As soon as Marcus approached Jim's farm, he felt a disgusting force in the air.
It was demonic power—that sticky, violent energy made him feel sick to his stomach.
But this also proved the place had indeed been invaded by a demon.
Walking through the herd of cattle, Marcus followed the remnants of that power, continuously moving away from the farm. Soon he reached the forest at the farm's edge.
"So this is the place. The power in this forest is really annoying," he muttered.
His eyes slowly lit up as his perspective switched directly to void vision.
Everything before him turned black and white. On the ground, a series of black footprints appeared—footprints that were different from normal ones. Obviously, they hadn't been left by any life native to Earth.
"Really is a demon. And these footprints are fresh," Marcus observed.
Wherever demons passed, they left footprints with residual power. That power would completely dissipate with time, but the footprints before him weren't old—they'd been left recently, and the energy in them was still very strong.
Seeing these demon tracks, Marcus touched his waist. Tatsu appeared in his hand once again.
Tatsu's dragon soul ability was excellent, especially for finding targets—it was particularly sharp. He could easily locate all demons with it.
After fusing an energy source into Tatsu, the weapon no longer needed charging. The blade was wrapped in countless energies, waiting for his swing at any time.
SWOOSH~
With a sharp sound cutting through the air, several dragon souls flew out from Tatsu's blade and rushed into the forest instantly.
"Go, find it for me!" Marcus commanded.
This forest wasn't small. If he relied only on his own perception, it would take considerable effort to check the entire area.
But with this endless stream of dragon souls, the situation was different. Although the number released with each swing was limited, he could continuously release more powerful dragon souls.
It wouldn't take long before the forest would be filled with them. At that point, no matter where the demon was hiding, he could easily find it.
As he moved forward through the forest, a large group of dragon souls rushed ahead, moving back and forth among countless trees.
The deeper he went, the more dragon souls flooded into the forest, greatly improving his search efficiency. Soon he found where the demon was hiding.
When he realized all the dragon souls were rushing in one direction, Marcus's eyes lit up. The dragon souls had found the demon's hiding place.
It was a cave in the forest that looked very messy—obviously a beast's den.
However, there were no beasts in this nest now. Instead, it constantly emitted demonic power.
This demon's power wasn't weak. Marcus could see with his own eyes that all the vegetation in the cave had rotted, looking like it had been doused with something extremely toxic.
"This demon's strength isn't weak. Just its presence alone can affect the surrounding environment," Marcus noted with a cold snort.
The power displayed by this demon was indeed formidable—it could even compare to the beetle demon he'd dealt with in Central City.
"Let me see what you are!"
His body was enveloped by intense light. When the light faded, Marcus had transformed into Excalibur.
He hadn't used this frame in a long time. Now he could use it to fight the demon—it was like letting armor that hadn't been used for a while get some exercise.
Approaching the cave, Marcus swung Tatsu again, releasing dragon souls toward the opening.
Countless dragon souls rushed into the cave, but no sound came out, as if nothing was there at all.
After he entered the cave himself, he found there really was no sign of the demon inside—all the residual demonic power was cut off at this point.
"Interesting. It actually hid. Seems this one sensed danger," Marcus chuckled, shaking his head.
The demon had chosen to hide, which was beyond his expectations. After all, every demon he'd seen before had rushed toward him desperately. But this one had actually chosen to avoid him.
"Did it sense the dragon souls' power?"
The empowerment he'd integrated into Tatsu wasn't something he'd merged casually—it was a new empowerment created with heavenly power.
Therefore, the dragon soul swarm inevitably exuded heavenly power's presence.
It seemed the demon could feel the dragon souls' threat. Perhaps one or two dragon souls weren't a problem, but facing an endless number of them, even if individually they weren't much use, the sheer quantity forced it to avoid them.
"Go find this demon again!" Marcus commanded.
All the dragon souls turned around and rushed out of the cave.
Marcus walked out slowly. As for the cave itself, it collapsed in a flash of sword light the moment Marcus exited.
The residual power in the cave was still strong. The demon had just fled and couldn't have gone far.
FLASH~
Another light appeared from Marcus's hand. In the blink of an eye, it took shape and transformed into an Exalted Blade.
"Guess I'm dual-wielding now," Marcus chuckled, holding Tatsu in one hand and gripping the Exalted Blade tightly in the other.
As soon as he finished speaking, a large number of swords identical to the Exalted Blade appeared beside him. They quickly moved through the forest alongside the dragon souls.
He intended to use overwhelming power to pull the demon out of the forest!
As the long swords and dragon souls spread throughout the forest, the demon's location was found. It was on the mountain deeper into the woods.
"Ran to the mountain? Seems heavenly power really is a major threat to it."
As soon as he spoke, Marcus's figure vanished instantly, leaving only a faint electrical arc in his place.
Crackle~
The moment the arc made a sound, Marcus had already arrived at the demon's location.
At this point, the demon was surrounded by dragon souls. Countless energy swords encircled it from all directions—it had nowhere to escape.
"There you are!"
With those words, Marcus appeared before the demon and examined it carefully.
This demon was different from others he'd seen. Although it was definitely a demon, Marcus felt it resembled a seriously diseased patient more than anything else.
Its bloated body was covered with pustules oozing yellow pus. Sharp bone spurs grew from those pustules. It even had two rotting mouths that spewed more pus.
"You are absolutely disgusting!" Marcus grimaced.
BOOM!!!
As soon as he spoke, all the dragon souls bombarded the demon. Instantly, an extremely spectacular—and revolting—scene appeared before Marcus.
Countless pustules burst at once, and sticky yellow pus gushed out, covering the surroundings.
"Ugh... even more disgusting!" Marcus nearly gagged.
The scene was so shocking that even he almost couldn't hold on. It was simply too vile.
If there were a scale that used disgustingness to assess levels, this creature would definitely max it out.
To prevent himself from actually vomiting, Marcus raised his hand and controlled all the energy swords to strike the demon.
SSSSSHHHHH...
Accompanied by the sound of blades piercing flesh, the pustule demon was instantly skewered by thousands of swords. Its entire body was covered with densely packed blades.
"Looking that disgusting and still running around—you really deserve to die!" Marcus's voice rang out.
He could almost accept the creature's appearance now. Although it was still revolting, he could tolerate it with his strong mental fortitude.
The demon pierced by countless swords lay on the ground for only a short time before recovering. It moved its body and slowly climbed up from the ground.
Large amounts of pus kept dripping from its body. Where the swords had pierced, the wounds sizzled and emitted bursts of green smoke.
ROOOAR!!!
The pustule demon roared. Its foul breath rushed into the sky and filled the forest.
As the breath spread, numerous trees quickly turned yellow. Some even became dead wood and died directly.
Marcus also noticed the splashing pus was constantly corroding the ground. The area beneath the demon's feet had turned into a black swamp.
"The Exalted Blade really can't handle these demons effectively. Let's try this instead!"
As soon as he spoke, his arm passed across his waist. A golden prismatic crystal appeared in his hand.
The Prismatic Gorgon's crystal core resonated as Marcus infused it with his own Void energy. In an instant, the crystalline matrix fused into his Warframe's energy conduit. The Exalted Blade in his grasp shifted hue—its once pure white radiance igniting into a crimson inferno, the edge burning with searing flame instead of light.
SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH~
After completing the transformation, Marcus waved his hand and released several blazing flame sword energies, completely covering the pustule demon's body.
Facing Marcus's sword energy attack, the pustule demon chose to fight back, spitting sticky yellow pus bullets at the incoming sword energy.
"You're even more disgusting!" Marcus sighed.
Tatsu in his other hand released countless dragon souls. The dragon souls and sword energy quickly merged during flight, transforming into much larger dragon soul sword energies that contained both weapons' powers, striking the pustule demon.
Heavenly power and blazing flames instantly exploded on the demon's body. The fat creature was instantly covered by fire.
ROOOAR!!!
The flames burned its body, making the pustule demon feel pain. It roared, venting its agony.
Seeing this, Marcus raised his eyebrows slightly. He looked at the two weapons in his hands and suddenly brought them together. The Exalted Blade and Tatsu instantly fused into one.
At this moment, Tatsu looked more dazzling than before. Countless flames wrapped around the blade, emitting red light, with dragon souls visible within.
"What should I call this now? Exalted Tatsu?" Marcus mused.
He swung the combined weapon again. Countless dragon soul sword energies burning with flames flew out, covering the pustule demon.
SSSSSHHHHH...
The sound of sword energy cutting flesh, the sound of heavenly power eliminating demonic essence, and the sound of flames burning all merged together.
In just moments, the pustule demon had turned into a huge fireball, struggling in the blazing flames.
But Marcus didn't stop there. The flames had already made the demon's body begin burning—now it was time to completely eliminate it.
The color of Exalted Tatsu in his hand changed instantly, from red burning with flames to blue wrapped in countless ice crystals.
Even the dragon souls that had been barely visible now seemed to have physical bodies, twisting forms made of ice crystals and circling the weapon.
"I didn't expect this to work. This is interesting," Marcus said.
He swung the weapon again, releasing dragon soul sword energy.
However, this sword energy was different from before. The flame dragon soul sword energy had been made of fire with temperatures that could burn everything. The ice crystal dragon soul sword energy was tangible—it penetrated the pustule demon's body instantly, directly freezing it solid.
But this situation didn't last long. When the hot flames and extremely cold ice crystals met, a violent explosion occurred on the demon's body.
BOOM BOOM BOOM...
Countless explosions erupted across the pustule demon's form. Its body was completely blown apart in the blasts. Even the ground where it stood was blown into a large crater filled with body debris.
But the creature still hadn't died, which made Marcus raise his eyebrows in surprise. Although its strength wasn't particularly impressive, its vitality was remarkably strong.
It wasn't much worse than Logan's healing factor. After all, even with its body blown to pieces, it was still alive.
"I underestimated you," Marcus admitted.
Thinking carefully, the demon's strong vitality was inevitable. After all, these creatures lived in Hell. Demons that survived in that place and possessed such power naturally had excellent regeneration.
However, Marcus didn't intend to keep playing around. He integrated his Drifting Contact empowerment into the armor instantly. The Exalted Tatsu was immediately enveloped by purple energy, emitting an extremely terrifying aura.
"Since that's how it is, I'll help you one more time and send you on your way!"
Marcus raised the weapon in his hand.
Tatsu, now combined with the Exalted Blade and infused with Drifting Contact's power, had completely transformed into a purple lightsaber. The dead trees around were directly shattered by the weak power emanating from the blade. The dragon souls surrounding the weapon exuded a faint but overwhelming presence, as if they were real dragons.
ROOOOOAR!!!
Accompanied by a high-pitched dragon roar, several purple dragon souls rushed toward the pustule demon.
The dragon souls at this moment were far more terrifying than before. The pustule demon's flesh only needed to be slightly touched before it turned to ash instantly.
Under the bombardment of five dragon souls, the pustule demon bid farewell to this world completely, leaving only a large crater like a meteorite impact site and the rotten dead trees surrounding it as proof it had once visited the human world.