hand to answer excitedly, “North was taken by the Eldus.”

  Laplace put his smile away with an intimidating bloodlust.  Sensing the fury, Vorvadoss held Laplace’s hand, “don’t worry.  We’ll get him out.”

  “Are you joking?” The pale youth Rlim spoke with a smile, but his eyes delivered explicit disdain and contempt.  “He was taken because he is weak.  Why bother saving a weakling?”

  “Stay if you want.” Laplace’s glare had made Rlim put away his frivolous attitude.  “I’ll save North.”