Chapter 331 - How To Gain A Powerful Ally (Part 5)
While the three demons of the beastmasters faction were not able to recognize the human woman caged inside of one of the two cages, they were extremely familiar with the demon trapped in the other, as well as the two dismembered corpses that were being transported by two of the five spatial platforms.
According to the memories of the commander, these three were the current leaders of just as many different families of demons.. all of which belonged to the disbanded faction called 'The Ungovernable Bunch'. Their individual power was only second to his own, and the strangeness of their presence here was only matched by the odd state they were presented to him.
From the way the two had been trapped, and the way in which the four corpses were being carelessly carried around, it didn't take for the commander to guess what had happened. The human that was sitting in such a carefree manner had probably captured the two, and killed the rest.
"Who are you?" he asked to Daniel with a cautious tone, and while letting the odd snake move over his shoulder, so that he could grab his weapon with both hands.
The state of mind of all of the cultivators that had survived the attack was still unstable, and seeing their commander hold his weapon against an individual that they had never seen before, was enough for them to become wary of Daniel's presence.
"You are that human.." muttered the young demoness before turning to look at the commander, and adding, "He is the only other person who came with the Oni Leader.. I believe he is.. His slave.."
Both the commander and the captain of the aerial division looked at Daniel in confusion. Every single corpse or prisoner above the platforms possessed a power that could be compared to the commander himself, whom aside from Sewah and the demon lord he was escorting, was supposed to be the strongest demon present. He himself was unsure whether he would be able to triumph against these three demons without the support of his companion, the demonic beast with the snake's body, and the horned tiger's head.. Not to talk about six.
It was clear from the expressions on the faces of the three demons that they were unsure of what to do. Sewah had been of undoubtable help during the attack, and that was despite formerly being associated to the three demons that Daniel had just brought in front of them.
From the very moment Daniel had arrived at the convoy, the trapped demon had noticed Sewah's presence. He belonged to the same faction he belonged to, and seeing him here, along with the cultivators he had just attacked, had left him at a loss of words. It was only after he heard of the possibility that Daniel might have been Sewah's slave, that a sparkle of hope light in his heart.
"Ro'ah, my friend! Please help me out of here!" He said while looking at the demon he used to know, but that instead, ignored him completely.
Being ignored was a harsh blow to the demon, who at the moment, feared Daniel more than anything else in hell. So he slowly turned around in the hope that his sudden cry for help hadn't angered his captor, only to meet Daniel's gaze. "I am dead.. I am dead.. I am dead.." thought the demon as his unstable knees gave out, forcing him to fall on the floor of the cage with a clunk sound.
Daniel had no intention of killing his prisoners, as he needed them to leverage an alliance with the demon lord. So he turned to look at the commander, and said, "I caught these little mice sneaking around during the attack.. I figured your lord would have loved to have a chat with them."
Seeing that Daniel had no intention of explaining any further, the commander turned to look at Sewah, and asked "Ro'ah, is it true? Is he your slave?" He asked in hope to at least obtain an answer to one of the many questions that filled his mind. However, he quickly noticed that the demon he had met so many times, had even less interest in his questions than Daniel himself.
Left with no other choice, the commander turned to look at the demon trapped inside one of the two cages. "Hagah, what is going on? Why were the three of you here? And who his this human?" His tone was filled with exasperation. It was clear that there was a lot to know about the attack, but the fact that nobody had any intention of clearing up any of his doubts, was starting to get to his nerves.
Unfortunately for him, the result of his inquire was nowhere different than the previous two. Instead of answering, the armored demon kept quiet, and took a small peek at Daniel. Once he saw that he hadn't been given the permission to talk, he decided to keep quiet. There was no way that he would possibly waste his only chance of survival by speaking without permission.. Not while Daniel was still there.
The exasperation that the commander was feeling was starting to turn into annoyance, but while he was not happy about this treatment, he had no way to demand for an answer to his questions.. At least not from Sewah, who he was sure to be above his level, or Daniel, who seemed to have been able to subdue six cultivators slightly less powerful than he was.. A feat that he was not sure would be able to replicate.
Due to the increasing frequency of the sonic booms that had come from the storm that was ensuing a few hundred kilometers away, Daniel was able to guess that the battle would soon come to an end. So instead of bothering with the demons in front of him, he took a fire treasure out of his spatial ring, and began to play with it.
This action caught the attention of the three demons, which looked at Daniel's every action carefully.
After looking at the fire treasure that he was holding in his hand for a few moments, Daniel began to pour immense amounts of immortal essence into it, which turned into fire essence right before pushing through the treasure's surface.
While the chief of the aerial division and the commander were paying attention to Daniel, the young demoness and her wolf companion were looking at the small sphere in his hand. The expression of the young demoness in particular was filled with a curiosity which, at every passing second, became pure and undisclosed shock.
The piece of coal that Daniel was holding in his hand had, in about ten seconds, turned into a high level fire sphere.
What shocked the young demoness the most, was not the presence of a fire sphere, but the speed in which Daniel was able to create one.
The need for essence spheres was recent for the demons, and dated back to the end of the last great wall. Essence treasures were a resource that did not belong to hell, and for the demons that lived in it, the only possibility to obtain a sphere, was to either leave hell and deal with humans, or buy them by using the members of the other factions as middlemen.
Of all of the essence spheres bought from these factions, at least seventy-five percent of them would end up being purchased by the beastmaster faction, and for a good reason. The demons had evolved for tens of thousands of years without the slightest bit of comprehension of mana. Their whole power revolved around their innate powers and uniquely different bodies. The same was for the demons of the faction of beastmasters, whom had developed the ability to bond with demonic beasts.
The time when the faction of beastmasters had discovered the essence spheres that were so common in the outside universe, was also the day where their power had grown by leaps and bounds.
Amongst the many races of demonic beasts, was the weak race of beasts called 'Spiritual Wolves of Mana'. This race of demonic wolves would grow through the consumption of the surrounding mana, and if lucky enough to encounter an area with enough of it, they would evolve into powerful hunters against which no other race of demonic beast could compete with.
Unfortunately, since the only method for these wolves to evolve was through the consumption of a singular type of mana, their development required hundreds, if not thousands of years. At that point, they would usually already be adults, and close to impossible to tame, and bond with. Only a very small number of people had ever managed to find cubs that were young enough for that purpose, but since they were so difficult to raise, not many would pick them as companions.
These were the reasons why the spiritual wolves of mana had been considered a weak race of demonic beasts up until a few thousand years ago.
That changed when the factions that had ventured outside of hell had brought back numerous items that had been manufactured by humans. Amongst them, were the elemental spheres. No other faction was knowledgeable about the nature of the spiritual wolves of mana, so when the faction of beastmasters had found interest in the essence spheres that they had brought back into hell, nobody thought much of it, except for an opportunity to milk money out of the faction of the beastmasters.
However, That was a big mistake.
Thousands of years had passed since then, and during these years, the price of the essence spheres grew as fast as the notoriety of these wolves, making it extremely difficult for the faction of beastmasters to obtain enough resources to raise them, not to talk about experimenting with rare types of essence.
High level fire essence spheres were not particularly rare or expensive, but from what the young demoness knew, they required a large comprehension of fire essence, as well as a high level of control, manipulation, and input of immortal essence to produce.. While the human in front of her, had created one in seconds.
After finishing the fire sphere, Daniel looked at the wolf that was still staring at him with deadly serious eyes. He then showed the sphere to it, causing his eyes to shift from his body, to the sphere. Trying to kill his boredom, Daniel moved his hand left and right, smiling at the way the wolf moved his head in order to follow the sphere.
A minute later, he threw the sphere in the wolf's direction, making it land about a meter in front of the massive wolf.
While interested, the wolf did not move. He instead sniffed it a few times, before sitting on the ground, and going back to look at Daniel. It was clear that the wolf wished to consume the sphere, but there was only one person in the world that this wolf trusted with what he would consume, and Daniel, was not that person.
Unless the young demoness made sure that the sphere of fire essence was safe for him, the wolf would never take it.
Slightly disappointed by the wolf's reaction, Daniel turned to look at the spheric storm that was still raging in the distance.. just in time to see it decrease in intensity. The battle between the four demon lord entities had ended.
As soon as the battle ended, two figures appeared at the edges of the convoy right next to the largest convoy. One of them was a simple humanoid demon, while the other was a massive demonic beast.
"Don't look at me like that. Were you not there?? They said nothing! The gatekeeper is probably dead too.." said the demon to the massive beast, which while being as tall as a mountain, was still looking at him as if trying to pry into the demon's mind in order to pick his thoughts.
Amongst the happy expressions of the people who had been waiting in hope until now, was Daniel's distraught one, deeply buried in the palm that he was pressing tightly against his forehead. He had already seen this demon.. And the aspect of the demonic beast that followed him, finally made him realize something very important.
The demon lord, leader of the faction of beastmasters, was no other than the old man who had gotten extremely mad at Daniel when he had fed the dark essence spheres to the demonic wolf cub..
The beast that followed him, was a female wolf that reached the height of a kilometer, and the length of one and a half without counting the long tail that seemed to go on beyond what the eye could see. This massive wolf was completely white in color, and appeared to be completely made out of ice. She was the one and only beast in hell at the level of a demon lord, and was through hell known as 'The Lupa'.
Before the demon lord could even ask for a report about the attack to the commander, he waved his hand, causing the door of the carriage to open. As soon as the door opened, about six wolf cubs came out of the carriage, jumping and running to welcome the old man and their mother back.
The grumpy expression of the old man broke into a big smile the very moment he saw these cubs run in his direction.. So he bent his knees, and opened his arms in preparation for the wolf cubs to jump on him. However, not all of them did.. The fastest amongst the group, a wolf cub with a black tail, ignored the old demon lord completely, and ran in Daniel's direction instead.
Daniel immediately recognized the wolf cub that ran in his direction, and while happy to see it again, he couldn't help but feel the coldness of the pair of eyes that were pointed at him.. The eyes of no one but the Lupa herself.