The Demons would flock to Eve because of her [Hated by Demons] title. He summoned the [FalCrow] and sent it to Eve with a warning, then drew Remembrance of Battle and followed Trinity.

Trinity was intelligent. With three brains, her IQ usually exceeded most Adventurers. What she was not was restrained, and given the chance to mangle enemies, she’d thrown herself into the fray, so Kaden joined her. Remembrance of Battle would grow sharper with every blow, so to start he used [Stealth] and [Backslash] to kill a Graht, then leaped through the battle around Trinity, dispensing blows to every one of the demons he could reach.

Trinity was taking them on three at a time, tearing and poisoning and bashing, her [Multitasker] talent letting her target different enemies without a penalty. In seconds the Grahts realized that the individual Druids were in no way as dangerous as the mutant Hydra. Or the [Beast Master] fighting alongside her.

[Split Second] activated, draining mana, as a spear whistled by Kaden’s nose. He spun to face a new, armed phalanx of Grahts with spears and shields. “Trinity, you take the unarmed ones.”

Trinity didn’t speak so much as deny his command with a wave of fury. There were enemies. There was death.

Kaden pulled her into his soul and activated his Eldritch Shield, pointed toward the Grahts. The bone monster thrummed with power as its minor fear aura swept out. Spears gave the Grahts an advantage, so Kaden closed the distant, dodging one spear with [Moment of Speed] and ignoring the other that stabbed into his thigh with [Fortress of Stone].

And now he was among them, activating [Mana Drain] not for the mana but because of the agony it caused. If a graht dropped a spear, he snatched it with Inventory. And the grahts began to shriek and flee..toward him? Remembrance’s axe edge met one and the hammer head another but—ah.

Shadows blossomed between the trees as an unholy portal opened up and a creature twelve feet tall stepped through. It was man-like, on two legs, but covered in smooth gray scales that didn’t overlap but meshed like a puzzle. Rows of bumps ran up the spine, over the back of its bald head and ended on the forehead in a short horn. The nose was flat and flared to the sides, the jaws jutted forward, but the worst was the eyes, the pupils were filled with an inky blackness that radiated hatred.

The green grass beneath its feet withered and turned black.

[Demon Daddy Darmando]

Darmando has existed in the third hell for longer than mankind has known how to pick up sticks. His hunger for power has driven him to seek the food of this world, and the strength to descend to a greater hell. Darmando is immune to status effects and control. His focus is on food.

You are food.

Level: 53

HP: 10,000

Mana: 1000

Skills: Summon Daughter, Minion Surge, Rally of Hell, Fear Aura, Miasma, Corruption Strike, Eye of Asmodeous, Resist Fear, Resist Pain, Resist Paralysis, Resist Poison, Thundering Chain Strike

*This is not a beast. Your skills reveal nothing. You should probably be running already.

Kaden ran. Closer.

Darmando looked at him and looked away, searching for bigger threats, ignoring the Adventurer who dared charge him.

[Moment of Speed] let Kaden dive under a kick and deliver a hundred point [Mana Spike] to Darmando thigh. All those skills wouldn’t matter if—He never saw the claw swipe coming.

[Resilient Constitution] has blocked 4,832 points of damage.

Your health is critically low.

You require healing.

Kaden hit a Graht, hit a tree, killing the graht, tangled in the branches a hundred yards from Darmando, who was now singularly focused on him. With one hand, he summoned a health potion from Inventory and sipped it. Resilient Constitution would keep him from dying if he had more than one point of health, and that would be the game.

There were Centurions in the Grove. There were higher level Adventurers. That they weren’t here said there were worse things loose. Kaden’s health ticked higher in a familiar way. That was Sara’s title, Herald of Life, but he didn’t see her.

What he did see was Darmando beneath him.

The demon wasn’t built to jump, and it had lodged him in the branches a few feet above its grasp.

Kaden twisted and pulled himself higher up, then pulsed [Mana Drain] to keep Darmando’s focus on him. This wasn’t a battle he could win in chops. Winning would be surviving. [Multispeak] tried and failed to translate the grumbling, growling speech the Demon uttered, but Kaden was fairly sure he understood the gist. “Hey, stupid! I helped kill one of your daughters. Maybe not one of yours specifically, but a Demon Daughter!” He dangled his legs down.

Trinity gave him several gifts through [Beast Heart] but one of them was nearly always a waste. [Acidic Drool] didn’t have a ton of uses in every day life.

Spitting in the eye of a demon was just one of those things you couldn’t plan for, but ‘when life gives you demon eyes, spit acid in them’ was his motto. A motto. Not one he used a lot, but still. Darmando roared in pain and turned, looking from Kaden to the trunk of the tree that Kaden clung to.

In ten thundering steps, it leaped up to rake claws into the trunk, and began to climb.

Kaden knew trouble when he saw it, and scrambled along branchest that grew thicker and thicker. A clawed-fist gripped the branch he stood on, and Kaden almost fell, but as the branch rebounded, he used the energy to bring down Remembrance’s axe head on the demon’s claw-knuckle.

It sank half-way through the finger, when on any lesser monster it would have cut the finger off, but the result was exactly what Kaden wanted, Darmando yanked back its hand and screamed in pain, showing fangs the length of Kaden’s hand as it threw back its head.

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A perfect place for more [Acidic Drool].

He had no illusions, the monster wouldn’t die by his hand, but what Kaden did have was hope. Hope others would come to help. [Mana Drain] made it howl again, keeping Damando’s fury focused on Kaden.

But instead of charging, it tore at its own head, pulling out an eye.

The moment it did, the air in the Grove changed, becoming darker, with colors that made his mind ache, as a presence burst out of the eye.

Darmando has used [Eye of Asmodeus].

Asmodeus gazes upon your soul.

Your soul is found weak and unworthy of Asmodeus’s attention.

Kaden dismissed the rest of the notifications to leap from the tree, burying Remembrance in the wrist holding Asmodeus’s eye. He didn’t blame Darmando for dropping the eye, and he hoped Darmando didn’t blame Kaden for putting it into Inventory. Kaden landed on his feet and used [Moment of Speed] to charge forward, past Darmando.

As it spun, a black mist began to seep from it, no doubt an aura effect. Aura damage would kill Kaden before [Resilient Constitution] could help. But as it focused, a hymn that would destroy the world rose up.

You are affected by [Anthem of the End] (Sara Scylla). Your resistances do not help.

Kaden’s precariously low health began to fall as the song ramped up. Forget sipping, he swigged the healing potion and pulled another. [Anthem of the End] would scale the longer it went on.

And Darmando knew where Sara was. She wasn’t hiding. Though blood dripped from her nose, tear ducts, and ears, Sara stood to Kaden’s left, both swords drawn, as her Cosmic Horror’s psuedopods belted out the song that would one day end the universe. Each psuedopod uttered a different part of the song, harmonizing in ways that made Kaden see planets exploding and stars collapsing inward.

Wham! A minotaur eight feet tall slammed in Damando’s gut, knocking the demon five steps back. Twin Mana arrows slammed into the Demon, and vines errupted from the ground to pin it down. “Come into my grove?” Olidar shouted. “You’re not even a Lord of Hell. And you won’t ever be, because you lack patience, Darmando.”

To his side, a [Ranger] with a bow made of vines continued to fire careful shots, aimed just above the navel.

Darmando twisted, allowing the arrows to spear him. Protecting his core. His eyes locked on Kaden, and he opened his mouth to scream out something. Kaden felt the mana surge. The Demon must have had just enough to use a skill. “He did something, some kind of skill,” Kaden shouted. Then he activated [Mana Drain] and kept it drained, funeling the excess to Olidar through [Mana Well].

“What a kind gift, Demon Daddy Darmando. Your own mana will heal the damage you’ve caused,” Olidar said. “Kanli, you want to do the honors?”

The Minotaur approached and drew a short sword from its Inventory. With skill Kaden hadn’t expected from a Beast, it slashed an X in Darmando and reached in with a claw to tear out a Demon Seed.

The moment it did, Damando’s eyes lost focus.

This Demon Seed was five times the size of the one Eve ruptured.

“You can have the seed, but I want another Demon attribute,” the Ranger said. “You mind?”

The Minotaur tossed the seed into the air—where a swarm of arrows obliterated it. The grove fell quiet as the last few Drahts sprinted away.

His health had risen to twenty, and Kaden rushed to check Sara. She was no more immune to [Anthem of the End] than he was. “Healing potion?”

“Please.” Sara stood. Her eyes were scarlet from blood leaking into them. “[Anthem of the End] barely harmed it.”

“We have healers,” Olidar said. “The main incursion was aimed at the nursery, of course. The [Shield Trees] held, and we have many wounded there, but there’ll be time. Congratulations, both of you. Darmando isn’t the most fiery drake in the hatchery, but he had twenty five levels on both of you. Delaying him is a feat in and of itself. You deserve the gains.”

Kaden hadn’t check his system notifications.

You have helped defeat a Demon.

You have gained experience.

You have gained a level.

You have attribute ponts to distribute.

“Yes!” Kaden shouted. “Twenty Four!”

“Same,” Sara said. “I’m so close. Level twenty five. A new Summons. Possibilities.”

Kaden studied the results. “Did your numbers go up more? I gained more health from this level than ever before.”

“You’re close to the next tier,” Olidar said. “Have’t you noticed monsters at twenty five have way more health and mana than you? At the next tier, your gains are deeper. Your skills don’t change but they become more effective. And at level one hundred, the stat bonuses you get on top of the gains will be three times what you’re getting now.”

Kaden missed whatever else he said, because the minotaur had begun to change. Its skin grew lighter, a tan yellow, and it shrank, becoming more rounded. Hair receded on its body and grew longer on its head as breasts grew and curves rounded out. Kanli wasn’t a Beast. Kanli was a [Druid] woman, who drew a robe from Inventory and cinched it.

“You have [Shapeshift]?” Kaden asked with awe in his voice.

“Tier three skill, level fifty,” Kanli answered. “With a class name like [Beast Master], I’d expect one in your future.”

“[Beast Form],” Kaden said. “Level twenty five. I could shift to a minotaur. Or a kraken. Or a dragon.”

Kanli’s laughter sank into the grass. “Start with something small, and stick to one shape until you have it down. I have my Class Evolution and I still use [Shapeshift] in battle. [Tree Form] is ridiculously powerful, but few things beat a minotaur.”

“Your Class Evolution is a [Tree Form]?” Sara asked. “That’s what you leveled to one hundred for?”

“Trees are ridiculously powerful. Most [Druids] shift to their tree form and never shift back. They have their own skill set, evolutions.” Kanli nodded to Olidar. “He says you have pollen. I get my choice, and it’ll give me an aura in less than three decades.”

“Decades?” Kaden asked. “You have to spend ten years as a tree?

“You’re thinking like an Adventurer, not a Centurion,” Olidar said. “What’s three decades in a lifespan of a thousand years or more?”

Most Centurions didn’t live that long. Maybe Druids did because they became trees. As they spoke, Kaden’s health ticked upward along with his mana. And he began to worry. “What was the skill Darmando used? I had him locked down but his mana must have regenerated.”

“Damando’s dedicated,” Kanli said. “We’ve killed him every three hundred years like clockwork. My guess is that he tried to summon a Demon’s Daughter. Splitting their seed like that doesn’t kill the big ones, it just sends them back.”

That was depressing. “Eve. Tell me she hid.”

Sara shook her head. “The Ranger Centurions kept her in the center of their formation and used her to wipe out Grahts. She’s a hero.”

The Ranger nodded. “I was personally hoping for Hated by Demons. Instead I got another Haunted by Demons.”

Kaden couldn’t stop staring at the Ranger.

It was like looking at his dad.

The heavy cloth cloak in mottled grays and greens that shifted with every step, the heavy boots, the bow that dissolved to just a handle, that same piercing gaze. It brought up memories Kaden hadn’t thought of for years. It wouldn’t hurt to learn to use a bow. Or to track. All the things he’d dreamed of when he was a boy. “I’m going to check on Eve.”

“Your healer? My owl says she’s leading a sweep through the city. Going to be neck deep in gifts at this rate, and Hrooo says she doesn’t even care. Strange one, that girl.” The Ranger spoke gruffly, and was done. His tone didn’t invite comment or question.

Mara, had a hawk. Kaden didn’t remember his dad having any animal. No, that would have been something that stood out.

A messenger bird landed on Sara’s arm and spoke for a moment. “You know, I never considered Eve a businesswoman. She’s volunteered to stay and clear the city—if they ensure she gets a constant stream of experience.”

Kaden totally believed it.

The monetary rewards wouldn’t mean much. He’d essentially guessed she was daughter of a minor noble, raised with wealth, but these days she lived much simpler. The XP, on the other hand, would be harder to come by. “Is this sort of thing common?”

“Demons hate Nature. I’d rather they attack us than the city,” Kanli said. “I’m going to go join the sweep. Olidar?”

He shook his head. “The boy’s right. There’s a Daughter loose, but you know how it is.”

“I don’t know. I’m fairly sure Kaden doesn’t either,” Sara said. “We should hunt her down and kill her now. We barely managed it before.”

“If only it were that easy. A newly spawned Demon’s Daughter has a masking aura. You won’t be able to detect her until she decides to reveal herself,” Olidar said. “Normally, the first thing a Daughter does is run so she can start preparing again, but something doesn’t feel right. I’m going to ask for more Rangers to guard the borders. It would be just like Darmando to order his only remaining daughter to make a suicide attack.”

Kanli studied the shadows of the trees. “We’ll be ready.”

The look of sheer hatred on the demon’s face wouldn’t be something Kaden forgot. He’d need to be ready, too.