Rise of the Alchemy God

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Their ghastly bodies began to writhe, twisting as, one by one, they disintegrated, forming a black mist that started to drift toward the demon.

"Unlike you humans, with your fragile bodies of flesh and bone, ours are made of energy," said the demon as various trails of black smoke reached him, swirling around him fiercely.

"More precisely, negative spiritual energy, which you might know as demonic Qi.

No matter how much you destroy our bodies, you cannot eradicate demonic Qi," he continued as the ten figures completely disintegrated, and the black smoke they produced had nearly enveloped the demon, beginning to form a cocoon.

"We are creations of a single entity, and as such, we can separate into multiple individuals and rejoin into one whenever and wherever we wish," he said as the cocoon began to emit some energy fluctuations.

The emperor, sensing these fluctuations, realized that something ominous would happen if he allowed the other side to finish what it was doing.

With a final effort, he summoned his sword, now bearing several cracks running along its blade.

Clenching his teeth, he used the last remnants of spiritual energy within his body and concentrated it all into a single point, the blade of his sword.

It suddenly began to glow, and within seconds, it gained more and more energy, emitting at a certain point waves of power.

The emperor knew that after this strike, it would likely be the end for him, but at this point, he knew there was no salvation left for him.

He had already prepared himself to die when he set his plan in motion and activated the formation that brought all of them to this prison dimension.

He knew that once this was done, there would be no way back for him, but he had no fear of this.

He had already prepared his mind for all of this, and with no regrets, he decided to use himself as bait to lure the other side out of its lair.

At this point, he thought his plan had succeeded, and regardless of which of the two sides would win, he knew there would be no escape from here.

However, with this new turn of events, he felt that if he did not act now, everything he had done until now would have been rendered useless and in vain.

So, with the last strength remaining in his body, he positioned himself, and with all the force left in his arm, he launched the sword strike made of condensed Qi toward the cocoon.

The slash flew at a speed imperceptible to the eye and, in an instant, appeared in front of the cocoon, hitting it squarely.

Immediately, a powerful explosion formed, completely engulfing the pitch-black cocoon, and along with it, a radius of a kilometer around it.

Needless to say, the area could not withstand the attack, and another massive crater was created while the impact of the attack could still be felt.

Seeing this, Long Hao, noticing that the black cocoon was no longer there, almost let out a sigh of relief, while finally, his body, which could no longer support itself, gave way, and he collapsed, exhausted, onto the ground.

Just as he let out a weary sigh, preparing to spend the rest of his time in this desolate place, he suddenly felt an aura appear behind him, and before he could turn his head to see who it was, his body was pinned by a dark blade that pierced his abdomen and pinned him to the ground.

The blade in question was none other than his own sword, and attached to its hilt was his arm, which had been severed without him even noticing.

He felt an immense pain engulf his entire body, and while he held back any sound of agony, he tried to look at the direction from which the attack came.

Behind him, there currently stood a tall figure completely shrouded in dark mist, looking down at him with glassy eyes.

The figure in question was that of the demon, who, unlike before, now had twice its previous size, and even its body, once slender and resistant, had now been replaced by a more robust form, still covered in dark mist.

The undefined head of the demon, which previously had only two thin, long protrusions with a face barely bearing a pair of eyes and a mouth, had now also changed.

The demon's head had stretched backward, as if someone had pulled it to shape it that way, and on it could be seen the two protrusions that aligned parallel to its head.

The demon's face, already barely visible before, now presented only a sinister mix of something luminous contained within a dark mist that concealed its features.

The demon who before merely had an appearance that could make a normal person die on sight, now had an aura surrounding it that seemed to bring forth a strange sensation within him.

A sensation of chaos, impurity, and loss of control.

As he tried to resist the pain from the blade embedded in his chest that narrowly missed his heart, he heard the demon's voice resonate, even more distorted than before.

"Did you really think that with your pathetic strength alone you could corner me?" the demon said, making the blade lodged in the emperor's abdomen twist with its demonic Qi.

Argh.

The emperor felt a new wave of pain, even more intense, as he sensed the sword embedded in him shifting, damaging his organs even further.

"You humans tend to be overly complacent; did you truly think that this little scheme of yours would prevent me from leaving this place?" he said, showing a row of aligned, sharp teeth as an exaggeratedly wide grin appeared on his face.

He raised one of his long hands, and in its palm, a sphere as black as pitch began to condense.

The sphere started to spin slowly, and little by little, it began to pick up speed as the space around it seemed to distort gradually.

"Although it's surprising that someone from this continent managed to lay hands on a formation like this, in the end, your knowledge of it is limited only to its use," he said as the sphere gained more and more strength, now emitting thin bolts of lightning.

"Come, let me show you how I'll escape from here before killing you," he said as the sphere at this point had begun to float and gain momentum.

While the demon smiled at this sight, he didn't expect a figure to appear beside him, and suddenly a voice resounded near him.

"It seems you're not the only thing that has appeared here from the celestial plane."