Reborn with a Necromancer System-Chapter 227: Demon Hunter Vaune

Now that the four of them were back on the surface, the difference in the air was immediate.

Open, fresh, yet tinged with that faint metallic tang that clung to everything in Muderan.

Seyren turned to Kai, his voice low.

"Don't use your magic anymore. Not here."

Kai gave him a small, skeptical look. "Why? Afraid I'll make friends?"

"The wrong kind of friends... Afraid something will smell you," Seyren replied without humor.

Kai took that under advisement. Muderan wasn't a place where attention was a good thing.

The land stretched out before them in a strange in-between, too sparse to be a forest, too dense to be open plains. Thick clusters of brush clung to rolling mounds of earth, while here and there, pale trees with glassy leaves caught the sunlight and threw it back in shards. Insects buzzed like saw blades in the distance.

A rumble rolled through the ground beneath their feet. They turned to see a massive armadillo-like creature trundling past, each plated segment on its back shimmering with dull iridescence. With every step, cracks spidered through the earth, fissures forming and closing almost as quickly.

"At least we're not ants," Kai said absently.

Seyren frowned. "Why would we be ants?"

Kai waved a hand. "Never mind…"

They pressed on. The sun here was brighter than in their world, yet somehow cooler, as though its warmth never quite reached the skin. Just as Kai was adjusting to the pace of their journey, a figure burst from behind a thick bush, landing squarely in their path.

"Hey! Back off, demons, if you know what's good for you!"

The man looked strikingly human, tall, wiry, with a weathered, middle-aged face half-hidden beneath a mat of unkempt hair. His clothes were a patchwork of rags, sewn into a long coat with surprisingly neat stitching. The craftsmanship was impressive; the fabric, not so much.

"We're not…" Kai glanced at Seyren, "completely demons?"

"Sure. That's exactly what a demon would say!" the man barked. He yanked a blade from his belt, dipped the tip into a small flask, and with a sharp flick, set it ablaze. The fire burned with a faint green hue.

Vepice shifted uneasily. Orlin raised an eyebrow.

"You've got this all wrong," Kai tried again.

"No," the man said, puffing his chest, "I'm the greatest demon hunter in all of Muderan. I can smell your kind from a mile away."

"I'll bet you can," Orlin muttered dryly.

The man took a step forward, blade leveled at them, then froze mid-stride. His mouth opened as if to speak, but instead, a spray of blood burst forth.

"Idiot."

The voice was low, distorted, and dripping with contempt. It hadn't come from the man, it came from the shadow standing behind him.

The figure was humanoid but wrong. Too long in places, too fluid in others. Darkness clung to it like a living shroud, twisting and writhing even in the daylight.

"Wha-" Seyren tried to speak, but the sound broke in his throat.

Kai smelled it before he registered what had happened.

Urine.

It was coming from Seyren.

Vepice trembled, sword raised but hands unsteady. She made it two breaths before doubling over and vomiting into the grass.

Kai stood rooted. He hadn't felt pressure like this since facing Grim, Divinity, and The Devourer. The mana radiating from the thing was a warped abomination, like someone had taken raw, pure magic, let it spoil and rot, and was now pouring it into the air. It stank in his senses like fermented fruit gone to vinegar, yet burned hotter than any clean energy he'd ever touched.

The shadow's head tilted. Two faint, ember-like lights flared where its eyes should have been.

Slowly, the shadow thickened like congealed smoke, then bled into color. The shape became more defined.

It had long legs, a torso with a predator's poise, arms that hung loose yet deliberate. Horns curved back from its skull like blackened scythes, their tips glowing faintly as if catching the light of a fire that wasn't there.

Its skin was pale red, smooth in some places, ridged and scarred in others. The air around it rippled faintly, the heat mingling with an ozone tang. A faint scent of scorched earth followed every breath it took.

A demon.

It smiled without warmth, the kind of smile that was meant to make lesser beings squirm.

"I'm Balthaz. Pleased to meet your disgusting acquaintance," the thing drawled, voice low and textured like gravel in honey. "Humans… and-" Its gaze slid to Seyren, lingering with a curl of amusement. "Half-human."

Seyren's jaw tightened, but he didn't move.

"I'm here," the demon continued, "to help snuff out the last of the other sentient creatures in this world."

Vepice's knuckles whitened on her blade's hilt. "That's… supposed to be funny?"

Balthaz's eyes, if they could be called that, shifted slightly, revealing vertical pupils inside molten gold irises. "Amusing, yes. Funny… no." He stepped forward, each footfall impossibly silent despite the cracked earth beneath him. "This realm is… tired. The old life clings like moss on a drowned corpse. It's my job to scrape it clean."

Kai said nothing, but his gaze sharpened, following the slight twitch of the demon's fingers. The oppressive mana pressed closer, like a damp cloth over his mouth.

The self-proclaimed greatest demon hunter lay in the dirt between them, body cooling, blade still burning faintly where it had fallen. Balthaz didn't even glance at him.

"I don't much care what you are," the demon added, voice dropping lower. "If you walk in my path, I'll grind you into the same dust as the rest. But…" His smile returned, sharper now. "…you look entertaining enough to keep alive. For the moment."

Kai let the others' attention stay fixed on the demon while he extended a tendril of perception—barely more than a brush of mana, to taste the edges of its power.

The response was immediate.

It was like dipping a finger into an ocean and finding it boiling. The sheer density of the demon's essence pressed back with a weight that felt almost physical, crushing and infinite. His probe didn't even reach the core of its strength, he knew instinctively that if he tried, it would snap back and tear his mind apart.

He severed the thread at once, breathing evenly to mask the quickened pace of his heart.

This wasn't just an opponent beyond his current rank, this was something he wouldn't even survive against in a straight fight.

He let his gaze shift slightly toward the empty air beside him, where the shadow-space waited. The faint hum of his undead army pulsed in his mind like the beat of a distant war drum.

If it came to a fight, he'd need all of them. Every skeleton. Every rat. Every drop of life essence he could spare to keep them moving.

Even then… he wasn't sure it would be enough.