Kane’s eyes widened like copper bells, his face filled with shock.
A woman’s severed right hand floated eerily in the darkness, as if suspended by invisible strings—more horrifying than a blood-curdling scream, more grotesque than a cursed corpse from a rural ghost tale.
“What the hell is this? Some kind of dismemberment magic?”
Kane muttered in confusion.
He tried to step closer for a better look.
But the moment he took a single step forward, the severed hand suddenly lifted.
In that instant, Kane felt as though he’d been locked onto by a gaze—cold, merciless, and brimming with murderous intent.
A chill ran down his spine, and his heart skipped a beat.
Before he could react—
The floating hand shot forward like a lightning-fast arrow loose from a bowstring.
It streaked through the darkness and slammed into Kane’s chest with brutal force.
His body jerked uncontrollably—bang—and he was sent flying.
With darkness all around him, Kane couldn’t even tell how far he flew.
All he knew was the force of that blow had nearly knocked the breath out of him.
He tumbled over and over on the unseen ground.
When he finally came to a stop, struggling to prop himself up, what greeted his eyes was that same right hand lunging straight at him.
“Shit!”
Kane cursed out loud and turned to flee without a second thought.
But just as he was about to break into a sprint, the blackened ground beneath his feet turned muddy, and in the very next second, several pitch-black tendrils materialized out of nowhere, coiling tightly around his limbs and immobilizing him.
And maybe he was just overthinking it, but… the way these tendrils were binding him looked suspiciously like shibari.
What the hell is wrong with this hand?!
Kane cursed in his mind, when suddenly he felt something softly stroking his cheek.
His heart skipped a beat and his adrenaline spiked violently. He shuddered and looked up.
The long, pale hand was there, seemingly staring right at his face. (Though, hands don’t have eyes—so why did it feel like it was staring at him?)
Kane’s lips twitched. “You…”
—Crack!
He’d barely gotten a word out when the tendrils tightened all at once.
His breath hitched.
The world spun.
And just like that, Kane passed out.
……
[Training session complete.]
[EXP gained: 0]
[Skill acquired: Cleanse Magic Lv1.]
“Ah, ah, ah—damn, damn, I really thought I was going to die just now.”
Kane jolted awake beneath a crooked tree in the forest.
His back was covered in dirt and fallen leaves, and cold sweat the size of soybeans dotted his forehead.
Panting heavily, he quickly checked his arms and legs—and also his “fifth limb”—to confirm everything was still intact and functional.
Only after reassuring himself that he could still bring happiness to Enya did he collapse back against the tree trunk and exhale in relief.
“I almost died… no, wait—I did die just now…”
Or rather, he died in training mode.
As Kane recalled the events that had just happened in the darkness, he felt a deep, instinctual revulsion as if his very soul had been twisted.
That thing definitely wasn’t something meant to exist in the light.
It was something wholly evil—dark, twisted, and utterly abominable.
His sixth sense was screaming warnings at him.
“But at least there’s some good news…”
The system plugin had finally activated for real.
Kane glanced at the training session’s end screen.
He hadn’t gained any experience points, and the new spell was the most auxiliary of auxiliary magic but still, it proved that the path to getting stronger was valid.
The only uncontrollable variable… was that woman’s severed hand.
Still, Kane did have a lead on where it might’ve come from.
“The training mode triggered after I touched the relic. And inside the Angel’s Tear… was the corpse of the Demon King…”
“Tch, could it be… that hand belongs to the Immortal Demon King?”
“But it’s a woman’s hand… then again, no one ever said whether the Immortal Demon King was male or female.”
“And if there’s only a hand left, maybe it doesn’t matter…”
“No, no, no. She’s called the Immortal Demon King for a reason. You can’t kill her. That’s why the First Hero had to seal her remains inside a holy relic in the first place.”
“So wait… did I break the seal on the Immortal Demon King? No, that can’t be right. If the seal were broken, even if it was just a hand, I’d be dead ten times over.”
Conclusion: he’d probably been possessed by the Immortal Demon King.
“Damn it all, how did I end up so far from the peaceful farming life I dreamed of?”
Kane clawed at his head in frustration.
Ever since Enya’s yandere side was revealed, things had been going downhill for Kane.
He’d clearly managed to dodge all the death flags so far.
By all logic, shouldn’t everything be smooth sailing now?
Everyone happy, headed for a bright and beautiful future?
This made no sense!
“Judging by the sky, it’s almost four o’clock. Should I head back first?”
Kane looked up at the gloomy sky, uncertain of what to do.
He’d finally found a way to grow stronger, but he couldn’t feel the least bit happy about it.
The Immortal Demon King—just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.
That kind of existence was way beyond the league of a low-tier villain like him.
Maybe he should just pretend it never happened?
It’s not like anyone else knew.
But… this rare chance to grow stronger…
As Kane hesitated in frustration, he spotted the coin pouch Taliya had given him earlier, now lying quietly on the ground.
In that moment, a surge of determination began to stir within him.
Without strength, he was nothing but a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
He’d finally gotten his hands on a way to become stronger, and here he was hesitating like a spineless coward—what a disgrace.
Kane let out a deep breath and gave himself two sharp slaps across the face, psyching himself up.
“Since I’ve already been parasitized, I might as well make the most of it.”
So what if that hand really did belong to the Immortal Demon King?
At the end of the day, it was just a severed hand, a relic of the past destined to become the stepping stone on his path to power.
There’s no such thing as useless magic, only useless mages.
So what if it’s just Cleanse Magic?
If it can grow stronger, then that means he can grow stronger too.
Fine, then. He’d set his sights on becoming the world’s number one Cleanse Magic Master.
Let’s make good use of you, Immortal Demon King.
“Deep Blue, let’s go again!”
Kane re-entered the training mode.
……
While Kane was busy squeezing the Immortal Demon King for all she was worth—
Over at the black market, Taliya was being furiously lectured by her guardian spirit Mengmeng, a barefoot, red-eyed, white-haired BB Machine exactly 66.6 cm tall, currently swearing up a storm.
“Taliya, you’re seriously gonna be the death of me! Running off on your own was bad enough, but now you’ve gone and lost the Angel’s Tear?! What, you wanna get chewed out by that dead-fish-eyed old hag, or do you want the whole world to be destroyed?!”
“Do you have any idea how many people out there would kill to get their hands on a relic that seals the Immortal Demon King?”
“If the seal’s been broken, what are you gonna do about it, huh?!”
Two swords, one black and one white, hovered in midair, clanging repeatedly against Taliya’s head from either side.
Taliya squatted on the ground with both hands over her head, shouting defiantly:
“It’s been sealed for over six hundred years. How could it possibly get unsealed in such a short time?!”
“Besides, I trust my instincts! Anyone with a voice that is cute has to be a good girl!”
“If she found the Angel’s Tear, I know she’ll bring it back to me.”
“And could you please stop hitting my head?! You’re gonna knock all the smarts out of me!”
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