Chapter 166 – Hierarchy

Over the next few hours, Dream and Riddick continued to fight their pairs of grand demons.

And although Dream's battle prowess didn't come as a surprise to himself, it came as a shock to Riddick. The entire time, he was paying half attention to Dream, ready to jump in should he be put in danger. But not only did that never happen, it seemed like he was rather relaxed. 

Dream responded fluidly to every attack that was thrown at him. He was just as quick as the demons fighting him, and considering there were two who were throwing out over a dozen coordinated attacks every second, that was impressive. It was hard to believe that he was still a class 3.

The demons however, were scared witless. Although Dream hadn't done anything to reveal an insane level of power, they hadn't been able to do anything to him. If that were it, it wouldn't be too bad, but when one of the demons had tried to escape, Dream unleashed unprecedented speed and locked the demon down with a few insanely powerful attacks. After that, the demons knew they couldn't run and that this person was just messing with them.

They were enraged and fearful, but they could do nothing, not even try to blitz the other human. Every surprise blitz of theirs was crushed before it could do anything.

This battle didn't go on for too long though. On the 10th hour, Dream finally decided to make a move.

"Hey Old Man."

Dream spoke to Riddick through telepathy as they fought. 

"Yea?"

"Tag the strongest in your pair of demons."

"Uh, okay?"

Saying that, Riddick looked at the demons for a moment before letting Sophia know which one was the strongest. Dream nodded once a demon was tagged. It was a mage.

"Good."

Smiling, Dream suddenly gathered a huge amount of power in his fist. The axe demon that was coming in to chop him was startled and tried to retreat, but Dream was too fast.

*BOOM*

Dream's fist hurtled forward with a sonic boom and made contact with the demon, blowing a huge hole in his stomach. The demon felt waves of pain overtake him, but it didn't prevent him from continuing his retreat. 

Unfortunately, the moment after the fist came, the demon felt all the mana in his body go stiff and agitate. It prevented him from using magic to defend or flee, and he was stuck suspended in the air. The demon investigated its body and quickly discovered hundreds of invading streams of mana, all preventing him from even controlling his body.

The incapacitation was all Dream needed, and he quickly came back with another punch to the head. The demon couldn't even raise his axe to defend himself.

*Bang!*

<You killed a level 325 [Grand Demon]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

Dream's fist made contact and the head was reduced to pink mist, immediately causing notifications to stream down Dream's vision. The sword demon beside him was startled, and after feeling the intense killing intent from Dream, quickly made the decision to flee.

Dream wouldn't let that happen though and he quickly sped over, grabbing the demon by the neck. 

"Iris!"

"Oh! Is it time?!"

"Yea!"

"Yay! Send 'em!"

Nodding, Dream hoisted the helpless demon and threw him like a football. The demon went flying like a ragdoll into the ground near Iris.

*Boom!*

"Huhu, thanks!"

"Of course. He's still relatively fresh, so go crazy."

"Okay! Let's go Luna!"

Iris immediately discarded the lesser demons around her and dashed towards the Grand demon. Luna did the same and followed suit with a smile.

When Riddick saw what Dream was doing though, he wasn't the happiest.

"Boy? What are you doing?"

"Letting them have a good fight."

"That's a class 4!"

"What?! Oh my god I thought it was a class 3!"

"..."

"It's fine Old Man. They can handle it. I actually need you for something anyway."

Saying that, Dream dashed over to where Riddick was fighting. Seeing him coming, the demons quickly decided to scatter, but Dream was too fast.

*BOOM*

Dream slammed his fist into the unmarked demon's chest, leaving the mage for Riddick to catch. He then quickly followed up with a second fist strike to the head, killing the demon. 

Riddick also caught the mage and tied him down. Dream came over a few seconds later, and the two men stood off on either side of the demon. Riddick spoke up.

"So what do you need me for?"

"I want to perform an experiment on this demon. I need you to help me tie him down."

"Really? You need help?"

"Yup. Your mana is perfect for this. Plus I don't want you interrupting their battle. Your intimidation can lead to a reduction in the demon's performance."

Dream didn't bother hiding his ulterior motive and spoke plainly. Riddick stared at him for a bit before turning to where the girls were.

Selene was still out and about fighting groups of demons, but Luna and Iris were both wrapped up in an intense fight with the class 4. Iris had enveloped the three of them in a ball of flame, and the two girls were working in perfect unison to quickly kill the enraged Grand demon. It looked very similar to their training sessions with Dream.

But they weren't getting hurt. That much. While Iris did get deep gashes and slice wounds from the sword, both her own powers of regeneration and Luna's healing ensured they never affected her. The demon though wasn't so lucky, and all the wounds he got from Iris wound drain his power and weaken his body.

"*sigh* Fine."

"Great! You restrict the demon's mana without injuring him and I'll physically hold him down."

Dream smiled as Riddick gave in and dashed toward the demon mage. The demon was maintaining a strong shield, but it was quickly cut through by Dream. He was soon in the demon's face where he grabbed his neck and flew him to the floor.

*Boom*

Dream pinned the demon to the dirt. After that, some of the armor around him flowed off of him and shackled the demon's limbs together. At this time, Riddick also came down, casting a powerful restrictive magic and sending it into the demon's body. All of his mana was disturbed and purged from his own body.

In only 10 seconds, the demon was rendered totally incapacitated. When he was, Dream put his hand on the demon's head.

[Beginning Soul Search.]

"!!!!"

The demon was startled as a wave of pain washed over it, not enough to make it scream, but enough to make it grit its teeth. 

[And... Done.]

Skills:

'Hmm...'

Dream looked at the small list. As he expected, the top three were those same skills he had found on every demon he ever soul searched. 

Other than that, the only skill that caught his eye was number 4. He wasn't really interested in elemental magic.

'Demonic conversion. That doesn't sound good.'

[We already have Demonic Regeneration and some of Hierarchy. I doubt mana-body manipulation is at all helpful.]

'Mm. Take Demonic conversion. If you can get Hierarchy, then great.'

[Alright. Beginning Emulation...]

"!!!!!"

Just as the demon started calming down, Sophia began the emulation. He immediately started spasming in unbearable pain, unable to even think about resisting. If Dream hadn't sealed its mouth, it would be screaming bloody murder. Riddick saw this and looked at Dream.

"Boy?"

"Hang on..."

[Emulated Demonic conversion... And... Shit.]

<You have killed a level 330 [Grand Demon]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

Notifications streamed down Dream's vision, and from Sophia's curse, he could guess about what happened.

'Didn't get it all?'

[I've got about 87% of Hierarchy. From the skill observation I'm able to patch in another 6%, but that only leaves a 93% completed skill.]

'That's fine. We'll just find another Grand demon. So, what's this conversion skill do.'

Dream asked as he stood up, putting the body in his inventory.

[The skill... is nothing good. It's capable of converting living beings into demons.]

'Okay. But what exactly does it mean to turn into a demon?'

[You know Hierarchy? Well becoming a demon basically means getting branded with that skill. From what I've seen, Hierarchy places you under a control system very similar to a taming or slave contract.]

'So if a demon were to convert you, you would get thrown into their hierarchy and be put under their control.'

[That's not all. The Hierarchy skill also grants demons that mysterious power to get stronger with numbers. It's like a soul connection between all of them that shares power. Not only that, it makes it so that there's a greater transfer of power when one demon kills another. Instead of getting experience like normal, it gets multiplied kind of like yours. It's only between demons, but it promotes a terrifying internal growth system.]

'...No wonder they were able to grow so fast. They have this OP skill. What about the other two?'

[Demonic regeneration is not only a regeneration skill, but a parasitic infection that transforms the user's soul and mana, giving it a different signature that matches that of the demons. Mana-body manipulation lets the demons manipulate mana directly, but it also ties in with the hierarchy. With it, demons of a high class can control underlings, whether it's maliciously or otherwise.]

'*sigh* That's pretty insane. So this demonic conversion grants the three skills but puts you under their total control. A rather efficient way to accept people. Are there any restrictions on it?'

[Demons with this skill can forcefully convert those who are weaker than them by a large margin or have been injured beyond resistance. As for those who are the same strength and uninjured enabling them to resist, they can only be converted through acceptance. Aside from those conditions, anyone with a soul can be converted, and only demons with this specific skill can convert.]

'...At least not every demon has it. I wonder how many do though.'

[The skill requires learning, so probably only those who are intelligent enough.]

'Good. A decent restriction considering most demons are mindless animals. Though that probably means all class 4's have it as they all seem to be intelligent. I have yet to see one that isn't.'

"Boy?"

At this time, Riddick spoke up. He was keeping an eye on the girls, but at the same time wondering why Dream was just standing there.

"...I'm good. Just found out a few things is all. In fact, I'm gonna go out for a bit."

"Where?"

"Gonna find another army and capture a class 4. Be right back."

Saying that, Dream took to the sky and blasted off at supersonic speeds. Riddick watched for a bit before shaking his head and turning back to watch the girls.

.........

Not even a few minutes later, Dream found another army. This one had 4 million demons, an after letting loose his influence, Dream found 2 class 4's.

Without even planning, Dream rocketed straight towards the two demons that were standing next to each other. One was a hammer and shield user and the other was a bowman. Dream chose to scour the shield user, so he attacked the bowman with a flying punch.

"Hm-?"

*BOOM*

<You have killed a level 333 [Grand Demon]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

Dream flew in unexpectedly, but his blatant attack was even more unexpected. That combined with the ridiculous power behind it made the bowman an easy one hit kill. The shield demon couldn't even react in time, and his partner was turned into a bloody mist.

"You... Human!!"

"Sup."

*Boom!*

Dream didn't bother wasting time before punching at the demon. He was already prepared though, and Dream's fist drove into the shield that he raised.

Because of the force, the demon was launched over 100 meters away, killing every lesser demon that was in the way. His shield was also cracked and indented, but surprisingly, it started slowly healing.

"Huh. Nice shield."

"Grah! Fuck off, human!"

"Well that's rude."

Dream grumbled at the demon who jumped high in the air, waving his hammer for an attack. He came down with oppressing force, but Dream didn't dodge, instead deciding to take it head on.

He threw his fist out to meet the descending hammer.

*BOOM!!*

Shockwaves rolled out as a crater appeared below Dream. Other than that though, he came out relatively unscathed aside from the shattered armor covering his fist and arm.

The demon wasn't so lucky though, and as a result of the massive pressure, his hammer exploded into pieces. Not only that, but he was thrown back up into the air.

*Crack!*

"Hrm?"

The demon looked down at the handle after recovering and saw the missing head. His eyes went red.

"RAHH!! HUMAN!!"

Roaring, the demon threw both his shield and broken hammer away before darting down to Dream. He was planning to use his body to fight.

"Not the best choice."

Smirking, Dream flew up to meet him, and they clashed in the air, delivering a punch to each other's fists.

*Bang!*

*Splat!*

The result was as Dream expected, and the demon's hand exploded along with his arm.

"Ahh!! RAHH!!"

"Alright, that's enough."

Saying that, Dream went over and grabbed the demon after cutting off his other arm, incapacitating him. He then grabbed him by the head, performing soul search on the spot.

[Soul searching...]

"Ahhh!!!!"

[Search complete.]

Skills:

Dream barely glanced at the skills before speaking to Sophia.

"You know what to do."

[Beginning Emulation...]

"AHHH!!!!"

The demon screamed as his soul was broken up string by string. Sophia first went through the learned skills before going after the top three, making sure to get every bit of soul she could.

[Mana-Body Manipulation emulated... Hierarchy emulated.]

<You have killed a level 342 [Grand Demon]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

The demon went limp after dying, and Dream just put the corpse into his inventory.

"Nice. Now, tell me the full extent of the Hierarchy and mana body skill and see if I can use it."

As he said that, Dream dropped back down to the army and started lazily attacking the hordes of demons.

[Hmm... Well first, I would be able to use the hierarchy skill in conjunction with the conversion skill and the mana body skill to accept an underling. They would have their souls branded, enabling me to have unrestricted access to their soul and skills. If you wished, I would be able to give them skills using that access, although since we've never directly given anybody a skill before, we would need to do some experiments. Either way, those three skills allow for that.]

"Hmm, there's nobody I can really do that with. Although granting skills freely would be nice."

[The girls?]

"Never. Giving them some skills would be nice, but I would never violate them like that even if they let me. Hmm, I really don't have any followers. That's kind of lonely... Oh! Aegis!"

"My lord."

"You're the only follower of mine that has a soul. Kind of. I may be able to grant you skills even though you don't have a complete soul. That would require the things we just talked about though. What do you think?"

"I am already your eternal servant, my lord. To be granted greater ability to assist and protect you would be my honor."

"Huhu, you sure know how to butter me up."

"It is nothing but the truth, my lord."

"Oh stop, you're making me blush."

"..."

"Now, I'll want to find some test subjects first so I don't cause you harm. Will animals work? Demons probably won't. There's not really anybody that I hate with a burning passion, at least not on this planet. Hmm, what to do, what to do..."