The Runic Alchemist

'Fine, fine. I will show you. However, I want to make it clear that this is plain blackmail, and good people would never do it,' Prince said, putting both his hands on his waist to emphasize his point.

Damian pulled his hand and shoved the status tool into it, saying, "Stop your bullshit and do it."

Prince took the tool and stared at it for a while. After a few seconds, the text on his screen was refreshed: 'You may not like who I am, have you ever thought about it?'

"As long as you are not the Demon Lord's wife, I can deal with it," Damian replied with a straight face.

Prince glared at him—well, more like just turned his faceless head toward him, but that's what the action felt like. Prince tightened his grip on the status tool and stretched his hand forward near Damian's face, activating it.

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Name: Asher Sunblade Lv.173

Rank: Enlightened

Affinity: Light, fire

Mana: 12467/13000

STR: 187

DEF: 179

INT: 189

AGI: 175

DEX: 174

CHA: 16

LUC: 7

Job:

Enlightened Rank : Solaris Archanomancer Lv.23, Phoenixheart Invoker Lv.50

Light Walker Rank : Scion of Luminous Flame Lv.25, Crimson Ray Scholar Lv.25, Emberlight Weaver Lv.25

Blessings: Sun God's Blessing

Title: [Flame of the First Light], [Bearer of the White Sun]

Skills: ..[Solar Ascent Lv.4], [Flare Sigilcraft Lv.2], [Incandescent Pulse Lv.5], [Corona Spiral Lv.3], [Sunlace Convergence Lv.1], [Halo Step Lv.2], [Prismflare Ignition Lv.1], [Dawnheart Manifest Lv.1 (Blessing)]..

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Damian's face was shocked, his eyes blinking twice to confirm whether what he was seeing was true or not. A Sunblade? And what were these over-the-top warrior-of-fire themed titles and skills?

"Who the hell are you?" Damian asked, confused.

'The ancestor of the boy whose body you are in possession of..' Prince replied. It was still just text, but suddenly Damian felt like the man—the golem—was showing resentment toward him.

"You were in the hero's party? That was over thousands of years ago.." Damian murmured.

'Not that far, at max 500–600 years ago. I was.. the downfall of my house,' Prince wrote.

Damian tried to remember all he knew about Dawnstar history. Vidalia had once mentioned Sunblades were royalty, and she had been alive for two or three centuries since she met the last Sunblade king.

Something.. had happened that made House Sunblade fall so low they had to sell their own children to survive. Something that the figure in front of Damian did.

Damian gritted his teeth. "What the fuck did you even do?"

'What I did? I fucking saved the whole world! Those bastards were losing! They never wanted to win in the first place.. We killed the damned Demon and it came back.. Five times. We.. I killed it four times and it came back five times.. I had to do it.. There was no other way..' Prince typed with a fury Damian had never seen the guy show before.

Killed the Demon Lord four times? And it came back each time? How? There were five members in the hero's party.. It couldn't be! Could it? Damian looked at the Prince, his eyes wide, the question in Damian's eyes clear as day.

'I had no choice..' came the words confirming his suspicion. 'The bodies the King of Demons takes never survive.. The Demon King knew about us.. had planned for us. We had a weapon given to us by the gods to kill him—but he had corrupted all of us before we even started our journey. Garran was first, then Thalindra, Veyra, and even the young Kael. I realized it too late. I couldn't warn them in time—I doubt it would have changed much. Killed them, I killed them all. Lightbringer's blood runs through our veins, so the corruption didn't work as fast on me.. I had time to do the forbidden spell Grandpa taught me before dying.'

Damian had no idea what to say. Status tools couldn't be cheated—it was the truth. He truly was standing in front of the oldest Sunblade still alive. At last, Damian just held the sacrium golem's shoulder, not knowing what else to do. It seemed to be working, as Prince—no, Asher—turned his face to the side as if ashamed of Damian seeing his expressions, even though his golem face was as flat as Evrin.

"Why did you hide that?" Damian asked, not able to make sense of all the secrecy.

'I have felt the resentment you hold for Sunblades. I am basically the reason for all that. Without the First Dawn, the branch family.. Uncle must have tried his best, but in the end lost the kingdom. Family declining over the years.. It probably didn't help that the whole world learned how I killed their heroes. I died too, but Hey.. Who cares about that?' Prince replied, shrugging his shoulders at the end.

"What is First Dawn?" Damian asked.

'Lightbringer's sword.. My family legacy. I lost it in the battle.'

Damian had no idea how to feel about the guy's origins.. but well, it was all in the past. Damian shook his head and looked down. The massive magma golem had slowly walked near. Now it was right under them, as they were standing in midair high above.

Changing the topic, Damian asked, "How are you gonna do it?" Five mana threads connecting Asher's golem body.

His screen flashed again: 'Hey! Don't underestimate me. I was called the genius of the Sunblades. Some even called me the second coming of Lifebringer himself!'

Damian scoffed, "Just words on the wind.. Go do something worthy of genius, and I just might call you the 10th best fighter in my group."

Damian gave Asher the authority over his own flying spell and saw the guy fly away after giving him attitude. Asher started chanting right from above and completed the spell as he reached near the magma golem. He had learned to cast spells through pure intent, but it wasn't perfect and he still needed to type it out word to word. A double-layered gold and red runic circle, placed atop each other, flared to life.

In the next second, the circles conjured two giant flaming golden transparent mechanical gloves enveloping Asher's two hands as he slammed at full force directly at the place where the magma golem's core could be sensed, completely ignoring the massive rock and lava hand descending upon him.

Boom!

The sacrium humanoid easily cracked the outer magma stone layer.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boooom!

And in a few punches, came out through the other side of the golem, leaving the broken core to explode behind in all its glory.