Dream Life

Around mid-January.

Ashtal, the Demon General (Archdemon), was lurking in one of the ruins of ancient civilization with the Lord, the God of Nothingness (Vanitas).

Although Vanitas descended Saul Inkvar of the Black Devil Nation to a drop by, he is not stable enough to operate.

Ashtal doesn't even know what caused it.

I just wonder if Saul's lack of affinity, rather than the one he should be stopping by, and the fact that he used many negative forces, such as resentment, to bring Vanitas down, might be the cause of instability.

For this reason, I always had to serve beside him to control the magic that surrounded Vanitas.

When Ashtal is unable to move from the ancient ruins where he is based, only his two great demons (Greater Demons) can move.

As for Ashtal, who was trying to summon his family to boost his power, he had an itchy tooth.

(It is difficult to summon a new family member and to summon the Great Demon in circumstances where we cannot move. Then you have to be a demon (Demon) or a Winged Demon (Lesser Demon). Even Demon Crystal stones around here would be possible to summon demons......)

If you try to summon a powerful family member, you will need a demonic crystal stone worthy of it. Fortunately, there are many powerful demons in the mountains of Aquila, and it was possible to obtain the Demonic Crystal Stone.

However, the summons of the Great Demon requires several Demon Crystal Stones equivalent to at least Level 2, and must defeat powerful Demons such as Fei Long (Wyburn) and Synthetic Beasts (Chimera). Regardless of whether you are in command of these demons yourself, leaving them to the Great Demons alone is likely to fail. You may simply fail, but if you are going to lose the Great Demon, you will drain even more of your power.

On the other hand, if you are a demon, it is possible to summon with a demonic crystal stone equivalent to the third level. Level 3 equivalents are many demons on earth, such as the Great Ghost (Auga) and the Hill Ghost (Troll). It can be unilaterally attacked from above where it will not be attacked, so even the Great Demon can defeat it adequately.

In addition, in the case of demons, a summons is possible if there are about five demonic crystal stones equivalent to the fourth level of demons.

But I had no further subordinate wing demon summons in mind.

(... Winged demons can only be used to the extent of reconnaissance. It would be useful to have someone else in command besides me... it would be more effective to use the demon directly in situations where the Great Demon cannot be entrusted with command...)

The reason he won't leave command to the Great Demon is because he's wary of betrayal.

The Great Demon is the family of Ashtal, the Demon General, but it was Saul who summoned him, and this point has a subtle influence.

In other words, the Great Demon's command lies in Vanitas, which has Saul's body, and Ashtal is only moving on his behalf.

Demonic demons have their own self as they get higher, and their ambitions grow as they follow them. They tend to eliminate superiors in order to gain more power and become superior beings, and they tend to try to hold that position themselves.

It is relatively easy to prevent it if you are in a complete up and down relationship like a summoner, but in a situation where you are representing command, you could not deny the possibility of eliminating yourself and thinking about becoming Vanitas' first family member.

(Either way, you have to summon as many demons as you can. We have to keep hunting stronger demons for that...)

The Great Demon, under Ashtal's orders, began his demon hunt in the Aquila Mountains.

In the middle of winter, Riccadale adventurers no longer enter the woods and mountains, so they continue to challenge the demons, without competing.

They aimed at earth-shaped demons that were easy to hunt, especially orgasms and trolls, but often hidden in the shadows of caves and forests to avoid snow, and could not be found inside even as they searched around from above. For that reason, I had no choice but to strike the demon I found depending on the allowance or otherwise.

Ironically, the influence is reducing the number of demons around Riccadale. So far, that fact has not been known due to the lack of snow and adventurers, but so much so that some Alliance officials have questioned the scarcity of sightings, even though they should not go on more crusades than usual.

By February I had obtained five demon crystal stones equivalent to the third degree and about twenty demon crystal stones equivalent to the fourth degree, using which nine demons had been summoned.

However, in February the number of nearby demons had decreased and the snow had become even worse, thus rendering the efficiency extremely low.

Five days went by, with no results at all.

Ashtal reprimands the Great Demon for coming back with his bare hands.

"What are you doing! For the full resurrection of the Lord, then do what you have to do!

The Great Demon had to bow his head and fly into the blizzard.

February 10.

The Great Demon was flying through the mountains of Aquila due to a slight weakening of the snow. A great demon with a robust body, but flying through the icy mountains was painful for them too.

But for the complete resurrection of Vanitas, look for the demon in its agony.

It flew about 20 km (Kimmel) southwest of the ancient ruins on which it is based. There are few third-degree monsters around here, but because there are relatively many winged lions (griffons) living there.

Initially, the Great Demons did not intend to deal with Griffon, but decided to have no choice but to fight a troublesome enemy in order to obtain the Demonic Crystal Stone of Level 4 or higher.

When the Great Demons found the two Griffons, they flew to surround them and launched a magical attack. Although the assault by surprise was successful and damaged the integral Griffon, Griffon was overwhelmingly more advantageous in his manoeuvre in the air, flirting with sharp manoeuvres and injuring many demons. When the fighting intensifies, the whole thing loses its life.

The Great Demon was inefficient to continue griffon hunting any longer and had to give up.

When I return to base, I am reprimanded by Ashtal.

"Useless! What are you going to do when you're depleted while you're aiming to boost your power? Yes! I will hunt demons immediately! Explore the trends of those adventurers!

Ashtal couldn't hide his frustration with the impudent Great Demon and decided to go hunting himself.

Then the weather recovered.

While Ashtal is anxious to leave Vanitas in a precarious state, he goes hunting.

Using the eight demons under his command, when he finished the chimera, he returned to the ruins.

At that time, Vanitas was relatively stable, and Ashtal tried to make a report on his increased combat power. Vanitas, however, gave new instructions before receiving the report.

"Use the magic of Tame to add a Land Dragon or Giant to your gesture."

Ashtal doesn't know why and asks, "Are we not the only ones lacking?"

"The enemy has a powerful sorcerer. When guided magic is used, demons can't beat you. You can follow the demons of the earth with great vitality."

Vanitas was endangering the magical attack power of the Zacharias. For this reason, he thought that the flying demons could not be countered even by demon generals and great demons, and instructed them to add durable earthly demons to their gestures.

Ashtal, who hasn't seen Zacharias' offensive magic in person, asks the question, "Is it inductive magic?" but he understood that Zacharias was an extraordinary user of magic and a cunning opponent.

But I was more concerned about Vanitas' situation than that. Though stable now, I was wondering if I could take any longer.

"It takes a while to follow the big guy, are you sure?"

'I don't mind. With a little time now, Saul will be able to follow. Now we give priority to the fabric for a complete resurrection. "

Ashtal obeyed the word honestly.

I decided to use the Great Devil and the Devil, let them look for the Great Devil, switch to the way I would go out where I found it, and increase my power of war.

■ ■ ■

February 26th.

I had no problems working with Dan. On the contrary, thanks to his sign perception, the enemy has been discovered faster than ever before, and the danger has dropped at once.

With the weather stabilizing, we decided to head to Aquila Mountain in earnest.

Even though it has stabilized, there is still snow, and the temperature remains unchanged at extreme cold below zero degrees. However, I wanted to head to the reconnaissance as soon as possible because of some chest noise.

Even when it comes to reconnaissance, it is not meant to be a full-scale one this time, but a preliminary one. I'm going to be back in about ten days with the plans I'm thinking about right now.

At a distance, it will go up to about thirty kilometers east and will stick around for about five days, mainly where it was planned to head in the September survey.

Step into the woods, stepping on a root snow called jarrijali. It's not a request from the guild, it's a voluntary investigation, unpaid, but I don't really care.

Last time it went about fifteen kilometers on day one, but this time it was not meant to go that far because it meant marching in the snow. The first day goes on for about ten kilometres, creating a simple base to rest on.

Discuss what happened today over dinner.

"You don't look more like a demon than I thought. I heard in the Alliance that there are many hungry demons coming in winter."

"Right. The spirits are calm, and it didn't feel like there was a demon."

When Liddy says so, Dan mouths the same sentiment.

"It felt like there was a weak demon. Even if it's weak, it's the standard around here. But you never felt a sign of a demon above the fourth level. There are a few more signs of demons in the woods east of the village."

"Just because it's okay now, there's definitely something going on. You have to be more vigilant than usual."

Everyone nods at Beatrice's opinion.

"Are you going to look at the base I used before tomorrow," Sharon asked.

What she refers to as a base was just made during the September investigation. I had decided not to confirm it on my plans, but I guess I've been checking to see if I'll reschedule because the signs of demons are faint.

"No, as planned, it's not going to be there"

Originally, I intend to proceed with vigilance to the Demons and the Great Demons, avoiding as much as possible where I have also opened the route so far.

"Then do the sleeping shift in pairs as planned. At first, Liddy and Dan. Me and Mel next. The last is Beatrice and Sharon. I know, but don't use the lights as hard as you can."

Me, Liddy, and Beatrice don't need lights on the lookout because they have good nights.

Besides the snow and the bright white woods, the light reaches. For this reason, it was decided not to use the magic props and fires of the lights outdoors.

That night passed without a thing and turned to the dawn.

Due to the Aquila mountains, it is still dark even at dawn time, but still the mountains visible from the gaps in the trees are beginning to have a clear outline of the ridge.

"It's cold," said Sharon, who was going to sleep.

"It's gonna be colder up ahead," Beatrice says, stretching.

The base built underground was somewhat warmer at a person's body temperature, but in the mountains before dawn, the ears were so full of cold air that they ginned.

Hand a water bottle with warm tea from the storage magic (inventory) and say, "This will warm you up."

Sharon can warm up with the magic of the pseudo-perche effect, but he kept hot tea and the like in his inventory in advance to keep the magic as warm as possible.

He starts drinking tea hot enough to burn in his breath.

"It warms you up. I know it would be warmer if there was alcohol in this, but I'm just gonna stop."

Beatrice's words gave me zero grin, but talking about it, Liddy and the others came out of base, too.

As soon as we have a warm breakfast prepared just like tea, we leave.

My plan is to arrive at our destination tomorrow, February 28th, and investigate the perimeter for five days based there. If nothing happens, we'll pull it up on March 4th.

A peaceful time passes that day as well. All you can hear is the wind blowing out and the snow falling from it, and our footsteps and breath.

Even today, including Dan, there are no signs of dangerous demons, and we can see that there are obvious anomalies going on.

The September investigation had repeatedly been attacked by powerful enemies around here.

That's obviously an anomaly, but this situation is also an anomaly.

Even if a demon escapes out of fear of something, it's unlikely that he will ever see a second- or third-level big man in this depths.

On the 28th of the following February, he arrived in the valley, which is his destination. Even the Adventurer Guild has only a simple map around here, and only enough information to have a large white rock to mark.

I didn't end up with any demonic raids that day either. However, we have confirmed the appearance of Feilong (Wyburn) and found that the demon has not completely disappeared.

Dan talked to me.

"Maybe this neighborhood isn't by chance a demonic passage, but from what I've heard, I feel like there could be more footprints or something."

I felt the same thing.

It's an anomaly that you can't even find footprints in a place full of all that demons because of how much snow there is. Besides, the snow hasn't fallen in the last few days, so on the contrary, the footprints should be easy to keep.

He then created a base in an inconspicuous location. This time we make a fake entrance to the rocks of nature, and we all go inside.

This is not only to prevent fatigue from accumulating due to the sleepless number, but also to be wary of demons dropping in the other way due to smells and signs.

For this reason, it is decided to go in and out after creating a peephole and checking the perimeter safety.

A perimeter survey was initiated the following day.

First, continue along a relatively mobile valley to get as far back as possible. This is because we thought that with a water field it would be easy to find traces of demons, but another reason is that they are hard to spot from above.

I haven't seen the Great Devil or the Demons yet, but they can fly at speeds of about fifty kilometers an hour over there. That means extensive reconnaissance is possible.

That day we proceeded a few kilometres east along the valley, but couldn't find anything in particular. But on the first of March of the third day, I felt something like chills I had never felt before.

Not just me, but everyone.