Red walked over to Emer’s corpse with a frown. A lot of his plans had gone by the wayside now with the old man’s death, but he knew there was very little he could have done to stop it. Even if he convinced them to leave Emer alive, would the youth have been able to protect him the entire time?

It was unlikely. They could have just killed him when he wasn’t nearby and put the blame on someone else, and there was nothing Red could have done about it. It was best to use this old cultist’s life to make their group trust him more then.

“They didn’t mention swearing an oath to keep this deal.” Aurelia said, her figure manifesting out of thin air as she sat on the table.

“Of course they didn’t.” Red shook his head. “They don’t want to corner themselves.”

His appearance was too sudden. The cult had less than 12 hours to investigate and make a decision on how to deal with this bomb. After Red revealed his status as a “chosen”, the threat to their plans became much more serious.

It wasn’t that they were scared - the youth didn’t think these spies who had ingrained themselves for so long in a hostile environment would panic at the first sign of problem. It was more that they didn’t know enough to make a hasty decision on how to proceed.

They didn’t know Red’s identity, his goals, or the goals of the cult behind him. Above that, they also likely couldn’t choose to fall out against another cult on their own. This was a decision that could create a war between two cults, and it could only be made by the leaders of their organization. Perhaps, it could only be made by their Emperor.

This was why a spoken deal was better for them. It wouldn’t bind them to an unfavorable position if their leaders chose to get rid of Red in the future, despite his claimed identity. Of course, this went both ways, and if the youth tried to screw their cult over, there was nothing stopping him, either.

It was dangerous for both sides, but Red liked it better this way. It gave him enough time to figure out how to protect himself from those people in the future.

“At least for now, they probably won’t fall out with me.” Red said.

“It’s still a mess either way, but it’s your path to walk.” Aurelia shrugged. “What about the merchant, though? Now you have no guide in the city.”

“About that…”

Red was about to say something, but he trailed off.

To his surprise, the blood connection he felt to the merchant was still there, despite his life having long since slipped away. Red was puzzled about this, but his thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling in the pit of his stomach.

‘Waste.’

This was the word the crimson mist conveyed. It was angry.

It was no wonder, since the efforts it had put into creating that oath all went to waste less than a day later. Before Red could communicate with the being, though, something started to happen to the body.

The gory mess that his head had turned into wiggled.

The youth was stunned.

Aurelia frowned. “What were you going to say? Hey! Are you going to ignore me aga-”

She trailed off as she followed his gaze.

“What the hell?”

The movement of the pile of gore intensified. Something began to split off from it, and it was only then that Red realized what was causing this activity.

Blood.

The fluid was splitting from the organs and bones, floating up on its own and accumulating into a strange shape. Even more blood seeped out from the old man’s neck, and his corpse deflated like a balloon.

His skin and inner organs withered, while the crimson liquid continued to gather above his corpse. When around a gallon’s worth of blood had flowed into this shape, the absorption stopped as Emer’s corpse was drained dry.

It pulsed and moved around while floating in the air, as if sculpting something. Soon enough, this blood began to form into a vaguely humanoid shape. The fluid solidified, creating flesh and body parts out of liquid, and a strange creature manifested in front of Red.

Although it seemed humanoid, its proportions were distorted. It was less than a meter tall, with a skinny, crimson body and limbs that were far too long for its size, with small claws growing out of its human-like fingers and feet resembling the talons of a bird. Its face was ugly and befitting of a demon, with canines for teeth, pointy long ears, and two curved black horns growing out of its forehead. A tail extended out from its back, with black fur at its tip, and two wings, small even relative to the being’s diminutive size, sprouted out from its shoulder blades.

Red stared at the creature in puzzlement as a demonic fluctuation manifested itself from it.

“Imp!”

Aurelia screamed in shock.

The youth heard the term before from books, but his knowledge was limited. He examined the creature, both its appearance and fluctuation, and to his surprise, he felt a sense of familiarity.

‘Could it be?’

Some understanding dawned in his mind.

As the imp’s body finished taking shape, it sprawled to the ground. The small creature groaned, scratching its head and looking around in confusion. Its gaze was eventually drawn to Red, who stared at it from above, and the demon’s expression became fearful.

“M-My lord, what happened?”

The imp’s voice was shrill and unpleasant to the years.

Red frowned, unsure of what to say. Another rumbling came from his stomach.

‘Servant.’

The crimson mist conveyed this one word to him, and it basically confirmed all of Red’s suspicions.

‘This is Emer.’

The youth was sure of it. If its familiar fluctuation wasn’t enough indication, there was even some passing resemblance in the imp’s face to the one from the merchant.

Somehow, the crimson being had used the connection he established with the old man to grant him this new form as his body died. Red wasn’t sure how it had done it, or how it was even possible to allow someone to cheat death in such a twisted way, but he didn’t have the opportunity to ask.

“W-What is going on?”

The imp seemed to have noticed the strangeness of the situation, as his initial confusion wore off. His sense of perspective had lowered with his stature, his voice had changed, and he was looking over his body in horror.

Red felt the demonic Emer enter a panic as the nightmarish situation overwhelmed him.

“Emer.”

The youth called his attention.

His voice seemed to be enough to make the imp snap out of his daze, and he looked up at Red. “M-My lord, I don’t know what is going on-”

“You have died.” Red cut him off.

“W-What?”

The youth pointed at his corpse on the ground. “Nikon killed you. He said it was only under the condition that you weren’t allowed to live that the Nine-Star Cult would agree to a truce with me. I accepted it.”

Red had no intentions of lying to the merchant. It didn’t seem like the imp was surprised, though.

“M-My lord, I understand, but…” He looked over his demonic body. “W-What happened to me?”

Treachery and ruthlessness from demonic cultivators wasn’t enough to daze Emer, who was likely used to it, and his current condition was more of an immediate concern.

Red, however, was unsure of what to say. “… I granted you continued life in this form. It was the only way to save you.”

The youth followed up his brutal honesty with a lie. In his defense, though, it wasn’t like he understood what happened either.

“I-I see, my lord.” The imp hesitated. “I-I thank you, but…”

There was no way any human being could accept this change so readily. Even now, despair and confusion were evident in Emer’s twisted but still surprisingly human face.

Red sighed. “I will give you a choice.”

“A-A choice?”

He nodded. “You can choose to keep on living in this form and serve me as before, or I can let you die and you won’t be bound by servitude or that form.”

As Red said that, another angry rumble came from his stomach, but he ignored it. He could still feel the connection created by his blood between him and the imp, so he knew the demon couldn’t betray him even if it wanted to. He could force Emer to serve him like before, but he was hesitant to do it.

Death was one thing - Red certainly feared it, but he knew there were worse fates than that. Being forced to leave your body and having your form twisted to that of a demon was one of the few things the youth feared more than death. That being the case, he felt pity even for this merchant he barely knew and who was certainly not a good person.

This wasn’t the only reason for his hesitation, however. Red would never hesitate to use demonic methods when he needed to. The merchant’s knowledge could certainly help him a lot, but the youth was confident he could manage even without it. If he was okay with using these demonic techniques for mere convenience, what would be the difference between him and a demonic cultivator?

Aurelia’s words from before still rang in his head. This was not the path that he wanted to walk.

As for giving the imp freedom? Red didn’t even consider it. He still had to look after his own interests, after all.

The imp’s face twisted with struggle. “M-My lord… C-Can’t I return to my body?”

“Your body is gone.”

“B-But couldn’t you make a new body for me?”

Red shook his head. “If there is a way, it’s beyond me right now.”

“W-What about in the future? Could my lord do it?”

The youth frowned. “I can’t promise you anything.”

“I-It’s okay! As long as my lord can keep this one’s wish in mind, I don’t care about waiting for as long as I have to!”

Red sighed.

‘Too cowardly to even accept his own death.’

It was clear that Emer’s attachment to his own life and his conflicting feelings about his new body were clashing at the moment. He just wanted an excuse to live on, a shred of hope, no matter how slim, that would solve these two issues and leave him at ease with maintaining his existence in this twisted form.

Red could only offer his honesty, though. “If I can find a way, and if it is convenient for me, then I will help you find a new human body.”

There was no way that the youth would set aside his own goals to help this demonic cultist to recover his body. He could only do it if it wouldn’t prove to be too difficult of a task for him.

The imp hesitated for a moment, but in the end he nodded and bowed towards Red. “Your assurance is enough for me, my lord! I want to keep serving you!”

This was almost the answer Red didn’t want to hear, but there was nothing else to do. He established all his conditions and didn’t promise anything to Emer, so his mind was free of worries.

If he still refused the imp’s help even now, then the youth would truly be too foolish.