The Return of the Demon Emperor

Karsu, the original version, quickly analyzed the situation and immediately recognized who stood before him. Yes, it was himself, but from the past, one year before "the return."

The embodiment gazed into the void and said, "So, what is this place, exactly? And who is this little wretch standing here?" He then looked a little longer, smiling a wide, mocking grin. "Heh, I described my past self as a wretch! How absurd!"

But Karsu interrupted coldly, "It seems I need to get rid of you in order to move past this... Still, this will be a difficult challenge. After all, he—no, I—am from the past, and his power is not mine. It's overwhelming, but it doesn't matter who he is now. I must eliminate him."

"Eliminate me...? Do you mean get rid of me, the Demon Emperor?!" shouted the embodiment, then added, his anger rising, "Oh, the arrogance, boy! I don't know who put me in this illusion, but I'll take their life for it!" He then looked at Karsu with eyes filled with murder and said, "I don't have time for nonsense. Let's finish this now."

The darkness split with a cold gleam, sparkling like a devilish grin before plunging into Karsu's body. It wasn't an ordinary sword strike but a wave of raw chaos that shredded his body like wet paper. He was cleaved in two in an instant, with no warning, no sound of movement. The lower half of his body fell like a chopped tree trunk, muscles twitching like a slaughtered snake, while blood poured out, forming a sticky pool that reflected the image of his upper torso swaying.

"Huh?! I didn't even see it coming!" The words came from Karsu's mouth in broken gasps, choking on crimson bubbles that boiled from his open throat. His eyes met his fallen half, where intestines dangled like a dead snake, intertwining with his shadow sprawling across the ground. He felt a cold gnawing at his bones—not the cold of death, but the cold of nothingness creeping from his torn belly toward his heart. He tried to move his hands, but they were stuck to the ground, soaked in his own blood. Even his screams became whispers, drowned by the whistling wind in the void.

And just before he lost consciousness, he saw his face emerge from the darkness like an embodied nightmare, grinning without teeth, crushing Karsu's shattered skull underfoot, turning it into a mist of bones, blood, and hair beneath the light.

Later, in an atmosphere thick with dread, the embodiment (the Demon Emperor) awaited his return to the forest or at least the transition to the next stage, if one existed. But nothing happened. After a long wait, he said to himself, "Hmm, it seems this trial doesn't rely on eliminating my past self... Well, as evident, there was no real competition. It would have been strange if the trial ended here. It seems more like a mental puzzle than a physical challenge."

He then began to walk through the void, trying to sense any presence, but found nothing. After reflecting on what had happened, he said, "I don't think I was like this in the past… Or perhaps that was an embodiment of me in a parallel world? Something like that. I remember being thin and weak at that age."

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a killing intent approaching rapidly. He turned to see Karsu, the one he had just killed, returning to attack. But this time, he was surrounded by a strange aura, one the embodiment had never felt at that point in his life. Thus, in a quick deduction, he confirmed his previous theory: this person (Karsu) was indeed himself, but from a parallel dimension, where he had evolved faster than he had.

Yet, despite the sudden attack, the embodiment simply waved his hand, releasing a burst of compressed air. The air exploded like a storm of invisible blades, unseen but felt as scratches of a thousand demons on Karsu's skin. It wasn't just tearing his body apart; it was a methodical grinding of his organs, as though his body was being passed through a cosmic grinder. His ribs turned to bone dust, and his eyes exploded under the atmospheric pressure like poisoned grapes, while his tongue tasted his shattered skull as his teeth were ground to dust. There was no body left to speak of, only a lump of mashed flesh and pulverized bones, resembling red dough suffocating the earth beneath it, with warm fumes rising from it, mingling the smell of stomach acid and iron with fear.

The pain... was unbearable. It felt like needles soaked in burning coals piercing every cell of his being, or like invisible hands tearing the fibers of his soul one by one. Yet, he clung to the last shard of consciousness, like a drowning man gasping for breath in a sea of acid. "I'm so weak!" The thought shot through the remains of his hanging brain, as he tried to piece together the scattered shards of his memory. A fleeting glance at his exposed nerve roots, tangled with the remains of his intestines, revealed the truth: "He killed me twice in less than a minute!"

But even his internal screams seemed decayed. He could feel a shadow devouring the edges of his consciousness, not a body, but an unrelenting force, like black gravity swallowing his existence, one atom at a time. He tried to think of a plan, but his thoughts leaked from the cracks of his broken skull, leaving behind one final tremor... Every cell inside him screamed, "The void is coming," as darkness gnawed away at the last remnants of "Karsu," like worms consuming a rotting corpse.

...

The embodiment then noticed the first body he had severed vanish, and immediately after, he looked at the second body to find it had disappeared as well, leaving only the guts and blood behind. He quickly concluded that Karsu would return again.

He screamed in anger, "What a curse! I'm the Demon Emperor, unable to escape a mental trick?!"

Karsu interrupted him and stood firm in the middle of the dark void, where only the echo of his cold breath rose like mist in a lifeless world. His torn guts and scattered blood floated around him, twisting like ghosts in an endless space. Slowly, he raised his head, his cold eyes glowing faintly like a dying star. His lips moved slowly, as if each word he spoke carried the weight of a dead world.

"Ah, Demon Emperor..." his voice started as a whisper from the depths of darkness, then rose to become thunder that shook the void itself. "Do you think you're the first to try and conquer me?" He slowly drew his sword, the blood on it splattering into the void like droplets of darkness. "You've torn me apart before, and I've seen my guts scattered in this emptiness... But I'm still here."

He took one step forward toward the Emperor, as though crossing realms. "You think death is the end..." he said, running his fingers along the blade of his sword, where the blood stuck like an unforgettable memory. "But I've learned that death is just the beginning of endless suffering."

He stood directly in front of the Emperor, his eyes staring mercilessly into his enemy's eyes. "Even if you tear me apart a thousand times..." he whispered in a hollow voice that resonated with the echoes of dead worlds. "I will return from the darkness of oblivion because I know even oblivion cannot end my will."

He raised his sword slowly, as though carrying the weight of the universe itself. "You are the strongest I've seen, the fiercest warrior..." he said, pointing the sword at the Emperor. "But I know you are only defeated by yourself."

He paused for a moment, then slowly turned his back, as if daring the Emperor to strike him from behind. "All I need is one moment..." he said, looking at the infinite void. "One moment to show you that you are but a fleeting shadow in the face of an eternal darkness with no depth."

He slowly turned his head to look at the Emperor again, his eyes glowing with a dark light. "I know I face death..." he said in a calm voice carrying an unconquerable strength. "But I also know that death is not the end."

He took one final step toward the Emperor. "You think you are invincible..." he whispered, raising his sword toward the Emperor. "But I know I do not break."

Then, he released a cold laugh that echoed through the void like the sound of the end of the world. "Let our battle be a lesson to the world: true strength is not in the sword that cuts, but in the will that does not break."

The Demon Emperor looked at him with disdain, as though gazing at something beneath notice. "How ridiculous, this child challenges me!" he said with a voice full of contempt, then slowly raised his index finger, as if playing with his prey before ending it.

From the tip of his finger, a small flame emerged, twisting like a hungry serpent. The Emperor looked at it with a playful smile, then raised his hand slowly as if showing off his power. In an instant, the flame grew into a giant, reaching thousands of meters in height, burning with a fierce red flame that absorbed the light around it.

"Look at the power of the one you challenge..." the Emperor whispered as he launched the flame directly at Karsu, who stood firm, as though knowing he couldn't escape.

The massive flame engulfed Karsu in an instant, turning his body to ash that scattered in the void. Karsu melted in the worst possible pain, feeling his skin and bones turn to ash before dying. His final scream echoed through the void like the sound of a wandering soul and the fiery explosion turning everything into nothing.

After the great explosion, the Devil Emperor stood in the midst of the void, where nothing remained but scattered ashes and blood. He gazed at the spot where Karsu had been, and a smile spread across his face, his eyes gleaming with delight. "So, all I have to do is make you feel the worst and most dreadful pain possible. Simple."

He then slowly turned his back, as if he knew the battle had come to an end…