Chapter 73 - The Guild Ball (Part 3)

The Vasconcelos Guild's birthday party brought together many adventurers who needed a break, merchants, mages, herbalists, as well as those who wanted to network, investors and prodigies. 

Theoretically, demons opt to choose the most powerful, but this is not always a viable alternative, because as with mind controls, magic, and poisons, powerful people have a high resistance to many other things as well.

For this reason, experienced demons focus on the young, manipulating their minds and numbing them with carnal desires and greed. 

However, there is one ingredient that demons hate more than anything, and if Alexis Dmitry were not part of the church, she would probably never meet him. 

Holy water? Garlic? Aconite? No, it is a simple material that can easily be found in many places all over the world. 

Do you know that slimy surfaces are easily found on stones in rivers and waterfalls? This is called slime, and this simple organic material is more than enough to expose the true face of a parasite. 

While waiting for the slime potion to make its victim, the half-dragon returned to her group to explain the second part of the plan. From a distance, she saw Luke, Ayumi, Shiro, and Nathalia talking to the blond man from before. 

Nathan hatched an impromptu plan and went to greet the members of the Strogueher Family, taking the opportunity to learn more about the curious man accompanying the respectable Ayumi Yamazaki.

"What! Are you an E-Class?" He inquired with sweat beading down his face.

"Actually, I was an F-Class until last week." Luke clarified. 

'How come a jerk like that is with a hottie like that, then?' The man wondered, adjusting his green tie. Just then, Nathan felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Beat it, son." Alexis spoke, startling him with an intimidating aura, which made Nathan's heart race on the spot.

Nathan left, walking briskly, and didn't even look back. When he returned to the second floor, he simply lied to his friends, saying that he was a friend of the Strogueher's as well and that he just went to say hello to them, however, he was left wondering:

"What was that woman?" even from above, he didn't dare to look in the direction of the half-dragon.

"Hahaha! Did you see his reaction?" Alexis scoffed after Nathan left the group. "Ouch... ouch... Anyway, I'm done with my part in here. Can you guys go outside and check for other mead sources or something?" She inquired, reaching out her bag to Nathalia and Shiro.

"Sure." The girl replied and picked up her bag.

When Alexis saw the young woman and the big guy walk out the front door, she immediately questioned:

"You really are together, aren't you? I mean, you don't even have to deny it, everyone saw it here. Your daughter may not have believed her own eyes, or maybe she even already knew..."

"She doesn't know yet." Ayumi replied, seriously.

"That's not for me to say, but if you want to maintain a good relationship with her, you know you'll need to tell her, right?"

"Rest assured, this thing we have is... different."

Even with the loud music playing in the background and with his ears cloaked, the half-wolf could clearly hear Alexis and Ayumi's hearts speed up upon hearing this.

"What did you mean by 'different'?" The Matriarch inquired, clenching her gaze.

There were many ways he could answer her questioning and among so many possibilities, the worst one kept hammering away in his head like a blacksmith's forge. 

In a way, Luke knew that his relationship with Ayumi was temporary, both because of the astronomically fast way it happened, and also because of all the factors that revolve around their relationship.

She was a respected noblewoman, and he? The guy who was planning to steal from her. Even though his heart desired to stay with this woman, deep down Luke knew that certain romances are fleeting, and he couldn't fail his fellow man's dreams.

However, like a second chance falling from the sky that kept the half-wolf from making one of the biggest mistakes of his life, something exploded on one of the castle walls. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A mist formed of dust and soot hovered around the place for brief seconds, until Luke dispelled it using <Vind>.

Between the massive concrete blocks, whose individual weight of each could exceed 100kgs, and the party guests, three magical barriers prevented a massacre from happening.

Next to Luke, Ayumi Yamazaki held up the smallest one with great effort. The barrier was green and since it was the first to be activated, it held a good amount of debris.

But, the barriers that contained the destruction could not have much prominence, because there was a black sphere that hung over the roof of the partially destroyed castle.

When the half-wolf saw this strange sphere, he immediately remembered the dark world where he was trapped. Desperate, he opened his inventory and clicked on the first thing he saw to throw. 

[Panspermia Spear: Hades' Daughter

Level: Rare

Affinity bonus: This spear was made with one owner in mind (Nathalia Strogueher). When wielded by the desired person, it will have a 50% critical damage increase, with a high chance for dismemberment].

'In the morning, she asked me to put this away... Huh! Who knew that would come in handy so quickly.' Luke thought, summoning the beautiful spear in his left hand.

Soon after, the black sphere dissipated, and still static in the air, a man appeared. His features looked familiar to Luke, only the half-wolf couldn't remember where from.

He had met many people throughout his life, and especially in Vasconcelos and the Dungeon he had seen many faces, but somehow this face remained engraved in his memory. 

As soon as the moonlight partially illuminated the man's face, exposing the color of his eyes, Luke could almost smile. "Fate is ironic..." He spoke.

The man who emerged from the black sphere was Jean Pollo, the only other man Luke had ever met, apart from himself, who had yellow eyes.

"Do you know him?" Alexis inquired, summoning his gauntlets of light.

"I saw him only once, a few weeks ago. Even though he looked like a rich, he was hanging around the vicinity of The Dark with a friend, when he got caught in a crossfire from a battle of mine against a Sun Apparition."

As he finished explaining, Nathalia and Shiro emerged at the front door and shouted to everyone: "It's him! He's the demon!"

That exclamation finally made the demon move. Jean turned his chin down slightly and looked at everyone with a look of contempt.

Even without saying a single word, that gesture made Luke realize that that demon was many times stronger compared to the one he fought. However, Luke was nowhere near alone in this battle.

Beside him were dozens of adventurers thirsting for glory, who as soon as they heard the word 'demon' began to daydream about how glorious their lives would be if only they had the chance to hurt such a sublime creature.

------

Have you read it this far? Leave a review on what you think, because this helps me a lot!

Consider also joining the discord community: 

https://discord.gg/kpbCr6SpHd