Sovereign of the Karmic System

In their minds, after seeing a portal open in front of them and being dragged into it just to end up hundreds of kilometers away, there wasn’t much left for Hannah and their group to witness that could really leave them shocked.. But of course, they were wrong.

For the past couple of hours that they had spent following Daniel, they had seen him fly, create waves of flames and water, send lightning strikes out of the tip of his fingers, and even crash people to death by increasing the surrounding gravity by a hundredfold.

They were only able to observe as a being akin to a god, walked through their world as if it belonged to him.. as if a deity had descended their plane just to extirpate the apocalypse that had made humankind suffer for the past months.

Daniel had tried to explain to these people, who happened to be just a couple of years younger than he was, what cultivation was.. But the language barrier was preventing him from getting the point across. So he gave up in a matter of minutes, and decided to hang around them until he would finally be able to speak their language properly, and at the same time, look for the demon.

It was the middle of the night when the group had been stuck in the storage room of the grocery store, and now, a couple of hours later, the sun was about to rise. The season this planet was currently in was winter, so it was pretty cold outside.. Especially for people who had left their clothes behind before being teleported away.

Daniel had lived as a cultivator for about half his life now, and he had forgotten how hostile to human life, nature truly was. It was only after he had seen the group of six clatter their teeth and hug their own chests, that he remembered that they were still weak humans.. And while it wasn’t deadly cold outside, it was still enough to affect them.

"Here." he said after throwing a thick coat made of oddly colored pelts to each of them. These coats were expensive pieces of clothing made for merchants and other types of rich individuals, but by what Daniel had seen these kid wear, he was sure that they would not treat them for the expensive clothes that they were.

However, they would fit the purpose.

"Thanks.." muttered Hannah as she slowly slid her arms into the coat’s sleeves. She then slowed down her pace until she found herself once again in between her friends.

"What the hell, this guy can even create stuff.. I am starting to think that he really is God.." Whispered James while observing the coat, and trying to think if its patterns matched any type of civilization that had existed in his planet.

"You think that God.. The one and only God would descend to our city.. To help our sorry asses in this apocalypse? Cut it out, will you?" Responded George while looking at his own coat, and the strange inscriptions placed on the seam. These inscriptions were in the universal human language, and worked as an enchantment formation.

It was right after hearing the word ’one and only’ that Alex stopped in his track, forcing the rest of his group to stop as well, and turn to look at him.

"Why did you stop?" Asked Josh.

"He wasn’t alone. There were two more people with him.." he muttered in response before taking a slight pause, and adding "Do you think they are like him?"

"The guy with the mask, and the giant! I’ve seen them too.." said Felix after recalling the time when he had pulled alex away from the trio to get him away from the horde of dead ones that was following them.

Unable to stop stroking the incredibly soft fur of which the coat was made, Hannah became pensive for a few minutes. She was thinking about all of the crazy things she had seen, and how odd Daniel was. He couldn’t talk properly, and yet every time they spoke to him he would be better at it. His entire being was covered in mystery, and no matter how long she thought about it, she couldn’t think of a single way to explain him..

"We should simply ask him." She said while quickening her pace and approaching Daniel. "Are you God?" She asked without wasting any time.

Without even turning to look back at her, Daniel responded by saying "Cultivator."

"Cultivator? You mean like.. A farmer?" Asked George, which had followed Hannah right away.

"Different type.. Keep talking together." Responded Daniel in a dismissing tone.

He already knew that it would not be possible for them to understand what he meant, so he chose to make them keep talking to themselves. At least that would help him learn the language sooner.

The two took Daniel’s response as a request to not bother him with their questions, so they backed away, and went back to talk to the rest of the group.

-----

Southern pole.

In the southern pole of the planet was a massive land made out of ice and snow. This land and its surrounding seas were home to numerous animals, and it was mostly untouched by humans.

On a massive expanse of ice, which looked like a desert of white sand, two human-like beings were standing in place, and one of them was carrying a large bag. The two were talking while waiting for something to happen.

"What will the Demon lord do with him?" Asked the one that was carrying the bag.. a male demon with long bent horns, that went down the back of his head just like hair, and a robust built.

The being that was with him did not look like a demon at all. She had a long and thick tail that came out of her lower back, green reptilian eyes, and her body was covered in red scales. If Daniel and Aeron could have seen her, they would have sworn that she was a member of the Dragonkin Royal Family.

However, before she started talking, the scales fell off her skin, and her tail moved back into her body. The crown of horns went back into her head, and two short horns took their places. The shape of her eyes went back to the demonkin’s type, which was like that of humans, but that emanated a reddish and black smoke.

"I could care less about what your lord will do with him. Knowing your race.. He will probably become the fanciest pet of the entire Hell." Responded the demoness with an expressionless face, while brushing the most stubborn scales off her voluptuous body. "Or he will sell it to the Tamer."

The male demon narrowed his eyes in anger. Disrespecting a race’s demon lord was akin to disrespecting their entire race, and that had been enough of a reason to start many of the conflicts that had taken place in Hell, the dimension where demons had come from. However, his mission had been a complete success, and he was in high spirits.. so he decided to let it go.

"I am always impressed by the powers of you shapeshifters.. If I didn’t know you were one, I would have sworn that you were one of those stupid lizards." Said the demon as he moved the large bag on his other shoulder.

The demoness did not belonged to the Church of Damnation, but to a faction called Law of Mimicry. She had been hired as a mercenary by the demon lord of the Church of Damnation for the sole purpose of helping with the capture of whatever was in the bag.

The elite members of this faction were also known with the name of ’shapeshifters’, and their gifts allowed them to turn into any being which they had set their eyes on. This transformation was total, and would change the demon’s aspect, voice, and even smell.. Leaving nothing behind. The effectiveness of this ability was only based on how good the shapeshifter was in imitating the behaviour of the being they had become.

This ability was, however, not without flaws.

"It would have never worked if this one hadn’t spent thousands of years without meeting any other member of his kin." Said the demoness while looking at the empty space in front of them.

Before the male demon could respond, a crack in the ice formed in the ice right in front of them. This crack was only a few meters long, and yet, a reddish light shone from it.

After the appearance of this crack, the ground began to tremble with an increasing intensity.. Until finally, the two masses of ice that had parted by the crack moved away from one another. In between the masses of ice, was an endless flight of stairs that seemed to go down forever, and from which an indescribable warmth came out of.

The two demons did not go down that flight of stairs, and instead waited for something else to happen.

Luckily, they did not need to wait for long before a demon the size of a common adult human came out of this pathway to Hell, and approached the two. He was wearing elegant clothes, and had two white, and very short horns that came out of the top of his forehead.

The very moment this third demon appeared, the male demon dropped on his knees as a form of respect.. while the demoness stood as if nothing important was happening.

The third demon smiled at the demoness, then nodded at her in a polite greeting.. A greeting that the demoness reciprocated by scoffing at him, and turning away in disgust. The demon ignored this lack of respect, and turned to look at the kneeling demon. "How did it go?" He asked.

The demon dropped the bag he was still carrying in his shoulder in front of the shorter demon, and opened it. Inside this bag, was the sleeping figure of Xargy in his human form.

"It went exactly as planned. The dragon was intoxicated by the smell of female dragon in heath. He was too distracted by fighting his urges, and thinking whether there was something wrong with the situation he was in, to realize he was being put to sleep by the odorless sleep-inducing poison." Said the demon with satisfaction.

"You did well. When we go back, you can pick a galaxy to cultivate." responded the shorter demon before turning to look at the demoness, and adding "Please bring my Lord’s regards to Lady Night." He then turned to look back at the staircase, and left along with the larger male demon, and Xargy.. Leaving her alone in the snowy plane.

-----

Six hours had passed since the group had been stuck in the storage room of the grocery store, and in the part of the planet where Daniel and the others were, the sun had just risen.

The members of the group had had too much adrenaline running in their bodies to worry about sleeping, but that was not the case for their stomachs, which had started to grumble for the past hours.

Despite looking around Krera for six hours, Daniel hadn’t managed to find any sort of trace that could lead him to the sadist that had turned this world awry, so he decided to stop, and let the group that was accompanying him take a rest.

With a wave of his hand he took control over the materials of which the street was made of, and turned it into a small room of stone with no roof. In the middle of this room was a small patch of dirt, with dry wood that he had taken from the trees that were planted by the sides of the street, and from which he had removed most of the moisture.

He then sat in front of this campfire, and with a single look, he set it ablaze.

The group quickly understood that Daniel wanted to take a rest, so they sat around the fire in silence. All they had with them were a few fortune weapons which they had picked up during the past six hours, but no food. Everything they had had been left behind when they had been teleported there.

"We should go look for some food.." Said George while looking for a door out of this room, which was nowhere to be found.. leaving him with no choice but to ask Daniel to let them out, but before he could, he noticed that what looked like the leg of a dead animal had appeared in Daniel’s hands.

While they couldn’t recognize the animal from which this leg came from, that was not the most shocking part. What was truly shocking, was that the entire leg was about three meters in length, and weighted at least half a ton.

"Never mind.." he muttered while sitting back on the ground.

The group looked as Daniel effortlessly moved this leg above the fire, and began to wonder how long such a big piece of meat would take to fully cook.. But then, the fire became bigger and bigger, until it completely enveloped the leg.

Seconds later the fire retreated back to its original milder state, leaving the leg fully cooked.

"Eat." Said Daniel after putting the massive chunk of cooked meat on the side of the room.

The six of them stood up while keeping their mouths shut in order to avoid their drool from coming out of their mouths. They had spent months eating canned food, and roasted meat was something they had often fantasised eating while chatting before sleep.

While Alex began to cut chunks of meat with his machete, and most of the others waited for him to give them their portion, a fearful scream came from behind them. "WAHH!!"

When the five of them turned around, they saw Josh give his back to them.

"Where the hell did this kid come from?!" He shouted while pointing at the quiet figure of Virgil.