"Let's start with the simple stuff. Name, age, the likes." Damien said expressionlessly.
The woman couldn't answer him right away, though. Her entire body was shaking in fear, and the silent tears never stopped flowing from her eyes.
What he had just forced her to experience was beyond her capacity of understanding. Even now, she couldn't comprehend what had happened, and that feeling of disorientation only worsened the mental damage she had.
It wasn't as if her legs had simply been dug into the earth. No, they had fused with the earth itself. Essentially, her legs became the ground.
The forceful changing of her molecular structure, as well as the suddenness at which it happened, brought unimaginable pain. When compared to being burned alive every day, it was still leagues worse.
Damien understood this, and he knew that if he pressed her before she could regain her wits, he would only get incoherent drivel from her mouth. And so, he quietly waited.
Until an entire 30 minutes later. "Elitra, 20, Demon."
It was curt, or rather, dull, but perhaps because she was still in shock. Damien simply nodded his head and continued.
"You said you were a relatively important person, right? So, who's your backer?"
"Father, Demon King Lucius."
Another brief reply, but one with much worse connotations. Damien's face contorted when he realized the implications of what he just heard.
"Demon King Lucius? How does he compare to the other 3 Demon Kings?"
"Stronger than Demon King Granheim, weaker than Eden and Eliza."
'Granheim, Lucius, Eden, Eliza.'
Damien noted down their names in his mind. He also sighed a breath of relief. Even if he was going against a Demon King with his actions, he was glad it wasn't the strongest of them.
But he didn't let his guard down because of this. He knew very well that anyone who could gain the title of Demon King would by no means be weak.
"What is the strength level of the Demon Kings? Also, if you're the daughter of the Demon King, why did he send you out on a mission like this?"
Elitra's dull voice once again rang out. "Demon Kings are 4th class existences. Only the mighty Demon God can stand above them."
"Father sent me on a mission to gain experience. The Nihility Flame would consume me if I didn't learn how to control it soon."
Damien was worried about this Demon God character, but he focused on the second part of her answer first.
"Nihility Flame? The black flames that made you go crazy during our fight? What's so special about them?"
"Nihility Flame, ranked 23rd on the Heavenly Flame Index. It's a flame with the ability to devour to grow stronger, but it is semi-sentient and unwilling to submit, so it will do everything it can to devour its master.
"It is the flame that originally belonged to the Demon God, but after he was sealed, he passed it on to the Demon Kings. Of the Demon King descendants, I am the only one who inherited this power."
Damien nodded his head in understanding. The flame was too powerful for her body to bear, and it didn't accept her as its master. Due to this, she was being burned alive every day as it attempted to consume her. And when she lost her cool during battle, it took the opportunity to hasten its consumption.
It wasn't that Elitra went insane, per se, it was that she was fighting the Nihility Flame while it randomly controlled her body. Although the target was set to Damien, there was no conscious mind delineating the body's actions, leading to her constant use of beam attacks and long-range mana bursts.
Thinking back to the way it tried to get into his body and corrupt him, it all made sense now. Rather than corruption, it was devouring. Unfortunately for the flame, Damien's body had a far stronger devouring force within it.
Damien also had to remember that the flame in her possession wasn't a fully formed Nihility Flame. It was growing alongside her, as it had been birthed with her, otherwise she would have long been consumed by it.
Not only that, but there was also the so-called Heavenly Flame Index. For a flame so unique and powerful as the Nihility Flame to only be ranked 23rd, what kind of monstrous flames were above it?
In any case, the reason she was sent out to head the mission made some sense to him now. For her Nihility Flame to grow and accept her, she had to feed it. And what better way to to do so than to slaughter those humans living within the realm? Since they also needed to kill the humans for their other goals, it was a perfect opportunity.
But Damien suddenly had a thought. "Did the Demon King know that people from the outside world would be here? If so, did he not think of the possibility that you would be harmed?"
"Father naturally knew of the outsiders. He didn't think they would be able to combat the Nihility Flame."
Thinking about it now, it was true. Damien had an ultimate anti-devouring trump card body, but others didn't. Facing the invasion of the Nihility Flame, he didn't know how they would last.
"Also, if I die or face a life-threatening situation, father can manifest and help me."
Damien felt a cold sweat running down his back. 'Thank god I decided to use her for information gathering. If I had thought to kill her…'
It wasn't like he had no thoughts of going against the Demon Kings, in fact, he was exactly planning to do that. But only after proper preparations had been made. He was in no condition to face one now.
Damien cast a strange look at Elitra, whose gaze hadn't left the ground since she started talking.
'I can't kill her now, but I can't simply leave her here. Her spirit is crushed at the moment, so she isn't a danger, but I can't speak about the future. It's better to be safe than sorry.'
He obviously had a way out of this situation, but he was hesitant to use it. There was no way he'd let this demon woman anywhere near little Xue'er.
But, thinking about how he could section off portions of the Sanctuary like he did when he separated space for his inventory, he figured that it was the best choice.
Perhaps, he would be able to lure a Demon King away from the rest of the Demons' forces. If he could do that…
A certain plan he had been cooking up could be set into motion.
'All four Demon Kings have a Nihility Flame in their body. If I can just devour them…'
Another goal sprouted in his mind. Others might have been wary of a flame that would try to consume them. Others might have been wary about the fact that it would corrupt their mind. But for him? None of these problems mattered.
The flames would become docile the second they came in contact with the Void Essence that always helped him out. As for the mental corrosion, didn't he have a Mind Prison to entrap any unwanted thoughts?
The Void Heart Sword Law was something that should have been used to turn him into an emotionless killing machine, but Damien had now decided to repurpose it.
He would use it as a convenient method to entrap and extinguish all of the negative thoughts transmitted by the flame.
Of course, all of this was simply counting his eggs before they hatched. For any of his plans to work, he first needed to kill a Demon King.
Taking a deep breath, Damien moved on to his next line of questioning.
"Tell me more about this so-called Demon God."
