by Jason Hale
And as the last ounce of poison was purified, she lost all strength and passed out within Konnor's arms.
His face showed no expression, but his heart beat slightly faster and a sensation he'd played with, but that remained foreign to him brewed within.
Upon seeing Nier faint, the Stolien Beast believed the game won and burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahahaha! With that pesky little creature out of the way, your life is mine!
Even if our lineages are different, the benefits I will gain from swallowing you will be immense!
Past today, my bloodline level will soar, my cultivation speed will skyrocket, and my future shall be limitless!
This is fate!"
Elated by its future prospects, it was losing itself in self-gratification.
Konnor didn't spare it a glance, holding Nier body firmly against his chest.
"Awaken, Man-Breaker."
Vast demonic energy erupted from Konnor's body, a jet-black spiked war hammer engraved with vein-like purple lines appeared within his right hand, releasing a horrible force that dispelled all toxins and shattered the green poison dome.
Seeing that weapon, the previously elated Stolien Beast was terror-stricken.
"A…lineage weapon? You are…a noble?"
Konnor gave it no answer.
Tremendous suppression force crashed on the Stolien Beast, causing it to tumble and crater in a resounding explosion of dust. Fred of its spell, Konnor softly landed onto the ground with his eyes still focused on the passed-out Nier wrapped by his left arm.
The weight of mountains crushed the Stolien Beast. Its movements became sluggish, and it struggled to straighten itself on its obnoxiously long legs.
The vast demonic energy spreading from Konnor swept all its toxins, and turned the area into an infernal land.
"I didn't know I faced a superior and offended your lordship…my deepest apologies…"
It stuttered. Still, there was no answer. The heavy silence only heightened its unease.
"Please…say something…"
Konnor flung his hammer at its face. Man-Breaker smashed its beak, bashed its skull in, and shattered its facial bones.
It flew backward and crashed against a distant tree.
Konnor gently placed Nier on the ground, and with a grasping motion, Man-Breaker returned to his hand.
He then turned to face the Stolien Beast whose body was sliding onto the ground and said:
"It's time to die."
Chapter 62 - New Pawn
Inwardly, the Stolien Beast cursed its ten thousand ancestors, fate and all the deities of the universe. Most importantly, it also cursed itself. Never in its wildest dreams did it expect Konnor to be a direct descendant of a noble demon house. Had it been aware of that, it would have never dared open the hostilities.
"Overreach…I overreached myself…"
It complained with green blood gushing from its half-broken face. Konnor took a leisurely step forward and appeared before it. His hands tightly clenched around Man-Breaker while his cold, unfeeling eyes rested on the Stolien Beast.
"It's too late for such words. Don't worry, I will make sure your body doesn't go to waste."
Konnor lifted Man-Breaker and lowered it in a crushing blow that bashed the Stolien Beast's head in, and crushed the life out of its body in a macabre concerto of breaking bones.
The Stolien Beast's lifeless body limply fell onto the ground.
"Do you want to start the refining process?"
The Flame Mark asked.
"Let's wait for one moment. We still have someone to deal with."
A berserk force approached at breakneck speed. It moved past the trees and appeared by Nier' side.
Naturally, it was her brother, the fifth prince, Holgren. He had first been alarmed by the flurry of spells that streaked across the sky. Spells he recognized as his sister's. Reckoning that she'd gotten entangled in a battle with the Accursed Beast that caused all to flee toward the lower levels, Holgren decided to leave his team behind and rush toward this place.
However, when vast demonic energy buffeted his face, he knew the situation dozens of times worse than he expected. Therefore, he used the full might of his cultivation to cover the distance at his fastest speed.
By the time he arrived, the Stolien Beast had just perished; leaving only Konnor, Nier and the plethora of demonic energy.
Holgren's blazing eyes moved between the unconscious Nier and Konnor whose body seemed to be the source of the demonic energy.
His mind reeled, his thoughts went wild, and assumptions ran rampant.
"What have you done to my sister?"
He bellowed in a frenzied tone upon kneeling by Nier' side to check her pulse and realizing the frailty of her current state.
Konnor glanced at him with a sneer.
"Regardless of what I did or did not do to her. What can you do?"
He had no intention to waste time pleading innocence when his status as a demon clearly meant an inevitable battle. And with Man-Breaker in hands, he simply didn't put Holgren in his eyes.
Holgren stood up, his scorching, silver gaze daggering Konnor while he stretched out his arms.
"True Spirit Form!"
Just like Nier before, silver light and grey fog burst from Holgren's body while his hairs and skin glittered in a light akin to the moon's.
In a heartbeat, his cultivation rose from the fourth step Arch Knight to the seventh step Arch Knight and his battle power soared.
However, Konnor still didn't take him seriously. Wielding his lineage weapon, even a low-level Accursed Beast was no match for him.
Could he possibly dread Holgren?
He tapped the ground with Man-Breaker, releasing vast suppressing force that smashed into the unprepared Holgren and lowered his cultivation by half a rank.
He went from the seventh step Arch Knight to the second step Arch Knight. The same level as Konnor.
"What sorcery is this?"
Holgren blurted in stupor. He wasn't well-versed on the topic of demons as they seemed like a distant enemy that served a greater role in justifying the church's power rather than pose an actual threat.
Thus, although he could identify Konnor as a demon, he possessed no understanding of his weapon and its abilities.
Suppressed by Man-Breaker, he now had to fight against his own body to maintain control and display a minimum of fighting power. The fight had not even started, that it was already lost.
Konnor gave him no verbal answer, appeared before him in a flash, and threw a punch straight at his chest.
*Bam*
It caved in, and he flew backward with blood gushing from his mouth, staining his lips and golden robe in its red. He then crashed onto the ground.
"Puh!"
Konnor once again appeared by his side and kept him pinned down by pressing the full weight of Man-Breaker on his chest. He was entirely at his mercy.
"I'm confused. What did you hope to accomplish by coming here? On one side you had an Accursed Beast and on the other side a pureblooded demon. Regardless of how you look at this, you were rushing toward your death.
What was the point?"
Though he knew himself defeated and unable to reverse the situation, Holgren still didn't give in to fright and kept his unyielding eyes locked on Konnor's.
"Since my beloved sister is in danger, I must, of course, come to her aid. Regardless of the cost, regardless of the result, the first thing to do is naturally to support her.
But I suppose one of demonic blood cannot understand that principle."
He spat, causing Konnor to burst into laughter.
"You're right, I can't understand. You speak about brotherly ties with such vigor that I'd almost taken you seriously. However, was Nier replaced by say…your seventh brother, would your reaction still be the same?"
To this, Holgren turned his eyes and didn't answer.
"Yeah, I thought so. Such selective, hypocritical family ties. The
imperial family is truly a joke. But it's alright, this all suits me well.
Submit to me, and I can spare both your lives. How does that sound?"
Holgren could exchange his life for his princely dignity, but he could never gamble Nier'. Therefore, he immediately softened.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Simple, accept a contract of perpetual servitude. Pledge to do my bidding for an eternity, and you can both go scot-free. Are you willing?"
As an imperial prince, the implications of surrendering his life and soul to a demon were clear within Holgren's mind. However, his eyes remained firm, and he didn't hesitate.
"I am willing! As long as you can spare her, I can do whatever you want."
Recalling how Nier proudly said her father, eldest brother and fifth brother could burn the country for her sake, and how Holgren brazenly charged to rescue his sister, Konnor had no doubt that he could coerce him into submission.
A new pawn had been obtained.
Unlike Wenzel, the unfavored sixth prince, Holgren was greatly valued by his father, the Holy Emperor. Moreover, he was the closest man to his eldest brother the Crown Prince.
He would be an excellent pawn within the imperial family.
Konnor summoned the pentagram and glyphs and conducted the contract with Holgren's compliance.
Like all the others, his talent became Konnor's, his mind became an open book while his life and will now belonged to Konnor.
Konnor lifted Man-Breaker from Holgren's chest, making it vanish in a purple haze.
"In the next part of the competition, you will feign injury and not participate. Understood?"
Clear unwillingness appeared within Holgren's eyes. This competition was his once in a hundred years opportunity to obtain a Holy Flame Baptism. His only hope to reach the Holy Knight Rank in a lifetime. Without it, unless he received great opportunities, he was likely to never go beyond the Semi-Holy Rank. How could he give it up?
However, thanks to the contract, Konnor's will was now a supreme force he couldn't challenge.
"Understood…"
Good. Now take your sister and scram. When she asks, you joined the battle at a critical time and managed to tip the scales. Together, we fought off the Accursed Beast and forced it back to the fourth level."
Konnor ordered, and Holgren didn't delay. In silence, he placed Nier on his shoulders and left the scene.
Konnor then walked back toward the deceased Stolien Beast.
"Why didn't you keep the girl? I can feel that you want her."
The Flame Mark's inquiry produced no emotion within Konnor's eyes.
"With that girl, there are only two ways things can go. Either I forcefully rewrite her memories to suit my needs and slowly deprive her of her free will, or I let her be. I am not conceited enough to believe I can cause that kind of girl to disregard the fate of her cherished relatives for the sake of my pretty eyes. I won't comment on the others, but if her father and eldest brother treat her with the same love her fifth brother does...if the day comes when she must choose between them and I, what do you think she will do?"
"I have no certainty about the future, and since I do not plan to modify her, I might as well let her be. As for what we will be in the future, be it friends or enemies, let fate run its course."
"You have too many considerations. If you want a woman, you should just take her. The consequences be damned. With the rising power of your demonic blood, what can you not handle?"
"To each its own. I may be self-serving, greedy and conceited, but knowingly pulling a woman I like into such a furnace for the sake of temporary pleasure or false emotions is something I'd rather not do."
The Flame Mark had nothing else to say and began instructing Konnor on how to refine the Stolien Beast into a new totem.
Chapter 63 - We Will Not Wait for Death!
Refining a totem required a complete skeleton. Therefore, Konnor skinned the Stolien Beast of its useless parts and carved the ritual circles as instructed by the Flame Mark before placing the skeleton at the center.
He then powered the ritual circles with his demonic energy, causing the skeleton to shrink until it could fit within a palm while eldritch glyphs rose and embedded themselves within it.
The ritual carried on for some time. Green light shone from the miniature skeleton's empty eye sockets, and finally, the ritual came to an end.
When conducted by the barbarian tribes, such rituals required blood sacrifices. However, thanks to his demonic energy, Konnor didn't need to resort to such means.
He then erased all traces of the ritual and took the Stolien Beast Totem within his palm.
Not everyone could possess more than one physique. The number of physiques one could bear was directly linked to the bloodline's level and might.
As a Pureblooded Incubus, Konnor's limit was three. When he increased his bloodline level to Dream-Weaver, he could unlock another slot. He sat cross-legged, placed the totem against his chest, and absorbed it within. His eyes shone with violet light while the refining process began.
Just like with the Anzu Beast Totem, he entered a trance-like state during which he seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
A green stream coursed through his veins, transforming his insides to accommodate the Stolien Beast's power. By the time the refining process ended, the poison attribute was added to his list. Be it sight, smell or hearing, his sensory abilities drastically improved and he obtained formidable resistance against poisons beneath the Transcendent Rank.
However, just like with the Anzu Beast Physique, his cultivation wasn't enough to fully control his new abilities.
He stood up and resumed hunting. The Monstrous Beasts in the surroundings no longer fit his appetite. Therefore, he headed deeper into the third level to challenge mid-level Monstrous Beasts. By the end of the first day, his kill count was twelve low-level Monstrous Beasts and eight mid-level Monstrous Beasts. As for high-level Monstrous Beasts, he avoided them.
Although demonic beasts beneath the Accursed Rank couldn't harm him thanks to his Transcendent Rank Physiques, destroying high-level Monstrous Beasts without Man-Breaker or a fourth circle spell was a nigh impossible task.
Worse, assuming he did manage to bring them down, bringing such trophies to the outside world would do him more harm than good. How was he supposed to explain his ability to slay such creatures with his current cultivation level?
Questions would rise, and investigations would follow. Nothing good would come out of it. As the first day came to an end, Konnor went down to the second level to check the situation.
There were hundreds of Voracious and Superior Beasts within the third level and thousands of Lesser and Intermediate Beasts within the first. Exterminating them all within three days using one-hundred-eight contestants who mostly were at the Grand Knight Rank was no mean feat.
To speak bluntly, it was impossible.
Upon realizing what they were dealing with, those who became aware of the seemingly endless number of demonic beasts quickly sent words to the higher levels. However, their worries were neglected by the stronger teams eager to accumulate points.
This all changed when the Stolien Beast's appearance within the third level forced everyone to return to the lower levels.
They were now all desperately seeking and slaughtering the demonic beasts en masse.
Feeling the extermination cloud looming over their heads, driven by their higher intelligence and stronger survival instinct, the Superior Beasts of the second level banded together in packs and went down to the first level to meet the foreign oppressors.
Beasts of various races lined up within the first level under the leadership of the Superior Beasts for a brutal counterattack.
At the beginning of the second day, the roars of the beast legion pierced the sky, alarming all contestants.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Why is the earth trembling?"
Dawn was barely announcing itself when conf
usion began spreading within the contestants.
Indeed, as the beasts gathered, the earth trembled, and the sky darkened, bloated by incoming flying beasts.
It was thanks to those winged creatures that the contestants realized the avalanche of problems coming their way.
