The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel 74 Bayfront Coast 16

"Ashton!" David snapped. "I saw you! You held him over the cliff by his neck…" David placed a hand on his neck as his voice lowered slightly. "And dropped him."

...

A few seconds after "Jim Mack" disappeared, Juin arrived at the cliff. The rain seemed to have actively avoided him, for his whole body did not seem to be wet at all.

Glancing at an area among the trees, Juin wondered if he should kill the person spying on him. However, when he realized that the spy was just a kid, he merely smirked and turned back to Ashton.

Looking at Ashton, who was barely breathing, and his expression remained blank. Using his foot, he nudged Ashton on the waist and turned him over.

"Juin…" Ashton said weakly as he peered through the darkness and the falling rain to look at his best friend. His body was too weak, having lost quite some blood, and it took him a while to focus his gaze, but when he saw Juin's red eyes, his own eyes showed a disappointed gaze. "You're not him…"

The wound on Juin's chest had stopped bleeding, and there was now a shadowy-silhouette around him that could not be seen with the naked eye; one that had red electricity zigzagging around it.

"No, I'm not…" "Juin" said with an evil grin. He then kicked Ashton so hard that his best friend bounced off the ground twice before falling off the edge of the cliff. "A mage, who dares to attempt to control me… How funny..."

"For your information, I don't enjoy having someone manipulating me," said "Juin" as he slowly walked to the edge of the cliff, where Ashton struggled to hold onto the edge. "Be a coward? Really? 'He' could only have control of the body for now because of those stupid shackles, but sooner or later, I'm going to fully take over." "Juin" scoffed as he pressed his left foot down on Ashton's fingers.

"Urgh…" Ashton groaned as he willed himself to hold on, but it was hard when "Juin" rubbed the sole of his shoes on his fingers hard.

"Why don't you just die?" "Juin" snarled as he raised his left foot with the intention to stomp down hard on Ashton's fingers, but just as his foot was an inch away, he felt a sharp pain coming from his wound and quickly took a step backward.

As if his head was in pain, he clutched the sides of his head and snapped, "I'm the true soul, and you're just a projection I created with my power! How dare you try to fight me?!"

His eyes flashed from red to black and black to red again, and it repeated a couple of times.

"ARGH!!!" "Juin" looked up at the dark clouds and roared. "STOP IT!!!"

Claps of thunder stretched for miles as the two souls within Juin fought within, both trying to take control of the vessel.

In the end, he roared; his voice dampened by the deafening sound of the rain. At the same time, the shadow hanging on his back grew taller and taller, until it was taller than even a 10-story building!

A pair of crimson eyes soon appeared on the body of the shadow. In the absolute darkness, it was extremely clear to be seen even from miles away. More and more bolts of lightning appeared in the sky, striking the grounds every few miles apart.

From far away, the sound of car sirens blaring loudly mixed with the sound of the thunders, waking up some of the sleeping citizens.

Meanwhile, Juin's wound on his chest grew wider and wider, but no blood was coming out. All that was pouring out was a small rope of shadow that connected to the monstrous shadow behind him.

As for Ashton, who had slowly crawled up onto the cliff, he had a premonition as he watched Juin fighting against himself; images of entire cities being lit in fire and bodies of demons, monsters, and humans strewn around the streets without discrimination appeared in his eyes.

Black shadows flew around in the air and joined the monster shadow, making it even bigger and more solid, as if these smaller shadows were giving it strength to grow.

"Juin…" Ashton mumbled weakly as he looked at the monster shadow that was growing rapidly. "I have to do this…"

His hands that were facing the sky glowed brightly in the darkness as a ball of golden light slowly appeared over them, growing bigger and brighter by the second. The ball of golden light flattened and became a round diagram with multiple triangles within it and ancient rune alphabets floating around it.

As Ashton called upon all the magic that he could muster, he continued to chant a mysterious spell under his breath while keeping his eyes on Juin. His already weakened body was further weakened as blood poured out of his nose, ears, and eyes.

A few seconds later, the diagram turned into a helix, with random foreign characters floating all over it, ending up in an Ankh symbol.

"Protect him on my behalf…" Ashton whispered to the Ankh symbol, "Keep him alive…"

He then blew the Ankh symbol toward Juin. As Juin was fighting among himself, he did not notice the symbol until it hit him.

"ARGH!!!" Juin yelled when the Ankh symbol entered his body through the wound, slowly sealing the wound from within. His eyes turned red as he glared at Ashton. "YOU!"

He stomped over and grabbed Ashton by the neck as he roared, "What have you done?!"

"You won't be coming out now…" Ashton sneered. "It's not time for you to make an appearance yet, go back in!"

"Juin" was angered, and with his left hand on Ashton's neck, he dragged him over effortlessly and dangled him over the cliff. "REMOVE THE SPELL!"

"He would never remember this, so you won't be able to come out easily again!" Ashton sneered as he glared at "Juin". He knew his destiny, and he had foreseen the destiny of the demon king within Juin's body, and he knew… that this demon king had to be kept locked for now or a catastrophe would occur.

Coming out prematurely before Juin was able to handle the power, the true nature of the demon king's soul would take over. Without anyone to subdue the true soul, it would consume the kind soul, which was the Juin that everyone knew, and everything would move according to the demon king's true destiny…

And as his guardian, Ashton had to prevent that.

For the kind Juin whom he had known over the years, Ashton had to make sure that the one who would win at the end would be the Juin that he knew. Otherwise, their home world was bound to end up in destruction.

He continued to place another spell on Juin, but before he could finish, a strong murderous aura came like a wind and suffocated him.

In a split second, "Juin" appeared in front of Ashton and stared down at him with a haughty expression. "An Aristocratic Mage who betrays his true king… This won't end well for you…"

He then whispered, "And if you think this is enough to stop my uprising, then you're wrong…"