Chapter: 105
“Let’s see. The body mutated by mana and darkness has become like this.”
“Kuaaaah…”
I straightened the man pinned to the ground and re-fixed him before using a blade made of mana to slowly tear away at his body.
The skin. Tough. It’s so leathery that even a decent blade would bounce off, and each hair has a surprisingly strong quality… It felt like he was wearing fur scale armor.
The muscle underneath is no joke either; unless I slice against the grain, it won’t split easily.
Hmm. The basic muscle structure is similar to that of a human, just bigger, but thanks to the mana and darkness, its strength and toughness have been enhanced ridiculously.
The fact that he could absorb the shards of darkness is probably thanks to his mana, meaning those who can’t handle mana would have a tough time transforming like this, so I guess that’s a relief.
His blood had changed to a much darker, near-blackish red compared to the usual crimson. Hmm. Is this the darkness seeping into his blood, circulating through his entire body? Strange. I’ll need to check on this later when I look at the heart.
As for the internal organs… Hmm. They don’t seem too different from a human’s, just bigger. Their arrangement isn’t too far off either.
“Grrr…”
“It’s still alive even after being opened up without anesthesia. Talk about having a stubborn life force.”
A regular human would be out cold from the pain by now.
“Ugh…”
“Hm? What’s got you spooked? It’s not like you’ve never seen a creature get sliced open before. You’ve killed your fair share of them, right?”
“That’s true, but even after all this transformation, I still think of it as human… It feels a bit…”
“Human? You call this human?”
I looked down at the man, his blood a dark red now, who had become a demon. I spoke with a cold tone.
“Do you really think this is human?”
“But…”
“This guy has already stopped being human. He’s a fool who couldn’t overcome his curiosity and greed and touched things he shouldn’t have. If you call this miserable sight human, then we’d have to consider beastmen, dwarves, elves, and lizardmen as humans too.”
Because he’s strayed further from humanity than any of those sub-races.
At this point, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he’s a whole different species altogether.
“I don’t know if we’ll see more like this, but if you do happen to encounter one… Just quickly lop off its head. That would be the best choice for those who have transformed like this.”
“Yes…”
The Hero nodded slightly. He looked confused, but hey, that’s the harsh reality for you.
“But, how much longer do you plan to cut him open?”
“Hmm. Just need to check the heart area, and then I’ll be done.”
I cut open the chest, removing the ribs to take a look at the heart hidden behind the lungs.
Thanks to the darkened blood, the heart was also sporting a blackish-red look, displaying its alien nature.
But the heart itself isn’t the important bit.
I carefully peeled away the organs surrounding the heart until I finally found what I was after.
A pitch-black stone stuck to the back of the heart; the demonic stone.
We could call it the demonic stone of the demon kind.
Inside it, a significant amount of shards of darkness had gathered.
It seems like it was attached to the heart, breaking down the shards of darkness into the blood and circulating that throughout the body to cause the mutation. Hmm, not exactly a pleasant picture.
I used mana to block the shards of darkness escaping from the demonic stone and shoved the returning blood to push the shards back into the stone.
After a little while… the blood started to return to a reddish hue.
“The blood…”
“It’s turning red again.”
But the mutated body couldn’t revert back.
Even if I filtered out the shards of darkness from the blood, the transformed body couldn’t return to its original form.
That’s a bit sad.
“There.”
I removed the demonic stone from the heart and handed it to the Hero.
“Absorb it into the gem.”
“Ah, yes.”
The Hero pressed the demonic stone against his sword, and the darkness within the stone began to seep into it slowly.
Hmm. He’s absorbing shards of darkness this size without much trouble. Not bad.
But I set those thoughts aside for now and looked down at the man from whom the demonic stone had been taken. The body that had transformed into a demon started to crumble and turn to ash from the limbs, as if the absence of the stone caused this decay.
Does this corrupted body still crave those shards of darkness? If more aren’t supplied, does it just turn to dust like this?
What a pitiful existence.
“No! No! I don’t want to die!!! I don’t want to die!!!”
With the darkness all extracted and the demonic stone removed, the man’s sanity seemed to slowly return, contrasting with the beast-like growls he had given earlier.
Now he’s even able to talk like a person.
But it’s already too late.
“No! I don’t want it! I don’t want to die!!! I want to live!!! I want to!!!”
Hmm? Suddenly, mana is rushing into his mouth. Is this… a breath attack?
Nope, this isn’t even worthy of being called a breath attack. It’s just a desperate gasp, merely releasing a shockwave of mana from his mouth.
While it’s a mana-based push from his mouth that could be seen as a breath, it’s weak—almost like a father blowing air on his child to cool them down.
“Tch.”
I casually deflected the mana shockwave he produced with the back of my hand.
“Ugh…”
“What a tragic last struggle. Compared to a dragon, this is just a pathetic puff of air.”
Wait a minute, a dragon?
Breath attacks. Body scales. Wings. A tail… Even horns? Hmm…
Could it be that he was trying to change into a dragon’s shape? But without any scales?
Hmm… Maybe the memories of Erebus within the darkness yearned for that transformation.
Even after everything went wrong and he messed up everything, he still longs for those days?
What a foolish creature.
“I don’t want to die…”
As the man’s arms and legs were fading away, I looked down at him and said to the Hero.
“Now, go ahead and end it for him.”
“Yes…”
Though he was no longer human, he once was.
This would be the Hero’s first kill.
The Hero squeezed his eyes shut tightly and brought his sword down on the man’s neck.
And just like that, the body of the transformed demon crumbled to ashes and vanished.
Alright, with the physical examination done, now it’s time to check the soul.
I gazed at the soul that emerged from the man’s ashes.
It retained its form from before it transformed into a demon.
But most of it had turned blackened by darkness.
The shards of darkness… Do they even corrupt the soul?
Erebus, just how low are you going to sink?
What are you chasing, and why are you engaging in these horrible acts?
I really can’t comprehend it.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Demons.
Sentient beings twisted and fallen to darkness.
Those who greedily reach for powers they shouldn’t touch, ultimately losing everything and leaving no corpses behind.
The accursed emerged first in this world during the tale of the nameless Hero, the very first Hero.
A long time ago, in Babel built by persecuted mages.
The one who took control over that city was a demon tribe aspiring to seize divine power through constructing a massive tower. But their true identity was uncovered by the Hero’s party.
Yet, the strength of the demon tribe was on a whole different level compared to humans. As their wicked hands reached for the Dragon’s Priestess, a companion of the nameless Hero, God could not sit idly by any longer.
A colossal pillar of light descended upon the demon tribe and demolished the tower they had built to surpass the divine.
The first demon tribe was obliterated under the immense power of God.
………
After losing both their tower and ruler, the mages of Babel faced various choices. Some chose to atone for their sins, creating a plaza where God displayed power, vowing never to repeat the same mistakes. They decided to remain in Babel.
Others, though not guilty themselves, sought to atone for their foolishness in electing an unwise ruler and chose to leave Babel.
Some mages, insisting on their innocence, denied any wrongdoing and relied on human nations, ultimately betraying Babel.
………
Ever since, demon tribes have frequently appeared. Many were originally mages, particularly those who were working on research involving mana stones. Oddly enough, demon tribes often emerged from the descendants of those who betrayed Babel.
Some mages claimed this was a consequence of ignoring Babel’s sins or using unsanctified mana stones. Meanwhile, recent studies assert that the root cause lies elsewhere – namely, that certain components of mana stones corrupt mages.
While a rather outrageous claim needing extensive proof, if true, it could reveal the origins of demon tribes in human history – erasing a sin burdened upon humanity.
– What are demon tribes?
– Later, a research lab studying the components of mana stones was destroyed by a sudden demon emergence and its rampage, causing the claim to fade away.
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