Under the midnight sky, Therissa and I stared at the military settlement. It was heavily guarded as usual.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, turning to me.

I didn’t want to be seen by the military; I felt it would complicate things further since I had already made a deal with them.

“I’ll need your help to distract them while I sneak in,” I said, which caused her mouth to fall open slightly.

“You need my help?”

“They’re sure to attack when they see you, so I just need you to hold them off with your magic while I go on ahead.”

She looked a bit hesitant. It wasn’t because she thought she could win. She had been trying to create a friendly relationship with the military the entire time. Going back on that would undercut her first mission here.

“Look, the chances of you establishing a relationship with the military are zero to none. They’re only interested in using you for your magic. It’s best you stay out of each other’s hair since it can easily lead to war.”

“I… you’re right,” she nodded in understanding. “I’ll distract them while you go retrieve the map.”

She smiled and nodded to signal she was ready. It wasn’t a confident nod, but it was a nod nonetheless. With that, the two of us were off.

Therissa walked along the road in the open while I activated my thermal vision skill. Immediately, I could see the heat signatures of most of the soldiers converging on Therissa. A few still hadn’t moved from their positions; those soldiers looked like snipers.

Seeing this, I surged forward, moving through the forest at a speed where I couldn’t be spotted. I leaped from tree to tree until I finally arrived at the entrance of the settlement. Therissa had released a huge magic blast.

The sound of it drove them into a panic, so they were preparing for what sounded like an ambush. Since I was still wearing my military uniform, I easily blended in with them and continued towards the sergeant’s office.

If there was anywhere a map would be, it would be there; I was almost certain of it. Luckily, the school building he used as his base was empty; it seemed even he was gone. While I walked through the building, I could sense I was being followed by someone, but I ignored it.

Arriving at the sergeant’s office, I broke down the door and proceeded to search for the map.

There were a lot of papers in his office. Some of them were printed sketches of the different demons. There were also thorough descriptions of them, such as their weaknesses and habits.

“The military is thorough, that’s for sure.”

It wasn’t long before I found the folded map among the mess of documents. I quickly opened the map over the large desk.

“That is it.”

The map was detailed and color-coded. The green areas were those the military had taken over. The orange areas belonged to other settlements. There were quite a few of them. Ryumon was even on the map.

The territories and cities that were being controlled by demons were color-coded in red. This made up most of the map. The demons held more territory than anyone else.

To the western end of the map was a small area color-coded in orange. It sat in the middle of a section of the map that was completely red.

This orange area had a small description labeled ‘Elf’. It seemed this was where the elves lived. Not only that, but the area where they were was deep in the demon territory, which also had a label.

“Wyvern King.”

Putting that aside for now, I also realized that there was another color on the map. There were small blue dots. Reading further, I found that blue denoted places on the map that were described as otherworldly.

After reading the map, I folded it and placed it in my pocket, but just then I felt something cold brush against the back of my head.

“Don’t move.”

Placing the map in my pocket, I turned around.

“Didn’t I tell you not to move?”

Turning around, I was greeted with the sight of Rizor, holding what looked like a warhammer up to my face. He had a knowing look on his face, a look that said he caught me doing something I shouldn’t.

Because of this, he wore a wide grin.

“Let me guess, you’re an enemy from another settlement. No wonder you were asking so many questions,” he said.

I had a deal with the sergeant. Someone seeing me complicates things. For a brief moment, it seemed as if Rizor understood what I was thinking. For all his faults, he had great instincts.

Without wasting a second, he swung his hammer down at me. I stepped through the attack and grabbed his throat before crushing it.

His hammer immediately fell from his hand as he took several steps back and collapsed to the ground. I stepped over his body, which was violently choking on the ground, as I exited the office.

I then quickly made my way back to Therissa. There was a lot of gunfire echoing in the distance. Hearing this, I hurried back. In no time, I left the village and moved quickly through the forest.

A few miles out, I spotted Therissa being surrounded by soldiers. She used her ice magic to erect walls around herself to protect herself from their assaults. Moving faster than any of them could see, I grabbed her and disappeared.

…

Therissa and I stopped a good distance from where the soldiers were. We were too far away for them to chase us.

“Did you get it?” Therissa asked.

I took out the map and opened it up so she could see it clearly.

“The area where the elves are is deep in demon territory.”

She nodded as if she already knew.

“Yes, the wyvern king. We are in constant struggle with him. It will be dangerous; the entire area is surrounded by wyverns. They prey on anything that sets foot in their territory.”

“It should be fine,” I assured her. “Killing a greater fiend demon to get to your home isn’t too much of a hassle.”

Therissa quickly shook her head.

“No, you’re wrong. The wyvern king isn’t a greater fiend demon. He’s an arch demon.”

An arch demon? That means he’s one of Lucifer’s sons.

That changed things, but I didn’t know by how much. I was sure arch demons were powerful, but I didn’t know how powerful they were. I didn’t know if my current strength would be enough for me to face him.

“Arch demons are vastly more powerful than greater fiend demons. They can topple an entire country easily,” Therissa said.

This complicated things severely. For me to go through with my plan of making the human race stronger, I had to get to where the elves were, which meant that no matter what, I had to fight this wyvern king.

“So be it, we’ll have to find a way to defeat him.”

…

Deep inside the demon territory, where wyverns roamed the sky, sat a domineering figure. He sat atop a regal throne. Beside him was a scaly beast sleeping with its head resting in his lap.

This beast was a wyvern, and the man stroking its head was the king of wyverns. As he stroked his companion’s head, his face tightened into a frown as he looked at the woman standing below him.

“Lilith… What are you doing here?”

Looking at the handsome man sitting before her, Lilith couldn’t help but smile, a hint of warmth settling in her chest. The more she looked at him, the more her smile grew before she said:

“My son. You have grown a lot. It makes me proud.”

“What do you want?” he cut her off as he was growing impatient.

Lilith paid no mind to his tone and instead walked towards him. This caused the wyvern lying in the man’s lap to snarl, but Lilith paid it no mind.

Nothing would stop her from approaching her son. Arriving in front of him, she cupped his face so she could take in his handsome features.

The man frowned and removed her hand, but that only caused Lilith to lunge at him and wrap her arm around his neck.

“My son, Theon, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?” Theon growled, already knowing that his mother was up to something.

“I need your help with something back in Hel. Come with me for a few days,” Lilith quickly said.

“What is it?”

“We’ll discuss it when we get back home. It’s very important. I need you. If you love me as your mother, you would do this for me,” Lilith said.

This caused Theon’s eyes to glow bright orange. He was well familiar with his mother’s manipulation and he knew that she always lost her touch and got too emotional when dealing with one of her children.

“Why does it feel like you’re trying to get me to leave?” Theon asked.

Lilith, overcome with emotion, momentarily panicked.

“Oh no, of course not. You can return in a few days; it’s just that this matter is extremely important. It’s about you father…”

“Enough,” Theon cut her off. “I don’t know why you’re trying to get me to leave, but I’m staying here. You’ve always tried to control me to get what you want. This time it won’t work.”

Lilith grabbed onto his hand; she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“Just this once, I won’t ask anything of you again if you fulfill this one wish.”

“…”

Theon said nothing and only watched her beg. After a few minutes of watching her plead, he sighed and ripped his hand away from her grasp.

“I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I’ll find whatever it is that you’re hiding.”

As Theon spoke his eyes emitted a murderous orange glow.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep