I stared at the scene before me with widened eyes as the epic-rank potion began doing its work.
Rex, who had been twitching like a dying fish, started regrowing his limbs. His bones pushed out first, followed by muscles, veins and finally flesh wrapping around it all.
"Arghhhhhhh—"
He screamed and screamed some more. It looked as if his entire body was being reforged from scratch.
Tsk… such weak will.
I scoffed inwardly.
I had gone through the same kind of pain once but honestly… I didn't scream this much. But well, I guess I can't expect everyone to be like me.
Meanwhile, the other second-year students crowded around me stared with wide eyes.
Some frowned while some were merely curious and yeah, a few even looked at me with pure anger and disgust.
But none of them did anything.
Their leaders hadn't given any orders yet.
They were a pathetic bunch, completely devoid of free will and barked only when their leader asked.
While I was distracted, the glow around Rex faded completely and I turned back toward him. His body was still red but all of his limbs were fully restored and yet… his eyes looked dead.
Ah… so it worked, huh?
Honestly, I had fully expected him to explode.
Surviving higher-grade potions wasn't easy, after all but I guess it really did depend on the state of the body.
Rex had suffered countless injuries with far too many of them being fatal.
So even though the potion carried more mana than he should have been able to endure, he survived because all of that mana had been consumed healing him and there was nothing left to make him explode.
As for his limbs growing back… that was because not much time had passed and because I had been careful.
After I chopped off his limbs, I moved my green flames over the wounds. Not to burn them but to freeze them after lowering the temperature of my fire instead.
That prevented further deterioration and preserved the damage just enough for the potion to work properly.
A smirk curled at my lips as I walked up beside Rex.
I wasn't worried in the slightest that he might attack me or try something stupid. He was probably too exhausted… or too scared.
And even if he did try, I was ready. One of my cards was already placed a short distance away, lying flat on the ground in case I needed to teleport. On top of that, Arza was somewhere nearby as well.
Then our eyes met.
I didn't see any anger in them or hatred either.
Only a deep understanding of something I couldn't quite grasp.
Damn… did he gain some kind of enlightenment or what?
That was the only thought crossing my mind as I stopped right beside him and prepared to speak.
I wanted to say that even if I inflicted pain on them… I was still benevolent enough to spare the pawns instead of killing them and that my real target was always the one giving the orders.
Just blatant political bullshit.
I even spotted Rio, my future cult leader, among the second-year students. When our eyes met, he seemed to understand my intent… or at least, I hoped he did.
All I needed him to do was scream my name once I started speaking. You know, for dramatic effect and to stir everyone's heart.
With everything prepared, I began.
"See, this is what happens to those who mess with me," I said.
And just as I spoke those words, warm grey drops splashed onto my face, painting it red.
The blood wasn't mine.
It was Rex's.
He was standing just a few steps beside me, a blade formed from his own mana clutched in his hand. He had already sliced his neck open and from the gash, warm blood burst out, spraying straight onto my face.
Rio, standing in the crowd, probably thinking this was all part of my plan, began shouting my name loudly, joined by a few of his supporters.
"Rael."
"Rael."
"Rael."
More students joined in, most of them were humans, probably because they believed I had done something incredible by making a demon kill himself in front of so many demon students.
But I was too speechless to say anything. The victory I had carefully crafted tasted like copper and ash or maybe that was just the taste of greyish blood of Demon on my face.
What the fuck?
I was still stuck trying to understand why he had killed himself.
Was it the pain?
Was it simply too much for him?
But what kind of person kills themselves over something like that?
I would have endured that pain a thousand times over if it meant surviving. So I genuinely couldn't understand his reasoning.
So why did he do it?
Did he want to sabotage my plan of making myself look benevolent?
Or did he realize that even if he survived, he would never be anything more than a pawn… and decided to give up entirely?
Either way, my plan to appear merciful and gain the support of the demons had failed spectacularly. Most of them were staring at me now with fear and disgust rather than respect.
They were probably imagining countless things I hadn't even done, wondering just what I had done to push Rex into killing himself.
And that… was the outcome I had never even considered. If Rex had simply exploded, it would have been fine. At least then, I would have been seen as an object of terror.
But now… In their eyes, I wasn't just something to fear anymore.
They saw a monster that didn't just kill bodies but erased the will to live.
And as if the situation wasn't already a complete mess, at that exact moment, two students clad entirely in black uniforms stepped out of the crowd.
Their eyes immediately locked onto me… and the dead demon collapsed onto the ground beside me.
A frown appeared on both of their faces.
"Rael Von Ashborn." One of them said coldly. "You are to be arrested immediately under the Noxvalen Code of Conduct, Section Seventeen."
I slowly wiped the blood from my face.