The Broken Halo

Before using Devour, Simon had previously considered consuming the Fleshwood’s heart resin the normal way instead of using Devour.

If he consumed the Fleshwood’s heart resin the normal way, it’s guaranteed that he would obtain physical regeneration, mental energy recovery, and soul regeneration.

However, if he used Devour, it’s not guaranteed that he would obtain all these three abilities.

And even if he did, there was the problem of him being only able to possess four more skills.

He had asked himself this question before using Devour.

’Would these three skills take up three slots of his Seven Stars Blessing? Or would he have to find a way to combine the three abilities into a single skill?’

Simon’s proficiency with Devour had increased in the past two months, but it was not a drastic increase since he never used Devour on the corpse of a demon or demonic beast.

His proficiency was still not high enough to the point that he could confidently say that he would be able to acquire all three regeneration skills without failing.

Worst case scenario, he acquires none and wastes an exceedingly rare and priceless item.

Previously, Simon was worried about not being able to acquire all three skills since he needed them.

But after hearing that consuming the Fleshwood’s heart resin was only safe when the Fleshwood that produced the heart resin was dead or he might face the risk of being controlled or used as a nutrient by the Fleshwood, all his hesitation flew out the window.

Using Devour was better.

Even if he could not obtain all three skills, he’d make sure he obtained the soul regeneration skill no matter what since it was absolutely necessary for him to have it.

The only thing he was mainly worried about it is the three skills taking up three slots of his Seven Stars Blessing.

That would be really disappointing and a waste.

The moment Simon used Devour on the Fleshwood’s heart resin, the thick viscous dark-red liquid was sucked into his palm.

Perceiving the danger to its life, it tried fighting back but maybe because the Fleshwood it came from was in hibernation or was weak, its resistance was... pathetic.

Simon narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw this, then a few seconds later, every single drop of the Fleshwood’s heart resin was sucked into his palm.

Simon closed his eyes as he focused on the sensation in his body.

The first thing he felt was his physical body becoming slightly stronger.

The difference was just about 3%, but Simon was not disappointed since the main benefits of the Fleshwood’s heart resin were its three abilities.

Another change he experienced was his demonic heart and chaos flame.

Before now, he was a Superior Fiend and he had refined his chaos flame and demonic heart to 69%.

To become a Supreme Fiend, he needed to refine his chaos flame and demonic heart to 76%.

And Simon would have become a Supreme Fiend if not for his nigh-perfect control of his internal energy.

The moment he reached 75% refinement, he expelled the remaining demonic energy out of his body, causing a powerful gust of wind to be released from his body.

WHOOSH!

Because the Fleshwood’s heart resin had enough demonic energy for him to become a Supreme Fiend with a 100% refined chaos flame and demonic heart, the wind he generated sent him flying into the air by a few meters.

Though he was in a meditative and focused state, he had a faint awareness of what was going on around him so he controlled the wind chaos runes to gently place him on the ground.

’It’s such a waste for me to expel such pure demonic energy. If not for the Shadowgrave Clan, I would have absorbed everything instead of expelling so much of it.’

Normally, whenever Simon used Devour, he had to be careful of the demonic energy of the devoured demon or beast because of purity.

However, Simon realized that the demonic energy in the Fleshwood’s heart resin was pure enough for him to integrate into his chaos flames.

Unfortunately, he had to expel most of it so that he would not draw too much attention toward himself when he returns to the clan.

After devouring the demonic energy and physical attributes of the Fleshwood’s heart resin, Simon focused on the skills aspect.

In Simon’s mind, it felt like he was a sea of darkness and he had to swim down to locate the three skills.

If he had devoured a demon, this sea of darkness would be filled with a lot of ’objects’ but for the Fleshwood’s heart resin, there was nothing.

’Where are the skills? Don’t tell me they’re also escaping like Thorgan’s skills and affinities?’

Simon frowned as he kept on moving deeper and deeper inside this sea of darkness, and after some seconds, he saw them.

He saw the three skills, and they were like stars in this sea of darkness.

Three massive stars.

But Simon knew that these were not stars, they were actually chaos runes.

They were the chaos runes that made up the skills. He was seeing them in the form of stars because his mind could not fathom or process the magnitude and complexity of these runes.

’It feels like my Seven Stars Blessing is protecting my mind.’

Without wasting a single second, Simon drew these three chaos runes close to him and he felt them resist.

However, their resistance was not strong enough to deter him.

He was pleased when he perceived this since he was more worried about their resistance.

’Maybe they can’t resist cause the Fleshwood is in hibernation. Or maybe it’s for another reason completely.’

The chaos runes were sucked into his body one after the other, and when he was absorbing the last chaos rune, he saw something else in the distance.

Another chaos rune.

This one was much smaller than the rest, and Simon’s eyes narrowed when he saw this.

He wanted to take a step forward and approach the chaos rune, but for some reason, he had a bad feeling about the chaos rune.

He stopped, then his Seven Stars Blessing and Devour suddenly made him to know what this chaos rune was.

’A parasitic skill? This is what the Fleshwood uses to parasitizes demons?... Wait... It’s not exactly like that. It’s something different.’

Simon was tempted to obtain the skill, but once again, his gut feeling told him that something was terribly wrong with that skill and he decided to let go of it.

Besides, he had limited slots and couldn’t afford to obtain just any unknown skill.