MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!
Desmond rushed to the elevator. He didn't even bother tapping the sequence for the elevator to go down deeper than the parking; he simply ripped apart the floor of the elevator and jumped down to the lowest floor. As he landed, he forced open the doors. The researchers who were in front of the elevator watched in horror as the Branch Sovereign opened the door and rushed inside. He grabbed one of the researchers as he said:
"WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS THE FAKER?!"
One of the researchers came from the back. "Sir, he is in the cremation room. He has locked it."
Desmond pushed them aside as he ran to the cremation room and punched the door once, making a huge dent. He grunted, throwing multiple punches until the door finally broke open.
Desmond lowered his eyes, seeing Tres vomiting out a black sludge-like substance.
"YOU ATE IT?! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" In a fit of rage he moved his hand, and with a quick slash he beheaded Tres.
Tres's head flew up before landing, while his body fell to the ground unresponsive.
He sighed. "Whatever…" He turned to the researchers. "You incompetent bastards, I'll have a word with you later… First extract the fragment from his body. He doesn't seem to have devoured it completely."
The researchers bowed frantically as they rushed inside, grabbing Tres's body.
"This guy even fooled Terrance… Did he have a Demonic System? How did he enter the building? Gah… goodness, I'm getting old and I'm going to get a hearing…"
Suddenly he felt scared. He quickly turned his head. He felt fear from the corpse as he thought:
Is that the fragment of the Archdemon? It's terrifying, really… That boy would have died either way. I did him a favour by killing him painlessly… But what is this fear…?
"What the hell?!" One of the researchers fell on the floor as he said, "S–Sir, his body is releasing black smoke instead of blood!"
Desmond's eyes widened. "What?! No, I used the skill Curse of Severing—my only trump card. Is he regenerating?!"
---
[Replication System Notice]
Tier 6 Demonic Fragment: Fully Absorbed.
[Warning]
Critical irregularity detected.
Host's head: Missing.
Fragment absorption was interrupted before the head absorbed the fragment.
[Adaptive Response Initialized]
Reconstructive regeneration attempted…
Error: Curse of Severing prevents head restoration.
Finding a roundabout way to preserve life…
Success.
---
[Demonic System]
Congratulations.
You have successfully evolved into a Tier 6 Archdemon.
Individual's race has been changed to: Dullahan
Notable Trait Acquired:
Absolute Understanding of Demonic Energy
Your body now comprehends and manipulates demonic energy at a perfect, instinctive level.
Your presence now instills terror in all inferior lifeforms.
Your evolution path has changed permanently.
---
Primary Skills Unlocked:
Regeneration from Flames of Death
A regeneration force strong enough to override lower-tier curses, restoring the body endlessly.
Note: The head cannot regenerate due to curse parameters.
—Tap for more information.
Secondary Body Skills Unlocked:
Dark Perception Field (360° non-visual awareness)
Mark of Death
Soul-Chain Manifestation
—Tap for more information.
---
Tres stood up—without a head, with only black smoke coming from the severed neck. All the researchers panicked as they ran outside the room, leaving only Desmond.
Desmond stood there. Fuck… What the hell is that?! No—how is he alive? Every single cell in my body is telling me to run… NO. I worked so hard to get such a good specimen here. I'll get it back.
Desmond jumped as his hands turned into sharp demonic spikes. In an instant, they impaled Tres.
Tres grabbed the spike and, with a flick of his hand, ripped it out of his body. Desmond noticed his transformed hand—now in Tres's grip—and screamed in pain. He looked at his hand slowly regenerating as he looked up.
"I'll not go down this easily."
He raised his other hand. "Blood of Darkness!" Blood escaped through his fingernails and exploded on contact with anything it touched.
"I WORKED HARD TO REACH HERE! THAT FRAGMENT—IT SHOULDN'T BE USED ON SOME NOBODY!" Desmond shouted as he saw Tres walk toward him slowly, unfazed by the explosions.
"Shadow of Thorns!" Desmond shouted as thorns erupted from his shadow toward Tres. "I don't know how you absorbed that fragment, but I'll cut you up and figure it out myself!"
Just as the thorns pierced Tres, Tres raised a finger.
"Desmond Field."
Desmond heard his full name—without ever having disclosed it—and the man without a head only said those words, without even a mouth. Desmond backed off.
---
[Demonic System]
Skill: Mark of Death (Active)
Description:
Place a death mark on any target weaker than you.
Effects:
– Reveals the target's true full name.
– Imposes a fear debuff, weakening them and stopping any regenerative capabilities.
– Tracks their exact location anywhere, no matter how far they run.
---
In an instant, Desmond felt his knees buckle as Tres walked toward him.
Desmond shouted, "I'M NOT LETTING IT EN—"
In an instant, Tres's headless body appeared in front of him, slapping Desmond. He flew sideways, hitting the wall with his head squished. He tried getting up with his broken skull. His skull was only broken at the part where he was slapped, not from the wall.
Desmond thought, What the hell?! How did he do that? I am Tier 4 and he is Tier 6… Is there such a big difference between the two tiers?
He saw Tres walk toward him as he was bleeding. I'm not regenerating either… I—I need to run… Desmond fell to his knees and tried scrambling away, but just as he ran, Tres's heavy leg impaled him to the floor—piercing through where his heart was.
Desmond fell to the ground as Tres removed his leg and turned to the researchers who were watching in horror. A chain manifested around his neck. He grabbed it and spun it.
Tres didn't think—he only massacred every researcher using his chains. By the end of it, at least twelve researchers escaped upstairs and the remaining forty-nine were hung from multiple chains.
Tres walked back into the cremation room as he grabbed his head. The head started staring at its own body. Its eyes blinked and then widened.
"Eh… Uh? WHAT?!" the head spoke, looking at the body. "Is my body holding my head? What the hell?"
Tres's headless body carried the head as his head spoke, "Hold on—wait, wait, wait. Am I really headless?"
Tres suddenly felt a lot of energy coming from a room. He looked toward it. His first instinct was to go there. Just as he thought of it, his body—acting on its own—went to the door and broke it with a single punch.
There he saw a portal. A red portal.
Is this the Demonic Portal? Tres thought. Why is there one here? Shouldn't it be at the main branch, where the actual returner of the Demonic Guild resides?
Suddenly he heard people storming onto the floor in the distance.
"Whatever. I should go in right now."
The body instantly moved, carrying the head into the portal.
He entered the Demonic World as a Dullahan.