"And I won’t ignore them."The three men felt their hearts sink. After all, the person standing before them wasn’t some merciful hero.

He was the Slaughter Monarch.

Nova activated Reality Override, instantly dragging all three cultists into an illusion. Within their minds, they believed they were capturing their enemies and brutally torturing them, repeatedly stabbing their bodies without mercy as blood splattered everywhere.

In reality, however, the exact opposite was happening.

The three cultists were mercilessly mutilating one another, completely unaware that the people they were attacking were actually their own companions.

Before they could scream, Nova sealed all three of their mouths using Voidborne Telekinesis, ensuring that not a single sound escaped the building.

If they had been ordinary humans, they would’ve died hundreds of times over from the sheer brutality of the injuries they inflicted upon each other.

Yet Nova deliberately kept them alive while continuously increasing the pain they felt through Reality Override, forcing them to experience every slash, stab, and wound in excruciating detail without allowing them the relief of screaming.

Watching the horrifying scene unfold before him, Nova remained expressionless. Fortunately, after leveling up so many times, using an S-Rank skill like Reality Override was no longer nearly as taxing as before, allowing him to maintain the illusion with far greater ease.

This was the first time Nova had done something like this to a fellow human. During the dungeon quest, he had witnessed all kinds of horrors and slaughtered countless demonic beasts, including everything he had killed during the beast tide. But in reality, he had never killed another human before.

This would be his first. Yet, surprisingly, he felt nothing. No guilt, no hesitation

and no sympathy.

Instead, the only thought in his mind was that he was cleaning up trash. Was he slowly becoming more and more inhuman day by day? Nova didn’t know, nor did he have the time to dwell on it.

These people had tried to wipe out an entire city without caring about the innocent lives they would destroy. They had long since forfeited any right to his mercy.

After letting them torture one another for several minutes, the three cultists were barely alive. The entire floor of the room was drenched in blood, with pieces of flesh and organs scattered everywhere.

Nova finally dispelled the illusion, allowing reality to return. The three men stared blankly at the horrific scene around them, unable to comprehend what had just happened. They tried to scream, but no words came out.

Even though Nova had already released Voidborne Telekinesis from their mouths, their bodies had been mutilated to such an extent that they could no longer speak.

Nova calmly walked over to the cultist who appeared to be the strongest among them. He crouched beside the barely living man, placed a hand on his forehead, and activated Blood Harvest.

He wasn’t interested in absorbing the man’s life force or restoring his own mana and stamina, as they would make little difference to his current strength.

What Nova wanted...was the man’s memories.

After a few seconds, Nova removed his hand from the man’s forehead. From the memories he had absorbed, he quickly realized that these three cultists were nothing more than low-ranking members of the Blood Moon Cult.

They possessed very little knowledge about the organization itself, but they had given him a basic understanding of it.

Their organization was indeed called the Blood Moon Cult, and they were far more than a mere group of mountain bandits. Their numbers reached into the thousands, perhaps even millions, spread across the world.

Their sole objective was to serve the demons and earn their favor in exchange for demonic power. Because of this, they were regarded as traitors to humanity and every other race, as demons were the common enemy of all living races.

What shocked Nova even more was that the cult wasn’t made up of humans alone. Members of many other races had also joined their ranks. Hidden bases existed across every continent, concealed from the world’s eyes, where they carried out all kinds of atrocities against innocent people.

The cult’s hierarchy was determined by numbers. These three cultists carried five-digit ranks, while the person commanding them was a three-digit member known only as 110.

Unfortunately, that was all they knew about the organization. They possessed no information about its higher-ups or true objectives.

As for their mission in Frostholme, it was surprisingly simple. They had been ordered to place a Bloodheart demonic Stone somewhere within the city.

Its purpose was to attract demonic beasts from the nearby Verdant Forest, triggering the beast tide that would ultimately destroy Frostholme. Their superior had personally provided the stone and instructed them to carry out the task.

Beyond that...They knew nothing, not even why Frostholme had been chosen in the first place.

Nova wasted no time. He pushed the three cultists’ bodies aside before punching through the ground. After digging a little deeper, he found a crimson-red stone about the size of a football. It glowed with a blood-red radiance and continuously released an extremely dense and pure demonic aura.

Nova immediately activated All Eyes Appraisal.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[Bloodheart demoic Stone]

Description:

[A stone formed from blood-attributed demonic energy that has been continuously concentrated for hundreds of years. It contains an extremely dense and highly concentrated blood-elementel demonic energy and commonly releases demonic energy into the surroundings upto several kilometers and attract demonic beasts that seek demonic energy to grow stronger.]

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"So that’s why the demonic beasts from the forest, which is quite far from here, attacked our city." Nova finally understood after learning about bloodheart demoic Stone.

{Yes. It was a well-organized plan, and you’ve found the source.}

"Hmm..."

Nova didn’t touch the stone directly. Since he had no idea whether it was safe or not, he carefully lifted it into the air using Voidborne Telekinesis and brought it closer to inspect it.

However, the moment the glowing red Stone came closer, the demonic energy within his body suddenly began resonating violently with it.

"...What’s happening?"

Nova suddenly felt the demonic energy within his body erupt violently. His demonic aura rapidly grew denser, spreading throughout the entire building. Fortunately, there was no one nearby, but even so, Nova couldn’t allow it to continue like this.

{It seems the demonic energy inside your body is resonating with the bloodheart demoic Blood Stone... and it wants to absorb it.}

"So... I should just absorb it?"Nova frowned.

"That sounds like a terrible idea."

He knew just how dangerous this stone was. Unlike the small amount of demonic energy he had obtained from killing demonic beasts, this crystal contained hundreds of years’ worth of concentrated demonic energy.

He had no idea what kind of changes it could bring to his body... or whether it might even kill him.

{You underestimate your Innate Skill too much. For God’s sake, you don’t even fully understand your Mutation skill yet. It won’t let you die, nor will it allow this energy to harm you.}

Liya paused before continuing.

{The only real question is... are you ready to embrace even more demonic energy and leave your humanity? Because you should know this—the world of Astrae hates demons. Even if this grants you greater power, you’ll face countless problems if people recognize that familiar demonic energy within you.}

Nova fell silent for a moment before looking at the Crimson red Stone floating before him.

"If I’m not going to die... and I can become stronger..." He slowly clenched his fist. "...then I don’t see any reason not to absorb it."

His eyes remained fixed on the red glowing stone. "And as for leaving humanity.....I have already corresed the limit."

Nova shook his head.

"I believe humans or any other races can be far worse than demons if they want to . Race has never determined whether someone is righteous or wicked."

"The right distinction..."

"...is between good and evil."

Nova slowly extended his hand and grabbed the Bloodheart demonic Stone.

The moment his fingers touched it, a violent surge of demonic energy burst out from the crystal and began flowing into his body.

Ding!

[You have absorbed Blood-Element Demonic Energy.]

Nova removed his mask, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

However, the very next moment, a sharp pain erupted from deep within his chest. The agony spread throughout his body, yet the smile on his face never faded.

Instead, his grin widened as he looked at the glowing red Stone and calmly said,

"And I can be... whatever I want."

Thanks for reading...