CHAPTER 42: MIST PARASITE

’That’s just... horrible.’

Dante covered his nose and tried not to look at the sight in front of him.

That was the baron’s bedroom, and when Dante came here, he had expected to see the most disgusting sight he could imagine.

In the bedroom of a demonic tyrant, Dante expected to see drugs, naked women, smell of sex, and maybe some disgusting torturing tools.

’Not a damn massacre!’

There were indeed women, but... not the kind of women that Dante had expected.

All that remained was their scattered body pieces and the smell of burned flesh. And judging by the room’s condition, the baron likely used something similar to the light spears that he used to attack Dante.

"He probably wanted to end everything before leaving." Skylar sighed: "Didn’t his knights seem like they were moving to their death? He couldn’t just leave the village with them and slow himself down, and he wasn’t willing to let them live either."

Dante frowned: "Why would the knights willingly move to their death?"

"Authority..." Luna began searching the room, unaffected by the horrible sight, as she explained: "Some Pride demons have the ability to have full authority over their subordinates, though it’s usually a long process. It’s common for them to have subordinates who are ready to kill themselves if they were ordered to."

"Umm... can you explain this ’Pride’ thing?" Dante asked curiously.

He had heard them and even the baron himself saying something about being a pride demon. Additionally, the baron called Dante ’Greed demon’ and pointed at him having an ability that made him similar to Lust demons.

Luna and Kyle looked at him with confusion.

"We... found him in the forest..." Skylar whispered to them: "Other than a few general things, he is completely clueless."

"Oh..." Luna nodded in understanding as she thought for a moment about how to explain this to a demon.

’Does he even know what a demon is?’

Thinking about that, Luna decided to explain everything from the beginning.

"Let’s start with the heavenly races."

For a few minutes, she explained what the heavenly races were, which Dante heard about from Elizabeth.

Races with strong bloodlines, they live in floating isles, and only angels can share their bloodlines with the other races somehow. But then she added new information about angels.

According to her, angels had seven main bloodlines, reflecting the Seven Heavenly Virtues. They all belonged to the angel race no matter which bloodline they possessed, but each bloodline had something different than the others, which could affect an angel’s innate traits.

’Is that why there are only seven saintesses? Is each saintess responsible for a different bloodline?’

In addition to that, angels had a special type of energy called Holy Energy

, which was the complete opposite of the demonic energy. And each bloodline could be recognised by the color of the holy energy.

Dante couldn’t help but remember the dark-golden demonic energy that the baron had.

"So, what about demons?"

Luna pointed to the ground.

"All I talked about is the races who live in the sky, but there are races who live right under us. Oh, and this room is empty, let’s see the next one."

"Under us?" Dante asked as he hurried outside, finally smelling something other than burned corpses.

"Now, let’s talk about the abyssal races."

’Abyssal?!’

Before she could continue, Dante instinctively put it all together.

Heavenly races. Abyssal races.

Elizabeth had to possess either the ’Heaven Domain’ or the Light Aspect in order to become candidates.

And Dante improved his attunement of the Abyss Domain after getting his demonic relic, which possessed an ability called Abyssal Slash.

Angels had the ability to share their bloodlines with other races and possessed Holy Energy.

Demons had the ability to share their bloodlines with other races and possessed Demonic Energy.

’This can’t be a coincidence...’

With more focus, Dante listened to Luna’s explanation.

According to her, there were some cursed races which lived under the continent where no sun existed.

She didn’t know much about them—she read about only two abyssal races.

The first was called Dark Elf, which seemed to be hated by Luna and Kyle.

Obviously, the second was the demon race itself.

Similar to angels, demons had seven bloodlines, which reflected the Seven Deadly Sins.

They were Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Lust.

And just like angels, they were the only abyssal race that could share its bloodline. And for some reason, they were obsessed with spreading it.

"Obsessed with spreading it?"

Luna nodded: "It’s almost impossible to gain an angel bloodline unless you were chosen by the Holy Kingdom, but gaining a demon bloodline? It’s hard, yes—but not impossible."

"From what I had heard, you can see these bloodlines in the form of cores made of blood-like material. There are stories about people finding them in normal hidden areas, dungeons, ancient ruins, or even in some secret auctions. It’s... as if whoever made those bloodline cores were spreading them intentionally."

Dante’s eyes widened instantly, remembering how Fafnir got his bloodline.

"I think... I can confirm the dungeon stories..."

"Oh."

Kyle, Luna, and Skylar nodded in understanding, finally realising why he didn’t know anything about his own race.

’Maybe he found a bloodline core in a dungeon.’

The theory in their minds wasn’t the real truth, but it was close.

"Can a demon have more than one bloodline?" Dante asked, remembering Ash’s talking about Dante’s ability.

Skylar shook his head: "It’s impossible, or at least I heard so. From what I had read, the result of trying to absorb two different demon bloodline cores is one of these bloodlines dominating and devouring the other. So even if you have found another bloodline core, you’ll only strengthen one of them."

Unconsciously, Dante glanced at his arm.

That centipede was definitely related to Greed, yet it gave him an ability that was supposed to be from the Lust bloodline according to Ash.

’Strange...’

As they continued searching the manor, Luna continued to tell Dante a few things about every sin and the demons until they reached the last part of the manor.

The only thing they found in the entire manor was food and water—which were now in Dante’s ring—leaving only the basement unexplored.

"Be cautious just in case." Kyle suggested as he gripped his sword firmly.

Dante summoned Centipede of Greed in the Arm Shield form and infused his body with mana.

Skylar summoned his scythe and Luna held a bow as Kyle finally approached the entrance and opened it.

’Holy!’

Their jaws almost dropped at the sight.

Dante’s lips curled into a wide grin as his eyes sparkled.

Before him, there were tens and tens of weapons and armor, a lot of shining jewellery, and a countless amount of different coins.

And most importantly, there were mana crystals! A lot of them!

’I’m rich!’

For a moment, Dante had the urge to just swim in all of that, but before he could think of jumping, Dante, the elves, and Skylar noticed something in the centre of the basement.

There was a green heart floating in a golden cage. The heart was beating weakly and leaked a strange green gas that couldn’t pass through the cage.

"It was him." Skylar gritted his teeth: "That bastard!"

That heart was likely the source of the mist.

Ash had the ability of killing it all along, but he kept it hidden in his manor and used it as a cover to hunt people.

Instantly, Dante used his spiritual eye and confirmed that it was indeed a living monster.

’Its Spirit value is 100!’

No wonder that thing was able to attack an entire village. But it didn’t seem that strong physically.

"Should I... kill it?" Dante turned his centipede into a longsword: "I have a method to confirm my kills."

Kyle thought of that for a moment before accepting: "Fine, but I’ll stay close to you."

Dante nodded and moved with them closer to the cage, looking in a daze at the floating heart.

He raised his sword and aimed its tip toward the heart, but then he asked: "Umm, where is its brain? Is it rankless?"

Luna shrugged: "Maybe, maybe not. Not all living beings have their cores in their heads. As you can see, some monsters might not have a body at all."

"Oh, right." Dante nodded and finally extended his sword.

Slash!

The heart twitched in the air as the sword pierced it. Almost instantly, it exploded into green smoke, then a green triangle core fell to the ground.

[Your Greed Knows No Bounds]

You have slain a Rank 2 Mist Parasite. Spirit absorbed: +2

• Spirit: 39→41

• Mind: 29→30

’Oh, the centipede gives me 2%? Not bad.’

Dante nodded in satisfaction: "It’s dead, and it was rank 2."

As they nodded and everything was done, Dante suddenly clapped: "Now, let’s talk about my share."

His smile widened as he looked at the mana crystals: "You know, I killed so many possessed corpses, I was the one who discovered that the baron was a demon, I killed some knights, I saved many villagers, I brought you to the baron, and I even hurt him two times! Have you seen the hole in his chest? It was my doing."

"While fighting the baron, I lost one of my very precious relics and got hurt many times. Plus, don’t forget the emotional trauma. Do you know... how hard it was for a 16-year-old boy like me? All this blood and killing... It was too much."

They all stared at Dante in a daze. Seeing him trembling as if he was really traumatised, they shared one thought:

’That greedy bastard!’