Red, of course, didn’t spend too much time pondering Aurelia’s words. Whatever concerns she raised, no matter how valid they were, could only be addressed when the situation called for it. Suffice it to say, he didn’t see much point in doing it in the middle of the forest.

As he set off once more, Red pondered to himself about what preparations still needed to be done before arriving at the capital.

‘I have broken through and I have a technique for self-defense. There is only one more pressing matter.’

He needed a disguise. The youth always stood out with his crimson hair, but he didn’t have any reason to hide it in his sect’s town. Now, however, the imperials were probably looking for him, and it was a certainty that he would come across some of their informants in the capital. Which of them wouldn’t recognize someone with such a peculiar hair color as Red?

He needed to change that. In fact, it was better if he could change his appearance entirely, as it was still possible some people would recognize him regardless of his hair color.

The issue here, though, was that Red was no specialist in disguises. If he wanted to stay hidden, he preferred to stick to the shadows, but he was about to enter a foreign environment where he would need to show his face whether or not he wished to. He had some knowledge of plants and could find some natural pigment to change his hair color, but as for his face? That was another matter.

He would need makeup for that, and he wasn’t even sure if he could do a good enough job to fool others.

Under such limitations, he decided instead to search the Storm’s Blessing manual for a disguising technique. Sure enough, his master covered all bases, and there was a Spiritual Art for Lesser Ring Realm cultivators for what Red wanted.

When he saw the requirements, though, he frowned.

‘It’s a water-based technique.’

If even wind Spiritual Arts would take him at least a week to reach basic mastery, how long would it take for him to master an art of an element he wasn’t talented in? It was unreasonable to expect he could perfect this technique in a reasonable amount of time.

‘Then again, I don’t know what I was expecting.’

It was hard to imagine that a disguising technique would be based on wind, or lightning, for that matter.

“What are you looking at that manual for now?” Aurelia's disembodied voice reached his ears. “Did you find some other Spiritual Art you can master in a day?”

Red shook his head. “I was looking for a disguising technique.”

“What, why?” The woman seemed confused.

The youth frowned. “I can’t walk around with this hair and face in the streets. Some imperials agents might recognize me.”

He thought the woman would be aware of such an obvious matter.

Aurelia groaned. “I know about that, you idiot! I meant, why are you looking for a disguising technique when you already have a disguising treasure?”

Red stopped walking. “… I do?”

‘Of course I do.’

He raised his right wrist, staring at a simple bracelet wrapped around it. This was the gift the Hawk Spirit had given him when he won the trial back then, a magical item to disguise the effects of his demonification. If this treasure was capable of hiding the scales growing in his face, couldn’t it also change some of his facial features?

He felt a bit uncertain, though.

“The braceleted has always worked on its own. How can I control its effects?” he asked.

“It has always worked on its own because there is some lingering will inside it telling it what to do.” Aurelia said. “While you were still a mortal, you couldn’t use it like a magical treasure, but now that you are at the Lesser Ring Realm, you can bind it to yourself.”

‘A lingering will?’

Probably the hawk’s, he imagined. He wasn’t entirely sure what the woman meant by will, but since she said he could bind it, he was willing to give it a try.

He examined the bracelet on his wrist. “How do I do it?”

“It’s simple.” She said. “Extend your Spiritual Energy into it and inject it into its core. All magical items are bound and controlled this way.”

“What about the will?”

“It’s just a lingering will, without consciousness. It was probably only there to help you use the item while you were a mortal in the first place, so there’s no point in worrying about wiping it away.”

Red still felt hesitant, but he knew Aurelia had more knowledge in these matters than him, so he decided to follow her advice. He unclasped the bracelet from his right wrist, ready to inject it with Spiritual Energy from his palm.

Before he could do that, though, he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

As the bracelet was removed from his wrist, its disguising effects also stopped working. He saw this phenomenon before in the past while staring at a mirror - a slight shimmer in his vision and the revelation of what lay underneath - so he knew what it looked like. Except back then, this distortion of light was only limited to his face, but when he took out the bracelet this time, he saw the same thing happening to his right hand, revealing something he didn’t even know was there.

‘This…’

The color of the skin in his hand had changed. It was now a deep crimson, similar to the scales that covered his face, and his nails were purple. It was as if blood was spreading just underneath this skin and painting his entire right hand up to his wrist. The strange thing, though, was that the hand didn’t feel any different from what Red was used to, hence why he noticed nothing out of the ordinary for quite a while.

Yet seeing this odd coloration, his mind went to one possibility.

“Demonification.” Aurelia gave voice to his thoughts.

Red examined the rest of his body in a hurry. He almost got naked, looking over every inch he could to confirm this demonification was limited to his right hand. He noticed a small amount of crimson had spread in his left palm too, though it wasn’t to the same degree as his other hand.

“Not even your face has changed.” Aurelia said. “It’s only in your hands. I suppose I don’t need to tell you why, right?”

The youth frowned. The reason was evident.

His gaze wandered down to the sheathed longsword on his hip. Domeron’s sword.

He used it two times - in the battle against the ghost and while trying to breakthrough. The first time he used it was far longer than the second, though, and back then, he only held that sword in his right hand. The second time, he held it briefly in his left hand. Those durations seemed to correspond to how much this crimson coloration had spread in his hands.

He couldn’t help but recall what Domeron told him when he asked about his demonification while using the Spirit of Slaughter. Apparently, it was what led him to cut off his right arm in the first place.

‘Such powers always come at a price.’

Red stared at his right hand with a solemn gaze. Despite the unnatural color, he didn’t feel anything strange about it, but how could he remain calm knowing what he did about Domeron’s experiences?

“Don’t beat yourself over it, Red.” Aurelia said. “You did what you needed to. Since nothing untoward seems to be happening right now, you can ignore the problem and handle it at the right time and place.”

The woman’s words helped assuage the youth’s worries. One of his biggest fears, even above dying, was losing control of himself, influenced by an external force to become something else. It was why he considered demonification to be one of his greatest worries, and something he needed to address as soon as possible. Just as he was feeling confident about handling one demonic influence in his body, here came another, and this one wasn’t on good terms with Red.

‘I knew this could happen, but still…’

Like Aurelia said, though, there was nothing he could do right now. Panicking wouldn’t help either, so he decided to put the matter aside with a lot of conscious effort in his mind.

He grasped the bracelet in his right hand and transferred some of the Spiritual Energy from his Spiritual Sea into his hand. The process was much faster than using Energy from his surroundings, and the strands easily entered the treasure.

He was able to feel the insides of the bracelet as if they were an extension of his Spiritual Veins. Just like Aurelia said, though, his energy was immediately drawn towards a spot within the treasure where a foreign energy resided.

‘This must be the core… and that is the hawk’s will.’

Red hesitated when he felt it. There was something strange about this energy within the core that made him want to examine it closer, but he didn’t have the privilege to do it right now.

‘Maybe I could absorb it?’

Red wasn’t sure this would work, as it was possible the energy would be assimilated by the vortex in his Spiritual Sea, but he thought it was worth a try. He wasn’t worried about being harmed either, as he felt this lingering energy wasn’t that strong for him to absorb.

He split his Spiritual Energy inside the bracelet, trying to wrap it around the hawk’s will. It offered no resistance, and Red was able to draw it away from the treasure into his own veins.

As soon as he did that, though, he felt a familiar feeling in his glabella.

‘Oh no!’

His third eye, which had laid quiet since the Blood Moon, flared now once more like a predator at the smell of blood. Before Red could even react, this strand of energy was sucked towards his glabella, disappearing into the black hole that was his third eye.

The organ stopped responding as soon as he did that, though, as if it was satisfied by the meal.

Red was befuddled, trying to understand what had just happened. In the end, though, he couldn’t help but sigh in resignation.

‘So much for that.’

The youth thought at first that the only thing that could make the third eye react was Moonstone Energy, but apparently that wasn’t the case. This strange will the hawk left behind also causes it to awaken, and this raised some possibilities in Red’s mind.

Perhaps he could use this knowledge to experiment with the third eye in the future. Right now, though, he needed to focus on binding the bracelet.

Like Aurelia said, the process was simple. He merely injected the Spiritual Energy into what he felt was the core of the treasure and he immediately felt a connection between himself and the item.

Satisfied, he wore the bracelet around his wrist once more, and tried to command the treasure. Now that he was controlling it, it didn’t automatically hide his demonification, so this was the first thing Red addressed.

Using a nearby pond of water for the reflection, he made sure to hide the scales in his face and his reddened hands. The test went without issue.

After that, he tried experimenting it around with changing his appearance.

His hair was no problem, now a simple dark-brown that wouldn’t attract much attention. However, when Red tried changing around his facial features, he made an unpleasant discovery.

‘It isn’t working.’

Or rather, it was working, but only for a second. He tried changing the structure of his nose, his lips, his eye shapes, but it returned to normal after only a second. He didn’t really understand what was happening, and after some ten minutes of trying, Red was left extremely puzzled.

Aurelia’s figure manifested by his side, looking at him with shared confusion on her face. “What are you doing wrong?”

Red frowned. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

She snorted. “If you weren’t doing anything wrong, then the disguise would stay. I checked the treasure, and it’s not faulty either.”

“It worked with hiding the demonification and my hair. Why wouldn’t it work with other things?”

Aurelia was silent for a few moments, staring at Red with a deep gaze. “… Tell me, how do you feel about the color of your hair?”

The youth was confused. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Just answer the question!”

Red shook his head. “I didn’t care about it up until, but now that I’m moving to a new city, I feel like I would rather it was never red at all.”

“And what about your face?”

“… I don’t see any issues with my face. I would rather keep it as it is, but I have no choice but to change it.”

Aurelia sighed. “Then tell me, when you visualize yourself in your head, can you think of yourself with a different face?”

Red frowned. Instead of responding, though, he closed his eyes and tried to think of his own appearance. His reference wasn’t only the image he saw in the mirror though, but also the visualization he had of his own body every time he meditated. Then, bit by bit, he tried to imagine himself with slightly different features.

His hair was no issue, but when he tried to modify anything other than a spot of skin on his body proper, he immediately felt a sense of disassociation. His every instinct told him that wasn’t him, and he immediately felt as if he was looking at a stranger. Even a slight change in his nose shape would trigger this response, and no matter how many times he tried it, the result didn’t change.

Red opened his eyes again and looked over at Aurelia in confusion.

“I can’t do it.” He shook his head.

“No wonder then! Your sense of self is too strong!”

Red wasn’t too sure what that was supposed to mean.