Douluo Dalu 3 | Divine Destruction

Sitting in his office, his gaze locked on the view of Shrek city that rested below him, Qiangu Dongfeng furrowed his brows. Things weren't going as he planned recently. Preparations for the war were slower than expected due to the actions of the Tang Sect and the Spirit Pagoda itself was in the midst of a succession battle. 

That much was expected, however. What truly bothered him was the nagging feeling that something was wrong, that the control over the world he held close to his chest was beginning to slip between his fingers.

"Grace Mirchea Luslec…" A low growl left his lips as the name of that detestable man escaped him, the root cause of this feeling of weakness. FUG was a parasite encroaching upon his domination of the world and yet the Spirit Pagoda couldn't do anything to them.

Befitting their name as the kin of the Absolute Darkness, they were annoyingly good at hiding. It was as though he was trying to chase after rats in the sewers, there was always a place for the persistent fools to hide.

They scurried around, stealing and snatching what belonged to him and he couldn't even deal with them properly. No matter how many of those bastards he skinned alive, there would always be a thousand more. They truly were rats, ones irritatingly sly at that.

His alliance with the Federation was fragile due to the internal discourse that filled the foolish place and that placed him in a difficult position even without the addition of FUG. Shrek and the Tang Sect had lasted thousands of years at the top, they weren't opponents to be overlooked just because a few rats were nipping at his toes.

Something was brewing between those two forces, something that put Qiangu Dongfeng on edge which was no easy feat. He was growing paranoid, he knew that much. But that was why he allowed Gu Yuena to attend that school in the first place.

A scoff left his lips at the thought of that girl. Sly, bold, and intelligent beyond her years. She was just like him in his youth with even more talent. She was by far the most suited to take over his position and become the next Pagoda Master. 

But he wouldn't allow the Qiangu clan to become detached from the Spirit Pagoda. He knew she had a partner, that damned boy who was eerily reminiscent of his bastard of a teacher, but he had heard from the girl's mouth that she was simply dealing with him out of convenience.

It was a perfectly sound argument, it would help her learn the boy's weaknesses and allow her access to Shrek's inner workings, but something about it was offputting. She was intelligent and sly, traits perfect for the Spirit Pagoda's future, but that made her hard to trust. He had to hold her at arm's length until that day came.

She was young now and even he would have a hard time dealing with public opinion if he forced his nearly twenty grandsons to wed her but there would be no such concerns if he just waited a few years. Fifteen would be a good age, wouldn't it? It would land just before the war would likely start as well so, yes, that would be best.

By that time, the Federation would have already given him the God Killer Missiles so perhaps the war wouldn't even happen but he wasn't so naive. Those persistent fools of Shrek and the Tang Sect always managed to rise above any issue, he had no doubt a mere missile or two would fail to remove them from the equation.

Even if it did, FUG would simply take their place so it wasn't as though the war preparations would become worthless either way. He still hadn't forgiven those rat bastards for starting this mess in the first place but, unfortunately, rats were always good at hiding. As far as he could tell, they didn't have any specific bases or even any observable sources. They were complete unknowns even to the powerful investigative forces of the Spirit Pagoda.

With them, it wasn't as simple as throwing a powerful weapon and being done with it. They were fools of the highest caliber, even more so than the idyllic idiots of Shrek, and would readily throw away their lives if meant concealing their information. They truly were a cult and that made everything all the harder.

Harder. 

That one word followed him everywhere he went for the past three years. The world that moved to his whim had begun to rebel and he detested it. War was coming, public opinion was falling and more people began to avoid the Spirit Pagoda. Everything was falling apart.

"Rat bastards." Spitting out those words with enough venom to drown the world, Qiangu Dongfeng hated everything FUG stood for. Their morals were flippant and ignorant to the ways of the world, the opposite of the Spirit Pagoda he had crafted. They were evil, nobody would deny that, and yet they played the hero and got his way time and time again. They were every bit as detestable as the false god they followed.

"Looks like you really hate FUG. Can't say I blame you after though. I mean, what they did to you three years ago was detestable don't you think." The annoyingly smug voice of a bastard Qiangu Dongfeng wished would drop dead right then and there accompanied the silent breeze from his now open window.

"...We have doors, you know." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, the Pagoda Master turned to the detestable Yun Ming. Playful, tranquil, and effortlessly charismatic. He was the polar opposite of Qiangu Dongfeng. It was no surprise they had always been at each other's throats.

"Didn't want to deal with the hassle of reception. Have you considered just not having windows?" Responding playfully as he always did, Yun Ming took a seat in his office as though it was the Atlas Douluo's own. Crossing his legs and throwing his arms behind him, Yun Ming was as loathsome as always.

"Why are you here, Yun Ming?" Giving up on any further attempt at pleasantries, Qiangu Dongfeng narrowed his eyes as tension filled the air. The air became heavy as the Pagoda Master's office was filled with the energy of an enraged Limit Douluo, the very foundation of this thousand year old building beginning to quake subtly.

"I was just curious." Smiling enigmatically, Yun Ming's eyes focused on something behind the Pagoda Master. Furrowing his brow and turning his head, Qiangu Dongfeng's eyes widened as he looked outside with an open mouth. 

The sky was torn apart, a deep darkness flowing from the crack of space that lay high above the Spirit Pagoda. From the depths of that abyss, thousands of battle cries reverberated as an equal number of footsteps approached them.

"I wanted to know if your God Killers could do the job." Yun Ming's words fell on deaf ears, the sound of Qiangu Donfeng's teeth nearly cracking echoing through the office. An army stepped out of the crack in the heavens, masked men and soul beasts baring their fangs at the Spirit Pagoda without fear.

And standing in front of them all was the God of Devils.

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Hey there, hope you liked the chapter.

I cooked, hard. This chapter felt great in just about every conceivable way and I loved writing it and hopefully you enjoyed reading it. I felt like last chapter was a little... mediocre, to be blunt, so hopefully this made up for it! 

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