cerim
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Chapter 726 - Hornless Demon
🕑 Added 2025-11-02 09:42:07 +0000 UTCThe Hornless Demon is, as his name says, a demon without horns. Red eyes, long white hair tied into a ponytail, and horns that look like they were cut or sawn off just above where they grow from the top of his forehead. He wears relaxed clothes that sharply contrast with Magistra’s formal outfit, and I can’t see any weapon on him either.
He stands tall and thin, yet every movement shows the tension of those wiry muscles. And even now, without my mana, I can sense it. Hearts beating in his chest.
Five of them.
Four kinetic and one thermal, all packed together so tightly that it feels wrong, like they just shouldn’t fit in the small space they occupy in that strange circle inside him.
Plus, he holds an additional thermal heart in his hand. Mine.
I feel my energy drop as I stand there, gradually bleeding out. My spine is heavily damaged, and with that black orb tearing mana away from me, any bit of mana I regenerate is instantly taken. I can’t gather more kinetic energy, only scrape together what’s left to keep myself upright and move a body that no longer listens to other signals because of ruined nerves.
The Absolute isn’t holding me in place, nor is he stopping me from trying to heal. But my thermal healing is gone, and Lily’s marks are useless now, all mana drained by that orb still floating there, sucking more and more mana from the air.
Yet I stand tall, even as my body weakens by the second and my mind starts slipping because of the huge hole through my back.
“A human heart, yet still somewhat strong. Almost too strong for someone as young as you,” he says slowly, his voice matching his presence, casual and calm. “But it looks like someone powerful made preparations for you. I think. Who the hell knows? Not me for sure, I was never too good with mana, and this is some ancient and fancy stuff.”
He even smiles, then looks straight at me, locking eyes. It feels like he’s counting down my life, watching the blood drain out, curious about what I’ll do, whether I’ll beg, run, or fight.
I do none of that. I just stand there with a hole in my chest, alive only thanks to the little bit of physical stats that keep my body functioning and kinetic energy I use to keep me standing and moving.
Next to me, Magistra is still bowed deeply, trembling.
“Did you make it?” the demon asks, pointing at the black orb, now the size of a grape and far more dangerous, pulling mana from a wider and wider area.
“Yes,” I answer, surprised by how weak my voice sounds.
The edges of my vision blur, and I feel the heartbeat of my Mana Heart slowing down as it begins to give up.
“My Absolute, if you let me explain…” Magistra starts to say, but the Absolute does something I can’t even perceive, stopping her instantly, like she was slapped.
“I’m trying hard not to be ‘rude,’ as you humans like to call our behavior, and instead… How do you guys say it? Talk it out?” he says, taking steps through the air. Each step sends waves of raw kinetic energy across the area, even though he’s clearly holding back his strength.
Stopping in front of her bowed figure, he asks, “Did I ask you to speak, my little Champion?”
“N-no. I apologize,” Magistra manages to stammer.
He sighs. “Sometimes I think I might be too kind to you humans. But well, I made a promise to that man, and unlike your treacherous kind, I intend to keep it.”
Turning back to me, he asks, “Now then, what happened here, little guy?” There’s no threat in his voice, no sign of what he might do if I lied, and he doesn’t need to. I have no illusion that I could lie to someone like him anyway.
I move kinetic energy through my body to help myself stand and look him in the eyes as I explain, “I’m here from the tutorial because of the Beyond quest she gave out. During the quest, we found out she made that barrier, and that it infects people with a virus meant to spread and kill demons only. To make sure my disciple and her friends could survive, I broke the barrier in a way that I hoped would catch your attention.”
I stop there. He stares at me like he’s waiting for me to continue, but I don’t. Everything that matters has already been said.
He laughs shortly. “I don’t remember all those treaties and rules we agreed on, but I’m sure this breaks quite a good number of them. Little Champion, tell me, why couldn’t you just declare war on a demon Champion or two and fight for their territory?” His voice sounds almost disappointed as he talks to her, still not looking away from me.
This time, Magistra keeps silent without being told to. I notice her body shaking, the faint tremors of fear she’s trying to hide. The Absolute surely reads every twitch of her muscles, every nervous breath.
“Human boy, what should I do?” the demon Absolute asks.
“How the fuck would I know?” The words slip out before I can stop them, my tongue getting the better of me. I snap back to reality and force my hazy mind to focus.
“Maybe I should kill everyone below, just to make sure we’ve gotten rid of that nasty virus.” The Absolute puts his hand on his chin and smiles at me while my ignition heart keeps beating in his other hand.
The first thing I feel hearing that is anger. More blood gushes from my wound as I tense my body, and for the shortest moment, the black orb floating above us halts, almost as if it’s listening to something. A thinnest thread of mana reaches out of it toward me, looking like a spider thread trying to escape a whirlpool.
Then the moment passes, and the thread disappears back into the hungry black orb that continues devouring anew. I cough and feel more blood fill my mouth.
Laughing, the Absolute walks a few steps around, seemingly thinking for a moment, before turning to Magistra. “We don’t want this fine young lad to vanish when the quest giver dies, so I’ll spare your life for now and allow you to live a few minutes longer. You will go and challenge one of my Enforcers to a proper demon duel right away. Go, little Champion.” He waves his hand dismissively.
Magistra leaves without a word. And that’s it. Even with my body in this state, it sends shivers down my back, seeing how easily the man in front of me ordered someone of her level. And the fact that she didn’t even try to resist makes it even stranger. It makes what she tried to do feel much crazier. What was she thinking? Did I miss something?
Before I can even process it, I feel a sharp push against my chest. Looking down, I see the Absolute’s hand buried in it, punching another hole straight through, but this time from the front instead of the back.
He pulls his hand free, and inside my chest, I feel my ignition heart exposed and trembling.
Then, this insane demon uses his will to force the third seal to open completely, flooding my body with a Champion grade torrent of thermal energy. But before I can be burned to a crisp, the Absolute guides it, controls it with patterns similar to mana cycling, and yet completely different. The sheer amount of thermal energy drives my passive ability to full activation, using that overwhelming energy to its absolute limit.
It takes only a few seconds, but when it’s done, he pulls his presence back, and the seals fall back into place again. My body is whole. Weak, but already regaining strength fast.
“There are a few reasons why I let you live,” he says with an excited smile as he explains. “First, and the second most important one is that I liked your answers. No bullshit, no pretending, and straight to the point. I am a busy man, so I appreciate that. That was a lie. I'm not busy at all. Another reason is that I sense my daughter’s primordial energy on you, and I can tell you spent a few days with her and those kids around her down there. You wanting to save your disciple and her friends, probably included her too, so that's it. You also remind me of that man when he was younger. Damn, if that human wasn’t glorious in his bloody rage.”
He takes a step forward, and that typical demonic maniacal expression spreads across his face. His eyes open wide, his pupils shrink, his eyes glow even redder as he leans close and whispers, “But most importantly, I sense a mark on you. Not the one from the Ruler, not from that creature with that weird primordial energy, even though that one fascinates me too. No, I mean the mark left by someone very powerful. If you meet her again, tell her to come here and challenge me. Tell your master that. If you don’t, I’ve made it so your heart will explode in five to ten years. I’m not sure exactly when.”
Straightening up just as suddenly as he leaned in, his hearts beats once, and he waves his hand toward the black orb. A pulse of kinetic energy hits it, launching it high into the sky and off into space, to become someone else’s problem as per usual. Then the Absolute disappears, and the force of his departure wipes the sky clean for hundreds of miles, leaving a clear ring without clouds that could be seen from orbit.
Only then do the sounds return and the wind starts to blow through the area, and I know that I and everyone below are alive only because he limited his power that much. That guy didn’t feel much weaker than Lissandra, almost as strong as she was during the last days of Eladore.
Once mana starts filling my body again, I take a deep breath of relief. Then I put on a brave face, push aside the thought of how close that was, and let myself drop lower, gradually landing near the remains of Randy’s house. As my minion jumps to hug me, my eyes flick to Tykka, and I notice how her face shares some resemblance with that guy who just left. Still, I decide to stay quiet about it.
The kids are all healed and fine, so I let Lily heal me too, even though I’m sure it’s mostly for her peace of mind. While she does, I focus on reactivating my constructs and all the nodes, arrays, and systems I now feel almost naked without.
“Thank you,” I tell Lily.
“That was one of the craziest things you’ve ever done, Nat,” she says seriously.
“So far,” I correct.
“So far,” she nods.
“Next time I will do better,” I reply, glancing around to locate Savant as he appears nearby.
There isn’t a single wound on his body. Even his clothes look perfectly clean, which tells me just how easily he handled his fights.
What an annoying guy.
Stopping in front of him, I grab the sword in my hand by the blade and offer it to him. He takes it with a short nod, and I watch as the Sword of Aeons sinks into his right arm. Sets of inscriptions flash brightly for a moment before the light fades and the markings vanish entirely.
“We’ve got a few minutes before our quest giver dies and we get sent back to Beyond. I guess this time there won’t be any quest rewards or bonuses. You could probably go around and do some looting if you want.”
“It’s okay. I’ve already absorbed a few interesting things I could get.”
“The virus?”
“Obviously. And a few more. Lastly, I have a feeling you owe me.”
“That is true. What do you want?”
“My handler told me you know Brich from Crimson Forge?”
“A little bit.”
“Good. Just help me get a meeting with him. I want to join Crimson Forge, but not under one of those contracts these crazies usually hand out.”
I look at his hand, the one that absorbed the Sword of Aeons, and remember that Crimson Forge is one of the richest guilds in Beyond and currently number one in crafting.
At this moment, Savant’s eyes look far too honest. Those are the eyes of a person planning something illegal.
***
Author note: Sooo, Patreon is a bunch of crayon eaters sometimes.
You know that nice "button" I always leave at the end of a chappy? The one called Next Chapter? Well, now instead of refreshing your page and opening the next chappy, it opens a new tab. Rip to everyone who saves up chapters to read a bunch at once.
This is also why I avoided using the actual button Patreon added: it did that while my hyperlink didn’t. But now I might as well use their button, so this is a heads-up that I will be using it.
You can check the difference below.
***
Comments
Lance Beam
TFTC, button is not food!!
anonymous patreon
That works, but it’s just yet another annoying thing you can do because patron decided to change stuff
anonymous patreon
Yea, app is fine, but plenty of ppl don’t use it. Plus subscription is more expensive if you do it through the app
Toto
I’m using the app so when I click next chapter it just send me to the next chapter. Kind of like it
Octaeon
About the link to next chapter - right click it (or long press on mobile), click 'copy address' and paste it into the url bar.
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
Demon gets wrecked. Probably barely understand what happens.
TYRELL GRAY
lol, I wonder what would the benefit be? Would it be a title: the mark one. Or something else
Oaktree
Nats collecting marks like there pokemon. Mark from liss Mark from biscuit Mark from ruby/ handler Mark from kindness? Mark from system Mark from demon absolute Did i miss any? Also I wonder if haven’t multiple marks adds any benefits.
Youkai-sama
Holy shit, that was Wild af!
DeadbearKill
Savant is still my favorite character. This proves it more. Show his skill list I beg of you. 🤣😭
Predyca
does it tho? i might be completly wrong but he should have felt the powers of the absolutes on the battlefield. Sure not from quite as close as with the Demon or Lissandra but he should have some kind of idea Plus a severly weakend Lissandra could stop the Absolutes to not get her involved
Oaktree
“That guy didn’t feel much weaker than Lissandra, almost as strong as she was during the last days of Eladore.” this is going to screw up nats idea of a normal absolute even more.
CrypticAnon
Can’t believe tkkya was the absolute daughter. I know absolutes have children from Lissandra crashing out on floor 3, but i wonder about it still.
Lizy Flore
Except he didn’t ? Where did you see that ?
D Pryor
Think I called this outcome last week. Oh Nat using the absolute to pass his candidate quest. What absolute rewards he should get from this can't wait till next chap!!
arnumart
Fen is going to fall into a bad crowd and a life of crime.
frozzi
prob minion gang gonna use him as ebay Biscuit
Jeppe Fiig
Honestly the newest mark wasnt even nessesary, the demon asking Nat to relay the message was already enough for him to do so
granndfunk
Wait what's going to happen to that dumbass pet?
facetiousk
Mana, obviously!
ZaA
The mark the Hornless Demon left should be more than enough for her to find him I'd assume
rams
we didn't hear a ding, but that could have been mana manipulation hitting 75
Nemesis
So two things occurred to me. First, has Nat actually successfully completed any of his Beyond quests to date? It seems to me he has technically failed all of them. The warden aborted the questioning part way through. He failed to destroy The Last Elf, with the team falling apart (though he did significant damage and stole the object of interest). Now he got the quest giver killed, so they can't rubber stamp the completion nor hand out rewards. Second, that Absolute threatened him to bring Lissandra, but didn't actually give him the name or coordinates for this planet. Can you imagine the conversation? "Oh yeah, there's this crazy strong demon out there who rigged my heart to implode unless you go fight him". "...And where do i find him?" "Don't know. Minion's homeworld. Go ask Ruby. Oh, and let me know once you've found out. I want to visit".
Andrew
Thank you!
arnumart
I wonder if Nat will start practicing thermal cycling.
frankie doerr
He’s waiting to fix it after the body upgrade because I’m guessing the worse shape the body is in the better the upgrade
frankie doerr
Remember she’s nerfed in levels right now dude still doesn’t have a chance but she is nerfed
J W
So nat had to have a second heart because everyone else had one. Our boy now knows you can have at least 5. What is nat's next heart gonna be powered with?
J W
I think its the primordial or even higher version of mana. Mana is the systems version, dumbed down and made easier to use. Eventually nat will need to convert all his mana to the black for the fighting chance against pride.
Arme nd
Honestly i was thinking LissLiss would have been disappointed in the absolute for giving Nat 5+ years.
Josh Betts
Lizzy not going to take too kindly to someone meddling with her personal gift to her disciple she definitely going to see that as a challenge
Hardworking Guy
Lissanda killed multiple rulers at her peak, before she died to the strongest of them all. This guy has no chance.
zoarian
If not a mentor, why mentor shaped?
Death56
Man black mana been around so long still a mystery and still giving hype moments
Seijax
Seems like he had a chance to fix the problematic constructs and he passed on it? The hype for those "body upgrade preparations" has gotten real. Hopefully the wait won't be dragged out, because the non-lethal mode is pretty boring and unrealistic
Alexander
Adrian?
Terri Harris
(Almost as if its listening to something... ) I don't think Nats Black mana wants him to die. Nice foreshadowing? Still more to learn about Black mana. Fun! Nats future goals: Beat up Lissandra, Beat up ruler of Pride, Beat up the hornless demon. Keep everyone he cares about alive! Easy. Just need a few more years. Thank you for writing so fast! Love the story!!!
Edmund Dillon
Tftc!!!! Would love to see that show down between hornless and Lis haha
Seijax
Doubtful that's the aim. No timer thus far would lead to that outcome (Lissandra wouldn't even help, even if she could, and is more likely to tell Nat to fix it himself). Nat does seem to aim for getting strong enough to deal with the timers before their ends though. In 5 years he'll be upper-Champion tier and in such control of the heart to possibly defuse the timer on his own. This Absolute seems to be underestimating Nat as much as he underestimates Lissandra.
Seijax
We've also been told that Lissandra's copy was a nerfed version of the original. One that later felt pressured by Nat's attitude to improve herself, but that happened after the Eladore floor and her fleshy rebirth
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie!
Jeb
I believe it was stated they were cut off when the Absolute was a slave.
Fdrugc
The hornless demon is great.
Fdrugc
I think nat is under estimating Liysandra possible because he was incapable of understanding how powerful she really is. And probably is still incapable of it. Also he should get the plants coordinates
HeadpatsOnly
5-10 years. nat will battle the demon absolute himself by then :) . or this pisses liss off and nat doesn’t even get the chance haha
EDMANGO
I feel like the number of timers nat keeps getting put under is like a someone selling shares of their soul to other demons trying to get a good bargain when none of them know he's playing the game as hard as possible to have them fight eachother
Kroppertites
Really nice chapter. The demon probably lost his horns in a bet though
Isaac Lung
The bloody hero
Little Watchmaker
Perfect! I had hoped this would be the outcome. Thanks for the chapter Cerim!
Liam Zay
Five hearts is badass and I don't understand what magistras plan was. I wonder who the human the hornless demon mentioned is. Pride? The way he's talking about him reminds me of how people were talking about Cristoph before we met him
frankie doerr
I wonder if that little second hornydemon took control of nats thermal energy was enough for him to replicate it and I vote for that to be his next skill upgrade for eclipse oh and nice call out to what looks to be Adrain wonder what’s he’s doing
Farxzay
Thanks for the chapter!
Ansordia
Come on... Poor Nat can't get a fucking break... XD another time bomb at this point I think we will get a reincarnation story out of the ending of this one as I doubt this story ends with Nat not dying horribly xD...
frankie doerr
Lissliss needs to escape there’s too many people that want to fight her already
Rene Duvall
Tftc
frankie doerr
Don’t make this about feet I’m on another group chat with another Patreon that keeps trying to make the author show his feet
Zach
I wonder if Nat is going to somehow undo an Absolute’s mark on his heart, or get Lissandra out of floor 12 to meet up with the Hornless Demon
Blaxxun
Yess. This Demon Absolute is a cool guy as expected. Also Nat pulling the Black mana for a second, his Affinity grows and I wonder if he gained insight from that thermal cycling.
Antoine Magny
I NEED THIS
Liam Zay
What if his name was the horny demon and he sucked toes?
Compendium
I was dying ty
Ivan Jelenić
Yesss! Can't wait to read it!
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
vikos_bog_bogdacius
CHAPIEIEE
vEnviouz
TFTC!!!
