CHAPTER 160: INFO

Oliver wasn’t concerned about the demon seed he’d swallowed.

With his ability, he could easily block its movement without the demon’s knowledge.

And if, by chance, the demon seed latched onto his body, attempting to take him over, he could simply discard his physical form.

Killing himself was also an option.

While his blood control ability typically prevented him from dying or even self-harm, he could use some mana to do the trick if he truly wished.

All it would take was concentrating and detonating a lump of golden mana in his brain.

BOOM!

He would die. Then, he could revive far away somewhere, where he had dropped his blood.

’Now that I think about it, the golden mana is really useful,’ he silently thought as the lump of flesh, the demon seed, fell into his stomach.

With the ability to use mana, many new paths had opened up before him.

If it were in the past, he wouldn’t have been able to kill himself.

His blood manipulation ability required his conscious effort to make it lethal. If he plunged blood into his brain, his consciousness would disappear momentarily. Then, his body’s healing power would kick in automatically and heal his injuries with the blood he’d just used to kill himself.

That was the death loop that couldn’t be broken.

But, when someone else killed him and destroyed his body beyond repair, he would be transported to his Death Space, where he could find another part of himself to revive from.

’Lucky to have mana,’ he muttered under his breath.

Meanwhile, the demon scrutinized Oliver, who stood casually. Any normal person would be screaming in pain as the clone latched onto their body.

And yet, Oliver was standing perfectly fine.

"Human... What did you do?" It asked with a hint of anger in its voice.

"ME! I didn’t do anything," Oliver denied any involvement. "Was the demon seed a dud?" he asked.

The giant body of the demon trembled slightly.

A dud?

The human was calling a clone of it a dud!

The furious demon wanted to squish the puny human to paste. But it held in the anger and looked at Oliver.

The human wasn’t using any mana. It was sure of that. So then, how did he prevent the clone from taking over? The demon was perplexed. It could sense the mana of the clone gently lying inside Oliver’s stomach.

"Come here."

Suddenly, the giant palm of the gorilla-like demon shot forward and wrapped around Oliver. The power in the arm was tremendous. He felt his rib cage creak under the pressure.

A little more force, and he would die.

"You are hurting me," he could barely speak.

The demon ignored him and raised him closer to its eyes.

It ignored Oliver’s pained cries and focused on his stomach.

It wanted to rip open the stomach and look inside.

However, killing Oliver was risky.

What if he hadn’t eaten the Void Weaver?

Wouldn’t that mean it would have to search for it again?

How much time would that take?

If the Void Weaver reached the next phase of its growth, it would become impossible to catch.

The demon thought about all that and moved a steady stream of mana towards a finger on its other palm.

It wanted to force the mana into Oliver’s stomach and reactivate the demon seed.

Oliver realized this and knew it was time to end this farce.

The demon wasn’t giving any useful information. And it was actively trying to make him a demon. So, he shouldn’t let it have its way.

As the finger drew closer, Oliver twisted his body and released a blood cloud.

The demon smirked, watching Oliver resist. It never trusted Oliver in the first place. When he resisted, it was excited.

"Why are you doing this? I thought you wanted to be a demon." The demon mocked.

"Fuck demons!" Oliver shouted, cracking his neck. Even trapped in the demon’s clutches, he showed no fear.

The demon was amused. Finally, the human was revealing his true self.

Meanwhile, Oliver controlled a tendril of blood inside his stomach and pulled up the demon seed.

The demon sensed what he was doing and stopped. The finger floating towards Oliver froze.

"What are you doing?" it asked.

Oliver wasn’t using any mana, yet he somehow moved the demon seed from his stomach back to his mouth.

"I’ve never tasted a demon seed before," Oliver said in a muffled voice. Then he chewed on it without hesitation.

He was clearly taunting the demon.

Once the barrier of pretense was broken, he reverted to his usual self.

There were no subservient words or grand gestures of servitude. With a mocking smile, he bit into the bloody lump of flesh.

Immediately, Oliver frowned. "You taste like shit." He grimaced.

A torrent of mana suddenly leaked from Oliver’s mouth. He had quickly destroyed the demon seed, and it was leaking mana everywhere.

"YOU!"

The demon had expected Oliver to think twice before harming its seed; after all, his life was in its hands. Yet, Oliver, throwing all reason aside, destroyed it.

The demon felt a sharp pain travel into its mind. The demon seed and it were connected, and they were close enough for it to feel the pain the seed experienced before it died.

The pain made the demon flinch. It gave Oliver a murderous glare.

"Whatcha looking at? You tried to kill me because I ate a damned fish. Fuck you, demon." Chewing a little more, he spat out the demon seed.

The demon tightened its grip on Oliver, immediately breaking his spine.

"Ah!" Oliver took a deep breath as the sharp pain tore through his body.

"Hey... Demon... Are you tickling me?" he promptly said to mock the demon. "I thought you could do better."

The blood fog Oliver had released began to move towards the demon’s eye.

"I know your trick," the demon snorted, and a puff of air swept the blood fog away. "Human, that won’t work on me." It said, tearing away the grenade belt Oliver was wearing.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked.

To tear away the grenade belt, the demon had to open its palm.

Although he crumpled into the demon’s palm because his spine was broken, he still got the breathing room he needed.

Suddenly, blood tentacles sprouted from his back and grabbed the pins of the grenades. Before it could be moved away, he pulled out the pins with a smirk.

Currently, Oliver was held close to the demon’s face. If the grenades exploded, it would do some damage to the demon. And he would be injured too. Still, he didn’t care about any of that.

Seeing the pins being pulled out, the demon quickly tried to throw away the grenade.

Even though it was an S-ranked monster, it still didn’t want to waste mana defending against it.

Oliver used the slight opening he made to pump mana into his tentacles and jump towards the demon’s head.

He had already predicted what the demon would do. So, he targeted the eyes with his tentacles as he jumped.

The demon smirked, watching Oliver fly towards it.

Suddenly, a burst of mana exploded outwards from its body and turned into a thin film of water.

It blocked Oliver’s path and caught him.

Shortly after, the water film shrank, tightly binding Oliver.

Unlike the rest of the monsters, the monster the demon took over could control water. It used the water to trap Oliver.

Oliver was drenched from head to toe, caught in the net of water.

"Human, did you think that would work?" The ball of water binding Oliver floated towards the demon as it asked.

"..."

Oliver stayed silent and rolled his eyes.

"Do you have nothing more to say before you die?"

"I don’t think you would kill me."

Demon raised an eyebrow. The grotesque bat face of it looked even more eerie as it did that.

"Because you want me for something. After I ate the Void Weaver, I somehow became important, right?" Oliver asked.

"You are a smart one." The demon nodded. "You are half correct." It added.

An eerie smile bloomed on its face.

"But you made a mistake. Do you know what it is?"

"What?" Oliver tilted his head.

"Now I am almost certain you ate the Void Weaver." The demon once again brought Oliver to its palm.

"Yes, I did. So, you can’t kill me. You also can’t turn me into a demon. I win this round, Mr Demon."

Oliver wore the usual smug expression that would make anyone slap him.

And yet, the Demon became even happier hearing his declaration. It let down its guard, knowing Oliver can’t escape, and spoke.

"Thanks for letting me know. The reason I kept you alive was as a contingency. If by chance, you didn’t eat the Void Weaver, I wouldn’t know where the key was. Now, I know for sure it will be in your body."

The demon brought Oliver to its face.

"Once I eat you, the Void Temple Key would be absorbed into my soul."

With a laugh.

It brought Oliver towards its mouth.

"NOOOO..." Oliver acted shocked and scared by this revelation.

He screamed ’no’ to make it stop.

But he was neither shocked nor scared.

In fact, this revelation was more of a surprise than a shock.