"Master, I… I would've to pour my energy into you body to suck it out." The demon said.
He knew no sane person would allow anyone, who wasn't a trusted person, to pour their mana into their body because they would be completely at their mercy once they allowed someone to.
Max was silent for a moment before he nodded. "Alright. Do it."
"Huh?" The demon was dumbfounded. Wasn't this guy worried he would kill him?
Max knew what he was thinking and smirked. "I know you won't dare to harm me."
The demon raised his eyebrows when he saw his confident and thought, 'Why don't we find—'
"Ahhhhh!"
As soon as the thought of hurting Max appeared in his mind, he felt a stabbing pain deep inside himself. It felt as if someone was torturing his soul.
The pain was so agonizing that he couldn't feel but let out an even more painful cry than what he let out when the slave seal was being imprinted in his soul.
When the pain finally subsided, the demon was drenched in sweat from head to toe and his eyes had become bloodshot.
"Now you know why I'm confident you won't dare to harm me, right?" Max asked with a smirk. Inwardly, however, he was surprised because this was the first time he had used the subtle connection of the slave seal to punish someone, since Amara never had any harmful thoughts toward him.
'I need to reward her more.' He thought.
"I-I'm sorry, master. I…I won't have such thoughts anymore." The demon apologized, his heart still shuddering in fear.
"Good. Now, get to work and suck all the poison out." Max nodded.
The demon slowly stood up and put his trembling hand over his before sending his energy inside him.
'Mm?' Max's brows knitted in discomfort and he felt 'naked' and helpless.
'No wonder no one allows someone to put their mana or energy inside themselves. Apart from the obvious danger to their life, this feeling is just too uncomfortable.' He thought.
Fortunately, it didn't take the demon long to extract all the poison in his body. His skin, although still pale because of the blood loss due to the injuries, the green color had vanished without a trace.
When the demon removed his hand, he had an almond size green pill in his hand. It was the concentrated form of all the poison Max had in his body.
He looked at Max asked, "M-Master, can I eat it?"
"Hm? Why would you want to—" Max stopped speaking mid-sentence and asked, "This will be beneficial to you?"
"Yes, master." The demon nodded.
"Alright, then. Eat it." Max shrugged.
The demon thanked him and threw the pill in his mouth with a satisfied expression on his face. As soon as he ate it, his injuries started to heal slowly and his broken scales also heal but only a little.
Max watched this in surprise and once the demon was done, he asked, "What's your name?"
"I'm Quinn, master." The demon, Quinn, promptly responded. Feeling a little happy that he deigned to ask this because no demon would ever ask their slaves' names.
"Alright, Quinn. Let's go and help those guys with their poison, too." Max said, remembering the elves.
When he glanced in their direction, he was the elf leader and two others standing there, looking at the… corpses of their comrades.
After eating a few grade three healing pills, he walked over to them, looking at the corpses.
He wasn't surprised that they died because if he was a little weaker and hadn't used multiple mana barriers in time to defend, the explosion may have taken his life, too. Even if he had 'some' life left, the poison would have done him in.
However, what surprised him was that the man who had mocked him and was severely injured in the demons' surprised attacks was safe.
'Shouldn't he have died too?' Max thought. Of course, he didn't wish for his death. He wasn't petty enough to want to take someone's life over some disagreement.
The elf leader seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "He has a grade four shield, which his grandfather gave him. That's why they survived. If not for that, only I would be standing right now."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Max said, as he could see they were very sad by their companions' death.
The elf leader nodded but didn't say anything. However, the elf who was at odds with Max thundered:
"You are sorry? You should be. If you didn't give him the chance to detonate himself and had killed him, this wouldn't have happened. They wouldn't have died."
"Hm?" Max narrowed his eyes at him but didn't say anything because he could understand how he must be feeling. Besides, he didn't say anything wrong.
But it didn't mean he was feeling guilty because, if he hadn't done what he did and eventually got Quinn as his slave, things might have turned more dangerous for them in the future.
"Shut up!" The elf leader shouted at him.
He knew it wasn't Max's fault, since none of them could've expected him to blow himself up.
People rarely detonated their cores because in the core detonation, not only would you feel physical pain of your body being destroyed, you would also feel the pain of your soul's destruction, which was way too agonizing. Furthermore, it was rumored that those who died by self-detonation would never reincarnate again. It was an absolute death, which was a horrifying thought for many.
"Why leader? Why are you… stopping me?" The elf shouted back, tears falling down his eyes.
Seeing this, the elf leader sighed and said, "I know you are in pain. I'm in too. However, it doesn't mean you should blame him. I was also there when he exploded. I could've also stopped him, right? So, why are you only blaming him?"
"But he…" The elf didn't say anything and silently cried.
The elf leader then glanced at Quinn, killing intent filling his eyes.
--X--X--
Mass release (4/5)
This mass release is sponsored by Herasea!
