Chapter 98: Who killed them?

Yet Zephyr gave the demons no chance to beg or offer a deal. He decisively raised one hand and slowly began clenching his fist.

The invisible restraints around the two demons tightened.

Their bodies trembled violently as blood began to ooze from every part of them. Strangled cries and screams escaped their mouths as their bones and organs were crushed beneath the immense pressure.

Behind Zephyr, Onicus finally caught up.

"Yes! Kill them! Show no mercy! They deserve it! Hahaha! Finally, I get to see the demon race suffer!"

Zephyr, however, had only been testing his Psychokinesis skill. He hadn’t actually planned to kill the demons so quickly. He had intended to interrogate them first and see whether they possessed anything valuable.

But with Onicus shouting excitedly behind him, Zephyr lost his concentration for a moment, causing the pressure to increase further.

The two demons died instantly.

A vein seemed to throb on Zephyr’s forehead as he slowly turned toward the dragon, who was practically dancing with joy.

"Can you stay quiet for a moment?"

Onicus didn’t seem to notice the frustration on his face. Instead, it happily rushed toward the two dead demons, staring at their faces, which were still frozen in terror and disbelief. Even in death, they seemed unable to comprehend how easily and suddenly they had been killed.

Onicus laughed with delight.

"You did great, human! I’m satisfied! I will surely teach you many things in the future! Trust me! I’m starting to like you now. I’ll try to stay with you for as long as I can!"

Zephyr wanted to tell it that there was no need for it to stay any longer than it already had. However, he ultimately pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Instead, he descended and landed beside the two corpses.

"Now, how am I supposed to know if they have a storage space skill or something else that can hold things? I wanted to find some clothes. Dead people don’t talk."

Hearing his words, Onicus finally turned toward him, still wearing a wide grin.

"You mean storage items? Just search their bodies. You’ll find those little things on them."

It leaned closer to the corpses and pointed excitedly.

"Look! I can already see a storage ring on one of them! It looks quite valuable. You just need to replace the mana signature the owner left on it with your own, and then it will belong to you!"

Zephyr blinked.

It took him a moment to process what Onicus meant before he reached out with his mana, sensing the ring it was referring to. He picked it up and followed Onicus’s instructions, carefully replacing the mana signature on the ring with his own.

The moment his own mana replaced it, Zephyr was surprised to sense a vast space contained within the tiny ring in his hand.

There were all kinds of things inside—various weapons, strange food, miscellaneous items, and even several corpses and piles of bones.

But what caught Zephyr’s attention were the clothes.

Several sets had been neatly piled in different corners of the storage space.

Finally, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips as he turned toward the dragon.

"Onicus, help me check their bodies again. See if there’s another ring."

Onicus was reluctant, but it still did it.

This human had just killed two demons for its sake. He was such a good person. Surely, it could at least do this much for him.

Unfortunately, it found nothing else of value.

The two demons hadn’t carried anything particularly useful with them besides that storage ring.

Zephyr sighed.

The two of them began making their way back toward the underground chamber. After walking for a while, Zephyr stopped in a relatively quiet area and began taking everything out of the storage ring.

"Help me sort through these. Get rid of anything useless and find some suitable clothes for me and Lucien."

Onicus’s eyebrow twitched at the way it had been ordered around, but it forced a smile and got to work anyway.

With Onicus’s help, Zephyr eventually found a clean pair of tunics and two pairs of pants suitable for both himself and Lucien.

By the time they finally returned to the underground chamber, several hours had already passed.

Zephyr paused outside the entrance, his expression softening slightly as he wondered if Lucien had woken up yet.

***

Meanwhile, outside the crater where the two demons’ bodies lay, several familiar figures appeared after Zephyr and Onicus had left. Erick crouched at the edge of the crater, sitting on his heels as he stared down at the corpses with a grim expression.

"Are these the demons you two saw?"

He glanced toward Sylvia and Ryan, both of whom had gone pale at the sight of the dead demons.

Sylvia nodded hesitantly, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

"Who killed them? They were so powerful, yet... they’re suddenly dead. Does that mean there are even stronger creatures lurking inside this dungeon? We should have never come here in the first place!"

Ryan immediately agreed with her. He even pointed accusingly at Erick.

"That blind guy was the strongest! Yet we don’t even know where he disappeared to! If something happens to us, the two of you will have to take responsibility!"

Erick’s expression darkened.

"Shut up. Or I’ll throw you into the crater and let you rest in peace with those two."

Sylvia and Ryan immediately fell silent.

Jake, Oreon, and the burly Esper could only sigh at the scene. Even they couldn’t figure out how the demons they had been fleeing from had suddenly ended up dead. It couldn’t have been Zephyr. The skill Zephyr had mostly used to kill the monsters before, although brutal, left nothing behind—not even bones. Yet these two demons had been left completely intact, their bodies twisted and crushed as though an enormous invisible hand had squeezed the life out of them.

Whatever had killed them was clearly terrifyingly powerful.

None of them could decide whether they should feel relieved or frightened by that realization.

Eleven and the two A-Rank Guides accompanying him had gone rigid the moment they looked into the crater. One of the Guides couldn’t stomach the gruesome sight any longer and immediately turned away, covering her mouth before vomiting.

Erick rose to his feet, his expression cold.

"Let’s keep moving. Stop crying like you’ve never seen such a scene before. If you’re that afraid, then go your separate ways and stop following me."