Nightmare world.
The eternal wind drove snowflakes across Ian's face as he looked down in confusion at the demon head swaying at his waist. Its cloudy eyes and expression were full of fear and terror.
"What do you mean, dimensional demon god?"
Ian frowned slightly as he turned the words over in his mind.
"You... you..."
The demon head was still drowning in stunned disbelief. It simply could not understand how Superman's son could possibly be a dimensional demon god.
That was not magical at all.
Even though the bull-headed demon did not know much about science, it was certain this situation was not scientific either. Kryptonians were a cosmic divine race, not some dimensional demon race.
"You've got an entire universe inside you!"
It looked around in alarm.
The more it observed and sensed this unfamiliar world,
the more terrified it became.
That massive figure in the sky had no life left in it, but even as a corpse it still filled this demon from Hell with suffocating dread. Just think about it. A being like that was hanging across the heavens like a decoration. How could any lesser demon not tremble at the sight?
"I'm not a dimensional demon god, and I don't have an entire universe. There's just a universe tumor growing inside me. It's a disease, but there isn't any cure for it yet."
"Thank God for that. I wasn't planning to get treated anyway."
Ian still remembered what Lady Death had told him. Of course he trusted her version more. A little demon he could beat into submission clearly could not compare with her in either insight or status.
"Something is growing inside your body and it's a universe, and you're still saying you're not a dimensional demon god?"
The bull-headed demon had apparently only heard the part it wanted to hear. Its shrill outburst cut through the silence of this dead world.
"I inherited ancient knowledge! I know this is your dimension! You're a dimensional demon god disguised as a human child, and somehow you even planted false memories into Superman!"
"How could Heaven allow this? Those damned angels would never tolerate you desecrating a holy soul!"
Its eyes were full of horror.
Its voice shook with disbelief. At this point, the bull-headed demon felt like it was finally starting to understand everything. Why had its hellfire failed to harm this boy?
Why had one mouthful of spit nearly taken half its life?
Why had those hammer blows hurt its soul so badly?
All of those mysteries now had a perfectly reasonable and terrifying answer.
This boy was actually a dimensional demon god who disguised himself as weak for fun.
It was only a minor demon. How could it possibly stand against something that terrifying?
This thing was on the same level as its master.
"I desecrated a holy soul?"
Ian mulled that over and decided the demon was insulting him. That sort of thing might be forgivable to other people, but it definitely was not forgivable to him. So he raised a hand and smacked the demon twice.
"So now you're trying to sabotage my family relationships again?"
Ian glared furiously at the demon.
"You're the dimensional demon god! Your whole family is dimensional demon gods! Am I not holy enough? The angels clearly have much better taste than demons!"
"They obviously know I'm just as pure as my dad. The priests at church all like me. And even General MacArthur once said Ian was a good kid!"
Sometimes,
a tiny lie really did no harm.
However,
"Uh... Douglas MacArthur never said that... I remember... his soul got given to me to eat..."
The bull-headed demon really wanted to say it wished its whole family were dimensional demon gods too, but it did not have the nerve. In the end it could only weakly point out the flaw in Ian's words.
"Huh?!"
Ian's eyes widened.
He had been using knockoff general quotes dozens of times by now, and he had never expected to run into such a well-argued fact-check. The embarrassment hit him like someone had yanked his pants down in public.
"I don't believe you! You're lying! Unless you cough the general back up for me!"
It was a shame Ian had not brought his hammer, or he absolutely would have smashed the demon's head a few more times.
Really, hitting demon heads was addictive. And compared with knocking on a wooden fish drum, Ian felt certain that smacking demon skulls would earn him actual merit.
"I remembered wrong! I remembered wrong!"
The moment it saw the dangerous light in Ian's eyes, the bull-headed demon stiffened and immediately chose silence.
At this point, this creature from Hell had reached an entirely new level of terror toward Ian. No demon would ever dare provoke a dimensional demon god with a complete universe-dimension.
It knew that if this "dimensional demon god" was determined to keep acting like a human, then it had better play along. Otherwise, death itself might become an unreachable luxury.
"That's better. Why would I misremember a general's words? Even if you did cough him back up, it would only prove the general misremembered them himself."
Feeling much more satisfied, Ian looked up at Galactus's head pushing through the clouds. The tilted corpse seemed to have come a little closer to the ground.
"Why is it falling so slowly? I want to hijack a plane and fly up there. Why do I need to hit level five before I can learn flying? Just because I wasn't born with wings on my back?"
"My dear system, in America you'd absolutely get hit with a species discrimination lawsuit for this. We go to court and I win easy."
After giving his system another round of emotional manipulation, Ian hung the demon head back at his waist and got up, intending to visit that mysterious base again to gather more information.
Following the direction he remembered,
Ian broke into a run.
The demon head bounced up and down at his side as he moved.
But the demon did not dare complain even a little. The buildings lining the street were buried under thick layers of ice and snow, and it kept peering around with its cloudy eyes at this alien world.
"What's that sound?"
Ian suddenly stopped.
In the distance there was a faint roar and the sound of fierce fighting.
Mixed in with it was the heavy thunder of gunfire.
"It's raining! I absolutely have to go stand in it!"
Ian instantly became as excited as if he had been injected with pure adrenaline. He changed direction and sprinted toward the source of the noise.
"But it's been snowing this whole time. Snow is just another form of rain. Look, it's raining out of my mouth too."
The demon head had turned philosopher and started saying weird artsy nonsense.
Foam was dribbling continuously from its mouth where it hung at Ian's waist.
Clearly, it had gotten motion sickness. Ever since entering this world, the demon had discovered that it seemed to have lost all of its supernatural status.
It was now nothing more than an immortal head.
"But then, what meaning do death and immortality really have? Perhaps this is the fate of demons."
It sighed, grieved, and spoke in a deeply sorrowful tone.
"Shut up! You're ruining my concentration. My beloved hail of bullets is somewhere nearby!"
Ian raised his hand and slapped the demon head several more times.
"Stop hitting me! It really hurts!"
The demon's eyes instantly cleared a little, snapped out of its gloomy philosophy. Ian took the chance to find the source of the noise and cut through an alley until he reached a frozen fountain plaza.
Blood.
More blood.
Everywhere there was hot, vivid red blood.
The fierce sounds of battle had come from here.
(End of Chapter)
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