When I Tried Strengthening 【Rusted Sword】, It Evolved Into An Overpowered Magic Sword

Chapter 67 The Clique

After being abducted by the white demon and passing through the mysterious distortion, the destination was inside a “cave.”

Surrounded by jet-black rock walls as if inked, a gloomy atmosphere pervaded. Although there were some lighting fixtures on the walls, most of them were flickering and unreliable.

In this dimly lit cave, Citrine, brought there, was paralyzed with fear for a while.

She knew this place. She knew it all too well.

The blackened scenery, the crackling sounds from outside, the cold air that caressed her skin. Most of all, the pungent stench that assaulted her nostrils made Citrine instantly realize where she was.

That’s why she tried to shake off the demon’s hand and run away.

But her resistance was in vain, and Citrine was brought to this place—to the person waiting there.

“I’m back, Onyx,”

said the white demon who had abducted Citrine, addressing the person there.

Seated on a black chair carved from a massive rock, this person held a cup filled with red liquid in his left hand, playing with it.

With a female demon at his side, he looked just like a greedy king.

Onyx, as he was called, stood up gleefully upon seeing Citrine and the others arrive, handing the cup to the female demon.

“Oh, as expected of Quartz! You’re back quite early!”

This lively voice and casual tone.

Hearing this man’s voice stirred heavy memories in Citrine’s mind.

It was a voice she never wanted to hear again. A demon she never wanted to meet.

Onyx.

A demon wearing a haori with wave-like patterns.

Hair, eyes, skin—all were as black as coal.

He was the exact opposite of the white demon holding Citrine’s arm.

Additionally, with two long horns like an ogre, he was a demon truly worthy of being called a devil.

Another distinctive feature was that he had no “right arm,” so the sleeve of his haori hung limply.

“I knew asking you was the right choice, Quartz. You did well bringing that kid. So, were my men of any use?”

Onyx asked happily, and the white demon called Quartz responded with a quiet smile.

“Yeah, they were quite helpful. Well, they all died, though. If I hadn’t sent them ahead, I might have been in danger.”

“Oh, so there were that many high-level adventurers. It’s a lot of trouble for guarding just one kid. Adventurers must have a lot of free time…”

Onyx’s sentence was cut off by Quartz shaking his head.

“No, there were only two.”

“What?”

“And one of them was pretty strong. Still a child, but probably already on par with a Master-class adventurer. That human took down most of the demons.”

“…A single child, huh.”

Onyx squinted his already sharp eyes even more and smirked. Seeing that smile, Citrine became even more rigid with fear.

“By the way, I killed one of the demons myself. Should I apologize or something? He was one of your Legion members, right?”

“No, it doesn’t matter. This job alone is worth enough. Killing one or two is no problem.”

Citrine silently recalled the crocodile-like demon.

Onyx Legion.

The demon group led by the black demon in front of her. They primarily operated in the area of ‘Obsidian Mountain’ and were currently focused on expanding their group.

There were about thirty members in total. Some had fallen in the earlier fight, and most of the others were outside now, so the exact number was unknown.

What was known was that they engaged in all sorts of nefarious activities to strengthen their group, and they would hunt down anyone they disliked to the ends of the earth. In other words, they were a typical demon legion.

They didn’t bat an eye when a comrade died and even made jokes about it.

Everyone here was like that.

“By the way, how did you know this kid would pass through that swamp? Did you use some special power to pinpoint her location?”

Quartz asked Onyx while pulling on Citrine’s arm. Citrine also had the same question, so she listened intently to Onyx’s answer.

“No, nothing like that. We just had an ‘informant’.”

“An informant?”

“What were they called again? The Renegades, I think? A group of human criminals. They’ve been cooperating with our Legion for a while now. They gather information from human towns and pass it to us for a bit of money.”

Hearing this, Citrine’s question was answered.

How did they know her location? More specifically, how did they know she would pass through that place on the way to the Guild headquarters?

The answer was surprisingly simple. Humans had leaked that information to the Onyx Legion.

Information difficult for demons to obtain could be easily acquired that way.

But why didn’t they know that only Rust and Dia were accompanying her?

Citrine realized it was a simple matter as well.

“Can you really trust those humans?”

“Hah, like I’d ever trust those bastards. That’s why I made sure to send you in the first place. Well, it turns out their information was reliable this time.”

Onyx hadn’t fully trusted the information from the Renegade Betrayers. He doubted their intel might be false or misleading, which is why he sent such a large number of demons and this white demon. This clearly showed Onyx’s lack of trust in humans and that Citrine was very important to him.

“By the way, are you sure you don’t want anything?”

“Hmm?”

“For the job. You’ve done a lot of work. I know you’re not interested in money like those Renegade Betrayers, but is there really nothing you want? I hear you help other demons for free too. What’s your deal?”

Onyx asked, looking puzzled, and Quartz gave him a short reply.

“I want to destroy humans. That’s all I desire.”

The words were spoken quietly and slowly, but Citrine, standing nearby, sensed the dark malice behind them, and shivered. She became even more paralyzed with fear.

“Destroy humans, huh? Don’t you want to do it yourself? It’d be more interesting, and you might even become the next Demon King.”

Quartz responded without hesitation.

“No, I don’t. I’m not good at fighting, and I don’t care who becomes the Demon King. Anyone will do, as long as they destroy humans eventually. That’s why I help everyone. It’s really just that simple.”

The words coming from the white demon, who looked like a young boy, seemed out of place. The tension and heavy atmosphere made Citrine’s face involuntarily contort in fear. Just how much did this demon…

“You really hate humans, don’t you?”

“Let me ask you this: do you think there’s a demon out there who likes humans?”

“Then there’s no difference,” muttered Onyx with a laugh.

There’s no way a demon could like humans. All demons hate humans.

However, Citrine, hearing their opinions up close, was filled with an urge to say something back. But of course, she couldn’t afford to speak out.

As she remained silent, Onyx lightly extended his left hand towards Quartz.

“Well then, how about joining our Legion, Quartz? If they’re humans, I’ll crush them right away. Join my Legion for that purpose. Besides, as fellow demons who have survived the era of wars together, I feel like we could get along reasonably well.”

Upon receiving this invitation, Quartz again smiled quietly on his pale face.

“Sorry, Onyx, but I’ll pass. It sounds really fun to join ‘Onyx Legion,’ but if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to help the other legions. If I want to destroy humans, it’s faster to lend a hand to many legions.”

“Oh, I see. That’s a shame,” replied Onyx, shrugging nonchalantly.

Seeing him like that, Quartz let go of Citrine’s arm, turned on his heel, and raised his right hand with the key blade above his head.

“Well then, see you later, Onyx. I’m counting on you. If you need anything else, just let me know.”

“Alright.”

With that brief farewell, Quartz used his ability and disappeared somewhere.

Left behind were Onyx, the female demon accompanying him, and Citrine, whose body remained rigid with fear.

“Now then,” began Onyx.

“—!”

At the sound of Onyx’s voice, Citrine involuntarily recoiled. The gaze that had been solely focused on Quartz moments ago now turned fully towards her. Fear surged up from the depths of her body, filling her with a desperate desire to escape.

As Citrine trembled in fear, Onyx’s expression twisted into an eerie smile.

“Long time no see, Citrine. I’ve been dying to see you again.”

“…”

” I didn’t want to meet him,” Citrine cursed silently in her heart, not wanting to meet him again.