Getting a portal to Ocixem wasn't an easy task. Apparently, most of the security guards in Anihc were like the ones at the Partum estate, so he couldn't just break into it. Sure he could just pay normally, but the portal back home had the same security guards, so there was no hope for him.

He could just take a walk home though. While a walk home would take a long while as long as he could just find another portal to Ocixem he could probably busy through and make it. So all he had to do was make it to a few towns over and find one.

That was a good plan, so why was he now punching a tree instead of walking?

For the short answer: You're not you when you're hungry. Snickers satisfies.

For the long answer: Daemonium has gone an extended period of time without any food. At this time he'd be having giant frog meat, wild greipberry jam, and a large glass of milk on the side. However, there was nothing to eat.

Dead Daemonium was a zombie, so they didn't eat in the traditional sense. Zombies get food by sapping away at an organism's life force through their blight. This is why zombies tended to travel in groups since you need a group of zombies to make a blight. Dead Daemonium would then walk in and absorb their life force to give themself nutrients. However, there were no zombies, no blight, and nothing to eat.

Green Daemonium didn't know what hungry meant. It's biology meant that it can eat absolutely anything as long as it moves, no, as long as it exists. Bugs, birds, flies, dirt, as long as it was nutritious Green Daemonium didn't care. So to Green Daemonium, there was no however at the end of this paragraph; the world existed, so it was full.

Of course, one may now be even more confused as to why Daemonium was punching a tree. Well, if you remember Daemonium was hungry. Well, it was a bit closer to absolutely starving. A bit longer and he may have been crazy enough to bite his hand completely off. But that craziness sparked an idea. In front of him was a tree. Animals lived in trees. Animals can be eaten. Punch tree. Animals fall. Eat animals. Problem solved. Ingenious.

Unfortunately, only small birds and squirrels lived in the tree, and they all pretty much ran at the first punch. Thus his attempt was useless. He at least got leaves to fall down, but he wasn't going to eat those. I mean, you would have to be insane and hungry enough to punch a tree if you were just going to eat random leaves on the ground. Wait...

Rethinking his life choices, Daemonium gobbled down the leaves. They weren't filling but they at least calmed him down. While he could now be happy his attention turned to Dead Daemonium, who couldn't eat.

You see, zombies are weirdly dependent on their blight. It's through a blight absorbing life energy that zombies get their food. Plus it is only through that same blight that zombies reproduce in some weird way. So the only solution to Dead Daemonium's hunger would be to put them in a blight, but you need zombies to make a blight. A whole group of them. And in case you didn't know, Dead Daemonium is just one zombie.

Well, it wasn't like Daemonium could just ignore it either. Sure some could survive with no food for a month but Dead Daemonium was practically born yesterday, so that wasn't a viable option.

Seeing how weak they were, Daemonium decided to carry Dead Daemonium as he looked for a blight, with Green Daemonium jealously following them.

Though, after walking for some time Daemonium realized he had no idea where to find a blight. So he put down Dead Daemonium for a bit and climbed a tree to get a good bird's eye view of the forest.

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There he could see a lot of what the forest had to offer. He could see trees, trees, and even trees, but unfortunately, there was no blight in sight. What he did see was a village. Even better was that the village had a portal. Even better than that was that the village had no signs of any of the guards in Anihc! So all he had to do was break his way through, get to his home, find Sanguisa, and get her to take Dead Daemonium to the other zombies' blight. It was perfect.

Daemonium jumps down, grabs Dead Daemonium, and runs to the village. As long as he could get there quickly, he would probably be able to save Dead Daemonium's life.

Unfortunately, there was a problem. I mean, if you wanted to see someone's life go perfectly well with absolutely no conflict you shouldn't be reading a fantasy novel. Then again, what should you be reading then?

Regardless, there is a lesson to be learned here. That lesson is that one should refrain from running without watching their step because they might accidentally step on one of the tails of a powerful illusionist fox creature that was in the middle of a beauty nap.

Yeah, he kinda stepped on a kitsune tail on the way. A kitsune is a creature found in these parts that looks like a large white fox. They are born with one tail and grow another every one hundred years. None have been observed to have more than nine tails. These creatures manipulate the man's in the air in order to create illusions to either trick their prey or confuse attacking adventurers.

This kitsune was not so happy about being woken up by a panicked Daemonium. Using illusions to become invisible, this fox quickly bit Daemonium in the shoulder. Dead Daemonium and Green Daemonium tried to retaliate, but the kitsune was easily able to take the two out with a flick of this fox's tails. Dead Daemonium was hungry to the point of being weak and Green Daemonium was a low level so it wasn't surprising.

The kitsune quickly became invisible again and quickly struck Daemonium in multiple places. Over and over Daemonium was bit, kicked, and slapped by that fox.

Daemonium decided to approach this fight the same way he approached every fight in his life: seduce the opponent.

Daemonium flooded Lovely Pheromones all over, trying to get the kitsune to calm down. Unfortunately, kitsunes tend to have a high Mental Strength stat that is equal to if not greater than that of zombies. Thus he needed a shit ton of pheromones to succeed in seduction. And the kitsune, still attacking him, was not willing to fall for that.

Daemonium, realizing the danger tried to run but ended up slamming into the air. Well technically it was a tree that was made to look invisible by that fox, but it looked like air to Daemonium.

Daemonium looked around, noticing that the kitsune stopped for a small bit. All of a sudden he saw that fox running towards him. He jumped out of the way of the attack only to get hit on the opposite side by the real kitsune. I did say it was illusions the kitsune used, not just invisibility.

The kitsune continued to bite, scratch, kick and slap with a relentless assault that used all of the tricks from before. The assault was so relentless, so brutal, and so strong that Daemonium was surprised he wasn't dead. And so was the kitsune.

You see, Daemonium mainly survived because of luck and biology. By luck, I meant that the leaves he ate were actually of a species of oak known to increase one's HP stat. By biology, I meant that shapeshifters naturally have a greater healing factor than most creatures, and even demons, his other half, heal somewhat quickly.

While this was good for Daemonium, the kitsune didn't want to wait. So, turning invisible, that fox climbed up to the top of a tree. Leaping off, that fox twirled in midair before launching down headfirst.

Unfortunately, this fox missed.

The kitsune looked around and couldn't find the half-demon this fox was hunting. You see, Daemonium had grabbed onto a tree and made his skin brown in order to blend in. Sure with how smart the kitsune was, it was only a matter of time before that fox found him. But it was just enough time for the pheromones to finally take effect.

When the kitsune fell in love the fox's eyes sparkled. This fox started to float in the air and glowed a light blue light. The features started to change as this fox gained humanoid hands, long black hair, and wine-colored skin. This fox floated down, revealing to have transformed into Daemonium, and was now another member of Daemonium's harem of Daemoniums.

This fox turned to get approval from this fox's love. And you know what Daemonium said?

Nothing, he cared too much about Dead Daemonium's life to stay for any longer.

Noticing the demon king running towards the village, the kitsune decided to follow.