While Edmond was feeling the connection between himself and the Universal Rule of Harmony, there were others scheming to confront him and his new friends.
Far from his position, deep within the Demonic Realm a figure shrouded in darkness sat imposingly on a throne of ash and bone.
Ancient chains tied him down causing him to remain sealed in a seated position.
Unlike the flight capable hell bats, he possessed feathered wings that were black in color with reddened tips.
"Tch! That insolent spirit dares to remove my wisp from the most promising kin I've seen in a long time."
His grit on the arms of the throne tightened and he tensed his jaw as he pondered the way to get his hands on Edmond no matter what.
"That peculiar energy that the boy was giving him was something even the demonic essence cannot compare to. I must have it if I ever want to face off against that arrogant prick again."
"If only I had a little bit more time I would have finished corrupting the mind of that little imp. What a shame."
Now was not the time to lament about his failure though.
The Devil was known for his ruthlessness, so it was only natural that his next plan of action was just that.
"Since they want to take away my chance at gaining a useful boost of strength, I will make their lives worse than a living hell."
Immediately, he spread his consciousness between the entirety of those within the Demonic Realm that had developed a consciousness of their own and made them heed one simple order: kill all outsiders and restrain the highborn imp among them.
At first, the demons and lava creatures and the like were confused as to the origins of the voice, but they knew that if someone could invade their minds that easily they must be something to fear.
The smarter of them knew that even the strongest demon was incapable of ordering others in such a manner with the severity of suppression that came with the message.
Regardless of the confusion and brief scare, the denizens of the Demonic Realm all had registered the mention of outsiders and could barely process the fact that beings from somewhere else intruded on their territory.
However, just like those that came after Null and the crew, there was an inherit attraction the demons had towards outsiders, so those closest to the abandoned city that they were in made their way to them like they were under someone's control.
This was not too far off as the Devil was capable of influencing the weaker imps and lesser demons and those with weak prowess or less intelligence rather than their stronger and smarter counterparts.
For the most part, the Devil had already feasted on the demonic essence of the strongest demons, so none of those he commanded were enticing enough to draw his attention.
Edmond remained the sole figure in all of the Demonic Realm that the Devil sought to consume, so the entirety of the imps, demons, lava creatures, hell bats were given the location of the crew to which they set off towards with fervor.
To beings that knew nothing but devouring each other and furthering their individual strength, the desire to dig into otherworldly flesh and engorge themselves on their bone marrow was enough to fuel the flames of the majority of the realm.
To the others, the thought of a highborn imp that even the Devil found enticing was enough to plant the seed of being rewarded for their efforts or even being able to consume a piece of him themselves.
Whatever the case was, Null and the crew were in the dark about the approaching armies and crazed individuals.
They were currently still in shock of Edmond's sudden step onto the level of Transcendence under the influence of Barter's Ruler and Theef.
"Hey! I helped, right? So lemme get a taste of that Harmony you got there. I promise I'll give it back," Theef was literally drooling at the sight of the dual-colored solid flame in the palm of Edmond.
"What is this exactly? I know you said that Transcendents had powers of the Universal Rules, but what can I do with this," Edmond was eyeing his treasure with curiosity.
"That is up to you to figure out-," Edmond started but was interrupted by Theef.
"No! I wanna do it! I'll tell you how it works after a few tests. Trust me, I've mastered more of these than Goldie has!"
Meanwhile, Klein and Z'oelo's jaws were still on the floor after witnessing the process of Edmond's understanding of the Universal Rule grow right in front of their eyes.
The process that they had not even gotten close to figuring out even after a year of experimenting and soul searching was figured out in seconds!
How could they not be silenced by the awe-inspiring situation?
"How exactly did you manage that Mr. Zolial? What was your thought process? What does it feel like?"
Typical of Klein, he asked many questions all in one go without even taking a moment to breathe.
"That's crazy, teach! I wish I could be as talented as you when it came to the Universal Rules," Z'oelo merely offered a rare compliment, but was raring to practice his own control over a rule.
'Looks like a meathead like you is only good for handling a weapon,' Muni said harshly.
'Oh yeah? And how well would you say I handle you?'
Muni blushed, 'Not nearly good enough! A maiden such as I deserves to be pampered not sent to handle things because of your lack of power.'
'But isn't that your whole thing? You even kept your bluntness to match my so called "meatheadedness".'
Muni's blush faded the more Z'oelo talked, and she kicked him in the face despite knowing that it wouldn't hurt him.
Returning to the matter of Edmond's Transcendence, Null was the only one who did not say a thing about his circumstance.
Instead, he asked Ego about the nature of the Universal Rules and if the Emotions were tied to any of them in any way.
'I'm not too sure about the Universal Rules as I only know as much as you do, but I guess the Emotions are somewhat similar to them in the fact that they control a facet of reality.'
They continued their inference, 'While the Emotions dictate a response to a certain emotion, the Universal Rules command a reaction in the laws of the world. Just as the golden garbed pauper can influence the gravity through his connection to the Royal Greed, the Emotion of Greed can control the attraction of things that it reaches out towards.'
Null digested Ego's words and pieced together a proper outlook.
He pitched an idea that he had been sitting on since the beginning of his journey with Barter's Ruler, 'So by giving him the yellow energy of Greed back then, did the Universal Rule evolve to match both properties becoming the Royal Greed?'
It was Ego's turn to ponder the idea as they simply had not thought back to that moment because they were not alongside him, yet they still perused his memories due to their spiritual link.
'Now that you mention it, it does seem like the golden pauper has a greater level of ease with his Universal Rule than before when he first fought you. I had just thought that time played a role in it rather than the emotional energy.'
Unfortunately, they had to cease the session of Universal Rules and Emotion's energies as a huge crowd of imps had arrived at their location causing a ruckus in their wake.
"Enemies! And a lot of them!"
Theef yelled after utilizing one of his Transcendent treasures.
The treasure was a strange object that had symbols of the five known senses along with others that were more obscure, yet just as essential as the others.
For example, there was an hourglass that looked like the symbol of infinity symbolizing chronoseption.
It utilized the Universal Rule of Perception and allowed Theef to gain the ability of enhanced senses to a ridiculous degree to the point where he could identify things down to the last minutia and expand his senses beyond their natural capabilities.
This treasure was by far the hardest to obtain as the previous owner was able to sense the danger they presented as Theef was attempting to bring them down for both the sake of the treasure and the mission related to the previous owner.
Now that the crew was alerted of the incoming wave that expanded across the horizon, they prepared for the battle that was soon to come.
They were unaware that this was just the first wave of opponents, but that was for later.
"This is perfect! Let me use that treasure against these cannon fodder!"
Edmond smiled as he felt incomplete without the solid flame, but he still handed it away showing his complete trust in his new companion.
"If you are truly as experienced as you say, then I expect you to handle these imps in one move. If not, don't expect me to hand off my Harmony so freely."
"Haha! I like how you think, buddy," Theef licked his non-existent lips and extended a tendril to absorb the dual-colored treasure.
He was hit with an intense heat that radiated from his body.
Then, flames burst from his body and head just like with Edmond while he was consolidating the flame into the treasure's form.
Without a hint of pain though, Theef controlled the flames to enter his body and returned to his normal self.
Only now, he held his arms out and a flame appeared in each one.
One was the blackened purgatory flame that only sought to burn down whatever it touched into a pure essence.
The other was a honey-white holy flame that seemed to be the opposite as it would fuel whatever it touched to become purer.
One was destructive and the other was enhancing.
'What if I just...'
Theef wondered as he brought his hands together.
Something he would have never guessed happened as he attempted to fuse the two flames despite the Harmony between them being perfect while separated.
Just like when a demon was subjected to the agonizing process of being refined into demonic essence, the purgatory flames sought to engulf the holy flames.
It was not as if the holy flames would simply become broken down by the purgatory flames as they burned brighter under the effects of their counterpart.
The two flames then merged miraculously into one gray flame.
"Oh hell yeah."
Without even knowing what the effects would be, Theef knew that the tide of imps would be no match against the new flame of Harmony.