“Are you sure you are leading me the right way? I hope I don’t have to remind you that you will die if you try to trick me.”

Zane clicked his gun to fire a few rounds at the wall. It instantly created a lot of holes using his shadow power. John cursed as soon as he saw that display of power but he somehow managed to keep his calm in the end.

He looked Zane right in the eye, hoping that his bluff will not be caught by the demon in front of him.

“I am taking you to the place where Karen would have taken your boss. Don’t be so impatient and have some confidence in me. I will not betray you when doing so would get me killed anyway.”

Zane looked at John and he recognized the lie in his words. As a demon, it was not easy to fool him. He thrived on chaos and other such emotions after all.

But despite knowing that he was being filled, Zane allowed John to lead him around for now. He wanted to see what John had planned for him. And it would also help him decide if he wanted to keep John alive or not.

“Fine, lead the way for me then. I don’t trust you but I will allow you a chance to prove your worth.”

John smiled gratefully back at Zane outwardly but he was cursing the demon internally. There was no way he was going to take a demon to his sacred place.

Karen might have chosen a demon’s companion as a sacrifice this time, but Mr. Strout was a human so it was still acceptable.

But Zane was a demon and it was their duty to kill demons. John would get rid of Zane as soon as he was sure that it was safe for him to do so. He did not consider the possibility that Zane could be much more powerful than him.

After all, he had hunted down and killed so many demons already. Why did one demon be a threat to him? Once john was in his element, then he would be unbeatable for sure.

“There it is, the door that would take you to your companion. Our secret room is just behind that door.”

John pointed toward the door where the trap he had laid out was. He could tell that Zane would fall for his trap and give John the perfect op[ortunity.

He watched with eager eyes as Zane approach the door. But before he could open it, Zane’s phone vibrated and he picked it up instead. John was beyond pissed to see this.

“Hurry up and go in. You can check your phone later.”

John wanted to yell those words out but he managed to control his volume at the last second. He would not come across as very reliable if he started yelling now.

He expected Zane to drop his phone now and enter the room but all his hopes were dashed when Zane took a step back from the door.

“Huh! The message is from Yohan! It looks like he is safe so I don’t need to find him now. What an unexpected stroke of good luck, won’t you say?”

Zane looked satisfied and he started walking back when John lost it. He had endured so much to get Zane this far and now he needed Zane to enter the room at all costs.

Zane saw John’s angry expression in time so he managed to dodge it as well. John’s shoulder hit the door seconds before something pierced his heart.

He looked up with terrified eyes as Zane only smiled at him. He could not believe that he had been bested in this manner after being so careful all this time.

“W-Why? You are just *cough* a demon. Why serve a human?”

“So you knew about my real identity already? But you are mistaken because I serve no human. My boss is very much a demon like me.”

“B-But! Impossible…”

Those words were John’s last ones as the light of life faded away from his eyes. John decided to preserve his body in the shadows knowing that this man was a good target for necromancy.

He would present John later to Yohan since it was better than letting this well-trained body rot away. Once that was done, Yohan knew he needed to take care of all the people who would find John’s disappearance bothersome.

“Ugh, I need to do damage control now. I wonder how Yohan managed to find me so much work even without doing anything?”

Zane complained to empty air, his tone accusing. Even when he knew that Yohan had no hand in the current situation for cleaning up the John-related mess, Zane could not help but blame him.

//////////////////////////////////////////

Yohan’s magic clashed with the burning force inside him. He was surviving on the potions for now but those would not save him forever.

He was losing more health than he would gain from the potions and he also had a limited supply available to him.

‘Darn it. I need to acquire some healing skills later. I cannot keep relying on these potions for everything I do.’

Yohan cursed his carelessness of not having learned any healing arts before. It was something that was coming to bite him back now.

The only stroke of luck he had was that the barrier had started to crack in front of him. The tree’s last line of defense was about to be breached by Yohan.

And as soon as his hand sunk under the barrier, Yohan used that power to force his hand even deeper until he felt a hollowness around his hand.

The inside of the tree was an empty cabinet-like space. There was nothing to touch and no magic to feel. Yohan should have pulled back once he hit this stage but he decided to go even further.

His upper arm and even a part of Yohan’s shoulder sunk into the tree trunk but Yohan did not fear this chance. He pushed ahead even more and his chest began to sink in as well.

It was then that Yohan felt an actual spike of crisis and he tried to pull his body back. But the force inside the tree seemed to have a different thought process than him.

Something closed around Yohan’s hand and he was pulled inside the tree trunk. The force was too sudden for Yohan to resist and it was dark around him when he opened his eyes.

There was only one source of light inside that room and that was from a small seed floating in the darkness. Yohan headed toward that seed and tried to catch it.

But just as he was about to take control of that seed, he felt the wind knock him back. Yohan quickly corrected his balance but it was not enough to stop the seed’s momentum.

The thing that was attacking Yohan was a tree-like creature. It looked genderless and also lacked any facial features.

Yohan decided to use his magic to finish this fight but he was not able to call upon his magic when he tried. He could feel his magic but not use it.

“Fuck. What did you do to me?”

Yohan questioned as he dodged that whip-like branch headed his way. The ground where the branch stuck the ground had a crack on it.

Had Yohan not dodged that attack, his skull would have been bashed in for sure. It was such a dangerous move for Yohan to stand around and be allowed to be hit with such force.

‘Intruder, show me your worth and your talent. Impress me and only then can you take a hold of my power.’

Yohan grinned at the challenge that was in front of him. It might not sound like much to most people but this was very much like a dungeon-boss battle Yohan had played a long time ago.

Now that the world resembled fiction, Yohan was eager to clear this boss and claim his reward. He was sure that he would be able to win this fight in the end.

“I don’t know what you expect from me but I will not hold back. You better be prepared since you decided to challenge me.”

Yohan’s eyes flashed with his spirit before he dashed toward the wooden figure with lightning-fast speed. His magic enforced his body and caused it to harden in a matter of seconds.

Just because he could not use any outward magic did not mean Yohan was suddenly incapable of handling any threat. He had trained his body hard for such situations.

And even then, Yohan could use magic to boost his inner strength. It was a very beneficial thing for him and one he intended to use for all purposes.

The tree-like entity was breached through Yohan’s attack but it managed to regenerate that part of its body easily enough.

p-A- n-d-A-n-0-v-e-1、(c)om On the other hand, Yohan was not half as lucky. His injuries hurt and the one where the tree-sap had fallen burned as well. His stamina was also at its limits since he was not able to pull any magic from the outside world.

‘Intruder, you fought well. Unfortunately, this is the end of our journey with each other.’

The voice echoed around the empty space and the entity’s magic filled that space.

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Merry Christmas. It would be nice to receive gifts (hint)

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