Phoenixes were probably the rarest high-level magical beast in this world.
Legends about them were told everywhere in the world, yet very few had actually witnessed a phoenix for themselves. Some even doubted that phoenixes really existed, but phoenixes also became a symbol of fortune.
Many myths about phoenixes regarded them as the penultimate form of nature. In a way, phoenixes even had higher status than dragons.
The most common legend about phoenixes was that they were “undying”. This was a perfect type of undying, with incredibly strong regeneration abilities and wondrous elemental affinity. Phoenixes were capable of reviving themselves in flame and lightning. This was a racial trait of theirs that had been repeatedly witnessed before.
It was likely that Margaret was the foremost expert in the world regarding phoenixes.
Back in the day, we hunted down a phoenix in order to obtain the strongest possible “undying” bloodline for Adam. That was probably the most difficult battle I ever had back then. We paid a great price even despite our long preparations and making traps beforehand.
It was precisely because of this that we understood phoenixes better than anyone. Only an enemy would do a deep investigation on all your information in order to completely determine your strengths and weaknesses, after all.
“Phoenixes are actually fluctuations in the Elemental Tide. Rather than saying that phoenixes are living creatures, it’s more accurate to say that they’re a natural phenomenon created by the Elemental Tide. That’s right, phoenixes are a natural phenomenon.”
Maybe this made it sound like phoenixes were a type of elemental creature, but phoenixes were actually fundamentally different.
The gathering of fire element would produce fire elemental creatures, whose bodies would consist of fire element being densely packed together. Meanwhile, the rise and fall of the Elemental Tide would affect the entire world. The Elemental Tide’s powerful fluctuations created elemental phoenixes.
Phoenixes were the shadows of the Elemental Tide. They were the result of fluctuations in the Elemental Tide. Phoenixes didn’t have actual physical bodies. Although phoenixes were similar to elemental creatures, they far surpassed elemental creatures. Phoenixes were closer to Concepts, and were capable of choosing their own powerful traits of elemental creatures, which made them disgustingly difficult to deal with in real battles.
Phoenixes were incredibly rare in number, as they would only be born when there were large fluctuations in the Elemental Tide. More than 70% of phoenixes would be born during a Holy War, while the other 30% would be born in special circumstances.
Fluctuations were able to interfere and combine with each other. Two elemental phoenixes of the same type meeting each other would also combine and evolve, or perhaps exchange information and become more systematic.
It could be said that this world only had four phoenixes representing each of the four elements, but it could also be said that this world had several hundred phoenixes, where each phoenix was a “natural phenomenon”. The phoenix would exist when you observed it, but it might combine or disappear at any time.
The fire phoenix that we hunted had only been a small individual portion of a fluctuation. Completely hunting down and killing a real primeval elemental phoenix was something that even a Main God probably wasn’t capable of.
One of the most ancient elemental phoenixes resided at the Great Snow Mountain Magical Realm. This phoenix was the ruler of ice and snow who had been born the moment that ice and snow element had been born from the water element. This ice phoenix was the most ancient ice elemental creature of all.
I didn’t know how powerful the ice phoenix was, but I knew that it definitely wouldn’t be weaker than any Elemental God.
Meanwhile, the Devil Lord of Thunder in front of me was also a phoenix. However, he wasn’t a primeval phoenix of the four elements. He was a phoenix of light, representing the natural phenomenon of how light was born from wind, making him the most ancient light elemental creature of all.
However, when considering the history of light, he was still a young child in comparison to the ice phoenix from the Great Snow Mountain Magical Realm.
The Devil Lord of Thunder’s existence was actually the birth of the natural phenomenon of “light”. However, some people viewed this as a forbidden taboo.
Very few people would think deeply about just what the venerated light and Holy Light consisted of, if the world was made out of the four elements.
Perhaps there really were those who pondered this before, but they would either be burned on the stake by the God of Holy Light, or executed in secret.
The unknown was the best way for those being worshipped to remain in power, after all. If something could be easily investigated and researched under a magnifying glass, then it would be worthy of respect and worship.
But actually, the origin of light wasn’t anything so mysterious. Just as how the wind element had given birth to the thunder element, the light element was also an extension born from the wind element. Holy Light was another type of light, so Holy Light naturally contained other elements, since everything in this world was created from the four elements. This was the same for all compound elements.
The birth of the Lord of Thunder was also evidence of this being true.
The Lord of Thunder had been born in the upper planes. He was born with perfect control over light and wind. However, his very existence was something that the entire Holy Light Faction was quite uncomfortable with.
“Light is a subordinate element of wind? Won’t that make foolish mortals think that light is lower than wind?”
Actually, the upper elements and lower elements didn’t have a direct superior/subordinate relationship. Being so-called upper or lower was only about birth order. In fact, most situations actually were that lower elements had the advantage. For example, it was common that an ice mage could easily defeat a water mage. But, sometimes, just a name alone would attract hate and dissatisfaction.
And if the Holy Light Faction, which was the central faction in heaven, was dissatisfied with you...
What happened next was only natural. Even if the Lord of Thunder was a top-level light elemental creature, a newborn phoenix would still be really weak, so he naturally went to the side of Chaos to protect his own life from being sealed.
Maybe this sounded confusing, but darkness and Chaos weren’t necessarily always connected. For instance, Holy Light had chosen the Order Faction, but that was only because the God of Holy Light had chosen the Order Faction.
Meanwhile, a natural phenomenon like the Lord of Thunder didn’t have much connection to Holy Light to begin with. Instead, he was closer to lightning and light of the natural world. An existence of light choosing the side of Chaos was completely possible.
And then, the Lord of Thunder naturally became the most wanted criminal in all of the Holy Light Faction, meaning that only the lower planes could protect him.
However, the Lord of Thunder was a creature of light who had underestimated how chaotic demon society was. Too much chaos was completely against his inner nature, so the end result was that he betrayed the demons and joined the devils, who were relatively orderly amongst the Chaos faction.
Without a doubt, even though the Lord of Thunder was less than 2000 years old, this new phoenix of light was still one of the strongest devils of the new generation. It was only natural that he became a Devil Lord.
Since he was simultaneously loathed by demons and the Holy Light Faction, it was only natural that he became an extremely loyal devil, as he had no other place to go at all.
Saying that he bore the Original Sin of Pride was a bit of a stretch. His light attribute would naturally suppress other demons and devils, so they would never be the same kind. He barely counted as being prideful, especially if a mortal said it, since the Lord of Thunder hadn’t actually performed any astonishingly evil deeds despite becoming fallen as a demon and then a devil.
As a phoenix, he didn’t have any desires for earthly possessions at all, and he would naturally grow stronger without needing to do anything.
After so many years, he was naturally inextricably tied to the devil faction. Since the devils were in such panic right now, the Lord of Thunder unhesitatingly came out.
The panicking devils felt that his lightning which always seemed so painfully blinding was now such a warm sight to behold. At the very least, it meant that this second-last remaining Devil Lord was still on the battlefield and dominating this domain.
With him at the core, the devils swiftly established a new defense line. The human alliance tried multiple attacks, but were repelled quite easily by lightning that left only charred dead humans behind.
The Lord of Thunder circled the air as blinding lightning kept flashing and thunderbolts kept flailing the land. The human alliance’s forces were pushed back by him singlehandedly.
“Face me, you weak little chicken!”
Certain existences would view certain words as taboo to say in front of them. According to the fairies’ information, the Lord of Thunder was easily offended by names such as “little chicken”, “female hen”, and so on. The fairies’ information was indeed quite accurate.
I instantly sensed myself being targeted. An impending sense of doom caused me to break out into a cold sweat, so I hurriedly flew away as a bolt of lightning viciously struck where I was just standing. This bolt of lightning even possessed the ability to follow after me.
With just an angry expression, the Lord of Thunder was able to create a cage of lightning right in front of me as lightning bolts intersected on my body.
Countless lightning bolts danced around on my body at a speed that was impossible to react to.
But soon, the lightning dissipated to reveal that I was still smiling while looking at the Lord of Thunder. This meager degree of lightning wouldn’t even possibly injure me.
My taunting smile made the extremely prideful phoenix go into a rampage.
He unhesitatingly stopped targeting the human army in front of him and started chasing after me. However, I had no intentions of trying to dodge the lightning bolts that filled the sky.
Perhaps other people felt that phoenixes were indestructible, and the Lord of Thunder had shown several times in history before that he was indestructible, but someone like me who had successfully slain a fire phoenix before could see that his indestructibility was filled with weaknesses.
“First of all, let’s fight somewhere else instead.”
The thundering large chicken was right in front of me by now, so I stomped my foot and transported us to my personal Hell world.
The more that an ace was used, the more information about it that would be exposed. Previously, I could pass things off by saying that it was a special magical barrier when I put the elves into my personal Hell to help transport them, but my successful ambush on the Lord of Tyranny and Undead Emperor Shupnus had undoubtedly exposed information about my private world, meaning that my enemies would now be on guard.
Still, being able to activate a home-field advantage at any time would still be a tremendous advantage for existences of my level.
The thunder phoenix unhesitatingly started flying high up into the sky when he saw the world around him change. He had ample combat experience, so his immediate reaction upon being faced with the unknown was to try and run.
“As expected, things won’t be so simple...”
I could bring anyone that I wanted into my personal Hell world. However, my enemies were also capable of simply normally walking out of my Hell world as long as they passed the border. With the Lord of Thunder’s flying speed, he would likely be able to escape from my Hell world in just a few seconds.
“Stop him, Yongye City.”
My black floating castle showed itself from the dark clouds. Its shadowy mage towers gathered light that transformed into beams which shot directly at the Lord of Thunder.
“Foolish mortal, you’re actually trying to challenge me with Holy Light!? I am the Lord of Thunder, the peak of existence of all light!”
However, only more beams of light answered him.
The beams of light intersected, forming into a net that gradually shrunk and limited his movements. Finally, the Lord of Thunder was forced to start carefully dodging the beams of light which were actually quite low-level.
Other people would likely be confused by this sight. However, I was someone who would never be fooled by the Lord of Thunder’s words, due to my deep understanding of phoenixes.
Indeed, light magic was his origin magic. According to how elements countered each other, a normal person should have used death magic or dark witchcraft against him. However, phoenixes weren’t elemental creatures at all. They were natural phenomena, fluctuations, and shadows.
In that case, how was one supposed to shatter a shadow or stop a fluctuation? The most concrete method wouldn’t rely on trying to attack the phoenix with anything else, as that would be meaningless. Only by sending an even larger fluctuation to “neutralize” it, by using an even larger shadow to “cover” it, was the method that we discovered to truly kill a phoenix back in the day.
That was precisely the reason why I chose to fight the Lord of Thunder with Holy Light.
“You cowardly female hen, if you really are a rooster, then come down here and face me directly!”
If I won this fight, I would need to really properly thank the fairies who gave me this information on the Lord of Thunder. A single taunt caused him to immediately turn around and unhesitatingly charge at me despite the fact that he had almost reached the border of my personal Hell world.

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