“Were you sent by the Immortal Dark Star?”

Ark moved through the port city as he accompanied the Snow Witch Calia, waves of her mana constantly poking him as he diverted the passersby's intent away from them.

“You figured it out so fast? I'm not even a demon myself, so I thought it would take you time to connect the dots.” Calia's tone never lacked amusement as she spoke.

“Then won't I die?”

Another wave of mana hit him.

Calia's mana behaved like no other, making Ark wonder whether it's because she was a witch or something else. However, the feeling that each wave brought made him not wanting to know.

“Don't worry. A few days of torture probably won't break you, and after that I will have you all to myself. That was what I was promised,” she said while flashing another charming smile. Her beauty made Ark increase his efforts in concealing them. “But forget about that. Tell me about your skill.”

“My skill is Phantom, an illusionist skill. It helps me manipulate intent, faking and redirecting it, as well as reinforcing the realness of illusions.”

“Anything else?”

“By using my Phantom, I can enhance my spirit. That and intimidate my enemies by enlarging my presence. That's it.”

On his own accord, with only the slightest prompt, Ark divulged information with the enemy. He didn't even feel bad about it. The feeling that constantly hit him was as interesting as it was abhorrent.

“What's your attribute?”

“I have no attribute.”

Stopping in her tracks, Ark stopped as well. She closed the distance and slammed a greater level of mana directly at him. The dizzying sensation almost caused him to blackout.

“And for real?”

“That's the truth. I was born this way.”

The Snow Witch seemed to believe him. She happily led him to a desolate location while giggling. They entered a hut.

Initially, Ark thought it was abandoned, but slowly, a family of four crept out of the room at the edge: a husband, a wife, and a twin boy and girl.

They were under her influence, and the wave of Calia's mana seemed to have put them in a trance state even deeper than they were before.

“Maybe I shouldn't have escaped,” Calia said, almost to herself, bit clearly intending Ark to hear. “I wanted to solidify my control over my new toy, but it looks like I could have had him kill that silver bitch.”

“I would have failed, most probably,” Ark noted.

“Oh well. I can't control her, but I'm sure my liege has plans for her.”

She looked at the family. With a few words of hers, they stood in a row.

“Well then, Ark,” the witch spoke in a casual yet menacing tone. “Will you kill them if I ask?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation.

“Good. Then do it.”

The next moment, four heads flew into the hair, sprawling blood from the fresh corpses.

“Wonderful!” A smile bloomed on Calia's face. “Do not worry, Ark. Even if the whole world calls you a criminal, I alone will forever be on your side.”

Her intentions behind the request were clear: to make Ark commit a crime and use his guilt to further strengthen the enchantment.

“Now, I will only wait for my liege to come and present you to him. And he will kill that bitch and all these people, too!”

“He will come here himself?”

Why would the Immortal Dark Star, easily classifiable as the final boss, appear so early on?

“To take over the dungeon's treasures, of course,” Calia happily answered, seemingly fawning over the demon. “Not to mention, the Sage planned a surprise visit for you, and we plan to throw a nice welcoming party for her. What do you think?”

“Great.” Ark created a flame to eat the family's bodies.

After he finished, he simply looked at Calia.

She had a beauty that would make men go mad over, a contender for first place of all the beauties Ark had seen throughout his life.

His gaze naturally wandered as he examined her body somewhat boldly, causing Calia to chuckle.

“If you want to touch, I will allow you,” she said.

“Really?”

“Of course, with how cooperative you were, you deserve a little reward. I should fulfill this cute boy's dream you must have carried for so long.” She boldly closed the distance. “However, I will only tolerate this for two seconds, so savor each second.”

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“Okay.”

Ark raised his arm and extended it to reach out.

It was at that moment that Calia finally noticed the change in him. Ark's catching black eyes were now dyed bloodred—the eyes of a sociopath.

Manifesting red eyes from high levels of bloodlust was easy for demons, often red taking dominance and permanently reddening their eyes and their descendents'. But for humans, it required to be a sociopathic killer. Only extreme cases were known, all murderers with little to no sanity.

And now Ark was showing the same eyes. The chill of premonition that passed down her spine screamed at Calia to escape. Alas, it was too late.

Ark ripped the Snow Witch's heart right out of her body, holding it in his hand as it pulsated. It glowed blue and purple, the same as her eyes, and it was extracted from the right side of Calia's chest.

“Wow, so you really got another heart?”

Looking at the beating heart with a crazy smile, the bloodred glinting color did not fade from his eyes.

He sensed the enchanting mana coming from right next to where the heart should normally be, and now that he examined the heart up close, Ark realized it was an organ that did not function like a normal heart should.

“What even is that?” He cruelly kicked Calia, who had collapsed to the ground. “Hey, are you listening, you freak?”

“Give it back,” she pleaded. “My Manaheart...”

“A Manaheart, huh? What a disgusting abomination.” He crushed the heart in his hand.

It was something worth preserving and taking it in to study. However, Ark crushed the heart solely due to the expression that Calia made seeing her Manaheart crushed in front of her face.

He felt it was truly worth it.

“You fucked up big time, Snow Bitch. You messed with my emotions, even a tiny bit. You tried to force me to LIKE you. How dare you! I swore the second I felt your enchantment that I would grant you a death so painful my teammates can't even be near, or they will hear your screams.”

“You... killed... innocent peop—”

“Who gives a crap? Why do you speak nonsense? Save your energy so I could torment you more.” Again, Ark kicked her in the stomach. Then he stomped on her knee and pulverized it.

Calia screamed in agony. She wailed as excruciating pain assailed her.

Ark crouched over and whispered, “I don't take kindly your existence. Quietly disappear.”

The glow of the bloodred eyes amplified the fear instilled in the witch's heart.

His voice was so cold it pertified Calia in terror.

Then, the bloodred eyes returned to the usual black, and Ark walked to the hut's exit.

Chanting a spell, he lit the hut on fire. A fitting end for a witch.

And as he walked away from the burning hut, as if Calia was nothing but an insignificant insect, memories of the witch began to fade.

◇◇◇

Calia's Perspective

It hurts. Everything.

My Manaheart is gone, and only my normal heart's beats are left to console me.

The fire spreads slowly. I will probably die of smoke inhalation before it reaches me.

However, I know I will survive this ordeal.

He will come for me.

My liege.

The Immortal Dark Star, who shines with a dazzling darkness.

He will come for me. Because I am important to him.

I wait patiently, even as my lungs burn and I continue to cough. I simply wait like the loyal servant that I am.

Then, I hear his voice that I yearned for so much.

“Calia,” he says.

Yes.

YES!

“My liege.” I cough.

Save me.

Your loyal servant waited patiently, so save me and avene the cruelity that madman inflicted upon me.

I smile, certain of his next words.

“I see that you failed.”

However, his words surprise me.

“And you lost your Manaheart? Pathetic.” With a mocking voice, I realize my liege positioned himself too far to reach me.

No.

No!

NO NO NO NO NO!

THAT CANNOT BE!

“What am I gonna do with you?” he says, with a playful tone that I got to hear so many times before.

Relief washes over me in waves, subsiding my heart's wild beats.

Yes, he will save me. I become sure of that.

As I hear his steps coming closer to me, I turn my face around to see him. However, the smoke impaired my vision.

I cough again, a series of coughs. If I am not taken away from this wretched hut, I may die due to such a mundane reason.

“Calia.” My liege stretches every syllable in my name with his melodious voice.

Oh, so beautiful.

“You messed with my emotions, even a tiny bit.” His voice is still playful, but because of the trauma inflicted by that madman, who said the exact same words, I involuntarily twitch.

I am sorry, my liege.

I know that you aren't like that madman.

I will never...

“You lost all value, so I don't need to tolerate you anymore. Surely, you didn't think I would pass the pleasure of killing you myself, did you?”

What...?

My heart no longer beats inside me, and I realize it is because my heart is currently beating at the palm of my liege's hand.

My trauma must be playing tricks on me, because the image of my beloved liege currently perfectly overlaps with the actions that madman took shortly before.

He crouches near me and whispers in a terrifyingly cold voice, “I don't accept your existence anymore. Quietly disappear.”

Impossible.

My liege isn't like that! Not to me!

Only now that he crouches near my face do I see the bloodred eyes, and even as logic says that demons often appear with such eyes, my trauma stings the cavity where my hearts once were.

Betrayed and hurt, I am left to burn only with the echoing of my liege's laughter as company.

Two men, each bloodred with killing intent, each took away and crushed my heart. They are both mad and cruel and are a mirror to one another.

The duality torments me even as I burn, and it is worse than any pain I ever thought possible.

◇◇◇

Silvia's Perspective

“What should we do?”

As another knight asks me that, I find myself too exhausted to answer.

After that witch Calia disappeared with Ark, I had to deal with the knights and return them to a sane state of mind. My Primordial Wind helped, but it's because of that that they managed to vanish, and I was left powerless.

We returned to the inn, and the healers tend to the wounds caused among ourselves by the orders of that witch. The situation is a bloody mess, to say the least.

Is Ark really gone? If they don't kill him, would he join the witch as her toy—probably the demon's, if I guessed it right?

If not for me circulating Primordial Wind to calm myself, I am sure anxiety would have eaten at me.

This is the worst.

“This is the worst outcome,” Scarlet says. In such timing, I might suspect she could read minds.

“Someone as powerful as Ark is already dangerous, but it's worse since we are talking about that Ark. I never want him as an enemy.”

I try to talk to her in an attempt to relieve my mind. “As a friend, I don't want that either. Even as an opponent, since I haven't beaten him yet. But what is so dangerous about him as an enemy?”

“Why are you asking such a silly question?” Her tone suggests playing a joke, but her expression is too grim. “From what I heard from Liliana and Kristan, I know he is strong, but they aren't aware like us how strong his desire to live is. You know it too.”

I remember that.

He kept his own heart beating and still had enough strength to use some sort of mental attack, even while half unconscious.

No, it's more correct to say he became even stronger and more determined as he approached death.

“There is nothing scarier in this world than how Ark continues to survive despite the absurd situations he is in,” she concludes.

I agree on anything but one part.

It isn't scary, and it shouldn't be.

He should be praised.

And I just wish I would get the opportunity to see him overcome an absurdity—no, to help him side by side.

My wish seems less impossible as he walks in from the front door, his hand smeared with blood.

His face is expressionless, and he reeks of blood and smoke.

“I'm back,” he says.

And I'm the happiest I ever was.