The portal opened simultaneously on Orion and in the demon realm.
Every person affiliated with the demons felt a huge boost in strength at this moment.
Their eyes grew shades of red as their muscles contracted and then expanded.
It came to some at the most unfortunate timing, causing a lapse in movement while in battle and they paid for it with their lives.
The direct demon worshippers benefitted the most from this, as their strength was multiplied based on how big their demonic foundation was.
Feeling the burst of power, they began turning tides in many parts of the war, killing many.
Here, things got interesting.
Ezra blade had split the magic circle carved in the room of the blood pool in two, but that simply disconnected half of it, rendering it unusable, the other half was still functioning, though its rate of progression was slower.
The formation sapped the blood out of anything that died within its boundaries and then sent it off, refining it on the process as what would arrive at the cave would be miniscule amounts of blood containing the essence necessary to act as a power source for the portal.
The portal in the ground was indirectly imprinted onto the magic circle's path, allowing it to absorb the essence and grow even more.
Beyond that…
The demon lord looked at the portal with expected eyes, waiting for it to enlarge to its fullest.
The demon lord had his three strongest subordinates arranged in front of the portal, but it didn't open higher after that.
Frowning at the delay, the demon lord walked and plunged his hand through.
He couldn't feel anything, indicating the portal had yet to even stabilize.
With a snap of his fingers and a few words, a demon was brought to him, a short monstrosity, a demon at the bottom of the hierarchy chain.
With a swift hand, the demon lord beheaded the demon.
"Kaka raguu saga" (Throw his body inside)
Like a sack of sand, they tossed the body and then the head into the portal.
The demon lord was familiar with Orion, for they had invaded the place once before, but were repelled by the inhabitants.
They were killed in droves and knocked back to their resource barren world and then locked there as the portal used was permanently sealed.
Whatever remnants the demon's left behind was cleaned up and their supporters were massacred.
Centuries, unbeknownst how, a demon came to report an anomaly.
It had seen a human.
Getting there with haste, the demon lord finds it to be true.
Somehow, a human had opened a mirror portal to their world.
But this human was not in a good state, he was raggedy, skinny and impoverished.
Bringing a demon mage to enchant the mirror portal, the demon lord was able to communicate with the man.
Using a demon's ability, their tongue, he brought the man to his side, promising him power and riches.
To make sure the secret was kept, the demon lord killed both the mage and the demon that initially discovered it.
Using their bodies as sacrifices, he found he was able to transverse the portal into the other side.
He was able to push his fist through, cutting a wound with his long nails, from which the man drank the demon lord's blood, becoming his first human emissary.
From then on the demon lord guided the man, gaining much useful information from him.
For one, the humans had grown immensely weaker, those that repelled the demons were no more, and the strongest of people he overestimated, was but a bit stronger than his strongest subordinate.
The demon lord recognized an opportunity, and so his ambition bloomed.
From it, the demon lord put a plan in place, one to ensure his return to conquer Orion, with which he would ensure his rise to the position of strongest and dominate the others.
With the possibility at hand, it mattered not how long it took. Besides, he had nothing else to do.
Demons lived in the harshest environments, as such their bodies grew to accommodate it, but it left them with very short lifespans.
But there was a twist, as the ability to steal the life force of others was also granted, allowing them natural evolution in the process.
Born from the planet's earth, the need to devour was imprinted on them right from childhood, each demon was to kill their way up, gaining experience and knowledge as they did.
Competition was steeper than a snowy mountain as the horizon of comfort could only be seen atop a tower of corpses.
Several decades passed, with everybody fighting everybody, and at the end of it, seven championed all others in strength, becoming lords.
That was how demon lords came to be.
As of their rise, the entire race had grown several times in knowledge, most things understandable.
At this point, the demon population split into seven uneven factions.
Soon after, the portal was discovered for the first time.
Without any information, others passed through and soon all the lords heard of it and came.
At the top of their world, only curiosity drove them as they crossed into a new world.
The change in scenery was too damning, the everlasting caused by the flowing streams of lava on their planet was nowhere to be seen.
Here, everything was shined upon by a light from above, burning deep into their eyes as the demon world hosted perpetual darkness.
Then there was the general atmosphere filled with dust that strengthened their bodies and could not be depleted.
They would come to know this to be mana.
From the trees grew things more delicious than they'd ever tasted and they seem to lay everywhere.
The moment they identified these things, they set out to take it all for themselves, and being so powerful, what could possibly match them?
Soon enough though, they were forced into confrontations with the creatures of this new place.
And their perspective was forever changed.
Humans they were called, the demons later found out.
Amongst them were many with strength equalling the seven demon lords.
Realizing this the hard way, the demons fled back to their realm with the humans chasing them, and managed to arrive back home, but with immense scars and wounds.
A few decades passed with the demon lords simply focused on healing, and with three demon lords killed at the hands of humans, there was more than enough of everything for the four of them to avoid each other's territory for centuries as they healed from the massive injuries inflicted upon them.
But even that would soon come to an end, an age of bloodshed was on its way for it was a matter of time before one demon lord riled up chaos.
The stagnating stench of peace had peaked. Destruction was inevitable at this point.
He was among the four demon lords, and the best way to ensure his survival and elevate his position was by outstripping them in strength.
The easiest way to outstrip them was by conquering Orion and using its resources to strengthen himself.
Through decades of diligent work, he'd gained loads of new knowledge, learnt the language of humans, learnt their principles, taught them his, and rebuilt his entire foundation by literally combining the best from both worlds while establishing a new culture in Orion.
A culture carefully curtailed, created to fulfil his wishes.
Now holding many hidden powers, he was confident in killing any of the other demon lords in a one-on-one fight, but the probability of getting a fair fight in the demon world was infinitely close to zero.
It had taken an exorbitant amount of lifeforce to fuel the portal.
It was expected for the portal to connect two worlds and resist the barrier that had risen against creatures from outside.
All that work faded into memory, having paid off as the demon lord stared at the pitch-black portal in front of him.
He planned to take very few along with him simply to have things go smoother.
Sharing the fruits of his labour was not one of his hobbies, and more importantly, under no circumstance could the other demon lords know.
The demon lord guessed something must've happened because the life force put in was to be enough to open a portal wide enough and stabilize it.
It mattered not as the demon lord was not letting the chance slip him by.
After throwing in three additional bodies and the portal still showed no effect, the demon lord commanded his subordinates.
"Rekaluum" (Enter)
The first went straight in, the second followed behind him and then the third.
As the third and last subordinates entered, the portal shook, calling the demon lord's maximum attention.
Right after, the tips of the portal began to shrink.
Alarmed, the demon lord rushed in right away, the portal closing just as he did.
Where there were four, there were now none.
The demon lord finds himself going down a vacuum of darkness, with everything pitch black as his body and senses warped in ways beyond comprehension.
Suddenly, he drops somewhere, everywhere still black, but a radiance shone into it.
Forcing himself to look, he realizes the window the radiance came through was closing.
With haste, the demon lord pushed himself in the direction of the radiance which as much might as he could muster.
Yet it seemed he moved too slow as the window of radiance closed just as fast as he arrived.
Within arm's length, the demon lord lunged for the radiance with his arm.
He did not come this far to fail!
