Chapter 11 - Training Begins

Waking up in his bed, Ashe had a burning headache.

'What happened? That damned demon! It's always scheming something!'

After letting out his Anger by cursing the demon in his head, Ashe grabbed his phone to check the time. However, when he started moving his left arm he felt a strange warm object's presence. Ashe unburied his hand from his bedsheets to find a mysterious crimson crystal-like ball the size of an orange laying in his hand.

Ashe put it aside for now and continued checking his phone. It was 1 hour before midnight, meaning he had around 30 hours total before his mom would come back. He originally planned to clean up the house before his mom's arrival but since he still had time to spare he decided to do it later.

Continuing with his day, Ashe acted as if he had just woken up in the morning. Making himself breakfast and cleaning himself up before he returned to his room. Ashe then took a couple of supplements and a protein bar that he bought for post-sleep recovery.

Before Ashe took the sleeping pill he decided to do a little exercise, He was worried that he could accidentally take too many sleeping pills without any break which could easily land him in the hospital if he wasn't careful. While exercising the crimson orb kept stealing his attention. Something about it felt very familiar and Ashe just couldn't keep his eyes off of it.

After a basic warmup, Ashe just couldn't hold his curiosity at bay any longer and picked up the orb. When he touched the orb he felt a warm connection with it, as if the orb was slowly melting into his fingertips.

'What is this thing? I should probably just ask Sap and stop wasting my time.'

With that decision, Ashe took a sleeping pill and snuggled up with the orb and Its warm energy helped Ashe doze off.

___________

Ashe woke up but this time in an armchair. He looked around and recognize the room he was in as the first room in Sap's library. Ashe stood up and started approaching the entrance to the library. When he opened the door to the library he immediately jumped back and tripped, landing on the floor.

Sap's giant barn owl head filled the entire entrance, which scared Ashe to the bone. The demon started making a weird noise that almost sounded like wheezing.

"What the hell!" Ashe screamed at Sap. Before he could berate Sap anymore the demon leaped behind him in the blink of an eye. Ashe didn't even see where Sap disappeared, so his body jumped up again when he heard Its voice behind his back.

"You dropped this."

Ashe quickly turned around, his heart beating even faster. Sap was coiled up like a snake with a single limb that was holding the crimson orb extended from beneath Its coat.

Ashe just stood still as he still wasn't completely comfortable around Sap, and after seeing how helpless he would be if Sap decided to turn on him, a slight fear of his guide arose.

Sap just motioned with his claw for Ashe to take the orb, And Ashe carefully walked up and took the orb from its claws.

"Is something wrong? You seem to be a bit panicked." Sap spoke after noticing Ashe's careful movement.

"N-No… It's nothing." Ashe responded, failing to disguise his fear.

"You'll get used to it." Sap said after sensing his fear.

"Let's stick to training for now."

After saying those last words Sap slithered through to the library and proceeded to float down to the bottom. Ashe followed suit and they met up on the bottom floor.

"By the way. Do you know what this orb is?" Ashe asked after entering the bottom floor.

"You haven't realized? That's solidified demon energy. Coincidentally that's what you'll be focusing on for now."

"What do I do with it?" Ashe asked and proceeded to inspect the orb for a second time

"Firstly, you need to absorb it." Sap said while moving a bit closer towards Ashe.

"You should already feel it trying to enter your body."

Ashe proceeded to try to slowly suck the orb into him through the palm of his hand. The energy flowed through his body as he absorbed the orb, making him feel refreshed.

"Very well. Now try to create one." Sap said while making his own orb, that orb however was twice the size and shined like a miniature star.

"Just try making an incredibly condensed flame."

Ashe's first attempt wasn't successful and only resulted in him making a flame the size of his fist.

'Wow… how did my flames get so big?'

Seeing this Sap tried to give some other pieces of advice.

"Try squeezing the flame inside your hand and then feed it your energy."

Ashe did as instructed and succeeded in making a small orb around the size of a tennis ball.

"Well done. Just one more thing you need to do." As Sap said those words the orb in its claw started melting into a bright red liquid. However, instead of falling on the floor it floated and orbited Sap's body.

"Try letting your orb flow."

Ashe was confused by the vague directions but he still tried his best. After a minute, the orb started looking wet; sometimes, a drop of liquid would appear on its surface.

While Ashe was focused on liquifying the orb Sap stepped towards the orb and with a light flap of its wings, the demon pushed the orb off Ashe's hand. When the orb connected with the ground it splattered, only leaving behind a small puddle.

Ashe looked at Sap with an annoyed look on his face before kneeling down and touching the liquid. To Ashe's surprise, the liquid was sticky and stuck to his skin creating a thin veil around his hand

"Now try getting comfortable with the liquified demon energy. It's the easiest form to control while it's outside your body so we'll be using it for quite a bit." Sap said.

Ashe could easily make the small liquid veil move around his body and he even managed to make a little bump of energy stick out of his palm. The amount of liquid he could control wasn't large, as it could only cover a bit more than his hand.

"Very well, that covers most of the basics. You should focus on being able to make a small liquid orb float while I focus on more important matters." After finishing its sentence the demon flew up towards the exit without leaving any room for Ashe's questions.

'What the hell? I just got here and It just leaves me to train alone. And what could that damned owl be doing anyway?'

___________

Sap's mission wasn't simple. Find a place where Ashe could practice his demon energy control in combat without getting exposed as a soon-to-be named Demon.

While flying above the island of Hevell, Sap started to analyze possible solutions in its head.

The island of Hevel has a semi-crescent shape and is split into two different halves by "The Spine" which is a large mountain range that moves along the crescent island which makes a northern crescent and a southern crescent.

The island is also split into multiple different districts or zones.

These districts are usually decided by the type of lesser demons that inhabit them, for example in the most Eastern part of the island lies the forest where their library is. That forest is inhabited by lesser demons who can only use the part of Beruthiels power that controls fear.

Most of these districts are also supervised by actual demons; the offspring of Mortem. This makes this task even more difficult.

However, there are a couple of candidates for this task. The first one is the swamp.

The swamp is inhabited by lesser demons who are limited to the powers of despair. It is also an area mostly neglected by its supervisor Iseres who is mostly preoccupied with the commercial harbor that neighbors the swamp.

The only problem with it is the lack of opponents. Other, more populated districts have a line of command made up of lesser demons. This made a small army for the supervisors to command and establish order. But any strong lesser demons from the swamp were taken into the harbor, leaving the swamp with docile demons who avoid confrontation.

The second candidate is the peninsula on the west that was originally inhabited by demons with the power of pride. This district has the opposite problem as it houses most of the demons that inhabit Hevell. There are even small fight clubs that orchestrate fighting events for the higher-ups to watch.

However, it's also one of the most monitored districts. with it having a large amount of varied lesser demons and protecting the entrance to the Husk Archipeligo its been given to Netris, one of the oldest demons on the island.

The risk of Ashe being found out there was quite high even if he were to learn basic disguise techniques.

The last candidate is the steppes that border the peninsula originally inhabited by demons with the power of lust. Today that place houses the second largest demon city and is a big tourist destination for demons from all over the island.

This district is a mixture of the previous two candidates, a bit less monitored but still not safe; has a lot of different demons but they don't organize as many fights.

Sap also knows that Ashe needs to get as strong as possible in a short time so he can't just sit in the swamp all day, or could he? Maybe the swamp could have grown since Its last visit.

While thinking over the pros and cons of each district Sap was still flying higher and higher to get an aerial view of the island.

After reaching a satisfying altitude Sap looked down at the island below. Frustration was now painting Sap's face, it was deeply disappointed in itself for missing a vital part in the grand picture.

The districts were all bordering each other. Once one would cross from the forest and through the harbor entering the southern crescent. The swamp, The steppes, and the peninsula were all bordering each other.

A solemn expression could be found on Sap's face, was he really losing touch with his long-lost title, his name?

'Better get this over with as soon as possible.'