She had originally gone to see him every so often. But the disappointment of reality versus expectation were simply too far apart. Slowly from once every three or four months. Until it became twice the second year. She brought him one last animal during his final year. Yet it had been awhile since she bothered to look for him. Instead of going in person she would simply use a bit of mana as she looked in his direction.
Doing so allowed her to check on him without going in person. Without using much mana she was basically looking to make sure he was still alive. Even though he had learned to process mana like a demonic beast he didn't have actual control over it. He simply copied what he sensed without actually understanding what he was doing.
She was reminded of the stories of the first individuals that learned mana. They too threaded the same path as him. They learned from copying other demonic beasts. Only they just learned the basics. When you have enough sensitivity to sense mana they didn’t just do the same they experimented with it. The biggest issue was they had a higher sensitivity to neutral mana allowing for them to piece together what was going on. From there they learned to control mana from demonic beasts but found it wasn’t effective to use the same method as demonic beasts.
There was an underlying difference between the two when it came to mana. Demonic beasts absorbed mana not through meditation but through simply living. From eating to sleeping they were able to absorb mana while people had to meditate to push out random thoughts and collect neutral mana in the surroundings. There were a very large number of ways to use mana back then. It slowly got refined until they reached a breakthrough and everyone started to collect mana in the heart and used this method to transfer mana throughout the body when needed.
This one didn’t have that type of sensitivity or in a position to slowly stop and think about what he was doing. Every single day he fought for survival. The issue from her point of view was that it didn’t require each day to be struggling. At this point he started to figure that out too. The overseer creatures had long since created a territory that was a safe zone so long as he ignored and hid away from the patrols. But still he simply copied the way they used their mana.
Without much expectation she turned in his direction. She had been sitting in the same spot since the last time she had brought an animal to him. From day to night she would continue to meditate and focus on healing her wounds. After those two some years she had reached a point that most of the injuries were healed. This might sound good but there were problems with this. She had used up nearly all her mana. It should be known that a god or a devil were different from demigods.
Demigods had the ability to simply take in large amounts of mana and quickly refine it down. Once when starts working on their foundation it becomes possible to take lowest level mana and turn it into above peak level mana. This above peak level mana was the reason even the weakest demigods could fight off prodigies at the peak of peak worlds. A prodigy was a prodigy for a reason, even with this advantage it was still possible for demigods to die, but a prolonged fight would allow demigods the advantage. For a god or devil could very easily use the same amount of mana as a prodigy has total and it would simply be a drop in a lake.
She used up nearly all her mana to just barely heal her injuries. If she aggravated them slightly they would rip open and she would thus end up in a worse situation depending on the situation. This was because she didn’t have much mana to stabilize or stop the worsening condition. If she ripped open the injuries to the extent she had originally been injured she would likely never be able to recover as the time it would take to gather and refine mana back to a level that could heal a god or devil’s body would result in permanent damage being done in the meantime.
What she saw was what she expected. He was moving around just outside of the safe zone likely following the overseer creatures. As she went to turn she stopped after a short hesitation. She could sense creatures in front of him but they were weak. Too weak to be the overseer creatures. As she looked at the creatures in question it was a pack of supreme wolves. There wasn’t a single overseer creature in that direction. Very quickly something seemed strange, in the end it was enough to stir her interest so she decided to find out what was going on. With a step she appeared on top of a tree at the edge of the safe zone.
It was about a five minute run from there to the place he was currently at. This was close enough to understand the situation. It was also from this position she turned her head from left to right. Finally she turned back and looked down. Without knowing why or when there was a tugging at the corner of her lips. She wasn’t positive but from what she saw she had an inkling of what he was about to do. And she couldn’t help but feel her heart beat faster in excitement. Even knowing the consequences of his actions she wasn’t upset that it would put her in a terrible situation.
Maybe it was the constant disappointment of expecting more than she should reasonably expect. But when he finally showed her something interesting she was willing to play along even if it was slightly detrimental to her. She was already injured, what did it matter if her injury was slightly aggravated. Nobody would understand her, to forcibly drag people to hell was something that went so beyond spitting on the system it was honestly pretty impressive she was even still alive. Of course that was because she didn’t completely cross the line.
But what she was trying to do was so far outside the reach of what was understood it would be too much to even call it a hypothesis. The seed she had given him was not her own. At least not in the regular sense. Normally a seed is just a reflection of their foundation, their very being. At the level of god and devils they were their class, and their class was who they were. It was an extension of their personality, their way of life. But the seed inside him was a reflection of her cracked foundation, she had healed almost all her injuries. That was to say the crack in her foundation was made by changing an already set foundation, she was attempting to change and add to her foundation and attempt to take a step beyond the level of a god or devil.
It was only at this moment when she came closer did she realize she had not looked close enough and there was something strange going on between his soul and body but she didn’t understand it and would need time to study it so she didn’t bother too deeply on it. Instead she focused on what he was currently doing. By this point he was running with two cuts on his arms as blood dripped down as the wolves had picked up the scent and was closely following behind him as they were catching up faster than he was running.
By the time he reached the halfway point the wolves should have caught up but there was a series of crudely crafted traps that slowly started to trigger as the distance between the forerunners and him shortened. At some point he stopped running straight and started to zigzag as he ran through the traps. A decent amount of the wolves had realized the situation and started to follow him but they still triggered a few pitfalls as he was not just zig zagging around the traps he was also jumping over others. Without the ability to pinpoint the exact locations of his steps they would quickly trigger a different trap.
If it wasn’t for the fact the traps were crudely made likely because he made them too quickly the wolf pack likely would have abandoned the chase. From those that triggered one trap or another the injuries they received were pretty light and not a single wolf had died. But that was also the point, he couldn’t afford for the wolves to be too injured. As he reached the edge of the safe zone what should have normally happened was the wolves would have slowly started to hesitate but they didn’t.
They weren’t alone, there were herds migrating from east and west of his location. All three groups of animals were supreme creatures. Unlike normal creatures a supreme creature was very similar to a demonic beast but not the same. There were different types of supreme creatures. They were separated by their level, for example a peak supreme animal was a kraken. There were a number of wolf type demonic beasts but there were also many species of supreme wolves. These were creatures that experienced mana mutations but didn’t awaken.
Very few creatures had the ability to become supreme creatures. They were generally animals that were extremely smart from the beginning. They also tended to live in groups, very few of them would awaken as supreme creatures. It was an anomaly type of creature that could use mana but were generally not very strong but could make up for it as they often traveled in packs. Only a few extremely odd cases became peak supreme creatures that were for all intents and purposes legendary animals that became intelligent beings.
As the group below her realized something was wrong it was already too late. Judging by their reaction these three groups were likely enemies of the overseer creatures. As soon as the wolves, buffalo, and bears saw the overseer creatures the leader of those representatives threw away their hesitation. With the supreme leaders leading the pack of mostly normal creatures that had been made stronger by the mana started to rush into the safe zone. The three had already started to run. They were running in the same direction as the place he had been using as a camp.
It was there she realized why the bears and buffalo were running towards the safe zone even though he only led the wolves. On top of the rock he often slept on was completely covered in blood and the bodies of a few baby bears and buffalo were slaughtered as the entire area was covered in the guts, meat, and blood covering everything. It was enough to imagine what would happen when the intelligent supreme creatures saw this scene that would soon be covered in the cockatrice tracks. At this point she realized she was smiling so deeply she could feel the cold air brush against her teeth. It had been awhile since she had been so excited. She was even more excited than when she found him in that group of people.
She lifted her hand and sent tiny bits of mana to fly out and the already surprised cockatrice that found the slaughter field started to grow hesitant and seemed to have got distracted as they just stood there for 30 seconds as they looked around. Nobody but her could hear her laughter as she watched the boy see the cockatrice as he rushed past as he sent out a dark piece of wood and stabbed it into the cockatrice in the lead. Very quickly there was a sharp cry of pain as it woke to pain. This also brought the two others out of their stupor.
But it was already too late by this point the wolves saw three newcomers they could vent their frustrations on. Yet even the supreme wolf quickly felt doubt and hesitation at the scene in front of it. But it was already too late, the traps had angered the pack and there was blood everywhere along with guts and meat. Even some blood leaking out of one of the cockatrice. Very quickly the leader had no choice but to howl, this didn’t stop a few stragglers to not follow the pack leader deeper into the forest.
But very quickly if they were supreme wolves like the pack leader they would realize why it had told the pack to keep going and not stop. The buffalo and bears had followed the cockatrice and found the slaughter field with a heavy smell of excrement from the cockatrice. A few strays stomped and clawed the remaining and now fleeing wolves and a few fought each other as the leader of both drew a line between themselves as the two groups ran in parallel after the cockatrice.
Like going out on a stroll she followed the packs as she had to stop as she found the boy hiding in a tree. He was covered in mud from the beginning. It was what caused her to take a closer look at what he was doing. He was silently watching the packs rushing into the center of the safe zone. The only thing holding back his heart from pushing him past the edge and activating his apathy state was a deep seeded hatred that could be felt from his gaze alone. She had no idea how long he had been planning this. Yet it only filled her with even more excitement as he didn’t hesitate to follow the two packs into the center.
By this point even the overseer realized something was wrong as he sent out an order for all the cockatrice to gather and deal with the situation. He was an older man with gloriously fancy robes. His face kept becoming worse and worse as the cockatrice were getting injured. When one of them actually died in this mosh pit he was very quickly losing his patience. While they weren’t exactly the most powerful creature they could punch far above their weight class with their stealth and hunting instincts.
She was not the only one watching, but she was watching him stalk his target while Abel was just watching the whole thing. Very quickly their gazes met as a black shadow streaked from a tree line before it jumped on a cockatrice before it quickly kicked the body to the ground as it flew into a different tree. By this point the bears and buffalo were in a mosh pit of all three going at each other that had devolved into an insanely crazy fight that lacked all tactics and just became survival of the fittest.
Very quickly Abel moved and grabbed the boy as he took a step and appeared back in front of his villa. Throwing him to the ground he had a nasty look on his face. There was confusion and rage in his eyes. Watching from afar she wasn’t surprised by the confusion. She had hidden their arrival. She felt him from the beginning. He sat inside his villa and let his creatures do all the work as he played. It could be seen by the foundation he basically put barely any work into it. In terms of being a demigod this one would probably be bullied and used like a resource because he was far weaker than a prodigy in a peak world.
Without asking anything he turned and saw that the cockatrice had started to calm victory. The problem was most of them were injured and this fly had killed two of them while another three had been killed in the fight. This was a loss that probably wouldn’t even occur in a decade. While they weren’t the strongest they were his pride and joy, he spent thirty years and even betrayed the person he was serving. He was able to enjoy a decent status by selling subpar goods. When he was being pushed for selling subpar goods he got the notification he immediately jumped on to become an overseer. He saw himself as a person loved by the system so how could he not be angry when some fly somehow barraged in and started to throw shit and break his things in his own backyard.
As he was about to kill the fly he was locked on by an unknown being. He had just raised his hand as he was about to kill the fly. The fly seemed to feel his killing intent. Without any hesitation it got up and fled randomly into the forest without looking back. Soon he felt the pressure getting stronger as a young woman appeared in front of him. What made his pupils shrink to pins was that the girl appeared as a young child before taking a step closer to him as she turned into an adult. She looked pale but had a breathtakingly pronounced smile. Without a word she stopped in front of him and just released her mana and everything went black.
After Abel disappeared all that was left was flesh and blood splattered everywhere. There was some blood leaking out of her mouth but it couldn’t take away the smile and her pounding heart. The cause of this had not stopped running and was about to leave the safe zone. That was fine though she had already put a mark on him before he left. The mark would protect him, just not in a very good way. Unlike the safe zone he would be chased and attacked constantly. It was likely he wouldn’t even get any sleep. The mark would only stop the top predators from attacking him personally, it would also stop him from dying but it wouldn’t stop the pain.
While killing a weak demigod wasn’t very easy it wasn’t terribly hard when they were this sloppy. His mana was stagnant and couldn’t even muster any strength to protect himself. Though it did cause a few of her injuries to open. Using the mark caused the injuries to become a bit worse but she would be fine and this would help him grow faster. She ignored the cockatrice that was scattering after she killed the demigod and walked into the fancy villa without looking back.
