Valak chuckled. "Lloyd? Oh, he was just one of many. A mere hound set loose to gather resources. But you… you have proven far more valuable."
Asher's eyes flashed. "What do you mean?"
Valak raised his hand, and the blue crystals in the walls pulsed. Suddenly, the cages rattled, and the prisoners inside convulsed, their bodies twitching unnaturally. Dark veins spread across their skin as their eyes turned black.
Serena gasped. "They're turning into…!"
Valak grinned. "Fiends."
The prisoners let out monstrous shrieks as they broke free, their bodies twisting and morphing into nightmarish creatures. Their limbs lengthened, their flesh hardened into dark, armored plates, and their fingers turned into clawed weapons of death.
Valak spread his arms. "Let's see how well you handle my creations."
With a single gesture, he sent the horde charging toward Asher and Serena.
Asher's face turned cold as he took in the scene before him. His expression, already hardened, grew even darker when he saw the children among the prisoners beginning to transform into Fiends.
"You twisted bastard…" Serena muttered, horror evident in her voice.
Valak only laughed, his voice filled with amusement. "Do they not make beautiful beasts?" he sneered, watching the children scream as their bodies mutated. "I wonder… how it would feel when you turn into one of them?"
Asher's gaze snapped toward him, his crimson eyes burning with pure rage.
Valak's smug smile faltered for a moment. He quickly masked it with a sneer, stepping forward as dark energy crackled around his fingers.
"Maybe in your next life," Valak said, raising his hand.
In an instant, he unleashed a torrent of cursed energy, aiming straight at Asher.
But before it could reach him—
A sharp, metallic ring echoed through the chamber as his scythe sliced through the air.
Valak barely had time to react before Asher vanished from sight, his speed blurring the air around him.
A deep gash appeared across Valak's chest before he even realized what had happened.
"GAH!" he coughed, staggering back as dark blood dripped from the wound. His eyes widened in disbelief. "You—!"
Asher didn't let him finish. He closed the distance instantly, his scythe gleaming under the dim, eerie light.
Valak barely managed to summon a barrier of cursed energy in time, the force of Asher's attack sending shockwaves across the room. The air crackled with violent energy as their powers clashed.
Serena watched from behind the blood veil Asher had placed around her, her heart pounding. She had seen Asher fight before, but this… this was something else entirely.
Valak gritted his teeth, his barrier fracturing under Asher's relentless assault.
"You think I'll go down that easily?" he spat, his hands clawing at the air.
Dark tendrils erupted from his body, twisting like snakes as they lashed out toward Asher.
But Asher's crimson eyes gleamed.
Before the tendrils could reach him, Asher spun his scythe, severing them midair. The cursed energy dispersed into nothingness.
"You're too slow," Asher said coldly.
Valak snarled and leaped back, blood still dripping from his wound.
"Heh… it seems I underestimated you," he admitted, a manic grin spreading across his face.
Then, his entire body started to change.
Dark mist coiled around him, his muscles bulging unnaturally as his eyes turned completely black. His skin stretched and hardened, horns sprouting from his skull.
The presence that filled the room now was not human.
Asher narrowed his eyes.
"You're not just any Fiend," he muttered.
Valak let out a guttural laugh, his voice now distorted and inhuman.
"No… I'm something much worse."
And with that, he lunged.
As Valak lunged, the air around him twisted with dark energy. His clawed hands, now elongated and reinforced with jagged bone, swiped toward Asher with terrifying force.
Asher barely tilted his head, the claws slicing through the empty air where his face had been just moments before. But even as he dodged, he could feel the sheer pressure behind the attack—it wasn't just raw power; it was a Fiend's hunger, an insatiable need to consume and grow stronger.
Valak's feet cracked the ground as he landed, his monstrous form towering over Asher. His once-human face had stretched and deformed, his mouth filled with rows of jagged teeth like a predator designed to tear through flesh. His muscles had thickened unnaturally, his veins pulsing with dark energy.
Serena, still hidden within Asher's blood veil, shivered as she watched.
"This isn't just a transformation," she muttered, gripping her dagger tightly. "He's… evolving."
Asher's eyes remained unreadable, but inside, his mind was analyzing everything.
"So this is the real effect of devouring countless abilities…"
This wasn't the first time he had fought something powerful, but Valak was different. Unlike Lloyd, who had still retained some human aspects, Valak had completely crossed the line into monstrosity.
He wasn't just a Fiend anymore.
He was becoming a Demon.
Valak grinned, revealing his newly-formed serrated fangs.
"Heh… I can feel it," he growled, his deep voice sending vibrations through the air. "The power surging inside me… the strength of every soul I've devoured!"
A black aura radiated from his body, filled with malice and hunger.
"You should feel honored, Asher. You're about to become my next meal!"
Valak exploded forward with speed that shouldn't have been possible for his massive size, tearing through the air like a living nightmare.
But Asher didn't move.
Valak's clawed hand, charged with cursed energy, sliced forward, aiming to cleave Asher in half—
—only for his attack to hit nothing.
A second later, he felt a chilling sensation against his neck.
Asher's scythe was already there, resting against his jugular, its edge dripping with a faint crimson light.
"I told you," Asher said calmly, his voice devoid of fear.
Valak's pupils dilated.
"Impossible… I didn't even see him move!"
Before Valak could react, Asher moved.
In a single fluid motion, he swung his scythe—
A deep, bloody arc sliced across Valak's chest.
"GRAAAAH!" Valak howled, stumbling backward as blackened blood sprayed from the wound. His body tried to regenerate instantly, but the cut refused to heal properly.
Valak's instincts screamed in warning.
"What the hell…?! That attack—it's eating away at my body!"
He looked down at the wound, horrified. The place where Asher's scythe had struck wasn't just cut—it was corroding, rotting away, as if something was devouring him from the inside.
The faint, blood-red mist swirling around Asher's scythe.
Valak's face twisted in shock.
"You… What the hell kind of power is that?!"
Instead, he vanished again.
Suddenly, Valak felt something sharp tear through his leg.
He barely had time to scream before another strike sliced across his arm.
Each attack came faster than he could react, leaving wounds that refused to heal, sapping his strength with every cut.
Serena, still watching from within the blood veil, stared in awe.
"Asher…" she whispered.
The way he moved—it was like he was dancing with death itself.
Valak panted, his monstrous body covered in wounds that continued to rot away. His breath was ragged, his once-overwhelming aura now flickering unstably.
He gritted his teeth.
He roared, forcing out the last remnants of his power. The ground trembled beneath him as his body pulsed with dark energy one last time. The link to the origin of this information rests in Novel~Fire. (n)et
Asher simply raised his scythe, his crimson eyes glowing.
In a single blinding slash, a crimson arc flashed through the air—
—And Valak's head flew off his shoulders.
His massive body froze, then collapsed with a sickening THUD.
A moment of silence filled the air.
The corpse twisted violently before suddenly disintegrating into black mist, fading into nothingness.
Serena finally stepped out of the blood veil, staring at the empty spot where Valak had stood.
"Dead," Asher confirmed, flicking the dark blood off his scythe. "Fiends don't leave behind corpses. They vanish completely once they're destroyed."
Serena let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Asher then looked around the entire facility, his expression cold.
There was no other way.
He had to kill them all.
The Fiend experiments—the ones who had already lost their humanity—there was no saving them.
Asher gripped his scythe tightly, his eyes scanning the room filled with twisted, half-formed Fiends. Some were still writhing, their bodies contorted from the forced mutations. Others had already lost their minds, their glowing red eyes filled with primal hunger.
Serena hesitated. "Asher… are we really going to—"
"There's no saving them," Asher said, his voice devoid of emotion. "If we leave them, they'll slaughter innocent people. They're already lost."
Serena clenched her fists but nodded. She understood. There was no mercy in a world .
Asher exhaled slowly, raising his scythe. The facility would be their grave.
With a single step, he vanished—his form blurring as he reaped the fallen.