Demonic Devourer's Development

I didn't stay in the burning dome for longer than I had to evolve the abilities I needed. My abilities grew again. I added no new ones, but the levels and power of those I already had increased. My carapace grew stronger. My wind blades—sharper. My senses—more acute.

The most important upgrade was that, when I added enhanced taste and touch to my senses, I could merge all my senses together with my blind sight into an ability called 'Enhanced Awareness'. It was like blind sight, but… for every sense. For those that required touch, it was very weird. I could tell the taste and texture of everything around me at once if I concentrated on it.

I preferred not to. Thankfully, 'Enhanced Awareness' included all my previous enhanced senses, and even allowed me to use blind sight and normal at the same time. Most importantly, it just made scouting with mental projection easier, since it could not only see now but also hear and feel scents.

Besides evolving, there was plenty of time to spend on simply training my stats, on catching clueless demons in webs, and on letting Pest learn spells put in the tome of magic I was hauling with me everywhere. Demons, as a rule, didn't have many expensive abilities that would make their corpses worth a lot of EXP, but had high stats, which also were worth a lot. A demon could spend centuries on just grinding their stats, because it was one of the very few ways they could improve their combat prowess.

I only returned to the stone dome after a couple weeks of that downtime, when I gathered enough EXP to upgrade an ability and needed a safe place to evolve. The dreaming demon stayed to dream at the exact place I left him, not far from the entrance.

But he wasn't alone this time. Even from afar, I could see the demon's lips moving as she spoke to a stranger in a tattered leather cloak. This put my hairs on end. The cloak hid the stranger's figure, and clearly seen plenty of trouble, but clothes, even like these, were something few demons were powerful enough to get and keep.

I didn't fear powerful demons, but I had a lot of questions about why one such demon would be so far away from the Abyss, pestering my… garden decoration. I halted my approach and sent a mental projection ahead to investigate and listen in.

"…after witnessing this sight, I knew I can't ever forget it. It gave me peace and terror, but I let the fear go over and above and below me, and when it passed, only the peace was left. My mind was my body, my body was my soul, and my soul was my power. My power was my imagination, and through it, I thrive," the dreamer demon spoke.

It was all very confusing, but I didn't spend much time trying to guess what the demon was talking about, because my mental projection saw through the stranger's disguise in an instant. When I saw the face that hid under the cloak, my blood boiled.

I'd recognise him and his cohorts anywhere, anytime! It was no one else but God of Rogues. What was he doing here, in Hell? Were the gods on my trail, again? Was he alone?

I flew away until my body hid completely in the dark smoke that shrouded the top of the Fifth Hell, while my mental projection kept intently listening to both words and thoughts of the people present.

God of Rogues didn't notice me—he was too intent on what the dreamer demon, or sage demon, as the God of Rogues thought of him, spoke. The scoundrel deity was thinking about chaos beasts and the First God and how the dreamer demon's story was related to them, while the dreamer demon himself was still… blank.

"This is hard to believe. But if this is true, it changes so much…" God of Rogues ran a palm over his face. "Damn, is this really so bad? I can't believe Goddess of Druids wouldn't have noticed. Unless she did… Damn again! No, it's a good thing I didn't take God of Bards with me…"

My mental projection drew a little closer, so intent I was to listen to the scoundrel's thoughts. They were… very interesting. Very.

'If this is all true, then Devourer is just a symptom. Killing him for good—if that's even possible—or imprisoning him won't do much. Worst-case scenario, the First God will just create another one. Not in this century, if the dates aren't wrong, but that doesn't matter. No, wait. Worst-case scenario—the First God remakes the world from the scratch, and then we are all fucked. Fuck! But I can't believe Goddess of Druids didn't think about it. And what about Goddess of Wizards? She made the entire base for the class system… Ugh. What to do, what to do?.. Can't have my ass burned, don't wanna break the good setup. This all stinks suspiciously like conspiracy. Since when there's a conspiracy that I'm not in charge of? Someone here bit off more than they can chew.'

A good distance away from the torn-up rogue, I was just as torn up. There was a crack in the ranks of the Twelve Bastards, one that I could, in theory, use to break them apart and conquer. But that would require me to work with one of my great enemies… someone for whom I was worse than a gnat—a leeching, annoying mosquito. It wasn't even a matter of were they good or not; it was a matter of principle!

Besides, it never was about were they good or not. Them being bastards helped me find followers, but I always had revenge in mind.

I thought about this some more. If I attacked now… In Hell, I could kill the God of Rogues once and for all. Or, well, dozen times and for all.. But if I somehow convince him to help… Hm.