Chapter 319: Hatred Given Form

Elena remained where she was, both hands raised toward Zeri.

Her breathing was uneven, and Yuuta could clearly see her legs trembling beneath her, but strangely, the fear that should have been on her face wasn’t there.

She was frightened her body made that obvious, but her crimson eyes remained fixed on the High Demon with an intensity that didn’t belong to the frightened little girl Yuuta knew.

Zeri noticed it too.

His expression gradually twisted with irritation as he stared into Elena’s eyes.

It was the same thing that had been bothering him whenever he looked at Yuuta.

There was something predatory in that gaze, an instinctive presence that made Zeri feel as though the person in front of him wasn’t looking at an unstoppable High Demon.

Instead, it almost felt as though he was the one being hunted.

"Why do you have that face too?" Zeri asked, genuine irritation entering his voice.

"I’m the fucking predator here. So why are you looking at me like I’m your prey?"

Elena didn’t answer. Her little hands remained raised while faint traces of cold gathered around her fingers.

"Fuck..." Zeri ran one hand through his deep-blue hair, looking genuinely frustrated.

"What’s wrong with humans nowadays? Why do all of you look more like monsters than me?"

His golden eyes moved from Elena toward Yuuta.

Then he stopped.

Something had changed.

Only moments ago, Yuuta had been staring at him with those terrifying crimson eyes, his expression filled with enough murderous intent that Zeri’s instincts had reacted despite knowing the man could barely move. But now that Zeri’s attention had shifted toward Elena, that predatory expression had completely disappeared.

Yuuta looked terrified.

Not for himself.

For her.

Zeri’s irritation slowly transformed into a smile as the realization came to him.

"Ohhh..."

Yuuta’s stomach dropped.

Zeri’s smile widened.

"I get it now."

The tentacles behind his back slowly rose, one after another, until they hovered above him like enormous cobras preparing to strike.

"Uncle doesn’t fear me." Zeri tilted his head, his golden eyes moving toward Elena. "But Uncle is terrified of losing his daughter."

"No."

The word escaped Yuuta immediately.

Zeri looked back at him.

"No..." Yuuta repeated, louder this time. His fingers clawed desperately against the road as he tried once again to make his useless body rise. "Leave her alone."

His arm trembled and collapsed beneath him.

"Take me instead."

Elena’s eyes shifted toward her father.

Yuuta didn’t look at her. His entire attention remained on Zeri as he forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"I’m the one you came here for, aren’t I? Your lord wants me. That’s what you said." Yuuta swallowed painfully, struggling to keep his voice steady. "So take me. Do whatever the hell you want with me, but leave Elena out of this. Spare her life."

For the first time in several minutes, Zeri’s expression seemed genuinely pleased.

"There."

He pointed toward Yuuta.

"That’s what a human is supposed to look like."

Yuuta’s face tightened.

"Scared. Desperate. Begging because there’s something you don’t want me to take away." Zeri smiled as though the sight finally made sense to him. "You were really starting to annoy me with that predator face, Uncle. This is much bet..."

A shard of ice shot toward his face.

Zeri jerked his head aside, and the projectile passed close enough to disturb his hair before shattering against the road behind him.

His smile disappeared.

Elena still had her hands raised.

"You impatient brat."

"Elena, no!" Yuuta shouted. "Run away!"

Elena didn’t move.

"ELENA, RUN!"

Even as the words left his mouth, Yuuta knew how useless they were. Where could she possibly run? Zeri could cross the entire street before Elena managed a few steps, while Yuuta himself couldn’t move even an inch to help her.

But he needed her to try.

Instead, Elena brought both hands forward.

Cold gathered around her palms.

Several tiny ice crystals formed in the air before suddenly shooting toward Zeri in rapid succession. They flew almost like bullets, one after another, crossing the street with surprising speed.

Zeri’s golden eyes narrowed.

One crystal passed beside his shoulder. Another struck the pavement. Two more flew far too high, while another nearly grazed his side before he twisted away from it.

Elena’s aim was terrible.

She clearly had no experience controlling what she was doing, and several attacks went nowhere near Zeri. Yet that lack of control made their paths strangely unpredictable. Zeri couldn’t simply assume where the next one would go, forcing him to move as more ice crystals shot past him and shattered against the surrounding road and buildings.

Yuuta watched in disbelief.

Elena really was using magic.

She wasn’t doing it well. Her stance was wrong, her hands were trembling, and there seemed to be almost no control behind the direction of her attacks, but she kept trying anyway.

Zeri stepped between two incoming crystals before tilting his body away from another.

"Good."

His expression became cold.

"Now block this."

"Elena!"

One of Zeri’s tentacles shot forward.

Elena didn’t see it coming.

The tentacle wrapped around her small ankle and instantly pulled her feet from beneath her. She screamed as her body was lifted from the ground, rising several meters into the air until she was hanging upside down above the street.

"PAPA!"

Yuuta’s face went white.

"LET HER GO!"

Elena struggled desperately, her hair hanging toward the road as she tried to reach for the tentacle wrapped around her ankle. Fear finally broke through her expression, but even then, she didn’t surrender. She stretched one hand toward Zeri, forcing the cold around her fingers to gather again.

A small ice projectile formed.

Zeri stared up at her.

"You still want to fight?"

Elena fired.

The shard passed beside his face.

Zeri’s eye twitched.

"You brat."

Yuuta immediately understood what was about to happen.

"No..."

Zeri’s tentacle rose higher.

"Zeri, stop!"

Yuuta dragged his fingers across the road, desperately trying to pull himself forward despite his body refusing to cooperate.

"Don’t do it! ZERI!"

Zeri swung the tentacle downward.

"Elena!"

Her small body came down with terrifying force.

The impact shook the street.

Concrete burst outward as Elena struck the road, and a crater formed beneath her from the sheer force of the blow. Dust exploded upward, briefly hiding her completely from view.

Yuuta stopped breathing.

His mouth remained open, but no sound came out.

The dust gradually began settling.

"Elena...?"

He stared at the crater.

Her small body lay inside it.

She wasn’t moving.

For several seconds, Yuuta simply watched. His mind seemed incapable of accepting what his eyes were showing him. He waited for Elena to move her hand, lift her head, cry for him, or do anything that would prove she was still conscious.

Nothing happened.

"Elena..."

His voice broke.

Still nothing.

Something inside Yuuta collapsed.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream tore out of him so violently that his injured chest felt as though it were splitting apart. Tears immediately filled his crimson eyes as he clawed at the pavement, desperately trying to drag his broken body toward his daughter.

"I’LL KILL YOU!"

His fingers scraped painfully against the road, but he barely moved.

"I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!"

Yuuta’s voice cracked between rage and grief. Tears streamed down his blood-covered face while his entire body trembled helplessly against the pavement.

"I won’t spare you! Do you hear me?! I WON’T SPARE YOU!"

He tried to rise again and collapsed immediately, but the failure only made him more desperate.

"I’ll make you pay! I’ll burn you! I’ll tear you apart! I swear I’ll kill you!"

Zeri didn’t interrupt him.

The High Demon simply stood there watching as Yuuta’s rage tore through what little strength remained in his body. Slowly, an evil smile spread across Zeri’s face.

This was the expression he had wanted to see from the beginning not those cold crimson eyes that made his instincts recoil, not the strange confidence of a human who continued standing against him no matter how many times he should have fallen, but helplessness, rage and despair.

Yuuta’s teeth clenched so hard that blood began leaking from the corner of his mouth.

He planted both hands against the road and tried to force himself upright, but his arms immediately trembled beneath his weight. His chest barely rose from the pavement before his strength disappeared and he collapsed again.

He tried once more.

His fingers dug into the cracked road, his shoulders shook, and every damaged muscle in his body screamed at him to stop. Yuuta ignored all of it. He only wanted to stand. He only needed enough strength to reach Zeri and wrap his hands around the demon’s throat.

But his body failed him again.

"Come on..." Yuuta growled through bloody teeth as he tried for a third time. "Move... damn it..."

Zeri’s smile grew wider.

"Yes. That’s it, Uncle."

Yuuta’s crimson eyes snapped toward him.

"Show me more," Zeri said, almost enjoying every second of Yuuta’s struggle. "That’s the face I’ve been waiting for. Show me more of it."

Ever since they met, Yuuta had given Zeri feelings he didn’t understand. Fear, hesitation, even that terrifying certainty that Yuuta’s mysterious attack could have ended his life permanently. Those feelings had disturbed him more than any wound.

But this was different.

Seeing Yuuta broken on the ground, desperately trying to stand while tears and blood covered his face, finally restored the feeling Zeri wanted.

He was the predator.

Yuuta was supposed to be the prey.

"More, Uncle," Zeri said with a grin. "Come on. Get up."

Yuuta’s fingers curled.

Something in his shoulder shifted painfully as he forced strength into it. His arm trembled so violently that it seemed ready to give out again, but this time his shoulder actually responded.

Yuuta slowly lifted part of his upper body from the road.

"Ghh...!"

Pain tore through him. His posture was miserable, almost like a crippled man desperately learning how to move again, but Yuuta didn’t care. He raised his blood-covered face and stared at Zeri with pure hatred.

Then something flashed across the street.

BOOM!

A chunk of ice struck Zeri directly in the side of the head.

His face snapped sideways from the impact, and fragments of ice exploded around him. The unexpected strike tore skin from the side of his face and briefly exposed damaged flesh underneath before regeneration immediately began repairing it.

Zeri went completely still.

Yuuta’s expression changed.

He already knew where the attack had come from.

"No..."

Zeri slowly turned his head.

Elena was moving.

She lay inside the crater where Zeri had smashed her moments earlier, but one of her little hands was raised toward him. Her arm trembled badly, and dust covered nearly every part of her clothes and face, yet somehow she was still conscious.

Zeri stared at her in genuine surprise.

"You didn’t die from that?"

"Elena, no!" Yuuta shouted.

His daughter struggled to push herself up.

"Elena! Stop!"

She either couldn’t hear him properly or refused to listen. Her breathing was ragged, and even lifting her hand appeared difficult, but cold air gathered around her fingers once again.

Zeri’s surprise disappeared.

His golden eyes narrowed.

Yuuta immediately understood what was coming.

"Don’t!"

Zeri moved.

This time, he didn’t use his tentacles.

He dashed directly toward Elena.

"ZERİ!"

Elena raised both hands as quickly as she could. Several small ice crystals formed around her before firing wildly toward the approaching demon. One flew over his shoulder, another shattered against the road, and a third passed beside his waist. Her aim was still terrible, but Elena kept creating more, desperately firing them as quickly as she could.

Zeri weaved between them without slowing.

Elena’s eyes widened as he appeared directly in front of her.

His fist moved.

Yuuta saw it.

"No!"

Zeri struck Elena across the face.

The impact knocked her small body backward into the crater. Dust burst upward around her as she hit the broken ground again, and her raised hands finally dropped.

Yuuta stopped breathing.

Zeri stood over her for a moment before looking down with complete contempt.

"So weak."

His words reached Yuuta clearly.

Something dragged across the pavement.

Zeri turned his head.

Yuuta was crawling.

He couldn’t stand. He could barely use his legs, and one of his arms repeatedly collapsed beneath him, but his other hand clawed into the road and dragged his body forward a few inches at a time.

"Stop..."

His nails scraped against the concrete.

He pulled himself forward again.

"Stop it..."

Blood smeared across the pavement beneath him as his damaged body dragged over the broken road. Every movement sent unbearable pain through him, but Yuuta continued crawling toward his daughter.

Zeri watched him approach.

Yuuta raised his head, tears running down his blood-covered face as his crimson eyes locked onto the demon standing over Elena.

"Stop it... you demon."

He dragged himself forward again.

"Leave my daughter alone."

Yuuta dragged himself across the broken road, one trembling hand reaching forward before clawing desperately into the pavement.

His legs were still refusing to support him, and every attempt to move sent unbearable pain through his ribs and spine, but none of it mattered anymore.

Elena was only a short distance away, lying inside the crater while Zeri stood over her.

"Leave my daughter alone..." Yuuta pleaded, pulling himself another few inches forward. "Please... just leave her alone."

Zeri looked down at Elena and then back toward Yuuta.

His expression remained cold.

Then he kicked her.

"Elena!"

Yuuta’s entire body jerked as though the blow had struck him instead. Elena’s small body shifted across the broken ground from the impact, but before Yuuta could even process it, Zeri kicked her again.

"STOP!"

Zeri ignored him.

Another kick landed.

Yuuta clawed at the road so violently that his fingernails began scraping against the concrete. He tried to crawl faster, but his broken body could only move inches at a time. The distance separating him from Elena wasn’t large, yet in his condition it felt endless.

"I’ll kill you..." Yuuta whispered.

Zeri kicked Elena again.

Something changed in Yuuta’s expression.

"I’ll kill you."

He dragged himself forward.

His shoulder nearly collapsed, but Yuuta forced it to remain beneath him. Tears streamed down his face as he stared at Zeri standing over his daughter.

"I’ll kill you... I’ll kill you... I’ll fucking kill you!"

His scream echoed through the ruined street.

Then something began to shift.

At first, Yuuta didn’t notice it himself.

A thin darkness appeared around his fingers.

It wasn’t the dark-green aura he had manifested earlier. There was no trace of green anywhere within it. What leaked from Yuuta now was completely black, so dense that it seemed to swallow the light around his hand.

The darkness crawled upward.

It spread across his arm, then his shoulder, before slowly surrounding the rest of his broken body. With every desperate movement Yuuta made toward Elena, more of that black aura poured from him.

There was something deeply wrong with it.

It didn’t feel like ordinary power.

It felt like hatred given form.

Everything Yuuta had endured that night seemed to be feeding it—the soldiers who had died protecting him, Raven’s death, his inability to save anyone, his helplessness as Elena was attacked in front of him, and above all, the unbearable hatred he now felt toward the demon standing over his daughter. That wrath wrapped around him until his body was almost disappearing beneath the darkness.

Zeri raised his leg again.

Then he stopped.

His golden eyes widened slightly.

For some reason, the ruined street had become silent.

Not merely quiet.

Silent.

The distant sounds of destruction seemed to disappear from Zeri’s awareness. The wind no longer mattered. The ruined buildings, the bodies scattered across the street and even Elena beneath him seemed to fade from his attention.

Something was coming.

Zeri had no idea how he knew that.

It felt like the silence before a storm, except whatever was approaching wasn’t coming from the sky or from somewhere beyond the ruined city.

It was behind him.

Zeri slowly turned his head.

His eyes widened.

Yuuta was standing.

He shouldn’t have been able to stand.

Only seconds earlier, the man had been crawling across the pavement like someone whose body had completely stopped functioning. Now Yuuta was somehow upright, though his condition hadn’t magically improved. His legs trembled violently beneath him, his shoulders shook, and every unsteady step looked as though his body might collapse again.

Yet he was walking.

Dense black aura covered him from head to toe.

It was so thick that Zeri could barely make out Yuuta’s body beneath it. Even his face was hidden behind the darkness, leaving only two crimson eyes clearly visible through the black aura.

Blood was running from them.

Thin crimson trails moved down Yuuta’s cheeks like bloody tears before disappearing into the darkness surrounding his body.

Zeri’s mouth opened slightly.

"Un...cle...?"

Yuuta took another unstable step.

The road beneath his foot seemed to darken beneath the aura surrounding him.

Zeri had fought Yuuta throughout this entire battle. He had watched the man use strange aura, seen him cut apart his tentacles, survived being decapitated by him and even experienced that mysterious power that, for the first time in his existence, made him believe he could truly die.

None of those moments felt like this.

Yuuta raised his head.

Those bleeding crimson eyes found Zeri.

"I’ll rip your face from your soul."

The sentence wasn’t shouted.

Yuuta barely raised his voice at all.

Yet Zeri’s entire body began trembling.

His tentacles curled inward instinctively, and his legs suddenly lost their strength. The High Demon stumbled backward before dropping onto the road, one hand catching himself against the pavement.

"What...?"

His breathing became uneven.

Zeri stared at his own trembling hand in disbelief before looking back toward Yuuta.

"What the hell...?"

Yuuta kept walking.

One step at a time.

His movements were still terrible. His body swayed with every step, and his damaged legs could barely carry his weight, but the black aura surrounding him only became denser. It rolled from his body like smoke, hiding everything except those crimson eyes and the bloody tears running beneath them.

Zeri couldn’t speak anymore.

His throat had tightened.

His instincts were screaming so violently that he couldn’t organize his thoughts. The same High Demon who had laughed after being decapitated was now sitting on the road, unable to understand why his body refused to stop trembling.

Yuuta took another step toward him.

Zeri’s body trembled.

Yuuta’s bleeding crimson eyes remained fixed upon him.

And for the first time since arriving in Yuno City...

Zeri understood what it felt like to be prey.

To Be Continued...