Cassandra

Year 820 | Month 5 | Day 18

“Archdemon. Where. Destination. Why.”

I can’t help but stare rather blankly at the stone demons in front of me. Each of which are called gargoyles, and are clearly warrior rank demons.

The demons look like four-legged animals with two wings and legs that they keep closer to their body as they fly. Meanwhile their heads look kind of like bats in a way.

But… what exactly is it asking me? Is it asking where I’m going and why?

“I’m just hunting,” I answer with a shrug without getting too close to them as I fly above on my clouds. With the gargoyles flying a bit lower a few dozen meters away from me. Closer to an island.

But the moment they hear my words, their pitch black eyes narrow and one of them asks, “Hunting. Demons?”

I shake my head and state, “Hunting monsters.”

All of the gargoyles share a glance as if they’re talking to each other. Which confuses me even more.

Then the gargoyles begin to fly away without another word. Leaving me floating here while wondering just whose idea it was to send demons with a very limited manner of speaking to meet with me.

I guess things were worked out, though? Because they aren’t attacking me.

Things are probably fine.

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The next day I find myself frowning in irritation as I’m chased through the skies by an army of over a hundred gargoyles.

Why? I thought we were good?

Was there some sort of miscommunication?

When I tried to talk to these gargoyles earlier, all they did was ignore me and attack. Like some sort of golems ordered to do nothing but kill me.

It’s just plain rude.

They also only attack me when I’m over an island. Almost like they’re trying to make sure that they can collect my corpse after killing me. Seeing as my corpse would just fall straight down past the islands if they killed me anywhere else.

Which makes this chase rather easy to deal with.

I just kill gargoyles when we’re not over islands, and I focus on flying when we are.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Makes it so that I kill off every last gargoyle without a single one getting away, and without any of them really hurting me with those stone spears coated in Wrath energy that they’ve been throwing.

After killing them all, I head off to one of the islands and resume my hunt for mana creatures. Deciding to just make sure I travel a bit less flashily than before. With me flying below the islands instead of above them. And through the trees when I’m on an island as well.

Also to make sure I always wear my mask. Even if it doesn’t really do much to help me here. Not when they can still just sense my Wrath energy from a mile away and instantly tell that I’m an ‘archdemon’. Something I’m still working on fixing with my upgraded Minor Wrath Manipulation skill.

Without much luck.

But it only takes a mere ten hours for another wave of gargoyles to find me. And just like the first, these two hundred gargoyles just immediately attack without warning.

Leading to another game of chase, with me occasionally picking them off.

Honestly, killing these gargoyles doesn’t even feel like killing living beings. It’s more like killing golems. Creatures created through magic that are made to obey commands and nothing more.

But the System isn’t labeling them as golems, so I’m not really sure what to think here. Even if they’re acting just like golems.

I sigh after killing off the hundredth gargoyles of this second force. Only to be surprised when all of the other gargoyles immediately stop attacking and flee.

A second passes as I watch them before I eventually just shrug and begin to follow them. Albeit from a safe distance.

Assuming these things do follow a logic similar to golems, their leader must’ve given them an order to retreat after a certain number of golems were lost. Probably to report back about what is going on.

They did lose an entire force for the first attack after all.

I continue following after the gargoyles for a while until they all enter a fortress. One that I sense several thousand demons inside, including mostly warrior demons and about a dozen high demons. Without a single regular non-combatant amongst them.

Guess this is probably their headquarters for this region? Maybe?

Or one of them, if they have multiple.

Putting that aside for the moment, amongst the demons in the fortress, I notice a similarity between all of them. The fact that they are all made entirely of stone.

Just like golems.

Although not all of them are gargoyles. Only the lowest ranks amongst their forces seem to be gargoyles. Which includes a lot of the demons on their walls.

But there are also other demons like some demons called stone thrower demons, who look like large, stone gorillas. And those more varied demons seem to be officers in their forces.

I watch from a safe distance as all of the gargoyles enter the fortress. Then I spend some time studying the walls.

Until a thought comes to mind and I immediately begin to move away from the fortress. After which I hear the gates of the fortress grinding open, followed by the marching and eventual flying of stone demons heading my way.

Shit. Why didn’t I think of it before?

Was it because the demons were all so stupid that I didn’t think they’d be able to make a plan like this?

Those demons weren’t ordered to come back and report to their leader.

No.

I glance behind me as I flee under the islands to find an army of over a thousand demons charging my way. All demons made of stone.

They were ordered to retreat to lead me back here.

Right into a trap.

The only bright side is that I don’t sense any demons from any other directions, so the only demons coming after me are the relatively slow stone ones from the fortress.

Which means my impression of them being stupid is at least not entirely off the mark.

For now I should run though.

Or fly, technically.

Yeah, I should fly.