62 The Real…

Having stopped at the intersection, Kasdeya stared at the signs. Each one consisted of writing with an arrow pointing down one of the four corridors and, while the arrow was easy enough to follow, the unfamiliar, yet strangely nostalgic, writing was a completely different story.

To make matters worse, this intersection seemed to be important for some reason, and lots of people were walking past so, worried about attracting any sort of significant attention, she chose one at random and found herself walking down the corridor leading to the left.

This path she found herself on didn't branch off at all and had considerably less people traversing it, also, it seemed to be inclined to a small degree, so she slowly rose within the structure as she walked.

"That… is a lot of demons…"

The tunnel opened up to a balcony, overlooking an equally large space as the summoning room, except this one was filled with demons of all different shapes and sizes.

They seemed to be training their abilities, having mock battles, and launching magic at the walls and each other. Though, exactly how stabbing your fellow demons with claws and ripping their arms off could be considered a mock battle is up for serious debate.

As Kasdeya stared down towards the massive assembly of creatures, there was only one idea which came to mind.

'This looks like an army.'

And it did, an enormous gathering of mythical creatures pulled from the depths of hell, waiting to be set loose on an unsuspecting target.

Glancing to the left and right, Kasdeya noted a few other individuals along the balcony, watching and taking notes on clipboards, luckily, not sparing her any attention.

'So, are these cultists hell bent on world domination or something? What else could they need this many creatures for?'

Unfortunately, due to the distance between the demons and herself, she couldn't get any information on them through inspecting their status. Limited as it was, something was generally preferable to nothing, so she settled with the next best thing.

[Level: 13

Race: Human Dark Adherent

Level: 14

Race: Human Dark Adherent

...]

'Well this is even more confusing. These cultists don't seem particularly powerful, yet they managed to amass such a force. The only reasonable explanation for this would be that these people are just small fry and the boss of this group is powerful enough to command this number.'

Continuing to inspect those around her while lost in thought, Kasdeya almost didn't notice the anomaly in the group until they were right next to her.

[Level: ???

Race: Real Human]

Suddenly hopping back from the rail and away from the individual who managed to elude her notice, she eyed him warily, while he just gazed down at the ensemble of creatures below.

The man said a few words in whatever language the humans spoke, while Kasdeya continued to stare at him warily, but she couldn't help but notice the exuberant tone which he used while gazing at the ensemble, somehow easing her worries slightly.

"I can't understand you."

Despite her original apprehensions towards contact, Kasdeya spoke this before her mind had a chance to think about her sudden action.

The man turned his head to look at Kasdeya, revealing the slightly messy, but overall far to happy countenance of someone presumed to be in their late twenties, or possibly early thirties.

"Apojies." The man stopped, placing his hand on his chin as he seemed to be thinking. "I… loose language… comprehend."

Seeming to have finished what he was trying to say, he beamed back at Kasdeya, giving a strange resemblance to a dog wanting praise, which was a slightly strange look from someone of his appearance. Despite her earlier caution, she couldn't help but be affected by the seemingly contagious enthusiasm.

"So you can't speak this language well?"

"Language… well? No. Demon… easy not!"

Watching the individual once again looking extremely pleased with himself, Kasdeya couldn't help but sigh while smiling slightly at the strange behaviour.

"So, what's your name?"

"I… name? Lorents! Ha-happy… See..." He muttered a few words in his own language for a minute before he beamed with sudden, overwhelming joy. "Happy meet you!"

"Glad to meet you too?" Kasdeya replied, not entirely sure how to respond to the ever increasing enthusiasm.

Glancing around the room, she noticed that some of the people were even starting to throw glances their way, but not in any suspicious manner, just light smiles, further proving how infectious this emotion seemed to be.

Looking back towards the face of the man staring down at her, she couldn't help muttering her inner thoughts.

"You're like a dog."

"Dog?"

"Ah! I mean! You are a totally normal individual and definitely a real human who is nothing like the aforementioned creatures whatsoever I have no idea why anyone might think otherwise!"

"?"

'Nice save'

Looking away from the individual still gazing down at her, she went back to observing the demons below, trying to make sense of the current situation.

'Why the heck did I react like that? Am I that starved of sentient interaction that I'm terrified of insulting the one individual I've managed to hold a stable conversation with outside of declaring an intent to kill one another? This whole thing is strange. Especially his level, I refuse to accept that anything stronger than me can be this… dumb.'

Having finished composing herself, Kasdeya took a breath and looked back towards the individual who called himself Lorents, only to see no one there.

'Great.'