Jacob stared at the demons standing before him, a ragged breath escaping his mouth as he shut his eyes momentarily.

’Wait, what am I even doing?’ He laughed inwardly, as though he didn’t know what he was doing the whole time.

"Okay it’s time to end this."

Jacob said confidently, watching as the two demons exchanged confused glances at each other, Jaran laughed sinisterly and clapped his hands.

"You have been impressive so far, young lord." Jirin echoed, "but you’re right, we must end this quickly, I think I’m beginning to sweat."

Jacob smiled wryly, ’He really thinks I’m some small fry.’ He thought, his mind racing through multiple possibilities.

"Tell me who sent you." Jacob spoke out as he walked slowly to the side, his gaze still fixed steadily on Jirin.

"We aren’t obligated to, our job is simple."

’Why spoil all the fun?"

Jacob paused, since they weren’t going to tell him, then he would find out on his own, somehow.

He sighed and held his right hand out to his side, the sword instantly turned into motes of light, vanishing from his grasp.

He changed his stance immediately, both fists curled up and held up in front of him, just high enough so they didn’t block his line of sight.

"If you won’t tell me willingly, then I’ll beat it out of you," said Jacob.

"Hehe. Jaran! I like this one! Maybe I’ll keep his head as a souvenir." Jirin said before launching himself at Jacob again with overwhelming speed.

He swung his swords sideways with both hands, attempting a scissor move, to cut the white haired boy in half; Jacob stood unfazed with his eyes closed.

At the last possible second, Jacob opened his eyes.

<Skill: Eye of the Monarch activated>

In a split second, faster than the movement of any eye, Jacob performed four movements, attacking the pressure points of Jirin’s wrists, and causing his weapons to fall from his palms.

"Uuukk!" The demon exclaimed as his hands were rendered useless, his attention shifted momentarily from Jacob who had already pulled his hand back, his fist tightly closed.

A sudden whirlwind began to wrap around his fist, the force of the breeze pulled Jirin in closer, unable to move his hands properly.

Jacob’s knuckles instantly connected with Jirin’s jaw, smashing his entire dentition in one fell swoop, the demon was sent flying into the atmosphere with no support.

Jaran, who was conjuring another spell was suddenly distracted by the sound of his brother being sent into the unknown, beyond the invisible dome.

He hadn’t noticed that Jacob had appeared beside him, swinging his fist low.

In another split second Jacob’s closed fist connected with Jaran’s abdomen, shattering his ribs instantly, the impact of both punches left dents in the earth, cracks of rubble that remained under Jacob’s feet.

Jaran managed to create a barrier to stop himself from flying too far, he collided with the barrier, the impact caused blood to sputter from his mouth, at the same time Jirin had landed on the ground with a splattering sound.

Jacob looked— at the bloodied up demons and then looked at his hands, no dent whatsoever.

The brothers groaned as they struggled to get back up.

In that moment Jacob thought to try something he had never done before.

<Skill: Gift of Gab activated>

"Don’t...move!" Jacob commanded, looking at the two ragged demons disdainfully.

A sudden weight began crushing them down as they struggled to get up. The harder they fought the more the weight pushed them down.

"Good—" Jacob started as he walked towards them slowly, "Now—tell me who the hell sent you!"

He bent slightly, looking at them, "You still won’t say? Hmm." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Jaran gritted his teeth as though he was going to say something, Jacob noticed this and paid attention to him keenly.

"...Fuse!" A burst of energy instantly escaped their bodies and they forcefully touched their hands together. The force of the energy made Jacob skip backwards to avoid getting his by the rubble that suddenly began flying around.

’What are they up to now?’ Jacob mused, scratching his head.

The whole area was covered in smoke, two huge, red hands shot out from the smoke; then one leg.

As the full creature emerged, the smoke dissipated, revealing a beast that stood at least nine foot tall, a fusion of both twin demons.

It had smoke coming from its nose, a single horn on its forehead, its hair a bright gold and silver, split in the middle.

"Brother let’s teach him not to mess with us."

"Agreed!"

Jacob braced himself as he looked up at the beast. ’They broke through the effects of gift of gab?’ He mused inwardly, ’I guess I have to upgrade that skill."

The creature lunged at him, for its huge mass, it moved quickly, even faster than Jirin previously did.

It swung a single palm low, revealing nails that were as sharp as blades, Jacob sidestepped at the last second, <Eye of the Monarch> was still active so it was relatively easy to read the movements of the beast.

He danced through the air as the creature attacked him they, not retaliating, just watching as the creature went berserk.

The ground was already in ruins by the time Jacob decided he had enough.

Jacob pulled Excalibur out again in one swift movement and ran at the beast, he concentrated his Qi in his legs and forearms.

With his enhanced vision he could see the flow of energy within the creature’s body and noticed the core within its chest.

The beast swung right and left with its arms but missed Jacob each time, Jacob swung his blade at its left arm, chopping it off cleanly.

The beast howled in pain, before it could register it, its right arm came off cleanly in succession.

Then it’s right leg.

And then it’s left leg.

The creature collapsed to the ground, Jacob jumped on top of it and stabbed its chest with his hand, instantly pulling out a glowing ball of white light from its chest.

The life instantly flickered from the beast’s eyes.

Jacob looked at the orb in his hands.

"Let’s try this." He said and immediately swallowed the glowing orb.

<Ding!>

<You have devoured an SS rank demon core>

<You have gained ability: Core Devourer>

<Core Devourer: Level 1 → Level 3>

At level 3, the host is able to take on the appearance, access the memories, use the skill, and mimic the soul energy of whatever creature the host has devoured, essentially becoming that creature for as long as the host wishes.

<You have gained the souls of Jirin and Jaran>

<You have gained ability: Shadow Monarch>

<You are allowed a maximum of 6 shadow soldiers in your army>

<Would you like to revive Jirin and Jaran as your shadow soldiers?>

Jacob looked at the notification and pondered for a bit.

"Shadow monarch huh? Reminds me of solo leveling."

"It would be wise to revive them as part of my army, especially since I need to know who sent them—it’ll also be good to know I don’t have to get involved in every fight."

Jacob selected yes and immediately a dark aura emanated from the ground, forming two entities that resembled the demon twins but were completely dark, like shadows, their gold and silver hair remained intact.

<Host must set a command to bring the shadows forth>

<Input command_>

Jacob thought for a bit and decided it would be too cliché to use ’Arise’ as his command so he decided on one.

"Manifest!"