Chapter 2: The Demon in the Mirror
Jiang Fan awoke at twilight.
The pain had left him. Or perhaps, more accurately, it had become him.
His body no longer felt entirely human. Each breath he took was deeper, darker. His senses had changed. The rustling of distant trees spoke to him in a dialect of movement. He could feel the heartbeat of something small—a rabbit perhaps—hiding beneath the roots a hundred meters away. The wind no longer chilled him. It whispered to him.
And inside his chest, where once resided a heart bound by fear and confusion, there now throbbed something else.
Power.
It was faint. Like a spark struggling to become flame. But it was there. Alive. Breathing with him.
Supreme Heart Demon God Technique – Tier 0 Initiated.
Stage: Awakening of the Demon Seed
Path: Emotion Incarnation – Sin of Despair
Note: First sin selected based on Host's psychological profile. Despair feeds growth. Resistance weakens seed. Embrace and evolve.
Jiang Fan clenched his fists. His skin cracked, just slightly, like old porcelain. Dark energy pulsed within. Not spiritual qi. Not demonic aura. Something more primal. Something that whispered in the voice of things long buried.
Emotion Incarnation? he thought. Despair? That... that was all I had left.
He had watched a boy get eaten alive hours ago. A stranger, true—but in that moment, Jiang Fan had understood something. Kindness. Morality. Mercy. These were luxuries of the strong. In this world, the weak were cattle. Sacrifices.
And he had been weak.
No more.
He wandered.
For three days and three nights, he walked with no direction. The system offered no map. No guidance. Only the occasional whisper:
Emotion detected: Helplessness.
Seed nourished: +0.3%
Emotion detected: Fury.
Seed nourished: +0.6%
Emotion detected: Hunger. Physical/Emotional. Compatible.
Seed nourished: +0.9%
He didn't eat. Didn't sleep. His body survived through sheer will, and the system's dark nourishment.
But on the fourth night, he stumbled upon the ruins.
An old temple, shattered and long forgotten. It rested in a glade of withered trees, black roots choking the ground. Statues of faceless gods stood broken at the corners, their eyes scratched out by time—or something worse.
He stepped inside.
The air was colder here. As if the temple remembered what it once worshipped.
A shattered mirror stood at the altar.
And in it… Jiang Fan saw himself.
Or something close.
His reflection stood tall, shirtless, skin etched with dark veins that pulsed like ink in water. His eyes were no longer fully human—one gleamed crimson, the other an abyss of swirling black. He had grown leaner, sharper. His back bore faint, embryonic markings—like the beginnings of wings or chains.
But it wasn't just the body that frightened him.
It was the smile.
His reflection smiled before he did.
And then it spoke.
"You're starting to like this, aren't you?"
Jiang Fan froze.
The system didn't speak in voices. It never had. This was something else. Something deeper. Perhaps the technique itself. Or the seed blooming within him.
"You ran when it mattered. You watched him die. You didn't save him."
He stepped back. "I couldn't—"
"You didn't want to."
He clenched his fists. The reflection's grin widened.
"You wanted to live. You needed to. So you let him die. That's fine. That's how this world works. The system gave you what you needed, because you were honest. Not kind. Not noble. Honest."
The mirror cracked.
From the fracture, black mist began to leak.
Warning: Heart Demon Trial Initiated. Suppression not advised. Embrace required.
Jiang Fan fell to his knees as the mist engulfed him.
He stood in a city. But not this world's.
Earth.
Neon lights flickered overhead. A train rumbled in the distance. Rain fell in cold sheets. And ahead of him—across the pedestrian crossing—stood a figure.
His own face.
But younger. Softer. Innocent.
The younger Jiang Fan looked up and waved. "You said we'd be something. That we'd make it out."
Jiang Fan walked forward slowly.
"Why'd you give up?" the boy asked. "Why'd you stop believing?"
He had no answer. Not then. Not when he was young. Not now.
"Do you remember what we lost?" the boy whispered. "Do you remember why we stopped trusting people?"
And suddenly, around him—figures formed.
His old boss, who betrayed him.
His parents, who died without warning.
The friend who sold him out.
The woman who used him.
Each spoke his name. Each smiled with familiar cruelty.
"You were always meant to be broken," they chorused.
He fell to his knees.
And from within him, a voice echoed—not from the system, not from the seed.
From him.
"Good," he said.
The chorus fell silent.
"Good," he repeated, rising. "Because broken things cut sharper."
His shadow surged outward. The figures screamed. The boy smiled, and then disintegrated into ash.
Heart Demon Trial Complete. Emotion Accepted: Despair (Level 1). Seed Nourishment: +34.5%
Technique Unlocked: Heart Demon Projection – Level I
Summon the phantom of one's own despair to battle alongside the host for limited time. Power scales with emotional depth.
He opened his eyes.
The mirror was gone.
But something else had arrived.
A pack of beasts. Dozens. All fur and fangs and spiritual bloodlust. Drawn by the dark aura. Drawn by the seed.
Jiang Fan stood, half-naked, body covered in sweat and blood.
They circled.
He smiled.
The projection stepped out of him. A shadow with his form—taller, darker, eyes glowing with endless sorrow.
"Come," he whispered.
And the slaughter began.
End of Chapter 2