Chapter 280: Space Demon

Demons are known for two major reasons.

The first is their power.

Demonic power is a higher level of energy, on par with divine power.

In terms of raw strength, it surpasses mana and aura by a large margin.

It is also the reason why humans would need someone at the Four Star Realm to face a demon at the One Star Realm alone.

Of course, this is only the case with pure demons.

The second reason is their cunning intelligence.

Demons are masters of deceit who use words to toy with human emotions.

They are beings who "understand" emotions, yet do not "feel" them.

This makes it one of their most powerful weapons against intelligent beings.

The first and second reasons may or may not be true depending on the demons themselves.

However, Space Demons were one of the few demon species that had those two characteristics.

***

At this moment, Marzana, Raxon, and Aeola had their backs against each other.

This formation was something that they had devised whenever they were facing an extremely strong enemy that they could not see.

After all, this helps them keep every direction in check.

Unfortunately, this formation’s effect was not being utilized to its maximum potential due to Aeola still having her eyes injured.

Nevertheless, she could still keep up through Mana Detection and the beastkin’s innate ability to sense danger.

Aeola was already maximizing every little mana she had as two blue stars lit up on her chest.

Meanwhile, Raxon was in the same situation.

Two red aura stars lit up on his chest as his eyes scanned their surroundings.

And finally, Marzana, who had three pitch-black stars on her chest.

Different from the first two, her expression had more anger in it than worry.

’Ugh, if only I could sense that demon...’

She felt indignant deep inside due to her being helpless against the Space Demon’s means.

Aeola, who was supposed to act as their main lookout due to her gift and innate abilities as a beastkin, now had her specialties halved.

It was unfortunate as there was no one who would be better than her in their current party composition.

Of course, as an elf, Marzana also had top-notch senses.

Unfortunately, even though her chaos energy can nullify other energies, its versatility is very low.

On the other hand, even though Raxon has the highest raw strength among them, his case was at most on par with Marzana’s.

After all, his dwarven and giant blood were not specialized in detection.

However, with aura, he could still enhance his senses.

At this moment, ten minutes had already gone by, but there was still no change in the surroundings.

"This fucker..."

Marzana, who was normally prim and proper due to her upbringing as a royal, could not help but curse.

"It’s exhausting us..." Raxon added in a low voice, frustration apparent on his face.

Meanwhile, Aeola, who still had her eyes closed with blood tears running down, bit her lips.

Space Demons are intelligent.

The three of them understood its intentions well.

Due to them not having the means to detect it, they would have no choice but to keep their guards up.

And by keeping them in this state for a period of time, it was inevitable that they would be exhausted mentally.

’What to do... What to do...’

Marzana racked her brains while trying to think of a way out of their current predicament.

Unfortunately, despite the rigorous training they had gone through, they still lacked real-life experience.

After all, even this quest had only been possible to them due to connections. And normally, new adventurer parties would not even be qualified to take it on.

To make matters worse, Aeola was still continuously losing blood.

Marzana glanced at her and saw the fox girl’s complexion getting paler as time passed by.

Fortunately, beastkins had an innate superior vitality in comparison to humans.

Had it not been the case, Aeola might have already fainted by now.

’That demon must’ve sensed that Aeola is its bane, so it decided to target her first.’

Marzana gritted her teeth, ’This isn’t good. We’re stuck here...’

Unable to think of any better methods, she whispered, "Let’s retreat slowly. Staying stuck here isn’t good for us. We’ll move slowly, okay? Keep you, guards up until we get out of the swamp."

""Understood, Leader.""

Raxon and Aeola responded affirmatively as they began to move.

Meanwhile, the Space Demon that had been hiding in the fabrics of space observed their actions.

Its whole body looked like it was made of bony flesh, being pale gray.

Two horns could be seen on both sides of its temple.

Its face, which was not unlike that of a horse, had a single vertical eye that ran across it.

The eye was completely black with white limbal rings that ran like a spiral.

Due to the sudden action of its "prey", it began to focus its attention on it.

In the next second, it suddenly tilted its head.

Confusion was apparent in its eyes as the fog in the swamp suddenly thickened to the point that it drastically obscured its vision.

Nevertheless, as a Space Demon, it could still sense the area around it.

After a few more moments, its eyes flashed as it suddenly exited the fabric of space it was hiding in with its claws stretched out.

This was because it saw the three adventurers it had been preying on since earlier, suddenly break their formation.

Maybe it was because of their obscured vision due to the fog?

Nonetheless, its intelligence told it to take this opportunity.

The moment it exited its hiding place, the Space Demon immediately lunged towards Marzana.

It seemed to have judged that she was the highest threat after the beastkin, due to her ability to break its space abilities.

However, just as its white, bony claws were about to reach her, something happened.

FRRRKKKK—!?!?

The Space Demon let out a screeching sound as it felt two thick arms hugging it from behind, rendering it unable to move.

"Space Demons are a species with high intelligence and powerful abilities."

A female voice suddenly resounded in front of it.

The voice had a tinge of mockery.

"However, demons of your species have one crucial weakness: your weak defense and physical strength."

The Space Demon let out a piercing screech as its already big eyes widened even more.

It smelled the scent of death from the elven girl in front of it.

Swoosh—

The last thing the Space Demon saw before its death was a pair of pitch-black eyes that were darker than anything it saw throughout its entire life.