The Damned Demon

Rowena and Ceti had left while the servants also cleaned up the room along with the assassin's corpse.

But Igrid furrowed his brows as he noticed that Asher was still sweating and his body temperature wasn't going down even though all his physical injuries were healed.

Asher could see that Igrid was feeling suspicious about his condition and quickly asked to distract him, "I have one question. Why did you sigh when Rowena ordered his death?"

Igrid raised his brows, not expecting the Royal Consort to be so observant. His expression was filled with hesitation as Asher added, "You can be free with me. I have nobody to talk to anyway."

Igrid took a deep breath as he said, "It's just that…I realized Her Majesty had become very indifferent after the death of her father. When the late Demon King was alive…she was…I could say she was in a better state. I am sorry. I think I might have spoken too much."

"No. It's fine. You can go," Asher said as he felt that Rowena must have been close to her father. He wondered how she would react if she knew he was the one who killed her father.

But he wasn't really worried since there was no way she would ever learn the truth, just like how nobody could guess that he was a Hunter in his past life.

Igrid nodded, but he was still worried seeing his pale face and asked, "Your Highness, are you feeling alright? I think maybe I left out something when inspecting your—"

Asher gave a casual smile as he said, "Of course, I feel alright. Don't worry. I just feel mentally drained and exhausted after almost getting killed. It will all go away with a good night's sleep. Why don't you go on your way so that I can rest?"

Igrid felt hesitant since he could clearly see that something was wrong with the Royal Consort. But since the Royal Consort was insisting so much, he could only bow and leave.

After Igrid left, Asher let out a loud sigh in relief and quickly rushed to the door. He peeked out to see that the number of guards had increased and cursed the assassin for this. This only made it harder for him to sneak out.

But the pain from the ring made him lock the door as he decided to find out more about this strange ring that first helped him but was now making him feel like cutting off his finger. Maybe if he figured out what kind of ring it was, he could pull it off. If it was any ordinary person who was feeling this pain, they would be crying and rolling on the ground in pain. Fortunately for him, Asher had gone through various difficult trials as a Hunter that strengthened his willpower, and had learned how to deal with pain to become the strongest Hunter.

However, when he inspected the ring, he was disappointed to see that there was not much information displayed,

[ Item Name : Ring of Damnation ]

[ Grade : ??? ]

[ Status : Linked]

'Linked? So it is a Soul Artifact?' Asher remembered how he got a notification that the ring chose him as its user. And only those artifacts that can link with the soul of a living being could be called a Soul Artifact.

He was actually surprised that this body possessed such a precious artifact since Soul Artifacts were rare and powerful enough for people to go mad over it. He even remembered how humans in his past life had schemed against others to steal such artifacts while some Hunters had taken up suicide-level missions in the hopes of earning rewards involving a Soul Artifact. The only way to steal a Soul Artifact was by killing its master since these artifacts are said to be bound to the soul.

But of course, even among Soul Artifacts, there were always the useless ones and more useful ones. Asher had already witnessed how helpful this stone ring was since it saved his life and knew that it could also be used as a weapon.

He just had to figure out how to activate its weapon form again. At least this way, he would be able to get it off his hand and also would have some chance of defending himself in case someone tries to kill him again.

Still, he couldn't figure out its grade and thought that maybe an expert blacksmith might be able to tell. But he didn't have much hope since equipping this ring gave him no status benefits. There were even cheap accessories that gave the wielder at least some increase in their HP or MP.

But this was just a letdown. The only relief he had was that this ring would at least transform into a sharp weapon.

"Shit…why did it get worse…" Asher couldn't even focus on his thoughts as the pain suddenly spiked up.

And to his horror, he saw dark green cracks spreading from his hand and towards his arm without showing any signs of slowing down.

"No…no…no…Ughhhh…" Asher felt like his entire arm was being set aflame as the cracks spread deeper. But unlike before, this time, he could see it happening for real! He could see his flesh, his nerves, and everything till his bones slowly crumbled into ashes, making him feel hellish pain he had never felt before.

"Nnnghhh!" He bit onto the mattress to suppress his howls so that the others wouldn't rush inside. Even in this situation, he didn't want to trust his life in the hands of anyone else. He had to deal with whatever was going on by himself.

His horror only increased when he saw the dark green cracks spreading rapidly over his entire body.

"Rnnnggghhhh!!!"

Now he felt his entire body being melted by this scorching heat as dark green flames began to flare from his body.

He couldn't even howl anymore as his vocal cords were burned into nothingness.

He clutched his face and stumbled across the room as the dark green cracks had spread to his face, his skin disintegrating into ashes. The dark green flames even crept into his eyes and robbed him of his vision as well, making everything pitch black.

This was just too terrifying for Asher, who had never experienced something as hellish as this. Was this some kind of divine punishment for being in the body of a demon? Asher wouldn't have even thought of such wild thoughts if only he was sane enough to formulate thoughts in this situation.

He wasn't even sane enough to check his stats and figure out what was happening to his body.

All he felt was his flesh burning off his body, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity in darkness, he felt the pain stop.

But before he could think anything, he suddenly felt the floor beneath him disappear and felt his body falling through empty space until he finally crashed on some glass-like surface.

And as if to prevent him from going into shock, he was relieved to see his vision slowly returning to him. But what he saw stupefied him.