CHAPTER 311: HIDDEN MALICE

When the Aberrant leader hit the ground, his voice and movements vanished all at once. His life went out like a candle being blown out.

Darian turned in surprise. What happened to that regenerative power?

Activating his ring, he caught traces of three elemental forces, insanely pure and raging, inside that body. Right away, he realized those "special veins" of that race... had been completely destroyed. The Aberrant couldn’t regenerate.

Darian shifted his gaze to the three youths. With a single brutal, precise strike, those Heavenly Elemental Spirits had actually taken down someone that strong.

The elemental power, once inside the enemy’s body, had acted like poison, tearing him apart from the inside out. Not only could the three of them combine their powers perfectly, but they also had terrifying kill potential.

They weren’t just beings that manipulated natural elements... they were born from those elements, one with them. That’s why they could use them in ways even Darian couldn’t replicate.

All the Aberrants realized their leader had been defeated; their eyes jumped in disbelief. At the same time, the Fiendgods noticed the opening and roared, charging with wild frenzy.

The three youths had their eyes locked on Darian, as if unsure what to say. They felt something weird coming from him—something they couldn’t even put into words.

Darian snorted, noticing something off about them. These three had realized he was different from the others, though even he didn’t know how or why.

With a sigh, he said lightly: "I think you should go help the others, so we can wrap this up faster."

Hearing that snapped them out of their daze. They nodded and turned toward the battlefield, drawing their swords.

Darian just watched in silence. This battle wasn’t his—he’d only stepped in out of whim, lending a hand.

Before, the three had stayed hidden among the Fiendgod army, barely using their strength. They were waiting for the perfect moment to strike the leader, but were caught off guard and forced into a desperate fight.

Now though, with all three joining in at full power, the Aberrants were facing a nightmare. That leader was the only one who could block them.

Two hours later, the last enemy fell.

Without delay, the Golden Monkey turned toward Darian, who was still watching from afar. It quickly leapt his way, its body shrinking as it morphed down.

But before it reached him, a burst of three elemental powers shot toward Darian.

He turned and saw the three youths approaching.

"Big brother... we don’t even know how to thank you," said the girl in half-white, half-blue clothes, radiating the power of water.

Beside her, the boy with an earth aura held the saber that once belonged to the Aberrant leader. His eyes carried deep sorrow.

"...what’s with that saber?" Darian asked, even if it came off a bit rude.

The other girl, radiating the aura of wind, murmured painfully: "That was forged... using our brother... he protected us and got captured, turned into this..."

Tears ran down her face, and the other two also sank into grief.

Darian sighed. The Heavenly Elemental Spirits were born as if blessed by the world... yet they carried the worst curse.

According to that book, their race was hunted across all universes and used for countless purposes. Turning them into weapon spirits by exploiting their natural power was just one method. But Darian remembered—this process didn’t necessarily kill them.

"Did he really die?" he asked.

The Golden Monkey, already nearby, muttered:

"Most likely... I don’t feel his life inside that saber anymore. I’ve been in this desert for over three hundred years, and I’ve seen, more than once, wicked people capturing little ones and turning them into something horrifying. Somewhere in these ruins, that method exists. Since no one here is really skilled in forging, they do it in crude ways... either killing or leaving the Heavenly Elemental Spirit on the edge of death."

Darian nodded. He barely knew anything about this place. So, there were ruins scattered around here? He needed to gather info. He asked softly: "The nearby city was empty. Do you know what happened?"

The Monkey nodded: "They had contact with us. A small group managed to flee to our main city... the rest stayed behind, sacrificing themselves so the others could escape."

"Hmmm... so they won’t return to the abandoned city, since they don’t have enough people to defend it, right? I need primordial crystals to finish my mission." Darian said calmly.

"Indeed, they were going to abandon that city. If we survived this battle, I was planning to send people to mine as many resources as possible and move them to our city before scavengers took over everything..." — the Fiendgod answered with a snort, "Since that’s what you want, we can settle our debt that way. Why don’t you come back with us to our city and wait while we gather the ores? How many do you still need?"

"Ten thousand, medium quality." he replied.

"Perfect. In fifteen days we should bring triple that. All of it will be yours in return. Stay in our city, we’ll host you well these days. Also, these three kids want to get to know you better."

The Fiendgod said, and Darian nodded without thinking much. Seeing that, the three youths gave faint, excited smiles, though the sadness still outweighed the good news.

"We don’t have time to waste. We’ll leave in thirty minutes, after gathering whatever we can from what’s left behind," said the Fiendgod, turning toward the blood-soaked battlefield.

"Why no time?" Darian asked curiously, since they were basically abandoning all the spoils left on the dead.

"You really are new to this trial, so you don’t know. But there’s a golden rule everyone learns the hard way. Whenever you kill someone, you must destroy the body completely, until almost nothing’s left. Because if enough remains, in three hours the power of the primordial core takes over the body and reanimates it. They become lifeless shadows, but still carry nearly the same power they had when alive... just a bit weaker since they lack intelligence. Those are the second biggest threat in this whole trial. The first, as you can imagine, are the other participants themselves."

Darian listened closely. Just three hours... and since this battle had already lasted over two, with countless bodies lying around, soon an endless number of demonic shadows would appear.

There were too many corpses, and most of the survivors were exhausted or injured. They’d be far too slow trying to destroy them all. The smartest move was to grab as much as possible and run before the time limit hit.

Exactly thirty minutes later, everyone on the battlefield retreated at once.

The Golden Monkey took the lead, guiding the group, and soon they were moving quickly in a single direction.

...

A few hours later, Darian spotted a small city up ahead. More like a village, really — just simple houses, and according to the Golden Monkey, it held about seven thousand people.

Most were Fiendgods, but there were also a few hybrids from other races. In that desert, it was common for people of the same race to band together for protection and form small settlements.

Those three were the only Heavenly Elemental Spirits there... but according to the Fiendgod, that race wasn’t actually that rare to come across in the desert. They were simply born anywhere, and most of the time, got captured and refined without mercy.

Only very rarely would one be born in some hard-to-reach place, far from people. Then they had enough time to develop a bit of intelligence, forming a solid body with their power.

Once they got to that point, the system would activate for them. That gave them a chance to survive... but even then, they needed more and more luck until they got strong enough.

That was the case of the Heavenly Elemental Spirit who had become that saber. He’d grown to the point where, with his wind powers, he could easily escape anyone trying to capture him.

But... he couldn’t bear to see his people being slaughtered.

So he started helping them, and eventually found those three kids when they were still newborns — a little over a year ago.

He taught them to speak, to fight, and became a family with them, aiming to raise them into strength and later find more of their kind to protect. He and the Fiendgods had been allies, so together they could survive in safety...

...but somehow, when he went out on a simple mission in the desert, the Aberrants had already been waiting and cornered him.

That’s when he realized... alone, he could’ve fled easily with his power. But he couldn’t protect the three. So he chose to save them and was captured.

Darian listened to the whole story on the way to the city. All he could do was let out a painful sigh. Whether on Earth or in another world, there were always people suffering cruelly.

As soon as they entered the city, Darian was taken to the biggest house in the center.

Inside, the three Heavenly Elemental Spirits approached him, their faces calmer and steadier now.

Darian nodded inwardly. They were already showing a bit of maturity, understanding that clinging to what had already happened wouldn’t help. Life moved forward from here, and all they could do was give their best so nothing like that ever happened again.

"Big brother, my name’s Awel," the girl surrounded by a breeze of wind introduced herself softly.

"I’m Tir," the boy said next. "Brother, are you some kind of demon hybrid?"

"Demons are always scary. But big brother isn’t really scary... just a little gloomy," the girl with the blue aura commented before staring into his eyes. "They call me Eleri."

"I’m Darian. Where’s that saber? Can I take a look?"

The three heard him and, without question or hesitation, turned to the Golden Monkey.

The Fiendgod gave a slight nod and pulled out the saber, which was already in his possession.

Suddenly, Darian noticed something.

They had barely won the battle, and this man had already claimed the weapon — obviously a powerful one. Since he was the city’s leader, it was understandable he’d want to keep it.

But in his eyes, hidden beneath the surface, Darian caught a faint hint of bad will, maybe even malice. All just because Darian wanted to examine "his weapon."

Even so, Darian couldn’t be sure if it was the man’s true nature or just an excess of caution toward a stranger.

He couldn’t rely on Niara anymore to sense these things perfectly for him. Now he had to trust himself. Still, he was getting better at it, picking up on the hidden side of that man.

The three kids, though, were way too naïve and trusted far too easily — perfect prey for opportunists. As for the Fiendgod, he carried heavy black karma and seemed very experienced. But that didn’t automatically make him a bad person.

Darian acted like he noticed nothing. He took the saber and focused on its interior... it didn’t take him long to understand.

’It’s like a core inside the weapon, but different... there’s a strange rune... is that a soul in there?’

It was almost imperceptible, on the verge of vanishing. But it seemed to be the case.

The Heavenly Elemental Spirit wasn’t dead. Nobody else could sense him, but Darian could. In his inventory, he still had all the soul treasures he’d used to heal Silas after the rookie tournament back on Earth.

He could probably nurture that rune and allow the Spirit to recover. But he was a stranger here, and they were strangers to him too. For now, it was best just to watch.

He calmly handed the saber back to the Fiendgod. At that moment, he sensed a subtle shift — the man’s karma felt just a little calmer.

And then, right that second—

**BOOOOM!**

A violent explosion echoed, shaking the ground.

The three kids jumped up in fury.

"An attack on the walls!"