Chapter 44: Shadow Walker (1/2)

In the dead of night a shadow moved through the edge of the forest as it rapidly approached the demon king's castle at a staggering speed. The shadow warped several times and a figure appear out of it, the figure slowly revealed himself to the glistening moonlight.

It was an handsome man with short white hair, he wore dark speed based armor and had two golden daggers strapped to his waist. He had bright golden eyes with a vertical slit. The same figure that had appeared in the destroyed red ogre settlement. ”This is strange... Am i headed in the right direction?”

He looked around again and his eyes glowed slightly. 'Its faint but this should be correct... why then... why are they headed in this direction.'

”Desperation?”

'No... Unless... I see... so that was it huh. To think they would take such a risk just to avoid serving a demo Lord. Such scums. If it wasn't for those two I might've taught them a lesson today.'

Getting out of his own head he shook the tempting thoughts away as he knew the two unknown strangers were too dangerous to mess with. Especially the guy that was able to sense him. His face flashed through his mind and he couldn't help but grit his teeth. He didn't know why but looking at him made him uncomfortable.

He frowned slightly as he picked up the trail ones more and faded into the shadows. Moving at a fast pace he should be able to catch up with the group in a few minutes. He had purposefully slowed down his pace to avoid the perception range of that individual.

As he predicted he soon could see the group slowing down ahead. 'Wait... what? why are they slowing down there?' This was beyond his calculations and expectations. Normally they should have taken a detour after getting to this point and headed their original direction. It wasn't logical to slow down now.

After tracking them for almost a full day now he was sure they had experienced hunters in the.group, not only were they harder to track than expected, they had also taken routes that gave them the highest chances of evading detections from the scouts in the forest while keeping their travel time as short as possible.

It took him a lot of effort to pick up their trail before it went cold, which wasn't easy. Any other tracking rouge would've already lost the trail unless they wanted their cover blow by that man. An eerie breeze blew as he melded back into the shadows.

He approached the group ahead from the shadows as he planned to get a better view of the situation up ahead. Soon the group came to an halt as the riders in front got off to inspect what appears to be an invisible wall. 'Are they dumb... Don't tell me they came all the way here for the castle.'

How could that be possible, everyone in every corner of the demon continent knows about the issues surrounding the demon continent. If didn't take a genius to figure out how dangerous of a place this was to intrude in. Even the seven behemoths, who had the powers to match a demon Lord wouldn't carelessly approach this place. After all this was equivalent to making an enemy of the Great Five families.

Thinking of the Great Five sent a chill running down his spine even though he was from one of them. Well, maybe it was because he was from them that he knew how fearsome they truly were. Most lesser demons would believe the Great Five were strong in numbers and name only but would not realize that they were sorely mistaken.

”Hmm... I might be rushing to conclusions too early.” It was better to observe their actions carefully, they might have actually sensed him and were putting up a front to lure him out no matter how unlikely that may seem.

Watching the group carefully he saw them reach out to touch the barrier with an hint of confusion and curiosity in their eyes. 'An act?' he wondered but wasn't convinced, but why would. they be confused. 'Did they come here in ignorance. how can that be?' That was not supposed to be possible, right now there should be no one living on the demon continent that would be this ignorant.

Someone soon alighted from one of the large carriages and walked up front. It was the same guy that had made his journey so troublesome. With is ability to place a soul curse on his targets he would be able to track the person to the ends of the world no matter how skilled and powerful they were. It was impossible to erase the curse completely and it was very hard to detect.

Placing a soul curse would also allow him to use a spell of remote viewing on the target, bypassing any anti-detect and counter spells placed on them. Although he wasn't a spell caster he had prepared the necessary tools and scrolls before setting off. This was an habit of every skill member of a noble family including the Great Five.

He frowned upon seeing the ogres treating the man with respect. If it wasn't for him, he wouldn't be hiding in the shadows behind the buses like a common pervert. ”Tsk...”, 'I promise, I'll kill you soon.' he thought as the other stranger in the group alighted her carriage.