The howl of victory from General Skarr had barely faded from the echoing canyon walls when the air shivered.

  It wasn't a natural wind. It was the displacement of space caused by two massive bodies moving too quickly.

  From the retreating smoke, two figures erupted. They didn't come from the front or behind; they came from above and below. They were capitalizing on the Skarr’s moment of triumph and weakness.

  The first attacker was a four armed Asura Demon. He fell from the sky like a meteor. In all four hands were heavy and serrated scimitars. He was a 2nd Stage Divine Transformation expert, his aura a blazing inferno of red war Qi.

  The second was a Serpent-Kin Demoness. She slithered out from a fissure in the earth. She was wielding twin daggers dripping with toxic slime.

  "Die, beast!"

  General Skarr was injured but tried to react. He spun his claws to meet the threats but he was too slow. His momentum was spent and his injuries too severe.

  SHING. SPLT.

  The Asura’s scimitars caught Skarr’s raised arms, chopping through the bone armor and biting deep into muscle. At the same moment, the Serpent-Kin drove her daggers into the back of Skarr’s knees.

  "Cowards!" Skarr roared while vomiting blood.

  He tried to activate his Law of Decay in a last attempt to self destruct and rot them where they stood but the Asura slammed all four hilts into Skarr’s temples simultaneously. The Hyena-Kin’s eyes rolled back. The Serpent-Kin wrapped her tail around his throat and squeezed.

  It was over in seconds.

  Before the other Generals of the Beast Army could even mobilize to save their vanguard commander, the Hyena’s head was separated from his shoulders.

  The Asura Demon held the severed head aloft. It was roaring at the stunned Beast Army. From glorious momentum to defeat in a matter of seconds.

  "SKARR IS DEAD! THE LEGION IS TOO STRONG FOR YOU RATS!"

  The battlefield instantly ignited into a chaotic brawl as the Legion forces pushed back against the beast army.

  "Kill them!" Gnash roared loudly. His fur bristling as he charged forward.

  "Hold formation!" Li Yu shouted quickly to his team. His voice cutting through the noise with a sharp infusion of Qi. "Don't break the line!"

  But it was too late. The bloodlust of the Demonic Realm was infectious. The mercenaries of the 42nd Company, seeing their General fall, didn't retreat in fear; they advanced in a frenzy of rage and greed. The entire army did in fact.

  "Idiots," Li Yu hissed.

  He spun his Star Crusher staff and knocked a leaping ghoul out of the air. He stepped sideways, avoiding a stray blast of fire and grabbed a Lizard-Kin from his unit by the collar. He dragged him back before he could be decapitated by a charging demon knight.

  "Stay close!" Li Yu ordered. He was doing his best to keep his team together but it was every person for themselves.

  They didn't listen. In the chaos of fighting, looting and bloodlust, discipline evaporated. A group of Minotaurs from his flank charged blindly into a trap of explosive talismans. A squad of Harpies from the rear guard dived too low and were shredded by enemy daggers and swords.

  Li Yu moved like a ghost in the machine. He wasn't fighting to win the war; he was fighting to keep his immediate vicinity clear. He utilized his Opalescent Qi in short efficient bursts. A punch that collapsed a lung, a staff strike that shattered a knee. He was an anchor in a storm but an anchor can only hold so much weight.

  By the time the remaining Beast Army Generals mobilized and drove the 7th Legion back for good, the damage was done. The generals from the beast army were too fierce and powerful. The Asura that had helped to kill Skarr earlier was killed but the Snake-kin successfully retreated.

  The enemy as a whole retreated, leaving thousands of corpses behind. Li Yu stood amidst the carnage and was leaning on his staff. He looked around at his unit.

  Of the hundred mercenaries he had started with, barely thirty remained. Gnash was panting and bleeding from a cut above his eye. He was holding a severed arm that wasn't his.

  "We... we held them, Captain," Gnash wheezed and was grinning through the pain.

  "We lost two-thirds of the team," Li Yu said coldly. "Because you all chased glory, no loot, instead of holding the line. We could have had less deaths."

  Gnash’s ears flattened. "It's war, Captain. Casualties happen. It just means more loot for us."

  Li Yu didn't argue with Gnash. He wasn’t really wrong but it definitely went against what Li Yu usually tried to do. He knew that in this realm, life was cheap. He looked out at the field. The fighting had stopped and was replaced by the frantic scurrying of looters.

  It was the law of the battlefield. The real reason so many had joined. The dead no longer needed their rings, their weapons, or their cores.

  The survivors cheered in victory and their fatigue was forgotten in the face of profit. They scattered like ants and began stripping the fallen bodies of the 7th Legion as well as the beast army.

  Li Yu walked among the dead as well. Morales did little to fill storage rings and empty bellies. He was picking up a few storage pouches or rings that looked promising. He found the body of the Asura Demon who had killed Skarr but his loot was long taken by the generals that killed him.

  'Decent haul,' Li Yu thought as he was scanning the contents of what he had looted so far. It wasn’t enough to make him happy but it was still better than nothing. 'Some high-grade ores, a few hundred demonic cores. Worth the effort.'

  He bent down to inspect a strange glowing dagger.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Thrum.

  The air went still. It wasn't the silence of a pause in battle. It was the silence of a predator entering a room. The hairs on the back of Li Yu’s neck stood up. His heart skipped a beat and then hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.

  He knew this feeling. He had felt it before when the hand reached for him. He had felt it at the Battered Coast when Balor descended.

  It was the pressure of a being that existed on a higher level of existence. A gravity that crushed the soul simply by being present.

  'Demon Lord or something just as scary.' Li Yu realized instantly.

  His instincts screamed. He had suffered from this too many times. Every cell in his body yelled one word: Run!

  He didn't hesitate. He didn't even think of anything else. Li Yu channeled his Qi and Void Stepped.

  He didn't just step into the First Layer; he punched through it and was aiming to put as much distance between him and Black Pass as physically possible in as little time as possible.

  He vanished and just a moment later.

  CRACK-BOOM.

  The sky above Black Pass turned black. It wasn't clouds. It was a palm.

  A hand made of condensed darkness and large enough to crush a mountain range. It was descending from the heavens. It didn't move fast; it didn't need to. It simply occupied all available space. The technique trapping everyone in place.

  The pressure arrived before the hand did.

  Thousands of mercenaries, beast and demon alike were frozen. Their knees buckled. Weaker cultivators exploded into mists of blood as their internal organs failed under the spiritual weight.

  "Who..." Gnash whispered as he looked up at the blotting out of the sun. He didn't get to finish the sentence. The palm landed.

  There was no sound of impact. The sound was too loud for ears to process. There was only a white flash of erasure, followed by a shockwave that scrubbed the canyon clean.

  Li Yu reappeared miles away on top of a jagged peak. He stumbled and vomited a mouthful of blood from the strain of the forced teleportation.

  He turned around. The Black Pass was gone.

  The narrow choke point, the towering obsidian cliffs, the thousands of troops looting the dead. Everything was gone.

  In their place was a perfect smooth crater shaped like a palm print. Smoke rose from the glassed earth. Hovering above the destruction was a figure.

  He was human-sized and wearing robes of simple grey cloth that fluttered in the wind. He had pale skin and long black hair. He didn't have horns or wings. He looked almost like a scholar.

  But the aura radiating from him twisted the light. The space around him screamed. It was Demon Lord Malos.

  'He wiped them out instantly.' Li Yu thought. 'Everything. Just... gone. Just like that.'

  Down in the crater, amidst the devastation, a single speck of golden light flickered. Malos drifted down and landed on the edge of the glassed earth. He looked at the speck with mild amusement.

  It was a barrier. A golden dome, cracked and fading, but still holding. Inside the dome knelt a woman.

  She was a Lion-Kin and was the leader of this army. While everyone thought they were following Korg, it was actually her in disguise. She had golden fur, a mane of braided hair and she was gripping a shattered talisman in her hands. She was bleeding from her eyes and ears. Her disguise was completely shattered. The only thing shielding her was the supreme treasure that had activated just in time.

  Warlord Lissandra. A daughter of one of the Beast Kings. The golden dome flickered and a projection materialized above it.

  It was the image of a massive, regal Lion man. He was wearing a crown of bone with jewels socketed in. His eyes burned with regal fury.

  "Malos!" The projection roared. The voice was faint but powerful. "You dare strike my daughter?"

  Malos tilted his head. He smiled. It was a gentle but terrifying smile.

  "I strike where I please, Leonard." Malos said softly.

  "This is a border skirmish!" The Beast King's projection bellowed. "Generals fight Generals. Warlords fight Warlords. Lords do not intervene in the dirt! You break the Pact!"

  "The Pact," Malos mused. He waved his hand and dismissed the concept like a bad smell. "I was bored. Your noise woke me up. I have always done what I liked."

  "You slaughtered ten thousand warriors!" The Beast King shouted. "This is an act against the agreed upon Pact! If you do not withdraw, the Beast Nations will march on the Infernal Court. We will burn your cities!"

  Malos laughed.

  "Burn them then," Malos said. "I don't care. I don't rule cities, little cat. I rule the chaos."

  He stepped closer to the golden dome.

  "You threaten me with war as if I fear it. I am war."

  The Beast King’s projection snarled. "Touch her and I will hunt you and your kind to the ends of the Dao. I will—"

  Malos flicked his finger.

  Pop.

  The projection shattered. The Beast King was silenced.

  Malos looked down at the trembling Lioness inside the cracked dome. Lissandra looked up at him and the terror was absolute. She could see that her father’s name meant nothing here. Malos raised his hand.

  But the blow didn't come. Malos lowered his hand. He chuckled.

  "Run along, kitten," Malos whispered.

  He turned his back on her.

  "Tell your father I said hello. Tell him if he wants to fight me, he can do so any time. Tell him I encourage him to attack the other Demonlords. This place has gotten too boring lately."

  Lissandra didn't wait for another word. She scrambled to her feet and flew away. She flew with the desperation of a survivor who has looked into the abyss and been ignored by it.

  Malos watched her go for a moment and then looked up at the sky. He stretched his arms as he was yawning.

  Then, he vanished.

  Just like that. No fanfare or any other actions. He simply stepped out of reality, leaving a crater of death and a single survivor to spread the horror.

  Li Yu remained on his peak for a long time. The sun began to set and was casting long shadows over the palm shaped crater.

  He watched as the vultures here began to circle. They were massive metallic birds with razor beaks. Other scavengers, including cultivators came to see if anything survived the Lord’s wrath.

  Only then did Li Yu move. He Void Stepped back to the edge of the crater. The heat was still intense. The ground was fused into condensed rock, metal and glass. There were no bodies. Just ash shadows burned into the floor.

  He walked to where the 42nd Company had been holding the line. There was nothing. No armor. No weapons. Just a smear of carbon.

  He felt a hollow ache in his chest. He hadn't loved these men. He barely knew them in fact. They were mercenaries that he happened to be on a team with. They had fought beside him though.

  And he had left them. He left everyone and in doing so was able to save his own life.

  "I couldn't save you," Li Yu whispered to the empty. "If I had stayed, I would just be another shadow on the glass."

  He knew he was right. Logic dictated his survival was paramount. Dying here, anonymously, crushed by a bored Demon Lord, would have been the ultimate waste.

  But logic didn't stop the cold feeling in his gut. He looked at the vast emptiness of the crater.

  'This realm is insane,' Li Yu thought. 'Generals die in ambushes. Demon Lords wipe out armies for no reason at all. There is no safety. There is only power. And the whims of those that have that power.'

  Li Yu reached into his storage ring and pulled out a bottle of strong wine he had bought back in his own world. He poured it onto the glass ground where his team had once stood.

  "Drink up," Li Yu said softly. "To the 42nd."

  He turned away. Other scavengers were arriving now. Goblin looters picking at the edges and fighting over scraps.

  Li Yu ignored them. He pulled his hood up. He needed to get stronger. He needed to reach a level where he wasn't the gnat. He needed to be the one who didn't have to run but got to make his own choices.

  He merged into the shadows and left the graveyard of the Black Pass behind him.