Chapter Twenty-Six: Dubuyi Eryndale

Beside them, the young witch Meru Elindale muttered softly under her breath.

At the doorway, the demon Enzo also sensed something amiss. His expression darkened as he spoke to Carlos, whose forehead mark was now radiating a crimson glow: “Boy, what are you doing!”

Carlos clung to Enzo’s arm draped over his shoulder like an immovable magnet. His fair and handsome features were now contorted with bulging veins, and his already dark eyes began to dilate. At a glance, one could easily mistake his eyes for being completely consumed by darkness, as if his eyeballs had been inked black—so deep and unfathomable it inspired fear.

Black streams of aura, visible to the naked eye, surged from the demon Enzo’s body and coalesced into a dark, vaporous tether that continuously poured from his arm into Carlos’s shoulder.

Enzo trembled violently, staring at Carlos in shock, his voice nearly despairing as he cried, “I… you… this is a devouring-type demon art! Let go, let go now!”

The dark energy surged endlessly into Carlos’s body.

This eerie spectacle left the dwarf Maclin and the elf Vivian utterly stunned.

At that moment, a towering figure joined the gathering at the door.

The half-orc Cook gaped, his thick lips twitching twice before he stammered, “Excuse me, but what on earth is happening here?”

Vivian’s lashes fluttered as she shook her head blankly. “I think the demon is begging for mercy!”

The dwarf knight sucked in a cold breath and nodded stiffly. “It seems that demon commander is pleading, ‘Please, let go!’ But his hand was gripping the human boy’s shoulder for dear life, not the other way around.”

Cook yelped, “What, a demon commander?”

His words were cut short as someone kicked him hard in the calf from behind.

Dubuyi appeared behind him, sending Cook stumbling aside with a solid kick before squeezing forward, his face grave. “This is bad! Separate them—otherwise, the demon will be drained dry, and Carlos might explode from the surge of power!”

Cook bared his teeth. “But how do we separate them?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Just pull them apart,” Dubuyi snapped, his beard twitching with impatience.

Cook hesitated, taking two uneasy steps forward. Carlos was now shrouded in swirling black mist, his body steaming as if drenched and then instantly evaporated by immense heat—a sight that was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

Even more disturbing was the demon, whose entire body shook as though he’d been sieved, his skin shriveling before their eyes.

The bizarre scene left everyone in the room utterly shaken, especially Cook, who was being urged by Dubuyi to intervene. The half-orc’s heart pounded with fear; he would sooner return to the Rodney Mountains and face a hundred mutant beasts than lay a finger on these two figures wreathed in darkness.

“What are you dawdling for?” Dubuyi the alchemist shouted from behind. Cook was about to protest when someone gave him another sharp shove.

Caught off guard, Cook’s attempt to turn around faltered, and he lost his balance, stumbling forward.

With a heavy thud, the hulking half-orc crashed between Carlos and the demon Enzo.

His massive bulk barreled through the black tether linking their arms and shoulders, knocking Enzo’s arm askew and breaking his grip on Carlos’s shoulder.

Instantly, the black energy lost its conduit.

Carlos staggered but managed to steady himself, the inky aura still clinging to him, while the red glow from his forehead mark faded away.

Enzo, meanwhile, could no longer hold himself upright. His now-withered face turned ashen as he spat out a mouthful of black blood, reeling back six or seven steps before managing to stand.

Dubuyi stepped forward, frowning at Carlos’s dazed expression. “Seems like some kind of bloodline has been triggered. The darkness in him is too overwhelming. Dwarf knight, come and help purify him with a light spell.”

Without a word, Maclin moved to support Carlos, placing a steadying hand on his back and beginning to cast his light. It was his first time witnessing such a terrifying outpouring of dark energy.

Golden, gentle halos radiated from his palms, gradually cleansing and dispersing the dark aura from Carlos’s body.

Seeing Carlos recover, Dubuyi, the old man, turned with a wrathful glare to Enzo, who was clutching his arm in pain. “So you were the one who made that contract with the little witch in the Rodney Forest. A demon commander, hiding within a young witch’s pact—clearly, your designs on my student were deep indeed.”

With that, the old man strode toward Enzo, every step causing the very air around him to shudder, as if the fabric of space itself was tearing at his presence.

Enzo’s face was sullen as he glanced at Dubuyi in surprise, then sneered, “I am of the Undead Demon clan. You cannot kill me. Now that the boy has awakened the bloodline of the Demon’s Heir—follower of the Dark God—let him come with me. If humans discover his secret, they will never accept him.”

Dubuyi barked, “Damnable, filthy denizen of the underworld, don’t spout your nonsense here. Carlos is human, not one of your kind. Demon’s Heir, indeed—I see no such thing, and you will never see anything again.”

Enzo bared white teeth in a mocking grin, his shriveled skin like that of a suddenly aged man. “You wish to kill me? No, you can’t. I am of the Undead Demon line—unless a High Priest of Light is present, I cannot die.”

Dubuyi’s bearded face betrayed no emotion.

“Unfortunately, this time, you are mistaken, foul demon.”

As he spoke, the space around him began to warp. Without moving, the old man seemed to exist simultaneously in another dimension—like a solitary snowman statue standing motionless in a snowfield.

Yet to those outside his sphere, it was as if they suffered from blurred vision: Dubuyi’s unmoving figure twisted and rippled like a human-shaped ribbon.

This was the true secret of the alchemist—the power to manipulate space itself.

With a thunderous crash, the center of the witch’s chamber seemed to collapse into a gaping hole, dust billowing everywhere. When the smoke cleared, Enzo had vanished into nothingness, as if he had evaporated from the world.

Meru Elindale sat stunned on the floor, for she could no longer sense the faintest trace of her contracted demon.

Enzo, demon of the Undead clan, was truly gone. She hadn’t even seen how the old alchemist had done it.

The spatial distortion around Dubuyi faded. He turned toward the crestfallen young witch, fixing her with a stern glare. “Meru, I told you before—never leave this room, and I will deal with the demon contract.”

Meru Elindale slumped. “Grandfather, I was wrong!”

Dubuyi Elindale sighed heavily, his face full of helplessness. The ever-stern old alchemist gazed at his granddaughter’s aggrieved expression—so willing to be a witch—and felt as though his head would split from exasperation.