The wind cut sharply through the open sky as Skylar sliced across the clouds, its wings leaving thin trails of shadow in its wake.
Damien sat low against the wyvern’s back, eyes half-closed, letting the cold air harden the edges of his focus.
There was no reason for him to rush but he moved with purpose all the sa. Every passing second was an opportunity to grow stronger... and an opportunity to kill sothing that deserved it.
Below them stretched a vast patchwork of terrain—rolling hills fading into plains, forests creeping into rocky slopes, and far in the distance, mist rising from what looked like wetlands. Human territory, yes... but nature didn’t care who claid it. Nor did demons.
He was barely four hours into his journey when Skylar’s body tensed beneath him, a low growl rumbling from its throat.
"Found sothing?" Damien murmured.
Skylar dipped one wing, folding into a rapid descent.
Damien stood on its back and leapt off, dropping through a break in the trees as Skylar peeled away to circle overhead.
He landed silently on a branch, cloaked by shadows. The stench hit him first. There was rotting flesh, burnt fur, and the distinct sulfur-fanged scent of demonic essence.
The most obvious sll would have to be the iron sll of blood in the area.
A pack of mana beasts lay dead in a clearing. So ripped open cleanly, others burned with dark fire, their bodies bubbling slowly into blackened mush. Fresh. Very fresh.
Damien’s eyes narrowed.
"Normal demons don’t kill for sport," he muttered.
He slid silently from the branch, boots barely bending the grass as he approached the clearing.
Movent.
A shape stepped from behind a boulder, humanoid but wrong. Skin faintly gray, claws elongated, veins glowing a sickly purple that pulsed every few seconds. It was one of the variants but this one seed weak. Unstable and new.
Good.
"Co on," Damien whispered. "I need the warm-up."
The demon hissed and lunged.
Damien didn’t bother dodging. He simply lifted his hand.
Luton burst from his sleeve like a streak of blood.
SPLAT
The demon didn’t even have ti to scream before Luton wrapped around its head, then its torso, then its limbs, devouring flesh, essence, everything. It shriveled in seconds into a dried husk. And then even the husk got devoured.
Luton quivered proudly and hopped into Damien’s palm.
"Good," Damien said, scratching the sli’s surface. "More coming."
Skylar screeched overhead.
Damien nodded once and jumped high, Skylar picking him up before he began to fly. Both summon and summoner continued their journey once again.
They moved on.
The plains ca next, vast stretches of wind-brushed grass rolling endlessly toward the horizon. The breeze here carried no scent of blood, no corruptive miasma... but mana beasts road freely. Packs of horned elk, armored tusklions, and wolf-creatures drinking from the rivers.
They sensed Damien. And more importantly, they sensed Skylar.
One misstep by a wyvern was enough to make every creature in a two-mile radius abandon their grazing.
Damien, however... didn’t care to let them escape.
"Skylar," he said, "corral them."
The wyvern dove.
Skylar activated one of its skills(Shadow Bound) and its shadow swallowed the ground, freezing every beast for a heartbeat—just long enough for Damien’s will to snap forward.
Ten shadow like whips, rose from beneath the beasts, binding them in place. That was enough.
"Luton," Damien whispered.
The sli shot forward like a red streak.
Skylar landed beside him, folding its wings neatly as Damien crossed his arms and watched.
He didn’t need to fight these. He didn’t need the corpse, the at, or the materials.
But his summons?
They needed everything. Luton first.
Luton devoured mana beasts by the dozen, growing slightly with each one, fatter, heavier, stronger. Skylar ripped apart anything Luton left behind, swallowing cores whole and burning the remains with a flash of black flas.
As the last beast vanished into Luton’s body, the sli returned to Damien’s shoulder, heavier than before and humming contently.
"That’s one region cleared," Damien murmured.
Skylar gave a low rumble of agreent and once again, they continued toward the mountains.
The next encounter ca unexpectedly.
Damien sensed it before Skylar reacted, sharp fluctuations in essence, the kind that didn’t belong to mana beasts. The air slled like scorched earth and charred tal.
Skylar swooped lower, revealing a battlefield tucked between sharp gray ridges.
Dozens of corpses.
Not mana beasts.
Not humans.
Demons.
The normal variants he knew so well. So with four-arms, ash skins, with broken horns and cracked carapace-like armor. Their blood stained the ground black.
Damien dropped down, landing lightly beside the carnage. He bent, touching the nearest corpse.
Still warm.
"Soone else did this," he muttered.
Skylar growled low, sniffing the air.
"No," Damien said, "not soone. Sothing."
Tracks of mana beasts—large ones—cut through the battlefield. More corpses further up the slope. A crushed demon head half-buried in the dirt.
A bear.
A massive one.
Damien stood and exhaled.
"So the forest isn’t the only place recovering... the territories are too."
Though sothing still felt off.
He moved on.
The mountain range was the most dangerous region so far, and exactly the kind of place Damien preferred.
Jagged cliffs, steep drops, heavy mana currents surging between stone ridges—perfect ambush territory for demons, beasts, and anything desperate enough to hide there.
Skylar screeched and Damien imdiately dropped off its back. A streak of black blurred past where he’d been standing—sharp, fast, and aid to kill.
A demon burst from the rockface, snarling. Horns curved forward, dripping venom. Joints cracked as its body twisted unnaturally, a ribcage splitting open to reveal tendrils of living fla.
A stronger variant.
Finally.
Damien cracked his neck.
"You’ll do."
He rushed forward within seconds, not concerned about his summons. He moved with no preparations.
Just his fists.
He ducked under the first slash, pivoted, and drove his elbow into the demon’s jaw. Bone cracked. The creature stumbled, but instead of recoiling, it screeched and lunged faster, tendrils shooting toward Damien’s sides.
Luton intercepted instantly, expanding into a wall of shifting mass. The tendrils lted into its surface.
Skylar descended like lightning, talons blazing with shadow essence.
Damien went straight for the kill.
He grabbed the demon by its lower jaw and pulled.
A sharp crack.
The fight ended as quickly as it began.
Luton devoured the remains. Skylar swallowed the core. Damien kept walking, unbothered.
These fights weren’t about challenge anymore.
They were about preparation.
About feeding power into the monsters he trusted.
About making sure no one. Not demon, not corrupted general, not whoever or whatever stood behind the Gate—could ever pin him down again.
He wasn’t running from his past anymore.
He was hunting for the future.
They traveled for hours, crossing ridge after ridge until the horizon shifted again—flattening into another massive expanse of plains stretching toward a distant, shimring river.
Skylar screeched in frustration.
Damien smirked. "Hungry again? Fine. One more."
They descended into a valley crawling with mana beasts. Ogre-lizards, stoneback boars, and scaled hyenas prowling near the water. Skylar dove into them like a reaper. Luton followed behind, cleaning up whatever Skylar didn’t imdiately destroy.
The beasts didn’t stand a chance.
And Damien? Damien just kept moving.
After the valley ca another forest. A small one, but dense—tangles of dark roots and thick canopies. He walked through it alone, letting Skylar fly above.
The forest was quiet at first.
And suddenly ca a rustle.
Damien froze. Not in fear. Instinct.
A faint flicker of demonic essence passed through the trees.
Damien grinned.
"Another variant? Or just stubborn?"
He stepped forward and a blur shot at him.
He dodged easily.
A small demon that was barely the size of a child, with elongated limbs and pitch-black eyes, scrambled up a tree and hissed at him.
Weak. But... unpleasant.
Damien flicked his fingers.
Luton shot forward and devoured it in one gulp.
He kept walking.
The deeper he ventured, the more peaceful the forest beca. Birds returned. Leaves rustled normally. No corruption. No twisting essence.
No demons. And even better, no new variants of whatever they would soon be called once discovered.
His tension eased slightly.
"Good," he muttered. "It ans the spread hasn’t reached here yet."
He exited the far side of the forest just as the sun began to dip behind the mountains, staining the sky red.
Skylar swooped down and landed beside him.
Damien rested a hand on the wyvern’s neck.
"We’ll keep heading east until we find a major kingdom," he said. "Supplies, maps, information..."
Skylar purred deep in its chest.
"...and more demons to kill along the way."
He turned his gaze toward the horizon.
Sowhere beyond those distant hills, the war had already begun.
Sowhere out there, demons were testing borders.
Sowhere out there, the reason Ivaan had fallen existed.
And Damien would get stronger until he could tear that truth out of the world by force if he had to.
His voice dropped to a whisper, carried lightly on the wind.
"Let’s get stronger... all of us."
Skylar’s wings spread, blotting out the last rays of sun.
Luton climbed onto Damien’s shoulder with a satisfied bubble.
And the three of them continued their journey—one hunt at a ti, one corpse at a ti, carving their way through the land as the shadows lengthened behind them. The other four summons? They were left unsummoned.
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