Chapter 113: Second Heart [2]
Ronan found himself in darkness again.
The same void that swallowed him when the Demon Leech first bonded.
No body.
No breath.
No heartbeat.
Nothing.
Just his own consciousness suspended in complete and utter darkness.
I’m here again.
This time, however, his thoughts remained clear. Not the confusion he felt the first time.
He remembered everything.
Mesmer’s black tendrils.
The serpent tearing through his chest.
His heart crushed between shadowy fingers.
He killed me.
But what happened after that?
The memory cut off the moment his vision went dark.
Ronan tried to piece together the timeline, but nothing came.
Am I still alive?
Ronan wasn’t sure what happened after death.
Whether consciousness persisted, whether transmigration happened twice, whether he would simply vanish.
But being here – in this separate dimension again – felt wrong if he were truly dead.
He didn’t think he’d be here in what he assumed to be a world created by that demon leech if he were dead.
The system.
If he was dead, there would be no system.
Ronan tried it.
He focused, willing his status screen to appear.
It flickered into existence.
[Ronan Ashbourne]
[Age] – 18
[Status] – Severely Injured
[Gender] – Male
[Class] – Mage
[Mana Core] – Stage 1, Final Stage
[Skills]
[Mana Control LVL 11] – You can control the mana in the air with beginner level proficiency
[Fireball LVL 8] – You can cast a small fireball that will explode on impact
[Mana Recovery LVL 12 (passive)] – You can regain mana at a very slow pace
[Stealth LVL 9] – Allows you to hide your presence
[Flame Mirage LVL 3] – Create a temporary flame afterimage while displacing the real body a short distance. The mirage carries heat, visual presence, and faint mana fluctuation before collapsing into a weak flame burst when struck or dismissed.
[Steel Bone Armament LVL 4]
A brutal reinforcement technique that uses repeated fractures and forced mana circulation to harden the user’s skeletal structure. While active, damaged bones recover faster and become denser after each break, but the process inflicts extreme pain and strains the body heavily.
Not dead.
Severely injured.
Ronan let out a breath he didn’t have.
Relief flooded through him despite the absence of lungs, heart, or body.
I’m alive.
Also Steel Bone Armament was level 4?
He didn’t remember using it yet. He was planning on using it after the investigation of the cult, so why was it already in his status page? And level 4 at that?
Had his body unconsciously used it? No, that didn’t make sense.
Was it–
In perfect timing, interrupting his thoughts, the Demon Leech in the form of a red ribbon again.
It drifted through the void the same way it had before, beautiful and eerie, its movements slow and graceful.
There was no alert from the system.
The system had been loud before.
Warnings, penalties, quests.
Even during the cult ritual, it had remained strangely quiet.
Does it only activate around Luca?
That thought somehow unsettled him more than the parasite approaching through the dark.
If the system was truly protagonist-centered, then everything it gave him – every reward, every skill, every quest – might be designed to push him into Luca’s orbit.
He would like to avoid that.
The ribbon drew closer.
Ronan opened the assimilation timer.
[Full Host Override: 394 days, 19 hours remaining]
Still a long way off.
The leech wouldn’t kill him.
Not yet.
Not while it still needed his body.
Ronan tried to speak, but no voice came.
Instead, Ronan thought to himself.
But if this is the leech’s world, it probably knows I’m here. It probably brought me here too. There was probably a reason for it.
As that thought surfaced in his mind, Ronan asked.
Who are you?
The ribbon stopped.
It turned, facing him despite having no eyes or discernible front.
Ronan felt its attention lock onto him.
So it can hear me.
He tried again.
Am I dead?
The ribbon remained still.
No answer.
Ronan kept his thoughts calm.
If you brought me here again, there must be some reason.
The silence stretched.
Then, finally, a voice broke through the void.
It was male.
Old.
Tired beyond measure.
"I am an ancient demon."
That was all.
Ronan absorbed the words. It was unsettling, but Ronan wasn’t surprised.
An ancient demon.
Not just a parasite.
Something that once existed independently, powerful enough to reach Rank 5, now reduced to parasitic methods.
Are you trying to take over my body?
No answer.
Instead, the voice spoke again.
"You will live today."
Ronan waited.
"The second heart I implanted in your chest kept you alive. The demon from earlier–"
Mesmer.
"--did not realize you possessed two hearts. That is why he failed to kill you."
Ronan’s thoughts came to a sudden stop.
Two hearts.
His theory had been correct.
Even if one heart was destroyed, the other would sustain him.
But how far did that protection extend?
Mesmer had torn through his chest, shattered his ribs, destroyed his mana pathways.
Damage like that should have been fatal regardless of how many hearts he had.
"I understand your thoughts," the voice continued. "The demon heart I provided is more powerful than you comprehend.
Still, Ronan tried to comprehend it, different theories flashing in his mind in an instant.
The void spoke again.
"I have used the flesh of one of your comrades to accelerate the healing process."
The flesh of–
Was he talking about Aura? Surely not.
Before Ronan could process what that meant, he felt his consciousness fading.
—
Ronan woke with a gasp.
His body existed again.
He felt cold stone beneath him, rough fabric under his back, air filling his lungs.
The room was dark. Unfamiliar.
He sat up slowly, expecting pain, expecting a gaping wound in his chest.
There was nothing.
No pain.
No weakness.
Ronan looked down at his bare torso.
The wound was gone.
Completely.
Not even a scar remained where Mesmer’s attack had ripped through skin, muscle, and bone.
His chest was smooth, unblemished, as if nothing had happened.
How long was I unconscious?
His body should not have healed this quickly.
Not without Academy healers, high-grade potions, or weeks of recovery.
The demon heart.
That had to be the answer.
Though part of him wondered whether he should consider the entire cult incident a hallucination.
Except the system screen appeared in front of him, proving otherwise.
[Hidden Quest: A Thorn in the Side]
[Status: Completed]
[Description: You have interfered with Mesmer’s plans and disrupted his ritual. As a result, the invasion on Luminara Academy will be slightly delayed.]
[Reward: Rank 3 Artifact (Unclaimed)]
