**Wh-what the hell is he saying? How does he know when I’m fully suppressing my aura?** Judas had been caught. He knew that his walk back had seemed a little suspicious, but how could an amateur-looking kid like Ryan have caught him?

"Oh my God, I never thought I’d meet you here!" Ryan exclaimed, bubbling with excitement.

**Wait, is he...**

Ryan quickly ran to the cashier, grabbed a pen and paper, and handed them to Judas, who stood there, bewildered.

The cashier gave him a side-eye.

"Can you please give me your autograph, Mr. Vixton?" Ryan asked eagerly.

Judas let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been caught. The boy in front of him was just a fan of the original host of this body.

The person he had possessed was Vixton, a rising rap artist adored by many teenagers. He had videos online helping poor people, and his good looks—green-dyed hair, emerald eyes, sharp nose, and jawline—had made him one of the most beloved celebrities.

But of course, that was the public face of Vixton. No one knew the truth about the person behind the mask. Hell, did anyone even know his real name?

Judas gripped the pen tightly at the thought, then quickly relaxed. Was that the real Judas’s anger he felt? He dismissed it as a side effect of merging with the host’s soul.

He handed the signed paper and pen back to Ryan, who held them as if they were a precious gem.

Ryan returned the items to the cashier.

Vixton was already picking up the fallen clothes and other items, and Ryan followed suit, putting his snacks into his basket.

"It was nice to meet you. I should check out now," Judas said, hurrying toward the cashier. He knew it would cause more trouble if Shin showed up, but of course, the demon of luck wasn’t lenient, and Shin had already arrived.

Shin was exuding his aura, as though he had sensed something.

Ryan saw him and waved enthusiastically. "Hey, Shin, look who I met! Come here quickly!"

**What is this crazy guy on? Shit! Should I escape? No, he’s already powerful—he’ll catch up in no time. I’ll wait, and if things go south, I’ll activate the sigil engraved by the leader.** Judas thought, breathing quickly and wiping the sweat from his brow.

Shin and Ryan closed in. Ryan called out to him again, and Judas turned, offering a smile. His mask hid most of his face, so only his slightly squinted eyes were visible.

"He’s the rapper whose song I was mumbling earlier. It’s really my lucky day, Shin! Oh, Mr. Vixton, this is my... umm... oh yeah, I know him from work," Ryan said, patting Shin on the back.

**What’s with that pause?** Judas wondered.

"Oh, yeah, nice to meet you. Sorry, Ryan, but I need to go quickly," Judas said, handing his card to the cashier, who had just finished tallying his bill.

Shin’s gaze shifted from Ryan to Judas. He retracted his aura, analyzing him silently, as though assessing that there was no immediate threat.

Suddenly, Judas felt something brush his back. He quickly turned and saw Shin retracting his hand.

"Excuse me, mister, what were you doing?" Judas asked coldly.

"Oh, sorry. I was checking if someone was still there. As you can see, I’m blind," Shin replied.

"Tch. Just ask the person near you. Don’t go touching people unnecessarily just because you’re blind," Judas snapped.

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Vixton. Shin isn’t that kind of person. You’re mistaken," Ryan said, trying to smooth over the situation.

"For fuck’s sake, my name is Judas Kalhen, not Vixton!" Judas shouted.

Suddenly, he realized he had lost control of his anger. He quickly gathered his items and rushed out of the mall.

"He must be having a bad day," Ryan murmured, his eyes dull. The wide smile from moments ago was gone.

"There’s a saying, Ryan—never meet your idols. I hope you understand that now," Shin said.

"Don’t say things like that. He’s also a human."

Shin didn’t argue further. He quickly checked out their items and paid for Ryan’s snacks. Ryan’s smile returned; after all, free snacks were always a win.

As they left the mall, Judas was nowhere in sight. They walked side by side along the sidewalk. Shin used his cane to scan for obstacles, easily clearing stones and empty cans from his path, as if he already knew they were there.

Ryan was a bit shocked, but then again, demons had heightened senses. Shin’s were even abnormal by demonic standards.

"Do you have a skill to look into the future or something?" Ryan asked.

"No," Shin replied dryly.

"You and Fiona are always so secretive when it comes to others," Ryan teased.

"She’s secretive even with me," Shin replied.

"Ooh, when did I explicitly say she was more open to you?" Ryan teased further.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Shin sighed. "Anyway, that guy from the mall. He’s bad news."

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shin extended his hand toward Ryan, palm up. A faint aura swirled around his hand, and blackish particles appeared.

"Hell dust," Ryan grasped.

"Yes. I felt something from him. Although he didn’t exude any demonic aura, I knew something was wrong. So, I intentionally touched his back to examine him. I was lucky—there were faint traces of hell dust on him."

"I don’t quite understand the feeling part, but well, we got something on him. Wait... why didn’t you catch him if you knew he was from the cult?"

"He’ll be useful, so I put a tracking spell on him. Let’s track his movements for now."

"Won’t he or anyone else find out about the spell?"

"For now, I’ll keep it simple—to track his movements. If I sense him heading toward the forest, I’ll release the spell," Shin explained. **I had a faint feeling of someone following me. If it’s him, at least I’ll know when he’s near.**

"Wow, you’re really skilled in spells."

"Yeah."

They finally reached home and informed Alex and Fiona about their encounter. Alex was visibly pissed when he heard Shin had let the opponent go instead of fighting him.

It was 8 PM. The soft glow of the pendant light illuminated the modular kitchen, its wooden cabinets and pristine white countertops reflecting a sense of modern luxury.The mahogany dinner table was in the center where everyone were sitting, except Shin who was preparing dinner while the others discussed the encounter with Judas.

"So, what are we going to do with him?" Alex asked, munching on lemon-flavored chips.

"Well, we can’t let him go near the branch with that spell. If they find out we’re onto them, they’ll raise their guard, making the mission harder," Fiona explained.

"It’s no use then. We couldn’t pinpoint their location in the forest. We could have used that to track them," Alex said, now eating three chips at once.

"I didn’t put the tracker on him for that. We’re going to use him. Remember, we needed a demon to disguise. He’s the perfect choice," Shin said, cutting vegetables for dinner.

"Wait, what?" Ryan was shocked.

"He’s the only demon we know of from the branch. I’ll teleport near his house, and we’ll plan an ambush to trap him. You’ll disguise yourself as him and search for the soul sigil compass. Once you get it, get out as fast as you can," Shin explained, slicing the carrots with precision.

"But Ryan, how did you not know he was a demon?" Alex asked, finishing off the chips.

"He didn’t exude any demonic aura. There was no sulfur smell either. It’s common for a host to not have a prominent smell, but there weren’t even faint traces," Ryan explained.

"Maybe he’s completely merged with his host," Fiona suggested.

"No, he hasn’t. I couldn’t analyze much, but the way he responded to my aura, he’s not very strong," Shin said.

"He might have been using demonic items to suppress his aura. There are items that can mask his aura and scent," Alex suggested.

"That’s plausible. After all, their leader is a Duke of Hell. He can easily afford such items."

"Yeah. In the past, demons would get them from demonic merchants, but now they use the dark web. What a time to be alive," Alex said with a sarcastic smile.

"Wait, if demonic items are sold online, why don’t we try buying some? Maybe we can even find the soul sigil compass?" Ryan asked.

"There’s no way we’ll find that item. It’s something only a demon king would give as a gift. Selling it would be a huge disrespect and would invite their wrath," Alex explained.

"We could try buying other items. Who knows what we might find? Shin, can I borrow your laptop?"

"I have important files and IDs on my laptop. It might be risky... Oh, I have an old laptop downstairs in the basement. It was formatted due to a virus; you can use that," Shin offered.

"Sweet. Do you also have a mask I can wear?"

Ryan went downstairs to the basement, retrieved the laptop, and wiped the dust off before bringing it back up. He wore the mask given by Shin and plugged in the laptop and booted it up.

The laptop took a while to boot up, and after what seemed like forever, the login screen appeared. Finally, the homepage loaded.

"Okay, let's first connect it to the internet," Ryan said, switching on the laptop's Wi-Fi receiver. It connected quickly.

"Now, the Nor browser to access the dark web." Ryan downloaded the browser. Fiona remained unfazed by the process, while Alex was completely confused and bewildered as he watched Ryan skillfully navigate the technology.

"Wait... what was the website again that sells demonic items?" Ryan asked.

"Sealk Riote," Alex replied.

Ryan typed "DarkAccess" into the search engine to use it for finding the website. The DarkAccess site opened, and he typed the name of the website. Of course, it didn’t appear instantly. After surfing the web for almost half an hour, he finally found it: the original website that sold demonic items.

"Found it!" Ryan exclaimed.

The others rushed over to gather around him, but Ryan signaled for them to stay away from the camera. He was careful to ensure that his background was just a plain wall, with no information that could be given away in case someone hacked into their camera.

"Okay, let’s see what items are available here." He browsed through the site.

[Aura Suppressing Rings: 8 souls]

[Demonic Dagger: 20 souls]

[Ancient Summoning Ritual Book: 15 souls]

[Human Child Blood Potion: 40 souls]

[Tooth of a Count: 10,000 souls]

...

There were so many items Ryan could hardly believe it. He was flustered to see such a wide range of demonic items. He kept scrolling, but one thing puzzled him—how was he supposed to purchase any of this?

He had assumed that since this was a dark web site, they’d be dealing in Bitcoin. But what was this? "Souls"? What kind of currency was that? Or was it some new form of digital money?

"Wait... What’s this? I thought the dark web used Bitcoin. What are these 'souls'? Are they some kind of—"

Realization suddenly struck Ryan, and his stomach twisted. He looked at the faces of his colleagues, and they too wore dark expressions. This wasn’t Bitcoin or any online currency. What the website was asking for was actual human souls.

"Does it...?"

"Yes, it means human souls," Alex confirmed, curling his lips in disgust.

"How does it even work?" Ryan asked, horrified.

"Try purchasing something. There might be steps for people who are buying," Shin suggested.

"You really want us to sell our souls to demons?" Ryan asked, still skeptical.

"We won’t know how it works until we try," Shin replied.

Despite his hesitation, Ryan couldn’t resist the curiosity. He followed along and decided to place an order for the Aura Suppressing Rings, thinking they might help during their mission. He ordered four.

[Your order:

Aura Suppressing Rings X 4

Total: 32 souls]

[Please confirm your purchase by placing your Soulbook in front of the camera.]

"Umm... guys, do any of you know what a 'Soulbook' is?" Ryan asked.

Shin understood immediately. In an instant, he rushed to his study room and returned with an old, worn journal that had a blood-colored, reversed pentagram on it. He handed it to Ryan.

"Open the first page and try to scan it," Shin instructed.

Ryan opened it, but the page was completely blank. He didn’t know what Shin expected him to do, but he went along with it and placed the book in front of the laptop’s camera.

[Scanning the Soulbook]

[Purchase confirmed]

[Thanks for buying our products. Your package will arrive shortly in...]

[3]

[2]

"What the hell, why is it showing a countdown?" Ryan muttered.

[1]

Suddenly, the lights in the kitchen flickered. The room began to shake. Ryan gripped the arm of his chair, his heart racing. Everyone was confused, not knowing what was happening. Then, the laptop was engulfed in a blood-red aura.

The aura shot up toward the ceiling and slowly began to form a circle. In the center of it, a pitch-black void appeared, and it began to expand until only a thin outline of red remained.

"Wh-what the hell is this?" Ryan asked, panic rising in his voice.

Everyone stared at the ceiling. Then, out of nowhere, a cardboard box—perfectly taped—dropped from the air.

The tape had the trademark of Demonic Express Delivery engraved on it. A notification popped up on the laptop.

[Delivery successful]