Chapter 74: The Possessed KnightThe night that we looked for Garret, we couldn’t find him anywhere in the city. We even flew for a few minutes to check all the side streets and alleys, but there was no sight of him.

    The following day, we went to the barracks first thing in the morning and were greeted by Valentina, who told us that Commander Garret never made it back after he went on his stroll.

    ’Now I got a bad feeling about this...’ I thought.

    Valentina issued a command to her knights to look for Garret, while the knights of the 2nd, who awaited their commander’s return, were told to stand by in the barracks in case he came back.

    Our group took into the skies, and just as we decided which direction we would cover, we spotted a surge of shadowy energy from a hill in the distance, far in the city’s outskirts.

    "You guys felt that?" I asked Melina and Vespera, who hovered in the air next to me.

    "Let’s go!" Melina exclaimed, propelling herself forward.

    As we got closer to the destination, we saw Garret from above with shadowy energy surrounding his body. Hovering high in the air, we observed the man who hadn’t noticed us yet. sea??h thё NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Vesp, is that...-" I tried asking, but my companion cut me off.

    "It is. That’s demonic energy..." She said.

    "Does that mean Garret is the devil?" I asked.

    "He was most likely possessed..." she said, shaking her head in denial.

    Vespera explained that a possession was the cause of a human accepting the power of a devil.

    It wasn’t the devil directly entering the body of the person. It was them infusing their demonic energy into someone to make them stronger, albeit also giving the devil control over them.

    "So, he got possessed willingly!?" I asked, not believing that someone would be that stupid.

    "There is no other way otherwise. That’s why devils mostly control beasts and monsters..." Vespera explained.

    "And how do we reverse it?" Melina asked, calm and focused.

    Vespera shrugged. "I’ve heard of an exorcism ritual that can be done with magic to expel the demonic energy of someone’s body. But, I’ve never seen anyone doing it..." she said.

    "The other option is... death." Vespera finished her explanation.

    Determined to put a stop to whatever Garret thought he was doing, we decided to capture the man and worry about breaking the possession after.

    As we descended, the possessed Garret looked unaware of our presence. He was without a shirt, and his body had strange black markings that resembled veins.

    Suddenly, while we were still descending, he turned his head quickly and made eye contact with us, raising his sword and shooting a wave of shadow energy toward us.

    Avoiding the attack, we landed not too far from him and were immediately attacked by an enraged Garret.

    At first, he mainly focused on me. Slashing the air in desperation as his attacks raised the ground around him while I quickly dodged them.

    His eyes were glowing red, and he mumbled his words into an incomprehensible mess. Nonetheless, I could tell he was trying to say something to me in the middle of his rampage.

    His sword was coated with the same shadowy energy that made all his attacks more explosive and powerful, making me use magic to avoid his attacks quicker since using just my physical strength wasn’t enough to keep up.

    At one moment, Melina used air magic to push Garret into a tree. However, he stood up instantly after crashing against it and kept attacking me like there was no tomorrow.

    ’How are we going to keep this dude in place!?’ I pondered as I kept avoiding his attacks.

    "K-K-Kil-..." He mumbled in between slashes.

    ’What is he trying to say?’ I thought. It was as if his words were being cut short forcefully.

    "Kil-..." He mumbled again, seemingly struggling to get the words out while attacking me.

    "Goddamit, just say it!" I yelled as I simultaneously avoided a final attack and punched him in the stomach as hard as I could.

    I could feel my fist digging into his gut as he tumbled toward me. He was coughing a few drops of blood and placed his head on my shoulder.

    "Kill me..." he whispered.

    ’Wha...?’ I thought as my eyes widened.

    However, I didn’t have a moment to process his words as the energy around him suddenly got more intense, pushing me a few meters to the back.

    I raised my head high and stared at Garret, his face showing an expression of anguish and hatred.

    ["Vesp, if I hold him down, can you tie him up?"] I asked my companion telepathically.

    In return, she nodded and moved out of sight from the battlefield.

    Garret launched himself at me once again with an overhead strike that I was able to dodge, but the force of his attack still shattered the ground beneath us, raising rocks and debris.

    The mountain of dust blinded me momentarily, and as I felt something to my right, I turned to see Garret right beside me, about to strike me with his shadowy sword in the midst of the dust cloud.

    ’Can I block this?’ I thought in that millisecond, trying to move my body out of the way.

    However, right behind Garret, I saw Melina. Her eyes filled with determination as she waved her hand to the side, sending Garret flying out of the dust into another tree.

    Relishing the opportunity, I jumped high in the air and landed with a powerful kick on Garret’s torso, breaking the ground beneath him.

    At that exact moment, Vespera appeared from the sidelines using her master weaver skill, tying him with a fabric resembling a straitjacket straight out of an asylum.

    Garret forcefully moved and contorted his body as he tried breaking off the restraining jacket, but Vespera said she had placed different enchantments on it to make it more durable.

    The crazed commandeer kept trying to fight like a rabid dog when I placed my hands on his head, right on the temples.

    "Let’s see what really happened..." I muttered as I used the magic I promised never to use again.

    "Memory magic" was extremely dangerous and not something that people should know about its existence. However, I was next to my most trusted friends, so I knew we could keep it a secret.

    I delved into his memories and saw Commander Garret after his spar against me.

    He had woken up after being healed with my potions and was brought to date by one of his knights that stood beside his bed, making him feel frustrated and humiliated.

    During the fight with the Kraken, he wanted to take the lead to redeem himself and show his knights his strength. However, after Melina and I defeated the monster, his humiliation grew.

    A conversation with Commander Valentina appeared.

    "So, you don’t want to join us?" she asked vaguely.

    Garret scoffed. "No, I don’t. I have nothing to apologize for," he said.

    Valentina sighed. "Do as you wish. But, you are letting your ego blind you to reality," she said before leaving his office.

    Garret, frustrated, grabbed a cup on his desk and smashed it against the wall while breathing heavily with anger.

    At that moment, a shadowy figure materialized behind him in his office, making Garret grasp his sword and point it at the entity.

    "What are you?" he asked, his sword and stance ready to attack at any moment.

    The figure slowly began forming the shape of a man. His skin was a mix of coal black and dark grey, his eyes were yellow with pupils that spiraled, and he had two small red horns that grew from his forehead.

    "A devil..." Garret muttered, tightening the grip on his sword.

    The entity slowly laughed perturbingly before speaking. "Yes, that’s right. A Devil is here to make your wish come true!" he exclaimed.

    "I did not ask for any wish, fiend!" Garret responded, standing his ground.

    "Oh? You didn’t? But I thought you wanted to become strong. Strong like them. Right?" the devil said with an ugly grin.

    Garret lowered his sword slightly. "What do you mean?" he asked.

    Letting out another unsettling laugh, the devil opened his arms in a solemn pose.

    "I am the Devil Armaros. I can easily turn a weak human knight like you into the most powerful warrior in the world!" he exclaimed.

    "What the hell are you talking about!?" Garret yelled with frustration, his sword now pointing at the ground.

    The devil smiled, realizing that Garret had already accepted his gift due to the doubts in his heart. He pointed his palm at him and released shadowy energy that began to undulate around the commander.

    "No! I will not turn into your monster!" he yelled while trying to pull the shadowy energy away from his body that stuck to him like tendrils.

    "It’s useless to fight your own desires..." Armaros said.

    Seeing that he couldn’t free himself from the grasp of the devil’s power, Garret’s expression changed to despair as his eyes and body slowly adjusted to what they were now.