The Demon Monarch System

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As his Intent strengthened, Apollo soon realized a small transparent orb appearing in his mind. The more he watched the image, the more the orb condensed. Soon, small writings could be seen on it, but Apollod didn't understand what any of this meant. 

Be that as it may, what he did understand was that this orb was the manifestation of his Intent. Additionally, it didn't fuse with any of the other things in his mind. It possessed its own presence and one that was by far the strongest he had ever seen.

Soon enough, Apollo opened his eyes and glanced at Fuhrer, "I have a question. If an orb appears in your mind, what does that mean?"

"That just means your Intent has reached initial maturity and has formed the Cardinal Sphere. However, to truly be deemed to have reached this stage, the orb must have distinct etchings on it. Furthermore, it should be black, abyssal black. Why do you ask?" Fuhrer inquired while narrowing his eyes slightly.

Right after he asked, he could sense fluctuations that were strengthening by the instant coming from Apollo's mind. 'Don't tell me this boy has reached this stage in mere hours? It has yet to be a full day yet. Such a speed is unprecedented. In fact, it can only be found in ancient species that rely on Bloodline Transference to decrypt abilities.'

"Well, because I have already established this. I'm not sure what happened, but it seems this is second nature to me. Unlike Anima or the rest, Intent just comes to me without any issues," Apollo answered partially in the dark about what was taking place as well.

"By all the things unholy...just what are you? Your set of masteries is odd indeed. It makes me wonder about your past. A demon who is more skilled with Intent than Anima? This is unprecedented. The only instance you hear something about this is when the Lord of Invidia takes over. 

"Every user of Superbia possesses a strong mind due to their unwillingness to accept defeat. As a result, Intent is birth easy. But, as a consequence, they are susceptible to weakness at odd times. As for you, I don't sense an established Infernal Organ to house your Invidia," Fuhrer responded with an incredulous expression.

Of course, what neither of them knew was that there was a special bloodline involved. Since it was inactive and didn't process the proper stimuli to awaken it, it couldn't be sensed. Still, Apollo's soul recognized the intent and devoured it without any complications.

Only after the image was completely stripped of residual Intent did Apollo's growth cease. Nevertheless, that was more than enough for Apollo to reach the baseline needed to proceed forward with Fuhrer's training.

"So, what do we do now? I think this Intent should be enough right?" Apollo asked while releasing his Intent at a new level. Silently, Fuhrer judged the intensity of it and when he came to a conclusion, he nodded. 

"Interesting, your Intent has reached the initial Greater Demon standard. Lucky for you, unlike anything else, having an overleveled Intent is beneficial. It'll supply your Tainted Temple with the energy needed to continuously advance at a stable pace,

"Alright, let's move along with the next section then. Show me how fine your control over this Intent is. If we are to feed this into your Annihilations, you need to be able to supply a steady stream of Intent. Too much and your strike could damage you and too little and it will fail to create," Fuhrer instructed while stepping to Apollo's side.

He then lifted Apollo's palm to face upward, "I want you to generate a cluster of Intent in your palm and remove one thread at a time. When you can do that and undo it without fail, I will deem you ready to try this.

In response, Apollo indeed. Unlike the way the system taught him, this alternate way was to be used in the event that Apollo lost all of his Anima in battle. At the same time, it could also be used in conjunction with the normal way.

Shortly after, Apollo did what he was told, he summoned a cluster of Dominance Intent in his hand but before it was complete, he partitioned it into Slaughter Intent. Since he was going to be working with it anyway, he thought it to be more suitable if he did so from the beginning.

Upon noticing this, Fuhrer gave a look of praise, "Perceptive. I didn't need to tell you that it would be quicker for you to do it this way."

Meanwhile, Apollo responded, not with words but with actions. At first, the cluster proved to be an issue to unravel. To do so to immense amounts of Apollo's mental strength. However, by the time his mental strength was drained, the cluster was slightly under halfway done.

Naturally, Fuhrer gave him enough time to recuperate and try so again. This process repeated over and over again. Inside the dark cave, Apollo was unsure of how much time passed. Moreover, since he utilized so many resources to come here, the timer that was present last time didn't appear.

Nevertheless, Apollo had a general idea about how long he had remaining here in Ashiraem based on the feeling on his body. 

After ample tries, Apollo finally started getting the hang of the task. He was soon able to unravel the cluster within 30 seconds and reform the identical form within 3 minutes. However, Fuhrer found this unacceptable. 

"If you want to achieve perfection of your initial level, you need to be able to complete this process in under 10 seconds. At my level, there's no pause. I can do so as if I am breathing; it has become an involuntary action for me. For you, that will take some time," Fuhrer said.

Once again, Apollo began training to perfect this exercise. The finer his control became with Intent, the better his control across the bed would be. Due to the position of the Intent, it heavily influenced the Tainted Temple.

From the start of the exercise, two full days passed of endless practice before Apollo was able to consecutively construct and destruct the cluster at will within 10 seconds. In light of this, Fuhrer gave him the okay to begin powering the First Annihilation with the Intent.

With the first usage, Apollo couldn't even tell if he made the wave or not. Although it appeared, it had zero presence. It lacked any dangerous vibe at all. If he summoned something like this in battle, it would garner a hilarious response.

Meanwhile, Fuhrer was impressed. Until now, he had forgotten about a special path, 'If I teach him the Tenebrous Way, he'll learn the proper way to recreate this. While it may appear harmless in nature, the obscurity of its existence bolsters its lethality new height. Before one could muster the strength to defend, they would have already died,' Fuhrer inwardly mused.

On the other hand, after Apollo launched that at the wall, he left a tiny nick in the wall and immediately went to conjure another Demonic Massacre Wave. When he made a mistake in the flow of energy, Fuhrer corrected him and made his restart.

When his focus faltered, Fuhrer snapped his fingers that used a frequency only perceivable to Apollo. Thus, Apollo tried his darnedest not to slack off in the slight. Up until this moment, Fuhrer was the strictest teacher he had ever come across. He could only imagine what Azridan, who was an Archdemon at the time, had to go through.

Nevertheless, Fuhrer's style of teaching worked well, exceedingly well in fact. Apollo was able to use the Intent just as well as Demonic Anima now to strike with Demonic Massacre Wave.

"Now comes the best part, equal parts. Fuel your Demonic Massacre Wave with equal parts of these two energies and fire it. Heed my warning, you must keep your mind call throughout the process. This will make all of your organs go haywire," Fuhrer stated while a black light shone in his eyes. To correct Apollo's mistakes, he continuously used an ocular ability to inspect it.

Surprisingly, even though Fuhrer's words carried with it a dreadful feeling, Apollo remained calm. In actuality, he had been waiting for this moment. First, he exhaled a strong breath as his aura seethed.

Everything became still as he used his finger as a blade to summon the sharpest Demonic Massacre he had ever done. When he released it, his expression paled but the ensuing aftershock was worth it. 

Upon impact, the cave shook and Fuhrer grinned. Simultaneously, numerous notifications sounded within his ear.