Chapter 295: Advance Forward

“Demogorgons.”

There were over 20 of them, and they looked to be circling around us. From what I remembered, these creatures were only active at night.

Sighing to myself, I then summoned my shadow hounds, no, my now-evolved void hounds, from my shadow. It wasn’t only me who had evolved, but also my shadow hounds too. They had evolved into a species known as the void hounds.

[Description: Unlike most demons, these hounds are no longer beings made of flesh, but stable nothingness. Inside their stomachs is a structure that acts as a black hole. A structure that can’t be filled, and anything swallowed can never be retrieved.

Void hounds travel through the void between space and time, instantly appearing anywhere they please without time being lost upon traveling.]

I didn’t need much to deal with Demogorgons. Around 5 hounds should be enough; no point in troubling Cerberus. With that thought in mind, I summoned my void hounds, and immediately, the creatures appeared from a black hole that suddenly opened up in my shadow.

Each hound was the size of a polar bear. Their eyes resembled galaxies, and their fur was a shade of midnight purple.

They looked like celestial beasts. If someone told me these were the hounds of god, I would’ve believed it.

They instantly understood my intentions and melted into thin air without me having to say a word.

Knowing that they would handle it without issue, I went to sleep with the others. The next morning, I was awakened by boisterous laughter coming from Rizor. I opened my eyes to see the soldier butt naked on a small hill of rubble before diving into the flood waters below, creating a loud splash as he hit the surface of the water.

“Come on, what are you two waiting for?” He was trying to beckon the two girls to join him, but they instead rolled their eyes and turned away.

I stretched and yawned as I climbed to my feet before going to rinse my face. I then took a look at the flooded city around me. It was slowly being taken over by nature. All former human civilization was being taken over by nature.

It looked as if my void hounds had taken care of the Demogorgons from last night. Since Demogorgons only came out at night, we didn’t have to worry about them for now. But there still could be other monsters lurking about somewhere.

We continued our journey through the ruined city just as we did the day before. Whenever we encountered an obstacle, we would find a way to work around it.

Traveling in the group, it took only a few hours for us to finally exit. When we finally exited the city, I could see that there were a few soldiers who had arrived before us. They made camp as they waited for the others to arrive.

The one that came before us was mostly the captain and 5 other squads. A total of 4 platoons entered the city, meaning there were roughly 16 squads. With us just arriving, it meant there were 10 squads that had yet to arrive.

The captain decided he would wait for the other squads for a day, but if they didn’t arrive by then, he would leave with the men he had now. Right now, we were deep in demon territory.

I heard some of the soldiers telling stories about the demon who ruled over here, and from some of the stories that were told, I honestly understood their fear.

The same evening the captain made his orders, two more squads showed up for the day, and that was it. That night, we slept on the road leading back into the city.

In almost no time at all, a day passed with only two squads returning. The captain made up his mind to leave and return back to their settlement.

“Leaving our other squad members behind seems a bit much,” Ava commented with a frown as we followed the captain and the others towards the settlement.

“It might seem a bit dangerous, but this area is dangerous. We have to be careful,” Ethan answered patiently. “If the others aren’t back, then we must open ourselves to the possibilities that something might’ve happened to them.”

That might be the answer. Apparently, none of the squads that made it back encountered any Demogorgons. The ones that did must’ve been the ones that didn’t live long enough to make it back.

Khalissi described Demogorgons as the stray dogs of the underworld. The fact that they were there meant that there were no Greater Fiends inside the ruined city.

As I walked, my eyes drifted to Therissa, shackled and walking behind the captain, who was surrounded by soldiers.

I needed to talk to her, but approaching her would rouse suspicion. There was nothing I could do for now but wait for the opportunity. To avoid the demons, we traveled through the forest and went up into the mountains.

It was a longer path, but it was judged by the captain as the safest path back home, but that proved to be the opposite. Just a few hours into our journey, we were forced into hiding.

The reason being was a rabbit.

“Those are blood rabbits. They are a carnivorous type of demon. There are usually a lot of them since they travel in large colonies. This means there could be more of them hiding here.”

As they spoke, I glanced at the rabbit we were hiding from. At first glance, it looked like a regular white rabbit with strange red eyes.

Looking at the rabbit, I couldn’t help but sigh. Maybe it was just me, but the soldiers seemed a bit too careful. If they intended to fight against demons, then they should be doing the key thing, which was to fight.

If they were worried about such a small creature, then they clearly haven’t fought long enough with their lives on the line.

In the end, we managed to avoid a confrontation with the blood rabbit and subsequently more blood rabbits. From the high mountaintop, I could get a view of the ruined civilization down below.

The abandoned cities were already taken over by nature. Even in the mountains, we occasionally came across small settlements that were destroyed. At one settlement in particular, there were a lot of left-behind vehicles. It looked like a group used to camp there.

Looking at the vehicles, it gave me an idea. Transportation would be extremely important in times like these. Back in Purgatory, the vehicles there worked on mana crystals. I was almost certain that Persephone could recreate those vehicles.

But for that to happen, we need to rebuild society, at least to a functional level.

The way I see it, we need territories away from the demons. We start by carving out our own territory, then we protect it. Not just Ryomen, but all upcoming settlements need to band together to carve out land of our own. We need some kind of alliance.

We can defend this new land and create a new civilization in that land. A civilization that would be similar to what we had in the past. What the military was doing, going from city to city trying to kill Greater Fiend demons, wasn’t the right choice.

A bigger threat was coming. We needed our own country, at least to face him.

“I wonder how many settlements there are,” I mumbled to myself.

I bet the military has that information. We traveled through the flooded city before, and now we were traveling through the mountains. All that was so we could avoid areas where the demons frequented.

But in order for the military to know where the demons were, they must have a map of the current world. I need to get my hands on it. Something like that could help me immensely.

That was something else I needed to figure out. Joining the military might be more profitable than I first thought. They had weapons and resources that I didn’t have. And most importantly, they had knowledge about this world.

Apart from getting Therissa to train me, my next goal will be to acquire information from the military before I venture off on my own. After that, I could see about forming an alliance and forming a country made up of different settlements.

I want to do all of that and return home before Isabella or Sylvie gives birth. Even if I don’t accomplish any of the former tasks, the latter was the most important. I had to be there.

I spent roughly three months in Purgatory, which means there are nine months left until Conquest arrives. Sylvie and Isabella will mostly due around the same time.

“My children will be born around the same time the fate of the world would be called into question.”

I couldn’t fail. Too much was at stake for me to do so.

As those thoughts entered my mind, we finally arrived at the military settlement. Looking at the settlement, I was in awe. They managed to transform an entire town into a sanctuary.

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