—–
“Erdrich…” She muttered. But her son couldn’t hear her nor see her.
She slowly moved towards him, and caressed his face, kissing him and hugging him.
“I am… sorry… Mother was never a good person… I hope… you can become someone better than me…” Cassandra began to cry, regretting her actions, as she slowly dissipated.
Erdrich heard the voice of his mother in that last moment, looking around, but finding nothing.
“M-Mother…”
Cassandra’s consciousness slowly melted away into a bright and endless light, as the last thing she saw was an enormous river made of bright spiritual light… The legends and myths of the religion of the Holy Spirits… could they have all been real?
“This is… the Spiritual River of Reincarnation…? It was all… real. I hope that one day… I could meet my sister once more…” She thought, as her soul was washed away by the spiritual light…
—
What a big waste of my time.
I had never expected that things would escalate to such insane proportions. I had come here to merely heal a person but I ended up fighting a woman whose powers had been enhanced by demon materials. This was certainly a day filled with surprises, but in the end, I came on top thanks to my efforts and those of this… old man.
If it wasn’t because I trained my body to this point and constantly used magic to master it once more to this extent, I wouldn’t have been able to fight with someone so strong at my current level. Of course, the power of the Demon Eye came in clutch at the end.
I am exhausted beyond belief. I am resisting the urge of falling unconscious relentlessly, this was a tiring day. I had healed a woman from her demon curse, then fought and healed another person, and then I ended up having to defeat the culprit behind everything all in just a couple of hours.
Now what’s left is retrieving the corpse so I can use it as materials, but if I do it now, the man that was married to her and her son might complain, so I will have to do it later. But there’s no way I am giving up such high quality materials, this is all I need right now. With these materials of her body, I can make some more Demon Energy Potions to use my eye more times.
And I could even extract some of her body parts and implant them on my own. Her claws were rather strong, I could use that, or perhaps I could also replace one of my hands entirely to see if it could be possible to gain some of her powers… Or an arm? Hm, her body proportions are too different, perhaps that’s not a good option for now.
Maybe I should try to find information about how she did all these experiments on herself. I hate demons, but I admit that they have power. If I could implant a good Demon Core inside of my chest, I could acquire the ability to naturally generate demon energy. Perhaps within her documents there could be an explanation in how she did it using techniques and materials of this world.
Nonetheless, my work was done. I quickly flew however I could down to the ground, ignoring the corpse of the woman whose name I don’t remember anymore, as I walked towards Ellergest. The old man was barely managing to keep himself alive with his healing spells.
“Y-You did it… You’re an incredible kid…”
“Ninety percent.”
“Eh?”
“I did the slaying, I investigated the curse, and I did pretty much everything. I deserve ninety percent of all the pay. Fair, right? I am even giving you ten percent out of pity; you should be thankful I am not a greedy person.”
“W-Wha…?! You just killed a person and you’re talking about money out of the sudden?!”
“Hm? What’s wrong? Didn’t you say she wasn’t a person anymore some minutes ago? Are you suffering from Alzheimer?”
“Agh! You’re really such a weirdo sometimes, kid! Sigh. FINE! I know you did all the work, but we still supported you! …Nonetheless, you come from a serf family, so I’ll do some charity and let you have ninety percent…” Said Ellergest while cleaning his robes from the dust and blood.
“Good. You’re reasonable enough.” I said with a smile. “Now let’s go inside the manor, we got something to do. My spirit secured the lives of everyone inside. Even those that turned into Demon Spawns.”
“D-Demon Spawns? What?! You mean that the people inside turned into Lesser Demons?!” Asked Ellergest.
“Precisely. The shockwave the woman unleashed hit the manor. Some of the people inside turned into demons. Don’t worry, those were naturalized. My spirit broke their arms and legs and left them on the ground half-death, some healing should be done and then we’ll profit from that as well. Isn’t it nice?” I asked. It was an incredible opportunity to reap even more benefits.
“Y-You’re really a demon…” He said slightly. “But… sure. I guess.”
Ellergest was a reasonable and old man, he knew what was convenient at the end, unlike an immature person, he didn’t complain so much nor acted surprised all the time, but still, I could see that there were certain things that we diverged in our thinking processes. Nonetheless, I was sure that I could trust him a small percentage, perhaps 10%. That small trust already puts me at ease for now.
Now, there’s the need of cleansing the butlers turned into demons, taking away their demon energy and cutting their horns and claws, which are precious high-quality materials for me. After that, we’ll deal with cleansing the house from the corpses of the demon monsters, which are even more materials. I suppose this entire mission brought a lot of bountiful harvests to me. With so many materials available I could even make accessories and some pieces of equipment cursed with demon blood… A whole set of cursed equipment wouldn’t be so bad, I really need more defense.
—–