"Huh?!"

The demon's joyful expression that he had as he thought about his 'loot' got distorted as soon as my hand got hold of his face. Surprisingly, his expression didn't portray much anger as it portrayed shock.

​​

"Is something wrong?"

Looking at him while still having my neutral expression, I smiled deep inside as I sent something through my hand to his head.

"This can't be!"

The demon's expression froze still in disbelief and shock, it was obvious that he didn't expect to meet a 'BUG' like me, but it wasn't like that was his fault.

Even as a demon of the 'scheming' type, to him, the ability of the 'Corruption Space' was absolute, that was especially true after going through a few similar 'Abductions', he couldn't possibly account for the chance that someone could really resist it as I did.

In fact, even I only managed to survive thanks to the help of the system. Otherwise, my fate would have already been sealed…

"How could you resist the purification of the sacred will?!"

"That's not what you should be worried about at the moment…"

Though I wasn't the type to enjoy others' confusion, I slightly enjoyed this particular demon's confusion, that was precisely because I had to suffer from the safe confusion when I was just 'abducted' to this place.

"You should be worried whether you would be able to resist my 'purification'."

The demon that was frozen in place couldn't comprehend what was going on, but that wasn't his fault either.

From the moment I put my hand on his head, my mental energy had already invaded his mind space and restrained his whole body. It could be said that I was giving him a taste of what the 'figure' had sent me through!

However, unlike the figure whose corruptive mental energy only had the constant attributes of oppression, despair, and emotional disarray that defined a part of 'Corruption', my mental energy was much broader, it could practically portray whatever I thought of!

'There are limitations though…'

Naturally, I wasn't as good as the 'figure' when it came to either quality, quantity, or even control. If measured in terms of Wisdom attributes, then his would probably be at least 5 to 10 points higher, it was just that he was fighting me in a limited state which allowed me to win over him. It could be said that he was just a fragment from something much bigger.

"Hah… hah…"

As I ignored the shuddering I felt from the thought of having to fight such a monster in its complete state at one point, I finally showed a smile as I observed the demon's expression completely melt away, he was simply turning dull as drool seeped out of his mouth.

'This should be enough.'

Even though the demon didn't display any screams or painful expressions, what he went through in the last few seconds was more than it appeared to be.

'Let's stop it here.'

While his body was still, he experienced something more 'real' in his mind! I used my mental energy to read his mind as painfully as possible!

The last time I used 'mind reading' was when I used it on 'Sprout' and removed his negative memories. Such an action was naturally very destructive, but it had little effect when one loses consciousness.

However, in my current case, not only did I do it while he was conscious, but I also used my mental energy to torment him as I slowly invaded his mind space, this was the revenge that I believed I deserved.

Of course, knowing how much pain I inflicted on him, I didn't plan to actively torment him any longer. After all, I had no sadistic tendencies...

"Let me see what you got."

Returning my mental energy into its base nature, I held onto that guy's consciousness as I started swimming deeper into his mind. It was time to start the main target of my role-playing.

'This looks much more complicated…'

As I used my mental energy to dive around the demon's mind space, I couldn't help but feel a bit repulsed by the 'muddy' feeling his mind space gave me, it was full of dark clouds that seemed to isolate the core where the memories are supposed to be hidden.

'It's worth a try.'

Even though I could have captured demons during the final war of the Nature Domain for the purpose of 'mind reading', I had refrained from doing so till this moment due to the dangers of using such a technique on demons.

Not to mention the danger of their corruption-full mind, even simply using the technique on humans required proper control to filter the possible damage away, so I denied myself the permission to try it out so far.

However, now that I not only had a proper target that should have a good amount of information but also reached a certain threshold with my mental energy, I decided that I would at least survive the 'mind reading' even if the experiment ended in failure by relying on my recently amplified resistance.

Most importantly, the demon's mental strength was merely average, resistance was basically impossible.

'It isn't every day that I get such a suitable guinea pig.'

Pushing away the dark clouds relying on my superior mental energy, I finally managed to reach the true core where the memory lied…

'That's awfully chaotic…'

The demons' memories didn't seem to have an actual shape, it was in pieces that kept changing as he was living several lives at the same time. Even if these memories were to be compared to that of 'Sprout' who was a special case, Sprout's memories would still be considered tidy in comparison.

'It's not going to be easy as expected…'

Just by looking at his memory's situation that seemed to be under a greater influence which put it in its current shape, I could easily tell that I wouldn't be able to get much even if I managed to break into it.

It was just that…

'Eh?'

I didn't expect what I found to be nothing else but information about his original target!