At this point, I couldn’t muster surprise when Agon stumbled upon ultimate class demons like they were common rats. However, it was confusing why Nekoshu was with him. Nekoshu were rarely found anywhere, and in the original story, I knew of only one such cat demon.

I kept an eye out for anything suspicious. Agon had a shounen protagonist aura, and being trapped with him anywhere brought chills down my spine.

With him around, it wouldn't be surprising if an ultimate class demon burst out of the wall and started fighting us while Nekoshu showed us her true form and saved us. Or maybe Agon would have a mid-battle power-up?

"Where did you get the cat?" I asked, trying to look casual while eyeing those suspicious crabs with rat heads that Agon was roasting. Were they safe to eat?

Agon had monstrous poison resistance due to Yamata No Orochi being sealed inside his body. If eating these crabs could hypothetically melt a normal human’s stomach, Agon wouldn't even feel it.

"The cat was trapped here and injured, so I saved him. I’ve named him Catmuncher Butskutcher The Third, or just Caty for short," he said as if it was the most casual thing ever.

Didn’t he call this thing Blacky before? Maybe he hadn’t come up with a name and was just changing it until one felt right.

"Where did you lose the eye?" he asked me.

"The demon we fought pierced it with his bat," I replied, rubbing the hole in my skull and wincing in pain. Even Perfect Me couldn't create a new eye.

"You don't even look worried about it. You're a pretty weird guy," Agon said without thinking much. Other people could get offended or sad when reminded of a missing eye.

"You're the last guy who could call me weird," I retorted, sitting down next to him and pulling out some ration bars from a small opening in my jacket. With how many food reserves I had prepared in case of an emergency, I could survive for a couple of months. But after that, things would start getting dangerous.

Maybe I would have to turn myself into a demon just to survive? I hadn't tested it yet, but Perfect Me should be able to do it. Though I wasn't exactly keen on that option as the contract I had bet my life on could rebound and kill me, as that could technically be me breaking the deal.

Demons typically had a very long lifespan, which rendered most abilities related to lifespan useless. The value of a human's lifespan lay in its finite nature, making it precious.

Agon asked, "Have you tried poking your finger in the eyehole?"

He had the social grace of a rock.

"No," I replied.

"You should wear an eyepatch. You'd look like a pirate," He suggested and proceeded to do a poor imitation of one, using his hand as a hook and swinging it around.

Many would have assumed that he was mocking me, but I knew he was just being stupid.

He stopped goofing around, gazed at me, and then looked at the fire with a sad expression. "I'm sorry about Bets. He was a cool guy. Remember when Gem and I interrupted your chess game at the pool?"

I smiled. "Yeah, those were simpler times."

Agon asked, "What do you mean by simpler times? We were on a ship right after finishing a death tournament in the forest."

Comparatively, those times were much better. Regardless of the enemy, I had a chance against them with enough scheming, unlike now, where there was nothing I could do against ultimate-class demons even if I encountered them.

I lay down and stared at the dark cave ceiling, reminiscing about the good times. No one realized they were in the good times until after they had passed them.

Closing my eyes, I felt the Ord inside me bubbling up and resonating with my feelings. Ord was excellent at revenge, murder, and enlightenment. It was an energy that grew with the user.

I was going to kill Kidomaru!

There was no need to say it out loud because my Ord was me, and it knew my intentions. It was an all-knowing force that would provide me with help for my goals as long as my emotions and ambition remained strong.

…

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The next time I opened my eyes, Agon was asleep, and the two-tailed cat kept staring at me. I stared right back and didn't bother hiding.

"So, how did an ultimate-class demon like you end up in a place like this?" I asked.

At first, the cat's eyes widened slightly, but it continued staring at me until a naked woman with dark hair, purple eyes with a slit in the middle, like a cat, and two tails swishing behind her appeared in a puff of smoke. There was a nasty scar below her voluptuous breasts that hadn't healed yet.

Why was she naked? Didn't she feel embarrassed that from this position? I could see everything!

Maybe a better question would be why almost all of the women in this world were so shameless and weird. Actually, that included most of the guys too, but they were weird in a whole other direction.

"How did you know?" she asked. Her voice was sweet and had a purr behind it that would make any man want to give their all to her.

"There are not many two-tailed cats. I just took my chances, and my guess appeared to be true," I shrugged.

I intentionally failed to mention that her revealing herself was what I had wanted from the beginning. In her human form, I could tell her identity with 100% certainty that she was the tamed demon of the Red Tails Leader. She was the main source of his power, and that guy was quite strong too.

"The more important question is, how did someone like you end up in a position like this?" I tried to find out how she had ended up in her current state. While Agon's protagonist aura worked in mysterious ways, it wasn't like it could make the impossible come true. "With your power and Master, even other ultimate-class demons would pose no threat. Especially since Red Tails has many strong Ord users in it."

Her frown deepened as I clarified that I knew who she was and where she was from. She sighed, her ears dropping, and her gaze turning resigned. "The Red Tails are no more."

I almost jumped up in shock when she said that. The Red Tails were an antagonistic group that would be alive even much later, and they were quite strong even by later standards. "Did the group disband? Where is your master?"

She shook her head. "No, most of the group was killed, including my master. I almost died too."

Well, that was something. Though I wasn't that sad about their deaths since most of the Red Tails were pieces of shit.

I clenched my teeth to keep calm. With Red Tails gone, many future events vanished too. The leader of Red Tails would have been a major antagonist later in the series.

But what's done is done. I saw no reason why the demon would lie to me about this. "How did it happen?"

She clenched her hand, winced, and grabbed the wound that still seemed to cause her pain. "We were all killed by the Demonic Exorcist."

Ah, screw that guy!

***

Carpy stared at Uwabami in her humanoid form atop a mountain, with a small army of demons at the foot of it. Despite the looming threat of the demons, Carpy wasn't afraid of them, as they were under Uwabami's command.

He didn't understand why Uwabami had agreed to side with Shuten Doji in the war against humans. But the demons under her command seemed to respect her. Also, he needed her help to become useful-

"Hey, don't daydream and disrupt the tempo. I told you to keep releasing your demonic energy until there's none left," Uwabami said, taking a sip from a sake cup the size of a small bowl. "Some humans are talented but weak, while others are untalented but strong, and it's all because of their special abilities."

Uwabami cracked her neck and stood up, noticing that there was no more alcohol left in the large barrel she had brought along. "Demons don't have any of that. Their abilities are innate, and potential is a crucial factor in a demon's evolution. It's clear that the middle class is pretty much your limit."

Carpy frowned at that. "But I will become a dragon."

"Sure, you can have your dreams. But don't think I can get you there. At best, I can force you to evolve to a high class demon, and that's where you'll likely be stuck for the rest of your existence," Uwabami said with a sigh.

Despite her words, Carpy was determined to become a dragon. He knew that his master had put his life on the line to help him become one within a year, and he couldn't afford to fail. "I will become a dragon."

Uwabami shook her head. "You have about as much chance of becoming a dragon as I have of becoming as strong as Master Orochi," she snorted. "Even the weakest dragons are stronger than me, and they're so rare that the last time anyone saw a dragon was over a thousand years ago."

Carpy felt a weight around his heart at that. He knew that Uwabami had no reason to lie to him, but he couldn't bear the thought of not fulfilling his master's goal. "I will become a dragon."

Uwabami let out a resigned sigh. "Fine, have it your way. But don't think I can get you there. At best, I can bring out some of your latent potential and help you evolve to a high class demon."

Faster than Carpy could see, she was in front of him in an instant. Her hand touched his head, and he felt an evil energy entering his body.

"Don't try to resist it. This is the same technique Master Orochi used to bring out the latent potential in demons, in the hopes that some could become immune to his natural poison," Uwabami explained.

Carpy had never met Yamata No Orochi, but he imagined that he must have been a very eccentric demon. While Tamao No Mae had learned thousands of mystical techniques to rise to the top of the pyramid among ultimate class demons, Yamata No Orochi had effortlessly achieved that status without even trying.

"By the way, Master Orochi could use this technique a hundred times a day without feeling tired, but I am not as resilient. I'll need a couple of days to recover, so please take me to the hiding place where we left Master Orochi's son and your master," she said. Afterward, she transferred some of her demonic energy to Carpy to replenish his reserves. While at the same time, her Ord moved weirdly around his body and activated some pressure points.

"Huh?” Uwabami's eyes widened. “Why is there an ultimate-class energy inside of you?!"

Just then, an unfamiliar monstrous energy burst forth from Carpy.