THE SILENT DEMON

It’s been three months since I began the retreat. I’ve learned a lot of things from Ray during that time. Due to that, I guess he and I have become closer somehow. It seems he also has gotten the hang of how mindscape works. Thanks to him, I’m now able to cast more than twenty spells of different attributes simultaneously. That’s something that would be considered impossible. With what I’ve learned, I believe I’m now more than ready to face the master of this forest.

I immediately prepare for my departure. The greenies seem to be a lot stronger than when I left them and the old geezer looks somehow younger than before. Maybe it’s just my imagination. All this time, they were being trained personally by Gaia. I did ask her via telepathy, which I learnt from the many books I have, if her people will be alright with her gone. She responded by saying it was fine since she has a capable retainer managing things in her absence.

Anyways, as I stand at the boundary between the red and dark zone, all I can feel is the surge of demonic energy.

“Be careful kid. Demonic energy has a corruption effect to humans. Even though you won’t be corrupted, you’ll be severely weakened. Since this space is covered with demonic energy, your magic spells will be cut down by half or more since there’s little to no mana or magic particles in the surrounding.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

Ray has learned a lot from looking at my memories. Even though I’ve locked most of my previous life’s memories from him, I didn’t lock any from this world. I’ve also learned a lot from Ray about Demons. Firstly, it seems like demons possess a demonic core which is also called a demonic heart. The demonic heart is like a mana core for humans and a magic core for monsters. But instead of it containing mana energy or magical power, it contains demonic energy.

Demonic energy has corruption properties. It corrupts anything that doesn’t have demonic energy, from trees, monsters to humans. Even the air is corrupted by it. The thing about demonic energy is that it spreads as long as the demon in question is still alive.

This means as long as the Silent Demon is left alive, then it is only a matter of time before the demonic energy spreads all over the forest. That will also affect the village in a way since their survival depends on this forest. They also have rapid regeneration properties which makes them nearly impossible to kill, especially if it’s a high-ranked demon.

I cover myself with a mana barrier and enter the dark zone. The moment I enter, I feel like I am being watched from all angles. Maybe it is the Silent Demon or the demonised monsters. It doesn’t matter either way because whatever has the guts to stand in my way is my enemy. And I will not show mercy to my enemies.

The forest is corrupted all over. Trees, plants even the ground are pitch black. Even though it is sunny, the moment I entered this place, the sky darkened as night. I continue to walk for a few minutes. Weirdly enough, the demonic monsters don’t attack me. They simply clear the way for me whenever I pass through them.

I think it’s the Silent Demon’s doing. Does it have a trap set for me or is it looking to fight me fair and square?

I then arrive in an open area. There, a demon sat as if it is waiting for me. It is all black with the head of an ant. It slowly looks up and with its piercing red eyes, it releases an overwhelming bloodlust towards me. Of course, its bloodlust doesn’t affect me at all. I then release my own which manages to cancel its bloodlust.

With a screech of approval, as if it is telling me I’m worthy, it stands up. With arms that reach to its knees and claws as sharp as blades, it releases its power. I guess it is telling me to get ready.

“Be careful kid,” Ray cautions. “I get an uneasy feeling about this guy.”

“He’s that strong?”

“I don’t know him but for some reason, I feel like… never mind. Just be careful.”

I take out my sword from my storage space and imbue it with mana. I guess it’ll be a melee fight.

With a screech resembling a war cry, it charges at me with its claws. I block its attack with my sword. It then sends a frenzy of attacks at me but I block every one of them. Then out of nowhere, an attack thrusts at my abdomen, sending me crashing against the trees.

“What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know too kid, but it was fast enough for you to not see it and strong enough to pierce through the barrier. But luckily, it didn’t make contact with your body.”

I then gloss over at the demon. A tail is swinging from behind it. It has a tail? I didn’t know that. I guess it decided to hide it as a surprise attack. It is probably meant as a one-kill attack when the enemy is focused on the frenzy of attacks. I thought this thing didn’t possess sentience but I guess I was wrong. Somehow, this fight seems like it’s going to be harder than I thought.

I stand up and as I am about to attack, I notice a crack on my sword.

“Wait, why is my sword cracked? I had imbued it with mana!”

“Remember kid, the demonic energy from the demon’s frenzy of attacks broke through your mana, and thus your sword suffered the blows.”

To think my mana didn’t last long against this guy’s attacks. I consider my mana to be strong since it’s much purer and denser than other people. I guess it couldn’t do anything against this guy.

“Don’t look so worried kid. Remember, due to the demonic energy in this place, you’re weakened at least by half, so your absurdly strong mana won’t be as strong in here.”

“Yeah, I know but still…”

Calm down Allen, it’s not over yet. I just need to make my mana impervious to the corrosion of the demonic energy. The only reason why my barrier broke from that surprise attack was because it wasn’t strong enough. And also, my barrier is nothing more than covering myself with mana. I need to make it stronger even under these conditions.

The demon attacks me again but this time it is faster than before. I manage to block the attacks again but with my mana getting broken through, my sword keeps receiving the full brunt of the attacks. This is pointless! The moment I imbue my sword with mana, the demon breaks through it over and over again.

Maybe instead of simply covering my sword with mana, I can do the same thing when I strengthen my body. When I strengthen my body with mana, I strengthen each individual cell in my body. That way, my speed and strength are much stronger than normal. So, by strengthening each individual atom of my sword, my sword’s durability and sharpness should theoretically increase.

I then implement my hypothesis. I coat my sword with mana and strengthen each individual atom. This would normally be impossible but using mindscape to analyse the sword to its molecular level, I am able to do it with relative ease. Now, it’s time to put it to the test.

The demon charges at me again. Since the demon has a head and a body that resembles an ant, I call him Mantis. Nah, Mantis sounds too obvious. How about Anti? Yeah, Anti sounds good. Anti charges at me again with his claws protruding. I manage to block his attack.

It seems my hypothesis was correct. Anti is also surprised by the turn of events but that doesn’t last long as he throws another volley of attacks. His speed keeps increasing. Even though I have Thought Acceleration on, my body is still too slow to respond to the hurtling of attacks.

I then cover myself with lightning to boost my speed. Even though my speed has increased, I still feel like there is a restriction on my body. I guess the demonic energy all over the place is the cause of that. However, with my increased speed, I am able to slightly catch up to Anti.

Using Teleportation to make up for my loss of speed, I appear behind Anti and slash his arm off.

Even with an arm gone, Anti doesn’t seem fazed by it. He charges at me again but only this time, he attacks using his tail. It seems his tail has the properties to stretch and retract at will. I manage to parry the tail strikes with my sword but before I know it, a punch connects to my face. I am sent flying by the punch off a cliff. As I am hurtling down the cliff, I use wind magic to slow my descent and activate flight magic.

As I hover over the cliff, Anti is walking towards me all menacing. It has already regrown its lost arm. It squats as wings on its back began to grow. It is quite disgusting. Leaping from the ground, it flies straight towards me at an unbelievable speed.

Opening its claw, an energy blast appears. It shoots the energy blast at me. I am caught off guard by the sudden attack so I fire a fireball instinctively to intercept the energy blast. They clash but my fireball is destroyed completely by the energy blast as it is weaker. The energy blast is now hurtling towards me at incredible speed. I dodge it but barely, as it grazes my arm.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Kid, be careful. That’s a demonic blast. A blast made up entirely of demonic energy. That’s why your fireball was instantly incinerated.”

“So, what you’re saying is that I need more firepower, right?”

“W- what? I never said that,” Ray exclaims. “The fact that you’re fighting a demon right now is stupid. No amount of firepower can win against this guy. Only armour with holy magic can withstand demonic energy and only a weapon with holy magic can deal significant damage to a demon. So

basically, you’re fighting a losing battle here, kid.”

More firepower it is then. I then release a Mega Fireball towards it. He shoots the demonic blast towards it. As they clash, a thunderous roar shakes the forest. It seems the mega fireball is effective in stopping that demonic blast. My mega fireball is of the high-level magic category.

Originally, a mega fireball is intermediate-level magic but with a few tweaks. I made it powerful enough to rival highlevel magic spells. Even though my magic is weakened by the demonic energy all over this place, with my mana and magic capacities, I can just increase the mana spent for the magic attack closing the gap of my weakened magic even if it’s just a little.

How about we give him more? With a snap of my finger, five magic circles appear in the sky. The magic circles glow fiery red as mega fireballs spurt out of them. Anti manages to dodge them all but at the time his view is obscured by the fireballs. I manage to hit him with a mega fireball, and he plummets to the ground with a resounding thud.

Anti jumps out of the rubble unscathed. I guess his shell is tougher than I thought. He then flies straight at me again. We tussle in the sky and exchange blows over and over, him with his claws and tail and me with my sword and magic.

After a while I notice a crack on his shell. My attacks are having an impact. I shoot him down with a lightning arrow, filling the air with a sound akin to the clap of thunder.

Huh, it seems lightning magic works pretty well. He seems to be struggling to regenerate and heal the wounds caused by the lightning arrow just now. Well, lightning magic doesn’t just damage the outside but also the inside. So, even though he has a near unbreakable shell, it still can’t stop lightning.

With that discovery, I hurtle dozens of lightning bolts from the sky at him. He manages to dodge a few but like I said before, my mana and magic capacity are out of this world. Even though he dodges a few, a dozen more are still raining down from the sky, filling the air with a series of explosive, crackling thunder.

All Anti can do is screech as the lightning bolts rip through him. It is quite ironic considering the name he was given. He is quite loud for a ‘Silent’ Demon. As the dust finally clears on the ground, Anti is in a serious condition. His entire body is fried from the attacks. His shell is broken and somehow his body is much smaller.

I then fly down and land gently. It is over. The fight between us is finally over… or so I thought.

“Look out, kid!” Ray cries out.

Dark spikes are hurtling towards me from every direction. I have let my guard down. Using teleportation magic, I am able to evade the attack but one of the spikes lodges on my shoulder.

“Argh, what the hell was that?”

“The ant isn’t dead yet.”

When I look towards Anti, demonic energy is encircling him. His wounds have healed instantly. Not only that but he seems to be exploding with power. As Anti releases his power, his shell grows back. But it seems different, I can tell that it is stronger than before. His dark body turns to a dark purple colour as the demonic energy radiates from his body.

“Where did this guy get this power up?”

“I don’t know kid, but be careful. I feel like the way he is right now, he can even destroy this entire place if he wanted to.”

I pull out the spike from my shoulder. Even though I have instant regeneration, it seems that the wound caused by this spike is not healing as fast as it should. I have to avoid these spikes no matter what.

The somehow evolved Anti raises his hands slowly. I prepare myself. Dozens of spikes appear from the ground pointing towards me. Not only the ground but they are coming from the trees as well.

“Be careful kid. He’s using the demonic energy that has been absorbed by the ground and the trees. The way he is now, he’s able to control all the demonic energy in this area.”

With a wave of his hands, the spikes launch toward me. It’s quite ironic isn’t it? I feel like he’s paying me back for the dozens of lightning bolts I threw at him before… but isn’t this overkill?

I manage to dodge them and block the ones that I couldn’t. Ray deploys a mana barrier for those that I can’t react in time for, even though those spikes just break right through it. Of course, it is not completely useless since it alerts me on the places I left defenseless. I also use teleportation magic to avoid those attacks that are impossible to block or dodge.

Since he is controlling the entire demonic energy of the glaze, more spikes just keep appearing, no matter how many I dodge. After a few minutes of this kind of attack, I am standing with my body pierced with innumerable demonic spikes, and it hurts.

“This guy really held a grudge for my lightning attack from before, didn’t he?” I huff, completely out of breath.

“Are you alright kid? You’ve lost a lot of blood and the demonic energy has entered your system. You can’t keep on fighting like this, kid. You have to retreat. If this keeps going, it’s either he’s going to kill you or you’ll be corrupted by the demonic energy. Either way, it’s really bad.”

“I know,” I puff. “But I can’t give up yet. If I do… then who knows what he’ll do since I basically provoked him. The village will be in danger and not only that, but the whole kingdom.”

I pull the dark spikes out of my body, groaning with each tug.

This kid’s pain tolerance is otherworldly. Even with demonic spikes embedded in his body, he shows no sign of fear or despair.

“Ray, get ready. We’ll be using ‘That’.”

“W- wait what?! If we use ‘That’ with the injuries you’ve sustained, then the drawbacks will be heavy. The damage

that will be done to your body will be-”

“Shut up and prepare.”

“Fine.”

I close my eyes. Preparations are underway. Anti prepares another attack but this time, more than a hundred spikes appear. With a wave of his hands, the spikes hurtle towards me in every direction again. There is no gap in his attack this time. This is a sure-kill attack.

I open my eyes slowly as lightning crackle over my entire body.

“Heavenly Lightning Body!” I holler and disappear, leaving a trail of lightning. All the hundreds of spikes are cut instantly in the blink of an eye. I then slash Anti’s limps off in a flash as I appear behind him. He is shocked. Hundreds of spikes are slashed instantly. I am also able to slash off his limbs in that attack.

He regrows his limbs in an instant. My body is covered in lightning but it is different from when I covered my body with lightning at the beginning of the fight. This time, my snow-white hair is standing on as if every strand is a solid chopstick. My eyes are radiant blue as they are covered with crackling lightning.

‘Heavenly Lightning Body’. It’s the fourth body of the [Heavenly Bodies], a technique I created solely for speed. I transfer lightning all over my body but instead of covering my body, I cover my cells individually. Every single cell in my body has been charged with 100 000 volts of electricity. The speed and power I can produce in this body is earthshattering.

This is why I was able to slash all those spikes in a blink of an eye and slash his limbs without him noticing.

“Now, Anti. This fight is as good as done.”

Anti seems shocked. But above that, he seems scared. I can see him shaking. I guess demons also get scared”

“Quickly finish this fight kid, before your body collapses.”

“Yeah, yeah… I know.”

This kid… with that speed he could have killed that ant easily by attacking its core. Even though a demon’s regenerative properties is overpowered, anything even a demon would die if it has its core destroyed. I guess he’s enjoying the fight, huh.

I instantly disappear, only to re-surface to slash Anti’s limbs off again. He regrows them in an instant and I slash them again. Over and over, we continue, to see who amongst us is faster: me or his regenerative ability. After a few minutes, it seems that his regeneration has begun to slow down.

“Kid, finish this fight already.”

“Shut up. How annoying.”

I am not just enjoying fighting this guy, but I am also testing his regeneration. I had a feeling that I would be facing a lot more demons in the future and before that happens, I need to gather everything I can about demons.

I think I’ve gathered everything, now I can end this. I then approached it. It is shaking in fear. I can tell that it doesn’t want to die. Why? Why do I get the same feeling I had when I was fighting Cinnamon? It is as if he is trying to protect something similar to her.

I sigh. It doesn’t matter. This guy cannot be allowed to live. He is a danger to the village and my future goals.

I then generate all the lightning that is in my body, from my cells, bones to my muscles and finally to my hand. As my hand turns bright blue from the generated lightning, I straighten up my hand and a bolt of lightning shoots out, incinerating Anti. The lightning attack is so powerful that it splits the ground in two. And just like that, the fight between me and the Silent Demon, the boss of one of the forbidden regions in the continent, is over.

“Kid, I think I know why I was getting an uneasy feeling about this guy,” says Ray.

“Huh? Why?”

“This guy had the strength of a Demon Guardian.”

“A Demon Guardian? What’s that?”

“A Demon Guardian is a demon that is second only to the Demon Lord in rank. They are considered as a ‘calamity’ class demons amongst humans. Demons who possess enough power to trample over an entire kingdom alone.”

“What! What was a demon that possesses that kind of strength doing here?”

“Not sure. I just wanted to tell you that.”

A Demon Guardian, huh. What is something so powerful doing all the way to this forest? Are the demons preparing for war? No, that’s impossible since the Demon Lord was killed in the war two hundred years ago by the two heroes. Then, did a new Demon Lord rise from the Demon territory and assigned this guy to take over this region? Nah, that’s impossible. A book I once read stated that this forest was branded as forbidden at least two hundred years ago, which means this guy has been here ever since.

Was he a demon that went into hiding after the war between the humans and the demons ended? It’s possible but until I find something that says otherwise, I guess I’ll be going with this theory then.

THE GREAT HUMAN-DEMON WAR

Two hundred years ago, the demons suddenly waged war against all of humanity. Because of the Demon Lord’s strength, human kingdoms fell one by one. As the humans faced despair, two heroes rose from the darkness and fought against the Demon Lord. Accompanied by humanity’s greatest wizard, Merlin, the two heroes were able to defeat the Demon Lord sacrificing their lives in the process.

That’s at least how the story goes. Gram was the person who told me that story as she would read it to me when I was a baby. Everyone knows that story since it’s popular as a kid’s story.

I then pick up the Silent Demon’s demonic core. I’ll be investigating it to see what makes it different from the other energies of this world. Even though my body is exhausted, I have not collapsed like I thought I would. Using The Heavenly Lightning Body should have rendered me unable to move even a finger for three days but I can still move. I guess it is thanks to the demonic energy. Because my power was reduced by at least half, I wasn’t able to bring out the true power of The Heavenly Lightning Body.

As I stand in the battlefield that is covered with craters and broken trees, I notice something uncanny.

“Hey Ray. Isn’t the demonic energy supposed to stop flowing when the demon producing it is dead?”

“Well, yeah. The parts that have been demonised by the demonic energy won’t turn back to normal but the flow of

demonic energy in the air should have stopped.”

“But it hasn’t.”

“That should be impossible… unless-”

“Unless the demonic energy wasn’t coming from him, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That means there is another demon here in this forest.”