The Broken Halo

Chapter 951 - 950: The Price Of Becoming

Sonya landed several paces from Simon.

The slab beneath her feet settled into the broken road. However, she did not immediately approach. Her brows drew together, and her head tilted as her awareness travelled from his horns to his feet.

Her attention lingered briefly upon Elara’s corpse before returning to him.

Simon waited.

Her familiar presence had changed too.

”Little kitty?”

His lips twitched, then he sighed.

”How many times have I told you not to call me that?”

Sonya remained silent for a few seconds.

”You look different.”

Simon shrugged nonchalantly.

”Well, it’s nothing much.”

Sonya rolled her eyes.

”Nothing much? This Honourable might be blind but I can still notice the differences.”

A faint smile touched his mouth.

”You’ve grown six wings,” she continued. ”Four horns. You’re taller. Bigger. And there’s something unusually dense here.”

She pointed toward her own solar plexus.

Simon was not surprised.

The ground and drifting grit gave her a colourless picture of contours, movement, and the pressure of his energy. She was not seeing his skin or the cube as he would. She was recognising their shape and presence through the element answering her.

But the precision was new.

”You’re different yourself,” he said. ”Much stronger. A Greater Demon now.”

His attention settled briefly upon the ground beneath her.

”And something has happened to your earth affinity. It cannot be compared to your previous earth affinity.”

Sonya snorted.

”This Honourable gets stronger, and you decide to turn into something else entirely.”

She folded her arms.

”You’re a Greater Demon too. And your affinities feel strange. I can’t tell exactly what you’ve done to them.”

Simon shrugged.

”It has been a busy day.”

He was about to ask about her breakthrough when hurried footsteps reached them.

Akaza stopped beside Sonya, breathing heavily.

His gaze caught on the wings, moved over the four horns, then returned to Simon’s face.

”Blackmoon?”

Simon raised a hand.

”Yes. Still me.”

”What in the world happened...”

Akaza trailed off.

Up close, the pressure was harder to dismiss. His own demonic energy tightened instinctively, though Simon had made no threatening movement.

Simon lowered his hand.

”I haven’t grown another head. You can stop staring.”

”You might have hidden it,” Sonya said.

Simon tilted his head slightly with a soft chuckle.

”Would you prefer to check?”

”Don’t tempt this Honourable.”

But her amusement faded as one of his wings shifted.

”What happened to you?”

Simon looked at her.

”Were you hiding this all along? Or did that ancient being inside you do something?”

He chuckled and scratched the side of his forehead, carefully not to close to his closed third eye.

”Yes and no. The old being helped. Quite a lot, actually. But it wasn’t entirely her doing.”

[Who are you calling old?]

A strained smile crossed his face.

Sonya tilted her head again.

”She heard that, didn’t she?”

”Unfortunately.”

”Good. Now tell us properly. No lies, little kitty. And no bullshit.”

Simon stopped smiling.

Akaza had not looked away and just kept on staring and observing Simon.

For a moment, Simon considered how much to say.

Beyond them, Ammor and Virella were still making their way along the damaged road. They had fallen well behind Akaza, picking routes through collapsed walls and broken ground.

This conversation would not remain private indefinitely.

He exhaled softly.

”I’m no longer a demon.”

Sonya’s arms loosened.

Akaza frowned.

”What?”

”I’m a Daemon.”

Neither responded with recognition.

”A what?” Sonya asked with a baffled tone.

”A Daemon. They’re the ancestors of demons. Older races whose descendants no longer possess the same bloodline power.”

Akaza glanced at the wings.

”Is this another rank?”

”No. A different foundation.”

Simon held out his hand.

”A Greater Demon describes the level of my heart. Daemon describes what I am. The bloodline changes what my body can endure, the abilities it possesses, and how much strength I can draw from it.”

”So they’re stronger than demons?” Sonya asked.

”At a comparable level, vastly stronger. That doesn’t mean a newly born Daemon can ignore every difference in cultivation. But the blood itself carries much more.”

They listened without interrupting now.

”Before this, I had one demonic lineage and one incomplete Daemon lineage. Now both have become complete Daemon bloodlines.”

His fingers curled.

”I’m still a hybrid. Just not a demon hybrid.”

Akaza’s expression grew more intent.

”Were you born with that incomplete bloodline?”

”No.”

Simon looked down at his hand.

”My Demon Cat bloodline reached a point where it had to evolve or perish. It evolved.”

He remembered the conflict within himself, the struggle to keep both lineages rather than surrender one.

”But what emerged wasn’t complete.”

He looked back at Akaza.

”That was one reason I could do things my rank shouldn’t have allowed. Part of my strength already came from a Daemon bloodline.”

Akaza breathed out slowly.

An explanation.

Not for everything.

But for something he had been measuring himself against without understanding it.

Sonya stepped closer.

”And this time? How did you finish it?”

”I went back to Velmora.”

Her expression sharpened.

”Back?”

”The God of War would have killed me if I stayed as I was. I needed to evolve my One-Horned Demon bloodline.”

Simon paused.

”So I turned Velmora into a ritual ground.”

Akaza’s brows rose in surprise and confusion.

”A ritual ground? What ritual?”

Simon explained.

”I did a bloodline evolution ritual for my One-Horned lineage. And I needed a Daemon’s heart that was still beating. I used Jorra’s heart for that, he was a Daemon.”

Sonya and Akaza were stunned.

”Jorra was a Daemon?” Sonya asked.

Simon nodded .

Akaza frowned.

”Then what of Merath?”

”She was also a Daemon.” Simon replied.

Akaza and Sonya went silent and they didn’t know what to say.

Simon continued.

”I also needed another 999 hearts, all from Two-Horned Demons. Those didn’t need to keep beating, but I couldn’t substitute another race.”

Sonya’s mouth tightened.

”And a living Two-Horned Demon, at least a Minor Greater Demon, to receive the impurities expelled from my bloodline.”

”A vessel?” Akaza asked.

Simon nodded.

”Yes. And I used Guard Commander Tarvak of Velmora as the vessel.”

The name drew a brief silence.

”I also needed a horned skull. I used one from a Superior Demon Lord, with both horns intact. And I had to cut off my own horn.”

”Most importantly, the ground needed to be soaked with blood from at least ten thousand demons. Bodies lying there wouldn’t suffice.”

Sonya glanced in the direction of the rift.

”You killed the city’s inhabitants for it?”

Simon nodded calmly.

”Yes. I used them to evolve my bloodline... Velmora is no more.”

Neither recoiled or had any sort of anger or pain in their hearts.

They didn’t care about the destruction of Velmora.

Velmora had housed them for a time. It had not become a home either would mourn for.

But the requirements were another matter.

Obtaining one of those ingredients could kill someone far stronger than they were.

And they recalled that Simon was still an Archfiend and he had to get these ingredients as one.

Sonya looked back at Simon and murmured softly.

”So that’s why you killed Jorra back in the Shadowgrave Clan.”

Simon nodded once again.

”I kept his heart for this.”

Akaza looked from the horns to the wings again.

”And gathering everything was enough to automatically become a Daemon?”

”No.”

Simon’s reply lost its casualness.

”The ritual opened a path through my bloodline’s ancestry. I still had to survive what waited along it. The materials gave me a chance. They didn’t promise I would succeed or be alive after.”

He briefly described the ancestral presences, the pressure he had to endure, and how each advance changed his body outside.

The skull had nearly failed before he returned.

Sonya’s fingers tightened around her own arm.

”And your other bloodline?”

”Completing the horned lineage forced another confrontation inside me. The tiger refused to be suppressed. This time, it drew out what it had not fully developed before.”

Both lineages had survived.

Getting them to share one body had been another struggle.

Simon let that explanation settle.

He had not told them every detail like the descent of The One or the seeds of sin.

But nothing he had said was false.

Akaza lowered his gaze to his stiff hand. A Daemon’s heart. Hundreds of specific hearts. A Demon Lord’s skull. A ritual that could kill him even after everything had been gathered.

Power... Couldn’t becoming a Daemon give him the power he desperately wanted?

Beside him, Sonya no longer regarded Simon as though she merely wanted an explanation for his wings.

She was considering the same thing.

Akaza raised his head.

His expression was serious, his voice steady.

”Blackmoon. Can you help us become Daemons too?”