Other than the two skulls attached to the two wooden poles at the entrance to the village, blood and guts were scattered all over the place. There seemed to be many mini houses built inside the village and a single tall wooden house that was taller than every other house in the center.
Lucius and Zafar slowly stepped inside the village, making sure they didn't alert anything.
The village had an eerie atmosphere, the sound of bones breaking and being chewed on could be heard. There were also muffled sounds of what sounded like human screams coming from the houses inside the village.
Suddenly, out of one of the mini houses, a demon stepped out. This demon was about the same size as Lucius but instead it looked absolutely disgusting. There was no face where its face should have been but instead there was a giant mouth with many sharp tiny teeth.
It didn't have a humanoid body either, its head was supported by four long flesh tendrils that had claws attached to them.
The demon stopped as it noticed Lucius entering the village and stared at Lucius for a good five seconds before walking away without saying or doing anything else.
'That was…..odd' Lucius thought
'Are any demons allowed here?'
'Why isn't it attacking me? It's a newborn demon just like me, it shouldn't be this smart. Zafar attacked me instantly...wait.' Lucius suddenly came to a conclusion.
'I'm the one that attacked Zafar first, it was looking for me but it didn't attack me first. I was the one that destroyed one of its heads first...could it be that they won't attack other demons unless they are attacked first?'
Lucius decided to be a little more brave when doing this now that he realised this but also still decided to move with caution. He felt a little more protected knowing he had Zafar with him and his rapidly improving shadow abilities.
He made his way over to the other mini houses, he didn't know anything about this village and he preferred to know the layout of the place he was in, just in case he needed to quickly escape.
There were four mini houses in total, all made out of wood. He had already seen the first one that seemed to belong to the creepy demon, so he made his way over to the next one.
He wasn't going to knock on every demon's door, just observe and analyse his surroundings so he can know the layout of the village.
At the second mini house he surprisingly didn't find any demons there and he wasn't about to just enter the place, no matter if they wouldn't attack him or not.
The third and fourth mini houses had demons that seemed to want to attack him but did not for some reason. It was as if they were being controlled and put under some influence.
Finally, Lucius cautiously made his way to the most dangerous building after having explored every other building in the village. This house in the center of the village more likely than not housed the leader of this little group of demons. Its imposing height and commanding presence made it stand out, and the atmosphere around it felt even more oppressive and tense.
As Lucius approached the entrance of the tall wooden house, he noted the ground was stained with even more blood than the regular houses. He also noted how there was a very subtle feeling trying to influence.
It tried to force him to stay in this village and serve, it was done in such a very lowkey type of way that Lucius suspected if he was still human, even with his high will power he doubted he would even realise he was under its influence.
Breaking out of it though wouldn't be impossible, but the ease at which it could put human him under its influence was a little scary.
Ignoring that thought, he carefully assessed the surroundings, noting any possible escape routes or hidden guards.
He still wasn't gonna go in by himself, so this time, he ordered Zafar to walk in front of him. The demons inhabiting the mini houses were strong but he had grown stronger too. He may not be as physically strong as them yet but not only was he faster but he could dish out high damage with his shadow tentacle.
He wasn't really worried about them.
Zafar heeded Lucius's order and walked in front of him, pushing open the gates with his big body.
As soon as the gates were open the sound of flesh slapping against flesh echoed across the entire village. Lucius quickly made his way beside Zafar to identify what was happening and was nearly gobsmacked by what he saw.
The same girl that he was weary about due to him not being able to sense or find her, the same girl that he considered more dangerous than the other humans was now naked and bouncing on the naked leader of this village.
Her eyes seemed lifeless and her mouth was drooling as if she was having the time of her life. Lucius noted with curiosity though that she was not dead. She was barely breathing but she was still alive.
'This demon must not have experienced the taste of a human soul yet.' Lucius thought greedily
The demon was very thin, as if it hadn't eaten anything in months or even years. He was laying naked on what seemed to be a bed made of stone while the naked girl was bouncing on him.
It was after a couple more seconds had passed that the demon finally realised it wasn't alone and suddenly sat up right while he was still inside the girl. This caused the girl's eyes to roll over as she fainted.
"Minion!" It hissed
"Why disturb me!?"
"More humans?"
"I am not your slave, little demon." Lucius replied.
"Give me the girl." He ordered
The demon's brows furrowed as it frowned in displeasure before it suddenly started laughing and then pushed the girl off of it. It finally stood up and suddenly pointed one of its hands at Lucius while shouting.
"Serve!" It shouted with a smirk on its face
The subtle influence suddenly became much more powerful, but Lucius' expression did not change at all as he silently entered the state of Mental Blankness.
Any influence from the creature suddenly disappeared as Lucius stared at the creature with his hollow eyes further amplified by his current state.
"Ser-"
The demon didn't even get to finish talking before Lucius fists found its way to its head as he blitzed across the room and in front of the demon, destroying a large portion of its head in one hit and then suddenly following up that punch with another punch to the face, destroying the demon's head in the process.
a grotesque spray of blood and flesh splattered across the stone bed and the surrounding walls. The demon's body slumped to the ground, utterly decimated, the smirk it had on its face frozen due to how fast Lucius had killed it.
Lucius stood amidst the wreckage, his breathing and his expression blank due to mental blankness. His expression morphed back to what it actually was as Lucius deactivated mental blankness.
Lucius's gaze flickered to the naked and unconscious girl on the floor, her breathing was shallow and it looked as if she would die at any moment.
He took a deep breath, the adrenaline-like feeling still coursing through him. His mind was clear, but his instincts told him he had to act quickly. The village was teetering on the edge of chaos, and if the demon's death triggered any retaliation or alarm, he needed to be prepared.
Zafar growled lowly, stepping protectively in front of Lucius. The other demons in the village might still be under some influence or alarmed by the sudden violence, though Lucius wasn't really that worried about the demons inside the village, none of them seemed very strong either.
They would probably be just like Zafar before Lucius defeated him. Worse none of them seemed as physically strong as Zafar, Lucius would literally just run circles around them.
The thing he was kinda worried about was their numbers, they didn't seem very intelligent to be able to use any special ability and Lucius, while very strong for his rank, was still just an infant demon.
'I'll just quickly kill this girl and take her soul .' Lucius thought
Lucius's eyes once again flickered to the unconscious girl as he approached her very carefully, grasping her throat and then lifting her naked body in the air with one hand.
The girl started to wake up as she realised she was being choked, her tired hands moved to Lucius hands, trying desperately to pull them off. Tears fell from her eyes as she realised she was going to die here.
She suddenly stopped trying to pry Lucius's hand from her throat as she closed her eyes and clasped her hands. Lucius didn't know what she was trying to do and wasn't trying to find out so he quickly broke her neck, cutting all her strings in the process as her body suddenly shut off like a dead toy, going limp in his hands.
Lucius instantly backed away, mentally preparing himself for the hunger that was going to overtake him by entering the state of mental blankness.
However, this soul was very very different from the one he previously consumed. Not only was it about five times bigger than the other girl's soul, it wasn't entirely blue, about half of the girl's soul was covered by a majestic, bright golden colour.
It felt so powerful Lucius felt like an ant in front of it, as if he should just give up on existing and prostrate his useless existence in front of it. This continued until a bubbling rage started shimmering deep in his essence.
Without realizing, Lucius's dread inducement skill activated by itself as Lucius's aura started to push back against the golden radiance emanating from the soul of the girl.
The room they were in started to crack, spider cracks started to spread from the center of the collision between Lucius and the girl's soul, spreading across the entire room.
Eventually, Lucius managed to overpower the soul as he grasped the soul with his shadow tentacle bringing it towards himself as he wasted no time and consumed it whole.
Lucius's mental blankness state deactivated as he had to order Zafar to hold him up due to the pleasure rampaging across his body right now.
If before Lucius was unsure whether or not consuming a soul was better than sex this one he was one hundred percent sure about. In fact it wasn't even close, this was hundreds of times better than sex.
It felt so good he wouldn't mind feeling this for the rest of his existence, not only was it an extremely pleasurable feeling, it massively, massively boosted his power.
He could see his body growing in real time and feel his body fill with power. His demon energy rapidly increased, all his stats rapidly increased and finally and most importantly, his height also started to increase.
His hands stretched wide, claws rapidly forming on his hands and two slight protrusions appearing on his back but not fully opening due to the energy being used up.