Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"The kid is far behind already, he can't catch up. I wonder how he found us…" Yuri said.

"He must have seen the shadow under the cloud. It sometimes appears when the sun is bright. I am wondering about Hanmo, though. Maybe he is waiting near the Boss."

Mark traveled through a circular pathway in the sky and once again headed toward the Boss. He had come up with a plan but for starters, he decided to enslave the Dungeon Demon.

"Does the Hunters stand a chance against the Boss?"

"The Boss hadn't even used its Ultimate Demonic Art and we were all struggling already. It's rather strong—I think the Hunters don't stand a chance now that some of them are dead and I am… well hugging you in the skies."

Soon, Mark was looking down at the clouds directly above the Boss. He could see it with his Soul Sense and its own Soul Sense scanned him in return—it looked up with so much hate, Mark could feel his skin crawl.

The Demon had moved from the earlier battle scene near the Pond and Gate. It was now way north as if it had been chasing Mark all along.

"It wants its Core back, it can probably sense the Core. It must have been running behind you, no wonder that one kid who found a way to fly found you," Reol'ran said.

She was also insinuating things.

Mark grinned and looked at the ground below with his Soul Sense.

Not only were the Demons below there, but Hanmo, Bale, and the rest were, too. Strangely enough, though, none of them were fighting. The Boss was panicking and destroying the surrounding trees but its focus was mostly on the skies, at him.

"Hanmo," he shouted. "You sure are not flying at me. Usually, you would have. What happened?"

Hanmo's face sank.

Yuri tensed. "We are near him, Mark. I could hold him back physically but we don't have anything in our hands that could block his ice arrows."

"Don't you trust me?" He asked.

"I do…" She blushed.

Mark looked down. "He is no Hanmo. Hanmo is dead. If it was the Hanmo I knew, he would have been the first one to run behind me when they found out my general location. As I expected, he is some kind of fake. He can't even fly."

"But it's weird. Even if he is a fake, he also has some of Hanmo's Ice Abilities. You saw the earlier battle—he was using ice arrows. Yet, he seems unable to fly. And for some reason, you can't read his stats."

"He is a mysterious thing," Mark said coldly.

"Demon, hand us the Core!" Hanmo shouted righteously.

Mark frowned. "That's not Hanmo for sure. Hanmo would have called me Red School Demon."

Yuri curiously stood in her place. Mark looked further north—Tiger was once again running towards them. Each time he took a step, a small shield appeared below the kid's legs to support his flight.

Suddenly, Bale shouted. "Are you Hailen? What is going on?"

Yuri looked at Mark, curious.

"Brother," Mark shouted. "I have the Core in my hand. Now we just need to get rid of Hanmo and the other pests and everything will be under our control. As for my demon appearance…" Mark smirked. "It was another of Yuri's experiments!"

Bale was no fool to trust such a ludicrous lie. Mark didn't expect him to believe either. At this point, Mark could face the Demon pretty easily.

Finally, Tiger moved through the air and reached beyond the clouds to glare at Mark.

"Where is young master Hailen?" The boy asked.

Mark made a saddened face. "Don't you trust me, dear Tiger, I am Hailen. Is my Demonic appearance that grating to you…"

Tiger hesitated.

Suddenly, Mark's figure dipped through the clouds as his wings stopped moving. His eyes met the Boss Demon. Golden gaze glinted as they met abyss-like dark pupils. Floating upside down, Yuri protectively hugged in his embrace, he smiled.

"Boss, you are mine."

Its True Name streamed into his head and Mark once again began his quick escape. One of Hanmo's ice attacks or one slash from the kid with Eye Blade and he would be done for. And as expected, the attack did come but Mark did the most rational thing, he just dipped further down instead of flying up like they believed he would and the attacks missed.

Leon, the Eye Blade Hunter, had no experience hunting airborne creatures.

The next second, Mark was in the skies beyond the canopy of clouds again, laughing. Once again, nobody had a chance of catching him. And this time, unbeknownst to them, the Boss Demon was a loyal slave to the flying demon.

His shadow stretched long in the clouds below as if mocking the Hunters for their vein efforts.

"Kill the Hunters. Order the Minotaur to join you. Kill. Hunt."

Mark roared and the Boss' head twisted to the side and glared right at Hanmo. The Minotaur moved beside them.

Hanmo, Reema, Bale, Leon, X-Jerk, Lumla, Wind, and Yamuna. These were the eight Hunters alive on the ground and Tiger was struggling in the skies. In total, nine A-rank Hunters had to fight against two Tier 2 Demons, one Tier 1 Demon, and an A-rank Hunter.

All Hunters, except Yuri, felt their skin crawl.

X-Jerk was the first one to run. Followed straight after by a screaming Lumla and Wind.

Suddenly, Bale took a deep breath and shouted. "Brother, you keep the Core safe, I'll beat these Hunters out of our Dungeon!"

"Yes, yes. Grandson!" Reema shouted alongside, "I always knew you were bound to win us greatness!"

Mark blinked. Shameless!

Or did Bale really believe that Mark's demonic appearance was due to Yuri's experiments on Hailen?

Just as Mark's eyes focused, he frowned. "Hanmo" was also running away.

'I wonder what he is…'

But that was just curiosity, nothing more.

He'd let the retreating one retreat, now that he had the whole mega-dungeon, he had more important things to do than kill these scared Hunters.

He had to conquer a nation, and if possible, more. The one worry he had was the possibility of these A-rankers killing around the weaker demons to summon Angels.

"But now, we are in the advantage. Let's move on with the plan, great going—as I would expect from my fiance," said a satisfied and calm voice from his mind.