Extra’s Path To Demon King

Chapter 492: Real or Fake eyes?

Axel walked alongside the doppelganger as they eventually escaped the near-endless red desert. He was taking its legacy with him. Now that the poisonous mystical tree was no more, the desert should eventually turn back to normal. The red color of the sands would revert to its original form.

But it would take an extremely long time for that to happen. In fact, it would take so long that this world might not even survive till that day. Axel shook his head and erased those thoughts. Before going back to the Nomrad mansion, there was one more thing he needed to do.

Jumping through the teleportation gate of a small Samartan city, nearest to the red desert. Both of them arrived at another location. A massive river flowed there, and its waves were extremely violent as water gushed out from the faraway mountains.

The Great Samartan Kingdom contained the largest ice mountain ranges within the human lands. Through the melting of those ice mountains, this particular river flowed through all the great and minor kingdoms, branching out in many points.

Here was the main point of the river, before branching into any sections. The water waves were quite violent but crystal clear. He could see into the very bottom of it. Many exotic fish and small, cold-water creatures swam happily in its waters.

Letting the strong waves carry them into their designated habitats. Axel glanced left and right, seeing that there was no one else. Even after scanning with his senses, he walked close to the edge. Made a large cut on his wrist, severing the blood vessels. He was wearing his mask, cautious as always.

The demonic blood, infested with the sin attribute of ’despair’, fell into the crystal clear river, drop by drop. Axel actively kept his innate healing at bay, but even then, the wound healed only within a minute. With a grimace, he cut his wrist again, this time on the left hand; his demonic blood poured unceasingly.

He continued alternating between his right and left hands. Axel only stopped when he felt dizzy from the severe blood loss in such a short time. Even so, the amount of blood he poured into the gigantic river was insignificant, like a drop in the ocean, as his dark red blood was diluted throughout the river.

But that didn’t matter. Because that small drop of corruption was more than enough. Then he brought out more than 10 square-shaped artifacts and dropped them into the river. The trinkets broke down into small sand-like fragments, being completely mixed into the clear river water.

However, one remained; it was carried by the river water, but did not break down like its other counterparts.

Meanwhile, the doppelganger, Axion, continued to observe his actions with narrowed eyes. Unable to understand why Axel was doing these things. But he knew that it was nothing good. He asked hesitantly, "What are you trying to do?"

Axel turned his head and looked at the creature expressionlessly. He chuckled, "You will know when the time comes."

Axion frowned but said nothing more; it was useless to ask, knowing Axel would not reveal anything to him. They returned to the Nomrad mansion not long after.

Axel gave the mask to the doppelganger. He introduced Axion as a rogue 2nd phase Seeker, someone who decided to follow Axel as his loyal servant.

But there was one thing he was worried about, Damien’s rune chamber. Only he was permitted in it. He wondered if Axion would be able to enter? If not, he would have to build another rune-engraving chamber from scratch.

Thankfully, his worries were unfounded, because the doppelganger also had the runic eyes; it seems he was able to enter the rune chamber. Axion looked around the marvelous rune chamber with fascination.

As he was also ’Axel Nomrad’, the doppelganger also had an innate love for runes in general. Axel sighed as he looked at the imitator, "I will teach you everything that I know about runecraft and the forging process. You will have to learn everything and become as good as I am. It shouldn’t be too hard with you also possessing the runic eyes."

Axion wore a displeased look, but internally, he was delighted; anything was better than remaining a motionless tree for thousands of years. Not to mention, he was internally extremely excited about the prospect of learning runecraft.

Perhaps one day, if he became good enough at it, there was a possibility that he could escape from the clutches of this damned demon. According to Axel Nomrad’s memories, it was indeed possible.

Axel, without any delay, proceeded to show the doppelganger, the forging part of the procedure first. At first, the creature in his own guise struggled greatly; it was similar to how he was when he first began learning to forge.

It seems there was no viable shortcut for the forging process, as always, since he had literally dogshit talent in it. But then, when he moved on to the rune engraving process, the imitator struggled for a few first tries, but he was able to quickly grasp the small nuances of it, due to the runic eyes.

Displaying his great innate talent for rune-engravement.

Axel rubbed his chin, his expression thoughtful. A provoking thought entered his mind. The runic eyes, only one being at a time, were supposed to have it. He knew his grandfather was alive, and he also possessed the runic eyes; the doppelganger now had them as well.

Though he was able to notice the fact that Axion’s runic eyes were slightly weaker than his own, the difference wasn’t too great, actually. Then did that mean that his grandfather, Damien’s runic eyes, were the true runic eyes, the strongest and the most pure ones?

Of course, he could also think of a few other explanations, for example, he was not an original denizen of Eldarion, so maybe that restriction did not completely apply to him? The same logic could apply to the alien doppelganger.

But Axel felt that this matter wasn’t that simple. The few rumors he heard about the legendary runecaster, despite being human, his strength was so unfathomable. If only there were a huge gap in Axel and Damien’s runic eyes, such things could be explained.

He did not know where that old man was; he could only pray that he would be okay, and if that old monster returned, so many things would become easy for him. He wouldn’t have to worry about the various powerful Seekers lurking in the shadows, desperate to end him and his family.

Letting the doppelganger practice in runecraft in his own rhythm, something which Axion seemed to be enjoying quite a lot. Which made sense, considering Axel also liked it and created powerful rune tools.

It brought him a sense of peace, as he would forget all those responsibilities on his shoulders. All the near-impossible things he needed to accomplish, on every point of that path, he could die.

So, even if it was momentary. He appreciated those momentary reliefs.

Returning to his room, he picked up the magic newspaper containing moving images and detailed reports of the war, something only special individuals and powerful noble or merchant families were privy to.

He chuckled, seeing that the war on the first level went just as he expected, a complete defeat for the unified army against the combined army of the ghost race and minor kingdoms, which was now called ’The Affiliated Army’.

The 6th phase existences had agreed to wage this war of attrition in phases; for example, in the very first clash, only the first-phase Seekers were allowed to participate. Only when one side was completely defeated would 2nd level of the war begin, and in this, 2nd phase, as well as the first phase, Seekers would be allowed to participate.

The same applied to the third level, third-phase seekers, and those below who could join.

On another note, since pretty much most of the first phase seekers were dead, in the first clash, Axel doubted if Lucien would deploy any more of the first phase seekers later on.

The golden prince was playing a dangerous game here; he literally traded the lives of all the first-phase seekers so that he could deal a greater blow to the enemy afterward, likely on the 3rd level of the battle. Since Lucien did not really provide the first-phase seekers with his neatly crafted rune tools, it was expected that they would not be able to do much.

According to the reports, Lucien and the others in charge of the war were also not planning on joining the battle themselves on the 2nd level. And perhaps still not give the soldiers the stronger rune tools. Now, if they truly did that, their positions would truly be in jeopardy.

After all, unlike first-phase seekers, 2nd-phase seekers were much, much fewer in number. In the grand population of humanity, a very, very minuscule amount of Seekers would actually have the talent for breaking through to the 2nd phase.