The Devil"s Evolution Catalog Chapter 48: The Land of the Dead: Finale Part 2 {Draft}
The land of the dead…
Mo Ci was a female large imp whose birthplace was Purgatory"s Blood Sea. Back then, her days only consisted of wandering the beaches in a daze and feeding on any kinsman she found; brainless days driven solely by her primal instincts. It was in this caveman-like state that she encountered her Master.
Master was a very special devil, she was very beautiful, like a G.o.ddess. Every waking moment she spent with her, she could feel the pureness radiating from her soul. Her disposition was n.o.ble and saintly, perhaps even more saintly than those angels in her inherited memories.
She was just that beautiful, from the moment she met her master, she became infatuated with her.
Mo Ci initially had no name, she didn"t even think of having a name. Truth be told, small imps didn"t need a name, after all, they were an existence akin to cattle. Would you name each and every one of your pigs? Obviously, no.
Mo Ci"s master could only be described as wondrous in her eyes. From birth, she had a heavenly appearance that separated her from the other small imps. It was precisely this beauty that allowed her to subjugate so many devils, including Mo Ci.
At the start, Mo Ci could only gaze longingly at her Master from a distance as she quietly fulfilled the tasks given to her. This lifestyle continued till one day, they came upon their first ever trial, the battle at the entrance to the upper level.
The entrance was guarded by a fiendish head imp who formed a blockade on the stairs leading up to the entrance. This was the momentous obstacle hindering her master. Thankfully, her beautiful master was as intelligent as the legendary G.o.ddess of Wisdom.
In order to make up for their lack of numbers, she got Mo Ci and the other devils to fashion bone clubs out of the thighbones of devils.
These makeshift clubs were to be their weapons for the upcoming battles. While they had an average offensive power, their range exceeded the range of their enemies" claws and teeth. It was this advantage that allowed them to successfully breakthrough this obstacle.
However, things weren"t that simple. In order to defeat that fiend, her master had to exhaust every last drop of her mana, causing her to faint after the fiend got burned to death.
This created a dilemma for her Master"s lieutenants. Who is going to carry the Master"s body into the next level? Such a simple question, but it was one that led them into a heated argument. After all, this was a legitimate opportunity to touch the Master"s saintly body.
This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the lieutenants. None of them were willing to budge an inch with regards to this and so the argument escalated, almost causing a fight.
It was at this moment that one of the lieutenants suggested that a female devil be given the task of looking after the Master. And so, Mo Ci was chosen.
The moment Mo Ci"s reddish hands touched her Master"s body, she felt the inferiority in her. Her inferior self actually got to touch the Master"s perfect body…...This moment was one that she would carve into her rapidly pounding heart.
From that day onwards, she stayed besides her master. No matter where the Master went, she would quietly shadow her even though the Master didn"t particularly need her for anything.
Ever since the Master entered the land of the dead, she encountered multiple battles and triumphed over each and every one of them. It was in this battle-fraught yet mysterious land that the Master had a fortuitous encounter.
The Master had obtained an omnipotent magic grimoire. This grimoire that gave the Master the ability to create weapons that none of us could ever imagine. These weapons allowed the Master"s subordinates to dominate the undead in this land. Every battle ended with a bountiful harvest of undead souls for our side with barely any losses for us.
The Master"s greatness was one that didn"t require saying although her evolution speed seemed to be lacking in comparison to the lieutenants.
After taking for a round trip around the land of the dead, the Master led us to an abandoned village full of dilapidated houses. Prominent among these houses was an equally dilapidated chapel which housed a surprisingly large amount of head imps.
Their cruelty knew no bounds as they even tried to capture the Master. However, ever-loyal Mo Ci would have none of this. There was no way she could allow these lowly imps to touch the Master. And so, she stood out. Without any regard for her safety, she immediately pushed her Master away causing her to get captured instead of her Master.
Even though she knew what awaited her was a grim fate, she had no regrets. As she stared into the slowly disappearing eyes of her Master, all she ever thought of was her Master"s wellbeing…
The head imp that captured her was the strongest among all the head imps and was differentiated by the chipped horn on his head.
This chipped horn imp didn"t flee the village as expected. Instead, after distancing himself from the village, he hid himself and waited for the Master to leave.
In order to prevent Mo Ci from escaping and also partly because he had suffered some injuries, he wrapped one hand around her neck and with the other clamped down on her thighs.
What ensued was a sharp piercing pain that tore through her body from her thighs up. Then, she was struck with a burning sensation followed by a sudden sense of weightlessness.
*rip*
Another wave hit her once more before a nauseating chill enveloped her body. It was then that the head imp finally let go of her.
As she looked down at her legs, all was saw was a b.l.o.o.d.y flower painted on the floor where her legs once stood. For some strange reason, he didn"t kill her but only ate her legs.
Once her master left, Chipped Horn made his back to the chapel with Mo Ci in tow. Within the chapel were the head imps who had managed to escape, leering happily at her. They brought her to the underground room beneath the chapel, their nefarious intent written clearly on their faces.
The secret tunnel leading downwards was a very long one. It took several hundred meters of walking before they finally reached the end of the tunnel. It was a very wide room filled with some random clutter. Due to their human origins, she didn"t know what they were for. All she knew was that a fate worse than death awaited her.
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The devils shoved her against the floor and used the cruelest of methods to torture her. They shoved a strange pole into the region between her now eaten legs and injected a strange fluid. One by one, the head imps tortured her, never letting her rest for a second.
As time pa.s.sed, more and more head imps joined the group as they continued torturing her. She was merely a normal large imp and had even lost both her legs; she was powerless to resist them and could only take their torture.
Every day, they would feed her till she was full before shoving those strange poles into her once more, their bodies banging into her as they did so...
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These horrifying days continued for what seemed like an eternity to her. By now, she was on the verge of despair. However, what shocked her was that her stomach had inexplicably gotten bigger?
This strange phenomenon had caused her a great of deal stress and confusion. She didn"t know why her stomach had gotten big; she was very sure that she didn"t eat anything strange so why…
As she suffered the routine torture of the head imps, she closed her eyes and searched through her inherited memories. A long while later, her eyebrows jumped as the sudden realization struck her. She was pregnant...
Time continued to pa.s.s in this manner. Every day, her stomach continue to grow till it finally reached the size of a soccer ball.
As it grew, the despair in her grew along with it. She knew that she could no longer return to her Master. Her Master"s purity was something that must not be blasphemed. With her tainted body…
She cried as she thought about this. Even during these horrific days, all she could think of was her Master. She desperately wanted her Master to save her but she didn"t want her Master to see her in this state. In the midst of these conflicting desires, the day finally came when her Master finally arrived. That"s right, she has come…
Initially, the head imps would leave the chapel on daily hunting trips after which they would feed her in order to ensure her continued survival. Later on, they suddenly stopped doing so for some unknown reason. The head imps stopped leaving the underground room altogether and instead focused on torturing her.
From the bits and pieces of conversations she heard, she learned that the village above had been occupied by the undead.
All living things required food and devils were no exception either. Due to the undead horde above, leaving to hunt for food was a quick way to die. However, if no one went hunting, they would die as well. In short, someone had to die in either situation so the head imps chose the safer option.
And so, the head imps began killing each other. Due to their numbers, they had to kill two head imps each day in order to feed themselves however, this soon dropped to one a day and then once every two days. Finally, the 10 over devils living underground were reduced to just Mo Ci and Chipped Horn.
The last remaining head imp suggested that they eat Mo Ci however Chipped Horn swiftly rejected this, the reasons for this insistence, unknown to her.
Under the continued questioning of his companion, Chipped Horn merely replied : "I want to leave this place so this female devil must survive. As such, it"s time for you to die."
The first to strike was Chipped Horn. Due to his vastly superior strength, the other imp could only attempt to run away. As he sprinted desperately up the stairs, the ever-looming figure of Chipped Horn stalked him. As he was about to reach the exit, Chipped Horn finally caught up to him and slew him.
After consuming this last head imp, Chipped Horn evolved into a three-star demon child.
This last meal didn"t last very long before Chipped Horn became hungry once more. But with no other head imp left, he had no choice but to starve himself. This fasting went on for two days. Within these two days, outside of some occasional venting, he didn"t do anything else to her. Even the rumblings of his stomach couldn"t force him to consume Mo Ci. All he did was torture her from time to time to stave off the biting hunger…
These two days were the scariest days of her life. She was afraid that she would be eaten by Chipped Horn but what scared her even more was that she might not be able to give birth to the child in her stomach.
However, all that was about to end as the fateful day arrived.
The hatch to the tunnel suddenly creaked open. Given that there was no one left except for her and Chipped Horn, who could it be?
The figure that entered her sight was a large imp. In his hand was a familiar bone shield and bone broadsword. Upon seeing Chipped Horn and the legless Mo Ci, the new arrival was stunned.
However, to Chipped Horn, this new arrival was merely food.
Seeing the delicious meal before him, he immediately pounced on the large imp. With a flying kick to his bone shield, he sent the imp crashing into the wall and before the imp could even slump to the ground, he caught hold of the imp"s head. With one arm locking down the imp"s right arm, he brought the imp closer to him.
*Chomp!*
The razor sharp fangs of Chipped Horn tore through the neck of the one-star imp like paper, killing him in a few seconds.
It"s the Master"s guardsmen!
In the entire land of the dead, only the Master"s devils had this sort of equipment!
As this realization dawned upon her, her acc.u.mulated despair was washed away in an instant. The Master was here! She"s saved…
The death of this large imp was only the beginning. As the seconds pa.s.s, more and more devils flooded out of the stairway. Each of them was armed with a bone shield and bone broadsword. There were even two formidable looking head imps leading them.
These head imps emitted an aura that Mo Ci was all too familiar with
: they were the Master"s trusty lieutenants, Nine-finger and One-eye.
As One-eye walked out of the tunnel, the sight of Chipped Horn and Mo Ci stunned him for a moment but he immediately recognized who she was.
Ever since the incident at the entrance, Mo Ci had always been by the side of the Master so it wasn"t strange that One-eye was able to recognize her.
He also recognized the newly evolved demon child beside her as well. As the pair stared at each other with hatred in their eyes, they didn"t waste time with words and instead jumped right into battle.
The prowess of a three-star demon child was something beyond the comprehension of normal imps. Lieutenant Nine-finger tried to bash him with his spiked mace but Chipped Horn merely took it head on. With a casual grab of his hand, the spiked mace was stopped in its tracks.
And with an equally casual flick of his wrist, Nine-finger was tossed to the side along with his spike mace. As Nine-finger crashed into the wall headfirst, a loud thud echoed in the room followed by a pained cry before his eyes rolled over.
Nine-finger was defeated in an instant. This fact didn"t escape Lieutenant One-eye as he immediately adopted a more cautious approach. He ordered the other guardsmen to attack with him. Unfortunately, the strength of a demon child wasn"t so easily defeated.
Even without any weapons, Chipped Horn was able to trounce the guardsmen without even giving them a chance to fight back. In less than 10 seconds, another two guardsmen died.
Seeing their unfavorable situation, One-eye immediately bellowed: "Guardsmen get down here quick. There"s an enemy!"
"That she-devil is here as well?" Chipped Horn must"ve thought of the Master as he suddenly revealed a disgusting smile. "That"s great, this time I won"t let her escape!"
As he said this, he charged through the guardsmen and up the stairs.
The guardsmen desperately tried to stop him but he was simply too strong for them. The sudden burst of flames on his fists and kicks raised his offensive power to a whole new level as they sent several guardsmen flying, their conditions unknown.
By now, One-eye knew that this opponent couldn"t be stopped. His thoughts immediately went to the safety of his master as he shouted: "Master, you mustn"t come down, get out of here quick!"
However, it was too late. Chipped Horn had already broken through the guardsmen and now had a clear path up the stairway...
Everyone was now gone, including Lieutenant One-eye. She slowly closed her eyes, ignoring the unconscious Nine-finger and the guardsmen. She couldn"t do anything except pray, pray that her Master would be safe...praying, this was an action that definitely didn"t suit a devil like her.
But to the current Mo Ci, this was all she could do…
After an indeterminate amount of time, the sound of footsteps echoed down the stairway once more. It was the Master and her henchmen! She was still as dazzling as ever, with her faint fragrance and aloofness which separated her from this blood filled world they lived.
The moment her Master saw her, her jaw eyes widened in abject shock as she paused there.
She couldn"t imagine the kind of treatment she must"ve endured.
"You...you"re...still alive…"
As if a giant weight had been lifted off her back, the Master revealed a joyous smile hidden behind a stream of tears. Even now, she didn"t address her as Mo Ci. That is because even now, she still had no name…
Footnotes:
Credits:
Special thanks to Steve Granger, Ichitsuzen, and LaRue Martin!!