The Damned Demon

*ROARRR!!*

An ear-rendering roar echoed within the chamber as a 10-foot tall, 25 feet long, red-winged creature with two legs, red scales on its skin, leathery wings, and a poison stinger manifested in the chamber.

Its head was a fearsome and spine-rattling sight. Its fanged maws looked gruesome, and its blazing eyes and the fiery breath coming off its mouth was enough to put even a warrior with an iron heart into despair.

[ The Chamber of Hell has summoned Ghorqo, the Harbinger of Despair. With breath as intense and hot as flames of purgatory, scales as hard as steel, teeth sharp enough to cut through any metal, and a stinger filled with poison that can even make a dragon succumb to her…The only mercy you would get from her is an agonizing death…]

Asher could see that this wyvern named Ghorqo was the strongest demon spirit he had seen so far. If he was to fight head-on, even if he could win, it would be quite hard. Since the glass chamber seemed quite small with Ghorqo in it, it would be quite difficult to move around, and it could kill him easily by just using its scorching flames from its mouth or even its tail.

From just thinking of simply fighting it, all one would feel was despair since it had all the advantages. Nobody can think of any weakness by just looking at it.

"I thought I would never get to see the most dangerous spirit of the Chamber of Hell in my life…But here it is…I feel like I might die just by looking at it!"

"I thought wyverns were weaker than dragons but this one…It makes me rethink that…"

"Not even the illustrious Young Lord Edmund Thorne dared to challenge this thing. This proves why it's known as the Harbinger of Despair."

"I know, right. The last one to defeat it was the queen herself, and even then, it wasn't easy at all."

"Tsk, tsk, the royal consort should have gotten out when he had the chance. But now his overconfidence is going to make him end up dead."

"I don't know, brother. Look at his face. Does that face look like someone who is scared? I wonder what he is thinking."

"He is just scared stiff from fright. Ghorqo loves to taunt her prey by making them feel despair for a while and then kill them."

Rebecca, who had almost lost all hope, had some color return to her face when Asher wanted to take on Ghorqo. Now she was damn sure he would die to this one since someone who woke up a month ago couldn't surely defeat an indomitable beast like Ghorqo.

So what if he was a genius? His stupid tricks won't save his life this time. Ghorqo practically had no weakness. The only way of defeating it would be to exhaust it by letting it expend mana. Once it becomes slower, it would be possible to weaken it. But even doing this would require one to be extremely agile and avoid getting severely injured by it, which was impossible.

There was no way he would be able to do that without losing some limbs, and at that point, he would first bleed to death or get burned to ashes.

Many nobles from powerful backgrounds succumbed to Ghorqo, and even she suffered a lot of severe injuries when fighting it. She remembered how close to death she was, and even after somehow winning, she had to rest for a week to heal. There was no way he could be more talented than her.

Asher tucked away his weapon, making Rebecca snort inwardly, wondering if he already gave up in despair.

The rest of them also wondered if he was simply giving up after realizing how impossible it was.

"Not impressed. I will burn your soul now for being so pathetic," Ghoroq said as it opened its maw wide, as the back of its throat began to light up with a fiery light, ready to breathe fire and reduce this cowardly demon to ashes.

"A wyvern like you deserves to be ridden," Asher said with a smile as he rolled to the side to dodge the flames and used the glass wall as a support to leap towards its right wing and grab it.

Ghoroq was startled as it didn't expect this boy to try and grab one of its wings.

*Grarrwr!*

It twisted its neck around and tried to bite down on Asher's head. But as if Asher had an eye on his back, he swiftly dodged before its teeth could even touch the ends of his hair.

Ghoroq was surprised by how good his reflexes were when any other demon of Asher's level should have had their head bitten off.

But it immediately fluttered its wings to throw him off, but by this time, Asher had climbed up on its back and hugged its neck, much to its surprise.

Everyone outside had bewildered expressions seeing Asher getting on Ghorqo's back as if he wanted to ride her. What was he thinking? Was he trying to get killed in a more miserable way?

"Boy, you dare!" Ghoroq was enraged that someone dared to get on its back and claimed to want to ride it! How dare this boy step on its pride?!

It shook its body wildly, trying to throw off Asher but Asher firmly wrapped his arms around its neck as he laughed, "Who is the pathetic one now? You can't even shake me off. So much for the harbinger of despair. All this shaking is like a massage to me, haha," Asher had locked his arms around its neck in such a way that it would be quite difficult to throw him off unless somebody cut off his arms.

Ghoroq's eyes blazed even more in a fury upon getting mocked by such a weak thing.

It could also hear Asher take out his blade and realized that he was planning to cut its neck while sitting on its back.

"Don't take me for a fool!" It had enough and decided to end Asher's insignificant life by raising its tail wide and, with full force, brought down its poison stinger right down on Asher.

"But you are!" Asher mocked as he simply got off its back the moment he felt its tail vibrate subtly, preparing to stab him.

And the next moment,

*Splutch!*

*GRAHNNN!!*

Ghoroq let out a howl of agony as it accidentally stabbed itself with its own poison stinger. It never expected this boy to be fast enough to dodge its stinger in time. It was shocked someone of his level could be that fast. No matter how great his reflexes were, it was physically impossible for him to compete against the speed of its tail.

And indeed Ghoroq was right to think that. Asher wouldn't have been able to dodge if he simply relied on the motion of its tail since it came down so fast, it wasn't possible to react by depending on the naked eye. It would be so fast even Asher would feel as if the tail barely moved from its original position.

The reason Asher could anticipate it was because he knew the only way the wyvern could shake him off was by stabbing him with its stinger. But to know when it would stab him, all he had to do was sense the subtle vibration in its tail when it was directing its mana to use its stinger. The flow of mana through the mana circuit always produces subtle vibrations which would feel more pronounced especially if someone was sitting on their body.

However, it was so subtle it would be impossible for someone else of his level to know how to sense it. But Asher was a veteran who knew how to sense such subtle things. The rest was child's play for him.

But unfortunately for Ghoroq, Asher caused it brutal humiliation by making it stab itself with its own stinger as it successfully pierced its thick skin, and the poison immediately worked its magic.

Ghoroq didn't even get to process its thoughts as the poison spread rapidly through its blood, and within a few moments, it collapsed on the floor, its tongue falling out.

*THUD!*

The sound of its body hitting the floor made the hearts of most of the demons standing outside tremble, waking them up from their daze.

They blinked rapidly as they saw Ghoroq's body breaking down into embers before disappearing into oblivion.

"Fu, fu, He really did it…I can't believe it…He is now officially qualified to deserve the name 'Drake'," Sabina softly chuckled as she shook her head with a look of disbelief. Her eyes had a veiled glint as she took a good look at this handsome hunk in the chamber, who looked even more dashing now.

Eradicator's hands were shaking as she couldn't wait to break this news to the queen herself. Surely this was great news for the kingdom. The royal consort would no longer be considered a parasite to the kingdom but an indisposable asset to the kingdom and the queen.

"So the royal consort is not low born after all. It seems like our assumptions were wrong, don't you think, Esther?" Naida Valentine asked in a friendly tone while Silvia was biting her fingers as she mumbled, "I definitely have to play with him again…"

Edmund, who was standing beside his mother, Esther, scoffed with a scornful look, "Nonsense. All this time, all he used were mere tricks to defeat each of those spirits. He never truly fought any one of them, and that only shows he has yet to prove how worthy his bloodline is. Anybody could do what he did using the same tricks."

Even though he said this, inwardly, he couldn't help but feel threatened by the fact that this lowlife managed to surpass him. He only got till the 5th summoning and didn't dare to take on Ghoroq.

Esther grabbed her son's arm and pulled him closer as she spoke to him in a stern yet low voice, "Don't underestimate him, Edmund. As Naida said, he is far from a fool or a low born. The "tricks" he executed can't be done by someone with no talent. Not even you would be able to do it. Accept this fact and focus on surpassing him before he grows any further. You know very well what would happen otherwise…don't you?"

Edmund's fists shook as he heard his mother's cold truth. But he didn't refute her and deeply thought about what needed to be done about this unexpected turn of events.

Rebecca's hands were clenched tightly behind her back, her sharp nails digging into her skin from frustration and anxiety. She clearly realized Asher was more than what he appeared to be, and that was exactly the fact that unsettled her. If his bloodline was worthy enough as much as the bloodline of her house, then this could only mean bad news.

In desperation, she walked towards the other side of the glass chamber and looked at Asher with a crooked smile, and said in a low voice, "Congratulations, Asher. You have proved yourself to be a genius."

"Were you expecting otherwise…Warden Rebecca?" Asher asked with a subtle curve of his lips.

Rebecca let out a soft snort as she said, "What I expect doesn't matter but do you have the balls to survive the 7th and final summoning?"

Asher rubbed his chin as if in contemplation as he mumbled, "Should I? The rewards I can already get are quite handsome, especially those legendary grade grimoires."

Rebecca clicked her tongue in annoyance, seeing that he was going to call it quits now since, logically it would be stupid to go on when he already would get handsome rewards as he said.

Still, she didn't give up and asked, "Why? Are you too scared to make history? I thought you called this trial easy," She tried to provoke his ego to see if he would fall for it.

Asher chuckled and said, "Yea…this trial is easy but does it matter when I already have what I want? But…I am willing to try if…you promise me something if I succeed."

Rebecca was surprised by the sudden change in his attitude, but out of curiosity and her need to get him to accept the next summoning, she asked, "What do you want?"

"I want you to resign as the Floor Warden and instead give me that position…if I succeed, of course," Asher said as he curved his lips.

"You!" Rebecca's eyes widened as she couldn't believe he had the gall to ask this from her!