“You are telling me these slavers aren’t actually slavers, but Demonic Gifted?” The Beast King asked, bent down to inspect some of the headless corpses. Their heads had been collected and spread out in one row, but the Beast King paid more heed to the rest of their bodies. His mana surged forth and entered the corpses.

“Demonic Essence…” He murmured, fury blossoming in his heart.

“Demonic Gifted also possess mana, but it is stronger than the average mana, which they possessed before. That is owed to the Demonic Essence they gained from the Devil or a powerful Demon, altering their mana sequence. Now we know why we found so many similar mana sequences in the settlements.” Percy explained to the Beast King, who was probably fully aware of the situation.

It was already early in the morning, the first rays of sunlight basking in the Beastlands, when the Beast Legion and royal envoy arrived at the Lycanthrope’s settlement. The Beast King arrived much earlier but had been busy roaming the borders, hoping to locate the Demonic Gifted. He was furious when he returned empty-handed.

They turned to the severely wounded Demonic Gifted in unison, whom Fiona tended to. Healing Star was not as effective on Demonic Gifted, but the Ego was still strong enough to rescue them.

They won’t stay alive for long either way as long as they survive the interrogation.

The Beast King rumbled, his blazing mane erupting in fury. He stepped closer, his claws raised as if preparing to strike the Demonic Gifted in a fit of rage when one of the younger nobles stepped forward.

He wasn’t a combatant, and his Ego couldn’t be used for fighting, which was why he joined the royal envoy. The mission his father had given to him might have been to establish trading routes with Beastmen, which would fill the young noble’s father with pride, but also to support the crown prince in his ordeal to safeguard the peace between Beastlands and Kainesh Kingdom.

“M-my Ego…My Ego might help us procure some useful information from the Demonic Gifted,” He muttered barely loud enough for the Beast King to hear. The Beast King turned, his eyes drilling into the skinny youth.

“He is right. If you kill the Demonic Gifted now, we might never be able to rescue the other Beastmen they’ve kidnapped,” Percy jumped to the noble’s aid, though he was fairly certain the Beastmen were dead already. If the kidnappers had been your average slaver, the children would still be alive. They might have been sold all across the Kainesh Kingdom, where horrible humans would have kept them hidden from the authorities, but Percy would have had a much easier time rescuing them.

But now? Now…Percy didn’t know. Demonic Gifted were unlikely to act like the average slaver.

The children were probably dead. Still, there was a glimmer of hope in the Beast King’s eyes. He suppressed the fury raging within him and made space for the young noble, who activated his Ego, called [Truth], and got to work.

“They’re awake,” Fiona coldly told the young noble, “These traitors are only acting like they’re still unconscious.”

The coldness in Fiona’s voice surprised Percy. He studied her for a while and noticed the disgust hidden underneath her poker face whenever she looked in the Demonic Gifted’s direction.

I’m also disgusted with how someone can side with the Seven Hells, but I don’t think I look like Fiona.

The Demonic Gifted opened their eyes simultaneously after Fiona exposed them. They spat in her direction, but Fiona stepped back to evade it.

“You disgusting—...” One of them shouted, but the trembling noble appeared before him, his glowing finger pressing against his forehead. The noble quickly backpedaled after leaving a shimmering fingerprint on the Demonic Gifted’s forehead.

“What have you done? Take it away! I don’t like strangers touching me–...” The Demonic Gifted shut his mouth without anyone doing anything. All the trembling noble did was to keep his Ego active.

“What is your name, and when did you abandon mankind to join the Seven Hells?” The trembling noble asked once he’d gathered enough courage to speak up.

The Demonic Gifted didn’t say anything at first, but the longer he remained silent, the brighter the shimmering fingerprint on his forehead glowed. The intensity increased with every second, inflicting tremendous pain on the traitor. He started screaming and writhed on the ground, trying to escape the chains of a Beastmen’s Ego.

Percy’s eyes narrowed as the Demonic Gifted didn’t answer for almost ten seconds until blood trickled from his nose.

“Jakob Keave!!!” He screamed in pain, “One cycle and four moons!!”

The fingerprint on the forehead dimmed, and the Demonic Gifted stopped writhing in pain.

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“Did you gain power from the Devil or a powerful Demon?” The noble asked. He wasn’t trembling anymore and looked straight at the Demonic Gifted.

It only took three seconds this time before the Demonic Gifted felt a pang. He winced and answered.

“I have a pact with a Demon!!”

His resistance shattered quite easily.

That was surprising but a pleasant one.

“How many Demonic Gifted have been attacking the Beastlands?”

“We…are less than forty…”

“Are there only Demonic Gifted, or are there also Demons?”

“There are Demons.”

“How many are there? How strong are they?”

The Demonic Gifted resisted again. He pressed his lips tightly together and tried enduring the assault of painful mental shocks, but it was to no avail. Ten seconds of silence passed until more blood trickled down his nose. Droplets of blood poured out of his eyes, and it threatened to worsen, but the Gifted was already answering.

“We are many. They’re stronger than your people. It won’t be long before my Master can defeat you!!” He roared in the Beast King’s direction.

Percy didn’t know the exact conditions of the Truth Ego, but the choice of words seemed important.

“Your Master is the Demon who has signed a pact with you, right? This is a yes or no question!” Percy asked, but the Demonic Gifted ignored him. The young noble repeated his question. Only then did they receive an answer.

“Yes.”

Percy and the others looked at each other.

“Our king is an Exalted,” One of the Beastmen murmured, confirming Percy’s suspicion. He looked at the Beastmen and diverted his attention to the Beast King a moment later, “That means there is a Demon at the Ascended Tier.”

The Beast King nodded slowly, “Most likely at the Peak of the Ascended Tier.”

The strongest Demons we’ve encountered were three Greater Demons. They weren’t even at full power at that time. But even then…the strongest Greater Demons might be strong enough to reach the Ascended rank. Even then, they can reach the lower brackets at most.

“Where are you and your disgusting comrades hiding?” The Beast King stomped toward the Demonic Gifted, “What did you do to my people? What are you planning?!?”

A deep growl escaped the Beast King’s lips, but the Demonic Gifted didn’t answer once again. Instead, he responded with a smile and chuckled. Finally, the Demonic Gifted turned to the young noble, who repeated the Beast King’s question.

Not even a quarter of a second passed after the question was finished when a wave of blood burst from the Demonic Gifted’s eyes and nose. The Demonic Gifted trembled in unbearable pain, but his devilish smile didn’t cease.

“I didn’t do anything to your people, but I cannot say the same for my Master. He said they were tasty. Not as tasty as humans, of course. Their Essence is too pure, void of sins, to be a delicacy. But that’s why it was even funnier to see them change.”

The Demonic Gifted didn’t answer all questions, but it didn’t look like he would tell them anything else. His eyes rolled up, and blood gushed out of his ears and mouth.

Percy’s eyes narrowed as he saw something, and he reacted swiftly, instinctively conjuring a ball of ice around the Demonic Gifted’s head.

A moment later, the Gifted’s head exploded, the ball of ice protecting everyone from splashes of skull fragments and bits and pieces of the Gifted’s brain.

Still, the young noble, who’d just gained some confidence to ask a few more questions, couldn’t handle the gory sight unfolding before him. He collapsed moments after the Demonic Gifted’s head exploded.

That guy isn’t made for the battlefield if he cannot handle an exploding head. Then again, he doesn’t have to be. Not everyone has to be a fighter. His Ego isn’t too bad. He is the perfect investigator. All he needs is a backbone. He cannot collapse like that during an investigation…

Apparently, the Beast King had the same opinion. That was understandable. The situation was not in his favor, and he just found out that his young subjects hadn’t been kidnapped, but that they were dead, sacrificed to the Demonic Gifted’s Master…or worse…

He growled deeply, picked the young noble from the ground, and shook him awake with a massive flood of mana. The young noble screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes shooting wide open in terror.

“Ask this bastard where they’re hiding, what they did to the children, and what their plan is. NOW!”

The noble activated his Ego again, but something changed before he could apply the shimmering fingerprint on the Demonic Gifted’s forehead.

The Gifted’s eyes turned crimson, his skin darkened, and a small, pitch-black horn grew from his forehead.

He laughed as the noble retreated quickly. His face distorted slowly, changing features while studying the people standing before him one by one. The Gifted stopped only when he found Percy, the corners of his lips curling upward in pure excitement.

“You’re growing well,” The Demonic Gifted said, but there was an echo of multiple voices overlapping as he spoke.

Percy shuddered, instinctively recognizing the voice.

The Devil…

He took a deep breath while his mind went blank. At the same time, the head of the Demonic Gifted was flooded with Demonic Essence. It was too much for a mere Peak Elite to handle and also threatened to explode.

The Beast King growled in anger, “You are the root of all problems!”

A moment later, he released his fiery flame and shot forward, his clenched fist wreathed in black flames, smashing into the Demonic Gifted’s face, burning the traitor to ashes before he could say anything else.