Passing

As Neo continued to circulate the demonic energy inside of his body in accordance with the Demon Converting Art, his body's trembling intensified as the pain he was enduring was slowly becoming more and more unbearable.

Even if Neo wanted to stop, it was too late now. The demonic energy was circulating way too fast and it was already in the process of being purified into pure energy.

If he stopped the process midway, it would cause the energy circulating in his meridians to flow backwards thus injuring him in the process. Unless one had a unique constitution that could handle the backflow, normal people would usually die or become crippled if their energy began flowing backwards due to a mistake while cultivating their energy.

Generally, there are 2 types of known energy that can be cultivated and used by anyone. They were Mana and Ki. Mana is something that mages use while Ki is what warriors and martial artists use.

Even though they had two different names, they were essentially the same kind of energy at its base. The only difference is where the practitioner stored their energy. If stored in the heart, then it was called Mana, but if the energy is stored in their dantian, then it was called Ki.

The place where the energy is stored results in two different methods of use thus the energy became known by 2 different names.

Of course, there was also Holy and Demonic Energy, but those 2 energies came from the Gods and fundamentally, they were also the same kind of divine energy. It's just that their attributes were different.

It's just like how Mana has many different elements–Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, etc. The same was with Ki as it could be differentiated between Internal and External Ki.

Neo learned all of this from the Immortal who he had only met once in his past lives. Even though he tried searching for him in his other lives, the Immortal only ever showed up in his 6th life as what he believed to be a unique existence.

The Demon Converting Art operated on the basis that every kind of energy was essentially the same. No one had wanted to experiment with it before, but the Immortal was a crazy person who didn't hesitate to experiment using his own body.

In the end, he was able to create the Demon Converting Art and passed it down to Neo on a whim before disappearing just before the final clash between Neo and the Demon King.

Not even Neo's two friends, Merlina and Son Go Kong, knew about the Immortal as he only appeared whenever Neo was alone. Now that he thought about it more closely, the Immortal could've just been a figment of his imagination or a vision that the Goddess or someone else had projected into his mind at that time.

Neo never thought too deeply about it and he kept the information from his friends, Merlina, Son Go Kong, and Sigurd. He didn't know if he could still even call them his friends.

The Merlina in this life didn't even know him all too well like the ones in his past lives while the Sigurd of this life had turned traitor even after he had retained all of his memories.

He still hadn't met Son Go Kong yet so it was too far-fetched to say that he was his friend in this life.

Neo dismissed all of the distracting thoughts in his head and focused on purifying all of the demonic energy inside of his body.

A few hours later, Neo stopped circulating his energy and stood up. He checked the condition of his body and nodded to himself after seeing that all of the demonic energy had been purified.

[Name: Neo

Race: ???

Attribute(s): Light, Fire, Dark

Mana: 175 (S)

Ki: 50 (C)

Strength: 100 (A)

Endurance: 100 (A)

Agility: 100 (A)

Intelligence: 100 (A)

Blessings:

Light of Luminance (B), Perfect Memory (S)]

Neo didn't forget to check his status plate and saw that he had gained a new attribute and stat. There was also a slight increase in his Mana stat, but he expected all of this to happen since he was using the Demon Converting Art exactly for the purpose to increase his Mana and obtain Ki.

It was hard to use Son Go Kong's martial arts without Ki so this was good for him and increasing his Mana was something he had to prioritize right now since he couldn't use his unreplenishable Holy Energy.

The only thing he didn't expect, however, was that he had obtained a new attribute. Also, it was an attribute that he didn't think he'd ever be able to obtain considering that he was a being of light.

"The Dark Attribute…how was I able to obtain this and how come it's compatible with me?"

Neo conjured a dark flame on top of his palm and didn't feel appalled by it. If someone else was to see this, they'd immediately think that he was using demonic energy but it was completely not the case.

"...I'll keep this hidden for now. It's bad enough that Sigurd is using demonic energy. If people see that I can as well, they might think that me and him colluded against Merlina and ambushed her together in the crypt."

He needed to keep his image as the Goddess's Champion so he decided never to use this new attribute he's obtained.

"Even though I can't use it openly, I bet it'll be a great help when fighting against the demon king's forces."

Neo has never obtained this Dark Attribute before because in his previous lives, his Holy Energy prevented him from ever being poisoned by Demonic Energy. In this life, it was different.

His blessing, the [Light of Luminance], has weakened due to the goddess being weakened herself. This allowed the demonic energy from Sigurd to invade his body and although it made him powerless in his confrontation against his friend in the crypt, it actually became a blessing in disguise after he was able to purify it with the Demon Converting Art.

"Now that I'm done here, let's go see how Merlina's doing."

Neo exited the dungeons and saw that the knight that had escorted him was standing nearby. When the knight saw him, he quickly stood up and walked over to him.

"Sir, are you finally finished with your business?"

"Yes, I'm done. Is it possible to have an audience with the Queen?"

"A-About that, sir…the Queen. She's passed away," The knight shockingly said.

"...What?"

"Her Highness, Queen Merlina. She passed away yesterday while you were in closed doors…"

"Yesterday? Just how long was I out?" Neo asked.

"3 days, sir. You've been in the dungeon for 3 days so I've been guarding the entrance for exactly that many days, sir. My captain personally delivered the news of the Queen's passing…"

"...Please bring me to her."

"The mourning ceremony is still underway, but before we go, sir. Please follow me. We have to do something about your appearance."

"Huh? Oh, yes…"

Neo was brought back to his chambers in the castle and he quickly took a bath to cleanse himself. He had been stuck in the dungeon for 3 days without him knowing that. He felt that only a few hours had gone by when in actuality, 3 days had.

Once he was finished, Neo quickly headed towards the castle's great hall where the mourning ceremony was taking place and on the way, the knight who had been guarding him informed him of what happened during the 3 days he was gone.

Many things had happened, but the most important thing was that Merlina had passed away on the second day since he entered the dungeons.

Merlina's injuries when she was brought back to the castle were deep, but they didn't seem too fatal–at least, on the surface. The royal physician along with the church's bishop were able to heal her, but unfortunately, Merlina's condition didn't get any better and only worsened until finally, she closed her eyes forever the next day.

Neo felt sad and thought that it was regrettable, but he only felt this way because he lost a comrade that would've become a great asset to his battle against the Demon King's forces.

He still needed to learn more about human emotions, but it was hard for him to empathize with creatures that weren't the same as him. He was but a vessel created by the Goddess to do her bidding so human emotions were the last thing the Goddess gave to him.

Lately, however, he's been able to better express his emotions despite not being able to completely understand them. He didn't know how he was becoming like this, but he attributed it to the fact that his goddess's blessing and protection was slowly waning.

When Neo arrived at the great hall, he saw many people attending the ceremony. Merlina's lifeless body was placed at the center of the great hall and people from all kinds of status were coming and going, mourning over her death.

The ceremony would go on for another day before they buried her in the royal catacombs.

Neo walked up with a red flower in his hand. Everyone else had placed white flowers in and around her coffin, but he was the only one who was bringing a red flower. He couldn't recall the flower's name, but he remembered from his previous lives that Merlina loved this flower.

To his surprise, he saw the young lady who was a maid from the adventurer guild sitting on the chair to the side with a distraught look on her face. Cecilia was sitting next to her and holding her hand.

After placing the flower in Merlina's coffin, he walked over to them and called out, "Cecilia."

Cecilia looked up and after seeing him, she replied, "Master Neo, you're finally out of your closed-doors seclusion."

The way she addressed him had gone back to being so formal again, but Neo didn't say anything due to the situation they were in.

"Yes, I had to purge the demonic energy from my body…it's unfortunate that I wasn't able to be there for Merlina…"

Cecilia shook her head and said, "I-It's fine, Master Neo. We never would have thought that Her Highness's close friend, Sigurd, would betray her like that and kill her in cold blood…"

"..."

Neo clenched his fist as a stuffy feeling enveloped around his chest. He didn't know what this feeling was, but it was anger. He was angry at Sigurd who had betrayed them and fell to the dark side.

"Cecilia, I plan on going after him after the ceremony finishes. Will you come with me?" Neo asked.