Chapter 16 - Aftermath

I feel like dying.

The pain, I have indeed experienced it once before. But I would always prefer to never feel it anymore.

Moreover, this time, I have devoured a complete demon instead of just the core like before.

The consciousness of the demon is still robust and it actively resists my devouring process.

But then again, the consciousness fighting me before when I devoured the core was that of a powerful being albeit fragmented.

No, I need to keep my focus! I had to quickly digest the demon before my vitality dried up.

The pain is like having my entire body covered by a swarm of ants and getting bitten in multiple spots at the same time. The pain is not only coming from the surface of my skin but also from the depth of my bones. Not to mention the shock in my head every time the demon I devoured roared in my mind, scrapping for any way to survive

The pain is not only illusory as I feel blood dripping from my face. Or is it just sweat? Anyway, I'm just in too much pain to confirm the situation.

All I can do now is just breathe hard, trying to suck all the mana in the surrounding air so I can purify the corrupted demon mana by using the cultivation techniques I 'copied' from Chinese fantasy.

Cultivation techniques depicted in Chinese fantasy are simply a way to turn external energy into your own. So technically, I do not 'purify' the corrupted mana but in a sense, digest them.

I keep willing my mana to keep circulating in my meridian as I keep taking in the mana in the air and my devour technique keeps producing corrupted mana from the inside of my body.

Those two types of mana and my own entwine with each other in the process of circulation and slowly turn into something that I can use: My own mana.

Before long, I realized that I could not hear the demon's scream in my head anymore and I managed to cleanse all the corrupted mana that were produced from digesting the demon. The pain also lessened considerably but there are some left. I felt relaxed after knowing that I was the survivor of the final kombat and finally lost consciousness after the deadly struggle.

I have finished it! Feeling at ease, I let myself fall into the darkness.

Ice Ranger POV:

My lord has taken the risk to devour the demon to permanently kill it. We, as his attendance, immediately surrounded my lord's defenseless body to protect him from any potential harm.

My lord should be in the process of purifying the demonic power from the demon right now. I didn't witness the process before but Jane said that the lord is in constant pain for the duration of the purifying process. I can only pray for him to emerge as the victor again this time.

Oh no, there is blood dripping from every orifice in the lord's face! I immediately asked the one in our group with the highest probability to help our lord in his current condition.

"Ray, can you do anything to help young master?"

"Keep your calm, Lily. I know that you can't help but feel worried but young master has gotten through this once before. I will of course try casting some healing magic to stop the bleeding but I need you and the other to keep watch on the surroundings, okay?"

"You are right. I'm sorry, Ray. I will keep my guard up"

Ray, or Raynor for his full name is a member of the mage squad with an affinity to light element. And he has been studying healing magic lately under the order of the lord so I can be assured that the lord is in good hand. I need to take care of the other things.

I draw a deep breath to calm myself down and quickly think of what I should do next to protect my lord.

"Rocky, be ready to detect presence from the surroundings. Robin, get a stretcher ready. Clay, you are to intercept any coming danger with me"

“Aye aye, Mam” x3

Good. We should focus on protecting my lord for now. Rocky, the mage squad member with earth affinity could detect movements from the surrounding earth. It was something that the lord taught us in the past and only Rocky managed to master that skill. Even lord Milo himself could not master it. He said that he just thought of the concept and it isn’t equal to mastering it. It used to be a mystery why Rocky is the only one who could but now we all know why only Rocky could master the skill. It was because of his earth affinity.

Clay, another member of the squad with metal affinity, is also great at casting earth elemental spells like Rocky but never manages to learn the Listen Earth skill. And it turns out that he has metal affinity so all the question I had for a long regarding the skill masteries has finally answered.

Even if Clay could not do Listen Earth like Rocky, his metal affinity allows him to be an excellent point defender as he could create a metal shield anytime he wants with his magic. Of course, as long as his mana lasted.

We have all almost exhausted our mana from that last combination attack. My lord has always been an excellent mage with his large mana capacity that far outstrips us, his retainer, but ever since he devoured the first fleshmancer orb, his mana capacity just seems endless. Maybe it was because of the demonic mana that the lord managed to devour with his skill? I am curious. But there’s no other way to find out about this if lord Milo does not tell me about it. Maybe I will ask him later.

“Lily, the stretcher is completed”

“Good work, Robin. Now you are with me and Clay to protect young master”

“Aye aye, Mam”

The last one in our mage squad is Robin, the one with nature affinity. Nature magic is a unique one among the other elements. At least the one that I am familiar with. Because nature magic is the only one that can leave physical object behind after the mana supplying the spell get used up. Unlike earth and metal magic that would turn into dust after the mana in the spell gets used up, any plants that get their growth accelerated will remain. That’s why I told him to make a stretcher with his magic. It does not cost much to make a stretcher as it only needs 2 long sticks and long vines so even when Robin just exhausted his mana, he should have regenerated enough to create one.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ugh, lord Milo’s body is letting out blood from his entire body. I heard the story from Jane before but that is just awful. I can’t do anything but rely on Ray to support him.

After a while, lord Milo suddenly screamed “I have finished it!” and just fell unconscious after that. This… he should be fine right? Let’s quickly escort the lord back to a safe place.

“Everyone, let’s secure our lord back to the mansion. Also, send news to Jane about what happened here. Let’s quickly retreat!”

“Aye aye, Mam!” x4

Princess Isabella’s POV

How can someone of my age do something absurd like that?

Controlling your own shadow to move your body without chanting?

Casting intermediate magic in quick succession and not only once?

Able to cast 4 basic elements and lightning elements on top of his own darkness affinity?

Just who is this guy?

Even grandpa is not that exaggerated back when he was in tier 3.

“Hohoho. That kid is indeed surprising. Such power and personality at a young age make you wonder whether he already started his training in his mother’s womb”

“He is indeed incredible”

Today when I reached the magic academy, Grandpa Alfonse suddenly appeared and told me to come with him. He said that there might be some interesting show happening today so I should go watch and learn.

I never expected that the show that he mentioned would be a death match between the new super genius student versus an infiltrating demon. Moreover, the demon isn’t just some low-ranked one at that. It was the infamous nigh-invincible fleshmancer demon.

I can see now that the infamy about fleshmancer demon wasn’t just some baseless rumor. How can someone kill such a monster with seemingly infinite vitality that could constantly regenerate their wound completely no matter how hard you try to harm it? Not to mention it also has mana shield which increases its already perverted toughness by a lot.

“Grandpa, can you also kill a fleshmancer demon?”

“Of course I can. It’s only a tier 4 so I can easily overpower it. But I might need to keep hitting it for at least half a day or more”

“You need at least half a day!?”

“Yes. According to the information spread about fleshmancer demons, they could survive for half a day at the least under constant attack. That is also under the assumption that you don’t let it devour any flesh to resupply”

“But that person managed to erase the demon in less than an hour!”

“Well, he is indeed ingenious. I can say many things to undermine his achievement like how he could battle without worry as he is in the academy’s ground or how the demon is just an amateur who can’t control its own power and is easily drunk with the feeling of invincibility but it is indeed the first time I see flesh devour spell being used to instantly kill a fleshmancer demon. Talk about using someone's weapon to kill its master”

“But he seems to be suffering from a backlash or some sort. Oh my, grandpa, look! He is bleeding all over”

“This… the demon should be still struggling after being devoured. This should be the critical moment for the boy to completely erase the demon”

Grandpa lifted his hand and pointed his index finger toward that earl descendant. I can hear him mumbling something. When I’m about to ask what is he doing, I can see a semi-transparent dome covering the boy and his underlings. A barrier spell?

“Is that a barrier spell?”

“Yes. and it is still not something you can learn”

“I know. I need to be at least in tier 4 to learn that because barrier spell is based on mana shield right?”

“You haven’t neglected your studies”

“Of course. I am only afraid of lightning. It doesn’t mean that I’m afraid of studying”

Talking about my fear of lightning gives me a glimpse of what happened that day. Ugh, I don’t feel so good. And that genius casting a barrage of lightning spells isn’t helping either. But I should admit that it was a cool move.

“Are you okay, dear?” Grandpa seemed to notice my fear acting up and asked me worriedly. I can’t show my weakness. I must not make him worry.

“I was just shocked by the lightning barrage that Mr. Emilio cast just now. It’s okay now. By the way grandpa, how did you know that there will be a big fight today?” I tried to change the topic. But I am also quite curious about it so I can do two objectives at once.

“Oh, that? It was because Mr. Emilio sent me a letter to tell me about it”

“Oh, so Mr. Emilio sent you a letter… WAIT! Mr. Emilio himself sent you a letter? How can he do that?”

“That’s why I said that the kid is surprising. He already guessed that he would be involved in trouble today and sent me a letter yesterday telling me he might get in trouble today. He asked me to let him have a chance to ‘show his worth’ and of course, to save him if he over-reached himself. I should say that he is very prudent in estimating himself”

I just realized that this new genius of the magic academy is not a mere genius but a monster.

Emilio POV:

Ugh. My body feels pain all over. Did I get injured? What happened…

Oh, right. I fought a fleshmancer demon. And I have to use devour to quickly kill it before my side grows tired. But the backlash from taking the easy path is really no joke.

When devouring the core, what suffered the most was my mind as the wannabe god mainly focused on dominating me but the demon does not have a delicate skill to affect my mind so it used brute force instead in trying to escape so most of the brunt impacted my poor body.

It should be harder to face an enemy with a mind magic prowess but well, the first word that the wannabe god made me cringe so hard because of how overused that line is that my mental resistance temporarily went up so I managed to overcome it. But if it put me under the illusion that my curse got cured and I became a stud horse just like I dreamed about… anyway, I’m still alive and all is good.

“*Groan* ugh, a familiar ceiling”

“Good morning, young master. Do you want something to drink?”

“Ah, Jane, good morning… Wait, it’s morning? How long did I lose my consciousness?”

Jane handed me a glass of water and I tried to raise my body and take it but the pain prevented me from doing it so Jane helped me raise my upper body and help me drink the water. After I finished drinking the water, Jane slowly gave me her report.

"Reporting to young master, you have been unconscious for a day. It was yesterday noon that you fought the demon"

"Just a day? That is acceptable then. Can you please call Ray to heal me? My body is in pain all over"

"As you wish, young master. Aside from that, I have other matters to report to you"

"Go ahead"

"The first matter is that Great Mage Alfonse had sent a letter asking to meet you as soon as you recover if possible. And he also asked young master to bring the mage squad along"

I nodded in response and Jane continued on with her report.

"The second matter is that, at the same time when young master and the mage squad were fighting the demon, there was an explosion happening in the city. Feeling this situation suspicious, I sent someone to investigate. And our investigation result is that the location where the explosion happened was the house of Kadel, the lecturer that turned into a fleshmancer demon that young master subjugated yesterday"

"Damn, the plot thickens. It seems that the demon's conspirator tried to erase any clue that could lead to them"

"Any idea of what happened, young master"

"Well, I managed to get some information from the demon. If my deduction is correct, then we are in conflict with a demon-worshiping cult or other similar evil entity. They are the ones behind the bandit we subjugated before. That demon might be a conspirator of the bandits and it might want to get revenge. But knowing the demon's intelligence, I guess it did that without the consent of the other conspirator so that explosion is an improvised act to clean any evidence left in its residence. Yup, that's probably what happened"

"As expected of young master. It indeed sounds convincing. Do you want to dig more into this matter?"

"No need. I don't think the conspirator will leave any other clue behind. Also, there is no real hatred between us and the cult as it was just by chance that we collided. They would hold resentment toward us obviously but they might not put us in the top priority. We are still weak right now and we need time to develop. We should have a temporary truce for now"

"I… see"

I can see reluctance in Jane's expression. I sometimes forget that Jane is just a 15-year-old girl.

"Be patient. We are weak now Jane. We need to be strong first before we help the world. We need more people. We need more time. Always keep our calm when making decisions, okay?"

"I apologize for worrying you young master. And thank you for the advice"

Jane seems to realize her mistake and apologizes. Well, it's good to have passion but we need to avoid sacrificing ourselves for nothing.

A while later, Ray comes to heal me. I wish I could use healing magic too. Isn't fleshmancer demon known for its perverted regeneration power? I need to learn that quickly.

Well, for now, I need to rest and heal. Can't wait to know what business Sir Alfonse has. I have a hunch what kind of business it is though. I can't wait to get healed.