Mind Demon's Path of Domination

A few hours later.

Ryan burped, looking up at the castle in the sky with a yawn. He had been treated to a feast, and he had even napped for a few hours.

The sealed demons near the weird tree, who used to look so ferocious and disgruntling once upon a time, yawned and woke up from their naps too. They all looked a bit refreshed, cool-headed, and overall sharp.

Ryan smirked at them and they smirked back. "Good morning fellows," he said.

They nodded imperceptibly. Indeed, now Ryan and them were business partners. Yes, they had come to a decent agreement of equal benefit and signed a contract using one of their treasures. Now, they were allies. They had all accepted to help each other.

Of course, they didn’t know that the contract didn’t bind Mark’s real body. They thought it did, but due to his special connection with Reol’ran, contracts didn’t affect him at all.

The contract was simple.

These demons would all work together to train Ryan into an absolute battle machine---they would show no remorse in spending their treasures. And in return, Ryan and his main body Mark would try their best to save them from this place. To add to it, since they had high expectations for Mark’s future, they also asked for some simple future favor from him.

He didn’t mind being generous and let them sign him into the contract.

Everyone was happy—Now they had some hope. And even though none of them could accept Ryan as their official disciple, they would all benefit from his relationship if he were to become a legendary demon down the line.

And Ryan?

He was happy to be trained by these experts. He had always wanted to squeeze out his talents.

...

"So where do we begin?" The Succubus asked. "I think you should first go underground and get the Demon Suppressing Bloodline. Then, you will get the first few abilities that most better than the rug creatures get upon birth."

Ryan agreed to that. When Mark had been reincarnated into a Demon, he had mixed bloodline and due to that, he didn’t get any other demonic tricks than Soul Devouring.

But when he spent the measly sum of 0.1 Soul Spheres to cleanse his demon bloodlines, he got the Ephemeral Dungeon Heart Bloodline, which gave him the abilities like Dungeon Heart Seed and Heart Input. Thus, any demon’s path of power began in their Bloodline.

Yet, before that, he had to deal with something.

Star Fever.

The souls and cries of the creatures that his main body had murdered were increasing in number by the minutes. His main body was still on a sleepless murder spree. And the cursed ability was growing stronger and the screams were making him more and more hazy.

"Before that, did you guys come up with any idea to deal with the curse I told you about?" He had told them about it before he had a nap, and since they took a nap of their own, they must have come up with an idea to deal with it.

"Yes, there is a simple way to deal with it," The Blade Demon said calmly. "You just need to train in my way of the Blade and attain Blade Aura. You already have a lot of killing intent surrounding you, creating a murderous aura that someone like me can see. You need to make that aura physical, and then cut off the past burdening you as a curse."

Ryan licked his lips. "How do I do that and can’t you do it using your own Blade Aura to help me?"

"No. I can’t see these screaming souls you mentioned. It’s most probably something only you can see and is effecting your soul directly. So, you have to get aura yourself. And to get aura, you have to train in a special way but to train like that, you need to be a Lower Demon at the very least."

Rubbing his nose, Ryan nodded. He was just a Demonling now. So, he would have to suffer the soul screams for a while longer. Then, he thought about something and grew a bit worried inwardly.

For a Demonling to become a Lower Demon, they had to sense their own Soul Space---the inferior version of a World Space.

But Ryan’s body was previously the body of a mere sheep and Mark had used Alchemic Shapeshifting to transform it into a biologic demon without a demonic bloodline. That had made the Demon World accept Ryan as a demon, proven by the fact that the World Will didn’t burn him. But since it was a sheep previously, did it mean he had no Soul Space?

According to what Mark knew, Soul Spaces were something unique to demons. It was used to store the souls they couldn’t immediately devour. Mark himself used to have a Soul Space before he evolved it into a World Space with the Hunter World’s World Core.

Since Ryan’s body was not a demon at one point, and was forced to become a Demonling using Alchemic Shapeshifting from some other race, did he not have the capability to become a Lower Demon at all?

He no longer had to think of solutions himself. This was the use of superb mentors. Reol’ran often didn’t have answers, but Ryan doubted these people would be the same. They were stronger and more experienced than her after all.

Ryan cleared his throat and brought their attention to him. He then described how he created his Puppet Ryan and his challenge in becoming a Tier 1 from Tier 0.

"I need to sense a Soul Space to evolve, but I probably don’t have such a thing at all."

They grew a bit solemn and began a small philosophical debate centering around Soul Spaces and such between each other. But before it became an outright argument, the Grey-winged humanoid rubbed his nose.

"Don’t be too worried about it," he said. "Soul Space, Mind Space. Yes, these things are unique to demons and if you don’t have it at birth, you can’t add it to your soul by body modification. Because it is part of the soul and modifying the soul to the degree you can change your race is nearly impossible."

"Then how can I become a Tier 1 from Tier 0?"

What would he do if he didn’t have a Soul Space to sense, which was important to become a Lower Demon?

"It isn’t necessary that you sense a Soul Space, what is necessary to become a Lower Demon from a Demonling is sensing the mental space inside you. No matter what kind.

"To sense the Soul Space, you need to have an insatiable greed for more power, which is the innate state of a Soul Space. Your main body must have gone through that once, so you should know.

"Your greed resonated with the kind of mental space within you and that brought your awareness into it. And inside this new body too, there must be a unique mental space and it should resonate with something else other than greed. Just find it and feel that emotion or thought deeply, and you will enter that mental world."

"Oh..."

The Succubus lifted Ryan to her giant hands. "What kind of species was this body before your main body transformed it? The emotion necessary to find your mental resonance needed is probably hidden in that fact."

"It was a sheep..." Ryan sighed. "So do I have to go eating grass...?"

The Succubus chuckled. "A sheep? That’s the Yang if the demons are the Yin. We crave violence, and lambs crave peace. One has greed for power, while the other has probably the exact opposite. Most probably, what you need to wish for is peace."

"Not really," The Blade Demon said with a snort. "Don’t fill your mind with that rotted garbage. Women, peace, and fear dull your blade more than anything. To feel an intense urge for patience? That would completely scatter all the murderous intent that you accumulated, and you will have no chance of attaining aura."

The Grey-winged humanoid surmised: "Or maybe when he gains the Demon Suppressing bloodline, it might show another way forward which is completely different from us natural demons."

The fat business-man looking demon nodded. "Then, your focus should indeed be on attaining the Bloodline first."

Ryan nodded. He has to get ready to visit the undergrounds of this eccentric place then.

His silver eyes shined with a color of interest that burned with the intensity to burn the world.

His stomach was full, his mind was clear enough, and his main body was fighting at all times. His body was naturally in a state of all-time adrenaline rush---he felt he could do anything at the moment.

He couldn’t wait for the Suffering of Man to begin. He had a nasty surprise ready for whoever was coming.

After all, Mark was in 24/7 training. It would be strange if he wasn’t growing stronger and releasing his potential in an unseen level.