“Lord Demon God is the reason that we demons are allowed to exist. We are merely servants that follow his will.”
All of a sudden, Elitra’s tone became respectful, but nothing else about her changed. It was a disconcerting incongruence that Damien didn’t understand.
“According to my Father, Lord Demon God is the true body that the four Demon Kings were birthed from. He separated portions of himself and gave them life. When they gained consciousness, they became the Demon Kings.
“Whenever Lord Demon God gives an order, the entire demon race will follow without hesitation. Even if he asks for us to Jill ourselves, we will do so.”
Damien looked up and noticed a hint of a sour expression on Elitra’s face. She looked as if even she didn’t agree with the words she was saying.
“How do you feel about the Demon God?”
Damien asked. Originally, he wasn’t planning to do it at all. But, something inside of him was telling him to do so.
“I…I, of course, am extremely grateful for Lord Demon God, as he is the progenitor and the sole reason for my existence. I would willingly follow any command that Lord Demon God sends me.”
The look on her face became sourer, and the words she said were basically the words she said prior, just rephrased.
It was then that Damien realized where the incongruity came from.
‘She…she is being forced?’
It wasn’t as if someone was consciously forcing her to speak certain words; rather it was more like a command was being carried out by a robot.
It was as if, when speaking about the Demon God, Elitra had no control over what she said or did. There was a set amount of things she was allowed to say.
Seeing her sending slight glances at him, Damien realized that she had used the same words again to cue him in on this.
‘But why?’
He didn’t understand. She had been dull and seemingly broken until this point, but after his questioning, she seemed to have changed her stance.
‘Is she insane?’
What other reason could there be for her trying to help him gain information? She was a demon too, wasn’t she? And wasn’t she bragging about her father earlier? It didn’t seem like she wanted to defect.
Damien decided to replay their conversation so far in his head. From start to finish, and even before when they first met, she had shown a variety of different personalities.
Seductive and carefree, spiteful and foul-mouthed, dull and dispirited, and now, despondent and reigned.
It seemed like a natural progression after being captured and tortured, but the way things happened made it seem different.
‘Which one is her true face?’ Damien couldn’t figure it out.
He wanted to know more about the Demon God, but that line of questioning wouldn’t get him anywhere. And so, he decided to put aside his confusion and figure out something more practical.
“Where is you demons’ base? And what are the movements that’ll be taking place soon?”
“Base…I cannot speak of the location, as I will immediately die if I try. As for the movements, there will be a few more city attacks like this one, mainly on the larger cities such as Darknorth and Ecatra. The forces will be at the same or similar levels as our force today.”
The way she gave out information so willingly was suspicious, but Damien had been concentrating his awareness on the surroundings the entire time they had been here, and he didn’t notice any oddities.
His main concern, though, was the Demon Kings. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to feel their presence if they decided to snoop. But he also assumed that they weren’t close enough to the location to do so.
After all, if they were, there was no way they’d sit still and allow him to do what he had done to Elitra. He wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t just the Demon King Lucius’s daughter, she was also the sole inheritor of the Nihility Flame. Her value to the demons inevitably would be high.
Damien sighed. He had a rough idea of how he wanted to move in the future, but he couldn’t count for unknown variables. At the end of the day, he was genuinely stepping into something he didn’t have the strength to step into yet.
After getting the information on the coming raid locations from Elitra, he took an hour to section off a part of the Sanctuary for him to leave her. And then, he disappeared from his spot.
There was plenty more he needed to ask her, but now wasn’t the time. He had more pressing matters to take care of.
It was only a minute or so later when Damien reappeared again, but this time, he was alone. Elitra had already been transferred to the Sanctuary. Glancing around the area once more, he flashed back in the direction he had left Feng Qing’er and Qing Tan.
‘Should I have just killed her?’
The thought raced through Damien’s head. He doubted whether a Demon King could manifest considering the difference between the Sanctuary and the Real Plane. He also knew that finding the location of the Sanctuary would be impossible for a mere 4th class.
But he still hesitated. It wasn’t due to some danger or even the threat of Demon Kings. No, it was something even Damien himself never expected to happen.
The All-Seeing eyes. The ability he stole from the spider back in the First Dungeon. It could see through any illusion, he could read the mana surrounding people, it had a sort of danger sense ability, and most recently, he had been able to see the hazy outline of other people’s status windows.
But there was another ability that he had long forgotten. It was an ability that had shown itself countless times during his time in the dungeon, but rarely manifested after he left.
It was the ability that allowed him to sense opportunity. The same ability that allowed him to meet Zara, who had been a loyal companion ever since that day.
And now, that ability was ringing bells in his head again. It didn’t happen initially, but the second he truly considered killing Elitra, the intuition-like ability urged him not to.
He couldn’t figure it out. Hadn’t he just resolved to never see the Nox or anyone related as people anymore? What would be the problem with killing Elitra after her father had died?
He didn’t understand at all. His entire being screamed for him to kill her, but the ability directly contradicted it.
Damien was stuck in an awkward place, but he didn’t have to think too much before making a decision.
That ability had saved him from dying multiple times. It had led him to meet a trustworthy beast companion that he would willingly risk his life for.
If that ability was telling him that keeping Elitra alive within the Sanctuary would give birth to an opportunity, he wasn’t going to turn it down.
With a faint anticipation about what was to come, Damien’s figure breezed through the Trial World before coming to an abrupt halt.
In front of him, there were two kingdom-toppling beauties who were still bickering as if nothing happened.
Damien grinned. “Yo! did you miss me?”