A realization stuck Nate. Mindy lost quite a bit of blood back there. In order to recover, she will need to eat something. But of course, there were complications.

First of all, Nate wouldn't call himself a food expert. He didn't know what one should eat after losing a lot of blood. But more importantly... there was no food to begin with. The wafers were all gone already, so even though his stomach kept loudly reminding him of their food situation, there was nothing he could do about it...

However, as wondered about what to do, a nasty thought emerged in the corner of his brain.

'There is fresh meat right outside the cabin.'

Remembering the massacre outside, he couldn't help but to have a gag reflex. There's no way he would touch that, let alone eat it. The lion even had a face resembling that of a human. Nate didn't want to become a cannibal... But did he even have a choice? Either risk eating a poisonous berry and dying, starve to death, or...

Nate shook his head. He really didn't want to do it.

...

But even if he didn't, he figured he should probably check on those corpses outside anyway. After making sure Mindy was still properly breathing and her pulse was regular, he headed outside through the wrecked pile of tables and chairs. As soon as he found himself outside, his nose picked up an awful stench coming from behind the cabin. He instantly knew its source, which prompted him to look back at the wrecked entrance with a worried expression. What if that smell of fresh blood attracts a wild animal and it enters the cabin? He needed to find a way to ensure safety for Mindy.

Then, another random thought hit his head. He extended his arm toward the entrance...

"Lock...?"

And as he already half-anticipated, his hair started to move. This time, it moved toward the door and weaved between the door frames like a thread. In a few moments, it created something akin to multiple spider webs layered on top of each other.

Nate simply stared at the spectacle with a neutral face. He refused to be surprised anymore. After all, his sanity was more valuable than his common sense... Or perhaps throwing away his common sense would mean insanity? Nate promptly decided to cut off that trail of thought.

As he stepped out toward the carnage site, his stomach rumbled again. Nate realized that his hunger became more intense for some reason. It was almost as if he hasn't eaten for days.

While holding his noisy stomach, he reached the destination. Just behind the cabin's back window, there lied a scene straight from hell. Dismembered body parts covered the entire area and the foul smell of blood was omnipresent. The lion's disembodied head had a horrific expression painted on it. Somehow, it was even worse than Nate remembered.

As Nate walked around, he realized something was missing. For sure, Nate remembered some kind of skeleton being there, but he could only find chunks of what seemed to be bones. Where did he go? Did he get away? Nate recalled there were two others who managed to escape and realized that they could return with reinforcements. Nate figured that as soon as Mindy wakes up, they have to move out... And there was also the food problem.

...

Looking at the chunks of meat, Nate's stomach rumbled and the dark thoughts reemerged. But his disgust wasn't letting him do it...

Nate then closed his eyes and extended his arm forward...

Surely his hair can't solve this as well, right?

... but it can't hurt to try...

"...eat."

His hair moved and shot straight for the lion's head before enveloping it. And at that moment, Nate's face went pale as he imagined his hair force-feeding him the bloodied skull chunks. He absolutely did not want that.

"NO! WAIT! STOP!"

Luckily, his hair listened to his command and retracted. A sigh of relief left his mouth, but he soon noticed something off... The head seemed to have lost its color and dried up. Parts of the skin even turned to dust and fell off. Its skeleton was showing in a few spots now.

...

And Nate's hunger subsided. It didn't take too long for him to put two and two together and realize what just happened.

He put a hand on his stomach and made a step back.

"What the fuck..."

It wasn't just their appearance and the supernatural powers... Something fundamental changed. They became monsters.

Nate left the place and ran back to the cabin's entrance. However, his mind kept bogging him on to confirm something. So, although reluctantly, Nate headed to a few nearby trees. He then raised his arm and pointed his fingers toward one of them.

"Eat."

His hair extended and stabbed into the tree in multiple places. The tree then gradually lost its color and withered. And of course, his hunger became nothing more than a distant memory. But even though the food situation seemed to be resolved, Nate didn't feel good about this. How could he? After all... he turned into a complete monster. One that apparently feasts on life force? Even though those back there were corpses...?

...

Why?

As the entire tree turned into dust and crumbled down, Nate thought back to the ritual. During the flash, he felt immense pain. It was as if something kept rapidly entering and leaving every cell of his body. Is this the result? Was the ritual actually meant to turn them into monsters as well as teleporting them? What the hell, geezer?! Why did you give that book to Mindy?!

As he tried to sort out these thoughts, he made his way back to the cabin. The hair still blocked the entrance, but he figured it wouldn't be a problem for him.

"Unlock."

Naturally, the hair blocking his way unwrapped and moved to the side. Nate then stepped inside through the hole, before the hair resealed it again. There was no part of Nate left that got surprised or astonished by it anymore.

He then made his way to the bed, where Mindy still slept, and sighed. The thought of saying 'feed' popped into his mind. But he immediately shook his head. That's just messed up... Even though she needs to eat, he isn't going to force-feed an unconscious girl. He may have turned into a monster physically, but he won't let his mind get corrupted... or at least, not any more than it's necessary.

And so, he simply sat on a chair and waited for her to wake up while burying himself in various thoughts.

The book, the assailants, Mindy's grandpa, their weird transformation and... who's cabin is this, anyway?

In a different place and time...

Floating majestically through the air was a humanoid creature with large black wings and a black beak. Its height was relatively small, it had thin limbs and a pair of bulges on its chest, giving its gender away. She held a wrapped up scroll in her right claw as her wings flapped. Even though she soared at speeds, that would make even some bullet wyrms jealous, she had no intention of slowing down any time soon. After all, she carried an important report. A report about the two new demons.

Luckily, the weather happened to be favorable and she soon spotted the familiar castle on top of the floating island in the distance. The moment she did, she decelerated and prepared for the landing. Of course, with her current speed, it became impossible to do a clean landing...

The dust scattered around as she crashed on top of the island. But despite her rough landing, she managed to land on her feet without hurting herself too much.

She was immediately surrounded by two muscular armored figures with white wings pointing their spears at her.

"State your name and business."

The bird girl was slightly annoyed by their attitude, but still properly answered.

"Crie, a messenger sent by the beast king. I'm here to report on the demon situation in Kodawa region."

The two winged men pulled their spears back and nodded at each other. While one of them left for the castle, the other kept the girl company.

Crie sighed and looked at the angel.

"Do you have to do this every time?"

The angel smiled wryly and replied.

"Sorry... formalities, you know? Besides... you could be a mimic trying to infiltrate the castle."

Crie's unsmiling face continued staring at the angel.

"And when was the last time that happened?"

"Probably around twenty years before I was even born."

With Crie frowning at him, the angel scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.

The two of them continued chatting for a while, until the other angel returned and informed Crie she could enter. She waved at those two before moving forward and going through the massive castle gate.

To her surprise, as soon as she stepped inside the main hallway, the figure of a blue-tinted transparent girl with a golden dress greeted her. Crie instinctively kneeled down.

"G-greetings your highness. I'm a messenger from the Roaris kingdom."

She felt quite nervous and stuttered a bit at the start, which made her feel even more nervous.

"Please raise your head."

Crie listened and stood up.

"I heard you have a report regarding the new demon. Speak it."

She was a little surprised how straight-to-the-point that was, but she couldn't complain about it. After nodding, Crie pulled out her scroll and read.

"Our search party has discovered two demons working together."

Right after the first sentence, the princess frowned. Not one, but two demons...

"One of them is female and one of them male. They both seem to be fairly young."

The princess crossed her arms. Young demons can't be that powerful. This might not be as bad.

"The female has been confirmed to be an abyssal fiend, the male is still unknown.

The search party got into a fight with them, which led to three out of the six members losing their lives."

Upon hearing that, the princess clenched her teeth. Half of the group died? Did they get careless since the demons were young?

"The dead members were Groul Basah, the Kodawa region chief, as well as the Fanog brothers."

This time, her eyes widened. Those demons took down a region chief? Even though it was just a beastman... that's not a joke.

"Regarding their movement... they seem to have murdered a local hermit and took over his personal cabin in the woods."

How sickening... Only demons could do something as horrible as that.

"The direction in which they are moving seems to be lady Aria's dungeon."

The name 'Aria' caused her eyebrows to change into a frown.

"For the time being, a ban prohibiting anyone from entering the forest has been issued."

"And one more thing..."

The princess noticed sweat drops on Crie's face.

"The fiend was able to use its powers even when silenced. The cause for this anomaly is unknown. T-that is all..."

The princess' eyes closed as silence filled the surroundings. Crie, not knowing what to say or do, nervously shifted her eyes from one side to the other.

After a moment, the princess' eyes opened again.

"Thank you for your report. You did a good job."

To these words, Crie nervously bowed her head.

"Feel free to take a rest in one of the guest rooms before going back."

"T-thank you, your highness."

The princess then snapped her fingers, sending a subtle shockwave through the air. It made Crie shudder.

Following that, a female angel dressed in maid clothes entered the hallway and bowed.

"Aetha, please guide her to one of the guest rooms."

"Right away, your highness."

The two then exited through another door, leaving the princess alone. She then sighed.

"Marwen..."

"Yes, my princess?"

Once again, her crown responded to her. But even with Marwen's prompt, she stayed silent while squinting her eyes and looking at the floor.

...

"... do you want me to go inform lady Aria?"

"Y-yeah... please do that."

Having her mind read, she got slightly flustered.

"What should I tell her to do?"

After a tired sigh, the princess responded.

"You know she won't listen anyway. Just tell her about the demons."

"Alright then..."

The tiny crown on her head then fell off and transformed into the old man in a suit with wings and wolf ears.

"I'll be on my way."

And after a brief bow, he disappeared, filling the surroundings with silence once again.

...

"I know it's all hard on you... but it's not a good idea to antagonize Aria."

Another man's voice resounded in the empty hallway. In response to that, yet another tired sigh left the princess' mouth. She shook her head while putting a hand on her forehead.

"I know... it's just that...

Dungeon cores are so hard to handle..."

"Don't say that... wasn't your grandmother a dungeon core?"

"Exactly..."