Episode 14: Great Forest of the Demon World, Part 3

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Those cursed mutants. Perhaps the evil forest swallowed everything that entered it and spat it back out in that form. In any case, he wouldn't allow himself to be swallowed in the first place. Caim was...

Yes.

Caim was the one who devoured, not the one who was devoured.

He would devour those mutants and even that "something" that had done this to them, and he would grow stronger in the process. With that ability, perhaps he would strip the armor off the proud knights who thought themselves better than him, who believed they had the right to trample him, corrupting them forever. Their souls were already stained black anyway. It wouldn't be a big change.

He felt...

Full of power. Charged to the brim.

One of the mutants, who had been crawling towards him on all fours, suddenly leaped. Caim stopped it mid-air by grabbing its head with the force of a bear trap; his fingers ultimately pierced the mutant's skull like the teeth of said trap.

Immediately after, he slammed it against the nearest tree trunk.

The trunk splintered. And the splinters, of course, embedded into his back. The mutant opened its mouth, panting, surprised, spitting blood.

He killed it by crushing its skull with a single hand. His strength had reached that level.

"But what the hell?"

That voice could have risen due to what he had just done or it could be a reaction to the mutants. They had been ahead of them, so he assumed it was unlikely they hadn't encountered any mutants until now. Unlikely, but not impossible.

It didn't matter.

The fact was that madness was here, had arrived to stay.

He remembered Virgilio's words. Something like all the people wandering through this tower must be demons too, their brothers and sisters. Perhaps it's something like that, he thought.

This place was a playground for demons.

Maybe that's why he felt so euphoric.

Maybe he wasn't going crazy but rather regaining sanity. The common sense of a different species could only be called madness, right? We're all different, but ultimately the same.

Strange noises. The sounds coming from the mutants' throats were not human sounds. They sounded like something halfway between the noises of an insect and a bird, or maybe a mix. The wrapper might be human, but even their throats were different on the inside.

What had the Tower done to them, and for what purpose?

Anyway...

They weren't much of enemies. Their main advantage was numerical. They were strangely fast and strangely strong, but not particularly resistant. A single slash ended them.

If he got caught, he might be dead.

But that meant everything would be fine as long as he killed them before they reached him. And that was simple.

As he had made clear, a single blow was enough. His sword sank into that mountain of flesh and easily emerged. Cutting arms and legs. Cutting heads and ears. Cutting strange appendages that shouldn't be in any human body as well.

The mutants of the demon forest could hardly offer resistance to Caim.

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However...

"Am I dreaming? Yes, this must be AGggggggggggdshd it must be a dream because I don't wake up because I aaaaaaaaahhahgggggggggg."

They were massacring the proud knights without any trouble. The guts of the one screaming the loudest had been forcibly removed, and they were devouring them as if it were a luxurious feast.

They were closer to a pack of wild dogs than human beings.

They had no salvation other than death.

Yes, he was saving them with his blazing steel.

As for Victoria, she finally did something. The resulting explosion not only reduced the number of mutants and knights but also uprooted several trees, sending them flying like leaves in the wind.

It had taken so long that he had started to wonder what was happening, but the impressive result had been worth it, he supposed.

Maybe it hadn't even been that long since the battle began, and it just seemed otherwise. In a fight to the death, a tenth of a second could decide your fate. Therefore, an instant was eternal. It was extremely easy for the sense of time to disappear in the heat of battle.

One way or another, she had dealt a devastating blow to the enemies. So Caim should be happy.

But he wasn't.

Actually, no.

After all, she had taken a lot of fun out of his hands.

He had been euphorically massacring them, and suddenly the fight was practically over.

Maybe it was wrong to feel that pleasure. Maybe he should resist, as he had resisted Virgilio's and many others' provocations, to "not give them the satisfaction." But right now, he didn't give a damn about that kind of thing. Life is short. Life is fleeting. What's wrong with clinging to whatever pleasure you can get? Riding the wave.

It's true. Reality sucks. Reality is a disaster. What's wrong with escaping it? Besides, those mutants would beg for him to kill them if they could speak, if there was still something human enough inside them to recognize their pitiful state.

As for the knights, they attacked us even though I tried to seek a peaceful resolution.

They... brought this upon themselves.

What did I do wrong exactly?

Nothing. Nothing.

That same thought repeated as he drove the sword into the jugular of a dying bastard. He had been trying to get up, but one didn't need to be a genius to know he wouldn't have gotten anywhere even if he had intervened.

For starters, he didn't have the necessary parts to stay on his feet.

Not anymore.

"You're a demon. There's no doubt. As soon as we encounter you, hell descends upon us."

One of them still had the energy to rant against him. Unbelievable.

Even Caim didn't have the urge.

That ecstasy had turned out to be terribly fleeting.

Now, the only thing he felt...

FELT, as if it were soaking into him...

Was the metallic smell of blood.

Was the smell of burning flesh.

Were the cries of agony of people trying to escape even with missing body parts.

Yes. That knight wasn't wrong. Hell had descended. This infernal forest had shown its true face.

"I never wanted this."

"Wait, wait!"

Crunch. His head exploded like a ripe melon under his boot. It even dented the helmet. And that was it. At least he had been merciful enough to grant him a swift death.

That wasn't even the last of the knights. There were still a few survivors. As for the creatures, Victoria's explosion hadn't taken care of all of them, but there were more.

Among the bushes, hidden in the darkness.

Above, sliding among the branches, rustling the leaves.

Waiting for the moment.

He had been right from the beginning, that there were more sons of bitches than he could see at first glance. How could there not be? It was easy to assume the worst.

Moreover, it was common sense that there would be more enemies in an environment with so many possible hiding places. The only thing he wondered was if he had given more material to the forest (or whatever slept in the forest, spawning those mutant beasts) by killing all those sons of bitches.

Anyway, it didn't matter. He would take care of his enemies.

Of any obstacle in his way.

He didn't have to think about anything else.

Thinking only slowed him down.

He could never be as fast as Yonah, but he could mimic her in that sense. His overwhelming speed wasn't just about his physical capabilities or the lightness of his equipment, trading defense for speed and attack power.

As he had said before, since he made a decision right away, there was no gap between his attacks.

A perfect flow.

He could at least try to imitate that while getting lost in the flow of battle.

There it had to be.

The key to the secrets he was looking for must be somewhere in that darkness.

"Calm down! We can't back down, not now," he shouted without even looking back. He couldn't. The mutants wouldn't allow him to make such a mistake. "We're here to win."

Great Forest of the Demon World, Part 3: END