They found shelter deeper within the forest, where Daimen picked a spot between two trees. Finding two trees standing almost next to each other wasn't extraordinary. Far from it. What actually made him select this place out of the bunch was the patch of purple bush that so conveniently grew right around both trees, fortunately, in his case, obscuring any unwanted view should an intruder stumble upon the area.

  Daimen created a five-foot deep pit between the trees, large enough to contain him and the growing Pinkie. He picked up some fruits from nearby trees, which he shared between the two of them.

  The fruits, despite not looking much, were surprisingly satisfying, at least for him. The little serpentine creature feasted on her share—Yes, Pinkie was a girl—like an animal starved of food.

  Daimen stared at her and snorted. What a beast. Done with all that, he made his way toward another part of the forest, about six miles from where he'd created his makeshift abode. Pinkie kept huffing and making many signs of distress, but he paid her no mind. She'd grow from it.

  He made a fire behind a nearby tree, stoking it with the odd over-inflammable leaves he'd picked in his way. When the fire was sufficiently hot enough, he brought out one of the bodies of his slain foes, a beastkin.

  “Too cold for your liking, eh?” Daimen muttered as he brought out a long wide bastard sword. The monstrosity was almost reaching six feet, and that was disregarding the handle which he'd cut off and thrown away. “How about too hot?”

  Pinkie cocked her head.

  “... Yeah, that was bad.”

  For the next two hours, Daimen set about chopping apart the body of the beastskin. He swore to himself for not disposing of those with half-human, animal descent earlier on—they made for truly dreadful tasks chopping up—but he consoled himself with the knowledge that these were the ones that contained the greatest nutrients.

  He left the meat to sizzle under the fire for another two hours—Spirit lord meat was not that easy to soften—and then he brought it out.

  Daimen poked the meat with a stick, nodding to himself as he felt it give a little. He turned to look at Pinkie, who was staring at him, more precisely, at the meat, with unabashed hunger.

  “Isn't this cannibalism? He was technically of the same race as you.”

  The serpentine creature looked at him, and Daimen could swear there was judgment in those slitted eyes.

  He coughed. “Yeah, right…”

  They sat there for a while, Daimen gazing at the vast empty purple sky while the sounds of Pinkie munching on her meal played in his ears.

  His time within this… world had changed him, and in ways he’d never have predicted. Daimen had never lived the role, but he’d considered himself untouchable, superior to almost every being in the cosmos. The few he couldn’t claim superiority over were all his peers. That belief had stayed with him since his inception, even when he’d sequestered himself away from the eyes of his inherited enemies.

  He chuckled. Even without a physical body, a full-fledged Spirit King had fled from him. And now he was deep in enemy territory, changing locations almost as often as he fed Pinkie, simply just to avoid capture.

  Ever since arriving at this place, it had been one hideout to another, fleeing the mind-flaying grasp of these infernal creatures. He’d barely had more than a period of rest before he was hunted again.

  A predator was never hunted. It was not the natural order. So he’d elected to do his own hunting. Left with no other choice, adaptation had been the only recourse.

  Hubris had led him to this place, and it damn well would lead him out.

  Right now, it was he and Pinkie against this layer of hell, and the only thing preventing a remote scan from grabbing his location was the shrouding technique his minder had put on him.

  In this place, there was no Rule of Order, no restraint for the powerful against the weak. Spirit Kings and Ascendants roamed this realm, which meant that if he was caught, then that was it. There was no escaping, Daimen had accepted that now. He was all on his own.

  He listened to the dead wind, the screeching and growling of the many abominable monsters that roamed this forest. His senses spread out, carefully taking in everything. The Demons might not be able to find him remotely, but his senses reaching one would be a dead giveaway of where he was. He wasn't a coward, but he wasn't going to be reckless either. He searched, slowly sifting through the areas where there was noise… and where there was not.

  There was only one reason for that.

  His eyes snapped open and he turned to the little beast.

  “Stay, I'm going hunting.”

  Daimen got to his feet, dusted off the dirt from his clothes, and after taking in his surroundings and making sure that nothing was going to disturb his little pet while he was gone, he hopped onto a tree and then was off into the darkness.

  Trees and bushes disappeared behind him as he sped into the night, hopping from tree to tree with the ease of a monkey. It took him five minutes and thirty miles before he reached the zone of silence, where a quick scan brought him the full view of his quarry.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Daimen's lips turned down when he found out what had chased away all the local animals.

  “I expected something fleshy,” he muttered.

  A mile away from him was a feline-looking monster. Its skin was rough and dry as bark. It had three heads, one in the front while the other two were placed on each side of its belly, all of them bearing long fangs dripping with saliva.

  Daimen narrowed his eyes at the tattoo inscribed just at the far end of its body, a little bit after the side head, and just over the hind thigh. When the creature moved, three rope-like tails flickered from behind it, each curved like daggers and looking just as sharp.

  “I don't have time for this,” Daimen muttered and turned to leave, only to find another one blocking his path.

  He cocked his head, confused. How did it discover him? He was sure he'd hidden himself properly.

  He glanced back and his eyes narrowed when he found the first creature, which had been a mile away from him, now standing meters away. That was when it clicked.

  This was a trap.

  As Daimen would know, the silent zone that preceded the arrival of intruders also served as an alarm for those who dwelled within this place. Any territorial creature down there would have rushed to investigate what was intruding on their domain.

  These creatures hadn't been expecting him, but they'd banked on the plan that something would come investigate. Daimen had just been that something.

  He stood up to his full height and looked at the monsters, both of which stared at him with bared fangs and hungry looks.

  Daimen liked to think a creature that was smart enough to lay such a cunning ambush was also smart enough to understand him, so he spoke to it like he would a normal human being.

  “Leave, or I will kill you. Both of you.”

  He paused and waited for their next action. Considering he was standing on a tree, he knew he had the higher ground, he could rain down destruction on these creatures before they could do anything. Yet as the fight began, as he'd predicted the moment they didn't leave after he'd spoken, Daimen found himself grunting as something slammed into him, forcing him off the branch he was standing on and straight for the ground.

  He righted himself in an instant, coming to hover a few feet over the ground, but he soon realized that wasn't going to do much. These weren't just any ordinary monsters; before him stood calamity monsters with great affinities.

  He whipped out a spear the moment one of the creatures disappeared. Without looking he swiped it behind him, even though there was nothing there. His weapon met resistance and there was a painful yowl as something crashed into a tree nearby, smashing it and many other trees to bits.

  His lips quirked up. "Ahh, memories..."

  His spirit screamed a warning and he moved into a quick reversal just as the air tore, three straight lines appearing in the place where he’d been standing.

  Teleporting monsters?… Karma could be so petty.

  Daimen would have loved dearly to unleash his powers and blast these creatures to smithering, but he knew the consequences of that. He wanted out of this place, but his ego wasn't so crushed that he'd rely on outside help to do it.

  Besides, his nosy minder and the wandering apocalypse weren't the only ones he was trying to avoid.

  The air cracked as he took off in a run, blasting through trees as he sought to put distance between himself and the calamity monsters. Of course, that wasn't going to be so easy. As expected, they chased after him.

  The only warning he got before an inhuman silhouette appeared in his path was the purple flash, and Daimen's spear was up in the air, slashing and parrying the whipping tails that speared for his head.

  They danced between the trees, Daimen hopping from one to another like a monster as he deflected attacks left and right from both monsters. Their affinity made it hard for him to predict them, and he was forced to walk a tightrope between victory and… well not death, but defeat.

  Worse came to worse, and he was simply going to have to bludgeon his way through space, even though it was certain to draw the attention of every demon in a hundred-mile radius.

  He assumed the only reason this place wasn't swarming with demons yet was because of how good these creatures were at masking their jumps. They were Space affinity monsters, after all.

  They were rarely stationary, as expected. Each monster vanished into thin air one second only to appear out of nowhere with their claws aiming for his throat or ankles.

  Everything about these monsters was terrible. Their tail whips struck like arrows, bladed ends trying to spear him down, and if that wasn't successful, beat him to submission.

  The two heads on each side of their bellies were even worse. One spewed out deadly gas. Daimen hadn't come across that many paralytic agents to tell which was which, but he knew for certain that there was some in that dirty green smoke spewing into the air. And that was even discounting the plants that went through an instant walk to death after their unfortunate encounter.

  The other head shot out thick black lightning, whatever that was, that necrotized another'sg it touched, turning trees and flowers into putrid black sludge.

  Slowly, he corralled the monsters into a location where their next jump was predictable. One jumped, and Daimen immediately took the opportunity to strike at the other, which predictably moved back to avoid it, only to stumble into the suddenly appearing form of its other. That mistake cost it, as Daimen's spear came up and down, cutting off the front head of the creature. It took a while more, but he was able to finish off the remaining heads by spearing into one and kicking the rest of its body into its own sludgy creation.

  By the time he was done with the first monster, his clothes were utterly shredded, and blood leaked from many holes and cuts on his skin.

  Daimen got an idea while he was in the middle of dealing with the second monster. He hopped backwards to give himself a split second to think about it, and then smiled. Would it work? Probably not. He wasn't fully unsealed yet, but this wasn't the first time he'd be doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing at the time.

  Daimen raised his stare towards the monster. Something in his gaze must have spooked it because it froze in its assault, pausing and lowering its head. Its tails curved threateningly towards him like a scorpion, and it released a growl that sounded fearful, as it should be.

  “Come, don't make this hard on yourself. I'll only make you scream a little.”

  Spoiler alert, that was a lie.

  When he realized the creature wasn't going to come for him, Daimen went for it instead.

  He threw his spear away, and the creature, already accustomed to the weapon and its danger, saw him as a fool and his mistake as an opportunity to exact Revenge? Its earlier goal?

  Well, it failed.

  The monster disappeared, as expected, only to appear a moment later to his left, its claws sharp and glinting under the brooding light. Rather than dodge, Daimen moved closer, running towards the danger rather than away.

  His hands took on a golden sheen just as he and the monster came into each other's reach.

  Both of them let out signs of agony, but the monster's cries was like the morning crows of the rooster. In short, it sent every other creature fleeing in terror.