"I hope you do, or I, Ivark, will torture you for as long as your miserable life continues. I will make your—"

"Yeah, yeah..." Nuk interrupted as he walked out directly.

He did not give a damn about Ivark’s threats. To him, they were meaningless words not worth considering.

So, with the giant scale in hand, Nuk walked out of the castle.

Outside, the demons were still patrolling, toying with the surviving humans.

Nuk grabbed one of the humans and flew toward her.

Crack...

A boulder was lifted aside, revealing a trembling woman hidden beneath it.

From her beautiful eyes to her soft lips and graceful figure, one could tell she had once been considered a great beauty.

"Please... please..." Seeing the creature that had become the nightmare of her dreams, she collapsed and began pleading desperately.

In fact, she hurriedly removed her clothes.

To her, at least this one looked humanoid, so perhaps it could be tempted.

"M-my body..." she stuttered.

She did not even know if the creature could understand her, but she pointed at her exposed body, begging him silently to do something... anything.

Nuk tilted his head slightly to the side.

Hm?

Was she offering herself to him?

"With you..." Nuk spoke.

Her eyes widened instantly.

She could not understand the language itself, but she understood the meaning.

After all, primordial demons communicated directly through the soul. Because of that, they could both understand and convey intent regardless of language.

Nuk watched as her shock slowly turned into hope.

Her expression quickly lit up with joy.

Throughout the entire day, she had been tormented by the screams and cries of other humans. Her heartbeat had raced so many times that she had lost count.

She truly believed she was going to die.

But now that she saw even the slightest possibility of survival, she desperately wanted to cling to it.

"Interesting..." Nuk muttered softly.

To him, his memories stated that demons should not mate with other races. Of course, demons still did, which resulted in many diluted bloodlines.

But Nuk was truly curious why.

He grabbed her before disappearing.

---

Several hours later, Nuk walked out, on his palm was a broken leg still dripping with blood from it as he frowned.

Now he understood why demons were warned not to mate with other races.

They simply could not withstand them.

Only races with sufficiently powerful physical bodies could survive it, and it became worse the stronger the demon was.

But regardless, it had not been for nothing.

Nuk grabbed the slightly darkened soul as he held the scale before pushing the soul into it.

Then...

It disappeared.

The instant it did, Nuk felt as though something within him had awakened as a surge of information entered his mind.

It was knowledge regarding weapons and equipment.

And he had just created something.

The scale functioned as a storage vessel for souls and would become his personal weapon if he dripped his blood onto it.

Without wasting any time, Nuk clenched his fist as drops of blood fell onto the scale.

The scale gleamed brightly before turning crimson with blue stripes spreading across it.

After that...

Nuk felt a faint connection form with it.

With a single thought, he would now be able to absorb souls directly.

Looking around, the demons had finally decided to attack and kill the remaining humans in the city.

As they slaughtered them, the souls were about to be devoured.

Nuk willed it.

Instantly, all the souls floated through the air and were stored within the scale.

Nuk was surprised.

This weapon was extremely useful, and even more importantly, it seemed capable of shrinking and expanding at will.

Nuk focused on the thought as the weapon rapidly shrank before entering his consciousness.

It made carrying it far more convenient.

With that done, he began thinking about Ivark.

"Hmm... a Rank 1 being. Plus, the Rank 1 demon leading this invasion... and I heard he was stopped by another Rank 1 being defending the inhabitants..." Nuk muttered as he sat atop a collapsed boulder.

Around him, the demons were stunned as the souls they had been about to devour were suddenly drawn away and absorbed into the giant scale beside their leader.

Of course, none of them dared complain.

Just now, their leader alone had frightened them enough already.

Nuk’s mind filled with thoughts, mainly about how he could obtain more souls from this expedition.

He was already at high-level Rank 0.

It might take years... or perhaps mere days... but he could already feel himself approaching the peak of Rank 0 and preparing to break through into Rank 1.

And this breakthrough was extremely important.

After all, it had become several times more difficult.

Breaking through to Rank 1 now required either contributing massively in a large-scale war or destroying an entire world by oneself and after that one must survive a period of time within Heaven itself.

The image of that angel being ripped apart was still fresh in Nuk’s mind.

It was not until morning that Nuk finally formed a rough outline of his plan.

After all, within this war, he was not merely cannon fodder...

But neither was he a true powerhouse yet.

And this world was clearly not as simple as it appeared on the surface.

After all, hidden within one corner of it was a sealed creature that had already reached Rank 1.

So this was not something he could take lightly.

Even so, Nuk still returned to Ivark.

"You came back..." Ivark spoke, unable to conceal his excitement.

At first, he had believed Nuk had abandoned him, but who would have thought this demon would actually return?

"Why are you acting surprised? I told you I wanted to see whether your scale was useful or not..."

Nuk grinned.

"It was," Nuk said.

Ivark’s deep voice, filled with authority and command, echoed throughout the cave.

"Then release me."

Nuk raised an eyebrow.

"Right... but not now," Nuk replied before turning around to leave.

"You... how dare you!" Ivark roared.

His massive body coiled violently as the chains dug deeper and deeper into his scales while he struggled to break free.

"Right, I almost forgot..." Nuk moved closer as he looked at the five swords.

Without thinking much, he pulled one out.

A chain instantly shattered.

"Yes..." Ivark groaned in joy as he felt his power returning like a massive flood.

Nuk observed calmly.

From this alone, he could tell that although Ivark had regained some freedom, he was still far from escaping completely.

Clackkk!

Nuk removed another sword.

This time, the aura increased severalfold as Nuk felt his back being pressed down by an invisible mountain.

Even walking became difficult, while multiple chains disappeared instantly.

Ivark roared as the entire cave trembled violently.

Nuk gritted his teeth before pulling out the third sword.

With three swords gone...

A tremendous aura crashed into Nuk, forcing him backward.

His scales burst open as blood spilled from his body.

The pressure alone caused the remaining chains to crack repeatedly.

"Now remove the last two and free me," Ivark spoke, his eyes glinting with faint killing intent.

"Sorry... can’t do that," Nuk replied calmly.

Ivark roared in fury.

Was this weak creature truly playing with him?

"With three gone, you should be able to break free yourself within a few days. I need you then. Right now, I’m afraid that if I release you completely, you’ll kill me first," Nuk said with a grin.

Hearing this, Ivark slowly calmed down, though his eyes remained filled with murderous intent.

Finally, he closed them before opening them once more.

"Very well," Ivark spoke coldly.

Nuk turned around and left.

The instant Nuk disappeared...

One of the pillars collapsed as overwhelming rage filled the cave.

"You will be the first thing I kill when I escape," Ivark swore inwardly.

At this point, his hatred for Nuk had already surpassed his hatred for the ones who sealed him all those years ago.

This was simply too much.