Sage didn't know what to do now that he was free. He could try to hunt other creatures or demons, but they were all at least at the high rank.

In fact, there were even several demon lords in the Deep Abyss, however Sage luckily didn't encounter any of them.

Instead, he decided to use the demon's residence as his own. To his surprise, there was a palace made of red and black rocks, so he explored within.

Initially, he wasn't sure if anyone was within the palace, however even when he reached the throne room, there was no sign of a single soul.

After entering a few rooms looking for random things to improve his situation, he went back to the throne room and sat on the purple and black throne.

'I've explored a bit of this palace, yet I can't find anyone. Should I continue to search or should I wait until the time passes?'

On one hand, he could potentially find something useful or rare, but on the other hand, who knew if something stronger than him was hiding as well?

Feeling a tad lost, Sage's tail slowly moved side to side as he thought. Then he found something that delighted him.

While sitting on the throne, the demonic power on his body started to increase slowly, while his heart gained a purple hue.

Within his demonic pupils, a ray of light flashed across for an instant before vanishing. As such, Sage decided to remain in the throne room to keep improving himself.

And like that, two weeks passed, and counting the time he spent within the demon, he should be close to, if not ready to return to the Demon King.

Just as he was about to relax and made about, the palace shook and a dense demonic power spread throughout the region the previous demon called his domain.

"Ralmeden, face me!" A loud voice caused the palace to shake slightly, but Sage didn't respond, nor did he plan to.

Instead, as soon as he felt the demonic aura surpassing his, he left the throne room after pulling a purple core from the throne.

Running through the palace, Sage inwardly cursed himself for not exploring the layout, but he came to a small door.

Kicking the door open, he saw a tunnel leading down into the darkness. Just as he was hesitating, the palace shuddered!

The high rank demon was attacking! A high rank demon could lay waste to an entire city, much less a palace.

Sage gritted his teeth and cursed the demon in his heart before jumping into the darkness.

...

The high rank demon standing outside frowned and scanned the ruins of the palace and then spat in anger.

He didn't know that Ralmeden had already kicked the bucket, instead he continued to search, and when he came upon Ralmeden's corpse, he frowned slightly.

"His soul has been taken, and whatever it was seemed to have eaten some of him as well." The high rank demon looked at the corpse with a dull expression.

"No matter, he isn't in my camp anyway. I can use his bones to refine my demon sword faster." The high rank demon grabbed the corpse and shot into the sky, a huge pair of wings flapping.

...

Sage felt the air turn from warm to hot, however because of his demonized state, he could hear the heat.

Soon the slide opened up into a massive cavern, with lava flowing from a few places higher up.

Despite being a demon, Sage knew that he might not be able to withstand lava, so he carefully maneuvered himself until he ended up on a dry patch rock.

Climbing to his feet, he looked around and then ducked, his instincts warning him about a deadly threat!

Demons were closer to beasts than humans, so they had sharper instincts than humans. 

A red scaled creature landed on the ground, lava dripping from it's body as it gazed at Sage with a look of desire in it's eyes.

When it leapt at him, Sage avoided the lava splashes and stabbed his nails into the neck of the small humanoid creature.

Black blood gushed to the floor, however the small creature never moved again, however Sage's instincts never stopped warning him about a threat.

Then the lava surged and countless small humanoid creatures rushed out and surrounded Sage, their sharp teeth and strange cries enough to make Sage wary.

Sage calmly took a breath, his nails dripping with black blood, he took a step and the small humanoids rushed at him with desire to kill and feast on their ugly faces.

Sage slashed out with his claws, and a bolt of lightning condensed and zapped a few of the creatures, causing them to stiffen.

Because the front line had stiffened, the creatures in the back stepped on their bodies and rushed at Sage with delight.

Sage kept swiping, lightning forming claw lights as they swept out, some cutting the creatures in two while others stunned them.

Sage didn't know how long he battled for, however a creature jumped into the air and landed on his back, it's sharp claws piercing his scales.

Before it could bite, Sage grabbed the creature's face and sent demonic energy into his palm.

The creature let out a shrill cry that caused one's blood to go cold as lighting surged into it's body, causing it to convulse and stiffen.

Sage looked as the other creatures escaped into the lava, leaving their shrieking comrade behind with no hesitation.

Soon, Sage dropped the humanoid and walked towards the middle of the rocks and narrowed his eyes.

Despite not being able to see it, he felt an overwhelming amount of demonic energy converge in front of him, and space was torn open.

With one last look, Sage walked into the rift. Then the rift vanished and the surroundings fell silent.