Chapter 493 - 493: Camphor, the Doubt

Camphor liked to let people die at the very end of their descent into self-doubt.

Now that Taliyah had been targeted, they naturally couldn't stand by and do nothing.

Luke looked at Morgana. "Do you have any way to deal with this?"

They had no idea where Camphor was hiding. Unless they could find its true body, there was not much Luke could do.

Morgana thought for a moment before nodding. "I know a spell that can force a demon to reveal itself. The conditions are that we know its true name and abilities, and it must currently be attached to Taliyah."

"Then let's try it."

Luke understood what she meant.

If Camphor was not near Taliyah while implanting those suggestions of self-doubt, then the spell would not be able to force it to reveal itself.

Before long, Taliyah returned looking visibly dejected. Compared to how energetic she had been just a few days ago, the difference was obvious.

At this rate, it probably would not take more than a few days before she ended up like Krol.

Noticing Luke and Morgana looking at her, Taliyah sighed and finally decided to tell them.

"I don't know what's been wrong with me lately. I just can't get into the right state of mind. I can't even meditate anymore."

Luke looked at her. "Sit down over there. No matter what happens in a moment, don't resist."

Taliyah paused, not understanding what he meant.

Then she saw Morgana raise a hand. Ghostly magic emerged and wrapped itself around Taliyah's body, immediately sending an intense chill through her.

It felt as if she had fallen into a freezing cavern. Her entire body turned unbearably cold, while an eerie dread kept rising inside her. Before long, cold sweat covered her skin.

It felt as though someone were peeling open her soul and examining everything inside. Every instinct screamed at her to resist.

But remembering Luke's warning, Taliyah ultimately held herself back.

What Taliyah could not see was that ghostly flames had already begun burning across her body. Morgana continued casting, eerie purple light flickering in her eyes.

When the final magical seal fell into place, Taliyah let out an uncomfortable groan. It felt as though her soul were being forcibly ripped from her body.

But what was actually pulled free was a wavering shadow.

The moment it left Taliyah's body, the shadow flew toward the nearby campfire.

The flames immediately surged as though boiling.

Scorching waves of fire churned outward, then began condensing into a massive body more than ten meters tall. Its form resembled a thick, enormous serpent engulfed in flames.

A pair of gigantic black wings spread from its back. It had no recognizable face. Instead, its features seemed made of molten magma that continuously dripped downward, while something resembling a crown rested atop its head.

This was Camphor.

The sight left Taliyah stunned.

She had never imagined something like this had been inside her.

According to Ryze's books, Camphor had no gender. It had been born from humanity's feelings of inadequacy and was an extremely powerful demon.

Luke estimated that Camphor was at least on Nocturne's level, though still nowhere near Fiddlesticks.

A demon whose abilities operated according to rules like Fiddlesticks was absurdly difficult to deal with.

Now that Camphor had been forcibly dragged into its true form, it was furious.

"I was planning to torture you to death one by one. But since you've discovered me, I suppose I'll have to devour all of you together."

Camphor enjoyed slowly tormenting humans to death and savoring the despair they felt in their final moments.

Those were often its happiest times.

But now its fun had been ruined.

It was furious!

Naturally, Camphor had no reason to fear a mere three humans. With a casual sweep of its arm, the flames seemed to come alive and surged toward Luke and the others.

"Its true body will be trapped here temporarily, but probably only for a few minutes. Until then, it can't escape."

Morgana dodged Camphor's attack as she spoke.

"That's enough."

Luke drew Snowglance and swung his sword.

A blade of sword energy tore straight through the incoming flames and slashed toward Camphor's body.

The reason they had not warned Taliyah beforehand was precisely to avoid alerting Camphor.

Camphor had never expected this seemingly ordinary human to unleash such a powerful slash. For an instant, even its instincts screamed that it was in danger.

It hurriedly dodged, but the attack still struck it, leaving a sword wound across its body.

"ROAR!"

Unimaginable pain erupted through Camphor, forcing a roar from its throat as its monstrous body twisted violently.

It immediately launched a furious counterattack.

But Luke's sword was faster.

More than a dozen vicious slashes descended in the blink of an eye, opening wound after wound across Camphor's body.

"How are you able to hurt me?!"

Camphor could not understand it.

Ordinary weapons could barely harm its demonic form.

Yet the intense pain coming from its wounds was unmistakably real.

In Shurima, the only weapons Camphor knew that could wound it were sacred weapons forged on Mount Targon.

But the sword in this human's hand clearly possessed no sacred properties at all.

Luke did not answer.

He simply kept attacking.

Camphor angrily retaliated, but its counterattacks accomplished little.

Gradually, it began to panic.

Combat had never been its specialty.

Its true strength lay in hiding in the shadows and planting suggestions in its victims' minds, waiting until those humans had been weakened again and again before finally appearing to harvest the fruit.

But Luke's overwhelming strength made Camphor deeply uneasy.

It wanted to flee, but Morgana had forcibly summoned it here. For the next several minutes, escape was impossible.

It was only a few minutes.

Yet Camphor was already afraid!

There were several reasons Luke could harm it. The Righteous Aura within his body and the energy of the World Runes were both extremely effective against demons.

Besides, Camphor itself was not overwhelmingly powerful.

Its truly dangerous weapon was its bizarre ability.

And until now, it had not used it.

"Don't get too cocky, human!"

Camphor realized it could not drag this out any longer.

Dark energy erupted wildly from its entire body. It suddenly transformed into a black shadow and lunged straight at Luke.

Luke swung Snowglance, but his blade struck nothing.

Camphor moved around him at incredible speed and wrapped itself around his body.

In that instant, an overwhelming sense of apathy flooded Luke's mind.

He suddenly lost interest in everything around him. His body felt completely drained, as though he could not summon even the slightest bit of strength.

Luke knew he had probably been affected by Camphor's power, but the emotional lethargy was so overwhelming that even his thoughts began to break apart.

He felt like he could accomplish nothing.

Like nothing he did could ever change anything.

Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to lie down and wait for death, abandoning every struggle and every attempt to resist.

This was precisely Camphor's power at work.

Its ability did not target the body.

Nor did it target the soul.

It targeted emotion itself.

Once Camphor activated this ability, it could easily influence the emotions of almost any living creature, forcing its victims into uncontrollable negativity.

However, even Camphor could not accomplish much immediately after doing so.

Normally, it waited until its prey had completely surrendered, accepting the belief that they simply were not good enough.

Only then could Camphor devour the victim's soul.

This time, however, it had forcibly activated its power against someone who most likely already knew how its ability worked.

That meant the effect would not hold Luke for long.

During that brief window, Camphor had to kill him from within his soul.

Throwing caution aside, Camphor charged directly into Luke's mindscape.

There, it saw an unbelievably vast manifestation of spiritual power.

Among every human Camphor had ever encountered, Luke possessed one of the largest mindscapes it had ever seen.

The moment Camphor saw it, an ominous feeling arose.

This human's spiritual power was actually this immense?

"I was waiting for you."

Luke's voice suddenly rang out.

Every warning instinct in Camphor's mind immediately screamed.

It frantically tried to retreat, only to discover that the entrance to Luke's mindscape had already slammed shut.

What the hell?!

Who puts a deadbolt on their own mindscape?!

Camphor's spiritual form repeatedly slammed itself against the Mental Barrier.

But the solid wall did not budge in the slightest.

Then Camphor felt an icy chill coming from behind.

It turned around.

And froze in horror.

Three different currents of demonic power were rushing straight toward it.

"How is this possible?!"

Camphor was instantly overwhelmed with disbelief.

Why did this human have three powerful demonic presences inside him?

Every single one of them felt anything but ordinary.

"This should work better against you."

Luke directed the demonic powers toward Camphor.

The demonic powers originating from Evelynn, Nocturne, and Tahm Kench had continuously grown within Luke's mindscape. Combined with the World Rune energy they had absorbed, they were now tremendously powerful, vastly stronger than when Luke had first obtained them.

Individually, none of the three might have been stronger than Camphor.

But together, the aura they emitted was more powerful than Camphor's own.

"Screw it!"

Realizing there was nowhere to run, Camphor had no choice but to fight Luke head-on.

In an instant, the three demonic powers pounced.

They tangled with Camphor's spiritual form, and the scene resembled four pitch-black serpents tearing into one another.

It was combat in its most primitive form.

Except three serpents were attacking one.

Camphor gradually found itself overwhelmed.

Every time its spiritual form was bitten, a portion of its power was torn away, accompanied by unbearable agony.

Camphor could bite back.

But it was fighting three enemies.

Every time it landed one bite, it took three in return.

That was a terrible trade by any measure.

Gradually, Camphor began running out of strength.

Its power grew weaker and weaker, while its resistance became increasingly feeble.

Meanwhile, the three demonic presences grew even stronger as they devoured Camphor's power.

They were like a pack of wolves feeding on prey, each taking bite after bite.

Amid Camphor's agonized screams, they gradually devoured it until not even a scrap remained.

Even in its final moments, Camphor could never have imagined that it would die so easily at the hands of a human.

In the end, every last bit of its power was devoured.

Luke vaguely heard Camphor begging for mercy, even offering to accept any one-sided contract he wanted.

Luke ignored it.

This was exactly what made his Mental Barrier so useful.

Anyone could enter his mindscape.

Leaving was another matter entirely.

Luke looked at the three demonic presences.

They had swelled considerably, almost as though they had overeaten.

He did not know whether this counted as permanently killing Camphor, but one thing was certain.

Every last bit of Camphor's power had been devoured.

Perhaps someday another demon similar to Camphor would be born.

But that was no longer Luke's concern.

Suddenly, he sensed something strange from the three demonic presences.

They became violently unstable, almost as if they were about to explode.

Luke immediately realized that was bad.

This was his mindscape.

If these things actually exploded, there were also three World Rune fragments nearby.

If those were triggered too, things could get very ugly.

Luke quickly analyzed the situation.

Most likely, the three demonic powers had devoured too much of Camphor's strength and could no longer digest it.

Luke had originally thought devouring Camphor would simply allow the three demonic powers to grow somewhat stronger.

He had not expected them to gorge themselves to this extent.

This had nothing to do with the strength of Luke's spiritual power.

The three demonic powers themselves had simply reached the limit of what they could contain.

They were like three containers filled beyond capacity and already on the verge of bursting.

Luke's thoughts raced.

If three separate containers could not hold all this power, then what about combining them into one larger container?

He immediately manipulated the three demonic powers, forcing them toward one another.

Then he began applying pressure, attempting to fuse all three into a single whole.

From the moment he started, Luke realized how difficult it was.

After all, these were three different kinds of demonic power.

This was nothing like demons devouring one another.

He was not trying to make one consume the others.

He was trying to fuse them.

The situation was like trying to force together the repelling ends of magnets. No matter how much he pushed them together, they kept trying to separate.

Luke did not care.

Using brute force, he forcibly crushed all three powers together until they became a single sphere of pitch-black energy.

Immediately, Luke felt an enormous impact against his spiritual power.

The energy throughout his entire body began fluctuating violently and became extremely unstable.

He exerted every ounce of control he had, gritting his teeth as he held everything together.

No matter how violently the three powers resisted, Luke refused to allow them to separate.

His mindscape had become like a furnace operating at full power, trying to melt three pieces of steel together into one.

Eventually, Luke brought in an even greater power.

Within his violently trembling mindscape, the three World Rune fragments began radiating energy.

Their power flowed toward the demonic forces.

The World Rune energy entered the mass and immediately exerted a suppressive effect, forcibly crushing the unstable demonic energies into submission.

Finally, after one violent tremor, the three powers fused completely.

They stopped thrashing.

A brand-new demonic power was born.

It no longer belonged to Evelynn, Nocturne, Tahm Kench, or Camphor.

It was an entirely new demonic force.

And the aura it emitted was even stronger than the three previous powers combined.

Luke examined the newly formed demonic power inside his mindscape.

That dangerously bloated sensation from before had completely disappeared.

Just as he had suspected, fusing the three powers had produced something far stronger than merely adding them together.

This was now an entirely new form of demonic power.

However, the abilities belonging to the previous demons had not disappeared.

Instead, every one of them had become stronger.

At the same time, Luke discovered that he had unlocked a new ability.

Camphor's Doubt.

It was an ability that could directly influence emotions.

Luke had just experienced its effects firsthand.

Even though he had deliberately allowed himself to be affected, the overwhelming negativity he had felt in that moment had been completely real.

Luke had broken free from it quickly, but the ability was still quite useful.

It was essentially like applying a Weakness debuff to someone.

Luke could not properly test the newly fused demonic power right now, so he withdrew from his mindscape and opened his eyes in the outside world.

The battle inside his mindscape had been intense, but very little time had actually passed.

From the moment Camphor's power wrapped around Luke to the moment its presence disappeared, only a few dozen seconds had gone by.

"That should have taken care of it."

Luke looked toward Morgana and Taliyah.

Taliyah let out a breath of relief.

The oppressive negativity weighing on her emotions had indeed disappeared.

She now understood that she had been under the demon's influence all along, and her gratitude toward Luke and Morgana grew even stronger.

Morgana knew Luke well enough to understand that something like Camphor's ability would have a hard time truly harming him.

Even so, she had still been worried.

Now, she quietly breathed a sigh of relief as well.

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