Rivers of the Night

Chapter 805: Demon (2)

The Demon didn’t waste any time. Its arm slashed out—or so it hoped to. Instead, it found that it was frozen in place.

Outside of the orb, the Dagger Call Platform had appeared in miniature form, hovering just outside. However, even with such a small stature, its presence was no less all-consuming and looming.

The Demon couldn’t break free of Theron’s grip, even after Theron shattered another chain, and then another, until the only one that was left was the one around the Demon’s neck.

Theron leapt up, grabbing the chain behind the Demon’s neck.

Then, he squeezed.

BANG.

The chain shattered into a rain of pieces, and the power the Demon was radiating suddenly spiked by several orders of magnitude. Its howls caused pulsing waves of crimson to dance across the grey clouds, and suddenly it felt as though Illusive Grey was a name that was lacking in some context.

BOOM.

Theron grabbed the head of the Demon as he descended and slammed it into the ground. All of the momentum of its roar shattered.

’It’s as I thought. It’s very restrained behind the chains. When unrestrained like this, the Resonances you’re supposed to be sensing are countless times more powerful. In this state, it’s far more powerful than the technique the others were learning.’

But what fascinated Theron even more than this was that there wasn’t a technique being learned here—not really, anyway. It was most accurately a Resonance, but one not tied to the Bloodline or Mana, but instead one tied to the soul.

It was so curious. They called this a Body Cultivation Technique, and he didn’t believe that Ayame was lying to him.

A Resonance that was learned through the soul but influenced the body directly. This must be a unique Resonance of the Demon Race. But what was especially worth the pause was...

Wasn’t Theron’s body like this as well?

His body was so powerful because of his Resonance, was it not? And his Resonance had originally always changed from his soul first, feeding off the changes to his emotions.

Part of the reason Theron had always been so interested in other races, despite having never found any of them until now, was quite obvious. Most times... he was pretty sure he wasn’t even human at all.

The most kinship he had ever felt with anyone other than his family was, ironically enough, Matriarch Macie, who seemed to have resonated with a hidden part of him.

Now, he had suddenly found out that he had quite a lot in common with these Demons.

Were they technically Soul Mancers? Or were they Spirit Mancers? And what about this world allowed humans to use their souls as a means to learn how to strengthen their bodies?

The secret to everything probably wasn’t the Demon itself, but the orb he was handed. In fact, the secret behind this orb had probably become the core of the Demon Corps itself.

However, now that Theron had confirmed his theory, he was in a bit of a pickle. He had released the Demon and destroyed its chains, but now there would be nothing stopping it from escaping the moment the Dagger Call Platform was inactive.

Theron had to personally keep it active, and he couldn’t exactly do that forever. He had stamina limits as well.

But Theron didn’t have the face of someone who was very worried at all. He grabbed the Demon and then yanked.

Theron’s eyes opened in the real world and he held two very different things in his palms now. One was a physical orb and the other was an amorphous grey cloud—the Demon.

There were nine techniques in the legacy Theron had received from the formerly unnamed cultivation:

[Entangling Blood Vein Pupils], [Entangling Silence], [Entangling Clouds], and [Entangling Clone] were the first four, and he had benefitted from them greatly. Well, only Alpha had benefitted from [Entangling Clone], but having a strong companion would always be an indirect help to Theron.

The fifth technique was [Entangling Treasure]. It was actually a unique method of using the arts in this legacy to bind treasures. It avoided the usual hassle non–Soul Mancers had to go through, and it could be argued that its results were even better than most of the common Soul Mancer methods.

Theron had used it on his self-crafted dagger. In fact, he had used it during the crafting process as well, so it was even more effective than usual.

The sixth technique, though...

[Entangling Soul].

It was a method of forcefully increasing your soul prowess by swallowing the soul of another. This Demon was almost certainly a Transcendent Creature. There would be quite the boost if he swallowed it.

The trouble was that [Entangling Soul] was something he had only ever used on beasts. He wasn’t entirely sure how well it would work against this Demon.

The makeup of the creature was too different from usual, and because it had a unique Resonance that directly impacted the soul, Theron was a bit wary that it could influence his own soul to too great of an extent—especially since it was much stronger now that it wasn’t restrained.

However, there was another viable method.

Theron didn’t have a clone of his own. The effort required was too great, and because he didn’t have the foundation laid out by certain aspects of Blood Mancy, it was extra difficult for him to use a lot of them.

However, he felt that he had crossed over a threshold just now by reaching Elder Titan Resonance that had changed quite a bit. His ability to control his own body’s blood had breached into realms that didn’t make sense.

His body was nearly 100% water now, and his ability to control his Life Mana was on a whole other level. It... just might work now.

If he could form a clone...

Theron’s fist squeezed down and the Demon’s soul shattered to pieces and began to pour into his pores. His body shook and grey veins began to crawl over his skin.

If he could succeed...

Theron slowly closed his eyes. This would be the most dangerous thing he had done in a while...

And that was including killing a Transcendent.

...

Ayame stood on a rooftop with her arms clasped behind her back. She would have to leave soon. Gaining the favor of a Demon Prince sounded like a great thing, but it was simply another responsibility, and it would only be the start.

Her goal wasn’t to stop here.

"I have to go, Master," she said softly.

"You should take Theron with you."

Ayame shook her head. "When he is there, I find myself relying on him to handle everything."

Master Uyon smiled. "You haven’t known him for long, but it sounds like you trust him with your life."

Ayame didn’t reply to this. In the world of cultivation, you interacted with countless experts, saw all sorts of things, and had senses that surpassed what normal humans could fathom.

When you knew, you knew. It was as simple as that.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter. She had promises she had made to herself that she would accomplish with her own hands.

Theron would make her weak.

She had progressed so far in this last over-year. Yet, she hadn’t even had the chance to deal with Urong because Theron was here.

"Your goals are steep, Ayame. You’ve done well to make it this far, but the better you do, the more aware your enemies will become of your rise. No... they are already aware; they just haven’t cared. Now with the death of a Transcendent, they will have no choice but to care."

"I understand."

Uyon’s lips parted to say more, but he eventually just sighed. It was just a shame that he was so weak... if those matters hadn’t happened back then, then maybe he could still be of help.

But here he was, being the bitch of a mere Demon Duke he had to rely on a child to defeat for him. It was pathetic.

Ayame looked toward her master. "I will get revenge for us both, Master."

She took a step and then vanished. When she was gone, Master Uyon seemed to have aged dozens of years in a flashing instant.

’When will you call me father again, little girl?’

—

Ayame kneeled on a single knee before a throne, a vague figure that was hard to see or make out any defined edges sitting ahead of her.

"Yes, I understand," Ayame said calmly. "I will go."

"Mm. This will be your first mission. Should you complete it, you may make the choice to become one amongst my Chosen. Be careful. The Resistance Army has grown far more stringent in these last several months, especially that woman’s legion."

Ayame nodded and stood to leave, but the voice spoke one more time.

"You were there to witness the rise of the new Demon Duke?"

Ayame hesitated, but eventually nodded. "Yes, I have."

"Mm." The Demon Prince seemed to nod. "I have been meaning to get my son an official Demon Noble position. This should do for now."