In the shade of the trees, away from the light of the clear camp, Luke watched Alexis and the emissary act. At one point, Tenth took a notebook from his bag, flipped through a few pages, and showed it to the woman.
Soon after, he moved a few feet away from the circle. The half-dragon walked to the circle's center and placed the white cube on the floor. She didn't seem nervous, but in return, the emissary was even biting his nails.
"Release," Alexis said, low enough for only her to hear. Seconds later, the cube began spouting white flashes.
In the blink of an eye, the flashes became more intense, and as they intensified, the cube doubled in size.
When the cube finally exploded into small white particles, the figure of a demon appeared. Unlike the endearing figure with red skin and long horns that is widespread, demons are macabre and confusing figures, which desperately try to copy human traits.
There was a wide grin of pointed teeth and quivering white eyes in the shadow that emerged.
"Oh! You finally let me go! Do you feel sorry? If you want, I can let you go. Hihihi! Go, go!" The demon teased Alexis. His tone managed to be fetid and still preserved the sadism from before.
To answer him, the half-dragon summoned the two gauntlets of light and reminded him of the powerful blows that debilitated him last time.
"Tell you what, Allocer. You shut up and answer everything we want to know, and maybe we'll be good enough to kill you now and not leave you to the guys who will want to study you." Alexis said as he flapped his gauntlets once.
The black shadow, which copied a human silhouette, backed away startled and was eventually stopped by an invisible wall.
"Ah! You know what that is, don't you? A containment barrier? It's a bit laborious to make, but it's useful."
Soon, the demon seemed to show respect for the first time by saying, "Okay, okay, I'll answer anything you want, you know-it-all."
"Why did Demiurge choose to seal you instead of killing you? He knew your name."
Just hearing that name, the demon seemed to have shuddered even more than when he knew he was going to die.
Demiurge was one of the four heroes who helped the world during The Calamity. His actions directly impacted the course of history, but little is known about what kind of person he was.
"Demiurge was the scariest human I have ever met. After dozens of us were sealed by him, we began to think he was some kind of god. Even our blended strength was no match for his. Despite this, he never killed a demon..."
"And that's exactly why you feared him, isn't it Allocer?" The silhouette merely nodded. "So you said 'we', don't you? But demons are not known for gathering as a group."
"In times like these, we need to, but doing it needs a powerful leader."
"Ok... so you mean there is a powerful leader, interesting... You speak 'times like this, but it was sealed for hundreds of years in the Dungeon, that confirms that there is a collective consciousness among you demons, doesn't it?"
The demon was startled by the amount of information the half-dragon was able to extract with just two sentences coming out of her mouth, "Did you guys already know about that too?"
"It was just a theory, only now it has just been confirmed." The half-dragon spoke while smiling wryly.
"Sigh... it's something supernatural you know. I have no way to explain how this connection works. We simply know each other's desires and fears, but we can't talk directly."
The demon's response matched the moment the emissary whistled. That was the signal for the end of the interrogation because the barrier could not hold out much longer.
Ingeniously, Alexis made a magical extinction circle underneath the magical imprisonment circle, allowing the demon to have a quick and painless death. That was the least to pay for the information he gave up before he died.
When they saw that all the soot of the demon's existence had dissipated into thin air, Tenth snorted with stress.
"I hate how they only turn minimally rational when they're scared." He said to Luke, venting.
"His reaction was more...mature than I thought. I imagined he would cry and ask for forgiveness like a child, yet he only conformed."
"Man, his kind of existence is not the same as ours. Don't be emotional, they don't deserve that." The emissary said, putting one arm over Luke's left shoulder. Luke just stood still, "Look, take this. And when Alexis is done cleaning up the circle, please finish this whole mess. If you two get any more information, I'll talk to her."
Then, Tenth handed over a metal pendant. Although it was small, it was quite heavy. Hanging from the chain was a metal sun, and in the center of that sun was a red stone.
"How do you wear this here?" Luke inquired, assuming that this was the item that could help them find the second demon.
"It's simple. Rub some slime on the stone and let it stick well. Within a few seconds, open the sun and put an eye to see through the stone. That way, you should be able to see the tracks of a demon."
After that, the emissary said goodbye to Alexis from a distance and entered the woods again. Luke approached the half-dragon, holding the pendant with all the care in the world to not break it. When she saw the object in Luke's palms, she took it sloppily and judged it.
"Is it seriously that it took him two years to make this ugly thing? Chris never surprises me about how bad he can be."
"Will you know how to use this trinket?"
"Shouldn't be too hard."
Just as Alexis said, she complied, managing to masterfully use the pendant. After taking some of the slimes she still had with her and passing it on the stone, she placed the object in her right eye and saw a black tower rise up to the sky on the horizon, indicating the position of the second demon.
"Oh! If that's not defective, it could have been really useful. Luke, I know you wanted to ask questions for this first one, and the Church also needed information to supplement some theories. In this second demon, we can try to get more stuff out, except we won't have the bargaining power we had now, so we should try to trick him."
Luke felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked Alexis in the eye. Her willpower was absurd; however, fooling a demon would not be an easy task at all. So they set off on their second hunt of the day.
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