The Demon seemed enraged by their recent escape. A bloody light flared in all its eyes at once, and the attack speed of its Tentacles suddenly doubled!

"Ian!" Hector said quickly, dodging the Tentacles.

"This Demon is a spent force. It just used up a massive amount of Energy. If we work together and focus all our Power on its core Dark Gold eye, we can definitely cripple it, maybe even kill it."

Ian’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t answer right away.

He did indeed need the Eye of the Gazer to increase his Spiritual Power, but Hector’s proposal...

He glanced at Hector. The scorching heat and chilling cold in the man’s eyes were nearly impossible to hide.

"Alright," Ian said calmly. "Let’s see what you’ve really got. No more holding back."

"Good!" Hector agreed instantly, but sneered inwardly.

The two appeared to have joined forces once again.

Ian took a deep breath and stopped holding back completely.

In his Sea of Spirit, the eighty-one Runes of his Will Rune Array flared with brilliant light as liquefied Spiritual Power surged forth.

The Ice and Fire Spiral of his Frost Ash Beam became denser and more violent.

With piercing shrieks, it bombarded the Demon again and again, blasting open massive wounds.

This forced the Demon to roar in fury and focus most of its Tentacles and Spiritual Attacks on Ian.

Hector, meanwhile, skirted the edges, constantly harassing the Demon with Withering Witchcraft like Death Finger, Aging Curse, and Soul Cry Ripple.

He appeared to be providing support, but in reality, he was secretly gathering Power, his gaze fixed on the core Dark Gold eye.

And... on Ian’s back.

With their diverse and powerful attacks, they went all out, and the Demon’s aura weakened at a visible rate.

One by one, the eyes on its body dimmed and burst.

Two more layers of Ian’s Shield shattered. His face was pale from the immense drain on his Spiritual Power, but his eyes remained sharp.

Hector was also injured, but he was clearly in better shape than Ian.

Then, Ian fired another exceptionally powerful Frost Ash Beam.

A large chunk of the Demon’s fleshy mountain shattered, exposing the core Dark Gold eye, its light now much dimmer.

Hector seized the opportunity. His Death Finger coalesced into a thick, grayish-black ray and shot straight toward the Demon’s core.

PSST!

The ray pierced through the mountain of flesh, leaving a hole clean through.

The Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon’s aura suddenly faltered, and the movements of its Tentacles slowed.

Almost simultaneously, he whipped his Bone Staff around.

A jet-black ray, condensed to its absolute limit, shot straight for Ian’s undefended back!

A drab gray nail, long prepared in his left hand, also flew silently toward Ian’s temple.

The Soul-Destroying Nail, a treacherous surprise-attack Witchcraft Artifact from the Withered Council, specialized in breaking Shields and injuring the Soul!

"Die! The treasure is mine!" A hideous grin spread across Hector’s face.

He could already picture it: Ian, gravely wounded, while he himself easily reaped the rewards—the crippled Demon and this troublesome pest.

However, the very instant he struck, it was as if Ian had grown eyes on his back.

The final layer of the Crystal Energy Barrier Shield on his body suddenly indented and reshaped itself at an unbelievable angle and speed.

In an instant, it formed a massive, incredibly thick, diamond-shaped greatshield on his back, covered in dark red Spirit Devourer runes!

BANG! HISS!

The black Death Ray and the Soul-Destroying Nail struck the diamond shield at almost the same time.

The ray was massively weakened as its Power was Devoured by the Spirit Devourer runes, and the Crystal Shield blocked what remained.

The Soul-Destroying Nail embedded itself in the Crystal Shield’s surface, its gray light frantically trying to corrode it, but it couldn’t immediately penetrate the constantly regenerating Shield!

"What?!" Hector was aghast. He never expected Ian’s Shield to be so tough, nor his control over it so precise.

Gaga, who had been lying in wait in the darkness, suddenly leaped out from the Shadow at Hector’s feet.

The gray light of its Omen Eye swept viciously toward his eyes!

Ian spun around, and with a wave of his left hand, a flash of pale violet light shot straight at Hector’s face!

Hector was indeed formidable, with extremely rich combat experience and many tricks up his sleeve.

A Bone Fragment hidden in his robes exploded, allowing him to forcibly break free from the Omen Eye’s interference.

Horrified, he let out a furious roar and thrust his Bone Staff out in front of him.

Pushing his Death Qi to its limit, he formed a Bone Shield to block the Frost Ash Beam.

BOOM!!!

The Frost Ash Beam slammed squarely into his defense. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

The destructive Energy of Interweaving Ice and Fire erupted madly. Extreme cold and heat corroded in alternation, instantly tearing through his Death Qi defense, shattering his Bone Staff, and pouring violently into his chest!

Hector’s scream was cut short.

He looked down at the gaping hole in his chest, charred black and frozen at the edges, that went straight through his body.

His eyes were filled with disbelief, venomous hatred, and a trace of bewilderment.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his life force was already fading rapidly.

Ian leaned close to his ear and said calmly, "Sorry, but... I want the Eye of the Gazer, too."

A chop of his hand, and Hector’s heart was pulverized.

The light in Hector’s eyes quickly dimmed, finally freezing into a lifeless gray.

The body fell to the ground.

Ian pulled his hand back, flicked off the blood, and looked toward the heavily wounded Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon.

The Demon’s aura was still plummeting, but at its core, a faint Dark Gold light was beginning to circulate.

That was... the Eye of the Gazer, coalescing.

Ian took a deep breath. He raised his hands again, and a pale violet light illuminated the cavern.

The Abyssal Demon was on its last breath.

Its mountain-like body was covered in charred burn marks and frostbitten cracks—wounds left by the Frost Ash Beam.

More than two-thirds of its eyes had already burst or gone dim. The hundred or so remaining eyes swiveled about erratically.

Their pupils reflected Ian’s figure, but they had lost their former ferocity, leaving only the murkiness of impending death.

But the mass of Dark Gold light at its core was growing brighter and brighter.

This was the Eye of the Gazer forming, compressing the Demon’s remaining Spiritual Power and Soul Essence and crystallizing it into a precious treasure.

It seemed to be an instinct for this type of Demon upon nearing death, perhaps some sort of "inheritance mechanism" granted by the Abyss.

Ian slowly stepped forward, intending to deal the Demon a final blow and collect his spoils.

However, just as the ray was about to be fired...

The Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon’s remaining eyes all suddenly turned to face Ian.

All its pupils simultaneously shrank to the size of a pinprick, and the whites of its eyes became covered in dense, twisting Abyssal Runes that looked alive.

The Runes flowed madly, linking together to form a dark red network that covered the Demon’s entire body.

Immediately after, the Demon’s body began to violently contract and collapse!

It compressed all of its remaining flesh, Spiritual Power, and soul fragments into the mass of Dark Gold light at its core.

’Self-destruction? Or...’ Ian’s heart skipped a beat. He rapidly retreated, activating all three layers of his Shield.

The explosion he anticipated never happened.

The collapse was completed in an instant. The mountain of flesh, over ten meters in diameter, was compressed into a fist-sized Dark Gold eye.

The eye floated in mid-air, its surface as smooth as a mirror, but within it, countless nebulae seemed to swirl.

It was beautiful—an eerie, heart-pounding kind of beauty.

Ian stopped in his tracks, watching the crystal warily.

And at that very moment...

A tiny crack quietly appeared on the eye’s surface.