[ Etherial Truth ]
A skill that Reign had acquired a long time ago, one that he rarely ever used thanks to the incredibly long time needed to cast it.
Amongst all the skills that Reign had, it was and still is the most powerful one, able to deal damage and even outright kill most enemies in a single hit, but what enemy would simply stand and wait for him to use it?
Nobody would, and that was why having a clone use the skill was much more viable. With his clone, the skill wouldn't be as powerful as when he used it, but it would still be enough to deal some high damage to the enemy.
During the battle against the demon, Reign purposefully made the clone act like it was dead and hide underneath the soil and rocks that had exploded thanks to the demon's attack. While hiding, the clone started channeling mana and used the skill.
It took a while for the skill to be ready, and when it was, Reign knew that he had to either push the demon close to where his clone was, or lure him in.
Thankfully, his fourth sword was powerful enough to send the demon flying back and positioned him very close to the clone. Had that not worked, Reign was ready to fight him again and slowly move toward the area, a much more dangerous strategy compared to this one.
As the clone suddenly burst out from the ground and lunged at the demon, the latter was truly surprised.
Since the clone hadn't shown itself for so long, the demon presumed it was dead.
The remains of the skill he had previously used, plus all the skills that Reign was using, made it hard to detect mana thanks to all the mana and demonic energy scattered around the area. The demon was also not as sensitive to mana as others, which was why there was no chance of him being able to disrupt the skill.
[ Etherial Truth ] was a skill that didn't really need much mana to be activated, and during the channeling time, it wouldn't really send out waves of mana like other high-ranked skills.
The demon quickly twisted his body and slashed the clone with his sword, only for the clone to pass through the sword, and the demon.
With his eyes wide open, the demon stood still for a moment. He couldn't understand what had happened.
'It passed through not only my sword but my body as well?!' The demon thought before turning around and staring at the clone and Reign before a sharp pain assaulted him.
The sword shook as his hand started bleeding furiously, a large cut that managed to cut a large portion of the bone appearing on it.
The clone had tried to sever the arm of the demon from below the elbow, but unfortunately, its power didn't allow him to do so.
Because the first thing the clone had come into contact with was the arm, it had no choice but to attack it, since the skill would be the strongest against a body part that was first touched.
Still, even though the arm was not severed, it was seriously injured and the demon would be unable to use it during the battle.
The demon's eyes constricted in pain and shock as he stared at the two, fully aware that he had been tricked by Reign back when he used his [ Eruption ].
"So what, do you really think I can't heal this?!" The demon shouted out as he used his powers and tried to heal his arm, only to find that it was impossible to be done.
"What?!"
"Good, I was afraid that the skill wouldn't work properly for a moment, but it did." Reign said with a sigh as he walked toward the demon.
[ Etherial Truth ] was a skill that allowed the user to peek into the nature of mana itself, and even though demonic energy was a different source of power, there were still similarities between the two. It was because of that that the skill functioned, but it wasn't able to use its full power and cut off the arm.
Still, the damage done by the skill was not something simple. They cut not only damaged the physical body of the demon but the very nature of his body. The mana that could be found inside, as well as the demonic energy and all things on a molecular level, were cut. This made it almost impossible for such a wound to be healed.
The demon could only heal the wound if he gained the help of someone that was much more powerful than him, at the very least, the being would need to be Tier VII and above. That was what Reign thought, at the very least.
With his arm heavily damaged, the demon had no choice but to switch hands and use his sword with his left hand. The right hand was still usable, and perhaps the demon could use it to swing at Reign and perhaps even punch him, but the pain from doing so would not be light.
The damage the hand would suffer after using it to attack would also be high, and thus Reign was certain that he had completely eliminated one of the demon's hands.
"I'm going to kill you." The demon suddenly said in a low voice as he stared at the ground. Suddenly, demonic energy started coming from the whole area and was focused right on the demon whose body started changing once again.
Reign and the clone quickly attacked, only to be blown away by an explosion of demonic energy that suddenly happened from the demon. As the dust settled, they were able to see a pitiful sight.
The demon had transformed, that was true, but he had actually been damaged by the transformation.
The right hand was now lifelessly hanging from the elbow, only being attached by a thin layer of skin. The demon now had 5 horns on his head, each one about 40cm long.
His body was more muscular and had changed to a pure white color. Purple stains could be seen on the skin as scales appeared on top of it.
"What is this?!" The demon suddenly shouted in disbelief as he stared at his body.
"The idiot tried to not only grow stronger by using the external demonic energy, but he also didn't give up on his hand and tried to heal it in such a manner." Aethion suddenly said from inside Reign as the latter gulped.
"Don't let your guard down, he is still plenty powerful, but by filling up his body with more demonic energy than it could take, he had taken some heavy internal damage, and by trying to overcome the blockage that your [ Etherial Truth ] had placed on the hand, he forced a lot of demonic energy to be placed there, blowing up in the process and destroying his hand."
"That's what happens when a Tier III being tries to gain the power of Tier IV without tempering the body and letting it evolve." Aethion said with a sigh.
"You see, kid, the reason why some people are slow in evolving is simply that their bodies can't take the evolutions lightly and need some time between evolving and even gaining one level, you and your friends don't have such problems, but most people do."
"Even you would face some serious backlash if you tried to do what the demon did right now, it wouldn't end up with as serious of an injury as his, but you would still be in bad shape," Aethion said in a serious voice, making sure that Reign understood the gravity of the situation.
"I've never heard of something like that." Reign said as he stared at the demon who was still looking down at his body in disbelief.
"Of course not, the system likes to only tell parts to people, never explaining everything as it wants to make you learn by yourself and become more capable without always being assisted by it."
"A lot of things are never told to people, which can lead to many overestimating themselves and not listening to their own bodies and in the end doing what this guy did," Aethion said as he stared at the demon.
"You angered him, and thus he tried to gain even more power, which resulted in him being even weaker than before."
"The irony is, he was still plenty strong and could perhaps even defeat you with only one arm functioning, but he was too proud to let the injury stay as it was dealt by an opponent he did not consider to be worthy of doing so to him."
"Pride and arrogance have, and will continue to be the downfall of many beings in the universe, I just hope you take this as a lesson and never overestimate your abilities," Aethion said before staying silent.
The demon had awoken from his shock and was staring daggers at Reign.