Chapter 25: Im just a bit eccentric, not crazy. (1/2)
”What are you planning?” Night asked Arima while staring at the piece of paper summarizing the old goblin's stories. They had been given lodging after the chief finished to talk.
”Why are you saying it as if I'm going to do something bad?”
”So?”
Arima shrugged, ”I don't know. I don't care about their petty war and I have no intention to stop it directly either. I've only come here to have fun, not to stop every war I come across. I'm kind, but I'm not that benevolent.”
”Then what are you going to do?”
”Simple, now that I discovered that I can steal life force, I'm going to hunt the people who deserve it. But because it would create an imbalance between each side, I'll do it for the three of them.” Arima casually explained.
”You aren't going to anything to the humans? That's not like you.”
”Of course, I will bully them a bit. Enough for them to lose, but not slaughtered,” Arima smiled and Night looked at him.
”Your new title really suits you after all.”
”What is that supposed to mean?”
”When you're not kind, you're just a demon. That's what I mean.”
Arima's expression darkened, ”Can you stop that? In my world, being called a demon can be cool but to most, it's just embarrassing.”
”That's true isn't it?” Night tilted his head, ”When you're too lazy to help, you just think of a way to kill them in a way that won't disturb their fight. Isn't that terrifically demonic?”
”Yeah, yeah. If you want.” Arima waved his hand, and chanted subject, ”Where do you want to go tomorrow?”
”Why are you asking me?”
”Well, because I don't know where to go first. Even though we are in the monster territory, there are a lot of different places we can visit. So, I'll let you decide.”
Night mused with his eyes directed toward the roof, ”Then what about the Lilin territory? They are rumored to have quite a lot of life force and I'm slightly curious about them.”
Arima smiled and nodded, ”I'm curious as well. We'll go there first then.”
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The next day, Arima asked the goblin for a map of the continent. But unfortunately, they only had one for the monster territory.
”That's good enough,” Arima uttered and memorized the map's content. He resonated with Night and directly flew off in direction of the Lilin territory.
That place is where the infamous incubus and succubus are supposed to live. Their position in the 'monster hierarchy' is pretty high because their racial abilities basically amount to controlling others.
Arima's target there was the succubus queen. Of course, if Arima chose her, it meant that she deserved it. That queen's hobby was seducing and enslaving anyone from other races and 'play' with them in any way possible until they die.
Lilin people are humanoid monsters with intelligence. Since birth, they are gifted with great beauty and inducing pheromones. Their appearance is human-like with a pair of bat wings and a tail. They are considered as monsters in this world instead of demons.
Their domain was a thousand miles away. So Arima calculated that he would take around forty minutes to go there.
While he was flying across the territory, Arima's eyes suddenly flashed with a strange light. He hastily turned his head toward a certain place and stopped flying. Soon, a huge wave of spirit swept over him. He did his best to conceal his aura and presence and stopped his breath. All with a stone face as if it was a habit.
”{What was that?}” After the wave vanished, Night questioned it.
”A scan. Someone just scanned the entire country as I did back then with 'World Index'.” Arima responded after resuming his flight.
”{How strong was that?}”
”Above that sky dragon we met. I'd say that the user was at the tenth level.”
Night kept his silence for a moment, ”{Can you beat him?}”
Arima grinned, ”I can't be sure. But if he ever finds me in his path, then I will gladly show him one of my strongest magic.” He declared and flapped his wings, resulting in a blast of flames and lightning as he accelerated.
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Half an hour later, Arima spotted a gloomy forest on the horizon with a tall tower coming out of its center as if it was the biggest tree of all. Arima felt a detection array set-up across the whole area, so he landed outside of the forest and ended the resonance.
Arima and Night hid their presence and aura and went inside. The moment they stepped in the forest, the surroundings changed in a strange way, ”Illusion, huh? That's fitting of them.”
”How do we break that?” Night asked in his wolf form.
”We can't. If we break this, we'll be marked. We also can't see through the illusion and bypass it because there are mindless monsters wandering around and fights will reveal us.” Arima sighed, ”We only have one choice.”
Arima started walking on the natural path that was offered to him and Night.
An hour later. ”…It's a pain to infiltrate this place,” He complained. They had walked in there for an hour already and only found more and more different paths. They had turned to the right or the left at least a thousand times.
When Arima was really considering breaking this damn barrier, he heard footsteps and voices coming from ahead. He swiftly hid behind a tree and Night ran after him.
The footsteps came from a couple of persons. One was a man and the other a woman, both greatly beautiful, with wings and tails.
Arima rejoiced interiorly, ”(Lady luck didn't abandon me.)”
He wordlessly walked out from his cover and stopped in front of them.
The incubus and the succubus were surprised at first when they saw someone casually blocking their path. But when they realized 'what' it was, their face brightened.
”A human! How can one be here?” The woman exclaimed and waved her tail excitedly.
The other laughed, ”Humans are pretty rare and this one is quite handsome, we could give him to the queen… What a shame, it's a man. He's yours.”