CHAPTER 18: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [A king’s downfall]

Damian's body was completely out of service, he couldn't move as most of his bones were broken and his ribs were completely shattered. He was currently so feeble that he could have been at the mercy of the weakest man in Ivental.

The Panther wasn't callmed yet and was shouting while destroying everything around him, he didn't even remember the cause of his rage he was simply expressing it on everything he saw.

Damian laid on the ground a few meters away hidden by a bunch of trees, counting on his regeneration ability to save him. The only problem was that he was losing more blood by the second than he could heal, his ability was currently only making him leave a few seconds more. He could feel himself becoming more ill by the second and that his last bit of energy was quickly leaving his body.

His consciousness started to fade away from the massive blood loss, his new life was coming to an end. But it's in the most desperate moments that people gain a force to keep living, for Damian the force was his awakening. He had absorbed the demon's marks and had become a thing more demon than human, and his demonic gens had awoken in time to save him.

His body slowly transformed and soon he had taken the appearance of a high demon, four pairs of black feathered wings came out of his back, his​​ pupil dilated, a red glow appeared in his eyes, finally his teeth and nails began to change shape at an alarming rate becoming very pointy and deadly looking.

By now he had fully lost consciousness, and his body got up on its own and he started running in the direction of the Panther. His body was moving only relying on instinct so at first glance they looked more like the movements of a demonic beast than ones of a height demon. In reality all his movements were only the necessary ones, he only executed actions that he needed to while removing all the useless movements.

He jumped from side to side busted on tree trunks and on their branches until he came out in the open clearing, he arrived behind the Panther and he instantly went for its neck. Using his nails like weapons he crossed his arms and uncrossed them as he struck the neck of his opponent.

The Panther reacted too late and his neck was pierced on its side, the Panther still in its berserk state had felt the presence of Damian but wasn't fast enough to completely doge the attack. After dodging the Panther turned around and the two monsters both immediately sent an attack.

The Panther's giant fist broke through the air targeting Damian, his red colored fist engulfed with red flames. It was one of the ability of the Panther called *blood fire*It had been called this way because of the bloody tendencies of the Panther and for its uncommon scarlet color.

Damian collided with the beast's fist and was shot across its territory, only stopping after heavily colliding with a mountain. His previously healed bones were only slightly cracker this time, as his healing ability instantly kicked in returning him to his healthy self.

The Panther arrived at full speed as Damian exited the mountain where he had previously been embedded by the punch. Damian instantly flew up and landed on the Panther's arm, he didn't lose any time and ran straight for his heart.

The Panther felt that its life was endangered and instinctively jumped back a few meters before running back at Damian at full speed. Once again the beast breathed the mana in the air and opened his mouth, only this time a roar didn't come out, a jaw line made of mana came in form and fired in Damian's direction.

The new attack advanced at a frightening speed looking like an open jawed beast charging at its prey. Combined with this move The Panther sent a punch that engulfed itself with the attack creating an even more powerful punch than previously.

This time Damian didn't try to dodge and took the punch head on, he charged at the Panther while concentrating all his power in his right fist. His fist glowed in a red and black aura and the light was so powerful that it seemed to be from a flare in the night.

As the two fists were going to collide the force from both their attacks stopped them and after a moment where it seemed like the flow of time had stopped pushed a huge explosion erupted from the center point of their attacks.

A blinding white light illuminated the region in a thousand kilometer perimeter and most of the clearing was destroyed to pebbles, creating a huge crater where the Panther previously sat on his throne as an absolute sovereign of his territory.

The light slowly dimmed and after a minute or two it had completely disappeared leaving only the newly formed crater, The Panther that had lost an arm and Damian that was lying on his back without any lower body.

The Panther slowly used his arm to sit down and stopped his bleeding using his red flame, he then wiped the blood that was running down from his mouth and looked around in a confused way. He looked at Damian's body who rested at the opposite side of the crater, and he suddenly felt excruciating pain coming from his brain and he remembered pieces of what had just happened.

He had gone berserk after Damian caused the destruction of his throne and had fought using his all against Damian, he remembered part of the fight but everything was blurry. It's only in the last part of his memory that he could clearly see Damian's appearance.

'This human's appearance…a high demon, how is it possible? Was he pretending to be weak? For what purpose? But then could he still be alive even if his lower body was destroyed?' The Panther thought as he finally remembered Damian's changed appearance.

He suddenly opened his eyes and his face now seemed very troubled and scared. He struggled to get up and as he looked at Damian's body it had disappeared only leaving traces of orange blood.

His heart beat started to rise and he looked around like a prey cornered by a predator trying to find a way to escape. His senses extended but he couldn't find any trace of a living organism.

The Panther suddenly felt pain coming from his chest and looked down only to see his heart still beating and Damian's arm going through his chest.

"No, No, how, why, no......NO!" The Panther struggled in a slow and faint voice before shouting in desperation as he saw his heart fall on the ground. Feeling that he was quickly losing his consciousness and that his life was soon going to end he felt wronged and had a feeling of emptiness.

As a last struggle the Panther found the force to look back as Damian's hand exited his chest, Damian's lower body had reappeared and he looked at full health. To Damian's surprise the Panther's face wasn't filled with anger or resentment but with bottomless regret, after all men are equal only in death.

Finally the Panther turned back and fell forward, after struggling to keep his eyes open for a second he gave his last struggling breath and his body stopped shaking.

Soon after Damian's appearance started to change and he regained his previous appearance and the control over his body. He was shocked by the turn of events, who could have fought that he had such power inside him.

He didn't have any more time to think about it as he felt his consciousness slipping away and he joined the Panther on the ground.

He opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in a strange place, It looked like a cave but the rook was pitch black, he then looked down at his body and discovered he was himself in the body of a baby demon. After a while his hearing sharpened and he could hear the sound of people shouting from pain. He got up and he saw the people at the origin of those cries, babies, tens of them.

The cave was big enough to hold a hundred babies, and was filled with tens of them, they all seemed to be struggling to stay alive. Some had saliva dribbling from their mouths and seemed to be in great pain, others had the eyes dilated and seemed to be brain dead, ones were bleeding from their eyes and mouth lastly there were those that were convulsing as if they were having a cardiac arrest.

It was truly a vision of horror, he could stay here. He looked for the way out and ran the moment he found it, as he ran to the only source of light he fell multiple times as he tripped on a corpse. There weren't only live babies, most had actually already died not too long ago.

He jumped over the other babies and began to accelerate his pacing as the light got closer, escaping the vision of horror that he had just woken from.

Arriving outside he received the light of the sun in his eyes, he quickly hid his eyes using his small hands to cover them. After a while he slowly opened his eyes and the light entered his eyes letting him see the outside world, it was dawn and the sky was of a beautiful pink. Fluffy clouds were dancing in the sky and no one could have guessed that there was a heel in a cave under such a sky

He looked around the entrance of the cave and saw two other demons standing beside him looking at the sky, they both had a smart look in their eyes and were sweating heavily and looked very tired.

Suddenly he felt as if his consciousness was being sucked and he woke up back in his body and felt the mark on his hand heating. It was now nighttime meaning he had been asleep for approximately three third of the day.

TO BE CONTINUED…