Chapter 302: There are no demons here

Somewhere in the southern valleys of the Duran Mountains, where the trees grew twisted and a little black as if poisoned by the very soil, two young adventurers pushed deeper into the gloom.

Clad in mismatched leather armor, one carried a massive warhammer slung over his broad shoulder. The other clutched two slender wands so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

"Are you sure this is the place?" the mage whispered, voice cracking at the edges.

The hammer-wielder didn’t even slow his stride.

"As I’ve already told you a hundred fucking times... Yes. This is exactly where my brother saw that demon.

We take its head back to the guild, collect one whole gold coin, and we’re done. One gold coin, man. You know what that buys? I can finally open that sword shop in Lowmarket, settle down, see my little sister grow up without worrying about next month’s rent.

You? You can marry off all three of your sisters properly and buy your mother a real house inside the kingdom walls. No more mud floors. No more leaks."

The mage swallowed hard, glancing nervously at the canopy overhead. The branches looked too much like skeletal fingers.

"But these are demons we’re talking about..." he muttered. "Six hearts. Monstrous strength. They eat human flesh like it’s bread. They don’t just kill—they savor our bodies."

The hammer-wielder snorted.

"Oh come on. You were a royal mage, weren’t you? Trained in the Vengeln’s army ? How can a guy like you be this scared of one lousy demon?"

*Thud*

The mage stopped walking.

"This place... it doesn’t feel good. Something evil is watching us. I can feel it in my bones. There was some sound... did you heard-"

The bigger man finally turned around, planting the head of his hammer into the dirt with a dull thud.

*Thud*

"Okay, stop. Look at me." He placed both calloused hands on the mage’s shoulders, forcing eye contact. "Do you want to go back?"

The mage didn’t even hesitate.

"Y-Yes."

A long sigh.

"Fine. Fine. We’ll turn around. But when we get back, we’re taking that goblin cave mission, alright? Easy coin. No demons. Deal?"

"Deal," the mage breathed, relief flooding his face. "Let’s just get out of here as fast as—"

He froze mid-sentence.

His eyes flicked upward.

A shadow—too large, too fast—flitted from one tree to the next.

Then...

Silence.

Absolute, suffocating silence. No birds. No wind. Even the distant trickle of the mountain stream seemed to vanish.

"O-Oh shit... Clad, look up there, there’s some—"

**THUD.**

The sound was wet. Heavy. Final.

The mage’s gaze slowly dropped.

His friend’s head rolled across the pine needles, eyes still wide open, mouth frozen in the middle of a warning.

Blood sprayed in lazy arcs from the stump of the neck.

"N-No... that’s not—"

Before the scream could leave his throat, the headless body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.

And then he felt it. Saw it.

Something massive standing directly behind him.

Something that wasn’t human.

Something whose shadow swallowed his own twice over.

The mage turned—very, very slowly.

Twelve feet of corded blue muscle loomed above him.

Four arms, each ending in claws longer than daggers.

The creature’s face and hands were drenched in fresh blood that dripped in slow, thick ropes onto the forest floor.

"Alvuia olio ca—"

"Say another word of that spell," the demon rumbled, voice like grinding millstones, "and I’ll kill you exactly the way I killed your stupid friend."

He leaned down. His crimson eyes bored into terrified brown ones.

The mage dropped both wands instantly. They clattered uselessly against the roots.

"N-No... please... spare me. I-I won’t do anything. I swear I’ll never come back to this valley. Please... let me go. I beg you."

The demon tilted its horned head, amused.

"How about you keep your mouth shut for—" Before he could’ve completed speaking.

*SHRRRKK*

The mage’s head simply... vanished.

Blood fountained upward in a perfect crimson column.

"What the—!?"

The blue demon snapped his gaze to the right.

Hanging upside-down from a thick branch was another figure—almost human in shape, except for the two long, obsidian horns curling back from his forehead and the whip-thin tail swaying lazily behind him.

He was chewing.

The mage’s head dangled from between razor-sharp teeth like an apple.

Blood ran down his chin in rivulets.

"Regoris..." the blue demon growled, voice dangerously low. "What the hell are you doing out here?"

Regoris swallowed with exaggerated satisfaction, then flashed a bloody grin.

"I was bored. Came to stretch my legs." He licked a fang. "What were you planning to do with that little mage, Melare? Looked like you two were having quite the nice chat."

"I was going to kill him," Melare answered flatly. "You stole my kill."

Regoris dropped from the branch, flipping mid-air with impossible grace—only to vanish completely before his feet could touch the ground.

A heartbeat later he reappeared perched directly atop Melare’s head, crouching like a gargoyle.

"Oh, it sure didn’t look like you were about to kill him," he teased. "You were really taking your time. Building suspense. Very artistic."

Melare’s four arms tensed.

"I was going to scare him until he pissed himself, then take his head. There’s a difference." His voice hardened. "And you shouldn’t be out here today. It’s my patrol day."

"Oh really?" Regoris purred.

Melare raised a clawed hand to swat him off but Regoris vanished again.

This time he didn’t reappear.

Melare snarled, glaring upward.

"I want to kill him..." he muttered darkly.

High above, a three-eyed crow circled once, twice.

**Cawwwwwww—**

Melare thrust one massive arm skyward.

The crow dove like a black arrow and landed lightly on his wrist.

"What?" Melare demanded.

"Big group..." the crow rasped in a voice like breaking glass. "Coming toward the valley... Cawwwww."

It launched back into the sky without waiting for a reply.

Melare’s lips slowly peeled back from rows of jagged teeth.

"Big group, huh..."

His six hearts beat faster.

A slow, savage smile spread across his blood-smeared face.

"If I slaughter them all... I’ll finally prove my worth to Brother Ven."

He cracked all four sets of knuckles at once.

The sound echoed through the silent woods like breaking bones.