The Damned Demon

798  Justice Will Be Served

Edward let out a long, weary sigh, his hazel eyes filled with quiet tension.

"Alice is right. We shouldn't talk about such things here. Let's first get you out of here."

Arthur slowly nodded, knowing that his father and Alice wouldn't speak freely as long as they were within these walls. The room—despite its luxurious furnishings and high-tech medical equipment—suddenly felt stifling, as if unseen eyes and ears were lurking in every shadow.

But before they could move, a sharp knock echoed against the door, making all of them instinctively turn toward it. Arthur could feel a faint tensing in Alice's shoulders, and even his father's usually composed expression stiffened for a fraction of a second.

The door slid open, and a tall, imposing figure stepped inside.

Derek.

Dressed in a well-tailored blue suit, the President of the WHA carried himself with an effortless grace, his presence commanding as always. His blue hair was neatly combed back, his sharp blue eye softening upon seeing Arthur. "Arthur, you are finally awake," Derek said, his voice smooth yet brimming with warmth. He stepped forward, nodding at Edward and Alice, who both exchanged polite greetings, "We've all been worried."

Arthur forced himself to remain still, keeping his expression neutral.

He had always looked up to this man, respected him, even thought of him as a father figure. But now, that admiration had been infected with doubt—a doubt that gnawed at the edges of his mind, urging him to see past the warmth in Derek's smile, the gentle concern in his tone.

Could this man truly be capable of evil?

If his father and Alice feared him, if the Huntress had gone so far as to warn him, then…

Arthur buried his suspicions beneath a mask of sincerity, forcing a small, apologetic smile onto his lips.

"Uncle Derek, I'm sorry if I caused you trouble," Arthur said, lowering his head in feigned shame, "I only wanted to catch the Thundering Reaper, but I ended up nearly beaten to death by a cultist. I feel truly ashamed as a Hunter."

Derek let out a low chuckle, patting Arthur's shoulder reassuringly, "Don't be like that, son. If not for you, we wouldn't have been able to capture the Thundering Reaper. But I'm sorry. You found out the hard way who she was."

Arthur's fingers curled into fists behind his back, but his face remained composed.

Derek sighed and shook his head, his expression turning grim.

"I can't believe she got close to you while hiding her true identity, eluding all of us for so long," Derek said, his tone heavy with regret. "I promise I will do everything I can to find out how she did it, including the demon who posed as your mentor, Hellbringer."

Arthur's eyes widened, "M-My mentor? A demon? Uncle Derek, what are you talking about? How could the demon king be posing as my mentor? Why…" Arthur was truly shocked, unable to believe Ash was a demon all along. It just didn't make sense.

Derek said with a heavy look, "He is no longer the demon king but still a very dangerous demon. As for why he posed as your mentor, he must have planned to get close to you, use you to get close to the WHA and try to ruin us from within. Fortunately, we were able to find out who he was, and he won't be showing up again."

"I can't believe it…" Arthur mumbled with a look of disbelief, pain and disappointment since he trusted Ash so much and respected him. But to learn that he was a demon all along just crushed him. But if Asher Drake, the evil demon everyone knew as Hellbringer trained him and even taught him to use his powers, what was he trying to achieve by doing all this? He didn't have to try that hard in the first place. Why go so far to help and mentor him?

Ash never struck him as evil, demon or not. He had a gut feeling that there was more to this than Derek wanted him to know.

"Thank you, Uncle Derek…for telling me this…" Arthur said with a weak smile, "I just… need some closure now. But I think I should return to Earth."

A brief, tense silence followed his words.

Alice and Edward exchanged a worried glance, their unease almost palpable.

Derek's brows slightly lifted, as if in mild surprise, "Earth?" His voice remained calm, but Arthur noticed the slight shift in his expression, a flicker of something calculating in his blue eye, "I know you might want to resume your duties as a Hunter, but while you were gone, things have changed a lot in a short span."

Derek took a step toward the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the city bathed in the dim Martian light. His voice was filled with pride as he continued.

"We have already transferred over a million Hunters to this new world. That means more demons are coming here, just as we planned. That's another reason I brought you here instead of Earth, Arthur." He turned back, his smile reassuring. "The people here need your protection against the demons."

Arthur's heart pounded.

Over a million Hunters? In such a short time?

Derek was moving faster than he anticipated—shifting more forces onto Mars, ensuring Earth's reliance on this new world, expanding his control.

Arthur hesitated for a moment before countering, "But demons are still attacking Earth, right? The Coven of the Damned is still lurking in our home world. I can't let them go scot-free."

That was the excuse he needed.

If he could return to Earth, he could find the Huntress again, learn the full truth, and piece together what Derek was really planning.

But—

Derek shook his head. "You don't have to go after them. I already have some of the best Hunters hunting them down. We already destroyed their culthold, and now they are on the run. It won't be long before we capture them."

Arthur felt a twist of frustration and uneasiness in his gut.

Derek was hell-bent on keeping him here.

That's when Edward finally spoke.

"Derek, I know you mean well, but you should understand what my son must be feeling right now." Edward sighed, shaking his head. "He almost died at the hands of the Huntress. Don't you think it's only right we give him a chance to capture her and the rest of the cultists himself? Otherwise, it would just weigh down on his heart."

"Thank you, Uncle Derek. Of course, I will return if I can't capture them."

Derek smiled, his hand coming down on Arthur's shoulder, "Good. Now rest well before you go. I can't have you dying on me."

With that, Derek turned toward the door.

But Arthur hesitated.

He had to ask.

"Uncle Derek, just one more thing." Arthur's voice was carefully neutral. "How will the Thundering Reaper be punished? Will justice be served?"

Derek paused, his hand hovering over the door controls.

For a split second, Arthur thought he saw something flicker in Derek's expression.

Then, he turned back, his blue eye calm, "Justice will have to be served after we find out everything we need to from her. But the Judge will decide. Not me."

With those ominous words, Derek left the room.

The moment the door slid shut behind him, Alice and Edward visibly relaxed, as if they had been holding their breath the entire time.

Edward turned to Arthur, his voice urgent, "Let's get back to Earth. Quickly."

—

In the deepest depths of the Infinity Tower,

The room they were in seemed to be carved from the very essence of darkness. Every corner, every crevice was a deep void, as if the walls themselves were hungry, pulling in the light and swallowing all that entered.

The only illumination came from the sickly white glow that bathed the glass chamber in the center of the room. Its glow was jarring against the darkness, almost unnatural in its brightness, as though it were mocking the shadows around it. The light felt wrong, and yet, it was the only thing they could focus on—how it illuminated the twisted red lasers crisscrossing the chamber like the watchful eyes of predators, silently waiting for a mistake.

Inside the glass cage, three figures sat. One, the frail woman in the corner, was a specter of her former self. Her body, almost invisible under a cascade of silver-white hair, curled up in a ball, her skin thin and fragile, barely able to hold onto life.

A tube was running into her veins from the outside.

Her presence was chilling, the air thick with the weight of her despair and exhaustion. She looked like something lost, something long forgotten by the world. Her frail form barely made a sound as she shifted, as though even the air around her could shatter her into a thousand pieces.

On the other side of the glass, Rachel and Cecilia sat, their expressions weary, faces gaunt with the knowledge that time here had no meaning. Days, or perhaps weeks, had passed. They didn't know. It felt like an eternity in a cold, eerie place like this, the suffocating atmosphere pressing down on them. They hadn't spoken for hours, perhaps longer. What was there to say? Each moment bled into the next, a constant stream of torment, both physical and emotional.

"Mom…" Rachel's voice was strained, her previously radiant blue eyes hollow as she looked at the frail woman inside the chamber, "We should somehow make her talk. Maybe she knows something. We can't simply sit like this and do nothing."

Cecilia sighed deeply, her own exhaustion evident as she leaned back against the cold stone wall. "We already tried that, but she hasn't even raised her head once," she replied softly, her tone laced with both weariness and empathy. "She doesn't want to talk to us. How do you plan to make someone like her talk? Derek even had to use a tube to forcibly keep her alive," She paused for a moment, her eyes casting down to the ground, as if the weight of the situation were too much to bear, "The poor thing must have suffered more than we can imagine under that monster's hand."

Sigh...