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The yellow-robed demon saw Soren coming and threw both arms up in front of its chest. Thick black mist poured out of its body and coalesced into a solid shield.
"Overconfident human—"
The demon hid behind the barrier, voice dripping with contempt. "With power like yours, you really think you can—"
A blinding streak of purple light tore straight through the shield and flashed through the demon's torso.
When Soren reappeared, he was already behind it, both hands still locked on Alastor in the follow-through of the thrust.
The mocking grin on the demon's face froze.
It looked down at its own chest.
A hole the size of a dinner plate had opened there.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the wound.
With a wet, final sound the demon's body detonated into a cloud of black blood-mist.
The force of the strike was so violent that the ground itself split open in a jagged fissure more than thirty feet long where Soren had stood.
[Ding!]
[Successfully killed upper-class demon enhanced by dark energy.]
[Points awarded: 5000]
The long-silent system finally spoke up in Soren's mind.
Dark energy enhancement?
Soren straightened slowly, staring at the notification with a raised eyebrow. First time he'd run into a demon like that.
More alerts followed in quick succession.
[Demon bloodline awakening increased by 1%]
[Demon bloodline awakening increased by 1%]
[Current points: 8500]
[Current bloodline awakening: 22%]
Soren glanced down at himself. The demonized form had already faded. That final attack had burned through a massive amount of power and stamina. Even though his bloodline had climbed again and his reserves were slowly recovering, his face was still pale.
Sparks and the smell of burning plastic rose from his right arm. The mechanical prosthetic was smoking badly, arcs of electricity dancing across its surface. Completely fried.
He yanked it off and tossed it to Nico as she came running up.
She caught the smoking piece of scrap with both hands, but instead of looking disappointed she actually lit up.
"Perfect! Finally got real combat data!"
She pulled a diagnostic tool from her pocket and jammed it into one of the ports. "With these readings I can optimize the power conduits and fix the stability issues. As the first field tester for this next-gen gear, I promise—once the finished version is ready, I'll send you a few."
Soren gave her a tired smile and nodded.
He turned to look at the spot where the demon had exploded. Nothing remained. Not even ash.
"Damn shame," he muttered under his breath.
He had hoped the specially enhanced demon might have been strong enough to become a Devil Arm. That kind of defense had been genuinely impressive. But it turned out the real power had just been borrowed from whatever black mist its master had pumped into it. The demon itself hadn't been high enough tier to crystallize into a proper weapon.
Two figures limped out from behind the rubble—the bearded prisoner and the younger one, still supporting each other. When they saw the bodies scattered across the square and Soren standing in the middle of it all, their eyes filled with awe.
They had watched the entire fight.
The two men walked straight up to Soren and dropped to one knee.
"Thank you, merciful lord," the bearded man said, voice shaking. "You saved this land. You drove out the heretics who were deceived by demons."
The younger man echoed him, eyes burning with fanatical gratitude.
Nico looked at the two men in their crude burlap clothes and asked, "Who are these guys?"
"Former leaders of this town," Soren said simply.
He focused for a moment. Seven pale children in white robes appeared on the ground in front of him. They looked weak and disoriented, but they were alive and waking up. They rubbed their eyes and stared at the ruined square in confusion.
When the two prisoners saw the children safe and sound, tears spilled down their faces. So many kids had been taken… and only these seven had survived.
They kept bowing their heads to Soren in thanks.
The ground began to tremble.
Above them the sky cracked like a breaking mirror. The wooden buildings around the square started to dissolve, turning into countless glowing particles that drifted upward into the night.
"Shit!" Nico's face went white. "The space is collapsing! We need to find a faraway tree and get out of here right now, or we're screwed!"
Soren felt the same cold spike of urgency. Even with his current body, he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could survive the spatial turbulence raw. One wrong move and even demonization wouldn't save him from being ripped apart.
The two prisoners watched the world dissolving around them. They looked down at their own hands, which were already turning transparent and breaking into light. There was no fear in their eyes—only a quiet, exhausted peace.
"So… we really were already dead," the bearded man said with a bitter smile. He looked up at Soren. "Thank you, my lord. You broke the curse. You gave us real rest at last."
Their bodies, along with the seven children, dissolved completely into drifting particles and vanished on the wind.
"Let's go."
Soren didn't hesitate. He grabbed Nico's arm and pushed off hard.
White light flashed.
When Soren opened his eyes again they were back in the forest outside the nightmare town. The wind was howling now, the sky a bloody red. The whole world felt like it was holding its breath before something terrible arrived.
Soren turned to look at the faraway tree they had just come through.
The glowing hole in its trunk was gone. It was just an ordinary tree again. With the loop broken, the tree's function had ended.
Dozens of monster corpses lay scattered around the base of the trunk.
"Soren?"
A voice called from the bushes.
Sheriff Boyd pushed through the undergrowth, clothes torn and streaked with dirt, but otherwise looking mostly intact. He stared at the two of them with a mix of hope and tension.
"You guys pull it off?"
Soren nodded.
He studied Boyd for a second. For some reason, seeing the man again gave him the strangest feeling—like he'd met him somewhere before.