Chapter 102: The Curtain Falls

As she walked over, her petite stature slowly increased, transforming into a mature woman in seconds.

Then, her skin split as motes of light sprinkled out, quickly bathing her in a screen of holy energy and obscuring her from the viewers' eyes.

It couldn't be helped—bone spurs jutted from her elbows, shoulder blades, and calves. They tore at her clothes, and if not for the obscuring light, her body would have been unduly exposed.

"What do you know? This girl's bloodline makes for a perfect vessel. This seat should thank Dawnson when the chance presents itself," said the woman.

No, at the moment, she was Asmir, the lord of the stronghold.

If things went according to Dawnson's plans, this girl's body would have been destroyed by the energy from the minor realm fragment back then.

It's just that they hadn't accounted for Hiro's innate divine ability of gluttony that canceled out the fuse between demonic essence and the energy contained within the fragment.

By the time Asmir arrived, all she had to do was use her laws of causality to restrain the minor realm fragment with the properties of Hiro's innate divine ability.

Although she couldn't investigate said power because of the system's concealment features, she could make use of it.

It took some time, but she later extracted the influence of the minor realm fragment from the girl's body. Then, although cruel, Asmir refined her body into a vessel for the projected clone.

This race of demons went extinct precisely because their bloodline made them into perfect power vessels, especially for those who fear death.

Asmir didn't fear death, but she didn't wish to arrive in the nick of time when her stronghold was on the verge of collapse either.

Between the life of a stranger and her countless years of effort, the choice was simple.

Thus, Asmir didn't even bother with worthless threats and empty talks.

She gently raised a hand and lowered it.

Buzz!

Thin threads—millions of them—crisscrossed into the void, filling the stronghold's airspace and alleyways.

"Not good!"

It was unknown who shouted, but it didn't matter. With a flip of Asmir's palm, the situation took a drastic change.

As faith energy poured down from the sky and onto the stronghold, divine energy shone brilliantly to reinforce the countless strings.

All damage done to the stronghold from the start of this long war seemed to fade gradually at an accelerated pace.

The demon generals and the heads of the Great Demon families found themselves locked onto by a thread each, and this thread connected to the intricate network mapping out the entire stronghold.

They dashed away, entered temporary subspace, and attacked the threads—it was useless.

The more damage was restored from the stronghold, the stronger the sense of foreboding each of them felt.

Asmir watched them scurrying chaotically through the sky with cold indifference.

Her lowered palm squeezed into a fist, and all of a sudden, the stronghold was robbed of all sound and color.

Darkness descended, and in the silence, flashes of golden light streaked across in the form of a golden web of threads.

Muffled explosions resounded in the darkness, accompanied by grunts of pain.

A while later, the veil of darkness was lifted.

The black raven, Paimon's mother, and the other two generals looked around them in a daze.

The stronghold returned to its state as though the entire war was but an illusion.

No buildings were damaged, no streets were destroyed—even the Demon Tower stood tall and erect without a scratch.

However, a beautiful nebula of blood and purplish-black miasma hung in the skies above the stronghold, a deep stench of blood carried by the wind.

The hand holding onto the umbrella shook uncontrollably as Paimon's mother surveyed the area. Then, after taking a deep breath, she left.

As it turned out, Lord Asmir wasn't sealed after all, and her clone obtained an independent body capable of independent thoughts. Explore stories at m,v l'e-NovelFire.net

What a joke, what a joke…

…

Bzzt!

A huge portal opened inside Asmir's library, and her true body walked out. Her white fur was drenched in blood, but it wasn't her own.

Hiro walked out from the same portal, followed by an unconscious Dawnson who was impaled on the bone sword. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠeFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The moment the portal closed, Hiro canceled off the synchronization while switching up the cosmetics on his body.

Noticing the sharp decline in the aura, Asmir turned to look. With a thud, Hiro fell to both knees, propping himself up with both hands while gasping.

Asmir frowned. It seemed like this method of projecting power onto another's body had a detrimental effect on Hiro's body.

However, when she thought about it, this also made sense. After thinking for a moment, her nine tails swished over, a wave of energy carried the incapacitated Dawnson as their figures disappeared.

She didn't say anything to Hiro, leaving him behind to rest.

After Asmir left, Hiro relaxed his body and went to lie down on the floor, his limbs spread eagle, and his eyes staring upward.

A few minutes later, Hiro closed his eyes and his consciousness drifted. Since he was expected to rest, he would do just that.

…

Simulation Space, Draconia.

The moment Hiro opened his eyes, what greeted him was a horde of monsters trampling over the residents of a small town.

Hiro's character, Diego, was overseeing the brutal display while standing on a high hill in the distance.

He wasn't alone, though.

The current vice-leader of his guild—a third-rate guild—stood in front of him.

A host of guild members were with them, and all of them watched the onslaught silently while waiting for their orders.

"Should we make our move now? I can't bear to watch this massacre unfold," one of the guild members said, his knuckles turning white.

"It's useless even if we go now," Hiro immediately rejected the idea. "The second-rate guilds are on their way, and dealing with the monsters is their mission. Our mission is to evacuate the people when the fighting is in full swing, not to attack prematurely and serve as worthless sacrifices."

"Is your heart made of stone, Diego?!" Shouted that guild member, about to draw his sword and attack right there and then.

Hiro didn't even bother looking at him.

Was his heart made of stone? Possibly.

His objective in this game was to overthrow the human rule, anyway. Furthermore, he understood that this was all but a simulated fantasy.

He couldn't be bothered with growing attached to these people anymore.

It was difficult at first, but his heart was slowly growing numb. No matter how realistic these people, creatures, and worlds were. At the end of the day, they were just a fantasy.

At times, Hiro wondered if his entire transmigration was also a deeper fantasy orchestrated by the system.

However, those thoughts wouldn't get him anywhere, so Hiro didn't bother with them.

As things stood, it wouldn't take long before Asmir helped him establish his footing in the Demon Realm, even if it was the empty position of a Stronghold Lord under her name.

Hiro wanted to swim in his thoughts for a moment when he felt a shift in the air currents around his body.

Before he could react, he felt a fist smashing into his left cheek, snapping him from his daze.

Bang!

A muffled sound of air exploding rang out as Hiro was launched back from the punch, his body crashing into a huge boulder to the side.

Hiro shook his head, feeling as though he could see stars. Then, he spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed in blood, slowly extracting himself from the blunder.

Crack! Crack!

Hiro shook his shoulders and snapped his neck back in place, then moved his hand to fix his dislocated jaw.

"Ugh," Hiro groaned, opened and closed his mouth, then sighed in relief. "That hurt a little, I saw my life flashing through my eyes for a moment back there."

Seeing the man about to lose his mind, the vice-leader extended a hand and spoke in an authoritative voice, "Enough! Diego is looking after the bigger picture, that's all! You don't need to feel so agitated."

Hiro understood the vice leader's intentions and didn't mind playing the devil's advocate in this situation.

He said while stretching, "You can jump into the fray now, save maybe a dozen more people before you die. Then, hundreds more will die in the chaos of the great battle that will follow… Or, let them go through this tribulation of life or death on their own, and focus on your mission.

Their lives aren't your responsibility, your life is, and our lives are the vice-leader's responsibility. You can act bravely but not rashly, you can act willfully but not irresponsibly, you can sacrifice yourself for your cause but don't drag your friends and family with you. That's just selfish."

After he finished talking, Hiro touched his lower jaw and smiled. "Mhm, my mouth isn't broken after all. I don't like being long-winded, but I had to make sure I haven't lost out much from that punch, comrade."

The vice-leader nodded approvingly after hearing what Hiro had to say. This way, no one will blame him or call him cold-hearted for not helping.

He decided to promote Hiro to become his right-hand man in the future. Such talent would be wasted in the lower-ranked squadrons of the guild.