Chapter 1: A Demon's escape

Roars and cries of anguish reverberated through the dark forest of Angrisha as trees swayed and snapped with every large step, something was running, running as fear engulfed its every step and thought.

'I don't want to die, not here. Please!!'

These were the creature's thoughts as it turned and turned, moving erratically while traversing the near pitch-black forest with the hope that it would somehow lose its pursuer, It smelt death chasing behind with its eyes completely locked onto every movement like a homing missile that couldn't be shaken off no matter what action was taken but that didn't stop the creature from trying.

It glanced towards its right before taking a hard left into a small clearing within the forest, the pursuer followed but didn't expect the creature to stand firm while taking a defensive stance. It'd been chased for hours on end without rest, its instincts told it to run but no matter what action was taken to flee the pursuer followed without fail.

Its stamina was being drained slowly but surely and its pursuer had shown no signs of exhaustion, it didn't take long for the creature to realize that its pursuer was trying to drain its stamina so it couldn't defend itself later and would merely be a standing meat sack completely unable to defend itself, thus it chose to fight with whatever strength it still had left.

"You're so rowdy today number eight, were you not well fed today? Is this your short phase of rebellion?"

The pursuer laughed as he walked into the clearing with a long sword in hand that glowed with a silver aura as it basked in the moonlight, his golden slit eyes staring daggers at the beast in front of him.

The creature growled while baring its fangs towards the man who only walked closer with every passing second without a care in the world as if the dangerous beast in front of him was merely a housefly that he could easily wave out of his way, this worried the creature but it had no time to show weakness in front of its enemy.

GROAAA!!

The creature roared at the man who was now only a few meters away from it, its deep red fur flaring into a blaze of crimson flames that covered its mane giving it an intimidating yet majestic look. The single horn that stood on the left side of its head pointed at the man as the creature was in no mood to back down, it had made its choice to die fighting for its freedom than to live the rest of its life in captivity.

"Oh~, so you're ready to kill me? Bravo number eight, this is why I adore you so much"

Adore?

Anger spewed from the creature as the man's words reached its ears, Adore? Was capturing and torturing someone to the brink of death till they begged for their lives showing that you adore them? Was the constant subjection to horrid experiments of indescribable pain supposed to equate to adoration?

The creature couldn't understand the sick words coming out of the man's mouth and definitely wasn't going to try anytime soon, with a snort the creature charged at the man with its jaw wide open as energy swirled towards it causing a small purple ball of light to form in its mouth.

The man frowned slightly but readied himself with a defensive stance as he stared without fear.

*BANG*

A loud clash of metal and flesh reverberated across the forest causing a shockwave of air that threw the man back from the difference in weight and power behind their attacks, although the man had put his strength and heart into the attack, the gap between beasts and human beings was large when it came to physical strength and the man had forgotten this while taunting the creature to surrender.

"GAH!"

Blood escaped the man's mouth as his back smashed into a tree causing a visible dent to form on it, the shockwave had sent him flying so fast that there was no time to reinforce his defenses before eventually smashing into something. This left his body vulnerable to take on the full brunt of the impact causing immense damage to his bones and organs.

GROAAAA!!!

The creature wasted no time and opened its mouth before sending a beam of purple energy in the man's direction, at the beginning of their battle it had just done this as a feint and opted to face the man with its physical strength alone at the last minute. The creature wanted to attack the man when he was at his weakest and couldn't avoid the beam in any way, shape, or form which wouldn't have been successful had the man's arrogance not been in play.

Noticing the danger the man clicked his tongue and pointed his hand at the beam while light formed in front of him causing a shield to slowly form, his body was aching and drained but magic was still within his arsenal as the beam smashed against the shield with devastating force. Unfortunately for the beast, the man had erected a force field strong enough to withstand the beam for now as the beam's energy was redirected in the form of a "V" intersection from where the shield stood.

"YOU DAM MUTT, DID YOU THINK YOU'D KILL ME WITH THIS?!"

The man shouted in ridicule while laughing hysterically but the creature wasn't going to let go of the offensive, truth be told it half expected to kill the man in a single blow and was disappointed when it hadn't but even this result was still in its favor. The beast knew full well that in a battle of attrition with mana reserves, it was sure to win any time of the day.

The ground, trees, or whatever animals that might've been in the vicinity of the creatures attack would've been erased without even their ashes remaining, the man knew this and stood his ground but cracks were slowly forming on the surface of the shield.

'F*ck, F*ck, my body can't keep this up for long!!'

The man was panicking as his body was slowly giving out from the intense injuries he suffered earlier and the beast's attack hadn't subsided, breaking the shield now would be the death of him.

'I can't believe I've been pushed to a corner like this, tsk If I allow this beast to escape the emperor would surely have my head'

The man contemplated as the shield only grew weaker by the second, he couldn't allow one of the empire's most prized possessions to escape into enemy hands. The existence of demons was a powerful asset that the empire made sure to protect in order to conduct their many sickening forms of research upon them, the man in front of the beast was one of the many who were responsible for these experiments and it was a sworn duty to make sure none of their research was ever leaked and revealed to the public.

This included the escape of a demon, in the events that a demon was to escape from a researchers lab then it was the researcher's responsibility to find and capture the demon if possible, however, if the demon cannot be captured then destroying it was the only option even if it cost the researchers life to do so. The empire would not accept excuses for letting a demon loose and would personally kill a researcher on the spot if such a thing was revealed.

Thus the man could only steel himself and try and perform the necessary task since capturing the beast was now out of the question.

"So disobedient, if it's freedom you want then I'll personally send you to the afterlife along with me. Maybe I can teach some more manners while we're there"

The man said this but he had no intention of dying and only said that out of spite, he'd already readied an escape spell that would teleport him to safety just in time to avoid lethal injury. Glaring at the beast the man placed his thumb in his mouth and bit on it hard enough for blood to trickle down his hand, the sound of thunder could be heard in the sky before a white flash of light struck the earth where the two stood.

In a matter of seconds, a dome of white energy engulfed the two without mercy, shining a bright light across the forest for all its inhabitants to witness like a beacon of light in pitch darkness, there wasn't a single thing within the forest that would miss the light show happening in front of their eyes.

GROAAA!!!

A roar of anguish could subtly be heard within the dome as the creature cried in pain, the dome of white energy was slowly incinerating it like it was sitting in a furnace with the heat at its maximum. It cried out in anguish but a deeper emotion was swirling within it, an emotion that spurred its resilience against death.

'Not here, I won't die here'

Were the monster's words but it wasn't fear that drove those words but anger as the creature failed to kill the man it resented so deeply, it had long noticed the escape spell that the man had used to avoid the deathly blow of light and this angered the creature down to the core.

It was afraid of death and didn't want to die like a pathetic tool that was tossed away, however, it would've gladly accepted such an outcome if its torture had joined it into the afterlife. At least there, the creature knew that its torturer would suffer in agony in the pits of hell but that sadly wasn't the case this time and it angered the creature deeply. So deeply that it cried out in anger at whatever god was watching, asking why such a person was able to escape death's clutches while it was left to die.

For outsiders watching, a black and red hue could be seen forming within the white dome slowly engulfing it. The anger and killing intent resonating from that growing black and red hue would cause anyone to shudder and fall to their knees out of fear, fear that whatever was inside would direct this anger upon them. As the seconds passed the once white dome had become a swirling mass of black and red energy that shot to the sky like a beacon but not one of hope but one that'd insight dread upon anyone witnessing it.

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"GAH!!...haa..haa"

With a small spark of light the man appeared on a cliff with his hand on his chest as he panted wildly from exhaustion, he'd pushed his body far past what it was capable of enduring in its current state and the backlash was incredibly severe.

"Master Clairvoyous!!"

A young man in a plain white lab coat quickly ran towards Clairvouyous and picked him off the floor, allowing Clairvoyous to place his weight over him.

"That attack was yours right? But why are you so injured?!"

The young man asked with genuine worry but Clairvoyous was not interested in such pleasantries, he only wanted to see the outcome of his attack and whether it was successful or not.

"Take me to the edge of the cliff, I need to ensure that the demon has died"

"Of course although it would be slightly unnecessary since the outcome is already set in stone"

"Just do it!!"

"Yes, Master Clairvoyous"

The young man brought Clairvoyous to the cliff's edge and sat him down as the two stared at the dome with varying expressions, Clairvoyous stared with a serious and complicated expression while the young man only looked on in admiration. Both stared without letting their eyes peel away from the sight as they waited for the attack to eventually subside.

"You're truly a powerful mage, Master Clairvoyous"

The young man praised as his eyes peeled away from the dome, he thought the demon to be dead by now, however, Clairvoyous sat in silence while keeping his attention completely on the white dome buzzing with energy. He knew more than anyone how resilient the body of a demon could be and wasn't about to underestimate it even though he fully believed the attack to have been enough to kill the monster, he was still going to watch.

'There's still that one variable..'

Clairvoyous pondered while staring at the dome, the young man watched but found no reason to stay any longer.

"Master Clairvoyous, I think it's about time we leave"

"...."

"The demon is most likely dead by now, we should-"

The young man was suddenly cut short as an overwhelming amount of killing intent washed over him, he dropped to his knees as his eyes widened in shock and fear. At first, he thought that he'd somehow angered Clairvoyous enough for him to assault him like this but quickly scrapped this as Clairvoyous had also keeled over from the sheer amount of anger and hatred that was engulfing their senses, both were sweating buckets while struggling to breathe and looked across in the direction of the white dome which had changed into a deep shade of black and red.

The young man's eyes widened to the point where one would expect them to fall out of their sockets as he couldn't believe the sight in front of him, the dome soon changed shape to a beam that shot towards the sky like a beacon.

"I-It's still alive?!"

The young man spoke between strained breaths as his body was near paralyzed out of fear, Clairvoyous frowned and stared at the beam with dread. With the overwhelming amount of anger and hatred resonating from the beam, he'd nearly thought that the demon would fly to his destination with vengeance but that didn't happen and the beam only lit up the sky, this would've been fine but for some reason, Clairvoyous found it even more terrifying that it didn't.

"Tsk, to think that the Sin was unsealed due to my arrogance"

Clairvoyous berated his earlier act of stupidity while playing with the demon, had he ended the fight earlier none of this would've happened.

BANG!!

With a short flash of red and black the beacon disappeared in the blink of an eye, the dread, fear, and hopelessness that Clairvoyous had felt suddenly disappeared as if it wasn't there in the first place like it was all an illusion but he knew all too well that wasn't the case. The visible crater caused by the dome told him it was indeed real and it angered him.

"Deron!!"

"Y-Yes, Master Clairvoyous!!"

"Don't tell a word of this to anyone, do you understand?!"

"Y-Yes but how do we.."

"We'll report the demon to have been successfully subdued and killed without fail, I'll make up the details just make sure to keep your mouth shut on this matter..no one should know what happened here"

Deron was confused but nodded his head in understanding, neither of them wanted to face the consequences of their action or at least that's what was going through Deron's head. In truth, Clairvoyous wasn't just fearful of the consequences of letting a demon loose but also about the type of demon that he'd allowed to slip through his fingers, a demon that bared a power which left unchecked or taken care of would surely be a thorn in his side near impossible to take out.

'I only hope I injured it enough for it to die of disease or something, Tsk if I'd just killed it earlier..'

Clairvoyous berated himself once more but what was done was done, whether the mistake would come back to bite him or not was for fate to decide.