Escape two

Looking towards the demon's thigh you could see that the wound that Aiden had inflicted had completely healed but Aiden didn't panic he tried to stay calm as he continued running.

But after a few minutes of running, he strangly made another large jump slowing him down drastically.

"Hehehehe," upon seeing this the demon lady crackled maniacally, she closed the distance between her and Aiden quickly slashing at him with more force than usual.

But she didn't feel the human in front of her getting shredded into pieces, this was a vast contrast to what she expected, instead, she felt herself getting shorter, as the ground below her caved in.

A pit about ten to twenty feet deep in the ground was revealed, inside this pit one could find thousands of razor-sharp stone spikes pointing upward.

"Pierce!"

"Slice!"

"Sckreeeeeeeeeee," the demon screamed in agony, her bare feet had been impaled by these stone spikes creating a rather gory sight, red blood flowed from her feet like a fountain as the demon froze trembling slightly from the pain.

The demon's condition might have been terrible but Aiden didn't feel an atom of pity, he landed, violently rolling in an attempt to regain his balance.

His instability was a result of his reckless jump, he had been too careless missing his steps in the process.

But he regained his footing quickly though, his legs slid as he struggled to overcome the force of his jump.

As soon as he stabilized he ran back towards the demon jumping into the pit with no hesitation at all, quickly he readied himself in midair.

The demon below him had a purple diamond at the top of her head he had never seen it before due to how tall she was but now that he had seen it he would attack it.

Using the force from his fall he stabbed the demon on the head.

"Pirce!"

"Ahhhhh," another miserable scream sounded out as the demon struggled to get Aiden off its body.

"Bahaha," Aiden chuckled with delight, the smile on his lips widening as his heartbeat increased with excitement.

The demon shook her head swinging Aiden from the side but he held on, as if noticing that this wasn't working she raised her hand trying to pry Aiden off her.

Seeing this Aiden quickly let go and instead of catching him the tall lady's hands caught hold of the bone sword which was deeply rooted in her crystal.

The demon pulled trying to remove the bone sword from her crystal, seeing this Aiden who was in mid-fall quickly removed the stone sword from his waist and stabbed it into the demon's chest just under her armpits.

If it was before Aiden would have never tried this but the demon seemed to be in so much pain that she ignored everything else.

Using his monstrous upper body strength Aiden performed an acrobatic swing propelling him-self upwards with exceptional

force.

His body curved backward in midair as he removed the dagger from his boots and stabbed it on the demon's arm.

Pulling himself up Aiden stood atop the demon's shoulder and without fear, he lunged himself towards the bone sword.

"Bang, Shatter."

Two sounds could be heard simultaneously, Aiden had used his hands as a hammer violently hitting the base of the blade with all the force he could muster.

He had hit the blade with so much force that he could feel his bones crack.

Losing his momentum Aiden fell back into the pit, "Ahghh," he grunted as one of the spikes on the ground pierced his thigh, but even though he was in pain a flash of joy could be seen in the depths of his eyes, the demon lady in front of him was dissipating rapidly turning into dust.

But before she fully dissipated she did something that shocked Aiden.

Pointing at him she spoke in fluent English, "Being able to only act in a programmed way to the whims of a higher being is quite frustrating, thank you, and remember Aiden don't trust anyone."

Soon enough the demon in front of him completely disappeared leaving a white floating orb in front of him.

This orb was much bigger than any orb he had seen in this strange realm and it was dissipating quickly too.

Noticing this Aiden gritted his teeth, "Argh," he grunted again as he slowly pulled his thigh out of the spike, he tried to remain quiet but the pain just kept on coming, Aiden was in so much pain that he yelled.

"Ahhhhhh!"

As he yelled his body trembled continuously, a feeling of exhaustion washing over him as he struggled, this feeling of exhaustion was accompanied by stinging pain and a tingling sensation at the back of his head.

After much effort Aiden finally pulled out his limb from the spike, his face was pale and he had also lost much blood but he succeeded. Carefully Aiden made his way to the floating orb and upon reaching it he grabbed it and stuffed the orb in his mouth.

Immediately the orb made contact with his mouth Aiden shuddered, he felt warm streams of pleasure rushing throughout his entire body and a very delicate feeling overwhelmed his tongue that feeling lingered for a few minutes before slowly fading away.

"Argh," Aiden groaned as heavy pain assaulted his senses yet again, but upon looking at his wound his eyes widened in astonishment.

He silently watched as his cells reconstructed themselves at speeds visible to the human eye, his wounds were healing.

"You did it," a gender-neutral voice exclaimed quietly in his head.

"Yeah," Aiden muttered weakly not quite believing it himself, it was just so surreal, putting this at the back of his mind Aiden focused on his surroundings.

Although the spikes on the floor were quite lethal that was only true if you fell from above.

Carefully stepping on the gaps between spikes Aiden shuffled his way to the edge of the pit.

The walls were quite smooth and Aiden wouldn't be able to climb it without the help of some tools, but he was in luck.

"Bam!"

Aiden hit the base of one of the spikes severing it from the ground, and then he broke off another spike.

Without hesitation, Aiden jumped up as high as he could but he didn't fall back down, instead, he stabbed one of the spikes on his hand into one of the walls, Aiden dangled for a bit but he eventually stabilized as he used his arms to pull himself up.

Removing the spike from the wall Aiden supported his body weight with just one arm as he proceeded to stab the spike in the wall again this time higher than the last.

There weren't any fancy skills or finesse, just pure muscle, stamina, and upper body strength.

Aiden arrived at the surface quite quickly, standing on his feet he looked at the trap he had built and felt proud.

"You cheating scumbag," the gender-neutral voice in Aiden's head said, scratching his head a bit Aiden chuckled, if he thought about it more he did cheat.

He got the idea for his trap from the book back at the cave, when the writer was talking about his favorite story, the foolish general Aiden suddenly came to an irrational conclusion.

The Foolish General was a historical story, during the time of the Great War, though most of it seemed to have been exaggerated it told the story of the first non-contractor human to kill a demon.

Bringing a group of humans together he built a trap, he dug a huge pit to trap the demon and when the demon fell inside everyone defeated the beast by trusting sharp spears laced with poison at its head.

There were different versions of the story with some even saying that the pit was on fire.

This story was later confirmed to be false due to a few well-known factors, during the time of the Great War humans had not discovered hell energy-infused weapons.

Note that if demons weren't harmed by hell energy they would heal from the wound immediately, the only beast that could be harmed by normal weapons was an infected beast, which was even more inconceivable.

Infected beasts only started to appear during the end of the war, the time frame didn't match.

Even though the story was proven false it was still told as bedtime stories to children.

"Boom!"

A large explosion sounded out in the distance as the dirt trembled "The mist seems to be clearing up," Aiden thought as he looked around.

The troublesome mist that had obstructed his vision for so long had cleared up revealing the beautiful and clear scenery.

The purple moon shone down on the black soil and the plants seemed more vibrant than usable.

Looking up at the sky Aiden felt that the dark purple atmosphere was calming "Grrrrruuuu," the ground trembled again causing Aiden to look towards the distance.

Without the obstruction of the mist, Aiden noticed how much better his vision was compared to before, everything in his range of vision was clear and he could spot a huge tower in the distance.

"Was that always there," Aiden muttered to himself.

"I remember this from the last trail," the voice in Aiden's head said, and after a short pause it continued, "I think that's the exit."

"The exit!" Aiden exclaimed while looking at the massive tower.

He picked up his stone dagger and "Bam," his feet hit the ground as he broke into a sprint, he ran fast, and in a few minutes, he was just eight meters away from the tower.

As he stepped forward the voice in his head warned, "You better prepare Aiden, you're about to get into a tough fight."

Feeling confused and alarmed Aiden asked, "What do you mean?" but all he received was a cold silence.

"Huh, when did you show up?" Aiden muttered, the area in front of him was illuminated by a thick purple glow, but it wasn't from the moon, it was from a tower that seemed to reach the sky.

But what drew Aiden's attention wasn't the tower it was the being in front of the tower and this being looked terrifying.

It observed Aideb Its grotesque form oozing malevolence, while its emaciated body writhed with twisted limbs.

The single eye socket on its deformed head was as empty as void, a formless pit that seemed to consume all light.

The demon's unnerving presence seeped into Aiden's bones "Ba-dump, ba-dump," Aiden felt his heartbeat, just looking at this demon made him shudder in fear, a fear that he hadn't felt in a while.

Aiden tightened his grip around his dagger which didn't look so clean anymore since he killed the tall lady, he tried to suppress the fear, but it just kept rising.

Without a word, it lunged forward "BOOOM!" its thin goat-like calves left cracks in the ground.

In less than a few seconds, it had reached Aiden swinging its sharp claws at him at impossible speeds but Aiden had evolved, even his mind and body worked faster than before.

His dagger flashed in the moonlight as he engaged the abomination giving everything into his one swing the mussels in his arms tensed up, bone claws versus stone dagger.

"Tang!" Aiden's arm was flung back like that of a ragdoll his arm trembling as his skin reddened.

The demon's power was so overwhelming that Aiden felt his bones vibrate but he wasn't a novice at fighting, using the force of the clash Aiden pulled back distancing himself from this demonic being.

The demon didn't follow instead it just stood there staring blankly at him, or at least it seemed like so Aiden couldn't tell since the demon had no eyes or eye.

For a while Aiden and the demon just stood there, not that Aiden didn't want to move but he didn't dare to, the demon was fast, so fast that it could reach him in an instant, with only the distance of a few meters between them Aiden was in a passive position.

After about half an hour Aiden couldn't help but take a step back while watching the demon's reaction but that was a costly mistake, as soon as Aiden took that step the demon moved.

"Bang," its feet left craters on the dirt as once again it reached Aiden in an instant.

But Aiden was watching, he swung his dagger once again, "Bang!" this time what echoed wasn't a clash of powers what echoed was the sound of total defeat, Aiden's stone dagger had shattered, leaving him defenseless

As soon as his dagger shattered Aiden crossed his arms anticipating another hit, the demon on the other hand didn't slow down.

After ridding Aiden of his weapon the demon slipped behind him, its movements a grotesque of mockery and grace, with a single swift strike, the demon swung his fist towards Aiden's lower back.

"Bam!"

A muffled noise sounded out, as Aiden was pushed forward, blood leaked out of his mouth and a confused expression graced his face.

All he saw was a flash, the demon had enough force to shatter the stone dagger with its claws.

One could imagine how much power its fist could muster, and Aiden withstood it, well he sort of withstood it.

This was a testament to Aiden's strong body, the demon didn't let up though.

While Aiden remained disorientated it had already moved to Aiden's front delivering a blow similar to an uppercut, but with its claws wide open.

"Bang!"

"Slice!"

Two types of sounds could be heard simultaneously as Aiden's body was flung upward, the force of that hit was enough to give one a concussion, but Aiden remained conscious times like this were when having a strong body was torturous.

Aiden fell to the ground with a thud, four deep gashes could be seen on his jaws as blood flowed out like a river, though Aiden was this injured he was conscious and could feel every inch of the pain.

His body jerked continuously a natural reaction to the shock to his brain.

The demon stepped forward and it picked Aiden up.

Its claws were so sharp that they could be seen digging into both his shoulders creating another wound.

It pulled Aiden up to eye level as its hollow eye socket met Aiden's unfocused eyes.

Defenseless Aiden stared into the abyss of the demon's empty eye socket, a sinister force seemed to reach his mind delving into his deepest fears and darkest memories.

Nightmarish visions of his loved ones in torment, twisted and mangled flooded his thoughts.

Overwhelmed by the onslaught of terror Aiden's very sanity unraveled, his screams of agony harmonized with the chilling wind of this strange realm creating a cacophony of horror that pierced the very fabric of reality.

As the demon's influence tightened its grip, Aiden's mind fractured, leaving him trapped in a torment of his own making, in the final moments of the lost battle Aiden's body convulsed as his consciousness was consumed by the maelstrom of his fear.

The demon's eye sockets seemed to widen becoming an infinite void that swallowed Aiden whole, his existence dissolved into nothingness leaving behind only a chilling echo of his torment.

Once again Aiden had died but even in all that fear trapped inside that eye socket Aiden faintly spotted something in the sky.

*************

Bruce woke up the next morning but he didn't plan to go to work today, the Hotel was under reconstruction and the workers were all given a one-month break, he thought back to what happened not knowing how to feel.

(Flashback)

After he signed the contract he passed out, and by the time he woke up his body was covered in black demon blood, but he wasn't the only one in the hotel room.

A man and woman in a black business suit stood in front of him though his eyes were hazy he recognized this celebrity immediately, "Mrs. Lotus," Bruce muttered as he stared into those cold purple eyes.

He might have recognized her but the woman ignored him.

"I don't sense the presence of a high-level demon, it probably killed the weaker demon and escaped," a male voice sounded out.

Turning his head Bruce noticed that the one who spoke was Gold, another Contractor from the main team.

Beside him stood a teenage girl in a black suit, no matter how he tried he didn't recognize her, but she must have been someone extraordinary.

"Big brother Alex, isn't that the demon?" the little girl said, pointing to the dead and mangled body of the demon on the floor.

"Isabel I told you not to call me that when we're outside," Alex scolded.

"Sorry Gold," the little girl replied immediately while scratching the back of her head.

"Who told you to bring a kid on this mission," a female voice sounded out, turning his head again Bruce thought.

"That's Mrs. Light-steps," another person from the main team.

On that day alone he had met four people from the Silence and that alone got him excited even though they ignored him for the most part.

He could only look up to these people before but now he too had contracted a high-level demon the problem now was that he didn't feel any different from before so how was he supposed to train?

(End of flashback)

Bringing himself back to reality Bruce thought, "Amanda has gone to school, and she is taking Aiden's death quite well, at least she doesn't look as lost as she usually would, so today I'm completely free."

Today Bruce's mission was figuring out how he was supposed to train.