Damned Healer

Everyone in the sect watched that scene, completely frozen. The whole world was dead silent. Darian's eyes locked onto those three souls twisting in extreme agony.

In his mind, memories of the Wild World, back when the three of them "died," flashed before him.

At that time, inside the cracks of the energy body Dohans had created, in their very last moment, a faint yellow, blue, and green light could be seen fading away, as if it was being absorbed by Dohans.

It was so fast, and the emotions so intense, that Darian never wanted to remember that final scene. But that definitely hadn't been normal. If he'd thought about it carefully, he might have realized the truth.

Back to reality, right before his eyes, the three beings were growing weaker and weaker, on the verge of disappearing...

...until Dohans waved his hand.

A white light covered them. And it was like their soul fragments were being magically healed. In seconds, it was as if they'd been rewound a few moments in time.

"Hahahaha... you like my gift for you?" Dohans laughed, "Don't worry, I won't let them disappear."

Right then, Darian's eyes locked onto him, and a black light flashed through them.

Through karma, Darian saw the past.

The vision began in a desert. He saw himself through the perspective of a Heavenly Elemental Spirit, radiating a fiery aura. But this fire was very different from the usual — a very faint red, like something was missing.

Dohans looked fragile and almost lifeless, like a candle about to go out. In front of him, a group of five Heavenly Elemental Spirits was chained.

At that moment, Dohans gestured, and his flames spread toward the five. Soon, Darian saw them open their eyes and thrash about like they were being tortured.

It lasted several minutes. Darian witnessed every change, every manipulation, every attempt of Dohans. He heard the murmurs of his trials and failures, and even his thoughts spoken aloud.

In the end, the lives of the five were completely extinguished. Then Dohans's aura and flames turned white, mixing with the soul energy of those people.

"I... I'll live! I'm really gonna live! This technique really works!" Dohans's ecstatic, emotional voice was the last thing Darian heard.

Darian's eyes snapped back to reality.

The vision had lasted nearly an hour, but in the real world, only five seconds had passed. It was quick because he had sought the oldest, densest karma in Dohans's life.

His mind raced. Analyzing it all, he realized two things.

Dohans really was a Heavenly Elemental Spirit born from fire. But either he was a mutant, or something had happened to him to leave him on the brink of death. Given the incredible power he later wielded, and the context of the ruined desert in the past, it looked like he'd stumbled upon a life-saving technique by sheer luck.

In high-level ruins Darian had visited, he had always found things that matched him and could be useful. Dohans must have gone through the same.

Looking at everything he'd done with that power... Darian was sure. It was a top-tier technique that absorbed people's lives and souls. That was what gave Dohans the strength to get where he was — and more importantly, to stay alive.

'Power...'

Darian muttered. The only thing he had left was what no one could strip away: his life and his soul.

In another universe, being just a Spiritual Guardian, he had no reason to fear death. His curse could revive him, as long as he had power stored up. But, unfortunately, his curse couldn't bring his body back.

Meru had been very clear about that. That place where the Spiritual Guardians went wasn't called a training universe for nothing. There, Darian could be reckless and risk it all without fear. But once he returned to his true body and universe, he had to use everything he'd learned — or lose everything.

Seeing Darian's empty gaze, Dohans smirked: "I brought them with me precisely to refine them slowly, make them suffer the consequences of their foolish actions. But you came pretty quick..."

He cut himself off mid-sentence.

An incomparably strange and bizarre aura enveloped everything. It had no color, no shape, but Dohans felt a chill down his spine, like something dense and abnormal was taking over the entire space around them.

Darian's eyes locked onto him. Then, a bloody aura surged from his body.

"!"

All the runes chaining his body turned crimson. A terrifying feeling crawled over Dohans.

**BOOOOM!**

With a massive explosion, the whole space shattered, and Dohans was blown away, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

He steadied himself quickly, shocked.

"How did he break my domain? That's impossible!" Dohans roared, stunned, as space began to stabilize.

When he looked ahead and finally saw Darian…

First, he noticed the three fragmented souls floating in the air, wrapped by millions of colorful elemental runes. All the runes were cracked and started to crumble into ash.

Darian stared at them with eyes full of relief and intense emotion. He had controlled the detonation of the chains to first release his inventory, and that way, he managed to use 100% of the elemental runes he'd saved from the system to protect them.

When all the elemental runes vanished, Darian stretched out his hand and touched them gently. A subtle aura wrapped around them, and then the three disappeared right before his eyes.

It lasted two seconds. After that… Darian started trembling and spitting blood.

On the surface of his body, his muscles seemed to rupture wildly, while blood completely covered him. The black aura that had enveloped him before was now dyed blood-red.

Dohans stared in shock; the pressure pouring out of him was growing at a ridiculous rate.

"AAAAH!!"

Darian let out a scream that sounded like a wild beast's — like rage and pain compressed into a single roar, coming from a demon king chained in the deepest hell.

"H-He... what is he doing?" Dohans stammered, tense. An aura of unease — something that absolutely shouldn't exist — now wrapped around him. It was a primal, mortal omen.

Amid Darian's hoarse roars, the bloody energy surrounding him grew rapidly.

The air grew heavier with every passing second, and the strange dread spread endlessly.

In that instant, heaven and earth were dyed the color of blood. The terrifying aura began shifting in bizarre, incomprehensible ways as the crimson tone spread.

"That... that's the Devil's Pyre?!" Dohans finally recognized it, horrified.

The technique he'd gained in some ruin long ago, its first step was burning the life and soul energy of the target to turn it into power. That was the simplest stage — but with the slightest mistake, you'd lose everything and be unable to absorb it. The following stages were more complex and involved fully assimilating it all.

What he was seeing now... was exactly that first stage. He knew it, because when he first read the technique, Dohans understood he could apply it to himself...

…and if he used it, he'd transcend all limits of strength and glory. But there'd be no way back: once it started, the burning had to continue until the very end. The moment his own life and soul's flames ran out, death would claim him.