In her daze, deeply buried fragments of memory flashed through Theia's mind.
They were blurry images from a long time ago, carrying the warmth of the sun.
Her demon father, who always wore a gentle smile...
...and clumsily wove flower crowns for her.
And her beautiful, elegant elven mother, whose singing voice sounded like a fresh spring in the forest.
They had once lived in a small wooden cabin hidden in a mountain valley,
spending a peaceful time away from the world.
Until that day, when burning arrows pierced the sky.
A human man called the “Hero,”
along with his sharp-eyed teammates of various races, stepped into her home.
She still remembered the look in her father's eyes when he hid her in the cellar—
the final resolution and tenderness in those eyes that always used to smile.
She also remembered the cold touch of her mother's tears dripping onto her forehead
as she fled for her life through the forest with her.
The Elven Forest did not grant them shelter for long.
On a certain moonlit night,
after entrusting her to a trustworthy elven friend,
her mother left alone and never returned.
In the Elven Forest, it took her a long time to slowly step out of the shadows.
She tried to fit in and made new “friends.”
However, on the day of her coming-of-age ceremony,
the power hidden deep within her body erupted out of control.
Her silver hair was dyed a dark, gloomy shade, and her eyes flushed blood-red...
In an instant, the eyes of her once-friendly companions were filled with fear and disgust.
“A demon! She's a demon!”
“Kill her! We can't let her filthy bloodline defile our sacred forest!”
Stones rained down upon her,
accompanied by curses that were once familiar but now sounded incredibly harsh.
She didn't understand.
Why could an identity so easily erase all the warmth of the past?
She could only run, wandering between different city-states and wildernesses,
like a ghost with nowhere to call home.
Until that afternoon, in the tall grass, a human youth suddenly popped out.
...
“Yo, half-demon, you're awake? Want some water?”
Elvia's voice dragged Theia back to reality from her chaotic memories.
She took the waterskin and gulped down several mouthfuls.
The ice-cold water temporarily suppressed the dryness in her throat and the burning in her chest.
“Where... are we?”
“At the seventh outpost of the rift. We're not far from the exit.”
Elvia pointed outside the cave.
“You've been unconscious for five days.”
“Five days?!”
Theia gasped, and then a wave of intense hunger swept over her.
Elvia handed over some dried meat and flatbread.
Theia took them and began eating rapidly.
Only when her stomach felt comfortably full did she let out a long sigh of relief.
“What about Luo Youyou and the others?”
“They've already left,” Elvia replied.
“Four days ago, once their injuries stabilized, they decided to head back to Caran City first.”
“I see...” Theia murmured.
Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the out-of-control eruption of power before she blacked out.
Demon energy... She had awakened demon energy.
Panic began to creep into her eyes.
“Then... then...”
Lin Gui's voice drifted in from the cave entrance, calm and flat.
“Don't worry. Only Elvia and I know about you awakening your demon energy.”
“But... but... aren't you two afraid?” Theia raised her head.
Her blood-red eyes held a trace of hard-to-detect vulnerability and fear.
Before Lin Gui could answer,
Elvia crossed her arms, her tone heavy.
“Someone who can use demon energy is no longer just a half-demon, but a true member of the Demon Race.”
“The terror and evil of the Demon Race are well-known to everyone on the Akara Continent.”
She paused, as if listing off well-known crimes.
“To give a recent example, during the ‘Blood Moon Massacre’ thirty-seven years ago, an entire border city of tens of thousands of people was sacrificed to an evil god by the Demon Race.”
“Fifteen years ago, during the demon siege of the Southern Alliance's capital, the Demon Race was pulling the strings behind it.”
“Not to mention the rumors of them spreading curses, starting plagues, and instigating wars...”
“Almost every time a large-scale Dark Tide strikes, traces of the Demon Race's activities can be vaguely seen.”
Elvia looked at Theia with a complex expression.
“Theia, no matter how kind you were before,”
“once your mind is completely corroded by demon energy, no one can guarantee you won't go mad.”
“No one can guarantee you won't turn into a demon that knows nothing but slaughter and destruction.”
Theia smiled bitterly.
She lowered her head, her silver hair falling forward to hide her expression.
“Is that so... Then... are we going to part ways?”
Her voice was very quiet, carrying a weary tone of resignation.
Lin Gui gave Theia a speechless look.
“You actually believe what nobles say?”
Theia froze.
Elvia retorted in dissatisfaction, “Hey! This is a universally acknowledged fact on the Akara Continent!”
Lin Gui sneered.
He then cleared his throat and began to mimic in an extremely exaggerated, affected noble tone:
“Oh my~ How did so many commoners die in my estate overnight? It must be the work of those evil, omnipresent demons!”
Then he switched to a panicked, flustered voice:
“Ah! Because the city defense commander took bribes and neglected his duties, the demons almost reached the city walls before anyone noticed!”
“This... this must be because spies sent by the Demon Race corrupted our officials! Yes, it must be so!”
His imitation was spot-on.
The hypocrisy and finger-pointing in his tone...
...made it seem as though he had personally stood in those grand banquet halls and watched such scenes play out countless times.
He turned his head to look at the embarrassed Elvia, a playful smile on his face.
“El, don't think I don't know.”
“What you wanted to do back in Caran City by utilizing Theia's identity.”
Theia frowned and looked at Elvia. “What method?”
Just as Lin Gui was about to speak,
Elvia lunged forward and firmly covered his mouth, lowering her voice in a near-pleading whisper.
“My lord, please don't say it! Save me some dignity!”
She then spun around and forced a brilliant smile at Theia.
“Ahaha, it's nothing, half-demon! He's just talking nonsense!”
Lin Gui smiled faintly at Elvia's behavior.
He didn't push the matter further to expose her secret.
He looked back at Theia, his tone returning to its usual flat, calm state.
Yet, it carried an unquestionable seriousness.
“Since you've awakened your demon energy, make sure to cultivate and control it well.”
“Being able to forcefully imbue Low-tier Transcendent arrows with destructive power close to the High-tier Transcendent level...”
“...is an ability that can be considered a divine skill in actual combat.”
There wasn't a trace of jest in his words.
Elvia swallowed hard as she listened from the side.
As the Seventh Princess of the Carter Kingdom,
she had been educated since childhood that “the Demon Race is evil, and demon energy is a curse.”
She wanted to argue,
but her intuition told her that the moment she spoke,
Lin Gui would absolutely shut her down until she was speechless.
Theia hesitated for a long time,
struggle flickering within her blood-red eyes.
“Is it... is it really okay? To cultivate demon energy?”
Instead, Lin Gui showed a puzzled expression.
“Isn't that obvious? To be honest, I'm actually quite envious of you. I want to have demon energy too.”
Elvia's eyelids twitched wildly.
This guy! If the lunatics of the Holy Church of Light heard this,
they would definitely tie him to a stake and burn him alive.
Under Lin Gui's repeated and highly “reasonable” persuasion,
a spark of light finally gathered in Theia's eyes once more.
She took a deep breath and looked at Lin Gui with absolute seriousness,
asking the deepest fear in her heart:
“Lin Gui... if I cultivate demon energy, will you really... not abandon me? You won't drive me away?”
“Yeah,” Lin Gui nodded, then seemed to think of something and added,
“Oh, by the way, if possible, let me feel your demon energy too. Maybe I can squeeze some out of my own body as well.”
Theia and Elvia: “...”
Theia fell silent for a moment, then asked, “Then... what Elvia said about demon energy affecting one's mind and making people go mad...”
Lin Gui chuckled, his tone carrying unconcealed disdain.
“Heh, you actually believe what nobles say?”
He pointed to the aggrieved Elvia beside him.
“The words of pigs in a pen are more reliable than the script she just recited.”
“Besides, I'm willing to bet that at least four-fifths of those horrifying incidents she mentioned were actually caused by nobles.”
“...”
Elvia didn't argue.
Because it was indeed the truth.
If they were to calculate based on the number of lives lost, the Demon Race was nothing compared to the nobility.
But the Dark Tide was different.
Nobles absolutely did not have the ability to control, let alone lead, the Dark Tide.
But the Demon Race could.
At the thought of those so-called guardians they had encountered in the tomb, Elvia's eyelids twitched nervously.
Rate on N.U.
