Damned Healer
Chapter 206: Secret Weapon

Chapter 206: Secret Weapon

After everything was over, Darian turned to the twins, who looked really serious. Seeing the look in their eyes, Darian didn’t want to hide anything. They had chosen to fight by his side, and now they were right in the middle of this storm with him. His siblings deserved to know the truth.

So, he activated a simple artifact that created a space where no sound could escape — even if someone tried to spy on them using powers.

He told them everything he saw in that woman’s past. Their father’s cruel fate was laid bare, making it even clearer why their mom had to raise them alone, in hiding, and afraid of that family.

Then he added everything he’d heard from the phoenixes in the other universe.

For a Spiritual Sovereign to fully stabilize, they had to do something terrible to another universe. So that golden demon and his allies were the Immortal Keepers — people who chose a different path.

They probably would never have power on the same level as a real Sovereign. That’s why they lived under constant pressure, trying to stop cruel figures like the ones Darian had faced.

Considering there were only seven fully stable Spiritual Sovereigns in the whole universe — and one of them was a demon — it was likely the other six actually saw the Immortal Keepers in a good light, since they helped prevent more opponents from reaching the same level. That was probably why they were still around and held a lot of influence.

"Makes sense..." Lucy muttered, her eyes trembling. "Brother, the three of us are gonna take down that family... we’ll train day and night to get stronger."

Lucius sighed, a little emotional as he added, "We won’t be a burden to you. No matter what happens, we’ll fight too."

Niara nodded in approval. She didn’t need to say anything — she’d never leave his side, and Darian already knew that.

He scoffed, "Calm down and get some rest, at least for today. After that, we need to prep hard for the selection and the tournament. We have to make the clan grow fast, and start building defensive barriers on Earth. One brick at a time."

After that, Darian handed Niara to Lucy and headed back to his room. He had a lot of ideas and things to look into.

Sitting on his bed, he took a deep breath... then focused on his seven elemental stars.

After the Yin and Yang stars fused with the primordial seeds, they’d changed completely — and they’d influenced the other five stars too.

He pushed a bit of power from his ring into the stars, just to test it.

"!"

His eyes shot open, and a subtle multicolored glow spread across his body. He clenched his fists, feeling an insane amount of physical strength.

He took a deep breath. The gains from that special mission had been massive.

In that universe, thanks to the abundance of power, he’d absorbed a lot of strong elements and fused them into the stars in his body, letting him fight like a powerful physical tank. But on Earth, none of that power existed — it would’ve been impossible to use.

Now... using ring power...

"The stars can produce elemental power on their own. That’s insane."

He murmured, waving his hand. A bit of wind and lightning energy appeared.

By sacrificing ring power, even in a place with zero energy, he could now use those elemental techniques. But... just to create that little bit, the cost in ring power was crazy high.

So using those techniques was only an option in emergencies. But using that power to boost his body — that was a different story. He could keep his body at its peak with the ring’s power for at least an hour.

His main weapons were the black and white powers, which didn’t use ring energy. That’s why Darian used those types of artifacts freely. But artifacts that were actually useful for him were super limited.

Only supreme artifacts were ideal — and the three he’d gotten couldn’t be used carelessly.

"Well, I guess that’s my fighting style. I can be support, a mage, or a warrior, depending on the situation," Darian murmured, sounding excited. Technically, he was now a mystic class.

Lucy and Lucius were the same. Since they started training, they hadn’t shown any major weaknesses in any role. They trained in all areas, and still showed talent in every one of them.

Mystics had to be super rare. Humans were usually born with talent for one specialty, or stuff close to it — not everything like they were.

After confirming that, Darian turned his attention back to the central rune of the Demon Collector’s.

...

Time passed. Day came and went, and night returned again.

The house doorbell rang. A few moments later, there was a knock on Darian’s bedroom door. He moved over and opened it, finding Veyle staring into his eyes — now much more confident and friendly.

"Come in."

Darian was the one who called her in, after discovering something important.

He used the artifact again to make sure nothing they said could be heard from the outside. From now on, he knew he couldn’t feel completely safe anywhere. The twins, just like everyone in his clan, had already been warned that they couldn’t speak about anything important without the right precautions.

Veyle nodded. "Ametheos."

Her partner appeared inside the room. Darian waved his hand, and the shadow rune inside Veyle detached, floating toward him.

He took out the central rune of the Demon Collector’s and compared it carefully. It was clearly different, but not completely — about 95% different.

It was that 5% similarity Darian had felt ever since the first time he saw that supreme artifact.

"This was created in another universe, by a demon who managed to mess with karma a bit... interesting," he muttered.

There were countless universes, and in each one, countless beings lived and grew. Karma existed in all living things, so it wasn’t surprising that someone had figured out a way to use it.

In that book, even Meru’s mother, back when she wasn’t powerful at all, managed to manipulate karma a bit. So as long as someone had terrifying talent, it wasn’t impossible.

Darian moved his black power and, using his rings, adjusted the shadow rune from Ametheos. He’d studied the artifact in depth, and since it was based on karma power, he’d figured out part of how it worked.

It was raw and simple — that demon just managed to use a leftover bit of karma. This artifact acted like a core that stored power and created small rune-shaped sub-cores connected to it.

But... that was perfect.

Ametheos and Rhea had fixed power, around one or two rings, and couldn’t grow. Darian had gotten a lot of tips from Meru about how to fix that in the future, but not even she was sure what would work. One of the suggestions was to create some kind of "ring," similar to the ones he had.

The problem was, it had to be stable and able to grow, just like a real ring. Now, this artifact showed him the path.

Darian changed the shadow rune a lot. Now, it was a replica similar to the Demon Collector’s.

"Try pouring her ring power into the core and use it,"

Darian said calmly. Ametheos’s violet eyes glowed in agreement. Veyle handed over her power... and then, the shadow rune started to glow with a new kind of energy.

It was stable — it worked!

"Great. Now create a small core just like this rune here," Darian slowly showed him how the Demon Collector’s worked.

It took just a few minutes. Ametheos tried... failed twice... but on the third try, a small black rune appeared.

He absorbed some of Veyle’s ring power and turned it into a small core with about a third of its strength.

"Perfect. Make as many as you can now," Darian encouraged.

Ametheos kept going. He made two... then three... but before making a fourth, he realized everything would go unstable and explode if he forced it.

Those three runes could hold Veyle’s ring power, letting him use them in battle. If she kept them fully charged, he could fight at three times his original strength.

She took a deep breath, stunned... Ametheos now had the power of a three-ring elite Spiritual Guardian.

Darian nodded, satisfied. "Later on, I’ll be able to improve this even more. Then he’ll be able to make more cores and get even stronger."

The main issue with the instability was that Darian’s modifications weren’t perfect yet. When he evolved his two rings and got better at using his power, he’d have more potential to fine-tune it.

After that success, Darian called for a clan-wide meeting.

He still had several shadow runes with spirits — those traitors who’d been captured by Howlyn and were now being used. Without caring too much, Darian gave partners to Harper, Matteo, Lucy, and Lucius.

Rhea got excited too, so he upgraded her the same way. With her ring power back and using Leander’s spiritual root, she hoped she could use her old blessing again.

Now, they were all officially Summoners. Their partners would be their secret weapon — and the clan’s. In the future, everyone chosen carefully for the clan would get one too.

After that, Darian, Veyle, and the twins threw themselves completely into training and preparation.

Three months flew by.

And then, the day of the empire’s top talent selection finally arrived.