CHAPTER 578: CHAPTER 580: THE PREY

The first demon in the world of Aetherus was Mugu. Well, that wasn’t even a surprise, but at the same time Damon had thought Mugu would retain his humanity.

But it seemed he was the one who drove the goddess races of the Doom Continent into depravity, turning them into demons.

"Well that confirms that."

Demons were not a foreign species but natives that had been turned.

However, Damon also remembered Valarie saying something about demons being outsiders, or rather that some outsiders were demons.

The very first demon to exist didn’t come from Aetherus, though the first demon in Aetherus was in fact Mugu.

Outsider Aetherus demons existed, and they were very powerful beings. Take the True Beings for example—some of them were called True Gods while others were called True Demon Kings, or True Demons for short.

If these boundlessly powerful demons existed, then how could more demons not exist?

Hell, the Unknown God was a bonafide demon himself.

Except he managed to be the impossible anomaly that was both a True God and a True Demon.

Thus his forgotten title: Demon God... which here in Aetherus was just called the Unknown God.

Damon narrowed his eyes.

He wondered if the Unknown God fit in with the other True Beings, or if he was an outcast—neither god nor demon, a being made of discord, perfectly imperfect.

After everything he knew so far, it was evident the Unknown God was not on their side.

’If he was, he wouldn’t be calling them liars.’

The vast mysteries and complexities of the gods were distant from mortals, and mortals should not touch upon the mysteries of gods.

Though digging up these mysteries was a hobby of his. Knowing was always better than not knowing.

They continued walking through the labyrinth-like layers of the dungeon. Damon had never been in a dungeon, so to some extent he had expected to have monsters at every turn swarming them—but apparently not.

Since they had left their hiding place, they had not run into many monsters. Only about three crystal spiders on three separate occasions.

It was just hours of navigating through a labyrinth of caves and caverns. Some parts looked so tight that Damon felt claustrophobic.

There must have been people out there who enjoyed cave diving, but Damon could never...

And that was considering he could turn into a shadow and even teleport, so he should have no fear of getting trapped or buried in rubble.

These small claustrophobic pathways often led to larger caverns, which were filled with large jutting crystals.

Damon squeezed himself through another one, even though he could have easily turned into a shadow.

Behind him he heard soft moans and deep breaths as Abellona struggled with a body that was becoming all too sensitive to more physical urges.

"Are you okay..." Having reached a new cavern, he reached out to help pull her out.

"No... don’t touch me... please... don’t..."

Her face was feverish red. Damon sighed, pulling his hand back as she struggled to get through.

When she did, he took out a bottle of water from his shadow storage—something he had gotten from the system as part of miscellaneous item drops.

She snatched what would be her fifteenth bottle of water, drinking it without any of the elegance of a noble princess.

Gasping for breath, she poured it on her red face, the cool water pushing down the heat she was feeling.

Wearing an expression that seemed desperate and maddening at the same time, she clawed at the ground.

If she could cry right now she would, but she still retained enough of her faculties to avoid debasing herself further.

She reached for her garments, taking off the last piece of her armor, leaving only her dress—which was ripped in so many places.

Damon frowned, taking up his guard.

"You... are still in control, right?"

She nodded, wobbling her head.

"Ye... yes... ahhh... I... I was just a little hot..."

Damon spread his shadow perception with a frown. It seemed they would have company soon.

"Are you in a good enough state to fight..."

Abellona stood up, half her right thigh visible from her ripped dress. She glanced at him with her deep red eyes.

"This is nothing," she whispered through bated breaths.

Damon didn’t even know what to say. Who was she kidding? The black rose mark on her neck was growing, and soon enough it would be in bloom.

’If I don’t do anything by then we both die...’

He almost smirked at the irony of it all.

Damon glanced at the distant corner of the cavern, where he heard grunting sounds and the thunder of hooves stomping through the dungeon.

He sighed. This was why they had been taking the smaller passages—to avoid the Goristro from finding them so quickly.

While these demons were good at traveling in labyrinths, they didn’t have a small enough stature to fit into narrow spaces.

"Ashcroft must be pressed for time if he let himself split from them..."

Abellona was on her knees, pulling at her own hair as if she was hoping to tug at her brain.

Even haggard and distraught, it did nothing to diminish her beauty.

He bit his lips, urging his body to resist any foolish impulses.

"I’m not the one cursed, dammit..."

The walls of the cavern shattered as three Goristro burst out.

They grunted as they charged at Damon. He was about to charge at them to protect Abellona when he felt the wind burst around him, a sonic boom echoing out.

Damon froze as Abellona charged past him. She wasn’t even carrying a weapon in her hand. All she did was raise her hands like they were claws.

There was a red shimmer in her hand, and then Damon watched as she grabbed the demons that were clearly in the same rank as her.

The first didn’t even get a chance to move before she ripped its head off, blood spraying into the air with a grunt that sounded like a dying cow.

The second and third didn’t fare any better.

Damon could only watch as this beautiful black-haired woman bathed in blood, smiling maniacally, leaving him with the realization...

He was prey.