Chapter 65: The Legend of the Black Air Fryer

You ever sleep early, thinking you'll finally wake up feeling refreshed?

Then morning comes, and somehow you're still late.

Like, bro, I gave you EIGHT HOURS. What more do you want? A personal invitation from the sun? 😭

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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Hifumi watched the boy, his expression one of curated indifference, though his eyes remained sharp. Ethan had fallen silent, his face twisting as he tried to calculate the sudden chaos of his situation. To any observer, he looked like a deer caught in headlights, but Hifumi saw the gears turning.

He can do it, Hifumi mused, his gaze sweeping over Ethan's fragile frame. He could wipe all ten of those insects from existence if he truly wished. But not with that pathetic excuse for a body. To do it, he would have to invite the Heavenly Demon to the surface.

A faint, calculated smile touched Hifumi's lips. If Ethan simply unleashed that power and slaughtered the attackers on his own, Hifumi would lose his leverage. He wouldn't have a reason to be a benefactor; he would just be another witness. But by stepping in now, by offering a helping hand while Ethan was drowning in hesitation and desperation, he had created a debt.

Who in their right mind rejects a lifeline when they are at their lowest?

It had been a masterstroke of timing. By positioning himself as a savior, Hifumi hadn't just secured a favor—he had bought a front-row seat to the Heavenly Demon's awakening. He intended to use this proximity to make a request that Ethan would find impossible to refuse.

Beside him, Ran clicked her tongue in irritation, her hands planting firmly on her hips. She glared at Hifumi, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Damn it, she thought, her jaw tightening. I had a perfectly good plan to stay hidden in the bushes and watch this unfold. Then this pretentious squint-eyed opportunist just slides in out of nowhere.

She shifted her weight, her muscles coiled like a spring. The realization hit her that Hifumi wasn't just helping; he was poaching.

Is he trying to recruit him too?

The idea made her blood boil. If Hifumi was trying to swoop in and claim the boy for his own ends, she would have to shut that down fast. She cast another glance at Ethan, her instincts screaming at her. Beneath the stuttering, the confusion, and the utter lack of presence, there was something else. Something overwhelming. Something absolute.

He’s hiding something incredible, Ran realized, her smirk returning, though this time it was edged with a competitive hunger. And there's no way in hell I'm letting this blue-suited 16:9 Aspect Ratio guy get to him first.

"Do it," Hifumi commanded, his voice as cold and precise as a surgeon's blade.

Ethan blinked, his expression completely blank. "Do... what?"

Hifumi didn't offer a detailed explanation. He simply cast a sideways glance at the boy, his eyes narrowing. "Summon the Heavenly Demon."

Ethan flinched as if he’d been slapped, his shoulders hiking up toward his ears. He immediately looked down at the grass, his breathing becoming shallow and erratic, as if trying to physically hide the secret buried deep within his consciousness.

Beside them, Ran froze. Her eyes widened, and for the first time, her aggressive confidence wavered into genuine bewilderment.

Heavenly... Demon?

She paused, her mind racing back to the old stories, the legends of the distant East and the bloody history of the martial arts world. Wait, is this like those Murim novels? What do they call that monster... the one that stands atop the peak of all madness?

Her eyes lit up as the memory clicked. Heavenly... De... Mon... Oh! I got it!

Cheonma.

The thought sent a sudden, violent shiver down her spine. The Cheonma wasn't just a title; it was a myth of absolute devastation. In the legends, the Heavenly Demon was the apex of all existence, a sovereign of darkness who stood atop a mountain of corpses, possessing power that could split the heavens and turn the earth to ash. It was a force of nature clothed in human skin, an entity that demanded total submission or total annihilation.

Ran looked at Ethan, then back at Hifumi. A look of confused realization dawned on her face.

But... summon? she wondered. What the hell does he mean by 'summon'?

An image flashed in her mind—a memory of a popular manhwa where a frail, weak boy had awakened a power that allowed him to command a literal army of the dead. She pictured a figure draped in shifting shadows, eyes glowing with an eerie, otherworldly light, surrounded by thousands of obsidian-armored soldiers rising from the ground in a tide of darkness.

Is he some kind of high-level Necromancer? she wondered, her excitement peaking. Is he really that kind of monster?

Ran shook her head violently, as if trying to knock the image of an undead army out of her skull. "Whoa, chill. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's just see what this person actually packing first," she muttered, though her eyes remained locked on Ethan with a predatory intensity.

Hifumi shifted his weight, his expression one of carefully curated boredom. "The pertinent question remains: do you possess actual agency over this power? Or was that incident in the gate merely a fortuitous accident—a clumsy fluke of fate?" He tilted his head, studying Ethan as if he were a particularly dull specimen in a biology lab. "In my homeland, we frequently encounter 'late bloomers.' Individuals who awaken their latent abilities through sheer happenstance, or perhaps because a surge of primal terror hits them while they are staring into the abyss of their own demise."

Wait... homeland? Ethan thought, his brow furrowing. Where the hell is this guy even from? He glanced at Hifumi’s sharp, narrow eyes and the sheer aura of "I've never waited in a line in my life" radiating off him. Actually, with those eyes, he looks like he’s constantly judging my entire ancestral line for not being fancy enough. I feel like I’m being lectured by a very expensive piece of porcelain.

"I can bring it out," Ethan said, his voice regaining some stability "But... the backlash is crazy. It’s not exactly a 'press-a-button' kind of deal."

"I suspect as much," Hifumi replied, his tone suggesting that Ethan’s struggle was an expected, and rather tedious, detail.

Ethan took a deep breath and stepped forward. He stopped, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists until they trembled. He closed his eyes, centering himself, and let out a low, guttural whisper that seemed to vibrate the very marrow of his bones.

"Heavenly Demon."

For a heartbeat, the world went deathly silent. Then, reality snapped.

Searing black energy erupted from beneath Ethan’s boots, geysering upward in a violent, jagged column of shadow. The pressure intensified instantly, triggering a massive concussive blast of wind that flattened the grass for twenty yards in every direction.

"Ghh!" Ethan grunted, his body jolting as the energy surged through him like liquid fire. He gasped, his chest heaving. "I can feel it... the energy is growling... wait, no, that's definitely just my stomach. I really should've grabbed a snack."

Ran let out a sharp, audible gasp. The wind was no longer a breeze; it was a physical wall of force. "Holy—!" she yelled, her voice nearly swallowed by the roar. She dug her heels deep into the soil, her muscles bulging under her skin. She locked her abs into a rigid shield of iron, fighting with every fiber of her being just to keep from being blown away like a piece of scrap paper.

Around Ethan, the black energy didn't just hover; it coalesced into a rotating dome, a swirling whirlwind of obsidian shadow that shrieked with a primal, hungry intensity.

Hifumi, meanwhile, remained completely unfazed. He stood in the center of the chaos as if he were waiting for a carriage, his clothes barely fluttering in the gale.

"How dreadfully uncouth," Hifumi commented, eyeing the debris. "One must always exercise basic precautions."

With a casual, effortless flick of his finger, a shimmering, translucent barrier snapped into existence around the sleeping trio. The violent winds were instantly neutralized. Inside the bubble, the air became unnaturally still and cozy, the sudden silence acting as a sonic sedative that pushed Zane, Kaela, and Lindis even deeper into their blissful, drooling slumber.

The violent rotation of the dark whirlwind began to slow, the chaotic energy suddenly pulling inward, sipping back toward the center as if the void was inhaling. For a few seconds, Ethan was completely obscured by a dense, humanoid silhouette of shifting shadows. Then, with a thunderous boom that rattled the teeth of everyone present, the remaining energy blasted outward in a final, blinding shockwave.

The ground groaned and shuddered, cracks spider-webbing through the dirt beneath Ethan’s feet. As the dust settled, the figure was revealed.

---

[Author’s Note]

Ahem.

“Readers. I have gathered you here today for a matter of great importance.”

Adjusts imaginary glasses.

“After careful consideration, I have concluded that Ethan is an idiot.”

“Any objections?”

Silence.

“Excellent. You are all intelligent people.”

— Hifumi, probably.