Chapter 286
Agnes began to narrate what she knew, and Oliver listened to her words attentively. He didn’t interrupt, but his fingers tapped a restless rhythm against his knee, a habit he couldn’t shake when new information piled up too fast. He realized that she did know a lot of things he was not even aware of.
After listening to her knowledge, Oliver realized that the closest place to this location would be a remote demon village, which could be used to stock their supplies.
His gaze drifted toward the horizon, where jagged mountains clawed at a sky the color of rotting fruit. Somewhere out there lay the village—a fragile chance at survival wrapped in monstrous risk.
However, they were humans, not demons, and those demons, if they knew of it, would definitely try to kill them or enslave them as livestock slaves.
Therefore, they needed to disguise themselves to blend into the demonic crowd properly; otherwise, they could not continue. He tugged at the edge of his cloak, already calculating how much mud, ash, and blood they’d need to smear themselves with to pass at first glance.
Additionally, the villages often housed the remote tribes of the demon kin, making them even more dangerous due to their cruelty and primal nature.
Oliver had seen in the novel what passed for “hospitality” in demon villages—spiked pits, rotting meat nailed to doors, and laughter that was like bones snapping underfoot.
He also had to return to the human world; he didn’t believe he could survive here with his current strength.
There were countless demons like Sera, known or unknown, roaming every corner; if they happened to run into one, they would be done for.
Even now, the back of his neck prickled as though unseen eyes watched from the shadows between the trees. Most likely weak demon beasts.
From Agnes’ information, he got a rough idea of some key locations and danger zones.
He also learned that the demons used something to travel long distances between towns and cities far away. Being from an exorcist clan, he knew that what they must be using were transportation arrays.
If that was the case, then there were definitely arrays connecting to the human lands too.
And his goal was to find one.
Of course, he was not crazy enough to cross borders normally, given that the war could start at any time; the armies at the borders on both sides were composed of ridiculously strong people from both races.
“We will move to the village first,” he said to her.
First, they must restock as many supplies as they could.
As for being found out?
Since he already had blood on his hands, he would not hesitate to start another river if it came down to their lives.
Oliver’s eyes darkened. A sinister glint subconsciously flashed through his eyes. Agnes shivered, though the air was warm.
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Sometime later
They both had resumed their journey toward the village as per Agnes’ information.
Along the way, several demonic beasts had attacked them, but none of them were above Rank-1 and thus were easily dealt with by Oliver.
However, he also did not forget to let Agnes experience some battles and learn some strategies.
He corrected her grip mid-swing, adjusting her elbow until her knife sliced cleaner. “Every second you hesitate is a second your throat gets torn out,” he reminded her, his voice was low and serious.
Oliver handled them most of the time but let her learn what he did and where the weak points were located. He would point at a joint or an exposed underbelly, saying, “Here. Always aim for here.”
She still lacked sufficient muscle power or espera to slice off a demon beast. So, he instead asked her to meditate whenever they took a break in order for her to quickly manifest and gather espera.
Each time they stopped, Agnes sank cross-legged onto the cracked earth, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead as she tried to pull power from the foul air around them.
Given they were in demon lands, the natural espera here was already less compared to the corrupted espera, so despite her talent, she was progressing slowly. Of course, the definition of slow was different for someone like Oliver, who was used to a tenfold talent of someone like Nadia.
While Agnes worked on her strength, he would look into his own powers to study them in more depth, as well as to decode the cryptic Abyss texts in his memory every now and then to reveal more of its powers.
Just like that, they followed a rough direction, and with his sharp perception, it did not take long before he sensed something ahead. A tremor ran through his spine, subtle but unmistakable.
And as he had expected, it was indeed a village of sorts.
He signaled to Agnes, motioning her to be prepared as they neared the village slowly and discreetly.
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As they crested a barren hill, it appeared below them, nestled in a shallow valley.
As they neared the outskirts of the village, he noticed something.
Oliver stopped, his hand shading his eyes. “That can’t be right.”
Agnes tilted her head, her short hair swinging. “It’s beautiful, teacher. Look at it—flowers, houses, all intact.”
She wasn’t wrong. The village gleamed like a jewel against the desolation: thatched cottages with fresh paint, gardens bursting with color, cobblestone paths swept clean.
But beauty didn’t belong here. It felt staged, like a feast set for a condemned man. The flora here was unique, with dark-colored flowers and weird-looking green-tiled paths. It looked quite mystical if someone was seeing it for the first time.
It was a scene from a dream, not the demon lands. Oliver’s grip tightened on his sword hilt.
Oliver knew better; Agnes was still naive. For her, who had always been in the demonic environment, these things would indeed look beautiful from her perspective.
No, it was not something related to perspective; even from his perspective, it was indeed quite clean and beautiful, in complete contrast to the surroundings he was used to since birth.
The difference was too much!
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