On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

"Lunea... She is a good person. She hasn\'t done any wrong. Please... Help her in my stead."

"Are you high, boy?"

I quirk my eyebrow in amusement at the begging Japanese dude in front of me. His attempt to stall for time is really pathetic; only idiots will ask his enemy to take care of the person he cares before being killed.

"I know you don\'t really need that fruit, so I beg you—even a slice of it is fine—give it to her. She will not stand in your way, I promise you, so let—"

"Keep your nonsense to yourself."

Tired of hearing his nonsense, I swing Rexorem down, much to his horror. By that reaction, he proves that he has been indeed stalling for time, which rather amuses me due to how ridiculous his attempt is.

Whoosh!

Filled with Mana, the aura Rexorem is exuding is incredibly overwhelming.

Despite not being my first experience of getting power-ups, I still find it hard to immediately adjust to the power I newly gain from time to time. This is the reason why I am always surprised by what I can achieve.

I know I have gotten stronger, but there has always been this bizarre feeling whenever I utilize my power after getting power-ups.

Boom!

When Rexorem touches the ground, carving a trench on it, my eyes immediately darken. I didn\'t feel much resistance before Rexorem touched the ground, so I believe the Hero has escaped from my clutch.

When the dust clears up, I can finally confirm that my guess is right. I don\'t see a bisected body right in front of me, so that means the Hero is somewhere in the arena.

Luckily, I don\'t even need to look around, since the Hero is not that far away in front of me. He is leaning against the wall of the Arena as he clutches his bleeding forehead.

It seems that even though he managed to not get bisected, Rexorem still managed to cut into his forehead. I don\'t know deep exactly it is, but I like to believe I managed to cut into the bone due to the amount of blood gushing out.

"Shit... I will admit my defeat. Let us conclude the—"

Slash!

Learning from my mistake, I don\'t bother to listen to Yūto. Arriving in front of him in an instant, I swing Rexorem at his neck, successfully severing his head.

Thud!

His head drops to the ground in the next moment. His eyes are wide open in shock as they look at me; it even still possesses enough consciousness to mouth a curse.

Uncaring to that, I swing Rexorem to the side once before, I summon it back to the Bond Seal. The headless body falls to the ground with a thud, and I turn my body away at the same time.

I immediately feel everyone\'s gaze on me. Some of them gaze at me with hatred, some gaze at me with a complicated feeling, and the rest look at me with pride.

The first type of gaze belongs to Iorael and his cronies. They clearly don\'t like that I won against Yūto.

The second one belongs to Haletha and Arieda. They are glad that I won, but they pity the Hero for dying here even though he wanted to save the woman he loved.

The last type of gaze, obviously, belongs to my troop mates, Eliseus and Vibiane. Their eyes are telling me that a Demon\'s victory against a Hero is a must.

Being in the center of attention, I don\'t bother to even acknowledge they are there. I am too busy at revelling in the sensation of getting a massive power-up.

Previously, I only got 80% of Yūto\'s "excess" power that makes him stronger than me. Now that I have entirely got his power—now that I am as strong as he was, I feel I can do more things.

[Master, you should take the Magic Stone on the Hero\'s sword.] Rexorem suddenly speaks, surprising me slightly.

"You can consume a Magic Stone?" I quirk my eyebrow.

[I will only take the essence of it, which is Mana and some random abilities; but simply said, yes, I can.]

Nodding my head lightly at the response, I turn around. I take out Rexorem once again, stab it into Yūto\'s body, then pick up Yūto\'s sword to extract the Magic Stone from the sword.

The Magic Stone is not as big as the one on Rexorem—it is just as big as a normal sized marble. The pressure it is exuding, however, has nothing to do with its size, so I can say it is a fairly high quality of Magic Stone.

"Well, I believe he got it from the Kingdom\'s vault. It will be weird for a Hero to have a low quality weapon."

Shrugging, I turn to my left to pick Rexorem up and feed it the Magic Stone. I am baffled at what I am seeing as soon as I turn around however; I can\'t help questioning myself if I am really seeing what I am seeing.

Yūto\'s body that was previously constantly leaking out blood is now as dry as a beef jerky. The body\'s pale skin has turned ashy white, making it look like a salted anchovy.

It has stopped leaking out blood, and I can tell where the blood has gone to—Rexorem. It must have sucked all of the blood from the body that I have stabbed it into.

"I didn\'t know you could do that."

[Unfortunately, that is not one of my unique abilities, Master. The metal which my blade is made of is different. It can absorb blood, and extract the Mana from it to temper itself.]

"I thought you and your vessel is like a soul to its body," I comment.

[It indeed is, but unlike normal souls, my soul can be moved to anywhere. Rexorem is named after me, so if you move me into another sword, this sword will cease to be called Rexorem.]

Nodding my head simply at the explanation that I have just heard for the first time, I put the Magic Stone that I have extracted from Yūto\'s sword above Rexorem\'s Magic Stone.

Rexorem\'s Magic Stone immediately absorbs it; it disappears in a second. I pull Rexorem out of Yūto\'s dried body afterwards, then return it to my Bond Seal.

When I turn around this time, everyone has already come down to the Arena. As I walk slowly toward them, I take a good look at their expression.

Haletha and Arieda are already smiling at me, meanwhile Iorael and his cronies are glaring at me coldly. It is They are butthurt, and it is very apparent.

"Congratulations for winning the duel, Layland," Haletha and Arieda say in unison when I stand in front of them.

I don\'t say anything in return. I merely put my hand on my chest as a gesture to show how humble I am.

"Hmph! You are lucky that the Hero was still new to this world. If it wasn\'t for that you—"

"Are you suggesting that we also should have a duel too, Lord Iorael?" I blurt out, cutting Iorael mid-sentence. "I don\'t know how strong you are, but I find it interesting if I can trade blows with one of Lysimork\'s rulers."

Widening his eyes in surprise and, I guess, bafflement, Iorael keeps his silent for a few seconds. He keeps staring at me while thinking about something, before eventually huffing in annoyance.

"Take the Hero\'s body with us—we need to properly bury it." Turning around, Iorael adds, "There will be a day when we trade blows, and it will be the end of the Demon Race."

After Yūto\'s body is retrieved, Iorael leaves the Arena with his cronies. No one tries to stop them, nor does anyone glance at them ... Except for me, of course. I can\'t help looking at them since I am facing their direction.

"Now that the nuisance has left, it is time for me to thank you, Layland. I owe you another one with this." Haletha bows with a smile.

"You are welcome but... For what?" I tilt my head.

"For pissing that bastard off, obviously. I know he just wanted to cause a ruckus by accepting the Hero\'s request for an Essence Peach. We never give an Essence Peach to someone who we don\'t owe anything."

"Oh, it\'s great to help then." I nod my head simply then open up my palm. "The Essence Peach, please."

Haletha laughs in amusement at my gesture, meanwhile Arieda giggles lightheartedly. Arieda tells me to kneel down when she stops giggling, then hands me over the Essence Peach.

I smirk at what I have managed to get then stand up as I ignore Luxia, who is nagging me to immediately give it to her. I turn to Eliseus, and she immediately nods her head.

"As much as we want to stay longer, we still have a mission to accomplish," Eliseus says states. "We have to excuse ourselves, Haletha."

"Oh, I can\'t hold you back, can I?" Haletha laughs softly while covering her mouth with her hand.

Getting out of the Arena, without escort or anything, the mother and daughter duo lead us to the Teleportation Gate that will take us outside. No one other than the two sees us step into it.

With this, we resume our mission while carrying another one of Haletha\'s debt with us.