"Let's see. The body mutated by mana and darkness has become like this."

"Kuaaahh..."

I straightened the man pinned to the ground and fixed him in place again, then used the blades of mana to slowly peel apart his body.

The skin. It's tough. Even a decent blade would bounce off the leathery toughness, and each individual hair had considerable strength... It felt like he was wearing a scale armor made of fur.

The underlying muscle strength was also considerable, and unless cut along the grain, it wouldn't easily split.

Hmm. The basic muscle structure differs from a human's only in size, but it seems the mana and darkness have drastically enhanced its strength and toughness.

The fact that he could absorb those shards of darkness is likely thanks to his mana, so those who cannot wield mana would find it difficult to transform like this.

The blood had turned a much darker, blackish-red color compared to normal red. Hmm. Is this because the shards of darkness have dissolved into the bloodstream and are circulating through the entire body? Curious. I'll have to check this more closely when I examine the heart later.

As for the internal organs... Hmm. The organ structures don't seem to differ greatly from a human's, just the sizes have changed. Their arrangement is not too different from a human's.

"Grrr..."

"It's still alive despite me cutting into it without anesthesia. It has an amazingly resilient life force."

A normal human would have died from the pain.

"Ugh..."

"Hm? Why are you so alarmed? It's not like you've never seen a living being cut before. You've killed your fair share, haven't you?"

"That's true, but even though it's transformed, I still can't help but think of it as human... It feels a bit..."

"Human? Human you say?"

I looked at the man, his blood now a dark red, who had become a demon. I spoke in a cold voice.

"Do you still consider this to be human?"

"But..."

"It has already abandoned being human. A foolish one who couldn't resist its curiosity and greed, touching what it shouldn't have. If you call this monstrosity human, then the beastmen, dwarves, elves, and lizardmen would all have to be considered human as well."

For it has strayed far from humanity, more so than those subraces.

It would not be wrong to call it an entirely separate species at this point.

"I don't know if more like this will appear, but if you happen to encounter one... Quickly sever its neck. That would be the best choice for those who have transformed this way."

"Yes..."

The Hero nodded slightly, his expression one of incomprehension, but what can be done? Such is the cruel reality.

"But how much longer do you plan to dissect him?"

"Hmm. I just need to check the heart area and then I'll be done."

I split open the chest, removing the ribs, to examine the heart hidden behind the lungs.

Stained by the darkened blood, the heart had also taken on a blackish-red hue, fully reflecting its alien nature.

But the important thing is not the heart itself.

I carefully removed the organs surrounding the heart one by one, and eventually found what I was looking for.

Attached to the back of the heart was a pitch-black stone, the demonic stone.

It contained a considerable amount of shards of darkness.

Apparently, it had been attached to the back of the heart, dissolving the shards of darkness into the bloodstream and circulating them throughout the body to mutate it.

Hmm, not a very pleasant sight.

I used mana to block the flow of the shards of darkness escaping the demonic stone, and redirected the returning blood to push the shards back into the stone.

After some time passed... the man's blood began to slowly return to a reddish color.

"The blood..."

"It's turning red again."

But the mutated body could not be reversed.

Even if I could remove the shards of darkness from the blood, the transformed body could not be restored.

It's a bit of a shame.

"There."

I detached the demonic stone from the heart and handed it to the Hero.

"Absorb it into the gem."

"Ah, yes."

The Hero placed the demonic stone I had handed him against his sword, and the darkness within the stone slowly seeped into the sword.

Hmm. He can absorb shards of darkness of this size without any trouble. Not bad.

Setting that impression aside for now, I looked down at the man from whom the demonic stone had been removed. body that had transformed into a demon began to crumble and scatter from the extremities, as if the absence of the demonic stone that had contained the shards of darkness was the cause.

Does the corrupted body continue to crave the shards of darkness? If no more shards are supplied, does it turn to ash like this?

What a pitiful existence.

"No, no, no! I don't want to die!!! I don't want to die!!!"

With the shards of darkness all removed and the demonic stone extracted, the man's sanity seemed to be slowly returning, unlike the beast-like growls he had been making.

He can now speak, having recovered to that extent.

But it's already too late.

"No! I don't want it! I don't want to die!!! I want to live!!! I want to!!!"

Hm? Suddenly, mana is rushing into his mouth. This is... a breath attack?

No, it's not even worthy of being called a breath attack. It's just a desperate struggle, merely emitting a shockwave of mana from his mouth.

While it is a mana-based attack expelled through the mouth, which could be considered a breath, compared to a true breath attack, this is just a weak puff of air.

"Tch."

I easily deflected the shockwave of mana he had expelled with the back of my hand.

"Guh..."

"What a pathetic last struggle. Compared to a dragon, this is just a weak puff of air."

Wait, a dragon?

Breath attacks. Scales on the body. Wings. A tail... Even horns on the head. Hmm...

Could it be that he was trying to transform into the form of a dragon? But without even scales?

Hmm... Perhaps the memories of Erebus within the shards of darkness yearned for that transformation.

Despite causing such trouble and ruining everything, is he still longing for those times?

What a foolish creature.

"I don't want to die..."

As the man's arms and legs were disappearing, I looked down at him and spoke a word to the Hero.

"Now, sever his neck."

"Yes..."

Though he had already become a demon, he was once human.

For the Hero, this would be his first kill.

The Hero tightly closed his eyes and brought down his sword on the man's neck.

And the body of the transformed demon crumbled into ashes and vanished.

Well, the physical examination is complete, so now it's time to check the soul.

I looked at the soul that had emerged from the ashes of the man.

It retained the appearance it had before the transformation into a demon.

But most of that soul had been tainted by darkness, turning it black.

The shards of darkness... Do they even stain the soul?

Erebus, just how far are you going to degrade yourself?

What are you seeking, and what are you trying to accomplish by doing this?

I simply cannot understand it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Demons.

Sentient beings corrupted and fallen to darkness.

Those who greedily grasped at powers they should not have touched, losing everything and leaving not even their own corpses behind.

The accursed ones were the first to appear in this world, in the tale of the nameless Hero, the very first Hero.

Long ago, in the Babel built by the persecuted Mages.

The one who took control of that city was a demon tribe who sought to seize the power of God by building a great tower. However, their true identity was revealed by the Hero's party.

But the demon tribe's strength was incomparable to humans. As their wicked hands reached for the Dragon's Priestess, a companion of the nameless Hero, God could no longer watch their evil deeds.

A great pillar of light crushed the demon tribe and also destroyed the tower they had built to become god. The first demon tribe crumbled under the mighty power of God.

………

After losing the tower and ruler, the mages of Babel made various choices. Some chose to atone for their sins by creating a plaza at the tower where God demonstrated power, vowing not to repeat the same mistake. They chose to remain in Babel.

Others, though not guilty themselves, chose to leave Babel to atone for the foolishness of electing an unwise ruler.

Some mages denied any wrongdoing and relied on human nations, betraying Babel.

………

Thereafter, demon tribes frequently appeared. Many were originally mages, especially those researching magic stones. Curiously, demon tribes often emerged from the descendants of those who betrayed Babel.

Some mages claimed this was the price for ignoring Babel's sin or using unsanctified magic stones, but recent research suggests the root cause lies elsewhere - that some components of magic stones corrupt mages.

While a far-fetched claim requiring long proof...if true, it could reveal the cause of demon tribes throughout human history - removing one of humanity's sins.

- What are demon tribes?

- Later, a research lab studying magic stone components was destroyed by a sudden demon tribe emergence and rampage, leaving the claim unresolved.

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T/N: Here you go, 1 Cookie. I initially wanted to set the price to 2 Cookies, but now it seems like I'll occasionally make it 1 and 2. Cheer up!

By the way check my new wife pic!