DEMON SUMMONER: DESCENDANT OF THE CELESTIAL SOVEREIGN

Chapter 4: Blood Contract

Pitch-black darkness swallowed Eka's vision. The smell of burning asphalt and the metallic scent of blood that had been soaking his nasal cavity vanished instantly. The roars of the Hellhound and Kuro-Oni disappeared without a trace. Silence took over.

Eka tried to take a breath. His lungs refused to work. The sensation of torn muscles in his arms and legs from forcing his E-Rank physical limits still felt very real. His cracked left shin forced Eka to fall to his knees on an unseen hard surface.

He coughed up saliva mixed with blood, hacking violently while clutching his chest that had been torn by the demon's scythe.

"What a pathetic sight for a mortal human possessing a divine bloodline."

The man's voice echoed from all directions. It was not loud, but its vibration made Eka's eardrums feel like they were being pierced by ice needles.

Eka lifted his head with great difficulty. A man in ancient, tattered cloth stood in front of him. The man looked to be in his early thirties. His face was very gaunt, highlighting sharp jawlines. But the most terrifying thing about the man was his eyes. Those eyes stared at Eka with a gaze as cold as ice, completely devoid of any human emotion.

The energy pressure from the man made Eka's breath catch again. This was not just the pure Qi pressure of a hunter or the killing aura of an A-Rank Demon. This was a gravitational burden pressing straight down into the depths of his soul. Eka felt as if all his internal organs were being crushed by an invisible giant hand.

"Who are you?" Eka's voice trembled softly. Fresh blood dripped from his injured chin.

The man stepped forward. His footsteps echoed in the void.

"My name is Sabeni. What you see is merely a fragment of my soul, residing in the God-Slaying Sword embedded near your dying body in the mortal dimension."

Eka gritted his teeth. He perfectly remembered the red light that smashed into the toll road right before his consciousness faded.

"Wait a minute. You said the mortal dimension?" Eka narrowed his eyes while looking at Sabeni. "You can stop time and create a dimension for us to talk?"

"Stopping time and inviting you for a quiet chat in this fragile mortal dimension is not difficult." Sabeni smirked cynically. "Your physical body is completely destroyed, kid. Your muscles are torn, the blood vessels in your eyes have burst, and your heart nearly exploded because you used speed and power that didn't belong to you. If time resumes, you will die in three breaths."

Eka stayed silent. That reality was true. He knew his body's limits. The wounds from the C-Rank Demon's weapon had already punctured his lungs.

"Then what do you want?" Eka replied. His tone was colored with pure frustration and despair. "You couldn't possibly be saving me out of pity."

A soft laugh escaped Sabeni's throat. The gaunt man crouched down, bringing his face level with Eka, who was still kneeling in agony.

"You're quite smart for a mortal ant," Sabeni said coldly. "That red sword planted next to your head is the God-Slaying Sword. My original body was frozen, and my soul was imprisoned inside that sword by the damn Bald Geezer sitting on the absolute throne of power."

Sabeni pointed directly at Eka's chest.

"I need energy to maintain my consciousness and unravel the seals on this sword. That energy can only be obtained from Spirit Runes."

Eka furrowed his brow, enduring the pain in his temples. "Spirit Runes?"

"Every time my sword kills a demon in this mortal world, they drop a soul essence crystal. You must use your body to kill them, absorb those Spirit Runes, and feed them to me."

Sabeni stood up slowly, looking Eka up and down as if staring at a piece of junk.

"In exchange, I will provide a fraction of my energy to heal your ruined body. I will ensure you stay alive, lend you my power, and become your mentor to slaughter the trash out there."

Eka spat out blood onto the floor of the dark dimension. His mind, accustomed to calculating quickly, began searching for the catch in this offer. This deal came too suddenly. The entity in front of him was a Demi-God existence far deadlier than all the demons on earth. Why would he bother negotiating with a half-dead E-Rank Hunter?

"You're lying." Eka stared straight into those ice-cold eyes. "If you're that strong, you could kill all the demons out there alone without having to ask me. Why do you need me? Why not find an A-Rank Hunter or an Astral Overlord in the Emperor's Domain to use as a vessel?"

The temperature inside the dimension suddenly plummeted. The air turned into invisible razors that sliced Eka's skin. Sabeni narrowed his eyes. Pure killing intent pressed down on Eka until the young man was forced flat on his stomach against the floor. Eka's spine creaked loudly, resisting the pressure trying to snap him in half.

"Do not test my patience, kid." Sabeni's voice was now full of menace, and killing aura seeped from his astral body. "My physical body is not here. I cannot touch the mortal world directly without a vessel. If you reject my offer this very second, I will let the hell hound out there chew off your head. After you die, I can easily find another corpse or a foolish human vessel to replace trash like you."

Eka groaned in pain. The pressure of the killing aura radiating from Sabeni made his kidneys feel like they were going to burst. He tried to lift his head, trying to find a lie on the gaunt man's face.

Sabeni was lying. The God-Slaying Sword was specifically designed by the Sky God to react only to his bloodline descendant, which was Eka. No other human in the mortal world could draw that sword from its scabbard. Sabeni was absolutely bound to Eka's existence. However, the misinformed Eka had no capacity to know that fact.

To Eka right now, Sabeni's threat was a death sentence.

Death. Eka was truly no longer afraid of death. He had already accepted it when he leaped to challenge hundreds of C-Rank Demons on the toll road alone. He intended to sacrifice his life so his family could escape and reach the Bogor camp.

But the memory from a few hours ago slammed back into his head brutally.

His father's body lunging forward. The sound of tearing flesh when his father's right arm was bitten off by the reptilian demon. The hot blood drenching his face. And the final message spoken by his father amidst the rain of volcanic ash.

"Go to the refugee camp in Bogor and make sure your mother survives."

Eka bit his lower lip so hard that blood seeped out. His mother was still over Sopian's shoulder. They were running through streets filled with bloodthirsty demons. Sopian was only a D-Rank Hunter. If the demon horde out there finished eating Eka's corpse, they would track Sopian and his mother's scent. The two of them would never make it to Bogor alive.

Eka realized one very bitter fact. Good intentions and self-sacrifice held no currency in this ruined world. The mortal world was now ruled by the cruelest law of the jungle. Justice belonged only to those who had the power to enforce it. Eka's naivety had killed his father. If he died here to defend his ego, his mother would only follow him to the grave in a far more gruesome manner.

He needed power. He didn't care if he had to sell his soul to a human worse than the demons of hell. Eka had to live to make sure his mother kept breathing.

Eka choked back a groan of pain in his throat. He supported his body with both elbows, forcing his joints to grind against each other. He knelt before Sabeni. Cold sweat mixed with blood dripped from his nose.

"I accept." Eka's voice cracked, but his tone lacked even a shred of hesitation. "Help me survive this damn apocalypse."

Sabeni grinned widely. The bone-crushing killing intent instantly vanished without a trace.

"A smart decision."

Sabeni raised his right hand. The air in front of Eka rippled softly. A solid object manifested from the darkness. It was an ancient artifact shaped like a dragon scale, roughly the size of an adult's palm. Its surface was extremely rough, sharp at the edges, and emitted a pulsating red light like a still-beating heart.

"Smear your blood on it. This blood contract will bind both of our destinies."

Eka stared at the artifact coldly. He extended his right hand, still bearing the torn wound from the demon's strike. He pressed his thumb hard against the sharpest edge of the dragon scale.

The skin of his thumb sliced open. Fresh blood dripped down, soaking the artifact's surface.

Within seconds, the dragon scale artifact hissed loudly. Eka's blood was completely absorbed into the artifact's pores without a trace left. An extreme wave of heat suddenly shot up from Eka's thumb, traveling rapidly like fire through the veins in his arm, then piercing straight into his heart. Eka clutched his chest. He coughed violently as a foreign energy forced its way into his nervous system, burning away the remnants of his weakness.

In front of him, Sabeni tilted his head. The man looked at Eka with satisfaction. A cruel laugh escaped Sabeni's lips, echoing and bouncing inside the pitch-black dimension of nothingness.

"Finally." Sabeni lowered his hand, glaring sharply into Eka's pupils, which were slowly changing color. "Wait and see, kid. Watch how the strongest Demi-God cleans up that trash for you."

Sabeni's physical form began to fade. He crumbled into particles of red light, preparing to return inside the God-Slaying Sword in the mortal world to host a bloody spectacle.

Before the strongest human entity completely vanished, Eka lifted his head. His eyes, red from burst blood vessels, stared straight at Sabeni's fading shadow. Eka had locked his humanity away at the very bottom of his soul. It was replaced by an empty void that would soon be filled by an ocean of blood.

"Sabeni," Eka called out. His voice no longer trembled. His tone was extremely cold, firm, and filled with pure hatred. "Kill them all."