A Demon's Heart

"Commander Deon!"

Lieutenant Reana's agitated roar woke Deon up from his stupor. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly reopened them.

When his eyes were open once again, both Rian and Derek felt deep chills throughout their bodies. They took multiple steps back and stared at Deon warily.

The confusion and shock in his gaze had vanished, all that remained was a cold set of eyes without any emotion binding their owner.

'What happened, he's like a totally different person!' Rian gasped internally, unable to comprehend how someone could change their entire demeanour so rapidly!

She was unaware that right now, Deon had forcefully cut off his emotions, cut off his sentiment, suppressing any feelings at all, leaving only cold hard logic behind.

Originally, a certain emotion had surged in Deon's heart when he saw these two, but for now, he suppressed this feeling…

He wanted to understand this properly.

'Clearly, this is deliberate. Blood God must have released these two from earth a moment before the inheritance trial was destroyed. But why? What does he want me to do with them? Kill them? Let them live? Or do they have some other use? But most importantly…is it just them, or are there any others?'

Deon looked up emotionlessly, then with a plain expression, he said to the pair:

"If you answer my question properly and concisely, without any bullshit, then I won't kill you."

The pair shivered and couldn't even respond. This child demon before them, spoke of killing as if it was nothing, as if their lives meant nothing to him!

"Tell me…were there any others from earth that transmigrated to the spirit continent, or is it just the two of you?"

Both Derek and Rian forgot their fear towards Deon for a moment as they felt like lightning was exploding through their minds. They were thoroughly shook to the core, because Deon had just casually revealed that he was aware of their transmigration!

This was their deepest secret, something they had never dared to share with anyone else!

"How do you-" Derek started speaking, but Deon didn't want to waste time here.

"Either answer the question now, or die." Deon cut him off coldly.

Derek swallowed and stopped speaking. Feeling the gravity of the situation, Rian quickly spoke up.

"There were 22 of us in all, only 4 of us are remaining…"

"18 out of 22 died? That's a terrible survival rate…" Deon muttered with a frown, again feeling like this scheme of Blood God's was far too strange.

"Tell me the names of the other two." Deon ordered them to say more, giving no room for refusal.

"N-No!" Derek exclaimed. Seeing Deon's cold glare turn towards him, Derek hastily added:

"I won't sell our friends out if you plan to hurt them!"

Deon expected as much from his old best friend. Although his memories of Derek were blurry, after reuniting, his was beginning to recall the past…

"You have 5 seconds to talk or I'll kill Rian first." Deon spoke calmly, his words not at all matching his plain expression.

His childhood friend shivered all across his body. After glancing at the hesitating Rian, Derek grit his teeth, then hatefully spat out:

"Sarah Jose and Keith Jose. They are the only other survivors from earth…"

"Seriously?" Deon's eyes widened in shock as his heart shook with a certain feeling once again. He quickly suppressed this feeling and frowned.

'There's no way that's a coincidence, but how could Blood God possibly have known that out of 22 people, the four whom were the closest to me would be the ones to survive?' Deon frowned as he furrowed his brows.

"Commander Deon, is everything alright, do you need assistance?"

Hearing Lieutenant Reana's anxious voice calling down to him from the camp walls, Deon realised that he had taken too long here, this would look strange and suspicious if he remained any longer.

Without a word, he turned around and walked away, leaving Derek and Rian staring blankly at his departing back.

"You're leaving?" Rian didn't know why, but she called out to him as he departed. However, Deon didn't so much as look back.

After returning to the camp walls, Deon brushed over his strange actions just now, then quickly changed the topic by describing the battles he had encountered at the other battlefields. Lieutenant Reana paled and forgot all about this small matter, agreeing that since Deon had the ability and was shockingly now a 2-Star shaman, he needed to head to the next camp, the 49th unit.

Just moments after Deon ran off into the distance, Rian suddenly realised something, startling Derek when she spoke her thoughts out loud.

"Did she say that his name is…Deon?"

Deon pondered over everything that had just happened as he ran quietly across the mountainous terrain towards the next camp.

That intense emotion in his heart still lingered. As for the nature of this emotion, the feeling that Deon felt towards the loved ones from his old life…

Was it love? Was it compassion? Would Deon turn over a new leaf, would he realise that he still cared for these people?

No.

The only emotion in Deon's heart was killing intent.

Deon had once deeply cared for his friends, Derek and Rian. As for his parents, whom also seemed to be alive and well on the spirit continent…he had genuinely loved them back when he was living on earth.

And now, the fact that these people still existed in this world caused Deon to feel a sense of disgust. It was as if he could see the feelings he had once held, reminding him of the emotional shackles that had once bound him…

Deon was a person that valued his freedom. Freedom from the world, and freedom from himself.

So now, Deon wanted nothing more than to slaughter all of those individuals who he had once cared for!

But for now, he did not do so.

"Blood God probably wanted me to temper my demonic heart, but there are issues with this…I don't know what he wants me to do. Does he want me to kill the people from my past, cutting off all emotional ties? Or is it the case that he wants me to become indifferent to these people, letting them live simply because they are irrelevant and should not sway my actions?"

Deon frowned as he thought of a another possibility.

"Perhaps these people have some other use, other than as a tool to temper my demonic heart…"

Deon shook his head. He felt like this was a possibility, but he couldn't guess further than this.

"Anyway, even if Blood God wants me to handle this situation in a certain way, I don't really want to do as Blood God planned, to be honest."

After pondering some more, Deon continued to mutter to himself.

"To think that I could still feel such useless personal emotions…"

Deon often felt killing intent towards others, but this was nothing personal. He felt killing intent because he loved to battle and kill, he never killed because of hate.

After going through the underworld trial, after enduring countless gruelling challenges, after dying time and time again, through pain and failure, eventually emerging and returning to the world of the living…

Deon no longer felt things such as love and hate.

But now, this killing intent he felt was entirely personal. Even though the emotion he felt towards those people from his past was no longer love and affection, he was bothered by the fact that any sort of personal emotional connection remained between himself and others.

Deon would do whatever it took in order to liberate himself from these useless emotional shackles…but for now, he would not act.

"Regardless of everything else, this is clearly part of Blood God's scheme. It's possible that killing them might trigger some other plot that Blood God left behind…"

One day, he would kill those four people. Even if Blood God wanted Deon to leave them alive, Deon would not let them live forever.

But until Deon understood Blood God's intention, he would not act carelessly.

In the first place, Deon did not trust Blood God in the least!

All that Deon knew about Blood God came from the information he had left behind about himself, such information was biased at best, and completely fabricated at worst.

Just why did Blood God leave behind an inheritance? What did he want from his inheritor? Did he truly just wish to screw over the spirit continent by creating a terrible demon to take his place after his death, spreading slaughter and misery throughout the world?

For now, Deon could not be certain. Suddenly meeting people from his old life had really caught him off guard, he wanted to consider this properly before doing anything about it.

After deciding to push the matter of dealing with his past acquaintances aside for now, Deon fell into contemplation about himself, and about his demonic path.

Being a demon was not easy, contrary to the disdainful views of the righteous. Many righteous path shamans believed that demons were simply compassionless and sociopathic people, evil by nature and choosing to embrace degeneracy and greed. In truth, Deon also believed this to be somewhat true, at least for himself. However, it wasn't quite so simple.

"Perhaps being a demon isn't about being a compassionless individual…it's about having the resolve to ruthlessly cut off those useless feelings. Well, that's one interpretation I suppose, it's not like all demonic path shamans are the same."

Some individuals truly were just twisted degenerates, whilst others were indeed emotionless sociopaths. These were extreme examples though, and most of these people had something wrong with their brains. The majority of demons felt emotion, but many chose to knowingly go against their own hearts, thus transforming their heart into something very different.

The righteous pursued their morals and used this to strengthen their heart. The demonic actively went against their own moral compass, treading on their own heart and strengthening their resolve to walk this gruelling path.

As for Deon…

Deon smiled slightly.

"What is so painful about being a demon? The difficulties of life are the most enjoyable things in this world! Hahaha, Blood God, you're truly a bastard, but I can't deny that you have made my life quite interesting!"