As expected, the second Layer of Curse of the Demon also had a silly name. But by now, Helial was used to the Devil's quirks, and he almost didn't notice.

At that moment, Helial could only sense the warm feeling of Flame of the Qilin flowing within his meridians. He felt intoxicated as his hand passed over the blade of Curse of the Demon, scattering white flames on the weapon.

Finally, Flame of the Qilin.

He was completely alienated from the world at the time.

Despite his alienation, the boy managed to feel his heartbeat getting faster and faster, filling him with a happiness of which he did not know whether to be proud or not.

Helial was a guy who would never hesitate to throw himself into a chasm of the worst challenges.

Now his feet rested on the highest peak ever, and his tangled emotions allowed him to perceive any sensation with paradoxical clarity.

And these emotions, so strong as to be terrifying, were the result of every leap he made to the abyss of difficulty. Whatever he did was a challenge that made him feel alive. Even when he had rescued Lumia from the goblins, even then Helial had acted following this aspect of his soul. And he didn't know whether to be ashamed of it. After realizing that he was much more selfish than he was willing to admit, he had discovered that the freedom and adrenaline of challenging his own resistance pushed his soul onward.

Was that why he felt an elective affinity for Pseudonym?

The black-armoured warrior was for him a bottomless chasm where the freedom to challenge his own limits would never end.

Now that he thought about it, Iblis had done nothing but allow him to be on a higher peak, as he had desired for so long. And from this peak, Helial could launch himself downstairs, not hoping to survive the fall, but appreciating every second of the descent.

A cascade of white flames poured over Helial's body, covering him from head to toe.

Obeying the boy's thoughts, the tongues of fire retracted and adhered to his body, flattening on his arms. They tickled his skin and caused incredibly familiar sensations.

Helial felt like a god.

Skill Activated

Rune of the Qilin

Alongside the scarlet and yellow Runes appeared others, white this time; these, too, like those produced by the Mana of Lightning, continually produced sparks.

It looked like Helial himself was a flame.

Feeling the enormous power pervading his body, even the tendon of his forearm, which had almost broken after using Crater's Uppercut, seemed to regenerate as if nothing had happened. Body of the Qilin gave his flesh the texture of hardened steel and the flexibility of rubber.

The enormous amount of Mana present in his Meridians was compressed further by the Runes of Qilin.

Each type of Runes also gave a different affinity to his Mana, making it even more devastating.

Blood, Lightning, and Life in their purest form flowed into the blood vessels of a simple boy in the Late Stage of the Second Phase.

Even if he had suffered a frontal blow from the Revenant, Helial would not have suffered even a tenth of the damage received during the previous exchanges.

The weak and helpless Helial was just a memory now.

At that moment he felt like a titan, invincible. And not because he was much stronger than the Prince of Darkness – who remained a genius among the geniuses of his species and his generation – but because, wielding all that power, he could no longer afford to lose.

Helial had no excuses. He had Curse of the Demon in his hands again. He was again to all intents and purposes the pupil of Iblis, without any limitation.

And at that very moment Helial thought of the strength of the Revenant, who could transform even a warrior at the Seventh Phase in bloody jelly, of the power he had just regained and that had allowed him to send him to the other side of the arena with a single blow.

And Pseudonym? Would he have been able to face such a monster?

Helial knew the answer in the depths of his heart and a smile bloomed on his face.

An Aura of death and desolation enveloped the arena around him and everything began to lose colour.

Frankenstein, Circe, Snowflake and everyone else in the arena watched speechless as the Prince of Darkness flew to the other side like a cannonball. Which was really funny, since a Formation taller than a Troll and with the appearance of a legendary goblin reproduced every little movement of those who controlled it.

"Everybody stay back!" screamed Helial.

At Helial's order, they all run to the other side of the arena.

Everyone, minus one.

"Lumia, what the fuck are you doing?" yelled Frankenstein, completely shocked by the girl's actions during the fight.

The Goblin moved forward, but Circe's formation stopped him.

"Stop! Helial is about to use a clearly unstable attack and the girl is much more powerful than you can imagine," the young woman scolded him. "A little while ago I felt a radical change within her Aura, as if she had become one with the universe. His Aura is almost impossible to distinguish from the normal forces of nature."

Frankenstein frowned and Circe continued. "It's the same feeling I've only felt with Helial before. I can't explain what those two have, but I'm sure they're perfectly capable of surviving even without us."

The brilliant goblin with an ace always up his sleeve felt a blow in the stomach. Helial and Lumia had begun to play on a completely different plane from their own. Circe knew that, too.

Maybe this hurt Circe much more than Frankenstein, but none of them could do anything about it. They should have just resigned themselves to the idea that there were individuals much stronger than them.

Circe's companions, Lev, Zion, Sidra and Francesca, on the other hand, had always been accustomed to being excellent warriors, but never had they been praised as Circe had been, never had they been demons like Pseudonym.

If there was anyone who cared even less than them, this was Vlad, who didn't give a fuck, and worried only about surviving and throwing a few glances in the direction of Francesca's formation from time to time.

Snowflake, on the other hand, felt a pang to the heart. He, too, had noticed the change in Lumia's Aura, and was also deeply offended that the little girl knew how to use the Skill of the Tyrant, the skill that he himself had struggled so much to learn. As long as Helial had been the only monster, he could accept it, albeit reluctantly. But now it seemed that Lumia had suddenly become as powerful as her brother.

The cat was part of the original trio, one of the three who had arrived in Orma and had rattled the whole city since they set foot there. They were the three non-Goblins. All the others were green and far from the magnificence of His Catness and his pet humans.

The Devil had given him an unprecedented Skill, and his body had the purest bloodline among the Heavenly Star Tigers. Yet, despite all these advantages, he now had to step aside.

Snowflake couldn't even justify himself by saying that he had not trained as hard as Lumia and Helial, because that would not be true. The huge white cat had managed to put aside his love for food and now spent almost all his time training with Authority of the Tyrant and Mana. But this seemed not to be enough. Nothing was ever enough, if you tried to reach Helial's strength.

Just then, Helial lifted Curse of the Demon towards the sky, screaming.

OOOOOHM

He felt he could control the terrifying power of the Skill that had repeatedly sent him into a coma after using it.

Iblis and Alexander had given him unprecedented gifts. The Human had already thanked Alexander in some way, bringing him back to an important moment of his past through an incredible Skill, dating back to a past now lost in time.

Now it was Iblis's turn to receive his dose of memories.

The blade of Curse of the Demon seemed to devour the sun and the surrounding light, plunging the world into darkness. The blade reflected nothing, now, it was matte black.

Second Layer: Pasta with Butter

Helial circulated his entire Mana within the Meridians of Curse of the Demon. After unlocking the second Set of Meridians, he realized he could use the mysterious Iblis's Skill without it causing him serious damage.

Those meridians were perfect to receive Mana of Destruction, catalyse it, and amplify it to the maximum.

And the mysterious Skill could only express its full potential with Curse of the Demon.

Skill Activated:

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