"...Huff."
Lawyer York suddenly opened his eyes and began coughing violently.
He rolled over and kept coughing until he spat out a mouthful of filthy blood. Only then did his breathing become smooth again.
He looked back.
The Archive Room's door was tightly shut, and the other party had already left. The accomplice who had stolen the materials was gone as well.
Then his body began to undergo a drastic transformation. As he became demonized, the features of the Enticement Demon began to emerge from him.
Numerous soft, pink, tentacle-like growths appeared on his arms and hands. They danced unconsciously through the air of their own accord, like some kind of feelers sensing everything around them. They were feeding organs capable of capturing dreams and memories.
His pupils turned into a hazy pink mass, with a dark-red cross-shaped star shining in the middle. His back became hunched, his body gaunt and skeletal, and a long, snake-like tail emerged from behind him.
As he demonized, the injuries he had suffered were healed as well.
"I survived..."
York murmured.
His voice had become as shrill as a woman's, with a faint sound like metal rubbing against metal.
Regardless of what kind of demon they had contracted with, demonized humans possessed powerful vitality. Even after advancing into Parasitic Fiends, their basic traits as demonized humans did not disappear.
An injury as severe as having one's heart pierced would not directly result in his death.
To kill a demonized human cleanly, the best methods were to blow apart their skull, cut off their head, or remove their heart outright. Even if the heart were torn in half, it could recover under the vigorous vitality shared by the demon.
This vitality was very similar to that of the savage trolls of the Southern Continent. For