Chapter 2: Rebirth

Demon God Azaroth, these words struck fear into the hearts of all individuals regardless of their race.

The masses didn't know that the Demon God Azaroth was a transmigrator who had come from planet Earth. For some reason, he never forgot the memories of his former planet and retained his intellect.

Millions of years ago, Demon God Azaroth had gone on to battle against 3 Demonic Gods and 2 Gods. That battle nearly destroyed half of Purgatory and ended with 3 Demon Gods and 2 Gods corpses.

However, the Demon God Azaroth was significantly injured, and he disappeared before his body gave in to his injuries. It was unknown where he had gone, but all the races let out a relieved breath as they knew that the Demon God Azaroth wouldn't be able to survive due to the Holy Curse that had struck him.

They were right. Even Demon God Azaroth's Body couldn't survive the Holy Curse. He was merely delaying his death and remaining alive because of his impressive willpower.

Before dying, he decided to sacrifice his body and preserve his soul. At the end of his life, Demon God Azaroth created a Totem where he hibernated his soul and stored all of his remaining Demon Energy.

He had chosen a perilous forest on the Frascoia Continent and created the Totem in his hideout there.

He hibernated his soul to preserve its strength. Because of losing his body, his soul would be fragile. He wasn't sure when his soul would regain its strength, but he guessed that it would take nearly hundreds or thousands of years before his soul would regain consciousness.

And now… Nearly millions of years had passed, and Azaroth's slumbering soul had already awoken and took over the body of a young noble named Edwin Rhodes.

~~

"Edwin Rhodes… He led a remarkable life until now." A voice left the throat of the guy with the same face as that of Edwin Rhodes. The voice was similar to before, but it seemed as if the person was speaking in amusement.

"His memories will be helpful to know this era. But still, I never expected millions of years have passed since my' death'"

The words were naturally spoken by the former 'Demon God' Azaroth.

"His Spirit was rather strong for just a 2 Star Hunter. It was such a trouble to destroy his consciousness and fuse with the remnants of his soul."

As Azaroth thought of how even Edwin could reach his cave, he let out a sigh.

"How interesting that the forbidden forest I chose for my Totem has already downgraded into such a weak forest in these years. Well, it's also better for me. If this Totem was discovered by even the lowest level of Angel, I would have been purged."

He more or less understood the era because he had read Edwin's memories.

Unlike his time when the humans were weak, and no human had reached the 8 Star Rank and had to be dependent on Celestials to even prevent themselves from becoming the demons' food, they had now reached an impressive level. Right now, they also held a 9 Star Rank existence, which could be considered equal to a Demon Venerable.

An existence almost equal to a Demon Venerable was the only one greater than Azaroth during his peak time.

"But still, this is interesting. The humans will actually fight back and maybe allow me to enjoy myself." A smile broke out on Azaroth's face as he turned his head towards the Demonic Totem.

"Now… Time to accept my powers." He raised his hands, and the Blue Ardor shone on his palm. Unlike the time when Edwin used this Blue Ardor, the size was nearly twice before even though the Ardor used was almost the same quantity.

The credit for this could only be given to Azaroth's superior control. Even though he hadn't ever controlled the Ardor with a human's attributes, his control over the Demonic Energy was significantly impressive.

The Totem that Azaroth had left behind slightly shook. Suddenly, dark energy started to overflow from it.

Azaroth nodded slightly as he noted that nearly half of the Demonic Energy he left behind had remained intact. This was good.

'I can probably reach the Demon Lord or perhaps a Demon King level straight away. Haha…'

The Demonic Energy was tied to Azaroth's Soul. Azaroth could control it with the slightest effort.

The Demonic Energy soon condensed into a cloud that filled the upper portion of this cave. A dense beam shot towards Azaroth's spot.

Azaroth allowed the dense beam to strike his body, and soon enough, his entire body was bathing in this dense Demonic Energy.

However, just as this Demonic Energy filled Azaroth's body, a golden light suddenly flickered and appeared around Azaroth's body.

Azaroth was stunned for a few seconds before he muttered, "Holy Ardor? This human… His body holds Celestial Blood?!" His mutterings turned into a shout at the end.

He was genuinely startled at this discovery. Azaroth could feel the Holy Ardor purging his Demonic Ardor.

He controlled the Demonic Ardor and forced it to remain on standby.

After a couple of seconds of shock, he regained his calm. He analyzed quickly 'Even though the passage of time has weakened my energy, it should still be enough to overpower the Holy Ardor released from such a weak Celestial bloodline of a human.'

The fact that Azaroth hadn't sensed any Celestial Blood within Edwin's body earlier meant that it was dormant until it felt that sudden influx of Demonic Energy and reacted. And he was well aware that since the Celestial Blood was dormant in Edwin's body, it meant that it hardly reached the 1% density.

However, even this tiny bit of Celestial Blood was giving him quite a bit of trouble.

But still, now that he knew of this Celestial Blood. He could deal with it.

However, just as he was thinking of dealing with the Celestial Blood, another thought appeared in his mind.

'This Celestial Blood must be from an Archangel or maybe even from a God. Purging it would be a waste. Perhaps I can forcefully fuse it with my Demonic Ardor.'

Even though he was called a Demon God, Azaroth didn't really hold great pride in his race. He was a human in his previous life and was a transmigrator. To him, what mattered the most was the benefit.

For that reason, he was even willing to tie down his soul to a 'lowly' human or become a hybrid.

If he could become a hybrid, holding the combined powers of a Human, Celestial, and Demon, why shouldn't he do so?!

Azaroth was sure that he could surpass his peak in that way.

"Alright. Time to start again. Though this time, I need to control this Holy Ardor, Humanely Ardor, and Demonic Ardor at the same time and even use my Spirit to force them to fuse. This might actually be interesting." He grinned fearlessly as he once again commanded the Demonic Ardor to form a beam and strike his body.

The beam was nearly 10 times the size of before.

Azaroth knew well enough that he couldn't afford to be picky. On one side was a path he was entirely familiar with, and on the other side was an unexplored path possessing even greater potential.

He was well aware that this was dangerous. After all, the Holy Ardor was an attribute that directly opposed the Demonic Ardor. Strictly speaking, either the Holy Ardor would purge the Demonic Ardor, or the Demonic Ardor could swallow the Holy Ardor, turning it into pure energy.

However, the thing that gave confidence to Azaroth was this seemingly weak Humanely Ardor.

In a direct confrontation, the Humanely Ardor could be considered weaker than the Holy Ardor or the Demonic Ardor.

In simpler terms, Holy Ardor = Humanely Ardor + Holy Attribute, and Demonic Ardor = Humanely Ardor + Demonic Attribute.

However, Humanely Ardor's advantage was that it was entirely neutral, unlike the Holy Attribute or Demonic Attribute.

Azaroth kept the Humanely Ardor in his body as a base and forcefully fused it with the Holy Attribute and Demonic Attribute.

Initially, his control over these three energies was still rough, but after 20 seconds or so, he got used to controlling the three energies at the same time.

The fusion went through quite smoothly.

A smile broke out on Azaroth's face as he thought 'Looks like my deduction was on point! The Humanely Ardor truly is neutral. However, because it is neutral, it can become anything. If I fuse it with the Holy Attribute, it would have the Holy Attribute, and if it was with my Demonic Attribute, it would have changed to that of a Demonic Attribute.'

If Azaroth had to describe Humanely Ardor's attribute, he could do so with a single word, and that was, 'Adaptable.'

However, even though it was Adaptable, the Humanely Ardor couldn't just fuse with anyone's powers. If so, then many humans would have merged themselves with Celestials or Demons' powers.

The fundamental point was that the fusion would only succeed if all these energies 'belonged' to the body's Spirit.

The Humanely Ardor and the Celestial Ardor belonged to Edwin's Soul, which had already fused with Azaroth's Soul. Moreover, Demonic Energy was connected to Azaroth's Soul…

That was why the fusion went smoothly.

After 3 or so hours, Azaroth sensed his power and was more or less sure that the Ardor had reached 4-Star Hunter Level, or it could be considered as the level of an Elite-Class Demon.

[A/N: Just to refresh your memory of the ranks for Demons and Humans:

Low-Class Demon: Equivalent to the 1 Star of Humans.

Mid Class Demon: Equivalent to the 2 Stars of Humans.

High-Class Demon: Equivalent to the 3 Stars of Humans.

Elite Class Demon: Equivalent to the 4 Stars of Humans.

Demon Lord: Equivalent to the 5 Stars of Humans.

Demon King: Equivalent to the 6 Stars of Humans.

Demon Emperor: Equivalent to the 7 Stars of Humans.

Demon God: Equivalent to the 8 Stars of Humans.

Demon Venerable: Equivalent to the 9 Stars of Humans.]