Like Family

The sky was dark and the moon was high. Mattheo and company had walked for about an hour before they neared their destination. What they eventually arrived to was a cliff, and below it, a pack of werewolves could be seen. Some had been sleeping, and some were awake. Bones littered the ground near them with gnaw marks heavily imprinted onto them. Some of the bones had even been broken into half.

Mattheo ordered his new followers to stay put and quietly headed down. An odor of filth quickly assaulted him, but somehow he hadn't been fazed. This meant his form was tolerant of such things.

One by one, he proceeded to collect the strings of as many sleeping werewolves as he could before moving on to the patrolling ones. They were as weak as the party of werewolves he caught before, and had gone down with ease.

Pulling together the rest of the sleeping werewolves' strings, they once again sank into his palm. Even though it was a greater number, he felt the same stimulation. He thought nothing of it. Checking his influence, Mattheo determined the amount of henchmen he had reeled in.

The number was satisfactory. He had gained precisely 16 more minions, meaning he now had 21 in total. Even if they were just fiend class demons, Mattheo could never have held such a vast amount demons under his control before he reincarnated. While he certainly owned more, he never controlled all of them at once since he was incapable of doing so.

But now he could control as much as he wanted, growing stronger in the process. Using a mental command, Mattheo ordered all of the werewolves he now controlled to line up. He walked up and down the lines of werewolves reveling in their total obedience.

With his physical situation, Mattheo decided to hold out on food for now. He sent out an order to all of the werewolves to gather resources. Specifically for building. He would need some form of housing now that he wasn't living under the roof of a cave. The things he called for were mainly trees and stones. The trees would be torn from their roots by raw strength, and the stones which weren't nearly as rooted need only be picked up.

As his minions dispersed Mattheo lied down. This was the first time he had to await results since coming here, but this was his modus operandi. Mattheo dosed off until morning came.

The rising sun appeared to glare intensely to the nocturnal Mattheo. Trees fluttered as deathly pale leaves were piled up from falling throughout the forest. Although now, it was hardly able to be called a forest now. Every stone and tree from a good distance was taken and placed in the ex-den onto a stockpile.

Months passed, and eventually a small village had been erected. Through much trial and error decent buildings had been made and a minor agricultural effort had been put into place. The werewolves had also slowly grown in intelligence as the time pased, and would gesture with their hands to somewhat communicate. It was an odd sight to be sure.

Although they grew plants, they only ate them if on the brink of starvation. Meat was undeniably the main thing that they enjoyed and what would sustain them, but starvation wasn't actually a real issue. The village could go for months without eating and years without drinking, but when they got hungry, a large portion of their strength was reduced due to a lack of life-force to sustain their strength.

Mattheo sat in the biggest makeshift house of the village. He was practicing the magic he knew, and began to practice even the ones he didn't but merely glossed over before. With all the time he had it was fine even if he took longer to learn them. The demon population frequently stagnated and stayed at a roughly set population.

The murmurs from the shack ceased, and Mattheo stepped out. It was the middle of the day. They had a fairly large area of operation, but expansion would be necessary. To expand his forces Mattheo would have to personally control the potential henchmen.

Taking 5 werewolves, he set off.

Mattheo transformed both his party and himself into humans. The would be werewolves were now a group of men, their hair brown and their eyes varying in color. Those in the group all had relatively smooth skin and the group's average height was around 5'10. If humans saw them it would appear as if they were runaway princes. Only one thing warded off that thought...they had no clothes. Mattheo was similarly so, he had no want to appear as his old self so merely blended in with the group.

Naturally there was a good reason for this. Humans were the choice food for demons. As they say, 'a demon that doesn't attack does so to tell his lord'. People where Mattheo was from would say this as it was usually true. Demons that didn't attack would come back with a whole army.

With no lords his success rate shot up.

As they were walking, rustling bushes could be heard. As he looked he saw it, a demon bear! Demon bears weren't like normal bears. They stood 8 feet tall even when on all fours, and had extreme muscle strength. This made them easily at least Mid-Demon class demons. The only consolation here was that they lived and hunted alone without much speed to back them up.

Mattheo leaped back as the demon bear aggressively tried to pounce on him. It was a successful evasion. As Mattheo's companions noticed it they also leaped backwards whilst snarling.

Mattheo ordered his minions to leave it to him while he dashed towards the demon bear. In retaliation the bear took a swipe towards Mattheo knocking down 2 trees but missing him. He proceeded to dash as he climbed the bear with extreme speed. Once at the top a shining string could be clearly seen, he swiped at it. Immediately it bound to his hand and eventually vanished. *Thud* It fell to the ground motionless. However, it was very much still alive. Mattheo felt another wave of energy stimulate his mind and senses.

'I could get addicted to this' Mattheo thought.

Sitting atop the demon bear Mattheo relaxed. Just after he did though, more rustling could be heard.

What emerged couldn't believe what it saw, and neither could Mattheo...