It took Luke a while to heal everyone, and Mash was just making sure that no one ran off. All these people had presumably been replaced with demon’s and sending them home would be a mistake. Instead, Edward sent clones to each of the places. The man had returned from the warehouse a while ago, confirming that it had been filled with demons. All of the humans had been in a similar state to Mash’s father and had died soon after the demons did. He didn’t blame Edward for killing his father, as the man didn’t know what would happen. In his mind, he had been killing those responsible, and he was right but had just missed the repercussions of his actions.
Jill had to teleport a lot now. She had the ability to identify demons, so she went with every clone before teleporting back. They needed to make sure that no other demons infested the area. They were dealing with the demons well but didn’t think that this would solve everything. He still didn’t know why the demons had poisoned the girl, rather than kill her. It seemed too convoluted a plan for creatures like them. Plus, there was no guarantee that poison would succeed.
Mash had told Edward about the servant they had seen, and he sent one of his clones to alert his father and capture the servant. They were likely the demon who had poisoned his sister, and it was clear that he was angry. Jill and Edward continued cleaning out demons for a while, and it took several hours for Luke to finish all of his healing. By the time he was done It was well into the morning and getting close to lunch. Mash would normally feel hungry and had gotten used to snacking, but his stomach had no desire now. The things he saw still lingered in his mind, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stomach anything right now.
Staring over the crowd that was slowly building around him, he was somewhat relieved to see the life returning to some of their eyes. The demons had taken whole families, and most of the people were clearly related. Many families held one another and reassured each other. He watched them for a second, clenching and unclenching his fists to do something to manage his anger. The gesture was small, but it made him feel like he needed to do something. Unlike the other there was nothing for him to do, even Red could help clean the people up with her blood magic. Mash didn’t have anything along those lines and hoped that he could find a creature that did. Maybe he could look into finding a dungeon with a specific type of monster.
He had discussed the idea with the others on their trip here, and they seemed fine with it. They would still be clearing dungeons and killing monsters, so it didn’t really matter if they went for specific monsters. It was also one of the reasons they picked this dungeon. There were several scenarios that recorded monsters that had never been seen before. Some were large monstrosities, and a few had even had unusual magical abilities. It didn’t seem like they would find anything like that now though.
He could eat these demons but didn’t want more demonic power. The more he saw them and how they used their abilities, the worse he felt about the demonic powers he had already gained. The anti-magic was useful, but using it would remind him of these things, and he doubted that he would ever use the demon form. He had tested those on the trip to the dungeon too. The purple demon form had superseded the others, and he was left with only one transformation. It seemed like the strongest form would be the one that remained. He wondered if there was any dragon that would overlap the little bit he had eaten. Furthermore, he wondered how the snake had even gotten a piece of dragon flesh. That was probably an answer he was likely to get any time soon.
Luke and Red eventually came out with the last of the people, and the six of them met up to share information. They spoke quietly enough so that the people in the crowd wouldn’t be able to hear.
“The church was doing more than just working with the demons. They were creating them, the ritual demanding human sacrifice to make them. Each person could make several demons, and when I checked the basement there were a lot of them in there. Red and I killed them, the demons, the priests, anyone that was involved. I…”
His words trailed off, and Mash guessed that he didn’t want to keep talking. Red picked up where he left off, explaining what she could.
“The people we found were turned into what you saw. They were used to make the monsters. We captured a few people and hid them in the basement. We can question them later.”
Edward nodded, and Mash was surprised to hear Robert speak. His voice trembled with the desire to scream his words. It was a show of his restraint as he spoke in a whisper.
“I will take them back to our place. My father can handle them and will be able to get all the information they have.”
There was no doubt in his voice, and Mash guessed that their father had a skill designed for it. Or at least one of his servants had a skill like that. After Edward shared their story and what he had done at the storehouse, the conversation devolved into what to do next. Luke apparently had several books from the church that he thought they should go over. Edward still wanted to check the rest of the houses and requested Jill to aid him for that. Since Mash could similarly detect demons, he and Robert would do the same for other houses.
The rest of the day went by in a bit of a blur. Jill and Edward went by every house and checked the people inside. Mash, Red, and Robert went to others, and Luke healed whoever he could. Even after spending most of the day doing so, it felt like it was insufficient. They had only run into one more demon in all their searching after the church, though Mash didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. There were probably more demons, and they would be growing more desperate. Furthermore, they knew nothing of their intentions.
Once they finished everything they needed to do, Edward told them that he would take care of the people there. Mash was going to head back to his house but stopped. Robert insisted that he stay with them as he would be a prime target for the demons. Mash could have argued and told him that he would be fine, but just nodded his head in agreement. Everyone else was going to be there, and he had no real reason to refuse. The people who had been healed were led to their homes after they had been removed of demons. The real issue was the fact that they had missed an unknown period of time. Most of the people didn’t remember much and it would be a struggle for them to readjust to normal life. Luke’s healing had managed to restore their bodies perfectly although he couldn’t do anything for their mind.
Robert and Edward had insisted that they could go to any of them for help. With everyone taken care of, Mash and the others headed back to the mansion. All of them went as it was getting pretty late now. Normally, they could go days without sleeping especially considering their levels and stats. That was not even mentioning that they had healing available that would solve anything like fatigue. However, they desperately wanted to get some sleep. The day had been rough, the sights and situations weighing on their mind heavily. By the time they got home, none of them were in the mood to talk. It probably wasn’t the right decision, but they split up to go to bed early. Edward said that he would handle talking with his father and that they could rest for today. With that done, Mash headed to his room.
Mash’s room was extravagant, with a bed that was easily twice as large as the one he had in his brother’s mansion. The room was large enough for him to exercise in if he wanted to, and there was even a private bathroom connected to it. He didn’t bother doing anything and just went to his bed. He sat on the bed not even bothering to use the sheets. He just plopped onto it, letting his body fall on top of the luxurious silk.
He closed his eyes trying to sleep, but he wasn’t that lucky. Images of the day kept flashing when he closed them. The disfigured bodies and horrific scenes were enough to keep him awake, and the final moments with his father weighed on him. Furthermore, there was the largest concern of the fact that these people were truly alive and were somehow being controlled by the dungeon. He wanted to do something for them but didn’t know what.
[He was not your real father. You don’t owe these people anything. What happened to your desire for freedom?]
Priscilla’s message startled Mash a little, and her question left him stumped. He had been driven before, but the things that had happened as of late drove his mind toward other things. Everything seemed so much more important, but he did need to remember his goals. He wanted freedom without any influence and part of that would be freeing others in the same way. True freedom wasn’t something a single person could possess; it would only be true when everyone could share in it. These people deserved it just as much as he did.
[That’s a much harder task than the one you had before. You will need to be a lot stronger for something like that.]
Mash nodded his head, knowing that she could see the gesture. A message would have made more sense, but she would understand nonetheless. The real question was how he was going to go about accomplishing his goals. Becoming stronger was obvious, but he felt like it might still be insufficient. So long as his power relied on the class system, then it wouldn’t be enough to break free from it. He would take it as far as he could go, but he would need to find something new. Perhaps he could learn about how these people strengthened their bodies. From what he read it required a gift to strengthen a person’s body, but Mash’s class was similar to a gift. He made a mental note to check the libraries when he had the chance. Perhaps he would look at dungeons that were more expansive and try and learn from the species he found there.
That was something he needed to discuss with the others, but he thought they would agree. At the very least they would probably be interested in learning how these people developed their bodies. The twins were abnormally strong, even in comparison to people like his brother. Apparently, they weren’t that far off their father despite their gifts being significantly weaker. It sounded like a person’s body was able to grow independently of their gift. Similar to how he could raise his stats regardless of what class or skills he had. Planning his future distracted him for enough time to fall asleep. He would need to thank Priscilla for distracting him.