The Broken Halo

The recruitment compound became noisy the moment Korran Veyl announced that the recruitment was over.

Some demons immediately gathered around their injured companions, while others began discussing their chances of appearing on the final list. A few demons who had failed left with dark expressions, and some of them could not help but look at those who passed with envy and hatred.

It was inevitable that enmity had been formed during this recruitment.

There were some demons who marked the faces and auras of the demons that made them lose.

Simon noticed this, and he was amused.

However, he did not pay attention to any of them.

He walked toward the exit with Sonya and Akaza beside him. Several gazes followed the three of them, but nobody approached.

After everything that happened during the three tests, only a foolish demon would casually walk up to them without a good reason.

They left the Black Horn Office and entered the streets of the western district.

Velmora City was still as busy as before. The recruitment had taken almost the entire day, and the roads had become more crowded with demons returning from work, merchants closing stalls, and travelers searching for places to stay.

They had not gone far when Akaza stopped walking.

Simon and Sonya looked at him.

Akaza glanced at the bloodstains on his clothes, then at the wounds on his arms and leg. Some of them had already stopped bleeding, but his calf still hurt whenever he placed too much weight on it.

"I’m going to a medicine hall."

Sonya raised a brow.

"You finally realized that you’re injured after walking for so long?"

Akaza ignored her and looked at Simon.

"I need to get treated before the wounds become worse. I’ll return to the inn after."

Simon nodded slightly.

"Don’t take too long."

Akaza gave a small nod, then turned toward a street where a signboard shaped like a black bottle hung above one of the buildings.

Sonya watched him leave for a few seconds.

"He deserved those injuries."

Simon glanced at her.

"He knows."

Sonya snorted softly, but she did not say anything else about Akaza.

The two of them continued walking toward the eastern district.

For a while, Sonya remained strangely quiet. She moved beside Simon with her hands behind her head, occasionally turning toward the sounds coming from nearby streets.

A group of demons were arguing in front of an artifact shop.

Somewhere else, a beast roared while its handler cursed.

Music and loud laughter came from a building with red lamps hanging outside it.

Sonya’s lips slowly curled.

Simon noticed the change in her expression.

"What?"

Sonya lowered her arms and turned in the direction of the noise.

"I haven’t had enough fun."

Simon remained silent.

"The recruitment was interesting at first, but my opponents were still disappointing. I still have a lot of energy, and I don’t feel like going back to the inn."

She smiled.

"I’m going to find something to do."

Simon looked at her with an indifferent expression.

"Don’t cause trouble."

Sonya’s smile widened.

"I’ll try."

"That doesn’t sound convincing."

"It wasn’t meant to."

Before Simon could say anything else, Sonya waved lazily and disappeared into the crowd.

Simon watched the direction she went for a few seconds.

He could already imagine the sort of trouble she might find, or create, before returning.

However, he did not chase after her.

Sonya was not weak, and Velmora City was too busy preparing for the invasion to care about minor conflicts unless she went too far.

Besides, Simon had something more important to do.

He turned and continued toward Pipeline Inn alone.

The journey back did not take long. Simon remembered the streets they had passed that morning, and he did not need to ask for directions.

When he entered the inn, the demon behind the counter looked up.

His gaze moved over Simon’s torn coat and the shallow cut by his side, but he did not ask any questions. A lot of injured demons had returned from the recruitment already.

Simon walked past him and climbed to the second floor.

He stopped before Room Twenty-One, placed the black wooden token against the door, and entered.

The moment the door closed, the noise of the inn became faint.

Simon activated the room’s protection array, removed his coat, and sat on the bed with his legs crossed.

He did not waste time.

UnholyRegeneration had been working throughout the day even when he was standing still in the Black Horn Office, but the two battles had consumed some of his demonic energy and placed more strain on his damaged pathways.

Fortunately, the strain was not enough to undo his recovery.

Simon closed his eyes and began absorbing the demonic energy in the atmosphere.

The energy inside Velmora was denser than it had been in Vashar, but it was still gentle compared to the energy inside a hell stone.

He circulated it slowly through his body.

Time passed.

The sounds outside the window changed as the city moved from evening into night but Simon’s eyes remained closed.

His attention remained inside his body.

UnholyRegeneration repaired the smaller cracks in his pathways first, then slowly moved toward the deeper damage. The pain was still there, but it had become duller than before.

Several hours later, Simon finally stopped.

He examined his pathways carefully.

They were not fully healed.

Far from it.

However, they had reached the point he had been waiting for.

Simon opened his eyes and raised his right hand.

A low grade hell stone appeared in his palm.

The crimson stone released a faint glow, and dense demonic energy could be felt inside it.

Simon stared at it for a moment.

He had tried this before.

The first time, his pathways had reacted painfully almost immediately, forcing him to stop after two breaths. The second time, he had been able to absorb a tiny amount, but he still could not use enough to noticeably increase the speed of UnholyRegeneration.

This time had to be different.

Simon closed his fingers around the hell stone and activated Devour.

He did not pull the demonic energy in the hell stone greedily.

Under Simon’s control, it drew out a thin stream of demonic energy from the stone and guided it into his palm.

The moment the energy entered his pathways, pain followed.

Simon frowned slightly but did not stop.

The pain was sharp, but the cracks did not widen.

He circulated the energy slowly, watching every section of his pathways as it passed through them. When the demonic energy reached the damaged areas, UnholyRegeneration reacted immediately.

Its speed increased.

Simon continued absorbing.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Five breaths.

The hell stone’s glow began to dim.

The demonic energy continued moving through his body, but none of his pathways tore apart. None of the cracks worsened.

Instead, they were healing faster.

Simon released a slow breath, and the tension he had not realized was in his shoulders disappeared.

He could finally absorb the demonic energy inside hell stones again.

His sky-blue eyes flickered with relief.

"Finally."