Supreme Monarch



 Half of Thirteen's body had been blown away by his spell which seemed to have been reflected at him several folds by something surrounding the emissary. His near-translucent body was only hanging on to life by absorbing the Mana essence around himself.

 Spirits were being attuned to the natural energy around them and could easily assimilate their internal Mana with the raw and unfiltered essence of the world. 

However, this was not an easy process. 

 As Thirteen attempted to restore his nearly exhausted Mana, he looked to Nine for assistance as he dragged himself across the ground and bellowed.

 "What are you doing? We should've attacked together, she's stronger than what you describe—"

 Before he could get the last word of his sentence out, the end of a cane came crashing into what remained of his head, ending what little grip he had on life. 

 "I'm to take it you're next, Number 9..."

 Rain smiled as she raised the massive oversized weapon across her shoulders but unlike the previous times, she did not stagger due to the awkward weight displacement. 

 "You didn't step in to help your underlings, I wonder why. Were you scared?"

 Nine's expression did not change as he continued to observe Rain with the same serious expression on his face. 

 The air stood still inside the completely dark room yet both figures did not lose track of the other as the ground beneath their feet gave in to the mighty pressure as the two lunged at each other with such blinding speed that it took several seconds for the sound of the devastating impact his gloved fist made with the battle ax. 

 In the blink of an eye, the two fighters had switched positions after exchanging a single blow in mid-air.

 Nine raised his fist as he observed the cut the battle ax had made on his magically enhanced gloved that should've been able to withstand the slash from an actual magic weapon. 

 "I'll admit it. You're quite strong. Stronger than me currently." 

 Nine spoke as he stared at the shallow cut between his fingers being healed slowly before returning his attention back to the emissary. 

 "Really, I guess that means you should give up then. If you surrender peacefully I promise it won't hurt. Well, not much anyway."

 "Me, surrender? Hahaha... You clearly have no idea who you're dealing with."

 "I could say the same about you though. Plus, it's already too late to regret your actions since you allowed your team to die so easily."

 "Those guys were useless to me the moment they failed to defeat you."

 Nine chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders, revealing a sinister expression in the moment. 

 "You sound so confident for a guy who's ranked last in your little group. Ain't you the weakest of the bunch."

 A vein visibly bulged on Nine's forehead but he chose to restrain himself for now. He silently took a deep breath as he allowed the tension to escape from his clenched fists.

 "Me, Weak? That's a nice joke. I've watched you throughout the fight with the others so don't think you're doing a good job of hiding your abilities by using such a weak weapon. Or did you really think I wouldn't notice."

 "Oh... you noticed. I wasn't really trying to hide it you know. This was more of an experiment."

 "Nonsense! Let's see the weapon you used on 15."

 Saying that the ground underneath his feet shattered once more as he shot out like a storm and Rain matched his speed. A grey aura engulfed his fist as he threw a devastating straight punch at the incoming blade of the battle ax being swung at him. 

 *BOOM!

 The impact shook the entire base, sending shockwaves through the walls and causing earthquakes across the entire city that could be classified as the heights magnitude earthquake. 

 As both fighters exchanged positions once more, Rain noticed the cracks forming on the blade of her weapon as it soon shattered into countless pieces. 

 "Well, that lasted longer than I expected. Still, I do feel like I've expanded my repertoire a bit. I wonder if I can get the Weapon Mastery skill if I keep using different weapons?"

 Rain tossed the base of the broken battle ax to the side as she turned around to face Nine with a smirk as she pulled out her black daggers from the void of space. 

 "Now then, do you really believe you can defeat me with that level of strength? It's about time you show me what you're hiding as well." 

 "Hahahaha... I should've expected I couldn't hide it from you."

 Nine laughed sinisterly as he walked over to where he had plunged his cane into Thirteen's body and grabbed it with his right hand without pulling his cane out. 

 The flow of Mana suddenly changed around him as Rain's eyes narrowed at the sight unfolding before her eyes. 

 The body of the Spirit being on the ground had slowly begun to shrivel up as his essence was slowly being sucked into Nine's body through his cane. 

 In less than a few seconds, the body had completely disappeared and the aura Nine's body was emitting had increased significantly. Not only that, his physical presence had also increased significantly. 

 Nine slowly let out a long sigh of ecstasy as he closed his eyes and completely assimilated the new abilities he had absorbed within himself. 

 "Yeaaaaaaah... Did you really think I dragged these worthless bums everywhere with me for their mediocre abilities? Hahahaha... that was your mistake." 

 Rain tilted her head a little puzzled as she watched Nine move and absorb the essence and body of his comrades one by one. With each one he absorbs, he goes through a drastic change as his body grows larger, his skin gets darker, and his aura skyrockets. 

 Now standing at a whopping 7ft 7, his tailored suit had been ripped by his enlarged muscular frame as a thinly black tail and goat-like horns protruded from the sides of his head. 

 He seems to have reverted into his True Demon form as his power increased rapidly, without any signs of slowing down. This didn't seem to be a temporary boost either as it seems both his mana and magic potential has increased as well, something thought to have been impossible by even the Great Five. 

 The only person in this world she had believed could do this was none other than her master, the reincarnation of the Demon King himself. 

 Yet, here was a lowly riff-raff, achieving something similar despite his rather barbaric methods. If she wasn't witnessing this herself she would've never believed it was possible. 

 In fact, she had already refused to believe this outcome when she had seen Number 10's memories of the rough data she had gathered on Nine over the years, as only the Single Digits would be aware of his abilities, skills, and items, all she could do was mostly speculation from the various bits of rumors akd information floating around. 

 Given her ambitions to rise through the ranks and become a part of the Single Digits, she had dedicated herself to finding out everything she could about them, and the person she had the most information on, was Number 9 himself. 

 She had also speculated on the various possibilities for what his innate ability would be, but this was not part of the list so Rain had not expected it. Even though she knew Nine was hiding most of his powers from the beginning. 

 The question now remains. How was he achieving this? Was it a skill? An ability? Or a Magic artifact?

 Rain's eyes naturally wandered to the cane that had grown considerably smaller in his hands as the last option came to mind.

 "What? Trying to figure out my secret? Don't worry sweetheart, I'll tell you—"

 The arms holding the cane bent in a familiar motion as the cane was shot out of his hand with an impossible speed, crossing the distance in an instant.

 "—After all, you'll die soon anyway!"

**Boom!

 Rain slightly tilted her head and the cane missed her face by a hair and crashed into the wall behind her like a meteorite. It shattered the wall behind her and continued with its omentum until the cane itself disintegrated. 

 "What you just witnessed is not the work of any mere artifact. This is my power as the apex of this world. The one who will one day rule over this universe from the shadows. This is my innate ability, Predator."

 Not wasting time, Nine casually swung his fingers at the space between him and Rain, and the air was split in four as an explosive wave sliced through everything in front of him only slightly missing Rain on purpose. 

 The smile on Rain's face did not change as she ignored the crumbling base around her and continued despite knowing they could not fight underneath the city no matter what. 

 "You make that sound like an impressive ability yet you're still only ranked 9th in your organization. If you could really grow stronger by simply absorbing others, I'm sure you would not willingly stay in the last position. Despite all this, you're still just a barking dog ain't you."

 Rain swirled her blades as she grinned which apparently seemed to rub Nine the wrong way as he clicked his tongue and spoke. 

 "I don't blame you for being ignorant but make no mistakes, I have the greatest innate ability in the world. Clearly, I've been chosen by the gods. Don't get it twisted. I've simply been bidding my time until I nurture the right targets to prey on."

 "Nurture?"

 Rain keenly picked up on the word that stood out the most in the barrage of nonsense he was spewing and hearing her repeat that word out loud made Nine frown slightly before smirking a moment later. 

 "Hehehehe... Fine, you got me. My ability has a few drawbacks for it to work, but most of all, I have to stalk my target and learn everything I can about them as the apex predators do. The more I do, the more of their strength and abilities I can assimilate, otherwise, I'll barely get anything." 

 Rain finally understood why this demon was only as strong as he was till now. He was hiding a lot of information but she could figure out the rest from what he had said till now.

 The conditions necessary for his Predator to activate were strict and thus, incredibly difficult for him to attain any meaningful skills and abilities from his prey making his ability a worthless imitation and posing no threat to her master. 

 Still, she could not permit the continuous existence of anyone claiming to be the rightful ruler of this world. Even as a passing comment, that statement was unforgivable. 

 With that, Rain was done talking and there was no longer any need to ask leading and provocative questions, her entire body leaned forward as she immediately disappeared from view. 

 "Enough talk, it's time you di—"

 Before Nine could complete his sentence, a tiny palm in comparison to his now-massive face had covered his vision as his surroundings instantly changed and his massive body was tossed accross the wilderness, burning under a blazing red sky despite the fact that it had still been the middle of the night a moment ago.