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Aques Lumen, Branch Leader of Azure City’s Demon Hunters. A child of commoners, details about his childhood are little. His talents easily put him in the category of an elite. He possesses an iron will and an ability to create new sword skills on his own.

He had once travelled the various countries, wherein he came upon, then fell in love with, an illusion demon. According to records, the two were forced to separate when the parents of the young illusion demon objected to their relationship. What happened in between is a mystery to all but himself.

After splitting up with the illusion demon, he rescued an elite demon hunter in the middle of a devil subjugation. That was the spark for him joining the guild. Current actual strength is that of an overlord, but that is confidential.

His motives for joining the guild remains unclear. His earlier relationship with an Illusion Demon requires careful monitoring. Any sign of potential threat should be reported immediately.

Actions to be taken: surveillance

From a highly classified internal report of the Demon Hunters’ Guild

As Aques Lumen approached his student, an enchanting song slowly drifted into his ears. It was vaguely enthralling and originated from the recording crystal Nicole was holding.

For no reason in particular, she decided to activate the crystal, causing it to tremble slightly before a beautiful song started playing…

If you are the fireworks above the ocean
I am the bubbles on the waves
At some point in time, your light shines on me

If you are a distant galaxy
So dazzling that you make people want to cry
I am the pair of eyes chasing you
Whenever I am lonely, I search the skies

I can follow behind you
Like a shadow chasing light, sleepwalking
I can wait at this crossing
Doesn’t matter if you pass by or not

Whenever I lift my head because of you
Even tears feel like freedom
Some types of love fall like sunlight
On the one hand, you possess it, on the other hand, you lose it

(TL: He listed more lines from the same song, but I’m not sure I want to include even more material of a song. Sounds like future trouble to me. Doesn’t add much to the story anyway.)

The song kept playing while zombie after zombie dragged itself out of the nearby foliage, seemingly drawn to the song itself. In all likelihood, the song had somehow enthralled these dead creatures. As the zombies mindlessly stumbled towards Nicole, they didn’t seem threatening as you would expect from a horrific dead creature. Instead, they just seemed a little silly…

Why aren’t these zombies trying to attack? Aques Lumen wondered to himself. Their goal seems to just be to approach Nicole. Rather, they seem to be resonating with something on her. Their eyes look almost sad, but they should be dead and emotionless… it’s that song. That song in the recording crystal is the culprit!

Faced with approaching zombies, Neneth definitely wasn’t about to sit idly by either. Even in her worn out state, she still forced herself to her feet for another mighty swing of her giant sword. Sword wobbling a little, she barely managed to bifurcate the incoming zombies.

“Phew… I’m tired… I just want some meat right now…”

With Nicole out of the picture, the fact that Neneth was able to hold out for so long was remarkable. Being tired was only to be expected. Aques Lumen knew he mustn’t waste any further time. As he got closer, Neneth noticed his presence as well. She hastily raised her head to see who it was approaching them, and found it was an ally.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead before giving a little jump of joy. “Teacher! We’re here! Neneth’s here!”

Ever the energetic child, she always put forth her best. Whether it was battle, protecting her comrades, or even calling for help, she would always be the center of attention…

“What happened to Nicole?” Even though he already knew the gist of what happened, he still felt the need to hear the story from Neneth herself, seeing as asking Nicole was out of the question.

“Neneth doesn’t know as well…” The joy on her face immediately disappeared. “She was already like that when Neneth found her…”

There wasn’t much information to be gleaned from her words. Even so, that further reinforced his opinion that Ferti’nier was telling the truth…

She must have injured the younger brother she had been looking for all this while… even though that younger brother is no longer the same…

Aques Lumen motioned for her to stay still for now, then walked up to Nicole. He first reached out for the recording crystal, in hopes of discovering the truth of that enchanting voice and the enthralled undead.

Yet the moment he got close to the crystal, Nicole, who was basically no different from a zombie till now, finally moved. She instinctively huddled into herself, pressing her head into the recording crystal, burying it out of sight.

Even if she hadn’t said a word yet, her actions rang clear. She was still there, but her heart was mostly dead at this point.

Aques Lumen knew then how deeply wounded his favored student was. One wrong move might even end up turning her into an invalid… not that she wasn’t one already…

At this point, the amount of surviving undead was still high. Even though their victory was secured, the stragglers of the horde was an annoying matter that still had to be solved. Now, he had a traumatised student to deal with as well -truly a headache.

“Look after Nicole, Neneth. We need to get out of this area first.” Then without waiting for her response, Aques Lumen took off. He had already scouted the area with his senses: the undead were all but gone. As long as they followed in his footsteps, there shouldn’t be any enemies.

Still, Nicole’s complicated situation and the fact that a horde of undead suddenly appeared to destroy a village weighed heavily on Aques Lumen. That horde wasn’t just a couple thousand strong, it was in the hundreds of thousands! Such a horde appearing in a human kingdom without warning was in no small part due to the lord of the land’s negligence.

The more he thought about this, the angrier he got. He gazed icily in the direction of the ruined village, temper at its breaking point. “The nobility just gets more corrupt by the year… seems like someone must really pay the price before they learn their lesson!”

A leaf fell off its branch at that point, carried by the winds of death… a storm was about to approach the humans…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

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“Of course not.”

The moment Ferti’nier uttered those words, a shadowy arm pierced through Granny Adele’s chest. Behind her, a shadowy figure slowly withdrew its arm…

“Why…” Granny Adele collapsed to the ground, coughing as she gasped for air. Her blackish-red blood spilled onto the ground, painting a bloody rose where it splattered. As she laid on the ground, she strained her neck upwards to gaze Ferti’nier, still floating in the air as always. She could tell from their previous conversation that Ferti’nier truly admired her talent. That was why she never suspected her when she made that offer. Yet why was she now lying on her side with a hole in her chest? Incomprehensible…

Once the puppet master of this village, she now laid there, dying, confused and aggrieved. “But we hit it off so well… why…”

“That we did… If it was just me, I wouldn’t mind what you did at all. As long as you’re useful, that’s all that matters. It’s just too bad. You see, this body belongs to my little brother. While he might be a useless shut-in, always crying for help when he gets into trouble, and also running away to hide at the drop of a needle. In fact, he’s basically lower than a worm, by Devil standards. Even so, his stupidity and overall idiocy doesn’t change the fact that he’s my idiotic brother.”

“Also, this body belongs to him. I’m just looking after it for him. And he so happens to despise actions like yours. He has a strong sense of justice, you see. Not at all like his noble Devil lineage. An utter failure, disgrace, outcast, and pariah of the Devil world even. But he’s still my useless brother.”

“What I’m saying is this: he doesn’t like you. So as his big sis, I’m not taking the risk of angering him just to shelter you -it would be better if you die. Speaking of which, why aren’t you dead yet? But I guess you’re still alive, so you might as well listen up: you seem to have forgotten to tell me something. Something extremely important.”

Granny Adele was stunned for a second, as if she had suddenly recalled what it was Ferti’nier was referring to. She scrambled to provide an answer but found herself coughing up instead.

“Wai-wait… cough… cough…”

Snap.

Ferti’nier snapped her fingers, causing that wound to burst into blackish-red flames. The wound created by the Shadow Demon had some residual mana leftover when it attacked. While the mana would eventually dissipate, as long as even a trace remained behind, Ferti’nier could activate it to inflict a fatal wound.

Under the scorching tendrils of Nether Flames, another foe was vanquished from the world once more.

“Phew… that took up quite a bit of time… now it’s time to…” Ferti’nier was about to locate Jezsere and the others when she suddenly felt a call from Mo Na. While Mo Ke and Mo Na might not actually be related by blood, Mo Na had the ability to contact him through dimensional barriers. However, her strength was still lacking, and there were no satellites to speak of in a fantasy world. The message ended up being unclear, only managing to express that she hoped that Mo Ke would return right away.

In other words, something had happened at their homebase, and he needed to get back right this instant.

Normally, it would be Mo Ke who received this message, but he was still hiding in the abyss of his soul, so it fell onto Ferti’nier to respond to the message. Ferti’nier was actually quite fond of this adoptive daughter of Mo Ke’s. She found her personality very similar to her own. Furthermore, some of Ferti’nier’s aura ended up being imparted onto Mo Na when Mo Ke incubated her egg, else Mo Na would not have been born such a high level Lust Demon. Naturally, Mo Ci, her actual mother did impart the same Original Sin onto her, but without Ferti’nier’s help, she would still be an Imp…

Since her little daughter was in trouble, she had better rush home and check up on her. As for Jezsere…

Ferti’nier promptly activated her secret arts to contact Regine. Upon confirming that they had safely broken out of the encirclement, she had Regine inform the others to return to their own territories first. She then hastily erected a dimensional portal back to Sable Radiance. To be exact, she did so almost instantly… all that talk about needing time to cast a gate was rubbish…

At the same time when Ferti’nier returned to Sable Radiance, Ann, who was still in Jezsere’s arms, suddenly fainted without any warning. Worried, Jezsere fussed over the little girl for a good while before finally stopping when Reyage confirmed that she was okay.

“She was probably too nervous just now. Now that she’s out of danger, that tension suddenly went away, resulting in her fainting. She will be fine after a quick nap.”

“Oh. As long as she’s fine.” Jezsere hugged the girl harder. This little girl was specifically singled out by her master, thus it fell on her to ensure her safety till her master got back. Although… she would still have to take care of her even if her master returned.

“Mistress Ferti’nier has returned to Purgatory, she said there is an emergency over there.” Riding atop a horse, Regine came galloping in as she announced the departure of Ferti’nier abruptly. “She said to go our own ways for now.”

“In that case, once everyone is safe, we can return to our respective territories first.” Since Mo Ke left, the strongest amongst the group, Zurnalin, automatically became the decision-maker. Even though she was a little saddened that she couldn’t say goodbye to Mo Ke, she took the news well. It wasn’t that she did not miss Mo Ke. Rather, it was because she finally could take out her treasure!

Having made that declaration, she suddenly reached into her breastplate and fished around… A while later, she took out a purple, thread-like material from within and bound around her left hand.

That thread-like material was Mo Ke’s hair!

Having done that, she brought the hair bracelet up to her nose and took a deep whiff. Eyes closed in ecstasy and voice quivering, she half muttered to herself, “ahh… Her Holiness’s scent…”

“…”

Jill leaned in slightly to have a look and immediately recognised where that hair came from. Suspicious, she asked, “isn’t that Lady Mo Na’s hair? When did you get your hands on it?”

Purple hair was one of Mo Ke’s distinctive traits. The moment Regine and Mo Ning noticed that strand of hair on Zurnalin’s hand, their faces immediately blackened. How they wanted to do that too…

Like a gust of wind, Regine rushed for the hair bracelet without a second thought. However, Zurnalin was already a step ahead of her. Her right hand shot out and easily caught the girl’s head, giving it a slight slap and forcing her to the ground…

“Don’t forget about me!” At the same time that Regine attacked, Mo Ning had cleverly snuck behind Zurnalin for a sneak attack. However, Zurnalin was just too strong for the two girls. With a twist of her body, she caught Mo Ning’s shoulders and did the same action to her. Yet instead of falling to the ground, she instead sent her flying back… In order to protect Her Holiness’s sacred relic, she wasn’t going to hold back at all!

“Naturally, while Her Holiness is asleep.” Having just taken care of two opponents, she triumphantly raised her head up high, lips curled to their highest corners. “I knew Her Holiness wouldn’t be with us forever, that’s why I smartly procured a sample of Her Holiness while she was asleep. From now on, Her Holiness will always be by my side!”

A measly hair -what are you doing bragging about that for?! Regine yelled in her head. However, her actions were completely at odds with her thoughts. She had already gotten to her feet in another attempt to try and steal the hair for herself. Unfortunately, the strength gap was too huge and she could only resign herself to having her back stepped on by Zurnalin.

Seeing that, Mo Ning, who had just gotten to her feet, gave up as well. She was too strong!

Denied of their treasure, the two girls silently glared at Zurnalin. While their mouths might not have said it, they were clearly thinking, I knew you were a stalker and a pervert!

Ever since Ferti’nier disrupted the Anti-light Barrier, the scales of victory were beginning to tip in favor of the non-Undead. Furthermore, with Aques Lumen’s participation, the tides of battle were completely overturned. While he might not have deployed his Territory, he was still an Overlord-tier fighter. With no Overlord of their own, the Undead were easily routed by the Humans.

As one would expect of an elite army, the elite Demon Hunters and the elite mercenaries were able to secure a resounding victory. Their casualties might not be little, but those were far outweighed by their kills!

With the battle over, Aques Lumen found his disciple in a worn-out, blank state, sitting next to Neneth. Around the two girls was a massive ring of slain Undead, all killed by Neneth’s giant sword…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

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The soul is one of the most sublime creations bestowed onto this world by the Creator. It’s a repository for the very essence and memories of the being. Humans have devoted countless hours delving into its mysteries, but they have mostly proved fruitless so far. However, that isn’t to say that there are no results. A famous example would be the Clone spell created.

Clone is a forbidden spell that splits one’s soul into multiple pieces. As for why it was forbidden, that was because it had massive side effects for its user.

The soul and the body are actually part of the same system. By losing one’s soul, you would also lose control of part of your body. In other words, spells that dealt with the soul had a high chance of causing a loss of control of the body, partial or not.

Damage to the soul is not to be taken lightly. While the damage may not manifest physically on the body, a loss of mobility is serious enough by itself. An example, perhaps, could be a grown man who suddenly lost the ability to get erect. Highly inappropriate as an example, but definitely evocative.

The Clone spell was first invented by a mad genius. He combined Alchemy and magic to create a clone body, in which he placed half of his soul. The idea was that he could then complete two times the amount of research. Unfortunately, he ended up becoming an invalid… twice…

The dangers of forbidden spells should be evident by now. The act of labelling them forbidden is, in essence, a protection for researchers as mad as that genius.

From: The Dangers of the Forbidden

Disclaimer: due to the dangerous nature of the work within, the book, The Dangers of the Forbidden, has been recalled once and edited.

The spider-crested shield continued revolving around Mo Ning, all the while, her flames kept burning, in case a bat or two managed to slip by the shield.

For the most part, the bats were just wasting their time. They had no Vampire to command them, so their attacks were frantic but uncoordinated. To Mo Ning who had her flame barrier and spinning shield, their numbers meant nothing.

The Undead on the ground were of a higher level than those attacking the villagers. But that did not really matter when their targets were mostly Eight-stars and Seven-stars. Their encirclement was easily broken!

Amongst the Undead blocking the way, the majority were actual Zombies and Skeletons. However, there were also denizens of the dark like Vampires and Werewolves. Not that it mattered, since their opponents were too strong.

This was especially so since the Anti-light Barrier was starting to show signs of weakening. A number of Vampires had already burst into flames. Without the protection of the barrier, the Undead were starting to slow down as well. That left only the Werewolves who were unaffected. Yet no matter how strong they were, they couldn’t do much when most of their allies were out for the count.

Just like that, Zurnalin made it out of the Undead encirclement without a single casualty…

At the same time elsewhere, Ferti’nier was currently toying around with a palm-sized, white crystalline pyramid. This was one of the focal points for the Anti-light Barrier. By placing them at the desired locations, a barrier that blocked out light would be erected. As a point of interest, Ferti’nier had collected eight such pyramids.

Amusing, was Ferti’nier’s judgement of the crystal pyramid.

But even though she finally got her hands on a new toy, she did not have the time to research it further. She had other matters to attend to, like finding the culprit behind that Dracolich in Lyon. She was almost certain it was that old granny, Adele, who did that. She might have hidden her machinations well, but she was clearly out to get Mo Ke and the rest… Being the spiteful big sis that she was, there was no way that old hag was getting away so easy.

Ferti’nier had already memorised Adele’s aura so it merely took a few minutes before she caught up to the old lady in the midst of fleeing the wreckage that was Lyon.

Right this very instant, she was lugging along a small knapsack, struggling to climb over the debris. Her body was frail and old to the point of collapsing. Even with her Witch powers, she still wasn’t able to stand against the effects of time.

“Oh? Is that Granny Adele I spy over there? What’s an old woman like you doing in a run-down place like this? Old people should be resting in their backyards, drinking tea under a nice, cozy tree.” Said Ferti’nier as she came to a stop right in the path of Granny Adele, still floating in mid-air as before.

“…” Granny Adele strained her head upwards to look at Ferti’nier, her face every bit as strained as her aching neck. However, she still did her best to maintain a smile on her face. “Lady Mo Na… I’m sure there’s no need for someone of your stature to bully a little old lady, is there?:

“That would depend on whether I like what you say then.” Ferti’nier’s lips curled into a devious smile. “How about we play a game? I ask the questions, you answer.”

The moment Ferti’nier said that, Granny Adele looked almost relieved. The fact that she wanted information meant that she wasn’t going to be killed right away. “Lady Mo Na, as you can see, I’m just an old lady that’s halfway to her grave at this point. Even looking up is a terrible burden on my old neck.”

“That’s true. One mustn’t strain their neck at your age. How about this? I’ll help you relieve your shoulders of that neck. That way, you won’t have to worry about any neck pains ever again.” Ferti’nier practically beamed at the old lady.

“…” A cold shiver went down Granny Adele’s spine. She could tell right away that Ferti’nier meant every word she said. Should she try her luck any further, she might just meet her maker. Old as she might be, she still wanted to live, even if for a short while more. “Since Lady Mo Na insists, old Adele over here will happily oblige. How may this old granny service you, milady?”

“Actually. You know what. I don’t have to ask you, do I? It might be a little troublesome, but it’s always good to be independent.”

Hearing her change her tune all of a sudden, Granny Adele immediately paled. “That would be terrible, troubling you like that. If there’s any question that needs answering, old granny over here will answer it, no problem.”

“Yeah, but… I might dislike trouble, but I’m actually quite fond of taking care of troubles.”

“…milady, there’s really no need to waste your time so. Let this old bag of bones solve them for you.”

And that’s why you should never argue with a she-Devil like Ferti’nier…

Following that…

“I see, I see. So you did use a scent hated by those parasitic spiders to drive them away from eating those Vampiric Leech Eggs. Those fellas were already under your control before the festival… My. My. Impressive, I must say. Not just anyone would infiltrate a village for seventy whole years.”

“Speaking of which, what happened to your husband…”

Further explanation…

“What?! You actually used your husband’s soul as an offering. Now, that’s just wrong. And you even pretended to grief for him… so how many men have you seduced so far… children can be used in such a manner as well? Must be nice to have a human doll collection… What? They’ve rotted away? Such a pity, you should preserve them better…Yes, I know they are a pain to upkeep…”

“So what was the method you used to grow that Dracolich to such a size… Oh my, you’re saying you improved over ten species of parasites just for that, all by yourself? Really impressive, you have a bright future ahead of you…”

“Speaking of futures, that body of yours doesn’t look like it will last for much longer. Have you considered becoming one of us? I can even create a nice, sprightly body for you. I’m sure you can’t even harvest energy from men anymore with that decrepit body of yours.”

“Is that true… is that really possible?” Granny Adele nearly tripped over herself in excitement, like an old shelter dog who suddenly found someone willing to take her in. “Lady Mo Na, are you really willing to take me in? And prepare a new body for me?”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE