"How adorable," it said. "Those were the exact same words your friend spoke… before I ate him, of course. He was surprisingly delicious."
Conor's grip tightened.
"You may have defeated Hans," he said through clenched teeth, "but I am different."
"Oh, I know that," the creature replied immediately. "Of course I know you are stronger than him. I saw it in his memories. Why do you think I lured you here in the first place? Do you truly believe I must lure every victim before I kill them? Of course not."
Its tone sharpened.
"Although we have found a way to return to the Earth realm, only our weaker members can pass through. The portal is unstable—too fragile to allow our strongest warriors entry. So we, the weaker ones, step through first. We grow. We feed. We strengthen ourselves."
It extinguished the dark flame with a slow curl of its fingers.
"My dark magic is still developing," it admitted, "but here… near the portal… the energy of our father flows directly to us. It sustains us. It replenishes us."Its eyes gleamed.
"Right now, I have an unlimited supply of power. And you… no matter how high your reserves may be… you are not infinite."
A cold realization washed over Conor.
"So this was a trap all along?" he thought.
It did not matter.Trap or not… he could not retreat.
"It doesn't matter," he told himself. "I'm going to fight him. And I'm going to win. I have to. My future—no, the survival of the world—depends on it. I now carry vital information. If I die, that knowledge dies with me. I cannot lose. I must win. I must avenge my friend."
His resolve hardened.
Slowly, he rose to his feet. He reached behind him and pulled the sword from his back, gripping it more firmly than he ever had before. For a brief moment, fear flickered in his mind—memories of his sister, brutally murdered by creatures of this same kin. The image threatened to weaken him.
But instead, it transformed.The fear became fuel.It fed his determination.
"Like I said earlier," Conor declared, lifting his blade, "I will make you pay for your crimes. And I'll make you regret ever touching my friend."
"Oh?" the creature replied calmly. "Then perhaps… you would like to see him one last time."
Dark shadows erupted around it once more, wrapping tightly around its distorted body. Flesh shifted. Bones realigned. The loose skin tightened and reshaped.
In seconds, the grotesque figure vanished.Standing in its place was Hans.
An exact replica.The same face. The same posture. The same familiar eyes.
"Hello, friend," the demon said softly, this time in Hans' voice—human, warm, heartbreakingly familiar.Conor's chest tightened painfully.
"Don't you dare call me that!" he shouted. "You are not my friend. You killed him!"
"Oh really?" the demon replied, tilting Hans' head slightly. "And yet, just moments ago, you trusted me completely. I could have stabbed you then, and you would have believed your best friend had done it."
Its expression shifted into a faint smirk.
"Fortunately for you, we do not rely on petty tricks. We fight head-on… unlike the other ones."Without warning, it stretched out its hand.
Dark energy began to condense in front of its palm, swirling inward into a compact sphere. It was dense. Heavy. Blacker than night.
"Dark Blast."
The words were spoken quietly.The sphere shot forward instantly.Conor reacted on instinct, dashing sideways just in time. The attack tore past him and surged into the forest behind.
There was no explosion.No roaring sound.
No flames.Everything the sphere touched simply vanished.
Grass disappeared. Trees ceased to exist. Vines were erased without resistance. The attack carved a perfectly clean path through the forest, as though reality itself had been sliced away.
When Conor glanced back, he saw it—a long, hollow corridor cut straight through the woodland. No ash. No debris.
Nothing.
"That… was frightening," he thought.
This was not like fire that burned and left ashes behind. This was not like lightning that shattered and scorched.This was annihilation.
Complete consumption.
"What kind of attack was that?" Conor whispered internally as he stared at the aftermath."If that attack had touched any part of me…"
"that part would have disappeared completely."
The monsters voice finished his thought softly, from right behind his ear.
That was the exact moment fear truly struck Conor.
He had not seen the demon move. There had been no warning, no shift in the air, no sound of footsteps against stone. One second the creature had been standing several meters away, its stolen face twisted in amusement, and the next it was behind him, close enough for its breath to brush against the back of his neck.
Before Conor could react, before he could even turn his head, a devastating blow crashed into his side.
The impact was monstrous.