Maren’s vision blurred as he stared at the night sky, his entire body feeling impossibly cold since the terrifying, overflowing power sustaining his mutated form was completely gone.

His core was a hollow, fractured void, drained entirely dry by the very person he had tried to humiliate.

He heard the slow, steady crunch of footsteps approaching through the forest, triggering every instinct screaming in his mind to drag his broken body away.

He wanted to escape the terrifying pressure radiating from the boy walking toward him, but his limbs refused to respond, his muscles completely paralyzed by the sheer exhaustion of having his demonic essence forcibly ripped away.

Frustration and pure terror choked his throat as the footsteps finally stopped right beside his head.

"Monster," Maren whispered, his voice nothing more than a cracked, pathetic wheeze while looking up at Hajin, who was standing there with eyes glowing a faint, dangerous purple hue.

Hajin didn’t say a word in response, simply looking down at the ruined man before reaching out to grab a handful of Maren’s blood-soaked hair. He lifted him up effortlessly, dragging his face level while tightening his grip.

"Interrogation time," he said, his voice flat and completely devoid of any empathy. "Who gave you the demonic core?"

Maren let out a ragged gasp, his eyes wide with genuine fear as he opened his mouth to answer, but he never got the chance.

A sudden, sharp whistling sound split the air right before a concentrated beam of bright purple energy pierced straight through the back of Maren’s skull.

The laser-like strike blew clean through his head, instantly killing him while forcing Hajin to drop the lifeless body to avoid the residual heat.

Hajin’s head snapped up, his eyes instantly tracking the trajectory of the attack as he flared his mana to enhance his vision to the absolute maximum.

He scanned the towering boundary wall in the distance, the purple hue in his eyes cutting through the darkness of the forest, but the wall was completely empty.

Whoever had taken the shot was already gone, leaving no trace behind except the lingering scent burnt flesh.

"Dammit," he muttered, his hands clenching into fists as he stared at the empty wall.

He let out a long, heavy breath, rubbing the back of his neck as the adrenaline finally started to fade.

"First the Flint family, now actual demons," he muttered, shaking his head. "My life is really starting to get entangled with all the wrong people."

He was exhausted, his muscles trembling slightly from the sheer physical strain of forcing his body past its limits. He turned away from the wall, fully prepared to just collapse against the nearest tree, but that was exactly when the system screen exploded in his vision.

[ Threat Eliminated: Overlord (Mutated) ]

[ Core Resonance Detected ]

[ Massive Demonic Essence Absorbed ]

The notifications chimed rapidly, but the standard threat assessment prompts were immediately pushed aside by a blinding golden panel.

[ Chains of the Goddess: Absorption Complete. ]

[ Fragment Recovery: 1.00% Reached. ]

[ Milestone Achieved. Initiating Blessing... ]

He froze as a sudden, intense heat erupted from his chest. The fragment of the Goddess resting deep within his soul suddenly flared to life, reacting aggressively to the massive amount of raw demonic and dragon mana he had just assimilated.

He groaned, dropping to one knee as the blessing washed over his core. The violent, chaotic demonic energy and the heavy, overbearing dragon mana didn’t just merge, they were being forcibly broken down by the golden light.

The fragment acted like a massive crucible, burning away the impurities and purifying the foreign energies into a highly concentrated, brilliant white divine mana that perfectly matched his bloodline.

[ Purification Complete. ]

[ Foreign mana converted to Divine Essence. ]

[ Host’s mana pathways have expanded. ]

He took a sharp breath, his eyes widening as he felt the suffocating exhaustion vanish entirely, replaced by a deep, bottomless well of pristine power.

[ Fragment Recovery Rewards Unlocked: ]

[ 1. Active Skill: Divine Eye ]

[ 2. Weapon Skill Unlocked: Divine Sever (Chains of the Goddess) ]

He stared at the screen, slowly pushing himself back up to his feet while a faint, disbelieving laugh escaped his lips.

"Okay," he whispered, looking down at his hands where the new, pure white mana danced across his fingertips. "Maybe getting entangled with demons isn’t so bad after all."

He tapped the screen, expanding the system windows to read the detailed descriptions of his newly acquired skills.

[ Active Skill: Divine Eye ]

[ Cost: 100 Divine Mana per minute ]

[ Description: Grants the user the ability to perceive the true nature of mana, see through low-to-mid tier illusions, and track residual mana signatures left behind by spells or entities. Prolonged use may cause severe strain on the optic nerves. ]

[ Weapon Skill: Divine Sever ]

[ Cost: 300 Divine Mana per strike ]

[ Description: Coalesces high-density divine mana along the edge of the Chains of the Goddess, turning the weapon into a razor-sharp whip capable of cutting through physical armor, magical barriers, and corrupted essence with extreme prejudice. ]

He raised an eyebrow as he read through the panels. The mana costs were incredibly steep compared to his standard abilities, but with his newly expanded pathways and the massive reserve of purified demonic mana now sitting in his core, he could definitely afford it.

"See through illusions and track residual signatures," he muttered, his eyes instantly darting toward the distant boundary wall where the sniper had vanished.

He didn’t hesitate, pushing a surge of his new, brilliant white mana directly up into his optic nerves to activate the skill without a single word.

The world instantly shifted as the standard colors of the forest washed out into a dull gray, replaced by a vibrant, complex web of glowing energy pathways. He could see the dense, lingering corruption leaking from Maren’s headless corpse, and more importantly, he saw exactly what he was looking for.

A thin, faint trail of purple energy hung in the air like a thread of smoke, stretching from Maren’s body all the way to the top of the outer wall before branching off toward the inner city.

The sniper hadn’t just disappeared, instead leaving a literal glowing breadcrumb trail right back to their hiding spot.

He deactivated the skill, blinking away the sudden, sharp ache behind his eyes as the world returned to normal. A cold, dangerous smile pulled at his lips while he summoned the Chains of the Goddess into his hand.

"Found you," he whispered, fully intending to kick off the ground and follow the trail, but before he could take a single step forward, the entire world violently tilted sideways.

He collapsed to his knees, his hands slamming into the dirt as a sudden, blinding wave of vertigo completely overwhelmed his senses. The Chains of the Goddess shattered into golden particles, returning to his inventory while his breathing turned into ragged, uneven gasps.

’What is happening?’ he thought, his vision swimming as he desperately tried to push himself back up.

[ System Alert ]

[ Critical Overload Detected. ]

[ The host has assimilated a Transcendent Spirit Ring, absorbed an Overlord core, and undergone Divine Purification within a couple of hours. ]

[ Physical and mental adaptation is required immediately. ]

[ Recommended Action: Rest to allow the pathways to stabilize. ]

He stared at the glowing red text, letting out a frustrated, exhausted sigh before his body finally gave out, plunging him completely into darkness.