The Deceiver's Path - Chapter 130 - Demonic Revelations (Patreon)

Piper remained by the campfire as the others turned in for the night. First Zenos, and then Ophelia stumbled into the shelter, exhaustion etched deeply into their features. Piper had offered to take the first watch, finding herself still keyed up after facing Joanna’s bodyguard.

At the thought of the dangerous woman, she took a moment to cast [Subjugator]. As she did, she selected Sarnyxia from her small collection of demons. The moment she finished casting, the lithe form of the shadeling demoness appeared close to the fire.

The sight of Piper made Sarnyxia lash her tail, a frown creasing her eerily perfect face. “What human bug do you need me to squash now?”

“I just wanted some company,” Piper said, picking up a stick and poking the fire’s glowing embers. “And maybe for you to help me keep watch in case some people come back.”

Sarnyxia scanned the clearing, her gaze alighting on the shelter they’d constructed. “Is that eyesore your new home? I knew humans were primitive, but that is simply wretched.”

“I seem to recall you living in a hut made of demon skins.”

The alabaster-skinned demoness sniffed. “I had only recently been birthed in the realm. Had you not so callously murdered me, someday I would have ruled from an exquisite castle.”

“I’m sure you would have,” Piper said, hiding her smile.

Glancing over at the shelter where the others were sleeping, she cast [Shifting Veil] to change her summon's appearance. She chose the same dark-haired girl's visage she’d used during the fight against the zombies.

On the off chance that Zenos awakened, she could just say that Sarnyxia had come to visit them. In a remote valley. In a place the woman couldn’t possibly know about. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that would be a terrible explanation.

If she heard someone waking up from inside the shelter, she would just order Sarnyxia to use [Wraithskin]. That would quickly hide the demoness from sight without sending her back to the Infernal Realm. Then her summons could spend the rest of the night watching over the camp from stealth.

As she sat there, tiny flakes of snow began to drift down from the dark sky. She pulled her thin cloak tightly around herself, shifting closer to the flames. “There’s going to be a lot of snow,” she commented. “I hope we can make it out of the valley at the end of the week.”

Sarnyxia shook herself as flakes landed on her bare skin. “What are these awful things?”

Piper frowned slightly. “Do you mean snow?”

“Yes,” Sarnyxia exclaimed. “It’s making me cold, and I despise being cold.”

“It’s frozen water that falls from the sky.”

Shaking her head, Sarnyxia moved closer to the fire. “The mortal realm is truly a horrendous place.”

“Next time I’ll make sure I have some furs for you to wear.”

“That would be most appreciated.”

The silence stretched out as the snow swirled around them. Already, a thin layer of white covered the ground, and Piper knew that small flakes were bad news. Back home on the farm, Alfred had always said not to worry about big, fluffy flakes. Those rarely stayed.

No, the ones to worry about were the tiny snowflakes. They would rapidly accumulate and make life difficult on the farm. Sometimes, the front door of the longhouse would end up completely snowed in. On those days, they’d have to use tools to dig their way out to reach the storehouse.

Piper leaned forward and added another log to the fire. “You know, Zenos likes you.”

“Likes me?” The demoness peered at her quizzically.

“He wants to court you,” Piper explained with a grin. “I think he wants to make you his wife.”

“How interesting.” Sarnyxia’s dark irises reflecting the dancing flames of the fire.

“That’s it?” Piper asked incredulously. “No threats against him? No statements about how inferior humans are?”

“I was human once…”

Piper stared at her summons incredulously. “What?”

“I said I was human once.”

“I heard what you said, but I’m just shocked by it!” Piper couldn’t stop staring at the demoness. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

Sarnyxia shrugged. “I recall little about my previous life. However, those who pursue infernal knowledge or who commit irredeemable sins are condemned to the infernal realm for all eternity. Once there, it is an eternal cycle of being reborn, dying, and being reborn again.”

“Which of those was you?”

Sarnyxia looked up from the dancing flames. “Hmmm?”

“Were you an infernal caster or… the other thing?” She didn’t like the idea of trusting a demoness who had been a mass murderer or something equally bad. With her luck, Sarnyxia had been mean to puppies in a previous life.

“I seem to recall being a powerful caster. However, that was so long ago… before Thronefall even.”

Holy cow, Piper thought to herself. I had no idea that some demons used to be human. Were they all humans once, or only the lesser ones?

Frowning, she tried to avoid the thought of endlessly dying and being reborn in the infernal realm. An eternity in that place sounded absolutely terrible to her. But as the daughter of Elaraxa, was that destined to be her fate?

“Strangely, the longer I’m around you, the more I remember about myself.” Sarnyxia shifted in her seat and crossed her legs. “When I was first reborn, I remembered nothing of my previous lives. In some ways, I preferred that.”

“What was Thronefall?” Piper asked.

“I have only heard whispers of it in the Infernal Realm. I’m afraid I know little more than you.”

She sighed at her summons' words. For something so pivotal to the history of the world, she knew almost nothing about it. No one wanted to talk about Thronefall in the Arissian Empire, and back home it had almost been taboo to bring up.

However, she knew that her destiny might be tied up with the events of Thronefall. As the daughter of the infernal dragon, she needed to learn everything she could about it.

Ding! Your racial skill, Demonic Intellect has reached level 18.

Frowning in frustration at the skill randomly leveling up again, she pledged to sneak into the first library she found. She was going to figure out what was going on in this world if it killed her. Now, all she had to do was find a library.

Sarnyxia looked across the fire with dark eyes. “I think I would like to meet with Zenos.”

“Are you kidding?” Piper exclaimed, her mouth dropping open. “Do you know how many ways that could go wrong?”

“I only wish to tell him it would be ill-advised to pursue me.”

“Oh, in that case, I think I could set something up.” She paused before continuing in a low voice so no one could overhear in the shelter. “I think I killed his sister.”

“I didn’t think you were in the habit of killing humans.”

“It was an accident!” she exclaimed before lowering her voice again. “His sister was one of the adventurers who was conscripted to hunt me down in the city. When I summoned the dreadhulk, a handful of aspirants were killed by the demon turtle.”

“Are you certain you killed them?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you know they weren’t crushed in the stampede to escape? Or slain by those addled nuns so intent on capturing you?”

Piper pressed her lips together and considered the demoness’ words. “Why would I get the kill notifications then?”

“Should they have been injured by you and finished off by another, you would still get credit for the kill.”

“Even if that was true, I could never convince him that it wasn’t my fault.”

“In that case, you should murder him while he sleeps.”

“I’m not doing that!” she hissed. “That’s monstrous.”

“He will never stop seeking vengeance against you.”

“I just need to make it up to him.”

Sarnyxia chuckled softly. “If someone murdered Ophelia, would they ever be able to ‘make it up’ to you? Should you wish, I will dispatch him now.”

“Didn’t you want to meet him only a few minutes ago?”

“That was before I realized he was a threat to you. If you die, then I return to the endless cycle of death and rebirth. This is my only chance to grow more powerful in the Infernal Realm.”

Piper considered her demoness’s words. As much as she hated to admit it, her summons was right. There was no way she could ever make this up to Zenos. One way or another, this would end in tears. She needed to find a way to get away from him.

Something about her summons mentioning growing stronger tickled her memory of the battle against the zombies. “Speaking of getting stronger, did you get a new class?”

Sarnyxia nodded. “I defeated an Infernal Nun and gained her class.”

“So, you’re just running around the Infernal Realm having adventures without me? What about the others? Are you all levelling up behind my back?”

“As for the dreadhulk, I imagine it’s swimming around the Blightwake Ocean, as their kind is accustomed to doing. However, I believe Gretch is trying to set himself up as king of the imps.”

Piper blinked at that. “Really? Are you pulling my leg?”

“Not at all. From what I hear, he is growing quite powerful among his kind.”

Piper frowned at that news. She’d been under the impression her demons were just sitting around somewhere waiting for her summons. Now she’d learned they were growing stronger and fighting battles in her absence. While it was a pleasant surprise to learn they could grow stronger, she also worried something would happen to them.

“Can you promise me to be careful in the Infernal Realm? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Sarnyxia grinned at her sardonically. “I’m touched by your concern. However, my soul is chained to yours. As long as you draw breath, I cannot die permanently.”

“That’s a relief, at least.”

Neither of them spoke after that, the storm growing in intensity until the fire began to sizzle. Piper continued to retrieve dry logs from inside the shelter to stoke the fire. Hopefully, she could keep it hot enough to burn away the swirling snow.

The hours passed quickly, and before she knew it, it was time to wake Zenos for his shift. She mentally commanded her summons to cloak herself from sight. With a pained sigh, as was customary of the demoness, Sarnyxia used [Wraithskin] to disappear.

Once she was sure it was safe, Piper crouched down and crept into the shelter. She gently shook Zenos to wake him from a deep slumber. At her touch, the young man sat bolt upright and looked around. Only the sight of Piper made him relax and sag back onto the ground.

“Is it my shift already?”

Piper nodded.

Zenos dragged himself upright in the narrow cave. “Try to get some sleep. I’ll wake Ophelia for the next shift.”

Piper settled down next to her friend and tried to make herself comfortable on the bed of leaves. Even with the fire so close to the entrance, the air had a bite to it inside. After considering for a few seconds, she snuggled up next to her friend to share their body heat, just like they had back on the farm.

Before she fell asleep, she used [Enduring Casting] on [False Face], so she wouldn’t accidentally wake up as a demon.

Ding! Your skill, Enduring Casting has reached Level 24.

At first, she thought she would never be able to fall asleep in the biting cold. But her eyelids slowly grew heavier, with each blink taking longer than the last. Finally, she fell into a fitful slumber, where she was plagued by nightmares of endlessly being reborn into the infernal realm, only for increasingly bizarre monsters to devour her.

Piper awoke with a start to see morning light flooding in through the opening to the shelter. Rubbing a hand down her face, she stretched and yawned. Then she proceeded to use [Truth Shroud] on herself and [Shroud of the Damned] on Ophelia who was curled up next to her on the ground.

Both rewarded her with levels. Apparently, the risk of being discovered by Zenos was making it easier to gain levels here. Which made sense, since if she was outed as the infernal caster, it would almost certainly result in a battle to the death with the noise mage.

The realization that Zenos hadn’t awakened Ophelia for her shift made her heart skip a beat. Had something happened to the young man during the night? Had her summons moved against a threat without her orders?

Why the heck didn’t I order Sarnyxia not to harm him before going to sleep?

Piper rushed toward the exit and burst out into a valley gripped by the icy fingers of winter. The nearby pine tree’s branches were heavily laden with snow, and the ground had disappeared under a thick white blanket. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the brilliant sunlight reflecting off the snow cover, but when they did, she spotted Zenos standing near the smouldering remains of their fire.

The snow reached well past the man’s waist, and he was one of the tallest at the villa. There must have been at least a meter of snow last night, perhaps even more. Any hope of gathering food was gone, along with hunting game. Their week had just gotten a lot more difficult.

Zenos pointed at the fire. “We have a problem.”

Piper nodded glumly. Without a fire, they would never last another night. If they were going to survive, then they needed to get the fire going again. And with more encroaching black clouds in the distance, they didn’t have much time.