''I feel like something is calling me,'' he mused to himself.


    Reign couldn''t quite exin it, but that was what he was feeling right now.


    He wanted to ask the system, but ever since he evolved into a demon lord, it had been unresponsive.


    Deciding to trust his instincts, he entered the tunnel .


    The walls of the passaged were lined with crystals, their gentle glow illuminating his path with a surreal green light.


    As he walked deeper into the tunnel, his senses were in full alert when he suddenly felt a subtle vibration in the ground beneath his feet.


    It started as a faint tremor, barely noticeable , but soon grew stronger, causing loose stones to rattle and tter.


    Instinctively, he knelt down, cing his hand against the cold surface. He shut of his eyes, focusing on the vibrations traveling through the ground.


    Was it an earthquake, or something else entirely?


    As the trembling grew more intense, Reign''s instincts screamed that this was no ordinary tremor.


    The ground beneath him convulsed with a violence that was unnatural, each wave of force stop for a bit then intensify .


    It felt more like an explosion reverberating through the ground than a natural phenomenon.


    Just as he began to wonder if the mountain would copse around him, the seismic activity abruptly ceased after onest powerful tremor.


    At that moment, he sensed something in the air—a familiar presence .


    When his eyes shone again, his entire demeanor shifted.


    ''That''s negative energy, and it''s pretty powerful,''he concluded.


    Only demons could wield Negative Energy.


    Judging by how he sensed it despite the distance, he believed there might be even more Negative Energy present than he himself possessed.


    ''A demon lord in this ce?'' he mused.


    ''No, it could also be crystallized negative energy,'' he added, considering the alternatives.


    Natural Crystallized Energy had always given him huge benefits, and what he felt right now was at least 20 times stronger than what he absorbed in that rat-infested cave.


    He felt that this could also be an opportunity.


    If it turned out to be the real deal, the potential benefits would far outweigh the risks.


    ''Alright, I''ll just scout it first and decide after,'' he thought.


    As long as he was careful, he could minimize the risk of being exposed just in case what he felt was actually a demon.


    He decided to conceal his aura even further, ensuring it wouldn''t be detectable.


    Then, he continued to walk straight down the tunnel for 15 minutes until he reached an opening.


    As he approached, he cautiously peeked through the hole to see whaty on the other side.


    It opened up into a vast cavern, farrger than he had imagined—it could easily have fit an entire football stadium, maybe even a littlerger.


    However, what caught his interest was not just the cavern''s size, but what was in the center—a dark, crystallized orb oozing with Negative Energy. It was so concentrated that he could even taste the negative energy from a distance away.


    It was thergest natural crystallized energy he had ever seen in his life.


    Normally, he would have jumped for joy at such a find, but as he looked closer, he noticed a small woman absorbing it.


    Her hands were touching the crystal, her eyes closed as she tried her best to absorb it.


    However, her absorption rate was a far cry from Reign''s, who was assisted by the system.


    It was likeparing a heavy duty vacuum to a mere sponge.


    Above her, a massive hole indicated that she had burst through the ce using brute force. That was the reason for all the trembling.


    ''Hey, that''s cheating,'' Reign sighed.


    He had gone through all the trouble of memorizing, climbing, crawling, and now this demon woman had just made her own way in like a real boss.


    ''I''ll teach you a lesson to never cheat,'' he murmured, slowly transforming his hand into a railgun and nting it on the ground for stability, aiming directly at his target.


    He knew that she was as a peak demon lord, but even someone of her caliber would be in trouble if he struck her unexpectedly from behind.


    ''One, two, three,'' he counted silently, then pulled the trigger.


    A powerful hyper-velocity projectile pierced the air, followed by a loud humming sound that was magnified by the confined area.


    "Attacking from behind, what a shrewd demon," Zet murmured, opening her eyes.


    The projectile pierce her head directly, but instead of bursting it apart, it passed through her as if she were made of smoke.


    But that wasn''t the end of it; her body suddenly multiplied into hundreds copies of herself, each one radiating negative energy.


    It became impossible to quickly discern her real body among the illusions.


    ''Damn it,'' Seeing this, Reign immediately realized he made ablunder.


    With a thunderous sound, he jumped forward, propelling himself toward therge hole she created to escape.


    He knew he was weak against illusions and mental attacks, making this a bad matchup for him.


    However—


    BOOOOM!


    The moment he reached the hole, he collided with it as if it were solid rock, his body mming against its surface from the impact.


    The hole had been an illusion all along.


    "Running away just like that? You''re pretty smart," Zet giggled, genuinely impressed .


    Most demon lords would have chosen to fight rather than retreat, but he had made the opposite choice.


    While it might appear cowardly to some, it was definitely the correct decision when facing an enemy skilled in illusion in a confined space like this.


    But the problem was, Zet was a trickster at heart.


    Her power revolved around deceiving others, so she had set up all these traps from the very beginning out of habit .


    When she was on unfamiliar ground, she always made ns for the worst-case scenarios.


    "Good thing, I''m smarter," she giggled with no malicious intent, finding it exciting that she had outsmarted her enemy.


    She did not hear any response from him, so she thought he was considering a way to escape this situation.


    SWOOOOSH!


    "So you''re just attacking, huh? That''s a little disappointing and unimaginative," Zet shook her head, seeing that her enemy had chosen to confront her directly.


    Arcs of lightning coalesced within his weapon, attempting to strike her illusions by creating an electric wave on the ground, but it was futile, because the illusion just kept oning back.


    She then decided to attack using concentrated rays of negative energy, but something interesting happened.


    She didn''t put much force into it, but her enemy was immediately destroyed by her attack .


    "Wait... Aren''t you supposed to be a demon lord?" she raised her eyebrows, taking a closer look.


    But before she could get a response, the bones started to turn into ck liquid and disappeared from her sight.


    "Don''t tell me..." Zet was speechless.


    She had actually been outyed and tricked by another demon.


    ***


    SWOOOOOSH!


    Reign wasted no time and retraced his steps, running away as soon as he realized he had been discovered.


    He wasn''t running because he was afraid of fighting her head-on; rather, he was just wary that she might not be alone. It was better to be safe than dead.


    ''Oh, he killed Arc already,'' he thought to himself, sensing that his puppet had returned inside him.


    But he did not mind at all.


    With so much distance created and him running at lightning speed, she wouldn''t be able to catch up to him that quickly.


    Besides, this ce was too narrow for her to fit in even if she wanted to.


    "Good thing, I''m smarter," Reign chuckled .