"Ukh."

The moment that I turned away from the others and moved myself to another room, my whole body started to shake, and my vision twisted.

Everything around me became a crimson colour, and I felt a weird itch pulse from the area in the middle of my chest.

All sorts of different emotions started to surface in my mind, and the muscles on my face twitched uncontrollably.

Although I couldn't see myself in the mirror, I was sure that I was smiling, frowning, crying, and displaying all sorts of faces.

"Kh...This is a lot more difficult than I thought."

This was one of the side effects of assimilating demonic blood into my body.

I was no longer a human but a half-demon of sorts. As such, I was experiencing the cravings that the demons had.

That wasn't the only change that I saw.

In my field of vision, the psyons in the air kept disappearing and reappearing, and in their place were thin black orbs that were drawn in my direction.

It was none other than demonic energy.

'It's starting...'

Before I took the blood and began to assimilate with it, both Suriol and Angelica forewarned me about the first obstacle I would face.

'Mind erosion'

The stage at which a person will feel an increase in the intensity of all of their feelings.

Be it happiness, sadness, or anger...all emotions would see a significant boost, and only by passing this first hurdle would one know that they were able to merge their blood with demonic blood.

"Huuuu..."

I took a deep breath, and the seals that I had placed inside my body started to glow.

My face immediately returned to its normal state, and the demonic blood that had been raging inside of me immediately calmed down.

'I'm glad I placed the seals inside of my body.'

I had not yet progressed beyond the beginning stages of mind erosion. At this moment, my mind was still clear.

I knew that my mind was not in a state to take in such a significant quantity of demonic energy, which was why I had placed the seals inside of my body.

Even without the influence of demonic energy, I was only a hair's breadth away from losing all semblance of rationality.

The seals weren't there to help me absorb the demonic energy but rather to protect me.

"...I need to carefully think about my next steps of action."

I leaned against the wall of the room.

Having my rank drop back to <S> rank wasn't exactly desirable.

Although I could get my normal strength back, there was a high risk that the demonic blood contained in me would go rampant, and I would end up going crazy.

This wasn't something that I wanted.

If that were to truly happen, then I would be as good as dead, as my consciousness would pretty much disappear.

'I need to find a way to suppress my desires while keeping my strength in check.'

The question was, how?

How exactly would I find a way to keep my head clear at all times while under the influence of the demonic energy inside of my body?

If absorbing demonic blood was the price to pay for power, then I was more than willing to make the same decision again despite the fact that I was already aware that doing so would cause me to face a great deal of difficulty in the future.

There were now fewer than two years left until the seal that Jezebeth placed inside my body would break, resulting in my death.

Since I wasn't planning on killing Kevin and the other me was sealed, the only thing I could do at the moment was waiting for my inevitable death.

...But I wasn't satisfied with this.

Despite the fact that I had reconciled the fact that my life would come to an end at some point, I desired to do so on my own terms.

Not determined by someone else, especially not the very being that took the life of Smallsnake.

Even if I did end up dying, he had to die with me.

'Well, preferably, I don't want to die.'

*

"What are you planning on doing next?"

Amanda and I were currently riding in the car together. It turned out that she had come all the way out from the main office to pick me up in her car.

Naturally, she was not the one behind the wheel; a designated driver who was a member of the Demon Hunter guild was the one driving.

It was a perk of being the daughter of the largest guild in the human domain, and all I was doing was sponging off of her success.

Although I had the financial means to pay for my own driver and I was familiar with the road, I chose to exploit Amanda for transportation rather than hire my own.

It just hit differently.

"...To be honest, I'm not too sure."

My gaze was transfixed by the constantly shifting landscape that could be seen through the window.

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do, but I was stumped as to how I could actually achieve that one objective.

The other version of myself was useless because it refused to communicate with me in any way, shape, or form, and the memories that were contained within my head were no longer as trustworthy as they once were.

...Not that they had anything on what I wanted.

After all, the path I was taking was one that the other me had never taken.

From the creation of a new art that was entirely mine to the fact that I was gradually injecting demonic blood into my body... The path I was taking was fraught with danger, and it was one that no one had ever taken before.

Some might say that I was crazy and that I had lost my mind...and they were probably right.

But I had no choice.

It was either do this or wait for my death, which is expected to occur within the next year and a half.

"Have you tried contacting Kevin?"

"Him?"

I turned my head to look at Amanda.

"Why would he--"

I stopped halfway through my sentence.

My eyes slowly widened as a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

'The current Kevin isn't the Kevin that I know.'

The previous iteration of Kevin had a reputation for being a pushover and a justice-obsessed fanatic, but the current Kevin was not like that at all.

He underwent a total transformation in every aspect.

In the past, I had no trouble understanding what he was thinking about.

It was as if he were an open book.

...but all of that had changed ever since two years ago.

He was no longer someone I could use to my advantage by manipulating or deceiving him into lending me a hand.

The current iteration of Kevin was someone about whom I had no prior knowledge, and I found it difficult to get a read on him.

In a way, he was like a complete stranger to me.

I wasn't going to tell a lie and pretend that our relationship was exactly the same as it had been in the past, but it was undeniably still present.

Perhaps...

Perhaps he does, in fact, have some information that could be of use to me.

"Amanda, you're a genius."

"...I am?"

"Mhm."

I surprised Amanda by leaning my body toward where she was and kissing her directly, which resulted in her dropping the tablet that she was holding and her eyes opening very wide.

Her fists hit me on the shoulders as her eyes darted toward the front driver.

A smirk spread across my face when I noticed her action and pushed her down.

"!!"

Her face paled completely, and I looked down at her, tracing my thumb over the side of my lips.

"Would you look at how the tables have turned..."

***

Ding―!

Kevin was startled out of his activity when his phone made a low-pitched chime and rang.

"Who is it?"

Kevin owned two phones.

A private one that was for those that were close to him, and a working one that was made for his current job, the alliance leader.

Noting that the phone that rang was his private one, Kevin reached out with his hand and turned the phone.

[Ren : Kevin, do you have time? I have something that I want to discuss with you. It's rather important, so if possible, I'd like it if it were jn ykur office.]

Kevin's brows furrowed slightly upon reading the message.

Auto correct had clearly failed in the last part of the message, but he was nonetheless able to understand what he was trying to convey.

'He wants to talk to me about something important?'

Spelling aside, Kevin found the situation to be rather unexpected.

He knew that he would eventually get in touch with Ren, but he hadn't anticipated that it would happen so quickly.

What exactly did he want to talk about?

Was he still unsettled about the changes he underwent, or was it for something entirely different?

Kevin briefly played with his phone before turning his attention to the calendar on his desk and bringing it close to him.

"First, I need to check if I have time to meet him."

The past few weeks had been quite busy, and he wasn't exactly looking for Emma to reprimand him for postponing a meeting.

He thus decided to see if he could fit an hour or so into the upcoming days.

"Oh, looks like I can do that for tomorrow."

With a stroke of luck, he was able to find a nice slot for tomorrow.

He didn't think twice about replying to Ren's message as his fingers glided across his phone screen.

[Kevin : I'm free tomorrow for thirty minutes, starting from 14:35. Take it or leave it. The next time I'll be free will be in two weeks.]

Ding―!

[Ren : Take it.]

He didn't have to wait long for a reply, as he got it within an instant after sending the message.

Reading the message, he set the phone down and picked up his work phone.

"Emma, do me a favour. Make sure that no one bothers me tomorrow at 14:35. Ren will be coming to discuss something with me..."