"That guy… I… I was just trying to…"
Reva Rain struggled to explain. Demonmir pressed his index finger against his lips, telling her to shut up.
"I just hope you don't become a liability for me, Reva. I really don't want that for both of our sakes. We have so much to do."
Cupping her face with both his hands, Demonmir caressed Reva Rain's cheeks. Reva felt comfort through Demonmir's caring gesture.
However, she knew something was wrong when Demonmir's hands stopped feeling gentle. He narrowed his eyes at her before making an insidious move.
Slap!
The sound of a crisp slap was heard on the battlefield. And for some reason, it had a reverberating effect that quieted down the surroundings.
Reva's Rain's cheek was slapped so hard by Demonmir that her facial epidermis came off and the flesh beneath it was mangled.
Reva looked at Demonmir bitterly. She was already severely injured by Eren. At this point, she felt something that wasn't the pain of her recent injury. Instead, it was her pride that was hurt.
"This is to help you remember your mistakes, my dear. So you won't do them again."
Demonmir said in a caring tone, which angered Reva Rain even more. One could say that Demonmir was just being Demonmir, cultivating anger in those around him. Or it could be that he felt so out of control against Eren that he tried to establish control by bullying his underlings.
Either way, Demonmir felt better after hitting Paladin of Pain.
He conjured a wrath flame out of thin air before sending it her way. The wrath flame was absorbed by Reva's body without her doing anything.
In the next moment, she lost her left arm, and a large part of her liver was regenerated. The wounds on her body healed mostly. Apart from feeling like shit, Reva Rain had been fixed by Demonmir.
Reva Rain clenched her fists looking at Demonmir. But since he healed her during a pinch, she didn't have much to say to him. She could only curse the guy in her head, harboring anger towards him naturally just like he wanted.
After fixing Reva, Demonmir looked at Eren. The butcher had descended from his flight at this point. He was surrounded by three Master-ranked ladies who had joined him a second before.
Eren was glad he tortured Reva Rain sufficiently for Demonmir to stop focusing on the trio. After all, the more he fought with them the more he would be tempted to go all out against them.
Of course, the butcher did not attack Reva Rain just to one-up Demonmir. He really wanted to kill her and be done with her forever. But Demonmir's intervention almost assured her safety.
***
Nina, Jiana, and Levine finally got close to Eren. The latter was also glad about their arrival. That's because he fought Demonmir and Paladin of Pain one after the other and that took a toll on his mana expenditure. He needed their support to engage with Demonmir and Reva.
Nina and Jiana were fine for the most part. However, Eren saw that Levine stared at Demonmir with undeniable wrath. The butcher pursed his lips before advising her potion teacher.
"Don't get played by Demonmir, Master Levine. Act calmly when you are up against him. Otherwise, your emotions would empower him even more."
Levine looked at Eren and shook her head before responding.
"This hatred I have in my heart… It is not about what that demon did in the past, Eren."
She clenched her fists before speaking her next words with difficulty.
"Zethos sent me a message earlier, Eren. It described what Demonmir has done before coming here.
That vile creature… killed House Montmorency members who had supported him. He massacred half of House Montmorency members in a blood ritual to remove kingdom restrictions placed on him. He killed almost every member of his own faction, Eren.
House Montmorency has lost so many talented rankers to this demon's hands. I… I will fucking kill this…."
Lightning struck and Eren grabbed Levine's hands before she could lose control and approach Demonmir with rage in her mind. Only now did he understand why Levine looked so livid every time she stared at Ottoman de Montmorency.
Eren realized Demonmir was moving on. He was done playing faction leader in his clan. He had lost interest in governing House Montmorency's affairs because he saw war as a big opportunity to participate in.
Instead of letting Levine control her faction in his absence, he destroyed it with his own hands. By using a blood ritual on them, he also removed the kingdom's restrictions that weighed him down.
Ottoman killed two birds with one stone using this strategy. Eren pursed his lips and pondered before replying.
"Don't. This would be a rich statement coming from me. But don't let grudges cloud your judgment.
At their core, all Seven Sins can enslave their most steadfast practitioners. They entrap and harm the souls. One should distance themselves from them if they don't know how to escape their grips.
Rankers who get angry easily or have a personal grudge against Demonmir should never approach him carelessly. Hiding within him is a Demon Prince of Wrath. He might tamper with your soul using your emotions of excessive anger as a medium."
Eren knew how Sin Series Abilities worked. There was a strong possibility that all of Demonmir's underlings had been turned into his minions because of his tampering with their souls. He must have used their anger as fuel to do the same.
Otherwise, why would he have so many underlings despite knowing how he treats them? Earlier, the butcher had seen him turn one of the female rankers serving under him into a wrath flame for his consumption.
The butcher also observed that the rest of his underlings watched him do that with a straight face. It was as if they treated Demonmir's treatment of them as totally acceptable.
The butcher knew the potential reason behind this kind of devotion Demonmir's underlings showed towards him. That's because he was used to doing something similar, albeit with the Sin of Lust.
