[NR] Chapter 391 - Losing Something On The Run (Patreon)

Seeing a Quasit caused Jason to feel the need to bring news of this problem grow ever more urgent. At least if it had been imps it would mean a devil was likely being summoned. Sure, Devils are just as evil as anything else out there, but compared to demons like the Quasit, they are much preferred. While devil summoning on this scale tends to almost always succeed because of their planning ability, that means they do have a plan.

Sometimes they don’t even stick around. Instead, they get summoned, carry out their plan, and leave. Sure, those plans generally involve life being lost on a grand scale, but the high level locals don’t have to get mixed up in a fight with a being that even if killed will just end up back on their home plane. Demons, on the other hand, tended not to plan things out too much. Sure, they still could make plans, they just preferred not to. So instead of taking over a specific area, a demon summoning tended to spread like mold.

The main demon would appear and suddenly the organized cult would burst apart, cultists spreading to the four winds so as to summon the main demon’s various followers. Of course, they won’t bother with the more precise summoning circles needed for powerful outsiders. Instead, they will substitute a much easier to use method, blood sacrifice. No need for precise runes to summon a demon with blood, just rough out about the right shapes or, if you know the demon’s name, a simple crude circle might even be enough.

So town after town will be wiped as an ever-expanding horde of demons is formed. All of which will need to be hunted down and wiped out. Sure, at worst it was going to be something like a Balor showing up, as while demon lords are in the ‘lore’, they’re too powerful to appear in NeoRealm. Still, they aren’t something to look down upon as even the weakest would still be late into the eighth break and nearing the ninth bottleneck.

So Jason kept on running, and yet the situation kept looking grimmer. Village after small village came and went as he pushed himself to run. One day after another passed by with Jason in a fugue state. Even the act of dodging enemies has become an unconscious response to him with the only thing keeping him going is the fact that on the second day of his run, he lost something. Unnoticed a piece of who his character ‘is’ became a ‘was’.

It is only on the sixth day after passing eight small villages and one decent sized town, all burning, does he finally reach a city and not just any city. This was a large city built up over the years of being a trade hub. Located where two rivers meet and join into one as well as where the road Jason has been on splits into two. From above, it would look like a large circle split into six parts by lines of blue and gray.

Jason however isn’t exactly in a state to notice this. All that matters to him now as his mind resurfaces is that while the place doesn’t have walls, there are proper guards patrolling. The city is safe! Jason can finally let down his burden and pass on the heavy knowledge that he has carried all this way.

As he runs up to the nearest guard, they look at him through squinted eyes. After nearly a week of running, even the System assist to keep clothes looking neat has failed. Jason looks well and properly wrecked with clothes caked in dirt from close escapes, freshly healed scratches from running through dense briars, and the top of his head seemingly more caught vegetation than hair.

The looks of suspicion however fall away as Jason manages to get out that he needs to see someone in charge and holds out the idol. Of the three guards that met him the thinnest, a tabby catkin, steps forward and asks if he can keep going. Jason looks up and all three of the guards take a step back. His eyes seem hallowed out with embers in the center burning in an electric blue that matches his Energy. A voice steadier than should be possible escapes his lips, “Till the task is done.”

At the start, Jason hadn’t put much into this, but then the true horror of what was happening had hit home. While many people put less worth into the locals, Jason knew the truth. This was as much of a world as his own and all those now dead had souls the same as he did.

The calico catkin nods at his determination, “Let’s run! The rest of you go and alert the others to be on the lookout.”

Jason takes a moment to turn to the two and with his burning eyes freezes them for a moment. “Demons are coming.”

The calico coughs, “We would like to confirm it first. Now stop wasting time.”

Jason shakes his head and the two of them run into the city with the calico in the lead, her shouts getting most people out of the way and those who don’t heed her warning being tossed to the side. While her body was small, her strength definitely wasn’t. Still, they take time to reach the center of the city. Unlike other places Jason had been to, this place had decided to spread out instead of build up. The only buildings taller than a single story being at the very center, the place the two are now heading.

The calico shouts back to him, “We will want to head to the left. While I’m sure the guard commander will want to hear about this, I fear from your reaction it is more important to inform the army. At the very least, the army mages will be able to scry and see how serious the problem is.”

Jason just lets out a hollow laugh in response.