The Damned Demon - Chapter 906: Watch Your Heart Bleed

Chapter 906: Watch Your Heart Bleed

Asher could feel it—his heart, thundering so violently it was as though it might tear free from his chest.

He had dreamed of this day for so many years that it felt unreal to see Derek Sterling—the Derek, the one who had ruined his past life, who had forced him to become something monstrous—die like an insect crushed underfoot.

But there was no satisfaction. No peace. Because the towering figure before him now was the true monster.

Not Derek the schemer.

Not Derek the tyrant.

But Derek ascended, the Immortal Sovereign, risen from a timeline Asher had only glimpsed in a nightmare.

And as he stood there on the cracked and trembling earth, Asher understood with chilling clarity: This was the one who had truly destroyed everything he had. The one who climbed atop everyone, and transcended mortality itself.

He knew there was no chance to win. No chance to hurt this creature, let alone kill it. Even standing here, his legs wanted to buckle under the weight of that colossal aura, of those cold eyes that regarded all life as less than insects.

Yet Asher also knew there was no turning away.

Because he was already seen.

There was no way this so-called Sovereign didn’t sense his presence but was pretending not to.

There was no retreat and time to think of some plan to survive this. Instead, he could now only think of protecting his people.

If there was even the faintest hope they could escape…

…then he would have to stand and hold this monster’s attention.

He swallowed hard, feeling the dryness in his throat, and sent a single pulse of thought through his Whisperstone to his people:

Get out. Leave Zalthor. Run. Hide. You all have to survive so that not all hope is lost. I will be with you all soon.

His hand slowly curled into a fist.

Whatever hell awaited him, he would face it alone.

Above, the sky churned with cold, radiant clouds. The wind howled like a dirge.

“And thanks to my echo’s pathetic ambitions,” the Sovereign was saying, his vast voice rolling across the plains, “I no longer need to lift a finger to seize it all. This planet was already once mine, and now it shall—”

A voice cut in, sharp and cold as a blade drawn in the dark:

“—be your tomb, Derek!”

For the briefest instant, the Immortal Sovereign’s brow twitched.

Slowly, with the deliberation of a god acknowledging a gnat, he turned.

Those blazing eyes settled on Asher like twin pillars of judgment.

“Oh, Asher Drake…” His massive lips curved into a smile that belonged on no human face. “I have been waiting for this moment for an eternity.”

A ripple of dread spread through the werewolves behind them. Luna’s expression grew tight with horror, her gaze flicking between Asher and the impossible colossus he faced. The other werewolves simply stared, unable to fathom that any mortal could defy such a being.

But Asher did not flinch.

He lifted his chin and stared up, his voice steady.

“I didn’t know I kept you waiting that long,” he replied, his tone laced with cold contempt. “But again… it must be very hard to forget the one who showed you your place.”

The Sovereign’s smile didn’t fade. If anything, it brightened—like an executioner finding amusement in a condemned man’s bravado.

“So you remember?” His eyes glimmered. “Who made you remember, I wonder? Was it her? That just makes this even better. At least I’ll have the satisfaction of making you relive it all over again—and suffer even more. Or maybe you just have a thing for it.” His immense head tilted. “Except unlike the Asher in my timeline, you are still a mortal. I made the mistake of letting that Asher live long enough to become an immortal himself.”

His hand clenched around the massive spear.

“But this time, I won’t make that mistake. Not after I make you watch me tear apart everything you love and cherish.”

A shiver of revulsion crawled up Asher’s spine, “Why don’t you try and kill me first?” he challenged.

“Oh, no. No.” The Sovereign chuckled, the sound deep enough to rattle stones. “I know you are far too stubborn to die by any ordinary means, not that it’s any trouble for me. But there is no pleasure in simply crushing you. No…”

His gaze sharpened, cruel and glacial.

“I’m going to make you feel like killing yourself—just as you did the last time. And they…” He lifted one titanic arm and gestured past Asher’s shoulder, “…are going to help me do that.”

At first, Asher didn’t turn. He didn’t want to.

But the air behind him shifted—like reality itself being torn open—and he felt their presences flood in.

His heart stopped beating for a moment.

Slowly, he turned to see a line of figures descending through the air, suspended as if by an invisible hand:

Rowena.

Isola.

Naida.

Rebecca.

Layla.

Amelia.

Grace.

Yui.

And all the Bloodburners, all the souls who had chosen to stand beside him.

His people.

Their faces were shocked, disoriented. They hadn’t even realized how far they had been dragged. And as the invisible force hurled them to the ground in front of the Sovereign, Asher felt something inside him crack.

Rowena pushed herself up, her crimson eyes brimming with shock and confusion as she took in the towering figure—and then Asher’s expression.

Isola and Amelia were breathing hard, trying to process what just happened. One second they were trying to get to safety after getting Asher’s urgent message and the next moment they felt as if their bodies were getting pulled apart before collapsing here.

Yui felt glad that Hiroto along with Aira and Cecilia had decided to remain on Mars before all this happened. Rebecca’s eyes burned with defiance even through her fear.

Grace’s gaze shifted between Asher and the Sovereign, a slow realization settling on her graceful, ageless features.

Rachel was shaken as much as the rest but what shook her even more was upon seeing the face of this giant being, making her face lose all color.

Layla and Naida were relatively calm as if they weren’t surprised by the turn of events though they were standing before Rowena and the others in a protective manner.

“So this was the monster you were planning to become all this time?” Rachel stepped forward with a trembling gaze, “You have never appeared so repulsive…I am ashamed I even share your bloodline!”

However, the Immortal Sovereign tilted his colossal head slightly, the blue and white radiance of his mismatched eyes flickering in amusement, “You pitiful little thing. Do you think you have the right to address me just because another version of you happened to be related to me?”

Rachel clenched her fists as she glared at him, “Whether you like it or not, everyone now knows what an abomination you are. You can’t rule anyone…not without forcing them to kneel like some low-life criminal.”

“No. In my timeline, at one point, I never needed to make people kneel or erase memories anymore. People began to worship me like a god on their own after realizing the things I could do. I was literally their savior, especially after making sure no demon ever attacked humanity. That’s when I realized how useless the existence of you and your mother was. It felt boring to keep puppets like you under me. So I got rid of you two the very next moment even though you two were quite submissive to me.”

Rachel felt her heart stall for a moment. Even though this version of Derek wasn’t really her father, it still stung her deeply to know that he didn’t even hesitate to kill his own blood.

She knew he was evil. But she had no idea he was pure evil. He doesn’t even seem bothered by it.

“I knew you were trash, Derek. But I never knew you were even lesser than the rats in the gutter,” Asher said with a cold, disdainful look while making sure Grace pulled back a shaken Rachel.

Ignoring her, the sovereign’s gaze swept languidly over Asher and the defiant figures behind him—Rowena, Naida, Rebecca, Isola, Layla, and the last battered Bloodburners, all standing in a ragged line among the blackened stones of the Rhogart plains.

“As expected, you like to talk a lot even when you look like a cornered beast, Asher. But you have one final chance to be more than that,” the Sovereign rumbled, his voice like a choir of thunderclouds. He raised a hand the size of a castle gate and gestured toward Asher’s people.

“Renounce your pitiful claim to defiance. Bow your head and proclaim me the sole and rightful god. Denounce your love. Denounce your pride. Do this, and I will spare at least some of them or all of them if my mood gets better. You have always pretended to be better than me but now it’s time I made you realize your true worth.”

Asher’s face twisted, his eyes dark and hollow as he looked back over his shoulder. Rowena met his gaze, her expression strained but unwavering. Beside her, Rebecca spat blood and pointed a finger at the sovereign, “You call yourself a god and yet you stoop low to play such dirty games? Pah!”

“You can save their lives with a single sentence,” the Sovereign whispered, ignoring Rebecca’s words, “Say it, Asher. And watch me extend my hand in mercy.”

Asher knew exactly what kind of game Derek was playing.

“No,” Asher rasped, his jaw tight. “You think I’d kneel to you? To a parasite that preys on hope?”

The Immortal Sovereign sighed—an indulgent sound, almost fatherly, “Very well.”

And then he closed his hand.

A rush of annihilating pressure swept across the plain, slamming into the Bloodburners like a silent hurricane. Asher’s eyes flew wide as the last remnants of his people were lifted screaming into the air, their bodies unspooling into dust and white cinders, one after another, as if they had never existed.

Rowena staggered forward in horror.

“No!” she cried, reaching toward the fading shapes of her kin—until all that remained was drifting ash.

“Rona…” Layla held back Rowena by hugging her though her own eyes were brimming with rage and pain. But she knew she had to hold it in, at least for the sake of her daughter.

Asher felt something tear loose in his chest. His heart. His breath. The memory of every promise he had ever made to protect them. He fell to one knee, choking, staring into the empty air where hundreds of souls had just been standing.

The Sovereign tilted his great head back and exhaled in satisfaction, “See how little your resolve matters? How easily your legacies are erased? Those were some of the last of your citizens, Asher. How could you not care about them? I thought you were supposed to be their king or are you just playing dressup?”

His gaze returned to the women. His finger drifted lazily, pointing—first at Rowena, Naida, then Isola, then Rebecca and so on.

“Shall we continue? This time, your precious women. If you kneel now, they all might live.”

“You think we’d let him?” Rebecca spat at the ground. “Asher, if you so much as bend your head, I swear I’ll find a way back from the pits of Tartarus and suck you dry myself!”

Layla’s tired voice joined hers, hoarse but calm, “This monster deserves no worship. Let him do his worst.”

Rowena wiped her tears and raised her chin, her crimson eyes glinting through the haze, “We chose this. None of us will ever kneel to you.”

Isola, Naida and the other women nodded with cold resolve, preparing themselves for death.

However, Asher wasn’t prepared.

He trembled, every muscle in his body screaming with the need to bend the knee, to save his women. But his heart was telling him otherwise. He knew Derek better than anyone and he knew there was no point. His teeth ground together until his jaw creaked.

“Derek!” he roared, voice echoing across the plain. “I swear, if it takes ten thousand lifetimes, I’ll—”

His body erupted in a vortex of dark green flames, his bones blazing through his skin as he forced himself into his Hellbringer form, power surging in a cyclone that split the earth.

“—I’ll END YOU!”

He hurled himself into the sky, ring blade in hand, a comet of darkness and fury streaking toward the Sovereign’s face—

—only for the air itself to flatten, a crushing gravity slamming him down mid-flight.

“Pathetic,” the Sovereign murmured, bored.

The weight increased, a cosmic pressure folding Asher into the rock. Every mote of mana in his body drained in a single heartbeat after being forced to burn up all that mana in an instant.

With a tortured groan, Asher collapsed, the damned flames sputtering out. His scorched body rebuilt itself back to its demon form. He couldn’t lift his arms. Couldn’t even breathe.

The Sovereign loomed over him, a vast silhouette blotting out the fractured sky.

“Do you feel it now? The gap between your pitiful defiance and my divinity?”

Asher could only glare up, hatred and desperation warring in his eyes.

“I am going to watch your heart bleed to death,” the Sovereign promised, his smile widening, And you will thank me for the mercy when I finally let you die.”

Oh no…

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