Mind Demon's Path of Domination

From her position, Yuri could see the head-sized black core flying into the air. The Boss was looking towards her, so it didn't notice. It instead walked slowly towards Yuri.

'What a foolish creature, if you don't run fast, you will be enslaved…'

But the creature just seemed to want to kill her. It walked slowly towards her.

The Core was in the air, it was such a good chance for Mark to snatch it for himself. He surely was here, she knew. No way would he lose this chance. He would snaatch the core, fly way up into the sky and then plan everything out before making his move.

The Hunters will be helpless with his wings.

Her eyes saw a black pair of wings in the sky. As she expected, he was here.

And she will die.

Mark had said he was interested in her, but she didn't believe that much. Even though she had grown a soft side for him in her heart, she believed he just saw her as a tool. No way would he sacrifice the chance to steal the Core to save her.

It was either the Core, or her.

By the time he came here, the Core would fall back and either Hanmo or Bale would enslave the Boss. Then, everything will be over. Without being able to complete the mission—turning a nation into a dungeon—Mark would be stuck in this world.

He would suffer. Why would he be willing to care for her?

No way would he come.

She knew her own worth. She was worthless. Nobody would sacrifice so much for her. As her consciousness cleared, she understood that no one was coming to save her.

By her lonesome, she will die here.

Tears streamed down her eyes.

Maybe, it was because of her ambition that she ended up in this kind of struggle. She shouldn't have wished to become a Hunter and just lived her life experimenting simple things.

The Boss was just two meters away.

Maybe, if Dona was in danger, he would have cared.

Suddenly, she felt her whole body shake. The wings of the man in the skies fluttered and he moved with immense speed to land beside her. Mark laughed heartily.

"I didn't expect the Core to appear!" he said, "And what a chaotic bunch. Not one of them has any bit of team work."

Yuri blinked as she found herself rising into the air. Like an eagle hunted its prey, he had brought her up.

"You…" Yuri coughed, blood leaking down the side of her mouth. "You will lose the core!"

Mark laughed. "No."

Suddenly, the weird feeling of not understanding what was going on happened with her. Again. It was like the days when she trained with Mark—when he fought seriously.

…

Mark had been watching the battle intently. He had been surprised when the well-formulated team scattered and became a mess. If getting the Core was not a way to win the battle, their Contract would have been triggered and nobody would dare run like this, but winning the Core was a way to win the battle.

He looked at Yuri's tearful face and sighed before running to her rescue.

She seemed surprised, yet overwhelmed as she clung to his chest.

"You will lose the core," she said tearfully.

Mark smiled. "No."

The world was a circus, every living being a clown. When the clown entered the stage, they no longer cared who laughed at them and who cried. They themselves were the one and only thing that mattered.

They laughed, they cried, and everyone… watched.

Demonic Trick—Clown's Circus.

Suddenly, a hundred meters around Mark, everything came to a standstill.

The falling leaf stopped in mid air. The Boss Demon stood in place, frozen, with an expresssionless face. Everything had stopped.

It was as if time had come to a standstill a hundred meters around Mark.

But the time hadn't really come to a halt. It was just an immense pressure pushing down on everything, not that the time itself had stopped. The space had been locked to a standstill, to be more accurate.

Everything physically within 100 meters of him had been stopped in place.

Basically, though, it was the same thing as stopping time. But it only lasted 30 seconds and once he used it, he couldn't use it again for another whole day.

It used a different energy from Mindpower to function and to accumulate that energy, it took a day's time.

Calmly, Mark flew through the air with Yuri in his embrace; even she had become still. The moment the Boss was 100 meters away from him, it began to move.

Mark flew near the Core still falling from air and caught it. It felt warm. Just then, the 30 seconds ended and the world once again began moving.

Yuri took a deep breath. She was as confused as a bird thrown into the sea. When she last remembered, she was near the Boss, now, they were among the A-rankers.

The Hunters below looked at Mark with cold and disbelieving eyes.

"Hailen?!" Bale shouted in disbelief.

Hanmo wasn't so tame, though.

The Ice God condensed a long and sharp spear of ice and it moved straight through the air to pierce Mark from the back. Just in time, Mark moved Yuri aside.The ice pierced Mark from his back and made a hole in his chest.

Yuri looked down at Hanmo maliciously.

Mark laughed.

"You can't kill me, Hanmo. I'll came for you later!"

He flew higher and higher, but his entire human body turned into ice as he moved, and it began to shatter. Hanmo got ready to catch the Core when it fell.

Mark looked down and winked at Yamuna.

He was calm even as his entire body turned into ice.

The human shell cracked from around him and Mark's true body revealed itself.

Hailen's body was just his armor. It was nothing to care about.

Crimson skin, golden eyes, grey hair.

His demonic self looked down regally.

Black wings fluttered and Mark vanished into the clouds.

Bale looked up at the sky with a frown. All the other Hunters turned to him, gasping.

Just as they were wondering what to do from now, a black demon and a minotaur ran towards them, face menacingly cold.

The Boss, especially, seemed enraged beyond belief. ITS CORE!

Leon and Tiger ran behind the Minotaur, Wind right after them.

Mark's laughter echoed from above the clouds.

"Fight it you all, let me enslave it in peace!" he said.

They all looked up at the sky with pale faces.

"Demon!"

"An intelligent Demon!"

Hanmo had a dark expression on his face.

"Bale, what is going on?" Reema asked. "Wasn't that Hailen?"

Bale had a bloodless face. "I don't know!"

A single feather from Mark's wings fell on Bale's bald head.