The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel

Ashton did not struggle as he fell, all the while keeping his eyes on the cold, expressionless red-eyed Juin. At that moment, everything was tuned out of his mind; the sound of the breaking waves, the roars of the thunder, everything!

Having used all his energy, he could no longer muster any strength to save himself. He only wished that the Juin he knew and protected all these years would be able to fight against his true self.

Ashton understood why the true demon soul was mad at his attempts of making Juin a coward, of forcefully suppressing his true nature, but it was a necessary evil. He had to make sure that the current dominant soul and physical body were strong enough to control the rest of the demon soul.

If the demon soul somehow consumed the current weaker but dominant soul, taking it back and making the demon"s soul full again, broke through the shackles that were placed on him prematurely before he learned how to love humans and other creatures, then Earth would be gone… and so would Alercane, his birth world.

And that was what Ashton had been trying to prevent—the destruction of the world where his birth mother was in.

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As red-eyed Juin watched Ashton falling down coldly, he suddenly laughed maniacally as more and more shadows moved toward the monstrous shadow on his back.

"Urgh!" he suddenly groaned painfully as he clutched his head, which was in a state of extreme pain.

"ARGGGH!!!!" red-eyed Juin roared as the red in his eyes flashed and turned black, before settling down on a pair of bright blue eyes. No, it wasn"t just the pupils, but the entire eyeb.a.l.l.s were bright blue at the moment. "ASHTON!"

The red silhouette of the monstrous shadow on blue-eyed Juin"s back turned blue, just like his eyes, as it quickly reached its hands downward, pa.s.sing by the free-falling Ashton despite its size. But instead of catching Ashton, the shadow hands moved further down.

Just as Ashton was about to hit the rocky stones, with only mere inches left, the shadow hands interlinked and ripped open a portal the size of an adult human, revealing a world that was full of trees.

POOF!

Ashton fell into the portal amid the sound of the waves breaking on the rocks.

The moment Ashton was gone, the portal closed on itself and the monstrous shadow slowly retreated back into Juin"s body through the open wound on his chest. When the monstrous shadow was gone, the wound on blue-eyed Juin"s chest completely sealed on its own, as if it had never even been cut open before, and he soon collapsed down on his knees as he breathed hard.

"You… would be fine there…" Juin stuttered as his eyes flickered back between red, blue, and black. Eventually, it landed on black before rolling back.

At that moment, before he pa.s.sed out, Juin felt that everything he had seen in the last hour was slowly covered by a white light… as if everything was naught but a dream.

…

David gulped as he thought back to that day. When he was done recalling the story, he said while looking at Juin with a fearful gaze, "You did it! You dropped him off the cliff! Just like how you killed that… that thing outside Jim Mack"s house! And your eyes… Those creepy blue eyes..."

He s.h.i.+vered when he recalled seeing into those eyes.

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With David"s help, Juin finally remembered what happened that day, and his head was extremely painful as the white light that had been covering part of his memories somehow lifted itself, thus causing multiple memories to return at the same time, bombaring him senseless.

"Yes…" He remembered seeing Ashton falling into the portal.

"H-he"s… not dead…" Juin mumbled as he shook his head lightly. A smile slowly crept upon his face as he dealt with the headache. "Y-Your Majesty… He"s… He"s alive… I think…"

He looked up at Lucifer, who was standing beside him, and smiled brightly. Finally, there was a clue as to what happened back then.

"And I think I know what happened to him…" Lucifer said as he looked at David, who had inched closer to the edge of the cliff. "Better pull him back now before he falls down…"

Juin turned his head back to David, and he saw the edge of the cliff crumbled slightly. Worried, he immediately said, "David, you"re wrong… Ashton is alive! I"m sure of it now!"

"No! You"re lying! You killed him, and now you"re going to kill me!" David cried while s.h.i.+vering. He kept shaking his head softly. "Monster… You"re a monster…"

"Your Majesty, help please…"

Lucifer scoffed as he looked at the boy, "Just let him die. His life is worth nothing anyway."

"No!" Juin snapped. "No matter what, he was still my brother once, however short it was…"

Lucifer sighed and waved a hand nonchalantly. "If I"m not wrong, the demon soul within you has the ability to consume souls. At least, based on his description… That night, three years ago, that kid"s soul was probably partly consumed by the demon within you… as was his mother"s soul. That would explain the sudden changes in their personalities.

"He was there, watching everything occur from a few steps away. No doubt, compared to his mother, who had probably seen the monster from the house, a bigger part of his soul was taken away. It also explains why despite his fear of you, he could not help but follow after you."

He smirked and folded his arms. "You have consumed a part of his soul, a huge part, and the remaining part of his soul is now attracted to you because of that. Sort of like magnet."

"What can I do now?" Juin asked in a soft voice as he kept his eyes on David. He remembered the shy but active David, and when he realized that it might have been his fault, that he might have ruined the boy, he could not help but want to do something for the boy.

"Nothing. Until you can control the demon soul within you, you won"t be able to take and release the souls you consumed at will. But since you can"t, young David would have to live half a life from now on."

Juin asked with a small voice, "Then they would have to live without parts of their souls?"

"That"s their fate for crossing path with you," Lucifer said nonchalantly. "Anyway, now that we know everything, let"s go find a place to rest. I need to digest all this new information."

Upon hearing Lucifer"s words, Juin sighed inwardly. Even though it was not on purpose, he still felt guilty because all these happened because of him.

"David! David!"

Voices came from a distance away, and based on the voices, it sounded like Mr. Smithson and Mr. Otto"s.

Juin debated with himself against running away. He really wanted to, but he could not. Not when David was so close to the edge.

"He"s attracted to me, right?" Juin suddenly thought of Lucifer"s words. His eyes went wide when an idea popped into his mind, and he quickly took a few steps backward, going closer to the trees and further from the edge.

David glanced at him with a curious expression, and as if he was charmed by something, his legs slowly moved toward Juin. It was as if he wanted to be near Juin, but at the same time, he was also afraid of the older boy.

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