Infinite Origin Summoner:Rise of Good for Nothing Extra-Chapter 52: Secrets

"Young master, why are you here in my living quarters this late? If you needed something, you could’ve simply asked the servants. There was no need for you to come all the way here."

Zoey’s voice was smooth, polite even—but the expression on his face betrayed the lie. Shadows flickered across his features, and for an instant, his smile looked more like a wound. There was a faint tremor beneath his skin, as though something inside him was struggling to hold its shape.

Zarek’s eyes narrowed to slits. His heartbeat quickened, not from fear, but from instinct. His body was already preparing itself for the inevitable. The air itself felt heavier, thick with an unseen hostility that pressed against his skin.

Beside him, Zerin tensed. Her pupils contracted, her hand inching toward the hilt of her blade. She had lived too long among killers and corpses not to recognize the scent of death. The miners surrounding them weren’t watching out of curiosity—they were waiting.

Waiting for the signal to strike.

Her eyes flickered like arcs of blue lightning beneath the dim glow of the mining lamps, reflecting the claustrophobic shimmer of Goldfire veins embedded in the rock.

Zarek exhaled slowly, the sound almost like a sigh. His gaze swept across the room one final time, the weight of realization sinking deep into his chest.

So it was true—he had come too late.

No matter how quickly he had moved, no matter how many precautions he had taken, the infection had already spread beyond control. The Goldfire contamination had likely reached other mining veins by now, spreading across the continent like wildfire under the skin of the earth.

One wrong step from here... and it would all come crashing down.

The Silversword family would be finished. Again.

Yet, despite the despair coiling in his heart, a faint smirk tugged at the corner of Zarek’s lips.

There was still a way.

He remembered what made the Faceless Demons both terrifying—and vulnerable. Their greatest strength was also their flaw.

They devoured not just flesh but identity, becoming perfect imitations of their prey. Every feature, every flicker of aura, every trace of power. It was instinctive, almost ritualistic—an echo of hunger that went beyond reason.

But that same instinct bound them.

To assume a form, they had to kill it. And they could only maintain what they had consumed last.

That was why most of them were selective with their prey—they preferred targets strong enough to enhance their disguise, but not powerful enough to resist it.

Of course, there were exceptions—rare, terrifying exceptions. Those who had mastered their bloodline to a divine degree could kill freely, their instincts tamed and sharpened into perfect tools of mimicry.

But this one... Zarek’s eyes lingered on Zoey.

He didn’t feel like one of those.

The way his smile twitched, the faint ripple of his aura—no, this demon was still a slave to instinct.

Zarek’s hand dropped to the hilt of his weapon. A single breath escaped his lips, calm and steady, the last trace of hesitation fading away.

"Zerin," he said quietly, his voice a low thread of steel. "Stay close. Don’t let any of them leave."

Zoey’s grin widened, his human mask bending unnaturally, splitting wider than any living man’s should. His eyes gleamed with cold amusement.

"Oh? So you’ve already figured it out..."

The sound that followed wasn’t laughter—it was something else. Something inhuman.

Zarek’s eyes were sharp as blades, his tone indifferent and cold.

"There’s no need to pretend anymore, Zoey. I know what you are, so drop the act. No matter how well you imitate, in the end, you’re just a Faceless Demon — a creature with no identity of its own."

To Zerin, those words sounded like nothing more than calm observation, but to Zoey — and the miners surrounding them — it was as if the world itself had cracked open.

"What did you say...?"

"Impossible... how did you know...?"

Murmurs erupted around the room, sharp and panicked. The false miners exchanged uneasy glances, their facades flickering for the briefest moment. The air thickened with hostility, carrying the faint stench of sulfur and decay that leaked from beneath their human skin.

Zarek stood unmoving, his presence alone pressing down on the chamber like a storm about to break. The dim amber glow of the Goldfire veins danced across his face, turning his expression into something almost divine — calm, resolute, merciless.

Zoey’s lips twitched. Then, he chuckled. A low, guttural sound, too distorted to belong to a man.

"So, you already know." He tilted his head slightly, voice brimming with amusement. "No wonder... the Silversword family isn’t as ignorant as it seems."

His tone darkened, the edges of his words vibrating with malice.

"Still, one thing puzzles me. If your family knew, why would they send their direct descendant down here?"

As he spoke, the illusion of flesh around him began to fracture. His face shimmered with static distortions — dots and fissures rippling outward like shattered glass. His once-human eyes became black pools, devouring the dim light.

The miners began to twitch, their disguises faltering. Fingers stretched too long, spines cracked and reformed, and faint whispers rose like a swarm of insects crawling beneath the skin of reality.

Zarek didn’t flinch. He had already accepted the truth — he was surrounded.

Zoey’s laughter echoed, hollow and sharp.

"Perfect timing," he hissed, his mouth splitting into a grotesque grin that reached both ears. "I was just looking for a new identity to infiltrate the Silversword family. To think their own bloodline would come walking right into my hands..."

He leaned forward, his voice dipping into a hungry growl.

"It seems your family’s fortune has finally run out."

The next moment, Zoey’s body blurred. He lunged forward like a wild, rabid beast, the air around him warping from the sheer force of his movement. His eyes gleamed with unrestrained bloodlust. The ground beneath his feet cracked as he launched himself straight toward Zarek’s throat. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

But Zarek didn’t move.

A faint smile tugged at his lips — not out of arrogance, but understanding.

He could already see through Zoey’s thoughts. The desire to kill, the intent to replace, the madness that drove all Faceless Demons.

And with that realization came clarity.

So this was why his family line had lost everything in the last timeline. Why his bloodline had been branded as cursed. Why his grandfather’s sacrifice had meant nothing.

Not weakness.

Not misfortune.

But infiltration.

Zarek’s smirk deepened, his gaze hardening into steel.

This time, he thought, things will end differently.

However, before Zoey’s attack could land, a sharp, defiant voice cut through the thick tension of the air.

A cold snort echoed, sharp enough to make even the corrupted miners flinch.

Zerin stepped forward, her small frame moving like a phantom as she planted herself between Zarek and the demon. Her boots scraped against the stone floor, and the faint shimmer of suppressed power rippled through her body.

If this creature thought he could lay a finger on her master while she still breathed—then he would learn a lesson.

A brutal one.

"Stop right there, you beast...!"

Her voice rang like a whip across the cavern. The veins in her slender arms bulged as muscles twisted and coiled beneath her skin, crackling with barely contained strength. Despite her petite form, her body radiated an overwhelming sense of raw, condensed power — the kind that came from years of battle rather than cultivation manuals.

Zerin, like Misery, was a pure strength build — the type who broke mountains before they broke promises.

Zoey’s smirk widened. He didn’t even bother to disguise his contempt.

He tilted his head slightly, eyes gleaming with mockery.

"Bold... but foolish."

Then, without warning, he threw a single punch.

It wasn’t fast — yet it was terrifying. The air itself twisted, drawn inward as if reality were being folded around his fist. The atmosphere went dead still for half a heartbeat... before erupting forward in a compressed wave of destruction.

A sharp, invisible tremor ran across the cavern. Rocks splintered. The veins of Goldfire in the walls flared like molten lightning.

Although Zoey’s fist hadn’t even reached her, it felt as if he were striking from point-blank range.

From behind, Zarek felt the pressure crash against his face like a furnace blast. The wave of heat scorched his skin, sucking the oxygen out of the air.

Zerin braced herself, teeth clenched, eyes blazing with defiance.

Her foot slid back half a step. Her aura flared.

But the moment the wave struck, her pupils shrank to pinpoints.

"Impossible...!"

The air exploded.

Zerin’s small frame was thrown backward like a ragdoll, spinning through the air before slamming into the wall of the mine. Blood splattered across the floor — a thin crimson line leaking from the corner of her mouth.

The sound of cracking stone echoed through the chamber as she collided with several bystander miners, sending them sprawling.

For a brief instant, silence ruled. The faint hum of the Goldfire veins was the only thing that dared to speak.

Then Zarek’s eyes turned cold — deathly cold.

The faint ember of rage he had been holding back ignited, burning through his veins like wildfire.yih