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Xen quirked a small, satisfied smile. “Three hundred years ago, the day that relic was buried in that temple, he was cursed to remain in this form, guarding the relic against everyone. It has been so long that he has forgotten what it is to be normal.”

“When you saynormal…”

Xen waved a hand at his suit-clad self. “Like me.”

So that demon had forgotten how to turn…smaller. Or human-like. Well, whichever, it was not Evan’s responsibility nor desire to tangle himself with any more demons. If they just left and returned when that Hellguard was not around, it would be easier to retrieve Reth.

But even as he leaned towards that logic, a small part within Evan swayed with uncertainty.

Three centuries was a long time. Without sight, aimlessly wandering an abandoned world must have been lonely for the demon.

Xen had called him afriend. Another word Evan had never thought he’d hear from a demon. If their friendship was genuine, then Xen must’ve been feeling the same way as Evan after finding out about Aaron’s disappearance.

The normal Evan would have refused straightaway and left that place immediately. But the normal Evan was turning more and more abnormal by each day that he spent around Xen. So it was no surprise when a thought popped into his mind.

Getting a little context before deciding whether or not to help him wouldn’t hurt, right?

Xen, who’d been staring intently at Evan, hummed appreciatively, no doubt reading his mind.

After sending a glare his way, then hesitating a little, Evan asked, “How can we break his curse? And thisdoesn’tmean I’m agreeing to anything. Or disagreeing.”

The Hellguard, being hit with round after round of hushed whispers from everywhere, grew more and more restless. A roar echoed from the hollow cave of its gaping mouth, and he swung an arm at a nearby tree, smashing it to splinters with one strike. The remainder of the tree crashed heavily to the ground. Some creatures lurking in the shadows screeched in fright beforefleeing into the woods, disappearing from the raging beast’s sight.

Evan stared blankly at the scene, then swallowed.

Perhaps before he broke the curse, something inside his body was going to break.

Not particularly impressed by the show of aggression, Xen instead shifted towards the edge of the tree. Evan, still in his lap, shifted with him unwillingly.

“See that puncture in his head?” he pointed towards the Hellguard. Evan squinted, trying to focus in the dark, his eyes glowing blue as he strained his sensitive vision. Sure enough, in the spot between where its eyes should’ve been, there was a hole just big enough to swallow a human fist.

“I see it,” Evan whispered.

“You need to hit it with a spiritual blast.”

A breath hitched in Evan’s throat. “I—What?!”

“Every demon’s original form possesses an opening to its core of demonic energy,” Xen explained, wiggling a finger at the Hellguard’s head. “His is there, right at the center of his head.”

“What—but…” Evan stammered, unable to make sense of this detail. “How will blasting his head off break his curse?”

If a demon’s core of energy worked anything like that of a spiritually cultivated human, then blasting its opening might as well be a death sentence. It could crush its innards, then explode from within the body, blowing the demon to pieces.

Even if Evan wasn’t sure he possessed the immense spiritual energy needed to kill a creature that massive, he didn’t want to risk it.

He'd never exorcised a ghost that didn't pose a threat. And he wasn't going to kill a demon for the same reason.

That Hellguard had already been cursed for three hundred years. Accidentally killing him wouldn't just be unfair but a guilt that Evan would carry for the rest of his miserable life.

As they stared at the Hellguard smashing more trees around him, Xen explained.

In the original form of any demon, their powers grazed the peak, demonic energy flooding their bodies, fueling whatever emotion they were feeling in the moment. But the more power it supplied, the more difficult it was to control that energy surge. Sometimes, newborn demons were overwhelmed into madness if they failed to turn back to their normal skin.

After over three centuries of being stuck in his original form, an immense amount of demonic energy had saturated inside the Hellguard. All that uncontrolled demonic energy, without an outlet, had accumulated around the core from where it had originated.

A core of energy in an original form was similar to the brain in the normal skin. Since his core was thoroughly bundled in darkness, the Hellguard's senses were muddled. He couldn’t think or understand what was happening around him.

If he continued to be in that state for a few more years, under the pressure of so much unused energy, the core would explode, along with the demon.