CHAPTER 8

ONE MONTH PASSED AND DAILIES

“Roar!”

A thunderous roar could be heard In the Eastern forest. Only A large and powerful monster could produce such a powerful sound.

It could be heard from miles away as the adventurers within the area had sensed the powerful monster and immediately runs away.

Coming closer, the monster’s roar is coming closer and sounds of strikes of organic matter reverberate the surroundings.

The said monster could finally be seen, as it flew fast and finally hit hard on a large tree with its own body.

Receiving such impact, the monster felt dizzy as it sways but there’s no sign of it sustains any injury.

The name of the monster is the Primordial Black Leopard, its length is four meters, scary glowing eyes and with a robust body.

 Also, the monster has dozens of scars all over its body. It could be said to have lived a very long-time base on its old scars alone and its unusual size.

“Grrrrr” Still stunned, the monster looks in a certain direction.

A small silhouette can be seen jumping from tree to tree approaching closer to the beast.

The small figure landed near the monster and could now be able to see the true features of the silhouette.

It was a girl 14 to 15 years of age, she has a white pearl skin, silver hair, and a green eye. But the attracted part is the long ears and beautiful yet still has a childlike face.

“Grrr!”

After clearly seeing the girl the monster growl angrily. The monster crouch lowers and seemingly is ready to strike any moment.

Seeing the monster stance the girl wasn’t intimidated. She began walking slowly, but sooner she accelerated towards the monster.

‘Howl’

After the girl moves the monster howls before running at a similar speed. The two quickly collided with each other.

The girl uses her fist to knock the head of the beast while the beast uses his large claw to attack the girl.

But unfortunately for the girl, the beast claws are an inch closer towards its target.

With her kinetic vision, the girl changes her attack in order to defend. She receives the claws using her two hands.

Due to height and weight differences, the girl is bearing the full weight of the monster’s half body. But her face tells no hint of difficulty.

The ground sinks before the feet of the girl, arms shaking while holding the claws that are slowly reaching her face. But before it gets much closer, the girl exerts a sudden burst of strength.

She holds the monster’s claws with a tight grip. With her amazing strength, the monster is being overpowered as she swings the monster and starts spinning in circles as the monster is helplessly being dragged along.

After a few seconds of spinning in circles, the girl let go of her hands and the monster is thrown away.

‘Howl’

The monster has crashed into the same big tree it had crashed before. It howls in pain and unlike the previous crash, the monster definitely received an internal injury.

The monster is barely standing up after, but the intent given by its eyes suggests it would not be giving up that easily.

The girl looks at the beast with a passive expression. But there is a hint of impatience after seeing the beast still standing.

She runs fast towards the weakened beast and quickly jumps to get momentum as her tinny fist clench and strike the monster’s head cleanly upon landed.

‘CRACK’

‘HOWL!”

A skull-cracking sounds came after, and the monster’s final howl reverberates throughout the surroundings.

It then lays on the ground unmoving. But there was still a hint of small and insignificant breathing coming from its snout.

Still, the monster's inevitable fate will come eventually.

The girl had not noticed and thought it is dead but realized after her long sensitive ears hear a heartbeat coming from the monster.

But the girl could not wait any longer. She needs to prepare dinner before mid-noon.       

Clenching her fist, she prepares to strike the head again.

“Stop”

Before the punch is about to make contact with the head it was stopped by a deep male voice. Yet the one who made the voice is nowhere to be seen.

The voice speaks again, but the source could not be traced. The girl who is not confused follows the voice command.

“Give that one a black bead and return immediately”

There was a small leather bag that was strapped to the girl’s waist. She reaches out something in the leather bag’s pocket.

The thing that was taken is a thumb-sized black bead. The black bead contains dark energy as its oozing outside.

As instructed, she put the black bead in the mouth of the unconscious monster.

Not waiting if something to happen, she left the area.

The girl runs as she finally arrives at the front of a bush and grabs something inside. She pulls something and a deer carcass pops out.

In truth, she already finished hunting and was returning. But a black leopard blocked her path and thought the girl and the deer carcass was an easy meal.

Unfortunately, the monster is the one who almost became a meal.

She finally returns to their temporary resting area. The Devil is seen at a near distance and in a cross-legged position as his eyes closed.

Not minding the Devil’s activity, she prepares the food. The deer meat is already washed and is placed by the bone fire. After finishing her work, she sat beside the meditating Devil.

A few minutes later she moves and placed herself between the Devil’s crossed legs and leans on his chest, and with a satisfied expression she dozes off.

It has been a month since meeting with the Devil and many things had happed and there was a lot of progress with their relationship to the extent that both are familiar to each other.

During their travels, the Devil showed her his abilities resulted in fully gaining the girl’s trust.

They also developed on how to communicate with each other because the Little Elf is unable to use her mouth to speak.

Even though both seem not the kinds of people that talk much but with special circumstances, communication is much needed.

A few minutes later, the food is cooked as the good smell is slowly spreading around the area.

Meanwhile, the Devil opens his eyes after smelling the food. Moreover, he felt something weighing his legs and saw the little Elf who had sat between his crossed leg.

Not feeling his intent gaze of the Devil, the little Elf still dozing off. Finally, she came to her senses because of the smell of roasted meat that probably would be overcooked soon.

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She got up and quickly ran into the bone fire to get the pieces of meat and return back and handed a leg piece of deer meat to him.

And upon receiving the meat, he rips a small piece from the leg part and gives it to the little Elf in which she happily receives.

After receiving her piece, she sits down between the Devil’s crossed leg and happily eating. The Devil did not mind the little Elf’s action because it already happened almost every single day and it already becomes a habit of her.

“Did you get what I ask?” The Devil said. But surprisingly, his mouth is currently full of food resulting from being unable to speak. 

“Yes” The little Elf reply as she too preoccupied chewing her food and not using her mouth to speak.

While the Devil is training and searching for what his powers could do, he discovers that the person he had used his mind-reading on is capable to have a mental link with him via brain waves to send signals in a magical way. The power is recent and communicating using minds is not the same as communicating using the mouth.

The Little Girl is still learning the process of how to use her mind to communicate with the Devil while the Devil is already at the mastery level. Still, the Little Girl works hard these couple of days that she can already make small sentences to communicate.

The two finish their food and got up and start walking in a certain direction. The little Elf who is in the lead is heading to a certain direction and jumps in the tallest tree around the area.

‘Crok’ ‘crok’ ‘CROK’

Upon coming closer to the specific tree, you could hear croaking sound from multiple sources.

On the tree are small made-up wooden cages that are hanging all over the tree branches.

There are more than seventy wooden cages and Inside the wooden cages are black birds, they are not just any other birds, it was a rare crimson eyed Raven.

It was a similar size of a chicken and are known to collect and steal precious objects and are also valued by the adventures and merchants alike because of their ability to detect treasures and also, they are a lot smarter than a regular bird.

The little Elf is on one of the branches and picks one of the hanging bird cages and finally got down with the item.

She opens the cage and pulls out the crimson eyed Raven by the neck while the bird made a loud croaking sound upon being mistreated that way.

She raised the bird in front of the Devil.

The Devil reaches out his hands and dark blue energy came out and is swirling around his palm. The energy began to condense in the swirling motion and forming something solid in the middle.

The swirling energy ended as it formed into a tiny black bead. It was similar to the black bead that the little girl had and made the monster swallow it.

The Devil attempt to put the bead in the mouth of the Raven but the bird’s instincts and intelligence told the bird that the bead is bad stuff and tried to avoid it by turning its head.

‘Crok!’ ‘Crok!’ ‘Crok!’

Upon seeing the bird's refusal the Little Girl then holds the bird’s head and forcefully opens its mouth. The bird could only do is cry as it helplessly struggles in vain.

The black bead is finally put in the bird’s mouth.

Moments after, the crimson eyed raven stop struggling and seemingly in a dazed state. Its eyes also tuning from crimson to black.

“Let it go and get me another one”

The Devils commands and the little Elf comply. She let go of the bird in her hands and then the bird obediently flaps its wings and beginning to fly in the sky.

The two repeated the process multiple times while sunlight is getting low and soon will turn dark, but the two still not finished what they’re doing as there were few dozen more to transform.

“This is enough for now, let’s cook the rest”

The two were preoccupied with their work and not realizing the time as dusk is already arriving.

There are ten birds remaining which will be eaten by the two. If the people who knew the value of the birds were to discover how they treated the birds, their eyes would cry in tears.

The little Girl prepares the bone fire while the Devil begins to meditate.

A dozen minutes come by and a good smell of roasted poultry spreads the surroundings and made the Devil awaken.

The Little Girl gets all the roasted birds and places all pieces on a large clean leaf in front of the Devil.

The Devil then grabs a chicken and start eating. Meanwhile, the little girl is going to her usual position while carrying pieces of meat and sat between the Devil crossed leg and starts eating happily.

The moon is full view this night. The Moon whom the beastman worships. There was a particular legend circulated amongst the beastman society about the moon palace is built on the moon is where the moon goddess in a form of a fox with a thousand tails has lived.

The fox tribe is one of the top tribes in the beastman society and holds the prestige’s as the wisest beastman tribe. And many members hold a high position in society.

They also at the forefront of spreading the Moon Fox Goddess religion that dated back when the confederation in its infancy and they were still the sole worshipers of the mood goddess.

Unlike the human that only has one religion and a sole God to worship, the beastman has multiple gods and goddesses to worship. It is because each tribe has their own depiction of their Gods and Goddesses that dated back during the ancient era.

The Moon Fox Goddess is different because it is worship by all tribes and establish as a uniting factor the confederation is still united despite their differences with one another.

Looking at the perfect Moon. The Devil then raised his right hand and doing a grabbing action towards the moon.

“Do you like the moon?” The little Elf speaks telepathically as she looked at the moon.

“Maybe, But I’m still not in a position to desire it…”

The Devil replies. He like the moon and all things associated with it. But more than liked he envies it. When darkness comes, the Moon is the one that guides all living beings. No matter if one is good or bad or how powerful you are, all living things needed the moon.

The Devil still discovering his purpose. And under the influence of his creators, the Dark Spirits, they have given him a goal as a starting point.

More than that, the Devil is refusing to listen after because of his prideful nature and not taking commands to anybody.

The Devil’s own personal goal is to travel and gather more powers because he was still an incomplete being. 

“Big Black, I’ll get it for you someday” The little Elf said with a determination written on her face. Also, she called the Devil with something like a name, indicating their level of trust with each other.

“You need to get stronger for that to happen, Little white”

The Devil or Big Black said with a satisfied expression. He pats her head gently as Little white closed her eyes and enjoying the feeling.

Big Black looked at a distance and said.

“We’re about to enter deep in the forest by tomorrow, we must prepare”

Big Black said. In order to get to their target, they must pass the Eastern Forest and the Middle core before arriving at the Central core.

“Big Black… um, I want to visit my base” Little white said as if she remembered something. She became nervous at this moment and afraid her request might get rejected.

“Hm…”

Big Black is thinking of something. Suddenly his hands that are patting the head of Little White are starting to glow Dark-bluish.

Little White seems to know what Big Black’s intention, but she is not worried one bit because she completely trusts him. And this was not the first time he attempts to read Little White’s minds.

But the first time he used his mind-reading powers on her, he only saw a glimpse of her past before she got banished not after.

Big Black saw the memories of Little White like an image projection within his head. He begins exploring the memory sequence after she was banished. Then finally saw the memories after she arrived in the Eastern forest.

It turns out Little White has a base between the red zone and the safe zone.

He saw someone or something that is with Little White during her time in the Eastern forest.

She is not alone after all but at the same time theoretically alone because of the being that is with Little White in the memory is in fact a monster.

“I see” 

Along with the memories, Big Black also can feel the feelings and thoughts of the target. He now knew how important for her to visit her former base because she has a lingering attachment to it.

“kree-kree might be worried by now that I did not return on time”

Little White oftentimes not able to return to her base for a week because the monster around the area is already being hunted down by her so she needs to travel further in order to catch prey.

“Is that the name of your little friend?” Big Black asks out of curiosity.

She is worried that her co-owner of the base is in trouble because throughout the years that they are protecting their territory from the other monsters that want their territory for their own. 

Unlike Little White, her friend is not a direct confrontation type of monster. She mainly the one who takes care of the monsters using her brute force while her friend did the cleaning part after the battle.

Big Black has noticed her state of mind and said with a reassuring word.

“Don’t worry, we will head there start tomorrow”

“Thank you” Little White said in gratitude.

The conversation ended and they clean themselves at the nearby river.

Little white uses a makeshift scrubber made from plant fiber and scrubs the organic suit like an armor of Big Black. After she finished her work, she removes her tattered yet clean white leather dress and sat face back in front of the Devil.

Big Black grabs a yellow fruit that was placed on a rock and squeezes it hard on the top of Little White’s head. A sweet smell of fruit juice then came out of the fruit and headed down into her head.

He then uses his large hands and gently scrubs her long, silver hair as the fruit juice produces sweet-smelling bubbles in the processes.

Finally done washing, they go back to their temporary camp. Big Back goes back meditating while Little White made herself comfortable sleeping in a fetal position between the Big Black crossed legs.

Before falling completely in the dream word Little White has something to say and Big Black replies back.

“Goodnight”

“You too”

That’s how the day ends for Little White. But for Big Black, he still has many things to do. The night is still at its peak and the dark beings are active during this time of the day.

As Big Black meditates. A silhouette of a bird is seen hovering in the night sky. Seconds later a large flock of birds appeared in the sky as it encircles the area. One such bird landed near the Devil. It was a Crimson eyed Raven that was previously released. But there was something different with the Raven.

The usual Crimson Eyed Raven would always make a croaking noise, but the one closest to Big Black is so quiet as it looks at him with an intense gaze.

Moreover, As the name of the birds suggests, it has an original crimson eye but the current has a shiny black eye.

The flock of birds soon follows and landed scatter everywhere as they surround Big Black, the majority were the Black-eyed raven but there were other kinds of birds joined in the group.

Soon after, a different kind of large monster appearing one after another in the dark and silently approaching Big Black.

The monster was only a few dozen in number but their strength could not be underestimated Because they were once the king of their territory. But now, they are forever to serve Big Black until they die.

One familiar monster among the crowd is the Primordial Black Leopard, its previous golden eyes are replaced by black eyes.

The monsters had assembled and waiting for the Devil's instructions.

“Half of the birds will go out this realm and gather the information you think that is crucial to the cause. The rest, including land monsters, will survey our path… inform me if there are anomalies no matter how big or small”

After Big Black commands them, they quietly scattered in the shadows and never to be seen again. The monsters seem to have gained more than the transformation of their eyes.

They also gained a high level of intelligence and a presence of dark entities inside of each monster. They were in fact a reborn Dark Spirits.

The Dark Spirits first suggest trying this method to be artificially reborn or it must be said that they want to move out freely.

But there are still many unknown side effects that they need to explore. But the known side effects are the Evil Spirit is incapable of using their own powers when are possessing a monster. They can only use their host innate abilities during the time.

It is also noted that when a Dark spirit decided to discard its host or if the host died, the said Dark Spirit would expose his very being in the World System and might take action to imprison him.

After the monster has disappeared, the two were alone again. But for Big Black who did not need to sleep it is spare time for discoveries.

It was this time he engrosses himself experimenting with his own powers. At this moment, except for his mind-reading abilities, the rest of his abilities have somehow had a relation of the Dark Spirit. Even the creation of the black beads is a form of combined powers of both sides and not consider his own.

He still has not tapped the power of the Chaos core which is his life force and power source that bonded all entities inside.

Big Black predicts that there will be a precaution should he relied on the powers of the Dark Spirit for a long time.

He still hasn't trusted the Dark Spirits, nor he needed to trust them because they are part of his entire being. His ego would not allow him to just follow every instruction they made.

As he meditated. The Chaos Core finally reacts from the Big Black’s summons. Noticing it, the Devil raised his right hand and tries to release out the Chaos energy within the Chaos Core from his palm. 

Surprisingly, light blue energy came out. Unlike his previous energy that has a mix of black and murky energy from the Dark Spirits, the current is pure energy that came directly from the Chaos Core.

“Hm” The Devil looked at his glowing hands and analyzing it.

Suddenly a nearby bush rustles with activity and soon an animal pop out. It was an ordinary squirrel.

Noticing the animal, Big Black thinking of something and then he raised his glowing hands to point at the squirrel.

The light blue energy shot like a laser from his palm and hit the unaware squirrel.

The shot didn’t hurt the squirrel one bit nor the animals did not fly after being shot, the little animal didn’t even run or afraid of its current glowing body.

“Is that it?” Big Black looked at his hands with confusion.

“Squeak!” Once the light blue light completely absorbs from the creature’s body, suddenly the Squirrel look startled, then falls in frozen motion.

“hmm” Big Black has seen the squirrel right before it falls as he waiting for something to happen.

The unmoving squirrel suddenly starts squirming in pain as it makes a squeak noise repeatedly.

A transformation began. As the squirrel squirm, its body began to change right before Big Black’s eyes. Its previous fur body is replaced by a black, organic-like armor and its previous black eyes turned red.

The process only lasts in 5 seconds before the complete transformation.

The creature finally stops struggling. The transformed squirrel got up while catching its breath. Its previous form cannot be seen anymore and was replaced by an entirely different creature like armadillo mixed reptile.

“Come here” Big Black commands the creature. Yet the creature only looked at him and seemed wary of him.

“I said… Come here” Big Black is slightly annoyed by his own creation not listening to him.

“Squik” Finally getting a response, the Squirrel starts moving slowly towards his direction. But the creature stops a meter in front of the Devil as it looks at him closely.

“Come closer” Big Black gently said as he reaches out his right hands towards the creature and waiting for the creature to voluntarily be captured in his palm.

“Squeak!” Suddenly the creature made a quick turn when Big Black made a gesture.

“You little!” Seeing his creature made a run, Big Black finally snaps and was about to stand up in order to chase the creature.

But he remembered there was a little Elf between his crossed leg that is sleeping soundly and finally hold himself back as he watches the creature running in the dark and never to be seen again.

“This ability needs further research” Big Black assumes that the creature would follow his every command but he realizes that the ability he used did not include the power to subordinate the creature.

Hours went by as he currently analyzing the data gained from the creature and forgotten about the time.

The Sunrise finally bloomed on the horizon and the beings of the light awaken to their slumber. While beings of darkness hid away from the radiant sun and slumbers and waiting for night to rise again.

Little white, who is sleeping began showing signs of awakening. Slowly opening her eyes, the first one he meets is the Devil who gazes back at her and she said happily.

“Good morning”