Shooting up from where he laid, the demon gasped, feeling his heart pound and his body shiver in the moments it took to suppress his fear, as some of the swarm under his command looked his way, thinking they’d found a sign of weakness that he refused to allow to be exploited.
The second their eyes turned to him, he slaughtered dozens, ripping them apart through space itself and not worrying about such a loss when he still had hundreds left. After all, he couldn’t hide it; he was afraid, or at least, had the lingering memories of being so.
Even then it still felt vivid, his swarm going to secure more food for him and whatever scraps they might enjoy among themselves, off to fulfill their god’s will of fighting and growing stronger on that new world but finding an unexpected level of resistance as the numbers he worked so hard to gather sharply dropped, until he was forced to deal with the matter himself. Winning too, until something else had come and sent such terror coursing through him that even when the magic behind it had worn off he couldn’t completely escape it, still able to remember that feeling as if it had been ingrained in his soul, leaving him in his embarrassing state.
He’d killed all of the kin he’d originally gathered that had been around to see him flee and had found more since, using his senses to search out smaller groups to suppress and bend to his will and constantly claimed more while at the same time avoided anything strong enough to try to fight him for dominance, but that didn’t rest his terror. He’d only helped claim a few worlds before, but on that one, there were monsters. Even if he’d only seen a few, one that had been able to kill the thousands under him, another that had been able to leave such lasting horror in him, and then an earlier one that had managed to drive him away and help kill another of his kind that had been nearly his equal were all more than he’d been prepared for, especially on a world he’d been sent to early.
On any of his people’s other worlds, he would have been able to go to nearly any other planet without fear, holding strength that made him incomparable to the rest of the masses, but now he’d repeatedly run into those who were either his equals or else exceeded his strength. Even with just how much stronger those challenges had pushed him to grow after arriving on that planet, he felt as small as he’d been before growing to true intelligence and knew that he couldn’t let such things continue.
I have to find that one again, the demon told itself. The one that planted such terror in me. Until they’re dead before me and I’m feasting on their blood, I’ll never be free.
He didn’t know how strong they truly were, only that they wielded their dark magic like an expert, but that didn’t matter. Such a hunt wouldn’t be smart, but for him, it was necessary. The only way he’d be able to move on and survive, and with that, he woke the demons he’d been gathering under him to begin a new hunt. He might not have known where to find the one who’d left such an impact on him, but it could at least begin where he’d first encountered them, and from there, expand his search once more. They had to be out there; he only had to find them.
Deep in the untamed lands, a high elf bent down, the man looking at tracks in the dirt, making sure he hadn’t lost his way before continuing on in search of his prey.
Like so many others in the world, he was hunting demons, just as the demons hunted them in return, but unlike the many other armies and adventure parties scattered across the vast, uninhabited woods of that world, he was alone, unbothered by any danger when significantly larger concerns filled his head.
Concerns I still don’t have a solution to, no matter how many I’ve gathered, he grumbled. Is this it then? Am I really stuck, just waiting for the end of things? Waiting for-
A sound of a branch snapping and his thoughts cut off, telling him he was found the same instant he’d discovered his targets, leaving all signs of subtly lost. In a flash, he could feel feet pounding through the dirt where he stood, and if they were going to come to him, then there was no reason to waste any more energy. His body was unfed that day, and while the hunger didn’t bother him, he also knew it was better to conserve energy where he could, leaving him to wait as a dozen of the monsters terrorizing the world crashed through the trees in front of him, leaving him to look at the beasts with curious eyes.
No two were exactly the same, holding a level of flexibility in their biology that had only been curious the first time he’d seen it in person; that particular group before him was particularly varied, with none of them possessing the same number or arrangement of limbs, nor matching sizes either, which at least conveyed that there likely wasn’t too much blood between them. While those beasts could drastically change within a single generation, if they were born into similar environments with similar starting materials, he would have expected at least some superficial similarities.
Well, what do I know, though? He asked himself while his idle curiosity slipped away. Masterpieces of the god that made them, perhaps they shit out litters without any of them looking the same as the others.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Waiting only to see if he’d panic or try to run, they seemed almost disappointed by his lack of reaction, giving him room to speak up.
“Don’t suppose any of you are the talking variety then, are you?” He asked, hoping for any sort of response. “The intelligent ones really are so much better for me.”
No answer given, but that didn’t mean none of them could. In all of his hunts, he’d learned that most of them could be more focused on their desires for food or carnage than any inclination to speak or mock, and that seemed to hold true for all of them, each demon eager to be the one to rip him apart before the others and left them all to lunge, fighting each other as much as they were going for him as they jumped through the air and made him expend a flicker of will before he casually stepped aside, allowing their dead bodies to crash to the ground.
Just the dumb ones then, he sighed, disappointed in his hunt. Anything smarter would have been able to struggle at least a little, but still, he managed to get something from them as he looked at what continued to hang in the air above the corpses, the soul of each demon with their eyes transfixed on him, enthralled by his divinity before they flew forward to hide within what was the acting body of the death god Yotu.
Ever since he’d escaped from the hells and become trapped again in the body of the one who’d opened them, the high elf Naloth’s mind completely suppressed by the deity bound to his flesh, he’d been forced to hide, slowly growing his strength the best he could with every life he took. Each new death was a soul to convert into a ghost to linger in the world, and each new ghost was a believer, just like the millions that had escaped the hells with him as more joined every day, the ones scattered around feeling the pull of the death god’s subtle call.
And through it all, his strength was growing. Yotu had seen Naloth’s memories and knew the state of the world and its gods, with the mortals doomed and the divine essentially powerless. Even when he’d escaped the depth he’d been trapped in, he’d likely had more faith than the rest of the gods of that land and, utilizing his nature, his power had only grown. He wasn’t at his height, back when he’d taken his old world for himself, but he was closer than anything else he’d encountered, despite all of the problems that remained.
He was trapped within the flesh he wore, a curse from his homeworld that had unexpectedly lingered and bound him to the first body he’d forced himself into, and if he couldn’t escape that, then he would die like the rest of that world. The results were obvious, given that unlike the thousands of gods sharing the faith of that single planet, the god the demons worshiped was the opposite. Countless worlds of believers all focused on one deity; the fact that the gathered gods of his current world had all banded together to fight instead of fleeing as far and as fast as possible was a testament to their foolishness.
And if I can’t escape this blasted form sooner than later, then the third wave really will be my last chance, Yotu swore. Then at least I could try to gather the souls being slaughtered on all sides like I'd been able to during the second, but that’s pushing things too far. No, what I need is something else. Enough faith to get off this world first, without spending too much of what I hold in the process.
He’d been walking such a delicate balance since he’d been freed, but if he didn’t make a move soon, he’d lose his chance and would be left as dead as the rest on that world. He could only put things off a little longer, but as he thought that, the needs of his body took over, and he sat down, not willing to waste the meat he’d procured.
Conjuring a small flame using Naloth’s soul, the ritual the high elf had conducted having at least made him a powerful vessel for Yotu to use, he began tearing apart the demon bodies with his bare hands before cooking them just enough to keep from falling ill before digging in, sating his appetite before more rustling alerted him to the fact that he was no longer alone.
“Ahoy there,” a man called out, sounding full of cheer and not looking at all put off by Yotu’s meal while twenty others followed behind. Clearly a group of adventurers sent off on some quest rather than any nation’s army, they weren’t shy about making their way over once they realized he was a person instead of a demon or some other monstrosity from the woods, with the one that seemed to be acting as the leader giving a jovial laugh. “Seems your own hunt’s been going well, friend, but is there any chance you’ve seen signs of a larger swarm? We were sent out this way expecting nearly a hundred, but so far we’ve had no luck.”
Appraising them for a moment, it didn’t take long for Yotu to put on a friendly smile of his own before answering. “I haven’t, but I’m rather proud of my tracking skills. Since I finished up what I’d come out here for and was about to start making my trek back, I wouldn’t mind helping to try to point you in the right direction first, so long as your own trackers don’t take offense to the offer.”
“In that case, please, we’d be happy to take it. It’s already been a day wandering these woods, but it’s too soon for us to give up and say they’re lost to us.”
Laughing, Yotu got up, using Naloth’s memories as a reference for how to be nothing but polite and friendly to avoid suspicion while the new search began. After all, if there really was such a convenient, nearby swarm, then he wanted their souls for himself, and he’d happily make ghostly worshipers of those adventurers as well, once their use was up.