“You look just like I remembered you, though you look much thinner and less muscular now. Oh, your angry face is too cute!”

Lumina teased Korkau, who was getting more and more irritated by her antics by the second.

‘Why is my life filled with so many annoying demons?’

“So what is our favorite Frost Wolf demon up to now?”

“Not any of your business”

“Could it be…You are trying to get stronger? Isn’t that kind of pointless when you have already surrendered and accepted becoming someone else’s subordinate? Or is your pride so hurt after being humiliated by nearly every strong demon you encounter? Is that right? Little weak wolfie~”

“Shut up!”

Korkau threw a punch, which Lumina easily dodged.

“See? You are much slower than back when you fought Elder Sister. If it was you from back then, perhaps I would have some trouble. But as you are now, I wonder if I can beat you? Care if I give it a try?”

“You wouldn’t get that chance! Mantle of Ice!”

Immediately, Korkau’s body was covered in armor made of ice.

Everything within his vicinity froze, coated in thick layers of frost and snow.

He was in battle mode now.

“Then let’s have some fun!”

Lumina playfully responded.

With a roar Korkau proceeded to attack.

He threw a single punch, imbuing his ice elemental power into it.

A single touch would freeze the target and the victim would shatter from the force of the impact.

But instead, Lumina proceeded to block his punch with her elbow, withstanding the force of his blow without suffering any frost type damage.

‘But how?’

“Surprised? I never thought you magic declined to this degree as well, wolfie~”

She was using fire magic, that much Korkau could tell, but instead of using it to set everything aflame, she was heating up her own body in order to counter the effect of his Mantle of Ice.

It was a technique very similar to what he was using, but with the opposing element, called the Mantle of Salamander, Lumina’s personal technique.

And it seems like Lumina’s mantle was superior to that of Korkau’s.

Korkau felt his fist burn after making contact with Lumina’s elbow.

He backed away for a second, examining the damage on his left hand, the skin ended up scorched from the heat of her Mantle of Salamander.

“Am I not done yet!” Lumina proceeded to kick Korkau in the chest, sending him flying and landing roughly on the ground.

Her kick left a burn mark on his chest. He rubbed the burned spot in pain.

If she could use fire magic to such a great degree, he had no choice but to use his trump card.

After training for so long with Sento, he had to have improved at least a little; otherwise everything he did up till now would be pointless.

Concentrating his willpower, Korkau activated the skill of Absorption.

‘Absorb the mana within my surroundings’

‘Do not force it; allow the mana to flow through my body in smooth motion’

‘Breath in and breathe out, let the absorbed mana flow out of your body very slowly’

‘Keep absorbing and releasing mana in a smooth cycle, concentrate, let my willpower be the guiding force to the mana swirling within me, guiding my movement’

‘Absorption complete. Demon Lord Mode activate!’

Korkau felt a wave of immeasurable power within his body.

Finally, he was grasping the power of Absorption, and due to it, he finally managed to unlock the true Demon Lord Mode.

During his training with Sento, he tried to activate the Demon Lord Mode many times, but each time, it was imperfect, resulting in mana Korkau absorbed almost going out of control and Sento having to beat the mana out of Korkau’s body.

But now, he felt that he was in complete control of his mana.

Now that he perfected the skill of Absorption, he could enter the true Demon Lord Mode at any time.

Power of a Demon Lord was something that was so elusive to him even before he was maimed. But ironically, he only managed to achieve it after becoming a subordinate to the one who maimed him.

‘Perhaps this is my fate, to be the underling to a powerful leader, but at the very least, I do not wish to be weak anymore!’

Using the mana within his body, Korkau proceeded to enter his True Demon Form.

Korkau’s body morphed into that of a gigantic bipedal blue horned wolf.

His body was heavily muscled and his long tail flowed behind him like a flag.

Overall, his appearance changed drastically as he now had a wolf’s head on his shoulders.

“Now, I am ready. Bring it on, dragon girl!”

“Gladly”

Demon Lord Mode Korkau and Lumina proceeded to fight each other.

Countless blasts of fire and ice were sent at each other, but somehow neither one seemed to be able to best the other one.

All the while, Korkau felt as though Lumina was playing with him.

She was not a Demon Lord demon, but she was very skilled, that was for sure.

Considering it was his first time truly attaining the Demon Lord Mode, some of Korkau’s movements were a little clumsy, but he made up for it with his sheer strength and speed.

But somehow, Lumina was far more skilled as she could effortlessly dodge his attacks, and deliver a strike of her own, often in such a way that would knock Korkau off balance.

Due to Demon Lord Mode, Korkau’s defenses were enhanced to an unimaginable degree.

As he was now, only an attack by someone at the level of Demon Lord could truly harm him. But Lumina’s attacks felt like stings of an annoying insect.

Not enough to cause him grievous harm, but strong enough to momentarily stun him.

Funnily enough, not a single one of his attacks landed on Lumina.

Lumina used her acrobatic skills to avoid his strikes.

But with Lumina’s fire unable to harm him and Korkau being unable to land a single blow on her, they were at a stalemate.

Their long and tiresome duel lasted for about half an hour without a winner.

In the end, Lumina ran out of mana, and Korkau was suffering the side effect of overusage of absorption.

It was his first time using Absorption to enter Demon Lord Mode for so long.

From his previous limit of half a minute to half an hour, it was an enormous progress, but not without a price.

His body felt as though it would fall apart any second.

No longer able to stand due to the strain the usage of absorption placed on his body, Korkau ended up on his knees.

“You are not half bad, you know?”

Lumina approached him with a smile on her face.

“Shut up” Korkau muttered.

“Still playing the cool guy, aren’t you?”

Instead of striking exhausted Korkau down, Lumina approached him with an extended hand.

“You know what, I like you. Considering we are now serving the same clan, let’s get along, wolfie~”

‘This girl…she pisses me off’

Due to the strain of using the Absorption, Korkau’s body was in an agonizing pain.

But he had enough strength left to knock her hand away.

“I don’t need your help!” He suddenly stood up, much to her surprise.

Since she used up nearly all the mana she had, she ended up losing her balance and fell backwards.

But before she could fall, she grabbed hold of Korkau’s hand.

And now, with her hand holding on to his, Korkau and Lumina were in a very awkward position, with her leaning back while holding on to his hand.

If anyone walked in on them now, it would look like a rather romantic scene, while it was anything but.

Unfortunately for Korkau, the one demon watching this scene was his sister, Karli Jou.

As soon as he saw Karli, Korkau ended up gasping with his mouth wide open.

“I am very sorry to be interrupting. Please carry on.” Karli Jou muttered.

“Karli! This is not what it looks like! I would never…not with a dragon demon…”

But his words fell on deaf years as Karli was left with an impression that her brother found himself a mate in dragon demon.

“Aren’t you quite the romantic type, holding my hand like this on our first date…?”

“You shut up!”

“Your embarrassed face is too adorable” Lumina smiled at him.

“Look at what you have done now. Now everyone is going to think I am with a dragon demon of all things!”

“Is that not fine?”

“No, it’s not!”

Korkau ended up letting go of Lumina who just fell on her back.

“Just leave me alone!”

Korkau stormed off.

But instead of being sad, Lumina giggled.

‘The way he does his tough guy act is so adorable…’

It was obvious she wanted to tease him again in the future.

* * *

“Big Sister, help! Elder Brother…Elder Brother was…”

“Akjin, slow down” Akjan tried to calm her younger brother who rushed towards her. In the morning he and Ren went fishing, but now Akjin suddenly came running to her, talking very fast as though someone set his feet on fire.

“Elder Brother Ren, he was frozen!”

“What?”

“I will show you!”

Akjin ended up leading Akjan to the lake Ren and Akjin were fishing from.

And there, near the shore stood a gigantic ice cube, on top of which a single head was protruding.

“Brrrr…..Hi Akjan, a rather chilly day we are having?”

It was Ren; all of his body below the neck was covered in a gigantic ice cube.

“What happened?”

“Big sister, it came out of nowhere. We were just fishing, and then a bam! And elder brother ended up encased in that thing.”

They couldn’t have known that Korkau and Lumina were fighting nearby and one of Korkau’s stray ice blasts happened to land on Ren.

“Oh goodness”

“If you two don’t mind, I am gonna take a nap…” Ren was steadily losing his resolve to stay awake; the cool temperature of ice was making him more and more sleepy by the minute.

He no longer could feel his body below his shoulders, his willpower waning, he was steadily losing consciousness.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep!”

If he fell asleep now, Akjan wasn’t sure he would wake up.

Using her Darkness magic, she immediately opened a gate of darkness connecting the bottom of the ice cube to Ren’s room inside the mansion.

In an instant all of them were teleported into Ren’s room.

“I heard a noise, is everything ok?”

Aijasyl walked in and saw Akjin, Akjan, and Ren encased in a big block of ice.

“Aah ah” she looked at it with a mixture of shock and disbelief.

The folded clothing she was apparently holding in her hands fell on the ground.

“Aijasyl! Perfect timing! Use your fire magic to melt him out before he ends up falling asleep for good!” Akjan immediately requested of her.

“R-r-right!” Aijasyl immediately regained her senses after seeing such a ridiculous sight.

Using her green fire, she started the process of melting the ice.

Lotus happened to be walking nearby and she ended up catching the sight of Ren, frozen in an ice cube and Aijasyl trying to melt it with green fire.

‘This looks too ridiculous for words’ she really did not know what to say after seeing this scene.

Remembering what Kizilkoz and Korkau have told her, she was not certain if Ren was doing this intentionally.

‘But what if they said is true, this might be a trap he is laying for me….to eventually break me mentally, though I don’t know how….’

How exactly freezing himself in a giant ice cube played into his plans?

Still, she could never be too cautious with him.

She made her mental resolve clear.

‘As long as I am alive, I shall protect my clan. I will not let you break me, even if you are my betrothed!’

But watching the scene again, Lotus couldn’t help but hold back a laugh.

It truly did look too ridiculous for words.

Eventually, Aijasyl ended up melting all of the ice away, freeing Ren in the process.

After that, Ren ended up catching cold, requiring him to rest in bed for two days.

Master Korgan made Ren medicine and herbal tea, and Akjan patiently feed the medicine and food to ailing Ren.

By the second day, he was feeling much better, but he still needed to sleep to fully recover.

After taking care of Ren for the last two days, Akjan ended up falling asleep next to his bed.

Due to this, when Ren’s habit of sleep walking kicked in again, Akjan was too sleepy to sense him walking out of the room, towards not even he knew where….