Chapter 14: Changes in the Sea of Blood

Western Human Realms, in the Kingdom of Tarnia, Chaik Village…

Nicole stood in front of the doorway in a daze, her eyes fixated on a wooden dummy in front of her. As Roscar looked at his daughter standing there with luggage in hand, he sighed. He was just as upset as she was. These seven years, he had treated Mo Ke as his own flesh and blood even to the point of favoring him over Nicole.

This was an atonement of sorts for him. If it hadn’t been for him, Mo Ke’s parents would not have died those seven years ago. Even after all these years, the guilt still latched onto him, unwilling to let go. Even though the casualties that day included his wife, his guilt didn’t ease one bit.

Nicole was probably the same as him, she treated Mo Ke as her little brother and was willing to do anything for him. Both of them had feelings for him in some form or another….If only things had not progressed as such…

However, there were no ifs in life. As a result of Sares returning, Mo Ke ran away from home…

“Was it because of me not noticing it quicker?”

Mo Ke was extremely intelligent for his age and was acutely aware of things around him. As such, he had a maturity that other children didn’t possess. The fact that he wasn’t his real father was probably known to him all along. He probably loved Nicole as well…although the fact that an eight year would know anything about love seemed absurd.

Actually, whether or not he knew about love was secondary. What mattered was whether he knew how to be jealous; whether he could be driven mad by envy…

“Nicole, I’m here. Have you packed your stuff?”

The owner of this voice was Sares. He had just arrived and after politely greeting Roscar, he turned towards Nicole and asked that question.

“You’re here…” Nicole looked at him with a complicated expression on her face. She wasn’t stupid. She had long figured out that Mo Ke’s decision to leave had something to do with Sares, but she just could not recall any time when the two of them had an argument.

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While logic told her that he was innocent her heart said otherwise. This clash of opinions made her frown whenever she looked at him.

​

Roscar was in a similar situation as well. Because of Mo Ke, he became slightly resentful of Sares even though he knew full well that it wasn’t his fault.

After failing to locate Mo Ke, Roscar continued searching around the surrounding areas of that battlefield; he felt that that battlefield was extremely suspicious. This was due to the fact that he found Mo Ke’s weapons there, but didn’t manage to find his body. He theorized that Mo Ke had either been eaten or kidnapped. Out of the two, Roscar leaned towards the latter.

Because of this, Roscar decided to search around for more clues. If it was possible, he wanted to find a mage who could use Devil Arts or people similar to a demoness. These sorts of people were ostracized by the general populace and were thus extremely difficult to find.

As for Nicole, Roscar decided to send her off to Warrior School. Once she got stronger, she could aid him in the search for Mo Ke. Of course, what he really wanted was for her to be able to help him before she graduated.

Sares had initially taken the search very seriously as well but as time passed this changed. He was a very logical man. He knew that blindly searching for Mo Ke was pointless so he suggested to Roscar to let Nicole attend Warrior School. He had even offered to send a recommendation to the school to allow Nicole to enter as a special student.

Special students enjoyed various perks while attending Warrior School. This included free tuition, free lodging, personal tutors and even specialized weapons…

One can only imagine how gifted one had to be in order to enjoy these perks. Special students could be counted as the geniuses among geniuses.

As she stood there with Mo Ke’s wooden sword in hand, and her backpack on her back; she teared up. This was the last time she could see Mo Ke’s wooden sword. She turned to Roscar and said in a low voice, “Dad…I’ll leave Little Ke to you…once I’ve become stronger, I’ll join you in searching for him…”

“Mhm, leave this to me.” Roscar confidently replied with words that he himself did not believe. He slapped his chest and wore a “I’m dependable” look on his face as he continued, “ Nicole, you got to study hard as well. Only by becoming strong can you accomplish more in the future. As for Sares…”

Roscar turned to look at the confident young man who stood there with his chest puffed up. After a period of awkward silence, Roscar finally managed to force a smile onto his face as he said, “I’ll leave my daughter to you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Nicole.” He flashed his confident sunny smile at the pair, but this didn’t seem to catch on with the father and daughter. Sares’s smile faltered slightly but he still said, “Mo Ke is a lucky boy, I’m sure he’s fine. Finding him is only a matter of time. Even when I was young, I knew he was a smart boy…”

“Sometimes, being smart is useless…” Nicole teared up further as she stroked Mo Ke’s wooden sword; as if this was her long lost brother. “A lot of times, being clever is useless…if he encountered bandits…should I pray that he was kidnapped and sold off as a slave…?”

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“Sla…slave…” Sares could only smile awkwardly as he continued to comfort her. “All that about being slave…seems a bit much…for all you know, Mo Ke isn’t in such dire straits…”

Roscar seemed to agree with her as he said, “Slave…I guess that’s fine too…”

Sares: “……”

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Purgatory: The Sea of Blood.

After waking up, my head was still slightly groggy. As I swayed around, my head bumped into a rock, waking up me instantly. I looked at my hands once more…. red skin, sharp claws…

…so it’s not a dream.

My stomach growled as usual, signalling its dissatisfaction. I stood up and continued with my daily ritual of visiting the washroom before training…but there’s no toilet in Purgatory.

Does this mean I have to dig a hole? Er…wait a minute, I only ate souls last night and that…shouldn’t have any waste product right?

Hold on! I didn’t take a piss either…my pee pee! Where’s my pee pee!? Pee pee where are you!? I haven’t gotten to use it yet…why is it gone…

​

Sigh…My brain just can’t keep up with all the life and death battles and the whole issue of being a devil.

It was at this moment that No.1,2,3 and 4 rushed into the cave. They probably heard the ruckus from when I woke up and came in to check. The four stooges surrounded me with their pitiful gazes. Ah…I get it…I get it, you guys are hungry too aren’t you?

A bunch of gluttons…

As for my pee pee, I can think about that later. The most important thing right now is to secure some food, otherwise, these subordinates of mine might just rebel. As I led them to the cave entrance, I immediately noticed that something was off. How should I say this? It seems like the water level has risen!

Strange, when I went to sleep yesterday we were at least a few hundred meters away from the blood sea. However upon waking up, the sea of blood seems to have risen right up to our doorstep. Some of the waves were even beginning to reach our feet.

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Don’t tell me this blood sea moves?

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“Let’s go, we need to leave this place.” In order to avoid being trapped by the blood sea, I immediately led them away.

Along the way we met several other small imps fleeing from the blood sea as well. Some of them were alone while others moved in small groups. Whenever we met with groups smaller than us, we killed them.

Our group was five man strong which counted as one of the larger groups we’ve seen so far. As such, most small imps avoided us, saving us a lot of unnecessary trouble. The exceptions were groups who had similar numbers or even larger numbers than us.

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I had given an order to those four scamps to capture any lone imps they found and force them to serve us. If they resisted to the bitter end…then just end them.

For some strange reason, the latter scenario rarely happened. Nearly all the imps we captured, knelt down without much hesitation and begged for mercy. As such the plan to recruit more small imps went smoothly. In merely half a day, the number of subordinates swelled to 12.

The moment we hit the two digits range, I shifted our focus to hunting. The rule was as always, the souls belonged to me while the corpses are to be shared amongst the rest.

I have no way of confirming this but the food intake of these scamps seem to be growing. Plus, they seemed to be undergoing some sort of transformation each time they ate. Especially No.3. He was the strongest among them and also had the largest appetite. He even changed the most. At this rate, he might be the first to evolve into a large imp.

As for the blood sea, I theorized that this body of water was responsible for giving birth to these small imps.

It was highly likely that this sea was the origin point of hell, an existence similar to a mother.

We are currently situated at the edges of the blood sea. The devils here are extremely numerous with the most common type being small imps and the strongest being large imps. As for the reason for this…it’s probably because the sea is moving.

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If this sea did not move, the small imps who hatched earlier could just prey on the newborn small imps. As time passes, these small imps would only get stronger and stronger while the imps who were born later would be relegated to the status of cattle. In a situation like this, no matter how hard you tried, you can’t beat those who were born earlier.

As the source of all life in hell, the blood sea definitely did not want to become a breeding ground for trash. While I do not know if the sea possessed a mind of its own, the fact that it moved is proof that it didn’t want this to happen.

Because of the sea moving, the devils who were threatened by the sea had no choice but to distance themselves. As a result, the devils who were born earlier would gradually leave this region. As for living in the sea…there’s a legend on earth that the sea was the source of all life and that humans were born from the sea as well. However, have you seen any humans being able to breath underwater?

As if to prove my theory, another wave crashed onto the coast. With it, came several round objects and a few small imp corpses. Those round objects were none other than devil eggs.

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It was extremely obvious now. The blood sea would give birth to devil eggs while the waves would wash them ashore. Small imps would hatch out of these eggs and begin hunting around the coast. After realizing that the sea moves, they would distance themselves in order to protect themselves. After which, the next batch of devil eggs would be washed ashore.

If that’s the case, the sea’s expansion should have a limit otherwise the entire Purgatory would become flooded. However, I will probably never know what that limit was. In order to save himself, I have to leave this zone as soon as possible. Who knows when this sea might suddenly decide to drown me in my sleep…

Speaking of which, shouldn’t we have encountered some large imps by now? Ah…speak of the devil…that seems to be a large imp ahead…

With a body that towers over a small imp, he was clearly a large imp and judging by his face, he wasn’t happy…

Behind this surly large imp were five other small imps.

On my side, our numbers came out to 13. Our numbers were definitely superior but the other side had a large imp. This tier of devil could easily suppress a bunch of small imps. In a one on one fight, a small imp couldn’t last more than 10 seconds.

“Hey you. That’s right, you. Get over here and let me have a look.” When he was 10 meters away from me, he pointed his finger at me and shouted overbearingly, “Get your ass over here!”

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Surprised, I pointed at my nose and asked, “Me?”

“That’s right, you.”

Once a small imp evolves into a large imp, their intelligence will experience a boost which also increases their communication abilities.

“What’s the meaning of this? Why do you want me to get over there?”

“To have sex of course!”

Me: “……”

Se…se…sex? The word sex just came out from a devil’s mouth…and it seemed to be directed at me…how unpleasant…

Which reminds me, this large imp doesn’t have any boobs or a pee pee either. Is he a male or a female? But since he’s trying to catch me, I guess ‘its’ a female? Also, how do devils have sex? I’m kinda curious now.

Er…what the heck am I thinking about! I should be angry about this! That’s right, I’m angry, very angry!

“Hey, hurry and get over here otherwise this one will kill all your subordinates before tearing you into pieces!”

Before I could express my anger, No.3 stepped forward and shielded. “You. Scram! Now!”

“Brat, you dare to disrespect this great one!?” The large imp was taken aback by No.3’s rudeness but soon recovered and roared at him, his finger raised. “You’re dead!”

No. 1, No.2 and No.4 were slightly slower than No.3 in coming to my aid. They arrived with the rest of the imps only after the large imp had declared his intent to fight.

In this way, a strange battle was started.