The Broken Halo

”As I told Tarvak before you entered, I caught one of the hard ridges inside the Furnaceback Centipede’s throat before its muscles dragged me deeper.”

Simon spoke without hurrying.

”The Abyssal Tortoise Shell Bead formed a barrier around me. When the beast began gathering fire, I used a technique I recently learned to attack the softer parts inside its head. The attack disrupted whatever it was preparing and made it flee underground.”

He briefly repeated the rest of the story.

Simon claimed that he had remained suspended inside the creature’s throat while the defensive barrier weakened around him. The centipede had twisted, burrowed through stone, and tried repeatedly to crush him with the muscles surrounding its throat.

According to him, the Abyssal Tortoise Shell Bead had been close to breaking when an unknown demon attacked the beast from outside.

Korran did not interrupt.

His gaze remained fixed on Simon, but several thoughts moved behind his cold expression.

Parts of the account matched what the Biggest Kev had witnessed.

The Furnaceback Centipede had been furious and preparing a devastating fire attack. Then its body spasmed without warning. The gathered fire collapsed, it screamed as though something terrifying had struck it from the inside, and it immediately abandoned the battle.

Whatever Simon claimed to have done from inside could explain that sequence.

The problem was the strength required.

Even from within, injuring a Half-Step Abyssal Beast badly enough to make survival overcome its fury was not something an ordinary Minor, or... Supreme Archfiend could accomplish.

’What sort of technique could attack through its flesh and disturb it to that extent?’

Simon had already shown control far beyond his age during the recruitment examination and the battle against the Prime Calamity Crag Hound. But control and destructive power were not the same thing.

Then there were the artifacts.

An Abyssal Tortoise Shell Bead capable of preserving him inside a Half-Step Abyssal Beast could not be cheap. The unknown artifact that supposedly concealed his true heart rank was even more troublesome.

One rare artifact could be explained by fortune.

Several began to resemble a background.

’Does he truly possess all these artifacts? Or did he come from a hidden clan or family that prepared him before sending him into Velmora?’

A sixteen-year-old Supreme Archfiend was already abnormal.

A sixteen-year-old Supreme Archfiend carrying multiple rare artifacts and travelling with demons like Sonya and Akaza was something else entirely.

Korran remembered their certainty after Simon was declared dead.

Neither had grieved.

Neither had accepted the report.

Perhaps they had known about Simon’s hidden rank and artifacts. Perhaps that was why they believed a ’mere’ Half-Step Abyssal Beast could not kill him.

Or perhaps they knew something even more important.

Tarvak’s voice broke through Korran’s thoughts.

”What happened to the rebel who was swallowed with you?”

Simon turned toward him.

”He died.”

”You are certain?”

”He remained alive briefly. I heard him screaming farther down the throat after the Crag Hound was crushed.” Simon’s expression remained indifferent. ”Then the heat increased and the muscles contracted. His screams stopped.”

Tarvak studied his face.

”You did not see the corpse?”

”No. I was trying not to become one.”

The answer was reasonable, but Korran did not allow the subject to pass completely.

The carrier’s death did not explain how the three cases left his spatial ring or why that ring was later found empty kilometres away.

However, another part of Simon’s story might.

Korran leaned slightly forward.

”The demon who attacked the centipede... describe him.”

Simon looked at him.

”Everything,” Korran continued. ”His appearance, his heart rank, what he said, what he did, and the direction he left.”

Simon allowed a short silence to pass, as though arranging a damaged memory.

”He was tall, but extremely thin. Almost skeletal.”

Tarvak’s brows furrowed.

”His skin was ashen, and most of what I could see was covered in old wounds. Some scars looked as though they had been stitched together instead of healed properly. He wore torn dark robes, and his hair floated around him even when the wind was moving in another direction.”

Korran’s expression became more focused.

”His eyes?”

”Pale green. There was something inside them that looked like lightning.”

Simon raised one burned hand and looked at it like he was in a daze.

”What was his rank?” Tarvak asked.

”I could not sense it.”

Korran frowned.

Simon continued before either demon could speak.

”His aura was controlled too well. But judging by what he did, he was at least a Demon Lord.”

The room became quieter.

”What exactly did he do?” Korran asked.

”The centipede was still travelling underground when the earth above it split apart. A narrow pale-green storm drilled through the ground, the Furnaceback Centipede’s stone armour and struck the segment surrounding its throat.”

Simon’s fingers closed slightly.

”His attack was extremely powerful and I nearly died. But fortunately for me, I wasn’t close to where the demon attacked and I had the Abyssal Tortoise Shell Bead to protect me from the shockwaves.”

”What did he say?” Korran asked with narrowed eyes.

Simon looked toward the water basin for a moment.

”Nothing at first.”

Simon paused, then he continued.

”He told me the tunnel would collapse and that I should leave before the beast recovered. I asked for his name and why he helped me.”

Korran waited.

”He ignored both questions.”

”What happened to the centipede?” Korran asked.

”It continued burrowing. The wound slowed it, but the demon did not chase after it while I was there. It seemed he had no interest in the Furnaceback Centipede but something else. I don’t know what though.”

Korran leaned back slightly while folding his arms.

”And what happened next?”

”He walked into the storm surrounding him and disappeared. I could not sense the direction he took.”

Korran leaned back and furrowed his brows.

A demon that could be at the Demon Lord realm, capable of drilling an attack through layers of earth, tearing open a Half-Step Abyssal Beast, and leaving without revealing his identity.

Such a demon could have recovered the carrier’s spatial ring.

He could also have removed the cases, detected the trackers, and thrown the empty ring toward the north-east.

The unknown rescuer had just become the most important missing piece in Korran’s investigation. Or...

’Everything could be a lie.’

Simon watched the expressions of both Korran and Tarvak, and despite the suspicions and doubts he could see in their eyes, he was still calm.

Neither Korran nor Tarvak had any idea that the demon he had described was Vhaurak, the Tempest Tyrant, also known as the Mad Wind of the West.

A Demon Lord who had been dead for a very long time.