Chapter 48: Demonbane

"How dare a lowly Demon try to enter my Sea of Consciousness?"

Neolan’s voice echoed calmly through the endless darkness as he continued walking toward the Demon. The Demon stared at him in confusion because it couldn’t understand where this figure had come from, nor why his presence felt completely different from Qing’s.

There was no fear or hesitation in Neolan’s translucent eyes, and even the aura surrounding him felt fundamentally different from the soul the Demon had swallowed only moments ago. Neolan continued approaching without stopping, his expression remaining completely emotionless while his right hand stayed firmly wrapped around Bifrost’s hilt.

"Do you even know what it means to enter my Sea of Consciousness?" Neolan lifted Bifrost without displaying the slightest difficulty.

The Demon instinctively tried to retreat, but its damaged soul responded slowly, leaving it unable to create much distance between itself and the man approaching it.

"If this were any ordinary cultivator, they would have already lost their minds after discovering a Demon inside their Sea of Consciousness, and a Royal Demon at that." Neolan slowly raised the sword and pointed Bifrost’s tip toward the Demon’s melted translucent body, causing the Demon to tremble despite still being unable to understand why its soul was reacting with such overwhelming fear.

"But inside my consciousness resides Bifrost, the sole sword that negates Demons and rejects Demonic Energy." Neolan took another step forward while keeping his gaze fixed on the Demon. "Bifrost wasn’t like this when it first formed from my soul and Astrine Energy, but later..."

He paused briefly as his translucent fingers tightened around the hilt, and the shadowy sword immediately released a faint spark of dark lightning.

"It changed." Another step echoed through the darkness as Neolan continued speaking, his voice remaining calm despite the Demon becoming increasingly frightened by every word, "It changed because of the severe and unfiltered hatred burning within my soul toward the Demons."

Neolan’s eyes remained fixed on the Demon as he continued walking, his expression showing no anger despite the words he was speaking. "That hatred had accumulated throughout fifteen years of fighting them, from every battle I survived, every person I failed to protect, and every loved one they took from me."

As he spoke, the darkness surrounding them began to tremble faintly, responding to the presence of his soul as though the Sea of Consciousness itself recognized those emotions. The Demon could only stare at him while an unfamiliar sense of fear continued growing within its soul.

"That hatred completely resonated with my soul when Bifrost and I reached the fourth Evolution, Resonance." Neolan stopped several meters away from the Demon and raised Bifrost slightly, allowing the shadowy sword to remain clearly visible between them.

"And when that happened, Bifrost gained a new power." He paused for a moment before continuing, making it clear that what existed within Bifrost wasn’t simply another Ability or Technique. "It wasn’t an Ability, nor was it a Technique. It was... its own unique ’power.’"

The Demon listened all this with the pain still coursing through its soul like tens of thousands of needles were embedded into it, although it couldn’t understand why Neolan was explaining any of this to it.

Neolan took another step forward as the Demon instinctively moved backward, "Surprisingly, that power still remains even after my regression."

The Demon’s entire melted body trembled as it heard those words, although it couldn’t understand what Neolan meant by regression or why the Human before it was speaking about a life that should have been impossible for it to know.

Neolan finally reached the Demon and looked down at its damaged translucent soul with his cold, detached eyes. He slowly raised Bifrost above the Demon before finally revealing the power that had remained within the sword even after his return to the past.

"It had gained the power of Demonbane."

The moment Neolan finished speaking, he tightened his grip around Bifrost with his right hand. The shadowy blade immediately released the same sparks of dark lightning that had previously destroyed the Demon’s mouth, but this time, the number of sparks rapidly increased from a single streak to ten.

Neolan slowly lowered the tip of Bifrost toward the Demon’s melted soul, and the moment the sword pointed directly at it, those ten sparks suddenly multiplied into hundreds. The shadowy lightning didn’t remain around the blade for even a moment before shooting directly toward the Demon’s damaged soul.

"KHUUAAHHHHHH!!"

The Demon screamed as hundreds of sparks struck its translucent body simultaneously. Its entire soul violently distorted under the attack, and the black liquid forming its body began trembling uncontrollably as the Demon desperately tried to protect itself.

"H-HUMAN!! S-STOP IT TH-THIS INSTANT—! GAHHHHHH!!!" It attempted to shout in anger, but the words quickly became meaningless because the pain wasn’t coming from its physical body. Every spark was directly attacking its soul, making the Demon feel as though its entire existence was being torn apart from within.

Neolan simply stood there and watched the Demon scream. His expression remained completely detached as he observed the Royal Demon struggling against the power of Demonbane, and there wasn’t even a hint of sympathy in his translucent eyes.

"This pain is nothing," Neolan said calmly as another wave of shadowy lightning struck the Demon. "You will be suffering here for years, and I will keep you inside my Sea of Consciousness while keeping Bifrost active at all times."

The Demon immediately stopped trying to understand his words and instead stared at Neolan with growing horror.

"AHHHHHH!!!!"

Spark after spark of shadowy thunder continued shooting toward the Demon, and its screams only became louder as its soul repeatedly suffered the effects of Demonbane.

The Demon desperately tried to gather its remaining strength and regenerate, but every attempt failed because the shadowy lightning continued interfering with its soul, ’A-At this rate, my soul will be completely obliterated...’ The thought filled the Demon with even greater fear because it had already realized that Neolan wasn’t simply trying to kill it.

Neolan looked directly into the Demon’s crimson eyes and tilted his head slightly. "Do not worry, you won’t be dying." His voice remained cold and calm as though he were explaining something completely ordinary, while the Demon could only stare at him in disbelief.

"It is my Sea of Consciousness, so I can do whatever I want here, I can..." Neolan paused briefly before continuing, "keep your soul intact even if it is on the brink of oblivion."

The Demon’s eyes widened from sheer terror as it finally understood the situation it had placed itself in. ’N-N-No!’

It desperately tried to move away, but its damaged soul couldn’t escape the Sea of Consciousness, and every movement only brought another wave of pain.

The Demon had entered this consciousness believing that it would effortlessly devour the soul of a young Human and take control of his body, yet it had instead become completely trapped within the Human’s own consciousness.

Worse, the Demon now understood that Neolan had no intention of giving it the mercy of death.

With that, Neolan lifted Bifrost directly above the Demon’s melted soul. He slowly loosened his grip around the hilt and then completely removed his hand from the sword, causing Bifrost to begin falling downward under its own weight.

The Demon closed its eyes as it felt the shadowy sword approaching its soul, fully convinced that Neolan had finally decided to end its suffering. However, just as Bifrost was only an inch away from the Demon’s soul body, the sword suddenly stopped in midair.

It remained floating directly above the Demon without touching it.

"Now, enjoy your suffering in here for eternity until I myself kill you."

After saying those words, Neolan’s translucent soul slowly disappeared from the Sea of Consciousness.

Every few seconds, the shadowy sword released another spark of that shadowy lightning toward the Demon’s soul, forcing another scream to echo through the darkness as the Royal Demon remained trapped inside Neolan’s consciousness.