“Astrid.”
“Nrgggg”
“Astrid.”
“Noooo…” Astrid says as she feels two slender hands push on her.
“Stop it Brittany!” Astrid grumbles as she tries to roll away from the hands.
“Brittany? Who is that?” The female voice says.
Astrid quickly realizes it wasn’t the voice of her roommate Brittany. She pauses for a second and opens her eyes, in front of her is a familiar hastily put together wood wall, the familiar vines layered over the logs, keeping them in place. She then slowly rolls back around to see someone she never thought she would ever see again. In front of her is a tall elven woman, her long blonde hair seemed to be weaved from strands of gold, her unblemished skin sparkled in the sunlight coming through the windows. Astrid slowly looks the elf up and down, the familiar green dress covered in patches could only belong to person. Astrid’s eyes start to tear up as she looks at her mother in front of her. “What?” Amber asks as her eyes grow wide.
“What is Brittany? Is what you were going to ask?” Amber asks with a smile as she stands up. “Are you trying to replace me? I thought you were just trying to replace your father.”
“You can’t replace me!” Another familiar voice says from outside. “Besides, I want to know who this Brittany is too!”
Amber lets out a sigh before yelling back. “For someone who never seems to hear me when I ask for something, you always seem to hear everything else!”
A male elf pops his head through one of the windows, his long ears twitching back and forth comically, causing Amber to laugh as she tries to wipe away the tears.
“Stop that, you know you look silly when you do that. Look, you are making our precious daughter cry!” Amber says, shooing the elf away.
“What are you both doing here?” Astrid asks, looking at them both accusingly as she finally wipes the tears away.
“Don’t give me that look young lady. I just came into your room to wake you up.” Amber says as she points at the window, her husband Stratus is still sticking his head threw. “And even though your father is a silly creature, he still wanted to spend some time with you before you went back to Flemmington.”
“But… but you both are dead.”
Both Amber and Stratus pause for a few seconds. Then suddenly look at each other. Amber then looks forward before suddenly leaning over and hugs Astrid, pulling her close. “Did you have a bad dream again? Mommy is here for you.”
Astrid pauses for a moment, confused. “But…. The house was destroyed, you were both gone. Then I was attacked.”
Amber raises an eyebrow before bursting out into laughter. “Wow, school must of given you a very active imagination.” Amber then wipes away a tear that was caused by laughing so hard. She then looks Astrid straight in the face. “A group of merchants you were traveling with came by the house, apparently you were so tired you passed out before you got here. We brought you to your room and your familiar, what was his name again? Viele? He went with them to their camp to help protect them. My guess is he should be back this afternoon.”
“What, no…” Astrid says at a total loss of words. She suddenly lifts her hands and holds the sides of her head as it starts to throb.
“Astrid, are you okay?” Amber says as she reaches over, touching Astrid’s shoulder.
Astrid pushes her mother’s hand away. “Don’t touch me!”
“Then I will just devour you.”
Astrid lifts her head up. “What?”
“I said would you like some breakfast?” Amber asks with a giant smile on her face.
Astrid’s throbbing head starts to dissipate as she looks into Amber’s eyes.
“I say you let me have her breakfast with how she is acting.” Stratus says, followed by a chuckle as he disappears from the open window.
“Don’t worry, I would never let him do that to you.” Amber says with a smile, pulling Astrid close and holding her again. The familiar scent of flowers wafer into Astrid’s nose as she is held, causing tears to flow down again as she wraps her arms around her mom to embrace her back.
“I’m so sorry mommy.” Astrid says as her headache seems to dissipate as fast as it was brought on.
“Don’t worry about it, breakfast will be ready shortly. Go on outside and get some sunshine, or you won’t finish growing into a big strong elf like your mom.”
“Mom, I am not a kid anymore.” Astrid pouts as she walks out the room, and towards the front door.
“Don’t go too far though, and remember, if you see anything in the woods just run back to the house.”
Astrid pauses again after she leaves the doorway, looking out at the untouched landscape before her. As she looks out at it her head starts to pound again, for a split second the ground in front of her becomes covered in blood, only to return to normal before she has a chance to blink. Astrid nearly screams but covers her mouth as she catches herself.
“Astrid?” A familiar voice says, causing Astrid to turn around, the voice came from her father, Stratus, who seemed to have warped in behind her. “Are you okay?” He asks as he cocks his head, confused.
“Sorry daddy, I thought I seen something.” Astrid says as she shakes her head before looking around at the ground again just to make sure it didn’t change again. She then looks back up as she feels two strong arms wrap around her, holding her close.
“It’s okay Astrid, I know school can be hard. Heck, don’t tell your mother, but I nearly failed every single year I went there. And it didn’t help that I just disappeared like that, even forgetting to give you all the money you needed.” Stratus says as he continues to hold Astrid. “I promise to be a better father from now on, I even quit gambling for you and your mother’s sake.”
Astrid raises an eyebrow. “You… you did?”
Stratus pats Astrid’s head and smiles lovingly at her. “What, you don’t believe me? Even your father can realize how bad a person he has been and change. Now, tell me about the school, is that dwarf still the head of the school? Blaze I think his name was.”
Astrid pauses before nodding, leaning in, she puts her head against her father’s chest, breathing in she smells a familiar smell that she has grown highly attached to recently, but she can’t seem to put her finger on where it came from. “Well… I met a lot of people.”
Astrid starts to tell her father about everything that happened, first talking about all the new friends she made in class, then going onto the enemies she made. After a while she started to talk about Shortclaw, leaving out the part about the accidental engagement. The entire time Stratus just nodded, listening intently.
When Astrid finally finishes her story, Stratus just smiles. “Seems like you had a lot of fun, I’m surprised you even wanted to come home.” He says as he puts a pouty face on, feigning to be hurt as he does so.
“Daddy, you know this is always my home!” Astrid says as she hugs Stratus.
Stratus just pats Astrid’s head as he hears a yell.
“Breakfast is done! If you don’t hurry and get in here I will wake up Fester from his slumber and feed it all to him!”
“First one in gets the extra Quillboar bacon slice!” Stratus says as he tries to make a run for the house. He lets out a laugh as Astrid sprints with him, they stay together till getting to the house. When they get to the house Astrid gets a few feet ahead.
“You win!” Stratus says as he comes up behind Astrid, laughing happily.
“Is daddy getting old?” Astrid says with a laugh.
“Old? Honey! Apparently, I am getting old!” He yells towards Amber as they walk into the house.
“You know elves don’t age like that.” Amber says as she rolls her eyes. “If you did, I would have to find a new husband.” She banters.
“Wow, I cannot win, can I.” Stratus says as they all sit down at the table, the plates on the table are stacked high with strips of various meats.
“We had a large reserve of quillboar bacon, and devourer jerky. So, I decided to splurge.” Amber says with a smile.
Astrid looks up as she feels a large hand pat her head, she then looks over to see her dad patting her head. “I’m so glad you are home.”
“I’m glad I am home too.” Astrid says before stuffing a piece of bacon in her mouth.
“Leave.”
“What?” Astrid asks, confused, looking at her parents.
“What honey?” Amber asks back, raising an eyebrow.
“Did either of you hear that?”
“Hear what? I think the one getting old is you! hah!” Stratus says with a laugh.
Astrid puts on a pouty face towards her father before looking at both her parents. “Are you sure you didn’t hear it? It sounded like it told me to leave?”
Both Amber and Stratus look at each other and shrug. “We didn’t hear it.”
Astrid starts to rub her head as the throbbing headache returns.
“Is your head hurting honey?” Stratus asks as he stands up, stepping towards Astrid. He then frowns as Astrid pushes him back slightly.
“Sorry dad, my head started to hurt for a moment. What were we talking about?” Astrid asks, slightly confused now.
“Oh! just about how good the bacon was!” Amber says with a smile.
“Yeah… this… bacon? It’s my favorite.” Astrid says hesitantly, her head wobbling slightly.
“Here honey, let’s get you to bed, you look like you are still tired.” Stratus says as he steps closer again.
“I… I guess… thank you daddy.” Astrid says as she stands up, she feels her father’s arm wrap around her, helping her to the bedroom. She lays down on her bed as her whole world seems to spin.
“Finally.” A gravelly voice comes from Amber as she walks into the room, looking down at Astrid in disgust.
“I know, it took too long to get to this point.” Stratus says as he starts to change, his body shrinking as it darkens, till it becomes an amorphous blob. Amber follows suit and her form changes to a slightly larger version of Stratus.
Both blobs start to slowly move towards Astrid, their bodies shaking excitedly as they go towards their defenseless prey. They both start to cover Astrid slowly.
“You shouldn’t do that, my master wouldn’t be too pleased.”
Both amorphous blobs stop and look up as they hear what seems to be a cheerful warning. Both blobs slide off Astrid’s body and reform into their prior forms as they see Astrid’s face in the window to the bedroom.
“Who are you?” One of the blobs ask as it takes the form of Amber and takes a defensive position along with the other blob who takes on Stratus’s form. They both glance back to make sure Astrid was still inside the bed before looking back.
“Oh me?” The woman asks as she smiles, her smile revealing a large set of fangs that aren’t on the Astrid sleeping on the bed. “You can say that I am her baby sitter till she can properly take care of herself. So that means no letting strange creatures corrupt her, it would displease master.”
“Master would never send someone like you, he sent us.” Amber says, agitated. Her hand then starts to morph into a long black blade.
“Hmmmmm, I have no clue who your master is, but mine would never send someone like you, so that means you are trespassing here.” The Astrid look alike starts to transform, black scales covering her body as two long black horns sprout out of her forehead, curving back over her head. Two large wings sprout out of her back and they flap, helping her jump backwards as Amber and Stratus jump at the window, in an attempt to attack her, their bodies contorting as they slide through the window.
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Both Amber and Stratus’s eyes grow wide as they land where the winged woman once stood. “Someone sent in an actual Demon? This makes no sense!” Amber hisses as she looks at the now winged woman land out of attack range. “There shouldn’t be anyone else like our master near here!”
“Like your master?” The winged woman tries to cover her face as she lets out a laugh. “My my my, I have been asleep a while, but when did mana constructs become so funny? I guess the weak ones must use humor as a self-defense mechanism.”
Amber smirks as her other arm turns into a long black blade. “You dare call us weak? We will pluck those dainty little wings from your body then feast on your corpse before corrupting this demon!” Another set of bladed arms erupt from her back as she crouches, getting ready to charge. “Then we will have another puppet for master’s army.”
The winged woman’s mouth opens wide as she starts to laugh uncontrollably, angering Stratus and Amber even more. She her head suddenly snaps forward, a deep frown now on her face. “Ignorant puerile creatures that have no idea when to run and hide should just parish.”
“You will be the one to parish!” Amber says as she charges forward, Stratus a step behind, as they hurtle themselves to the winged woman they slash at her, laughing as they do.
The winged woman just sighs as she watches the blades coming closer to her, she moves her body slightly as blades reach her body, the tips of the blades barely seem to graze the woman’s scaly skin, not even leaving a scratch.
“Your luck will run out shortly, you are outnumbered and outclassed! You can’t even attack!” Stratus yells with a grin as he continues his barrage of blade strikes. Stratus and Amber are now on each side of the winged woman, each attempting to strike her, but the woman seems to barely dodge each strike. “Try to dodge this!” Amber yells as her swords suddenly extend as she slashes at the winged woman. The extended sword connects with the winged woman’s side, suddenly the winged woman stops moving, giving Stratus chance to stab his sword into the woman’s back.
“Told you that you will be perishing.” Amber says with a grin on her face, her grin quickly turning into a scowl as she looks at Stratus's blade crack from the impact into the woman's back.
“Looks like my fun is already over.” The winged woman says as Amber and Stratus both jump away from her.
“How did our blades not even affect her?” Stratus yells in panic as he watches the woman unfurl her wings again.
“Now that you know your assault is futile, I will show you what true power looks like.” The woman says as she takes to the skies, stopping mid air, her wings flapping to keep her afloat. “Demon’s gate.” The winged woman says as she raises her clawed hands. A foot long circle appears in front of her hands.
“Hah!” Stratus yells as he crouches to jump at the woman again. “Like I am afraid of…” Stratus gets cut off as half his head suddenly disappears, causing a gush of purple liquid to spray out of the hole. A moment later another chunk disappears from Stratus, and then the rest of him disappears.
“The fuck?!” Amber yells as she dodges out of the way, the earth below where she was just standing suddenly disappears as if a massive creature had taken a bite out of the ground. Amber growls and turns, trying to run away. “This demon is too dangerous.” She thinks as she starts to force her consciousness back to her vessel. Her eyes suddenly widen as she realizes that she is being blocked.
“Did you think I would let either of you leave after all this?” The winged woman says as she suddenly appears before Amber. Before Amber could slash at the woman, the woman backhands Amber, causing her to fly into a nearby tree, smashing it to the ground.
After a few moments Amber regroups herself and stands up. “How? How can you cut us off in a world that I created?”
The winged woman just laughs again. “You parasites manipulate someone else’s mana and expect someone else not to do the same?”
“But that is impossible!” Amber says as she starts to step backwards. “Master would have noticed if another powerful devil was around! And only master has the ability to detect when a mortal is turning into a demon! How else would we even know this elf was turning into a demon, and that this was the only time to corrupt her, while she was mid transformation!... Not elf... not demon... unstable...” Amber slashes at the winged woman as the woman takes another step closer, but the winged woman just catches the blade and crushes it, causing Amber to scream in pain.
The winged woman moves closer to Amber, their faces mere inches from eachother now. Amber takes another swing at the winged woman, but that blade gets crushed in the winged woman’s clawed hands too. “I had no qualms with either you, nor your master, little construct. But, the moment you parasited your way into this young elf, you sealed you and your master’s fate."
“What makes this elf so special?” Amber growls as she tries to tries to shrink down, doing her best to get away from the winged woman.
The winged woman grins as she raises a clawed hand. “Because this.. elf… is going to be the new generation…”
“New generation of demons?” Amber laughs. “New mindless demons get made every single fucking day, there is enough mana on this continent to make a dozen a day if the humans lived closer to the concentrated areas. Even I watched my master converted an entire family of farmers into demons just a week ago!”
“This elf, becoming a mere demon?” The winged woman laughs back, causing Amber to quiet down. “No.” The winged woman leans forward and whispers in Amber’s ear. “She is the start of the newest generation of dragoons.”
“Wh…”
The winged woman slams her clawed hand into Amber’s chest, causing Amber to scream before Amber suddenly disappears, leaving nothing there but black dust.
Astrid opens her eyes in shock as she hears screaming, she bolts out of bed, looking out the window of her room as she does. Her mouth drops open in horror as she watches the winged woman slam her hand into her mother’s chest. Then cried out as her mother suddenly bursts into a black dust. “Monster! What did you do to my parents!” She cries out before the world seems to melt around her. Astrid falls down and starts to scoot back as fear takes hold. Her eyes widens more as the winged woman looks at Astrid and she realizes the creature has her face.
“I did nothing to your parents, I removed some parasites that pretended to be your parents.” The woman says as she raises a clawed hand. “Now I’m sorry to do this to you, but it looks like I will need to fiddle with your memories a little. Need you as stable as possible for the changes you are going through.” The woman says as she stands up and walks towards Astrid, her clawed hand raised.
“What!” Astrid cries out as she sees a black orb forming in the woman’s hand. “I won’t let you do that!” Astrid raises both hands towards the woman. “Roots of Gaia, defend me! Root wall!”
The woman pauses for a moment, then smiles. “Silly girl, this isn’t the real world, this is a part of your conscious, you have no clue how to control the mana here properly. If you did, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” She then leans forward, moving the orb closer to Astrid.
Astrid sinks closer to the ground, fear covering her face. “Please… don’t…. why are you doing this?” She asks as tears start to flow.
The woman continues to move forward till she is inches away from Astrid. She then smiles and uses her free hand to wipe away the tears from Astrid’s face. “You shouldn’t cry like that, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m just doing what is best for… us… well best for you. I promise you won’t remember any of this.” The woman then thrusts her hand with the orb forward, pressing the orb into Astrid’s head, the orb slowly sinking into Astrid as she starts to thrash about, attempting to claw and bite at the woman.
“When you become stable, we will meet again little Astrid.”
Astrid continues to thrash around and bites down as she feels a hand touch her face. The feeling she gets as she bites down shocks her, instead of hard scales, her mouth is full of fur. She slowly opens her eyes to see the familiar face of Shortclaw, behind him is Viele, a look of confusion on his face.
“Isssss… massssster eating… him? Ssssshare… leftoverssss?” Viele says as he leans forward, clearly excited at the chance of eating Shortclaw.
Astrid then looks down slightly seeing Shortclaw’s hand in her mouth. She quickly lets go and spits out the bits of fur still in her mouth. “I’m so sorry Shortclaw!” Astrid blurts out as she continues to spit out fur.
“It’s okay Astrid, I didn’t feel a thing.” Shortclaw says as he rubs his hand, specs of blood easily seen on his fur where he was bit.
“I’m glad I was back here.” Amy says jokingly.
Shortclaw pulls Astrid close, causing her to start to blush in embarrassment. “What are you doing out of the infirmary. I was told that you weren’t going to be allowed to see anyone for a bit.” Shortclaw says as he rubs his cheek against Astrid’s affectionately.
“I…”
“I couldn’t keep you two love birds apart, so I snuck her out to see you, but that was apparently a bad idea. Since as you can tell, she collapsed.” Amy says as she steps close to them.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” Shortclaw says as he pulls out of the hug from Astrid, looking into her eyes, her face still flush from embarrassment. “You know that I love you Astrid… and I am not going to be losing you because you wanted to see me, even though it makes me extremely happy.” Shortclaw then leans in and kisses Astrid’s forehead and raises a hand to the side of Astrid’s head, slipping his clawed fingers into her hair, and rubbing her ear affectionately.
“Please… don…. Don’t do that infront of everyone…” Amber stammers out as her face turns a deeper shade of red as she feels her ears being played with.
“Ohhohohoho you little scamps.” Amy says with a chuckle as she watches the two youngsters.
Shortclaw pauses for a moment when he realizes what he was doing. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to, force of habbit.”
“I… I know… you know I’m okay with it just… not infront of people.”
Blackclaw lets out a sigh. “Oh, how it is to be young and in love. If you are done fondling your fiancé you can help her off the floor.”
“I’m so sorry!” Shortclaw says as he helps Astrid up, noticing the new set of jewelry she has around her wrists. “Where did you get those?” Shortclaw asks as he rubs a finger against one.
“Oh…” Astrid pulls her hand back. “It’s… it’s supposed to help speed up my body’s natural healing abilities.” Astrid lies, as not to worry Shortclaw.
“Oh! I’m not sure you are supposed to take stuff like that out of the infirmary, we definitely need to get you back in a hurry then.” Shortclaw says as he feels Amy slide past him, she then wraps an arm around Astrid.
“And the one to be doing that will be me, since it is my fault that she is out here anyways.” Amy says with a grin.
“I can help.” Shortclaw says, taking a step closer to Astrid just to get stopped by Amy’s raised hand.
“Nope, she may be your fiancé, but I am in charge of her till she recovers, and you don’t want us all getting in trouble just because you wanted to go with us correct?” Amy says as she looks at Shortclaw with a smile, just to look back at Astrid and give her a wink.
“I…”
“Shortclaw, I know you want to go with her but I need your help here for a minute or two.” Blackclaw says, as he seems to stare at Astrid’s wrists.
“But uncle…”
Blackclaw puts on a serious face as he looks at Shortclaw. “I am in major need of your assistance for a minute or two, it’s something only you can help me with.” He says as he taps the table next to him with a claw.
“O… okay uncle…” Shortclaw says, defeated. He then turns and wraps his arms around Astrid and holds her close, almost smothering her. “Let me hold you a little bit more since it’s been so long.”
“O… kay…” Astrid stutters out as her face turns a crimson red again.
Blackclaw smiles at Astrid and Amy as they finally leave his shop, Vielle right on their heels. After a minute or two he finally releases the smile and looks at Shortclaw. “I notice you got everything, some of it even fresher than I would have hoped.” He says as he looks down at the creature curled up in a ball at his feet, it had run out of energy half way back to town and no longer struggled.
“Yeah, its shell would just absorb any blunt hits, and I don’t use any blades, so we thought this would be the best bet.” Shortclaw says as he looks at the door, letting out a sigh as he thinks of Astrid. “Is that the only reason you wanted me to stay? Or was it actually something important.”
“Every word out of your uncle’s mouth is important. Especially the warning I gave you earlier about our plant friend.”
“The warning is unfounded, he may be an asshole but he’s not some evil creature.” Shortclaw says, a tinge of exhaustion in his voice.
“I will take your word for it.” Blackclaw says as he rifles though the silk in the pack, letting out a chuckle when he reveals a heavy round lump in the silk.
“Ohhohoho. Well this is a nice surprise though."
“What?”
Blackclaw lifts up the lump and lets out another laugh. “This right here, young pup, is an egg of a certain creature you should have gotten very familiar with. You got the luck of a drunk dwarf because it’s a pain to get these eggs without the parents getting all crushy crushy.”
“Well, that would explain why they got so angry when we were running away.” Shortclaw says as his eyes go wide in shock at seeing the egg. “It would also explain why the pack was so heavy. When the silk was so light.”
Blackclaw lets out a loud whistle and two attendants come in from the back of the store. “Yes sir.” They both say in unison. “It’s safe to man the front of the store now. Before you do so, I need you to take this stuff to the back.” Blackclaw points at the sack of silk and the balled up Lagartija. “ Now, I need to get an incubator to set up for this egg.” Blackclaw says happily as he walks to the back of his store.
“You also need to make that set of armor to make correct?” Shortclaw says, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“Yeah, and a set of armor.” Blackclaw says as he opens the door and walks through, petting the egg happily.
---Somewhere far away.----
“Master!” A young human boy yells as he bangs on a large metal door, the door opens slightly after a few bangs, a scantily clad woman opens the door ever so slightly, her long flowing brown hair covering her bare chest.
“Master doesn’t wish to be disturbed, go away!” The woman barks out as she starts to close the door.
“Master told me to inform him if any of the vessels break! You have to tell him!” The boy cries out, the fear on his face reflecting in his voice.
“What did the slave boy just say?!” A powerful booming voice comes from behind the woman, causing both the woman and the boy to shiver in fear.
“Master… he said that a vessel broke…” The woman says fearfully.
“Two broke, master!” The boy cries out.
“Did you drop them?” The voice asks, the brick walls seem to vibrate with each angry word the man says.
“No… master… I would never… I was inspecting the room and two of them… they just turned to dust… all that is left is dust.” The boy says as he starts to slink back in fear. Especially when he watches the woman jump back from the door. Moments later a bulbous hand grabs the door and flings it open. Behind the door stood a near naked short rotund human with a bald head. Saliva going everywhere when he starts spitting out commands. “Take me to the vessel room now, slave!” The boy holds his breath as a he gets blasted by the odor coming from the room, the mixture of sex and unwashed human causing him to become nauseous.
“Hurry up!” The rotund man yells, pushing the child as he does. The child barely catches himself from falling into the hard-stone floor.
“Sorry master!” The boy cries out as he starts to run down the hall, bringing his master through the maze of hallways till they reach a large metal door with various mana crystals embedded into the metal. The boy struggles, trying to push the door open but gets pushed out of the way as the man pushes open the doors into the room. The man huffs as he walks into the room, looking at the multiple rows of black boxes. He finally stops at two black piles of dust where two boxes were just at, his face turning red. “Slave boy!”
“Yes?” The boy says as he snaps back to attention when he hears the man’s voice.
“Where were those two sent to?” The man yells angrily, slobber going everywhere again.
“I… I think those two were sent to Flemmington.” The boy gulps as he watches his master.
“Get the fucking alchemist, he promised me they were un-killable! I spent a king’s ransom on these and I have lost two already!” The man grabs some of the dust from the pile and throws it at the ground angrily as he has a full on tantrum.
“Yes master!” The kid yelps as he runs out the room.
-Outside of Flemington-
“So, this is Flemmington?” A tall cloaked man asks, as he looks down upon Flemmington from a tall wooded hill several miles away.
“Yes, master…” The creature beside him says.
The cloaked man looks over at the despicable creature. The creature stands on all four clawed legs, coming up to four-foot tall while on all fours. It has a humanoid head, but it is twisted and revolting, drool slowly dripping out its’ mouth due to several rows of large fangs protruding past its' lips. Its’ body was almost humanoid except its’ front legs were longer than the back and had large curled claws. The creature was able to stand on its’ back legs, but they were dangly and weak compared to their front legs.
The creature was one of the cloaked man’s first attempts at creating a simple demon, known as a ghoul demon. It was a failure on most fronts, but without them, the man would have never gotten to where he was now. So he kept them around.
“Good, then somewhere in this shithole is a devil that can evade my detection and kill off two of my creations.” The man takes off his hood, showing his long white hair and piercing blue eyes. “If it has the power to do all that, I doubt I have the power to attack it and the city at the same time with my current forces. But don’t worry, I’m going to find you my little devil, and make your power mine.” The man lifts his hood back over his head and turns around, walking back down the hill as the forest surrounding the hill lights up with glowing blue eyes.