Chapter 921 - 920: The One [Golden Gachapon Bonus - ]

[A/N: This bonus Chapter is thanks to OfcSoccer4]

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The ground beneath Simon’s cheek kept sinking.

He could hear it breaking beside his ear, layer after layer, without a single fragment rising from the ground. Even the blood he had spat out lay flattened against the rock.

Lilith remained standing.

But her shoulders had stiffened, and her lips were pressed tightly together. Being a spirit had not spared her. The gaze reached something in her that the absence of flesh could not protect.

Simon’s eyes widened further.

He had never encountered such pressure, or an aura that made his soul recoil so violently.

Not in this life. Not in the one before it.

Sweat streamed down his forehead and soaked his body. Veins rose across his temples, neck, and arms, spreading over muscles that strained so hard they began to spasm.

He drove demonic energy through his shoulders.

’Get up.’

His Prime Forged Heart hammered.

’GET UP!’

The cube flashed again.

However... his chest did not leave the ground.

He was a Prime Greater Demon. Two Daemon bloodlines had reshaped his body, raising his physical prowess close to that of a Minor Demon King.

And he could not get up.

He could not even draw his knees beneath himself.

There had been no exchange of blows. Nothing he could evade or parry. He was being looked at, and the body he had nearly died to obtain could not endure it.

Simon stared at the ground, unable to accept what his body was telling him.

Even a god standing before him in their true body would not have made him feel this helpless. Not after everything that had just changed within him.

He knew there were beings above gods.

He had known that before those eyes appeared.

Knowing it had prepared him for nothing.

Fearless was still there. He reached for it again, desperately, but its resistance changed nothing. Terror continued pouring through him.

Who was looking at him?

How far away was that being?

Was this an attack? Had it even begun trying to kill him?

He could find no answer. Only the dreadful feeling that standing was something he had no right to attempt before whatever watched him from that unfathomable distance.

His teeth began chattering.

Simon clenched them until his jaw hurt.

’I’m going to die.’

The thought drove him into another useless struggle.

He could not lie and die here. He could not wait quietly for the next moment, hoping it would somehow be different.

Using everything he could muster, he dragged his cheek across the stone until Lilith entered the edge of his vision.

"WHAT IS THAT?"

The roar scraped his throat raw.

Lilith looked down.

"Who owns those eyes? Tell me what I have to do!"

His voice cracked. He swallowed blood and forced more air into his lungs.

"Tell me how to survive!"

Lilith’s lips moved, but no answer came.

Simon saw the hesitation.

Something hot and ugly surged through his fear.

"LILITH!"

His whole body strained with the shout. A vein burst near his temple.

"I can’t move! I can’t even get off the fucking ground! What are you waiting for?"

She flinched at his expression.

"Don’t stand there and watch me die!"

For a moment, Lilith stared at him.

Then a deep sigh escaped her. She raised her eyes toward the sky, her expression turning solemn.

"The being watching us is called The One."

BOOM!!!

The pressure surged.

Simon’s ribs ground against the stone. A wet sound escaped his mouth as the air was forced out of him.

Above them, the enormous pupils adjusted.

They had already been looking at him.

Now their attention sharpened, fixing upon him with a precision that made his soul convulse. Then the black centres shifted slightly toward Lilith’s position.

Her expression changed.

She went very still.

Simon struggled through several shallow breaths before he could force out another question.

"Who... is The One?"

Lilith looked back at him.

That small pause was enough.

"Tell me!" he growled. "Unless you want me dead, tell me!"

"You don’t understand what you are asking."

"Then make me understand!"

"If I tell you, this will become far worse." Her voice tightened. "Your chances of dying will increase exponentially."

Simon stared at her.

Sweat and blood ran into his eyes. He could not lift a hand to wipe it away.

"And what can I do now?"

Lilith said nothing.

"Look at me! What can I do like this?"

His lips drew back from bloodied teeth.

"Tell me."

Lilith’s fists closed.

She held his gaze as she spoke.

"The One is the strongest being in existence."

Suddenly, Simon coughed out a mouthful of blood.

BANG!

His left arm burst.

BANG!

And his left leg followed almost immediately.

The sound reached him with the pain, but what tore through him was far worse than the destruction of his flesh.

His soul was being damaged.

So was his sea of consciousness.

Body.

Soul.

Mind.

The pressure reached all three at once, and Simon screamed as agony ripped through places no ruined limb should have been able to touch.

He tried to raise his head, but he could not even raise it up to an inch.

His scream broke against the ground. Blood spread beneath his chest, filling the shallow spaces where his limbs had been.

Flesh stirred at the torn edges, trying to knit together.

The pressure crushed it again.

Lilith’s fingers trembled inside her clenched fists. A shudder passed through her spirit, and for a moment she had to force her shoulders straight.

She was still standing.

It was becoming harder.

"Blackmoon-"

[Keep talking.]

The guttural voice sounded directly in her mind.

Lilith froze.

She looked down at him, the warning already forming on her lips.

Then she saw his eyes.

Red. Bloodied. Wide with a terror he could no longer conceal.

He had not become calm. His lips still shook, and the muscles in his remaining arm kept contracting in useless attempts to push him up.

But he was looking at her.

Waiting.

He had lost two limbs to her answer, and he was still demanding the next one.

[Continue!]

Lilith swallowed the words she had been about to say.

"He is the strongest being in the universe," she said. "There is no one who can oppose him."

The stone beneath Simon compressed further.

"I was called a generational talent. Even at my strongest, I was nothing to him."

Her fists tightened until her trembling fingers could close no further.

"The One is a monster, Blackmoon. He is the true enemy of Daemons."

Something changed around them.

Simon’s spatial affinity felt it before his eyes could make sense of the sight.

Space was bending.

A fracture in the ground curved without either side of the stone moving. Lilith seemed to recede, then draw close again, though her feet had not shifted.

The distance between them was being distorted.

Above the basin, the violet eyes watched.

There was an emotion in them now.

Curiosity.

The pupils moved between Simon and Lilith, lingering upon each as the surrounding space continued to buckle.

Simon tried to pull his surviving arm closer.

BANG!

The pressure took it before he could move.

His right leg burst a moment later.

Blood flooded his mouth. He tried to scream again, but only a choking sound came out.

All six of his wings were damaged and they remained flattened against the stone. His torso shuddered between them, and fresh wounds opened across his back as another wave of agony struck his soul.

His sea of consciousness reeled.

For several moments, he could not hold a complete thought.

Lilith’s figure blurred.

He lost sight of her, found her again, then felt another mouthful of blood spill over his lips.

Was he still breathing?

He could not tell.

His heart was beating. He clung to that sensation, struggling to gather enough awareness to reach her.

[How...]

The thought scattered.

He forced it together again.

[How do I survive?]

Lilith lowered her gaze to him.

Her hands were trembling openly now.

"The answer is inside you."

Simon stared at her through the blood.

Inside him?

His thoughts stumbled over the words. He could barely distinguish the pain in his body from the damage spreading through his soul.

What was she telling him to find?

Then his heart contracted again.

Within it, beneath the overwhelming pressure, two completed seeds still thrummed.

A flicker passed through his bloodied eyes.

The confusion gave way to understanding.

The seeds of sin were the answer.