Get Out of Dodge

I had already hated Silverfoot prior to his injury, but now, I loathed him. If all demons were like him, I might help the church in cleansing this world from them. There was no end to his bitching over the wound on his arm, as it kept him from reaching a certain speed when running. Plus, he constantly required hour long breaks, further delaying us from reaching other cities on the planet. 

Any city we encountered, I would wipe its denizens clean, letting Silverfoot have some stranglers or anyone to shut him up. When before, he was more secure with information, now he was more open. He causally revealed how he extracts mana from people to me. He would pull out a red orb that he would place on the person's chest, making them shrivel up to a husk as the orb would glow brighter. 

What I would do with the mana was still a mystery to him, which I intended to keep. The only thing he knew of me was that normal people couldn't see me, which he took for a unique ability of mine. Even after so many humans, I didn't feel any closer to evolution, in fact, I couldn't even tell of any boosts to my own reserves. In the three days that passed, nothing noteworthy happened, or rather until now.

With Silverfoot in the lead, I followed him, as he was my best option to finding people quicker with his abilities, he suddenly freezes, causing me to almost run into him. Annoyed, I almost yell at him, but one look at his face frozen in fear stops me. My own cautiousness grows as I look around for any signs of danger. 

"What's wrong?" I whisper to him in a hushed tone.

"The next city is just beyond this cave; we should go around." He says fearfully. 

"Why, what's in the cave?" I ask curiously.

He looks at me, more serious than I ever thought him capable of, and replies,

"The Guardian of this planet. I remember demons back in the demon world saying that there is one on every planet who guards a treasure valuable to us demons." 

Hearing that, my interest is piqued. "What's stopping us from sneaking in and stealing that treasure?" I ask.

He motions towards the mouth of the cave, "Go right ahead and try."

No doubt, if every demon in their world knew of these beings, then they had to be insanely powerful. I wouldn't even bother trying to grab the treasure he was guarding, as I didn't want to provoke him. I just wanted to do a little reconnaissance, get a general idea of its power. 

But, as I neared the mouth of the cave, I slowed my pace, as a creeping fear shook my entire core. This feeling was new; it felt wrong. After a few seconds, I muster the strength to overcome this fear to give me enough time to enter the cave.

Immediately on entering, my mind begins to doubt everything. 

'Did I just walk into an obvious trap by him? Was there even a treasure?'

Leaving the cave, I head back over to him, a bit annoyed that I fell for bait so easily. "Why don't you go first?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "I can't. In fact, I'm surprised you managed to even go in. You see, for lower-level demons like us, there are multiple auras that affect us, keeping us from entering the cave. First is the fear which is the first, then doubt and finally dread. Then the Guardian itself is powerful, so much so that even the Demon Kings have trouble dealing with it." 

The idea of finding out whatever that treasure was that it was guarding was appealing. But, apparently, I needed to grow stronger from a low-level demon before I could attempt it. Plus, I had more important things to worry about. For example, we were already lagging behind the schedule with the constant breaks from Silverfoot. To go around this cave, we would either have to go over the mountain, or the sea. We were already a day behind, with the deadline being three days from now. 

When I presented the options to him, he wanted to build a whole boat, but after some debate, I was currently carrying the idiot over the mountain. He was taking too long to scale the mountain, so I made that decision. I could tell he was taking advantage of my urgency, but I didn't care, as he would get his.

Even after clearing the mountain, I continued to carry him, as he didn't take breaks and I didn't get tired. Luckily, Silverfoot assured me that this was the second to the last city that he knew of on this planet. Knowing that information made me push harder to clear it as it. 

To my joy, it was just a village of around 15 people that I didn't even bother consuming. Picking Silverfoot up, he directed me to the last place. The sun was rising once again, signaling a new day and the final hours before extermination when we made it to the last city. Once again, I only bothered to eat a couple of people, mostly because my hunger was too much for me to ignore at this point and to replenish my mana. 

As the last person falls, Silverfoot comes over with that annoying smirk on his face. 

"Well, that's the last person, give or take. We collected a lot of mana between the two of us, so I guess it's time for you to honor your deal." He says, thinking he has the advantage.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go to your lair. Where is it?" I ask impatiently.

"Hmmm." He says, making a point of looking around slowly. Internally, I rage, but I commend myself for holding back on killing him right then and there. 

"It's back near where we first met, deep in a cave." He explains. 

I was hoping he wouldn't say that, but I guess I kind of already guessed his lair was in that area. Grabbing him, I turn in the direction we came from, ignoring his protests, I run.

With all the practice of running to get to the different cities coupled with my determination, my speed was faster than anything I've done before. Even Silverfoot was impressed with how fast I was going, but I didn't care, I ran. I didn't stop when the sun set, and darkness surrounded us. I didn't stop when the sun's rays woke nature up around us. In fact, that made me only push harder. 

I only stopped, when I made it to a familiar clearing, where nothing really changed since my battle with the Deacon six days ago. Dropping, Silverfoot, who was, just moments prior, sound asleep, he wakes up with a jolt. Looking around while scratching his stomach, he too recognizes the scene. 

"Oh! We're here so soon. Someone wants to really see my lair, huh." He says playing to be bashful. 

"Yep. I want to compare yours to mine." I lie while noticing that the sun was once again setting. I had no idea what time they were going to show up tomorrow, so the sooner I left, the better. 

"Well, prepare to be impressed because it's over there." 

He points to a cave which was poorly hidden behind brambles. Rushing in, I find a poorly dug out cave with bones scattered everywhere except on a rock slab in the center of the cave where a hole is above it. Looking at the proud Silverfoot, I already know his lifestyle and that he lounges on the slab all day, only going out to eat. He begins to give me a tour of his pathetic lair, but I ignore him until I hear,

"And this is the portal to the demon realm. I don't advise you use it unless you know you have enough mana to evolve."

My attention snaps over to a cut down tree stump. Peering in it, there is a purple swirl of void. I look at him, trying to discern if it is indeed what he says it to be. He didn't appear to be lying, but with his type, you couldn't tell. Unfortunately for me, I had no other options but to trust in him at the moment. 

"Well, it's official, your lair indeed looks better than mine. Congrats, friend." My words cause him to beam with pride as he looks down on me from his nose. 

"Time for me to honor my deal, you go ahead and get comfortable. And tell you what, I'll watch for another century on to what we agreed, since you've been so good to me."

His smile grows wider as he thinks he just got the deal of a lifetime. Within 300 years of collecting mana, there's no telling how powerful his evolution would be. 

I watch as he happily hums to his rock slab and lays his orb down beside him while he himself lays down. I continue to watch him, all the while plotting the best way to end him. As the time passes, I occasionally glance outside, a bit nervous as I wait for the moment that I've been. Unaware of his upcoming fate, the idiot final drifts off to sleep. 

Carefully stepping over the leftover bones on the ground to not wake him, I finally decide on the best way to do the deed. I lacked information on what a demon was and Silverfoot was no help either. I doubted even he knew what I was inquiring.

I had no idea if demons had souls, so the best way to kill him, was to eat him whole. Creeping next to him, I angle myself next to his head, while the idiot snores. Taking a second to judge if I aimed correctly, I lunge forward, my jaws locking his neck in place. 

I can feel him waking up by my surprise attack and begin panicking when he learns of his situation. My hands grip his sides and hold him in the air as he begins to kick and scream. Reveling in his muffled screams, I would sometimes bite down to torture him. Bit by bit, Silverfoot would slowly go down into the abyss of my stomach. In one final movement, my jaws close shut around his feet, as satisfaction floods through my body. 

I look up, roaring in fulfillment at his death. But, soon, my body processes eating him, and I become aware. In a way, humans were the standard and demons were a delicacy. I yearned, for more. My moment is interrupted as I look through the hole in his cave and notice the first rays of sunshine. Without wasting any more time, I jump through his portal and plunge into the depths of the demon realm.

General POV:

Seconds after Nidhogg through the portal, the weyline activates and twenty hooded figures walk through. One of them sets down a device, which sends off a shockwave that stretches across the planet. Nodding to each other, they separates groups, heading into different directions.

Not even after an hour, they reconverge, disappointed in their findings. Turning off the device, they reenter the weyline to bring back the bad news to their superiors. Within the higher rankings of the church, news that a demon wiped out a Deacon and an entire planet. The higher ups feared the rise of another Demon King and designated people to investigate. They knew change was once again coming and dreaded it.

[A/N: Due to personal reasons, tomorrow's chapter will come out on Monday instead. On the next chapter, it'll be the start of a new volume.]