"So, what are we going to do now? Do we go straight to retrieving the lizard and the masked creep?" Asked Sewah in an attempt to change topic, while stretching his body to get increasingly more comfortable in it. His voice showed a clear hint of hatred as he reached the last part of his question.
With a face filled with resignation, Daniel said "No. I was far from being on par with the previous owner of your body. If I were to fight against a demon lord, we would both die in a matter of moments."
"What then?"
Daniel did not respond right away, and instead turned to look at the large rings that were surrounding the demon's fingers. He then said "Why don't you start giving those to me."
"What? Why? They are mine!" Responded Sewah in feigned indignation while moving his hand behind his back.
Unfortunately for him, Daniel was not in the mood for jokes, and instead formed a morse with the fingers of his right hand, and slowly squeezed the air in his palm. His eyes relied an intent of dead seriousness, as he said with a voice as dark as night itself "This is not a joke, Sewah. You will obey me, or I will kill you before you even manage to recover your mental state."
The moment Daniel's fingers closed into a morse, Sewah fell on his knees. He then grabbed his head in a desperate attempt to stop the pain he was feeling.. and yet no sound came from his mouth. He was suffering too much to even talk.
To Daniel it was clear that Sewah would not be that easy to tame, so he kept squeezing the wisp of consciousness that, while in possession of a body, was still locked into the in the formation in which Daniel had locked him. He really wanted to rub the concept clear, so he kept going for a full couple of minutes.
Unless Sewah managed to recover his mental state to a point where the formation would be too weak to contain it, something which Daniel assumed he would eventually be able to do.. Daniel would be able to kill him at will.
After two long minutes of pain, Sewah finally screamed "OKAY! OKAY STOP!!"
However, Daniel did not stop. He did not want a funny companion that could eventually betray him.. He wanted someone who would obey his orders. So he kept the torture going for a few more minutes despite Sewah's begs and cries.
Once he had enough, Daniel stopped.. Leaving Sewah panting heavily while lying helplessly on the ground.
As soon as the pain stopped, Sewah used what remained of his consciousness to take the rings off of his fingers, and throw them in Daniel's direction, who grabbed them from the air and quickly began to examine its content.
Mere moments later, a big smile appeared on Daniel's face.
After pulling his consciousness back out, Daniel looked at the area past the one he and the oni had destroyed. Then he turned towards the direction in which the members of the tribe of the ones had fled, and began to walk.
Sewah noticed Daniel's departure, and while still trying to catch a breath, for a short moment he thought of escaping.. But that idea was eradicated from his mind the very moment Daniel's words entered his ears.
"Don't even think about it." Said Daniel with a calm and cold tone.
Left with no other choice but to play Daniel's game, sewah stood up and ran in Daniel's direction while saying in indignation "I wasn't going to! I am a trustworthy person, don't you know that already? Hehe.."
"Sure you are.."
—–
The Cathedral, three days later.
Within the throne room of the cathedral, right next to the empty throne, the demon with golden hair was standing quietly as she usually would. She was looking down at a masked and shirtless demon who carried a spear in one hand, and a letter in the other.
"They have finally admitted it, milady. 'The hounds of the gatekeeper felt a presence which their owner assumed to be a simple moment of distraction. It is possible that someone could have infiltrated Hell.' this is what the letter says.." Said the bare chested demon while reading the content of the letter he was holding.
"Did they agree on helping in the search?" Asked the golden-haired demoness with an emotionless tone.
The bare chested demon put the letter away, and with a face filled with nervousness and hidden by his mask, he said "They said that it is our responsibility, as we allowed that person to follow us into the stairway to hell." while saying this, the bare chested demon took a step back subconsciously.
"WHAT?! What is the point of having a gatekeeper then?!" said the golden-haired demon in clear anger. At the same time, her hair began to rise in the air and float above her shoulders.
Before the bare chested demon could even try to respond to the demoness' rhetorical questions, a few of her hair slashed in the demon's direction from multiple angles. However, they were stopped by a white barrier right before touching the messenger's body.
Now enraged, the eyes of the golden-haired demoness moved in the direction of the door of the throne room, where two white-horned demons had suddenly appeared. The two were the demons who had taken Xargy and Daniel's unconscious bodies to hell. One of them appeared extremely nervous, while the other, appeared to be relaxed while in the presence of the golden-haired demon.
"You can't keep killing all of the minions.. Who is going to do your job for you if there is no one left, Arzen?" asked the relaxed white-horned demon while inspecting his long and sharp fingernails.
The demoness looked back at the casual way this white-horned demon spoke to her, and with fists shut tightly in rage, she responded by saying "What are you doing here? I thought I was clear the last time we spoke, Ullmon.. The lord wants the kid. Your family has done nothing but disappointing him lately."
"That might not be the case." Said the relaxed white-horned demon called Ullmon, while casually walking in the direction of the throne. His younger relative followed him while making sure to always stay less than three steps behind him, almost as if falling behind spelled death.
"In the past year and a half there wasn't a single rumor about the brat. Not one sighting or report of his existence.. So he either hid for some reason, or found a family that could cover his presence." Said Ullmon after sending the bare-chested demon out of the throne room with a wave of his hand. ".. the silence went on until yesterday, when the kid of the dead Na'roga family was been stopped, along with his family, on the border of my family's territory."
Arzen did not appreciate the suspenseful pause that Ullmon took after revealing this seemingly useless information, as she knew that Ullmon loved to tease her low-tempered self whenever they met. "AND!?" she asked in anger.
"And, he said that a human suddenly came out of a ring they found in the depths of a cave, and started killing demons of the oni tribe for fun before disappearing along with their leader." said Ullman before taking another short pause. He then added "It is possible that he was not just hiding, but cultivating."
"That's ridiculous. He was far from becoming a high human, how can he kill high and noble demons like that, after only a year and a half?" Asked Aezen while in denial. "It must be another human."
"The description matches, and do I have to remind you that he is a chosen of Iewah's faction? Those guys are worse demons than we are." Said Ullman while suddenly turning serious. He and Arzen, while very powerful noble demons, were still a step behind the leader of the Oni tribe. That meant that if what was reported to them was true, unless the Demon Lord or the leader of their respective families intervened, they would be unable to defeat Daniel.
That piece of information was a shock for Arzen, who had promised to the Demon lord that she would deliver the kid who had been tormenting his faction for the past few months. However, what Ullman had told her changed everything. For once in her life she let go of her rage, and asked "What do you suggest?"
Internally amused by Arzen's change of tone, Ullman said "We might be unable to capture him personally, but we can still control when and where to encounter him. It's a good thing I convinced you not to kill the mental warrior."
"Enough banter, tell me your plan or get out." Said Arzen with a serious expression. She was too worried about fulfilling her promise to her lord, to fall for Ullman's attempts to ridicule her.
Slightly disappointed, Ullman turned to look at his younger relative, and said "Since the lord has taken a liking to having a pet dragon, and our tortures have been ineffective against this particular mental warrior, we will use him during the next signing of the Demonic Pact."
"How?" Asked Arzen in confusion.
"Sometimes I wonder why the lord put someone of your family in charge of everything underneath him. Oh right, he fancies your mother." Said Ullman with disdain, reminding her the main reason why he and her had never gone along well.
Arzen became furious at the sheer mention of her mother, and the ends of her hair began to float menacingly, but before she could attack, Ullman said "We will host a fight, and an execution. The mental warrior will fight against a mighty demon from a noble family, and if he loses, he will be executed. If he shows up, any demon lord will be easily able to kill him off."
"YOU!.. What makes you think that he will come?" She asked while trying to repress her anger as best as she could. "He has never made an attempt at rescuing his companions, while should he show up?"
Ullman laughed lightly before turning to look at the entrance of the Cathedral, and saying, "It doesn't matter if he does. If he doesn't, we will at least look good in front of the other demonic factions and families.. See you in three months." he then left while mimicking the magnificent arrival of his faction on the back of the dragon they had captured.
—–
After obtaining the the resources of the oni leader, as well as those of the rest of the Oni who had escaped, Daniel had one more time closed himself into cultivation. On the other hand, Sewah had been forced to wait for him to finish.
Unfortunately for him, Daniel hadn't bothered to tell him how long it would take for him to finish.. And not that a full week had passed, he was starting to get restless. "How long do you intend on cultivating?" Said Sewah with exasperation..
Nevertheless, despite how many times he asked, Daniel would stay quiet in his man made cave, and keep cultivating.
The lack of an answer was forcing the idea of escaping to appear in Sewah's head once again, but the fear of Daniel's reaction was enough of a deterrent to keep it as what it was.. A simple idea.
With no other choice, Sewah kept waiting for a few more days.. Until finally, a caravan made out of numerous carriages and mounted demons, passed through the main road a few kilometers away from Daniel's cave.
Sewah did not let the chance of a bit of enjoyment escape him, and prepared himself to approach the caravan. But before he could use the oni's massive power to dash in that direction, he suddenly remembered something extremely important.
"I am just asking a few questions.. I AM NOT ESCAPING!" said Sewah after turning towards the entrance of Daniel's cave.. But even after a whole minute of wait, no response came from inside its depths.
Sewah had wanted to test the oni leader's power ever since he had obtained obtained it, But when he and Daniel had reached the escaping members of the oni tribe, they had surrendered immediately, and obeyed his orders.. giving him all of their possessions before disappearing from his sight.
This moment was the first one where Sewah had had the freedom to test the sheer physical power of a demon's body.. And it was a lot more than he expected. It only took a twitch of his calf for him to find himself in the path of this caravan, causing sheer panic to make its way through the hearts of the charioteers and the guards, who immediately shouted "ATTACK!! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!"
