Rubbing the back of his head to soothe some of the burning pain, Zeke swallowed his saliva from fear as he jumped off the table. Unfortunately, even though he got off the table, he noticed that the flames of fury were still burning bright in his father's brown eyes meaning that he was still going to be punished when he got back home.
"Look at you two. If it wasn't for Yek telling me you two were in danger, I wouldn't have known that you were trying to drink the devil's juice. Haven't we told you that only adults who the hands of our god have blessed have enough power to purify wine?"
"You three trying to drink it will only lead to your souls being sent down to hell, where you will be punished for eternity. Once your mother hears about this, she will teach you a lesson." Zeke's father barked.
While Zeke and Leak were fairly getting lectured about the dangers of drinking alcohol at a young age, Yoze felt that it was his time to leave. He had gotten enough information to confidently say that this place had something unusual going on.
"If what Zeke had said was true, then this deity seems more like an abnormality than a demon. But then again, this could be a fake story created by the demon to allow the people here not to suspect anything. Regardless of which one is the case, I need to be careful, or else I will be in danger.
"Demons are a threat of their own, but they are something I am familiar with. However, for abnormalities, I don't have as much experience fighting against them as I do with demons."
"Just from my experience with the undead baby and the Blood Heart, they all seemed to have unique abilities that were quite powerful. However, that also means that I can get some unique talents." Yoze grinned as he stood up and left the shop, leaving Zeke's and Leak's father to continue lecturing the two boys.
Even though he had left, he didn't draw any of their attention due to his footsteps being perfectly silent, and his presence had disappeared without a trace. As he stepped back outside, the cold air once again licked Yoze's skin as the harsh gusts of wind blew down the mountain.
"Howl!"
Just as he stepped outside, Yoze felt his instincts screaming at him that danger lurked around. As he cautiously looked around for what could be causing this feeling, he noticed that the night stars seemed to have disappeared without a trace, as there was only endless darkness in the sky. Yoze frowned as the lively feeling he had gotten from the town when he had first entered vanished without a trace.
There was only silence and emptiness that felt like he was in a ghost town. Turning his head back, he saw that the noodle shop doors were silently closed shut, with wooden boards covering the door as it locked everyone out and kept everyone in.
"Is this the true face of the town, or is this some kind of illusion?" Yoze muttered to himself as he couldn't help but feel his heart tighten.
"Howl!!! Why does a young demon like you dare to enter my territory without my permission!?" Carried by the howling wind, a stern and powerful voice echoed throughout the town.
"I apologize if I have upset you, but I had heard rumors that a demon was here. I wasn't sure, so I came to investigate, but it seems that it truly was the case." Yoze said calmly.
Hearing the powerful voice, Yoze felt his heart calm down and become more relaxed as he could tell from the smell in the air that it was a demon that had spoken just now. He had been worried earlier that he had accidentally provoked an abnormality that had been going on for decades.
Even though he was confident in his own strength, he didn't like the thought of having to deal with an unknown power or ability without more knowledge of it. He had been lucky when he first encountered the Undead Baby's army of zombies.
He was able to first experience the power of weaker zombies and acquire their talents which were counter to their abilities to drain energy from their targets. If he had fought one of the mutated zombies without prior knowledge and a counter talent, then he didn't know if he could have survived that day with his strength alone.
However, since he was only fighting a demon, he could feel relieved that there wouldn't be anything too strange during their battle. Unless the demon was too strong, then there wasn't anything that he needed to worry about.
Unaware that it had accidentally relieved Yoze of some of his worries, the mysterious voice seemed to become angrier as the sound of teeth grinding followed the wind.
"Hmph, each generation seems to lose more and more respect for us older demons. You can leave now that you know that I am controlling everything here."
"Everything here is my property, and I have grown it to the flourishing farm you see today. One day you will see my farm containing thousands of humans that will all sacrifice their spiritual energy for me." The angry voice seemed to hint at some pride.
"A farm?" Yoze's face turned frosty as he heard the demon treat the town full of people like a farm.
He had already guessed this was the cause, but he hadn't entirely accepted the thought. For demons to help villages grow into towns before harvesting their spiritual energy made him sick.
"Demons truly treat humans like livestock that are supposed to be stuffed before being eaten. I shouldn't be too shocked or angry since we are two entirely different species, but I can't help but feel my blood boil." Yoze thought to himself as he tried to calm himself down as he felt his blood boil.
"Of course, my best farm yet. After my previous three other attempts, this was the first time I had reached such a scale. Young demons like yourself who only have a few decades of experience don't know the struggle of finding enough food and spiritual energy when we aren't part of the demon alliance."
"But then again, I am not interested in joining an organization that fears weak humans. There is almost an unlimited stock of humans waiting for us demons to eat and use as a means to increase our spiritual energy, but they stop us from attacking."
"Their even fun excuse is even funnier, are we supposed to be scared that more humans are going to come out of hiding and try to fight us!? That just makes it easier for us to continue to get stronger!" The demon didn't bother to hide the longing and desire to eat humans in his voice.
"I see. I am actually trying to apply to join the Demon Alliance, so it can't be all that bad. You have to remember that humans still have immortals protecting them, so we should be cautious, or we might start a war." Yoze said coldly as he tried to track down the demon's location.
"Immortals? They don't care about mortal humans. They only care about finding new and creative ways to kill each other. In any case, even if we wipe out all the mortal humans, the immortals can just birth some more."
"Even though I have been alive for over a hundred years, I have only encountered five immortals. All of them haven't bothered to risk their own lives just to kill me, so you don't have to worry about it." The demon said with pride.
Yoze was slightly speechless as he didn't know what to say. He agreed with the demon that most immortals didn't care about human lives, but saying that demons didn't have to worry about them was ridiculous.
There were plenty of demon-hunting missions, and they all targeted younger demons showing that even though the older and more powerful demons might be too much to worry about, the younger and weaker demons did. Heck, he was currently on a mission to kill the demon that was talking with him.
"I wouldn't say that immortals don't care at all. I think your previous incident with your encounters with immortals was just luck. There will eventually come a time when your luck runs out, and you have to face the consequences of your own actions." Yoze said slowly to the demons triggering a hearty laugh.
"Hahaha! You might be right, but the number of immortals who can challenge me, the great demon of Gospel Peak, is slim to none."
"I wouldn't say that; in any case, is there a way for me to see you in person? I get the feeling that you are trying to hide something from me since you haven't shown me your body." Yoze's eyes sparkled with multiple colors as he glanced toward the mountain's peak, where he saw a gray statute in the distance.
"I'm going to tear off your flesh and bones before I consume your spiritual energy!" Having Yoze point out the oddity of its behavior and look in the direction of his body made the demon suddenly go berserk as its killing intent became apparent.
Unfortunately, Yoze had already begun sprinting for its body before it could finish its threats. With his heart on the verge of exploding from rage, he was no longer interested in entertaining the demon.
Having found the demon that called itself Eternal Justice, all he wanted was to devour its spiritual energy before copying its talents and eating its flesh. Even though he had felt some danger from the demon as they spoke, he realized that the sense of danger he had felt wasn't coming from the demon but from somewhere else.
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