Rivers of the Night

Chapter 806: Veneer

Theron stood on the roof of the Demon Duke’s palace.

It was interesting. Usually, in a situation where such an important position was suddenly filled by an unknown variable, there would be someone who came to assess the situation.

In the time he had been here, Theron had gotten a better understanding of things. He knew that Demon Dukes, and Demon Nobles in general, usually worked independently. They had their own sections of the warfront against the Resistance Army, separated and parsed out so that they could act relatively freely.

However, there was still a hierarchy. There were only three Demon Emperors of the Demon Corps, and everyone fell under their umbrellas.

There were three Demon Kings under each Demon Emperor, and three Demon Princes under each Demon King, for a total of three, to nine, and then to twenty-seven for each step down.

When one got to Demon Dukes, though, the numbers exploded. There were dozens of Demon Dukes; the number was in the hundreds, but not quite at two hundred.

Each one fell beneath the jurisdiction of a Demon Prince, but there were so many to manage that such existences didn’t have the bandwidth to care. And honestly, there wasn’t really a need to.

So, normally, Demon Dukes were overseen by appointed officials or Chosen of the Demon Princes. It seemed that the Demon Princes had quite a number of people under their wing powerful enough to be granted such power and control.

However, not a single one of them had come to confirm Theron’s appointment.

Theron couldn’t help but smile at the prospect. He found it all very amusing.

How much time did he have left to wipe out the Demon Corps? About a year?

It was quite the tall task. Well, impossible by the standards of most, as it was nearly so even by Theron’s own admission. The asks of Goddess Sacharro were surely something.

Let alone destroying them, he wasn’t even getting the proper respect from them.

Just as Theron had the thought, Yonwei rushed toward him from the distance. In one blink she was barely on the horizon, and in the next, she was upon him, coming to a grinding halt.

She heaved out a breath and handed him something. There was a solemn look on her face, and even when Theron took the letter from her hand, he found it to be oddly heavy despite having the same usual weakness of most paper-formed objects.

Theron opened the seal and his head tilted to a side as a beam of light rushed by him.

Slowly, he reached a hand over to his ears, feeling as they began to leak blood that coated his fingers through. There was a sharp pain pulsing at him as a poisonous sort of Mana tried to eat into him, but his expression remained the same.

His body flickered with Darkness and in the next moment, the poison was gone.

Yonwei’s eyes narrowed. Did he just...

She had already been surprised enough by the fact Theron had Death Mana within his Dark Mana, but this felt even more exaggerated than that somehow.

Death Mana might have been something Theron managed to learn by chance, but just now Theron deconstructed his body with Dark Mana and then reconstructed it without the poison inside of him.

She had had a horrified expression on her face, wondering if Theron would die where he stood. That poison was one she recognized all too well.

The Demon Prince DiBarr was well known for his Poison Mancy. The problem was that he was no normal Poison Mancer—he was a Spirit Mancer that took a very peculiar path. His poison corroded the very soul itself, and it was very difficult to get rid of if it latched onto the body. That was because it could target Life Mana directly.

The level of deconstruction one would have to be capable of to neutralize the poison directly...

"I really don’t like Spirit Mancers," Theron said offhandedly, and Yonwei trembled from head to toe.

Seemingly finally being of the mind to, Theron opened the letter and read it.

"If you are reading this, you’ve been summoned to the DiBarr territory. You have three days."

Theron read aloud with a hint of a chuckle in his tone. "If he was reading this"? It seemed they expected him to die from that just now.

Theron tossed the letter into the skies and pierced it through with the Karmic Needle.

...

At that moment, countless miles away, a young man was startled out of his meditation. He grabbed his heart for a moment and burst out into a cold sweat. For some reason, he thought he had just died just now.

But before he could understand what happened, words echoed across the entire DiBarr Palace.

"If you want to see me, make the trip yourself. I don’t know who you are or what gives you the right to command me. I have matters to attend to. Though, if Demon Prince DiBarr invites me personally, I would, of course, have to make such a trip."

A sphere of Water Mana appeared high above the palace and morphed into a smiling face. Then it burst apart into a beautiful rain that soaked everything through.

...

Demon Prince DiBarr was standing in front of a map when he heard the voice. His gaze flickered as he felt the stream of Karma being manipulated.

He raised a hand and snatched outward, but unfortunately, the connection was severed moments later as the pitter-patter of rain pulsed against the walls of his palace.

The echoing voice reached his ears as well, and his eyes narrowed.

’Interesting.’

...

Ayame looked up, her brows furrowed. But for some reason, when she saw that cheeky smile, she relaxed.

There was something different about Theron now. He took life a lot less seriously, but there seemed to be a veneer still hiding his true self. This wasn’t the true Theron—he was playing a part. But there was still a difference.

Theron might still be acting, but unlike before, he wasn’t doing it to hide from pain.

He was even more dangerous now than ever before.