"How touching..."

An eerie silence descended in the surroundings, as if the entire forest held its breath at the sound of that voice.

The tears in Ash's eyes vanished instantly, drying as though they had never existed, and his breathing grew steady. His mind fell into a state of extreme calmness, a cold and overwhelming stillness that felt almost foreign.

It was an instinctual reaction from his body, something that slipped entirely out of Ash's control, as his instincts recognized the danger that voice carried.

Every part of him understood that the owner of that voice was not someone he could face carelessly.

Right now, Ash felt with absolute certainty that he could actually die here.

"I did not know there was someone with such a deep connection to the Unicorns, and a human at that."

Even after realizing he might die, Ash couldn't care less.

Fear had no place inside him.

What he felt instead was pure rage.

He wanted to see the person who had killed Solareth.

He wanted to etch the face of the one responsible into his mind so deeply that it would never fade.

He turned around.

But...

Ash eyes constricted.

Even the source of the voice widened his eyes when he finally saw Ash's appearance.

"You..."

Orien was genuinely taken aback.

Never in his wildest thoughts did he expect that he would encounter the anomaly named Ash Burn in this place.

Ash was just as shocked. He had not imagined that the person who killed Solareth would turn out to be Orien, the Demon King's son.

Ash face darkened as the reality settled into him.

In the novel, Orien was extremely powerful. The only major difference between him and the demon king was that the demon king had absorbed a Rune, while Orien had not.

There were also some mysterious powers he possessed, the source of which was never revealed in the novel, yet their existence made him even more terrifying.

Facing him right now would be no different from willingly jumping off a cliff.

Suddenly, Orien smiled, his expression turning curious and almost amused.

Within a blink, he appeared directly in front of Ash, closing the distance without any sound.

"Interesting.... I am genuinely curious about what is so special about the so-called anomaly who has interfered with my plans more than once."

Ash tried to run away, his mind screaming at his body to move, yet his legs would not respond at all. His entire body felt locked in place, as though invisible chains had wrapped around him.

Domain!!

Ash realized it in horror.

He knew he would be powerless against anyone who possessed a domain, but until now, he had never actually encountered an enemy who used one.

Even if he had, he had been fortunate enough to stay out of their range.

Right now, however, he was directly inside one, and he had not even sensed when it deployed.

Suddenly, Orien placed his hand on Ash shoulder with a calm, almost casual gesture.

In an instant, Ash felt demonic energy rushing into his body like a violent torrent.

No....this is more pure than demonic energy...

Ash had incredibly keen sensitivity toward different energies due to his Primordial Core.

That was why he could tell that, although the energy was indeed demonic in nature, it was far more refined.

It felt almost as if it was on the verge of evolving into something greater, something far more dangerous, yet it had been unable to take the final step because it was still missing a crucial piece.

...future has changed...it is different from the novel.....

Earlier, Ash had not questioned why his body instinctively activated Omni Thought, especially because it was a skill that required a mental command. From the way things were unfolding now, it was clear that his body had sensed the overwhelming danger and triggered the skill on its own.

Due to that, Ash thinking process was extremely fast.

There was no mention of such pure demonic energy.....future has changed, which was a given. But how? I never did anything that directly affected the demons so much. How could there be butterfly effects..?

But then he realized something.

I stopped Aurora from dying during the attack at the academy.....although it was unintentional, it became the greatest butterfly effect.....

I also killed all the demons in the academy to ensure Elysia remained safe...

I rooted out the demonic heart from the World Tree....

I destroyed the Hollow Mother, exposing the plans of demons.... putting the whole continent in a state of isolation....

It would indeed be a lie to say he did nothing to obstruct the path of the demons. When all his actions were indeed against the demons.

"After I convert you into a demonic human, your soul would become my slave, and I will know all your secrets."

As soon as Ash realized the reason why Orien was sending demonic energy into his body, his thoughts staggered for a moment. He had never even considered this possibility. If Orien had not spoken his intentions aloud, it was certain that Ash would only have realized it after everything was already over, by which time it would have been far too late.

Only a single second had passed since Orien sent the demonic energy into his body, yet Ash body reacted instantly even without him giving any command.

Rune of Life flared, releasing a torrent of life energy that surged out to stop the invading demonic energy.

-BOOM!!

The clash of both energies resulted in a small explosion inside Ash body.

"Hmm?"

Orien immediately sensed resistance within Ash, causing his eyebrows to rise in mild surprise. However, due to the Rune of Concealment hiding everything inside Ash completely, Orien could perceive nothing beyond the surface.

How peculiar..

He increased the output of energy. The amount of demonic energy flooding into Ash body multiplied by tenfold in an instant. The energy of the Rune of Life began receding at an alarming rate, pushed back as if it had reached its limit.

Shit! Shit! Shit!!

Ash was truly panicking now. Becoming a demonic human meant losing his soul, his will, his freedom. He would become nothing but a slave to Orien, and he would rather die than fall to such a fate.

Perhaps it was because Ash was genuinely facing a crisis this time, or perhaps the runes possessed their own faint sense of awareness and rejected the possibility of the soul they resided in becoming enslaved by another.

Whatever the reason, the Runes reacted overwhelmingly.

One by one...

The Runes flared within his soul.

Rune of Stability

Rune of Balance

Rune of Knowledge

Rune of Concealment

Rune of Space

Rune of Death

Rune of Harmony

Rune of Life

The intangible energies of all the runes intertwined with each other, merging and stabilizing under the influence of the Rune of Harmony.

Their combined essence turned into a half-transparent, half-greyish energy that pulsed faintly, as if something sacred.

The instant the energies of the runes fused...

The demonic energy was devoured without the slightest resistance.

Moving like a contagion, the fused energy spread throughout Ash body like a plague, erasing every trace of demonic energy it encountered. It did not simply neutralize it. It annihilated it, leaving nothing behind.

And it did not stop there.

"@#@)!@"

An incomprehensible scream tore through the surroundings.

Orien hand, the one gripping Ash shoulder, jerked back and erupted with a fountain of black blood. Although the hand was not destroyed, the damage was severe enough to force even someone like Orien to scream in his demonic tongue.

It was almost humorous in a bitter way.

As if, in moments of sudden pain, everyone instinctively remembered their mother and father. After getting hurt, Orien reverted to his mother tongue without even realizing it.

The fused energy of the runes vanished the moment its task was completed.

But it was not without a price.

Ash started to tremble.

Blood gushed out from his seven orifices, flowing down his face and neck as his body struggled to remain standing.

Given that Orien was injured and distracted, this moment should have been a perfect chance for Ash to escape.

But...

He could not.

M-M-My mana pathways...

Ash eyelids trembled in horror.

His mana pathways were... evaporated.

Or rather.... erased.

They were not regenerating. There was no sign of movement, no faint glow, nothing.

Even though the energy of the Rune of Life used his mana pathways to travel across his body and heal it passively, it was always possible for it to heal without them. His body had been destroyed many times before, yet he always regenerated with ease, even if it took time.

But this time, nothing was happening.

The Rune of Life was not healing anything. It was as if there was no rune within him at all.

Given the situation that his mana pathways had vanished, how could he activate any skill to escape? How could he use any spells? How was he supposed to summon anything from his Soul Vault?

He was nothing more than a normal human now.

Only his stats were technically available to him, but in this situation, they were as good as not being present at all.

W-Why did runes react that way..?

Only Omni Thought worked, since it did not require any mana to function.

Everything else was cut off from him. Never before had the runes reacted in such a way, not even once, no matter how desperate the situation had been.

Ash was having a mental breakdown.

His thoughts were getting muddled, slipping through his control like water. Even though his mind felt strangely calm because of Omni Thought and Rune of Stability, he still could not think straight due to the shock weighing down on him.

His greatest strength... just crippled him.

W-W-Why?

While Ash was drowning in his own crisis, Orien was not faring any better.

What the heck? What the heck? What the heck?

His body was trembling.

With fear.

It felt as if he had suffered some kind of trauma from that otherworldly energy he sensed moments ago.

The energy that spread like a plague and destroyed everything it touched. It was only because Orien had cut off his flow of demonic energy at the exact right moment that he was able to remain standing.

If he had hesitated even for a breath more, the consequences would have been irreversible.

Even then, a small spark of that otherworldly energy had somehow slipped into his body.

That tiny spark alone caused his hand to be crippled.

It would take at least a month before his body even began to heal properly. If he had taken in any more, he might have become crippled permanently or even faced death.

Just thinking about the possibility made him devastated.

I need to kill him..

Having suffered such an unexpected attack, Orien finally understood why Ash was called an Anomaly.

He is dangerous. He needs to die, otherwise everything I have planned will crumble...

Thus, he attacked.

This time, he made sure not to touch Ash directly. His domain was already spread around them, so he simply issued a mental command.

Explode!!

****

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