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Unlike the gates he was used to, either taking one to another plane of reality to act as a shortcut or else connecting two separate locations by making a hole in space itself, the interstellar one he’d been dragged into acted more like a tunnel filled with branching paths, letting Ben catch glimpses of what he suspected were separate worlds, even if the views beyond gave him few clues to verify that fact.

Different times of day, slightly different colours of sky hinting at different atmospheres and even stellar bodies such as the glimpses of strange suns and moons if the exits were angled right for him to see it, all if it paled in comparison to the same landscape he was seeing among everything. Brutal, desolate lands, devoid of any obvious hints of life beyond the demons that already made it home, with those either shoving through or fighting amongst themselves on the planets they’d stolen.

Each view was sickening in a way that would have made him laugh at the irony if not for his current situation. During the first wave, his actions had earned him the job option of world killer, but from what he was seeing, they’d have likely already done as much to the planets they’d held themselves even without his input. The only difference was that he’d wiped away the blight that had doomed the rest of it.

He had no one to share that observation with though, nor much time to appreciate it himself. Even if it wasn’t as instantaneous as the gates he was used to, it was only a few minutes of travel before they’d reached their mysterious destination, leaving Ben suddenly confronted with a deep, crushing force.

At first he couldn’t breathe, made worse by the hand that still held his throat, but through that he observed his surroundings, trying to get a grasp of what he’d been dragged into and the madness of what waited beyond.

Not just getting glimpses, being on a whole new world let him see far more than he had just moments before.

The lands looked devastated, but not completely. There were occasionally tufts of grass and moss that could be seen, telling him that there were likely bits of non-demon life hanging on, there had to be to feed them all unless their goto option for food was either invading worlds or pure cannibalism. 

It was apparent that there were some simple structures around too, nothing approaching the level of even the simplest of structures his world or Earth held, instead being simple dirt hovels for whatever minor bits of privacy and protection from the elements they would provide.

But those were just the small features, something he had to assume would be consistent across every demon world given the races’ proclivity to violence and destruction, they were nothing compared to the other structures around.

It was something he’d only been able to catch glimpses of as he was carelessly dragged along, but out of the corner of his eye he could see the portal he’d come through, as well as everything that lied beyond it.

Along with a dozen other portals stretching across who could know how many planets, he could see strange, transparent containers filled with inky darkness, a huge one at the center of them all but each one picking at his sacrilege, almost blinding him to what sat farther back in his curiosity.

From where he was, it appeared to be a massive glass structure with hints of movement within, the most complex thing he’d gotten his eye on compared to anything else around that was forcing him to re-evaluate some of his other assumptions.

Even if he didn’t have a good view of it, he could see it largely arched around the gates while being a few stories tall, the sort of thing he couldn’t imagine the demons creating and forced him to question if they had depths he hadn’t seen. Perhaps some did in fact grow into builders and makers when they gained their intelligence and the others let them do as they pleased or maybe they kept slaves from the planets they conquered and put to work. It was impossible to say without more information and as things stood there was no guarantee he’d live long enough to get it. He couldn’t escape the one holding him and the weight bearing down on him from all directions was oppressive enough that he was sure he’d struggle under it even if he escaped. All he could do was fight against it as he forced his body to finally take a breath.

<INTEGRATED DEMONIC BODY LEVEL INCREASED>

With his first breath, it was instantly easier to take a second and to continue on from there, even if it came with a new concern. Integrated demonic body had leveled up, a skill he hadn’t leveled in ages, seemingly for no reason at all. Was merely being on a demon world enough to help it tip over its edge? He didn’t know, but it did come with a bit of clarity which allowed him to notice something else that should have been obvious right from the start.

He wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure.

There were demons all around them, each looking beaten down by the air itself and it made Ben remember the memories of a demon he’d looked at in the past, with it having felt even worse before it had escaped through the gate than he had upon arriving there while it even affecting the one that held him. Whatever the feeling may have been, it was indiscriminate, harming all of them under its effects, even if the direction he was being dragged was making the feeling grow stronger with each of his captor’s steps.

Still, he’d regained some clarity of thought, enough to realize a far bigger emergency as he sent a small burst of mana through one of the necklaces around his throat, destroying the enchantment on his personal job crystal and letting him breathe a small sigh of relief for having done so before his possessions had been gone through, either after being stripped or eaten depending on how things went for him. The demons had access to the status system, there was no helping that, but at the very least, he wouldn’t be the one responsible for them getting access to all of the additional benefits that would come from taking a job as well, with that small sense of peace lasting till the next notification.

<INTEGRATED DEMONIC BODY LEVEL INCREASED>

…What?

From level six to eight of one of the skills he least wanted to raise, seemingly for no reason, at least as far as he could see, telling him that the demon organs within him were incorporating further than they already had been.

It had its benefits, he’d heal significantly faster with each level and it would make him better at pushing beyond his limits too, something that he’d need if he somehow managed to get the chance to escape. That new level also made it clear that it wasn’t being able to breathe again that made him feel better about whatever was affecting him, the moment he got that new one, the force on him became just a bit easier to deal with too. 

It was handy, but the only problems were that he didn’t fully understand what it was doing to his body, nor why just being on the world was helping it level. Every one he’d gained to it before then had largely come from pushing himself to the extreme, he’d nearly been killed when he got his last level of it and now it was coming far too easily. There had to have been something beyond just the planet he was on causing it.

It was something else he wasn’t getting an answer for and soon stopped having the leeway to think about as where they were going began coming into view. Another structure, the only significant one he’d seen since they’d left the gate, being grander than any of the dirt holes in the ground while not as strange as the glass complex he’d caught a glimpse of.

No, what they were approaching was more in line with what he’d traditionally view as a palace.

It was lacking a lot of artistic flourishes but what it lacked in that it made up for in scale. Both giant and grand, it gave the impression of being somewhere important, with that only emphasized by the absence of anything else of note around it, leaving Ben to question just who it could be for.

His mind first thought of a king but he wasn’t sure that would fit. It would need a demon that could consistently stand above and suppress the masses, more than he was seeing from the few who already had the power to take charge of those weaker than him.

No, a king wouldn’t fit the bits I know about them but look at the universe I live in. With only a couple of exceptions, gods rule the intelligent races of this reality, that is a fact. The demons have gods too and they have to give faith, that points me towards one thing then. This is some sort of church or temple.

It did make him question who had made it, be it the demons or if it was a leftover from whatever race had previously held that world before it had been conquered which had since been repurposed, but he had greater things to worry about. Why would he be being dragged to the church of a demon god?

Every mind in his head screamed that the answer was to be sacrificed in some way, with the only thing left being how torturous it would be. At the very least, he could envision no alternatives, leaving him no choice but to wait and see what would come, all while he observed everything, trying to take in any clue that would let him leave with his life.

Clues he never found, instead only having questions. When they entered the building, what he found in that grand structure was a single, straight hall, no side doors leading to other parts of it to access.

It was possible they were simply hidden away or that there were different entrances to them outside, it was even possible that any other rooms were only accessible by space magic, but with a single door that could be seen at the very end of the walkway, it wasn’t the impression it gave.

No, the building left him with the feeling that it was created by something that liked the idea of such a structure without understanding the practical purposes of such a thing. Like it had been carved of solid stone to give the impression that it held something great and then not realizing it could be used for more, a play at the basic acts of creation that any intelligent race would figure out in their development.

Its very nature unsettled him but there was nothing he could do, no escape. By that time he’d already been dragged to the end of the corridor, the demon that held him bowing its head as it waited without a word.

“Enter.”

Sounding casual but with the air of an irrefutable demand, the doors opened, letting Ben catch his first glimpse of what waited beyond, making his heart freeze in his chest.

He’d been partially right in both his guesses at what the building might have been but wrong in what it contained. Palace or temple, call it both or neither, it didn’t matter, it wasn’t a king or priest that it held.

No, lounging on a chair, holding a feeling of power greater than anything Ben had ever been in front of before, sat a being that Ben could barely stand to look at with the way his sacrilege lit it up in his eyes.

Before him was a god, more powerful than he’d ever witnessed before and spewing that fact across the world.

<INTEGRATED DEMONIC BODY LEVEL INCREASED>