*Content Warning: This chapter contains mature themes, violence, blood, and morally dark actions. Reader discretion advised.*
Leon then understood that the one standing in front of him was something he had never truly expected to face.
"I've only ever heard about things like you in rumours," he muttered. "A Mind Demon… they say it appears when a cultivator's heart and power go out of balance."
He recalled the reasons:
When someone buries their ambitions, hatred, fear, or regret until those emotions ferment and take form.
When their actions contradict their beliefs—claiming they only want to survive, yet walking into slaughter again and again.
When power grows too fast for the mind to follow, and trauma, guilt, and past failures never heal.
From that chaos, a Mind Demon is born.
Leon clenched his jaw. "I was right. You're definitely a Mind Demon. But that still doesn't tell me how I'm supposed to get out of this black space."
The Mind Demon tilted his head, then burst into shrill laughter.
"Kyahahahahahaha! You must be thinking of escaping, right, right, right, right, *right*, Leon?"
Leon stared at him with a tense expression. "Tell me why I'm here," he said. "And what do you want?"
The Mind Demon smiled calmly, as if they were having a friendly chat. "Hmm, no special reason," he replied. "But I do need to thank you for something."
He spread his arms. "Thank you… for being so damn abnormally strong, kekekekeke. If you had grown like a normal person, step by step, I wouldn't exist at all."
He leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "So doesn't that mean this is all your fault, huh? Hehehehe."
Leon frowned, suspicious.He's trying to make me feel guilty, he thought.Trying to make me angry, shake my mind. But little tricks like that won't work on me.
Then he froze.
"…Wait."
His face went pale. "I… can't feel my body."
He looked down. There was nothing—no arms, no legs, no weight. Only consciousness, floating in darkness.
"I don't know what's happening outside," Leon muttered. "And before I was dragged into this place… I felt that ridiculous unknown power."
A horrifying thought struck him.
"Don't tell me… this bastard is trying to get me killed."
If he fought here, the Mind Demon would fight back with everything Leon had ever possessed—and more. He knew he would eventually win in a straight clash of will.
But time was the problem.
"I would win," Leon admitted to himself, "but it would take too long. And I can't afford to waste even a single second. That unknown power outside… it's extremely dangerous. If I burn all my mental strength here, even if I win, I'll be exhausted when I wake up."
His thoughts spun. *What should I do?*
"Hey, you damn bastard!" the Mind Demon suddenly screamed. "Can't you even listen when someone's talking to you? I've called your name more than ten times already! Were you thinking of how to get out of here?"
Leon glared at him, killing intent flaring. "Don't get the wrong idea, you little demon. Don't you think you're getting way too cocky?"
The Mind Demon ignored him, as if Leon were a buzzing insect. "If that's what you're thinking," he continued, "then it's completely useless. You can't leave this place unless I want you to. Hehehehe. Wait… don't tell me you already figured out my plan?"
Leon's lips twitched.That damn demon is ignoring me. He's not even responding to what I say. His patience snapped.
"I can't waste any more time," Leon decided, eyes turning cold as ice. "It's settled. I'm going to kill you."
***
Leon moved first.
He didn't summon lightning, aura, or techniques. In this mental world, all of that was meaningless. Instead, his will condensed into a fist, and he slammed it forward.
Space rippled.
The Mind Demon dodged with the same footwork Leon used in battle. Their movements mirrored each other perfectly. When Leon punched, the Mind Demon tilted his head aside and countered with an identical strike.
Their fists collided.
The impact shook the black world, sending cracks of light spiderwebbing through the darkness before they slowly healed.
"Oh?" The Mind Demon grinned. "You hit pretty hard… for someone whose brain is already half‑broken."
Leon darted in again, chaining blows together—hooks, elbows, knees—every brutal, efficient move he had ever used on the battlefield. The Mind Demon matched him step for step, like a reflection in a warped mirror.
"Killing intent?" the Mind Demon mocked. "I've felt all of it before. You think you can scare *me* with something I was born from?"
Leon's eyes narrowed, and he switched tactics.
He attacked with intent instead of motion—imagining blades of will, crushing pressure, chains made of pure hostility. The black space responded to his thoughts, shaping them into weapons that screamed toward the Mind Demon.
The demon laughed, spreading his arms.
Every blade, every chain, every wave of killing intent dissolved the moment they touched him—as if they had simply returned to their source.
"Leon, Leon, Leon," he sing‑songed. "Don't you get it? Everything you use here, I have already used a thousand times in your head. I am your fear, your rage, your regret… sharpened."
Leon gritted his teeth and rushed again.
He feinted low, then drove a kick into the Mind Demon's ribs. This time, the demon didn't dodge. He took the blow full on.
Bones cracked.
The Mind Demon staggered back—
Then started laughing.
"Ahhh, that hurts," he said cheerfully, straightening his spine with a sickening crunch. The damage vanished as if it had never been there. "But you know… pain doesn't mean much to someone who *is* your pain."
Leon's expression darkened.
The Mind Demon blurred and appeared right in front of him, their faces inches apart.
"Tell me," he whispered, red eyes glowing. "When you slaughtered those soldiers… were you really just trying to survive?"
Leon's fist shot forward.
The Mind Demon caught it.
"It felt good, didn't it?" the demon continued. "When they screamed, when they begged, when they realized they couldn't touch you. For a moment, you weren't prey anymore. You were the predator."
Leon's other fist came up, aiming for the demon's throat.
The Mind Demon blocked it with ease.
"You say you don't care," he said softly, his grin widening, "but you remember their faces, don't you? Every one of them. The way their eyes looked when they realized you weren't human anymore."
Pressure crashed down on Leon. His limbs grew heavy, as if invisible chains had wrapped around his arms and legs.
"What's wrong?" the Mind Demon asked, tilting his head. "Your body feels sluggish? That's because every doubt you've ever ignored is dragging you down."
Leon tried to move, but his punches slowed. His strikes lost weight. The more he forced himself forward, the thicker the air became, like he was punching through tar.
"Shut up," Leon growled.
"Make me," the Mind Demon replied.
He vanished and reappeared behind Leon, driving a kick into his back. Leon flew forward, crashing into the dark ground. There was no impact, no dust—just a jolt of pain that ran straight through his mind.
He pushed himself up, only to be kneed in the face. Blood—mental, yet real to him—splattered the void.
The Mind Demon loomed over him, hands in his pockets, smiling lazily.
"You really thought brute force would work here?" he asked. "Here, where every punch you throw is also a punch at yourself?"
Leon spat blood and surged upward again, refusing to stay down. He roared and swung with everything he had—every ounce of will, every shred of defiance.
For a moment, their blows were equal.
Then the Mind Demon leaned in and whispered, right into Leon's ear:
"You don't want to survive."
Leon's fist hesitated.
"You want to *win*," the demon continued. "You enjoy it. The struggle. The fear in others. The feeling of crushing something stronger than you. Surviving is just your excuse."
Leon's eyes widened.
In that brief instant, his heart wavered.
The Mind Demon's smile turned predatory. He drove his fist into Leon's chest. The impact shattered the world around them into jagged shards of black.
Leon staggered, clutching his chest as cracks of light spread through his body.
"You lose," the Mind Demon said softly.
He watched Leon sink to one knee, breathing hard, vision shaking.
"Don't worry," the demon added, almost gentle. "I'm not going to kill you. Not yet. I still need you, after all."
Red eyes glowed in the darkness.
"Because the stronger you become… the stronger *I* become."
The black world closed in, swallowing Leon's consciousness as the Mind Demon's laughter echoed endlessly.
***
**Author's Note:**
If you read this far, you're a real one.
Leon just lost his first fight against himself. Do you think he'll accept what the Mind Demon said about him, or deny it even harder?
If you're here, comment "I am you, and you are me" or share one brutal line you'd want the Mind Demon to throw at Leon next time. Your comments help a lot and push this arc forward.