Signs of Humanity

The entire galaxy knows of the most recent news, the Belladium Union declaring war on the Virium Empire.

Things have heated up since the disappearance of Loudvik, with the primary suspect being the Empire.

How else would he disappear without leaving any trace?

He couldn't have possibly fleed as the Union had quite a few trackers on him at all times.

They knew his location in a second and the other it was simply gone and his company could only operate with him.

The Virium Empire as the war lovers they are didn't deny being involved in his disappearance which only made matters even worse.

It seemed as if the first true war between the two was only seconds away from happening and the consequences would be disastrous.

"Ugh, sleeping on grass was a bad idea. The rainwater just got through and now I have mud all over my armor!" Said Loudvik.

As he got up, he felt lightheaded and his legs were weak.

"Your body is in a weakened state as you have been fasting without adding Sodium to your body." Informs the AI.

"Ugh I know, I should've left food or at least water with electrolytes in my lab but what's done is done isn't it." He responded.

"I'm pretty sure I can still take quite a bit before passing out from the lack of sodium."

He properly gets up and sets off to find food.

He finds a few bushes with some fruits which the AI tells him are edible and decides to go to that cave again.

However as he was approaching the cave, he heard a scream far behind him.

He hesitated to go for a moment before ultimately deciding that he should follow the sound after all, if that was a human that meant civilization had ensued.

As he runs towards the sound he sees a man with brown hair and black eyes struggling to hold a sword as he had a wound on his chest, he seemed to be between his 30s-40s and had just been slashed.

In front of the unknown man, there was a red-skinned well built humanoid creature that had black horns and completely black eyes. It was at least 3 meters tall in size, it seemed to have long black fingernails which were probably what caused the wound on the man's chest.

As the creature approached the man, he murmured "Is this how I end?"

The creature started laughing as it toyed with its prey, feinting a few punches before a very strange sound could be heard.

The man had closed his eyes, waiting for the punch that never arrived.

Everything was silent for a brief moment until something heavy fell to the ground.

He opened his eyes to see the creature's corpse laying on the floor with a hole in its skull.

He heard the bushes moving and Loudvik appeared from them.

He held his sword against Loudvik while shaking in fear.

"TU QUOQUE MONSTRUM ES? QUOMODO HOC FECISTI?"

Loudvik could not understand what the man was saying, what language was that?

"It's Latin." Said the AI.

"Turning on the auto-translation feature."

Now Loudvik could understand what he was saying.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU MUST BE A SHAPESHIFTER! NO HUMAN MAGIC SPELL CAN DO THAT TO A HIGH-RANKED DEMON!"

The man had never seen such a thing.

A perfectly circular hole was made on the demon's head and some burn marks were left there.

"Calm down, I'm on your side. If you move like that you might worsen the wound."

The man calmed down, logically speaking if it was an enemy he wouldn't still be alive after all it defeated a demon with a single attack.

"Who are you? How did... How did you do that?"

Loudvik knew that explaining too much would not do any good in this situation but with his quick thinking, he made up an excuse.

"This is a magical artifact. I found it laying next to a demon corpse." He said.

"Good eh, using their own weapons against them." The man coughed blood as he spoke. "If more of those exist we would be doomed though..."

"Stop speaking we have to treat that wound." Loudvik alerted.

"It's no use son, I'm not gonna make it out. I've already been poisoned."

The man lifted his head showing purple veins pulsating in it.

"Here take this you'll have more use to this than me. Also, go to the village to the south." He paused. "Tell them I couldn't make it."

Loudvik quickly responds "But what's your name and what is this?"

"My name's Dominic, and about this stone... It's... Up to you to... Figure out..."

The man's skin turned purple and his pulse stopped.

Loudvik was frustrated with his inability to prevent this grim situation from happening.

Had he prepared more for unforeseen situations he would've been able to save the life of this man.

As he was regretting, the man suddenly got up and threw a punch at Loudvik who dodged it.

"What is this? A poison that can zombify corpses?"

Loudvik slashed its throat with the man's sword.

"I won't let them defile you, this is the least I should do."

He then proceeded to cremate the man's corpse and leave his sword standing firmly on the ground as a grave.

With a rough start to his day, Loudvik heads south to find the village that Dominic had mentioned.