When Atsuku got close to them, Misaki commented with a cold face.
"You're ruthless."
Atsuku smirked at his sister's words, "It's necessary to survive."
At that moment, a loud siren rang from the direction of the main road. It was a familiar sound everyone had heard before.
"Police…" Misaki muttered as her eyes narrowed dangerously.
Police and yakuza were never a good combination. Whenever they met, there would be either crime or vandalism going on. Right now, it was the former, as Atsuku had killed three people without even batting an eyelid, something Misaki was surprised about.
If it was another person, then she would only tell her subordinate to get rid of the corpse. But it was her brother, whose dream was to become an author and run away from the bloody world.
The corpses had already turned into ashes, which were buried by snow she moved to get rid of the evidence, as three shadows, 2 of them had 3 horns while one had 2 horns, flying away from the scene.
Misaki watched it unfold in front of her eyes as she thought, 'Truly curious. What happened to him in the last year?'
She turned to Atsuku with curious eyes. There was nothing wrong with her brother; only his eyes changed color.
Sighing, she spoke to him, "We will take care of them. You go absorb the Secret and advance. Only trust me if you can't trust others. We are family no matter what happens."
"Alright. I will trust you." Atsuku said and walked past them toward the floating light.
He walked casually, not in a hurry, and stopped in the middle of the intersection.
Looking at the floating light, he extended his light hand and flared his Arcane to get the Secret's attention. Just like the Devil, it reacted to Arcane, and this was the best way to get it to stop hovering around.
Just as a yellow layer of Arcane surrounded his palm, the Secret stopped hovering around and actually approached him.
'Right, come here.' Atsuku thought as he cracked a grin.
As the Secret approached closer, he grabbed it with his hand that was covered in his Arcane and gripped it tightly. The light tried to fly away but was unable to, as Atsuku's Arcane had already caught the baseball-sized red light.
"Now you're mine." He muttered.
For a few seconds, he just looked at it and remembered how to absorb Secret. It was actually pretty simple. One just needed to gulp it down and let it enter their body.
When Secret entered one's throat and got close to the Core near the heart, it would automatically react and send knowledge, melt the Arcane covering its content, and fuse with the one who ate it.
The reason it was so dangerous was the way to absorb Secret and the fact it needed to be digested without any external help. Only yourself could be trusted in this process. If the Core in one's body was unable to bear the melting Arcane, it would burst and kill the host.
That was why Secret was divided into grades according to their color. Different colors had different concentrations of Arcane. And the higher the concentration, it could be expected that the knowledge it held was also more dangerous.
'Red is ranked third in terms of the danger. It will definitely boost me straight to the Second Stage, but… I am a bit worried about advancing in this place. I need to contain the excess Arcane somehow, so my body won't explode.'
Atsuku glanced at his sister, who made an ice wall around the entrance to the grove. She also brought all her subordinates to the other side of the ice wall so no one would disturb him.
Advancing to a higher stage wasn't as easy as just needing to refine the Core. No, but one also needed to clear a certain personal Trial created by their Devil. Only when one succeeded could one advance. But if one failed… Their fate was as good as becoming a Demon—death for their soul.
A smile appeared on his face as he looked down at the Secret that trashed around in his hand, trying to escape as it seemed to recognize his Arcane.
"I guess I don't need to do that. She said to trust her, and so I will."
Then, without hesitation, he brought the light to his open mouth while holding it with his fingers. Bringing it closer, he ate the Secret.
"Hmph! Gulp!"
A lump of ball traveled through his throat, choking him slightly but not too badly. When it reached his chest region, a loud thump suddenly rang.
Thump!
A burning sensation followed by intense pain attacked Atsuku like a surge of waterfalls from within his body, making him grunt in pain. If he hadn't experienced this yet, then he would certainly faint and let Iblis take over his body. However…
"Arrgh!!"
… The pain he felt was real. And no one could get used to it. Arcane burst in his stomach, absorbed by his Core as he worked hard to control it and refine his Core. Accompanying the absorbed Arcane was knowledge. A terrifying knowledge of unknown geometry and impossible equations.
His stomach churned, and his head felt like it was about to burst open. Blood started to escape from his nose, the result of the intense pain and knowledge.
"Calm down!!" Grunting loudly as he clenched his teeth, Atsuku split his concentration and forced the knowledge to enter the fourth door in his Mind Archive, feeding it to Iblis.
With his command, the black door filled with spikes opened, welcoming the geometry and strange equations inside. Black tentacles with an eerie aura filled with teeth, coming straight from a horror story, grabbed the red Secret that tried to invade the Mind Archive, dragging it inside as the red light couldn't fight it.
The pain lessened slightly, but a vast amount of Arcane still burst inside his body to take care of. He needed to absorb and refine them quickly if he didn't want to become a blob of flesh.
And he could do that easily without the attack from the unknown knowledge. His mind worked rapidly, controlling the foreign Arcane, and he used what was left inside his body to guide it. This was why he only left a little bit of Arcane and wasted it to melt the road.
Atsuku didn't want his body to be overloaded by it.
Soon, with his impressive control over his Arcane, he calmed the Secret down and began refining his Core, wiping the blood that dripped from his nose using his sleeve. Just as he had expected, the amount was enough to boost him straight to the Second Stage of Core.
A little bit of pain from the leftover knowledge didn't stop him from concentrating.
'It's time to work.'
He sat down calmly and began to advance to the Second Stage. A yellow layer of aura covered his body.