Chapter 32
"You know, I feel bad for these people," Almeria said as we made our way through the forest.
I paused and lifted a brow. "For the tribes?" I asked for the sake of clarity.
"Yes, for the tribes. Who else would I mean?
The demons?" she asked, with a small chuckle I had trouble reciprocating.
"Sorry." She cleared her throat. "But yes, the tribes.
You said they were strong in your past life and pitiful here.
Beyond that, the demons here had abandoned my people, and you said they perished before they were able to make an impact on the world before.
Well, at least an impact visible to you.
" Almeria had a distant look. "In a way, we traded fates.
And I can't help but feel a lingering responsibility that perhaps my fortune came at their misfortune. "
I nodded slowly, understanding. "That's one way to look at it, though perhaps not the healthiest," I said, giving her a long look.
She gave me a small, guilty smile in return. "I still want to help the tribes if we can," she told me.
"And we will. I promise." Though I wasn’t certain how much of the tribes would be left after we were finished. Especially if the demons had taken root within them.
"Good," Almeria said with a sharp nod. "If they were strong in the past, they could be so again. At the very least, they must be better than Eve."
I laughed and shook my head. "Perhaps I shouldn't have told you all that she was a narcissist. I feel I've set you all against her before she's even had a chance to speak for herself."
"No," Almeria shook her head. "I think your words would have done little to change my mind.
She's a hard woman to work with, regardless of what you've said about her.
She's simply unwilling to compromise in a way that makes her a bad partner.
Not to mention the way she looked at you.
" Almeria narrowed her eyes into a dangerous squint.
I would have loved to hear more on the topic, but I held a hand up to stop her, getting the faint sense that we were being watched. The hardest part about coming to visit the tribes was simply that this jungle was theirs, and our ability to come and go as we pleased was severely limited.
"Someone's here," Almeria said, though it came out much more like a statement than the question she'd meant it to be.
"There is… Hello, friends!" I said loudly, hoping a calm introduction would move through their hesitation faster.
"Why do you come here?" a woman said, stepping off a tree branch with a casual air I certainly could not match, balanced that high in the air. Then again, that branch didn’t have a hope in the world of holding my weight.
"We're wondering if we might get a visit with the tribes," I said, activating Soul Gaze. But my stomach turned in horror when I saw that there was no woman before me. It was a demon.
"Outsiders aren't welcome!" she snapped.
My body must have tensed, because Almeria shifted beside me. One second she was standing casually; the next, Almeria had practically teleported through the foliage and appeared on the other end, her rapier buried deep within the demon's chest. With a flick of her wrist, she cut the body in two.
I blinked and turned to her slowly. "That was a demon," I said, and she only nodded.
"I assumed as much by your reaction. Either way, she's dead now."
I shook my head. "You're an amazing person, you know that?"
She paused, blinked at me, and nodded ever so slightly.
"Of course. I am happy to be of service.
You tensed and hesitated. Her attention was on you.
I assumed that meant a fight was about to break out, and you were still thinking through your options," Almeria explained.
"But she wasn't looking at me, and well…
I could solve the problem rather easily. "
I kissed the top of her head. "You did fantastically," I praised her, and she blushed bright red before a brilliant smile overtook every one of her features.
"You're very welcome, Lord Bran. Thank you for your praise," she said, sliding closer while my lips were pressed to the top of her head. Somehow, I felt that I had just opened a dangerous door, but I let it go as the system devoured the demon, and I crouched down low to see what they had for us.
"Not much," I observed, shifting the spatial ring in my hand before simply tossing it in a pocket to deal with later. "And you're okay?" I checked with her.
Almeria bobbed her head rapidly. "It was just a demon, but if we're close enough for scouts, perhaps we should equip the talismans and proceed with a little more caution." As I nodded in agreement, she was already turning hers on, rippling into shadow.
We moved forward through the jungle, my often-unused ability for stealth activated along with the borrowed skill from Merlin’s Monarch of Shadows title that wreathed me in darkness. I crept forward with what little stealth I could manage with my otherwise hard-to-hide frame.
"Up here, my lord," Almeria said as we drew close. I didn't see anything at first, but she seemed adamant that something was there, and, of course, the truth of it would only be a moment out.
The jungle was never completely quiet, but it was quieter here than I had grown used to hearing.
After a moment of listening, I realized why: some of the distant bird calls had been replaced, almost seamlessly, with the sounds of people hard at work.
There was the occasional knock of wood on wood and the low murmurs that often accompanied people working.
People rarely worked in complete silence.
It was enough for me to pause and listen, holding a fist up so Almeria knew I meant for us to stay quiet.
She nodded. "As you wish, Lord Bran," she said, lowering her body in an almost uncomfortable degree of deference.
I let it pass for what it was, squaring my shoulders and readying myself for another demonic massacre.
"Go." I motioned to Almeria, and we dove forward, breaking free of the forest, only to find ourselves among large, round buildings, the walls made of thin trees, some of which were even still alive.
Their roofs were all heavily thatched—and done superbly at that.
I could see inside the first two, and they had been kept bone dry despite the constant storms.
Our arrival didn't go unnoticed. Several fighters jumped to their feet and squared themselves against us.
"For the Demon Lord!" I roared and rushed into the group. I had put my Bloodiron Blade away. This was a fight for my bare hands.
The first warrior who came to challenge me met my palm as it blasted into his jaw and sent him flying backward, most likely with a terrible headache, but hopefully still alive. I was here to save humanity, even if they didn't fully understand the situation they were in.
"Demons!" a woman shouted, scooping up her children and sprinting through the tribe, screaming at the top of her lungs.
I bellowed a laugh and threw my head back in a moment of comical villainy, but also because I hoped those with no interest in fighting would take the moment to run.
Those I had to knock out felt like it was non-consensual saving; however, at this point, I could no longer trust that people knew what was best for them, and I also simply refused to allow demons to remain merely so that the ignorant could stay willfully so.
"A demon spawn, begone!" Another warrior rushed out.
I nearly rolled my eyes that this one was a demon himself. His words carried more force than his spear, which I caught with an open palm, only to twist and grin as his throat landed neatly in my hands with a small tug of his own weapon.
His eyes went wide.
"Goodbye." I grinned and crushed his windpipe, along with a good portion of his jaw and the bottom of his skull.
The demon was shocked enough by my tactic that even as the life bled out of him, he stared at me in stunned silence. But perhaps his sacrifice might mean something.
A tribesman strode out of a massive central structure with the kind of swagger that said he was in charge.
He looked down his nose at me, even as I used Soul Gaze and saw through his illusion to his demonic origin.
His eyes were full of hollow fury as he planted his spear on the ground, while dozens of his tribe gathered behind him near the entrance of the large circular structure, trusting him for their protection.
"I see," he said, waving his spear back and forth and leveling it at me. The demon was level 250, and something about his body tickled a long-buried memory. I pushed that aside.
"I've come to slaughter," I announced, letting my voice carry through the area; it was bound to be heard by every soul within a mile. "The Demon Lord demands more sacrifices, and you stand right upon his bloody path."
Without waiting a moment longer, the demon shot forward, his spear lashing out. Even as I tried to grab it, it shook back and forth, making the grasp impossible, and I was forced to twist, bringing my forearm out to block instead. The demon clashed with me and smirked right into my face.
"Tenebrious, I do not know who or what has brought your kind here. However, I can assure you that it is time for your departure," he hissed.
"Do you deny the Lord?" I said with a gasp, but the demon before me was not so easily misled.
"I find your presence confusing," he said. We clashed several more times.
I used my forearms and palms to make myself fight far differently than I had with the sword. I also enjoyed that he'd called me a tenebrious. Apparently, shadow demons did exist.
"Well, then, we are at an impasse," I said, holding my chin high.
The demon smirked. "We are not. You are at death's door." He smirked.
I felt it the second he inspected me, and then I blinked in realization that his spirit could not challenge mine.
"What?" the demon gasped, and I used his moment of distraction to grab hold of his spear. He wrestled with me for a moment, and I pulled his head to mine, cracking my thick skull against his.
“Too bad you overestimate yourself.” I grinned, holding tightly to his spear.
He stumbled back, letting go of the spear, stunned by my headbutt. Before he managed to shake it off, I now held the spear, twirling it at him and sweeping his feet.
He braced himself and took the whack on his shins, preparing to stand through it, only for it to have a little more force than he expected. He was flipped over, springing into a handstand and cartwheeling away. "Who are you?"
I smirked. "The Demon Lord will kill you for your failure here," I said, as his expression dropped into a livid scowl.
"Do not think the Demon Lord wouldn't make you pay twice as dearly.
Internal politics are not to damage our territories.
I don't care what dark, shadowy hole you crawled out of to find yourself here. You serve the Demon Lord on this planet. He truly has a vision like none other. Behave, and you will be rewarded,” he told me.
“It's all the same," I said quickly, seeing if I couldn't get more out of this demon. "And in the worst case, all I have to do is find another deep, dark hole to hide in until it blows over." I grinned.
The demon shook his head, as if he couldn't believe he was having this conversation.
"And besides — where's your Demon Lord? I've been sniffing around the area, and I can find neither hide nor hair of him. Don't tell me he's hiding," I continued, watching his jaw clench as we fought several more tame rounds.
Mostly, he kept avoiding his own spear, now in my hands, while trying to get to the bottom of the conversation.
While we fought, we slowly destroyed the space around us.
Even when he jumped out of the way, the spear slapped the ground hard enough to send chunks of earth flying in every direction.
When it touched a tree, it created a field of exploding splinters that drilled into every available surface as firmly as a hammer-driven nail.
"The Demon Lord is not hiding," he stated with maximum offense.
"He who doesn't show himself seems to be hiding, in my opinion," I answered.
The demon guffawed, dodging another two strikes as I left a wake of destruction behind me. "When my lord learns of your deeds, I do hope you can smile so that your severed head retains the guise of a fool for as long as I have it mounted on my mantelpiece," the demon taunted.
I paused and gave him a small golf clap. "That was a good one. Do you mind if I use it in the future?"
"Of course. Preferably with your own head," he answered.
In most cases, I would say turnabout was fair play, but it was clear that the demon before me didn't have the same opinion, at least based on his reaction to my words.