Ivor became a demon and lost his senses for a moment, but continued to attack Axel nonstop. Some of his ribs and his leg were also broken. His one eye was blind, and Axel was by far in the worst state of his life.
The only pain that was greater than this was the pain of dying in his previous life. But with an absolute determination he held, he had to hold on. He had to survive, and survive he shall. At one point, the demon came incredibly close to him. The demon in its mindless state did not think much about its almost dead opponent. In its head, Axel was as good as dead. Nor did it feel that its opponent could have something that would threaten its life.
Sleek,,,,
A disturbing sound of flesh-piercing could be heard throughout the mountain. The demon opened its eyes wide, seeing the sword of its enemy pierce into its throat as large amounts of blood started falling from the wound. Ivor's demon transformation slowly began to come undone as his senses returned.
Demons were truly resilient beings; having a sword pierced right through their throat wasn't enough to kill them. Despite eating the plant and demon blood coursing through his veins, he was only transformed into an actual demon momentarily. He would have turned to normal after a while.
If he were really a demon, something like this would not have been enough to kill it. Axel waited for the perfect moment when there was an opening for him to attack one of the weak spots. A normal human like him couldn't pierce the tough skin of a demon. His sword obviously wasn't regular.
It had a piercing ability that could be activated only once. And in their entire fight, this was the only attack that Axel was able to land on his opponent. As Ivor's size returned to normal, he gasped for breath while he was being bathed in his own blood. He eventually started crawling on the ground. His muffled voice could be heard, his desperation, his determination, "No, no, no, no. I need to live. I-I must live. Mother, I need to cure Mother."
His voice became lower and lower as he stopped crawling on the ground, and life soon left his body. Axel wanted to grit his teeth, but a muffled grunt escaped his mouth since some of his teeth were also broken. He was in terrible pain. Yet, he did not care about the physical pain. There was no joy in him, despite getting out of that hopeless situation alive.
It was the first time he had killed someone. He felt complicated; maybe if it were an unknown man, he would not have felt that way. But he knew Ivor had his sick mother waiting for him at home. His mother was down in the village in some house. He honestly did not feel too guilty for killing Ivor, yet hearing his last words made him think.
What Axel did was take the life of a son from his hopeless mother. There is nothing more painful in this world than for a mother to witness her children's death. Tears fell from the eye that was still intact as he slowly got up and limped forward toward Ivor's body. He couldn't even take Ivor's body to her mother.
Because now that the demonic plant was gone, there was only one choice left for him. He had to eat the heart of the demon. That was the only way for him to obtain the demon bloodline and the effects of the demonic plant. If Axel had eaten the plant himself and then later got a demon bloodline, the bloodline would have fully integrated with him with no instability.
Regardless, since he would be eating the heart of Ivor, who had only eaten the plant a moment ago, some effects of it would pass on to him as well. It would result in a partial integration; at least it's better than nothing. His heart could not help but feel heavy just thinking about Ivor's mother.
Axel pierced his sword into Ivor's chest; his hand shook for the atrocity he was committing. He barely managed to cut out Ivor's heart. Looking at the insides of a chest of a human who was alive moments ago made him vomit. But mostly blood came out.
Axel was holding the heart; both of his hands were covered in bright red blood as a question continued to ring in his head. 'What the fuck are you even doing, Tyler Cross?' But he shook his head; he had to eat the heart. The only thing consoling him was that it did not look entirely like a human heart.
It was more rounded and maybe smaller as well. Forcing down his disgust, he took a large bite of it. His stomach instantly convulsed, trying to make him vomit. But he held on as he took more and more bites and forced down his desire to vomit everything out.
It was disgusting, extremely disgusting beyond measure, but he ate it all. Half of his face was bloody, and tears kept falling from his one intact eye. He resembled a man-eating monster at this moment. But something soon started happening to him.
Axel could feel it; his insides were becoming hotter and hotter. His impulse to vomit out the heart also vanished. That hot sensation spread from his stomach towards all his limbs and his own heart. Axel felt dizzy. A few moments later, a soul-splitting pain hit every single cell of Axel.
His existence was being forcibly changed. He could feel some of his blood vessels bursting; even his internal organs and heart were being changed in structure. His teeth started to grow back. His injured eye started to itch. Axel's skin was stretched and torn apart as new skin began to form.
He kept screaming in such pain that even his sensation of death barely managed to match his misery at this very moment. Even his broken leg bone was being rearranged and healed.
After his body healed, his skin began to darken, his eyes turned red, and his ears became pointier. Red horns grew from his forehead while his hair became longer. His features became even more handsome. A crazy laugh escaped from his lips,
He started attacking anything and everything around. His mindless assault was destroying all trees, animals, and every single plant. The demon bloodline had made him lose his mind.
After an unknown amount of time, the opposite side of the human mountain had everything on it destroyed. Axel lay on the ground, and he reverted to human form. He was unconscious. But his mind was showing him something. Something he would not like to see...…
A beautiful garden, filled with flowers and trees, he was walking through it. A lovely woman with blue hair and light green eyes appeared in front of him. She called to him, "Come here, Axel, help me clean the garden a bit."
Axel made an annoyed expression on his face. He stated, "Just ask the servants, I'm not interested."
She laughed, "Oh, come on, my son, don't be stubborn."
The scenery abruptly changed as if there was a glitch or something. Axel helped his mother into the carriage, then got in himself. Many guards were accompanying them. It seemed they were going somewhere important.
Axel asked his mother, "Mother, I don't like going to these royal banquets." She smiled helplessly towards him, "Sorry, my dear, but we have to go in this one since your father can't go."
Axel nodded. His father was in a different region; he couldn't reach here in time. So, they had to go instead. Mother and son kept chatting about this and that. There were more than 20 guards with them, and a few of them were in the 1st phase. Then, one was a 2nd phase seeker.
Yet they did not realize the severe danger following them. Out of nowhere, they were viciously attacked by some unknown assailants. All of them were wearing dark hoods. There were only about 10. Axel could not help but panic. But his mother hugged him and reassured him. She was also a 1st phase seeker.
If anything happened, she would protect her son first, no matter what. But the attacker's strength was far above her expectations. Only 10 minutes passed, and all their guards were killed, including the 1st and 2nd phase Seekers.
Mira hugged her son tightly. Axel was also hugging his mother tightly. Fear overtook his entire being. Mira took out her sword and pointed towards the door of the carriage. Soon, a dark figure came and opened the door. Mira became even tenser and was ready to attack.