The Damned Demon

Asher felt his body getting squeezed and elongated at the same time, and before he knew it, he was standing in his room.

His first thought was to quickly scan his surroundings, but he was relieved to see that nobody was there and the night was still as silent as it could be.

As a Hunter, he had never used this 'Return' function since Demons were the ones that tried to invade Earth most of the time. Even if he happened to venture into the demon realm, the only way to exit would be through the portal he came in.

However, he was glad that, as a demon, he could conveniently return back to where he came from and wondered why only Demons could do this.

But he pushed away those thoughts when he saw the large mirror in his room, reflecting his eerie black skeleton, continuously blazing with dark green flames.

Even now, he felt it surreal, but since he couldn't let anyone else see him like this, he instinctively wished to return to his normal form.

And expectedly or unexpectedly, he saw the dark green flames die out as nerves, muscles, and skin rapidly restored over his body. It was so quick his appearance returned to normal within just a second or two.

"I…I am back to normal…" Asher mumbled with a stupefied expression as he looked at the mirror and saw his Night Elf appearance. He couldn't help but sigh in relief since, in the end, he was actually taking a liking to his new demonic appearance.

He also saw that the ring blade had transformed back into a simple stone ring and made itself comfortable on his ring finger, looking quite harmless as a ring.

He took a look at his stats to confirm something,

HP : 100 / 100

MP : 95 / 262

STR : 19

DEF : 38

INT :50

DEX : 20

"Sigh, I lost the bonus stats I gained during the fight," Asher sighed as he realized that the bonus stats he gained in his Hellbringer form was temporary and might only last as long as he was in that form.

Still, he didn't mind it since the ability of the ring to feed on negative emotions was definitely something that could help him fight those stronger than him.

And the best part was he could still feel mana coursing through his body despite not being in the Hellbringer form.

He squinted his eyes and suddenly removed the ring from his finger, making his eyes widen.

[ MP : 0 / 0 ]

"No shit…I can't have mana without this ring?" Asher didn't know if this was bad news or not since it would mean without this ring, he would be a cripple. But without this ring, he never would have had any hope.

'Does this ring have the ability to give power to a cripple? Can anybody wear it? Can someone else steal it from me and use it?" Asher had many questions. He did know that Soul Artifacts couldn't be stolen once they had chosen their Master.

But he had heard of experts who could unbind a Soul Artifact from its Master. However, since he didn't know how rare and powerful this ring truly was, Asher doubted if any expert could unbind this ring from him.

Still, even after removing the ring and placing it on his palm, Asher felt like this ring was still connected to him.

His eyes focused as the stone ring slowly floated up from his palm and levitated in the air.

"Hmm…This ring is indeed something else…" Asher mumbled as, for some reason, he was able to feel this ring even without any mana. Even if an artifact had the ability to stay connected to its master without physical touch, it would still need mana as a conduit.

But there was no such conduit here. Asher was able to make the ring float away from him and make it come back to him and even saw it hooking onto his finger on his command.

This made him realize that he could actually put the ring somewhere else and just summon it to his side. What he also wanted to know was how far this ring could be away from him. But he decided that could wait.

He was so close to leveling up. But before he can accept further quests, he has to make sure nobody might suspect anything, especially his 'wife', who might impose further restrictions if she finds out he can sneak away.

He had to first find out how things were in this demon kingdom before he could let others know that he was no longer a cripple. It was not like he was fond of pretending to be weak.

As far as he knew, the only one who wouldn't hurt him was the Demon Queen, despite being a useless husband to her. If she wanted to, he would have died already.

Ceti also didn't seem to be the one who would kill him unless ordered by the queen herself. Otherwise, considering her attitude, she would have finished him off already.

It was people like Seron he had to look out for who obviously didn't like his mind was no longer crippled. He had to find out why Seron didn't like him, especially since his previous self had never even harmed a bug.

He made himself comfortable on his bed thinking about these things and then looked at his Ring of Damnation and wondered if he would have to undergo the same agony and pain of having his flesh burned off the next time he transformed into Hellbringer.

"I guess I will find out next time…" Asher mumbled and was about to sleep when he decided to continue reading the books he was reading before.

—

It was already morning when,

*Bang!*

"Your Highness! Forgive this loyal servant for not showing himself before!"

Asher squinted his eyes in annoyance as he was forcibly stirred awake by someone's loud, obnoxious voice, coupled with the sound of the door being banged open.

"Who the hell is it?" Asher turned around with a groggy look to see which servant dared to disturb his sleep.