What did they do to the Beastmen?

Percy’s mind was wiped clean at the sight of the ‘evil’ Beastman. The Beastman didn’t look like a child anymore, but the stretch marks all over its body indicated something Percy didn’t want to consider.

His eyes narrowed to tiny slits as the Beastman arrived before the Beast King, who was still unmoving like a deep-rooted tree.

He won’t do anything. His mind is blank.

Percy realized, sadness washing over him.

He moved instinctively, circulating mana through his body to appear beside the demonified Beastman a moment later. The smell of a Demon entered Percy’s nostrils, and traces of Demonic Essence glimmered within the Beastman as he lifted Dragon Fang.

“Stop!” The Beast King rumbled, his hands shooting toward Percy to stop him. However, it was already too late. Percy swung Dragon Fang at the demonified Beastman, striking his neck with a clean hit of the Syreablade’s dull backside.

The Beastman’s eerily dark eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.

Percy pulled Dragon Fang back with a slight nod toward the Beast King.

“Did you think I would kill him?” He asked the Beast King, “We can knock them out and figure out if we can rescue them later. But let me be clear about something.”

Percy’s eyes turned cold, “You and your people better knock them out quickly. If they endanger my people’s lives, I will prioritize my people over these demonified creatures. You better not sacrifice your people either.”

The Beast King’s hands were still stretched as if trying to grasp Percy, but his expression had changed. He hesitated.

Since when did he start hesitating? He was the Beast King. The ruler of the Beastlands.

“Are you ready? Because there seem to be lots of Demons waiting for us,” Percy pointed with the tip of Dragon Fang to the cavern tunnel, leading them into the depths of the liar.

A group of Minos appeared in the cavern tunnel, and the Beast King sighted in relief. He’d clearly expected to encounter more demonified Beastmen.

If my guess is right…there will be many more infected Beastmen in this cave.

A batch of icicles whizzed past Percy and the Beast King, cleanly hitting the Minos in the center of their eyes and killing them on the spot.

“Can we go on, please? We don’t know if this is the only entrance to the Demon Lair, and I’m fairly sure nobody wants any demons to escape today, or do we?” Melissa asked from behind, stepping forward to overtake Percy and the Beast King. She looked scornfully at the Beast King, a trace of disgust – or was it disappointment – flickering in her eyes.

Percy nodded and walked ahead, circulating mana through his body at all times to be ready for whatever was about to happen.

A grumbling escaped from behind them, and a flood of mana passed by them a moment later when the Beast King strode past them. He wasn’t running, but his fast strides, filled with fury aimed at himself and the Demons, were enough to tell what would happen.

Percy and Melissa glanced at each other, the corners of their lips curling upward.

The Demon Lord had to prepare for a feisty battle because the Beast King was ready to give his all to clear up today’s humiliation and to get his people back, no matter what had happened to them.

Percy accelerated a little and used [Consume] to devour the Minos' carcasses as they passed them. A moment later, they entered the Demon Lair for good. A waft of blood, death, and a wide variety of unpleasant smells filled the air as they walked deeper into the cavern network, but they tried ignoring it as well as possible. Some Beastmen and nobles following them retched and gagged at the flood of nauseating smells, yet they continued.

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Percy didn’t look back to check out how many Beastmen and members of the envoy were following them. The footsteps resounding through the hall told him enough.

It didn’t take long until they found more Demons. The Beast King was long since out of their sight, leaving behind a path of death and destruction.

“He didn’t burn them to ashes,” Melissa mumbled, to which Percy responded with a nod. I told him about my Ego and explained why I needed him to forfeit his right to the corpses to grow strong enough to deal with Greater Demons.”

Melissa looked at Percy but didn’t say anything as he let the Abomination loose to consume the Demon bodies. They found an unconscious Beastman mixed into the corpses. The demonified Beastman wasn’t dead, but his condition wasn’t good either.

“I...don’t know if I should be glad that they’re still alive or if I should grieve their misfortune,” Melissa mumbled to herself.

Percy felt the same, “I was hoping they would be dead after I found out that there had never been slavers.”

Death was a cruel fate to children; there was no doubt about that, but the torture they had gone through and the pain these young creatures felt had to be much worse. Percy couldn’t tell if they were beyond salvation, yet he was certain the demonified Beastman would never be the same, whether they could be saved – cleansed of the Demonic Essence – or not.

A few minutes into their descent, they reached a fork. The cavern tunnel split into three. Two tunnels had narrow entrances, while the third, chosen by the Beast King, was wide and high. The commotion coming from the wide tunnel was loud and terrifying. The walls shook, the Beast King’s rage pushing him to unleash more strength than necessary.

The walls must have been reinforced by mana. Demon Lairs are much more solid structures than I’ve read in books. Then again, I never found a precedent with precise details of a Demon Lord’s Lair. It should be strong enough to endure the pressure of a Lord’s fight, right?

Percy wasn’t certain about that one, but it didn’t matter. They were already in the lair and had a mission to complete.

“Do you want to take the left or the right one?” Melissa asked, but Percy pointed ahead. His eyes glowed vibrantly with his Augmentation unleashed to the fullest, and he saw what was hidden from the other’s view.

“Prepare for battle. The Beast King didn’t kill everything,” He said, focusing on [Master of the Blade] and [Dragonblood] while pushing ahead. Suddenly, the shadows in the wide tunnel flickered and moved. A wave of Demonic Essence washed over him, and he flicked around, ready to block the deadly blow, when he heard an ear-deafening scream from the back within the Beast Legion’s rows.

“A Mutant Pleacis,” Melissa gasped, her head flicking to Percy, “Just like the one we’ve encountered in the Meiso Plains.”

Percy’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits, and a bead of sweat poured down his temples as the Pleacis drove his bladed arms into one of the Beastman. The war veteran was prepared for a battle, yet the sudden appearance of a Mutant Elite Demon before his eyes took him by surprise. He tried twisting his body to escape the initial attack, but the bladed arms pierced cleanly through his chest, killing the Beastman on the spot.

“Multiple Mutants are lurking in the shadows!!” Percy screamed, the shadows flickering wildly as if enraged that they had been exposed.

He was ready to move ahead and join the envoy and Beast Legion to devise a tactic to deal with the shadow-walking Pleacis when his hair stood up to its end. Fiona shouted something, her [Danger Sense] triggering, but Percy had already made a move. He’d spread his mana into the surroundings in thin layers just like Fiona when he noticed the Demons walking through the shadows.

He sensed the Demonic Essence gathering behind him and spun around. A massive creature with black hide, several dark-glowing horns jutting from the sides of its head, and a devious grin emerged behind him. It was three meters tall and had two-bladed arms and two arms with massive Warhammer heads at their ends.

Percy instinctively activated [Berserk] as his eyes fell upon the void-like eyes of the Demon before him. He could recognize a threat when it appeared before him, after all.

A proper Greater Demon. No. That is not just any Greater Demon. That’s a Weaponmaster, a Thyrx, born with exceptional mastery of all weapons…yet it is stronger than the norm. It can step through shadows…

Percy sincerely hoped the Thyrx’s mutation decreased its strength and speed in exchange for the shadow-walking ability. Either that was the case, as the Greater Demon’s Demonic Essence reservoir would be split between augmenting its physical properties and the ability, OR its Demonis Essence reservoir expanded with the mutation, thus granting the Greater Demon the usual prowess of a Thyrx, alongside the power to step through shadows.

Percy hoped for the former, but witnessing the Mutant Pleacis’ powers was enough for doubts to creep up the back of his mind.

Fortunately, he wasn’t alone. A massive ice block crashed into the side of the Thyrx’s head with a hefty crunch even before Percy and the Greater Demon could finish their show-off.

The Thyrx’s head whipped to the side, creating an opening for Percy. He grasped it and dashed forward, cracking the stone underfoot as he kicked it to appear before the Greater Demon.