The Demon Asher

"So, young lord, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Josef asked right after he got into a room with Asher.

The room was located in a building quite some distance away from the Arnhaunt family mansion. At the same time, it was behind the training ground for the family's private forces and even the reinforcements from the capital weren't around to use this training ground. As such, it was a safe spot for Asher but disadvantageous to Josef. However, he wasn't afraid.

Josef was confident that Asher wouldn't lay a hand on him as doing otherwise would lead to a civil war between the Castellans and their allies against the Arnhaunts. At the same time, doing so would make the Castellans wield the moral high ground, hence it would be quite difficult for others to support the Arnhaunts in this battle, including the Grahams.

Considering the level of intelligence Asher had demonstrated when handling the White Maple chamber of commerce matters, Josef was believed that he would be aware of such.

Since there was a huge repercussion for silencing him, Josef wouldn't be afraid even if he was surrounded by hundreds of men wielding swords, much less in a room with just Asher.

"The Eye of Saul is a pretty unique ability, don't you think so?" Asher said.

Josef immediately froze.

Despite being a reputed genius and schemer, Josef never saw this coming and was stunned when the question was brought up.

'Hmm. It seems my luck is good.' Asher thought.

Asher had originally feared that in this world the Eye of Saul was known as something else, but it looked to be that his fear was for naught.

"I don't understand what you're saying, young lord." Josef calmed down and replied almost right away.

"Of course you would say that." Asher smirked.

"It doesn't matter either way. You have two options now. Work for me, or die."

The room suddenly turned cold as a strange pressure descended. A mix of Josef's suspicion, anxiety and nervousness with Asher's murderous intent filed the room.

"Haha. Young lord, you jest. Such words have dire consequences if hard outside. Let's act like this never happened and I won't say a word to the king. I'll take my leave right now." Josef smoothly replied as he retreated towards the door.

Josef didn't know why Asher had decided to lay a bare threat against him, but he didn't want to sit still and find out. Since Asher had dared to say those words, there had to be something backing him. Josef didn't intend on finding out and simply wanted to escape.

On his way here, he had scanned the area with his sixth-stage senses and realized that it was empty. Asher alone couldn't stop him but with an artefact, it might be doable. Even so, Josef, although confident of leaving at any time, decided to do so now as his instincts felt that the situation was strange.

'He's a mere second-stage mage. He can't stop me alone and there's no one here. Now is the best time to leave before it's too late.'

"Where are you going to, Mr envoy? You just arrived. Make yourself feel at home."

Ol Fang's voice sounded as he walked out from a dark corner in the room. He had been hiding in the room using the stealth bracelet artefact that helped him meld into shadows[1] that was how he had avoided Josef's senses. If Josef had activated the Eye of Saul, he might have spotted Ol' Fang hidden within the shadows, but he didn't.

'Shit.' Josef cursed inwardly.

Unlike Asher, Ol' Fang was seventh-stage Guardian mage; a warrior at the level of a duke. He was more than capable of taking on Josef with ease.

"Young lord, what's the meaning of this? Even if I have committed a crime, it doesn't mean that you would have me blocked off like this." Josef said.

"You're a Castellan so stop acting like you don't understand the situation. I'll say this one last time. You have two options; swear loyalty to me or die."

"Treason!" Josef shouted.

"Don't bother. The entire room is sound-proof and magic reinforced. Nothing's leaving here even if you cast an explosive spell." Ol' Fang said as he cleaned his ear with a finger nonchalantly.

Josef's face twisted after his plot was revealed. Indeed, he had simply yelled in an attempt to draw attention over but it seemed that was for naught.

"I'm tired of waiting. What's your answer, Josef?" Asher asked.

Josef didn't answer him but asked a question of his own,

"Are you sure you want to do this? Don't you know what the consequences of your actions would yield?"

Immediately after, Josef dashed towards Asher. It was so unexpected and done without any signal that if someone else were here, they would have been to slow to react. But Asher had been on guard since the very start same for Ol' Fang.

Just when Josef was a few steps away from Asher with his hand extended towards him, Ol' Fang appeared by his side and grabbed onto the extended arm with his left hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ol' Fangs voice turned cold as he glanced at Josef with a savage look on his face.

The Smiling Blood demon had awakened.

This thought crossed the mind of Josef for a millisecond before he channelled mana into his arm and cast a spell.

A gold light flashed briefly from his palm followed by a small projectile that shot at Asher using the the gold flash as a cover.

Bang.

The projectile shot past Asher, who had moved his head to the side, and then struck the wall behind.

Despite possessing enough force to take down a nine-inch thick concrete pillar, the projectile spell had failed to destroy the wall and only left behind a crack on it, albeit nothing serious.

"Didn't my uncle tell you? This entire room is reinforced with magic."

"Ahhh!"

Josef's scream sounded as Ol' Fang clamped down on the arm and bent it in an unnatural angle. Following the intense sensation of pain, Josef was brought down to his knees with a kick from Ol' Fang who released his pressure and forced it on him.

"Time's up." Asher said as he walked towards Josef.

"Haha. You want to kill me? Go ahead! Go ahead and have your family face the might and wrath of the Castellans. You'll never get away with it." Josef grinned.

"Of course I will." Asher smiled once he was right in front of Josef.

"Watch."

Asher pointed a finger at Josef's forehead, sending in a blast of mental energy.

'Melior Hypnos.' Asher chanted in his mind as his finger made contact with Josef's forehead.

"!!!" Josef's eyes widened before turning white as his consciousness went haywire.

This only lasted for five seconds after which Asher lifted his finger and cancelled the spell.

"...Ha, Ha. Ha."

With his consciousness back, Josef's eyes returned to normal and he suddenly began to breathe heavily.

"You should have noticed it, right? In those short few seconds, you had lost control of your body. Like a disabled man, you were incapable of even moving a muscle. But what was strange is that you could see it all, right? I can control you. I can make you kill yourself and it would look like true suicide." Asher smiled.

The smile however, looked like the devil's grin to Josef who was sweating profusely. There was only one time in his life that had he been this scared, and that was when Josef met the Castellan patriarch from the older generation. However, now, he could feel a similarly terrifying sensation from Asher.

"Wha, what do you want?" Josef finally broke down.

"Don't be like that. I'm not here to destroy you otherwise I wouldn't have given you two options. Work for me." Asher said.

"The Eye of Saul in base form has an amber-coloured iris and a black pupil. But in its active state, a new organ is formed within the pupil and takes the same colour as the iris, resulting in an amber-black-amber eye. There are also a few ways to prevent being seen through by a user of the Eye of Saul, and I'm pretty sure you don't doubt this part after seeing it first-hand." Asher smiled.

"How do I know this? Well, I can sure you that I know a lot more. Apart from that, I can make you stronger."

Asher suddenly released the seal on his stage and exposed his strength.

Third-stage of the Guardian realm and he was closing in on the mid-rank.

However, Asher then reached out to the orb inside of him and managed to excite it just a bit, leading to a strand of its aura leaking; this was a trick he had learned recently. The strand of aura in turn affected his, and although his mana level still remained at the third-stage, there was something about it that made it much stronger and purer.

It was as if Asher was following the true path of magic and what everyone else did was wrong. He was the light and they were the darkness. If Asher was said to be on the wrong path, no one could claim they were right. He became the beginning and the truth.

"Join me and I'll make you rise above others. I'll help you pursue the limits of your power. Now, take my hand and begin your journey anew. You won't regret it, trust me."