The Broken Halo

Chapter 4: Fearless

The seven black stars hovering above his head were extremely strange even to Simon.

To his senses, they seemed unfathomably large, yet as small as a basketball at the same time. It was like he could hold the stars in his hands, and at the same time, he could not.

The distance between him and the stars also felt unfathomably far and impossibly close at the same time. It was a feeling that befuddled Simon even at the peak of his strength.

’The stars are not meant to be black, but I guess it’s because I’m a demon now?’

As Simon looked at the seven black stars which represented his Blessing as a Hero, his eyes flickered with surprise and confusion.

Six of the black stars had no visible runes in them, but one had a rune.

’One of my skills as a Hero?’

Once a star was branded with runes, that meant he had a skill, and after observing the runes for a few seconds, he knew what the skill was.

’Fearless?’

Simon was surprised that he still had this skill after being reborn in the demon realm. He expected not to have any skill after realizing he still had his Blessing.

’I don’t have Indomitable body, Starlight Sword, Phantom Step, Divine Flame, and Hero’s Aura, and Hyper Regeneration... Well, those skills are good, but I struggled so much to improve my original skills to transform into all of that.’

’Iron body became Indomitable Body. Wind slash became Starlight Sword, Echo Step became Phantom Step, and well... the rest transformed to.’

’If I had all those skills with me, it would have been easy to quickly regain my power and survive in the demon realm... And in a way, it’s a good thing I don’t have those skills since I should be able to get better ones.’

’Because I had no understanding of my Blessing, and because I knew very little about the world and the path to power, I ended up choosing skills that I would not choose with my current knowledge.’

’Although I wish I had Hyper Regeneration and Divine Flame since both skills are what allowed me to kill the Demon King back then, it’s a good thing I don’t have any of those skills since they required divinity to be used.’

’I can imagine how my life would end in a flash if I ever emitted an iota of divinity.’

Simon shuddered as he thought of countless demons, especially powerful ones surrounding him and tearing him to pieces of they ever discovered that he was the Hero that had killed their demon king.

’Sigh.’

’Oh well, Fearless is very useful too. It was one of my earlier skills, and at first I thought it was useless, but whenever I faced extremely powerful beings whose very presence could make me tremble in fear and fall on my knees, the skill made me to feel none of it... I feared no one back then... Not even when a god challenged me and attempted to end my life out of anger.’

A slight smirk appeared on Simon’s lips as he recalled the past.

He looked at the black star that possessed the skill, Fearless, and then he willed for the star to baptize his entire being with the skill.

A thick beam of light fell upon Simon from the black star, and he closed his eyes as he felt his spirit and body experience changes because of the skill.

He could feel his infant body becoming slightly stronger due to baptism, but it was not a significant increase in strength at all. It was extremely minor and was not noticeable by an outsider in the slightest.

Although, his infant had gotten slightly stronger, the biggest gain happened to his mind and spirit.

He could feel an aura wash over his spirit and transform him, and although he had gone through this before, he had not felt such changes to his spirit with much clarity and detail before.

And the reason for this was because he had all the knowledge of over sixty decades in him.

After a minute, the black beam of light subsided, and Simon could feel himself feeling a lot different compared to before.

’I feel like I’ve gained a tiny fraction of my previous self... But it also feels different because I’m now a demon.’

Simon looked at the six black stars without runes, and a curious expression appeared on his face.

’I wonder... Now that I’m a demon, how do I get skills?’

’Unlike my past life where I gained skills from killing demons and completing quests through the system, I have no way to get skills... No. That’s a lie... I do.’

Simon narrowed his eyes as a thought came to his head.

’Humans progress using the system, but the way demons progress is much different. I don’t know much, but I know that their hearts are their source of power.’

’There are two power rankings of demons. Bloodline ranking and Heart ranking.’

’Both paths of power are important, but it’s well known that the Bloodline path is the most important, most vital, and most powerful path. Without a powerful bloodline, a demon cannot attain a high heart rank.’

’There’s more information, but what I want to know is if I’ll have to start consuming a demon’s heart to get their skill... Or does the demon realm have a way to store skills?’

’Would my Blessing allow me to possess seven bloodlines? Or would it allow me to possess the skills of a bloodline or of the demon?’

’Would I be able to have the skills of a human? Or I can only have demon skills?’

’Well, it’s most likely that I’ll only be able to have demonic skills since I’m a demon. But who knows, my Blessing might surprise me since it’s clearly an anomaly like my patron god.’

’I have so many questions but no answer. I need to get stronger.’

Simon exhaled softly, and then he left his Sea of Consciousness.