Walking along the path of land, trying as much as possible to avoid water, group of Tengu clan demons followed the route by which the river flowed.

They were not sure where to go, but the most logical choice was to follow the water, despite how deadly it was.

However, they had an encounter of an unfortunate kind.

As Akjan sensed an enemy presence she heard Karli shout.

“Look out!”

She barely managed to dodge a serpentine head that seemed to come out of nowhere, lunging down on her.

It looked like a serpent head, but it was clear and see-through, of bluish color.

It was clearly made of water.

“That is no beast…It is a magical construct! Water magic spell, then that means the caster is nearby…”

“Very true”

A figure stepped out of the shadows, clad in light; dark clothing that concealed most of her features except her head.

A winged demon with a head of a bird appeared before them. Her legs ended in three clawed talons.

Her eyes were glowing white and her features made it obvious this demon was using her True Demon Form and Demon Eyes from the get go.

“You! What are you doing here?” Akjan cried out.

“Do you know her?” Aijasyl asked.

“Yes. When our group left the Banquet, this demon came out of nowhere and attacked us…no, she was targeting Ren.”

Immediately, the group of demons consisting of Akjan, Sirinke, Sukesir, Aijasyl, Karli stood on guard, only Kizilkoz seemed to be not prepared to fight.

“Sister! Is that you?”

Kokjan did not answer, but her eyes were glowing with undeniable hatred.

“Sister, please speak to me!”

“Kizil…Stay out of this.”

Kokjan’s demons eyes flashed bright for an instant and Kizilkoz found herself flung across the air about thirty five meters away from the Tengu clan group.

She landed a little roughly on the ground, losing her consciousness as a result.

But it was obvious the blast was meant to incapacitate, not kill.

It was a calculated move.

Now that her sister was out of the way, she could go all out here without a worry.

But her actions have made the other Tengu clan members even more alarmed.

Turning her head to face her adversaries, Kokjan spoke.

“Where is he?! Where is you leader?! Where is Karatengu Ren?!!!”

She was practically shouting; it was obvious she was barely holding back from exploding with rage.

“Why do you wish to know?” Sirinke stepped forward and bravely asked.

“The moment I find him is the moment he shall perish by my hand.”

“You do realize we will not allow that to happen, right?” Sirinke brandished his weapon. He was holding what seemed like a long sword attached to the tip of a spear.

“No matter, I will have my vengeance. Though it seems like none of you know where he is….but….”

The messed up look in Kokjan’s eyes made the Tengu clan members shudder in fright.

It was obvious she was not mentally stable at the moment.

“…I wonder what kind of a face would he make when his precious clan, his family is taken from him? Yes, I will have him taste even one hundredth of the pain I have suffered that fiery night…”

Kokjan extended her hands, and now, from the river behind her, emerged five long necked serpents made entirely out of water. She was obviously a water magic user, a high level one at that.

Level 5 Spell: Water Serpents.

“One touch of my creations will be enough to kill you…So prepare to meet you end.”

The water serpents had extendable necks which allowed them to stretch and strike over long ranges.

Tengu clan members found themselves dodging the Serpent head being aimed at them. Water serpents were relentlessly attacking them.

However, unlike what she had hoped, the water serpents did not kill them immediately.

Apparently one of her enemies was an ice magic user, she ended up freezing all of the water serpents along with part of the river Kokjan was standing on; essentially her feet were frozen.

“Hehehe…Do you really think that will be enough to stop me?!”

Using her demon eyes, a strong wave emanated out of Kokjan’s body, resulting in the ice that bound her feet shattering into pieces.

Now she was free to move.

But then, she barely managed to block a kick from a white haired fox type demon, who apparently managed to cover the distance between them in an instant.

‘What? I should have sensed her movement…How did she end up so close to me without me even noticing? Don’t tell me…a teleporter?’

The kick sent her crashing through the ice.

This fox demon was not weak at all.

Underestimating her is equivalent to a suicide.

Overall, Kokjan was at a numerical disadvantage and her enemies were not as weak as she thought.

Level 4 spell: Icicle Burst!

Stream of ice needles started to rain down upon Kokjan who was caught in an area without a hope of escape.

No doubt, it was that ice user’s doing!

“You will not take me down that easily! Level 4 spell: Liquification!”

All the ice needles suddenly lost their form, transforming into raindrops, mostly under Kokjan’s control.

Still, a few drops ended up falling upon her skin, burning her in the process.

She immediately regenerated the miniscule damage using her mana.

But then she found herself blocking another attack by one of the lizard demons. The lizard demon attacking her was white in color and wielding a metal pole.

While she did manage to block the attack, she found the spot where her arm had blocked the pole to be covered in frost, her hands were accumulating ice type damage just from blocking an attack from this lizard demon.

‘The lizard demon is an ice elemental user as well, but weaker than the wolf type demon who used ice previously.’

It seems like the lizard type demon’s attack range was far more inferior compared to the wolf demon, her range of attack was limited to what she could touch, thus it seems like she did not have any long range attacks.

White lizard demon could only deliver ice type damage by direct contact, limiting her power to physical combat, in a sense; her ice magic was more like body reinforcement rather than a straightforward attack.

Using her true demon form, Kokjan flapped her mighty wings, sending strong wind in direction of the attacking Lizard demons; two of them were attacking together now.

Although wind magic was not her specialty, she could still access it to a sufficient degree when in her true demon form.

The blast of wind momentarily stunned the two lizard demons, allowing Kokjan to swoop up, grab them with her talons, and drop them from a significant height.

They ended up landing on the ground, bleeding, their injuries were serious enough that they could no longer fight.

“Enough playing around!”

She was now flying about fifteen meters above her enemies.

It was time to get serious.

Kokjan then saw a dark gate open and in a split second she manifested a sharp knife out of water and managed to stab the arm of and punch the darkness magic user that emerged out of it.

Fox type demon ended up landing on the ground; she received some damage as she was cringing while trying to stand up.

The other two were near her. Only three were left able to fight.

“It is pointless” Kokjan muttered when the green haired demon started to shoot fire magic that resembled fireworks, Kokjan simply summoned water from the atmosphere to put out the fire.

‘Wolf demon is troublesome, but this should keep her occupied…’

Ten water serpents emerged attacking the wolf demon alone.

‘Even if she can freeze several, there will be more coming after her…’

As strong as she was, the wolf demon would not be able to avoid being struck by at least one of the water serpents. And when she is weakened Kokjan will finish her off.

Now that the troublesome one was occupied, Kokjan turned her attention to the other two.

Fox demon was injured, the damage from Kokjan’s attack and the fall were rather severe, resulting in her clutching her injured, bleeding arm while standing.

It seems like her right arm was rather severely damaged.

The water knife Kokjan stabbed her arm with was made of Holy water, thus doubling the damage.

And the green haired demon was obviously no match for Kokjan.

Now that she managed to gain a high ground against her opponents, nothing could stop her.

Using the Liquification magic, she turned all the ice around her back into water.

Making sure that the water did not touch her, it was still holy water after all, she manipulated the water into the shape of an eagle.

Level 5 Spell: Water Creature.

“Kill them, my creation!”

The gigantic eagle made out of water now flew towards where Akjan and Aijasyl were and proceeded to make high pitched call befitting of an eagle-like creation.

From the water eagle’s beak emerged a mighty blast of water; it was like a dragon’s breath but made of an opposing element.

Might of the blast was aimed straight at helpless Akjan who could only look in horror.

But suddenly, a green haired demon stepped forward, shielding Akjan with her body and extended arms.

“Aijasyl! What are you doing?!!”

Akjan shouted in horror as she realized what Aijasyl’s actions meant.

The entire barrage of water ended up crashing into Aijasyl’s body, but not a single drop ended up touching Akjan.

Aijasyl made sure of that by making a flame dome behind her while extending her hands side to side, essentially shielding Akjan with her entire body while she herself was left wide open to receive the damage from the torrent of water.

The flame dome evaporated the small amount of water that managed to get past Aijasyl’s body, thus leaving Fox demon unharmed.

“Fool, shielding her instead of running away. You threw away your life just for the sake prolonging the inevitable…Utterly foolish….”

“Aijasyl…No….” Akjan was trembling, her friend, Ren’s mentor just sacrificed herself just to save her life….Why did she do that? What was she thinking? Why couldn’t she stop her?

Her life was not worth saving, that much she knew, but this demon, like their leader himself, chose to selflessly save her, paying the ultimate price in the process.

“Now, I will kill everyone else that remains…”

“Hey! Don’t’ write me off the bucket list just yet!”

Aijasyl, now wet from head to toe spoke with a smirk.

Not a hint of damage was on her body.

“What?! How can it be? I blasted you with holy water!”

“I thought of saving this for later since it consumes too much mana, but I suppose it can’t be helped….Level 5 Spell: Green Giant!”

From her hands emerged green flames that now flew up into the air, combining into an ethereal form of an armored warrior clad in armor. The warrior’s entire body was green in color as was his armor.

He was made of green flames.

“Do you really think this thing can beat me? Water eagle! Kill it!”

The water eagle construct now attacked the giant of fire, but the water eagle’s attacks did not leave even a scratch as the flames simply recombined to erase any trace of damage.

Those were Aijasyl’s flames; special green type flames, while inferior to Master Korgan’s black flames, they were strong enough to burn almost anything, even burning on water.

“My water element is superior to fire element! Why wouldn’t it go down?!”

“My magic is no ordinary flame. Crush them!” Aijasyl commanded her creation.

The Green giant manifested a sword coated in fire as it proceeded to slash the water eagle in half.

The slash ended up evaporating the water eagle on contact.

“But…But how?”

Kokjan found herself in disbelief after one of her strongest spell ended up vanishing on contact with creation of this Tengu clan demon.

Both their spells were level 5, so by an ordinary sense, the one with superior nature should have been victorious....

….But instead, her water construct was rendered obsolete.

“Ice giants!”

Kokjan watched in horror as the wolf demon who she took so much pains to keep occupied, manifested several ice giants that were destroying her water dragons one after another after freezing them solid.

“No…This can’t be happening…”

On one side was a green giant made of flames and on the other were multiple smaller giants made of ice, and she now lost her trump card.

Kokjan prepared to counter the attacks of the magic manifestations.

However, instead of that, green haired demon had another idea.

Using green fire magic to propel herself forward, Aijasyl ended up flying towards Kokjan at top speed and now with a fist raised she exclaimed.

“Hey, Eagle face! I will have you learn this!”

She proceeded to punch Kokjan’s face with all her might, imbuing her fist with fire magic.

“DO NOT MESS WITH MY CLAN!!!”

The blast ended up sending Kokjan flying towards the river.

Kokjan was so overwhelmed with the power of the attack that she was not able to stop herself from falling into Holy Water.

Aijasyl’s blast created a large torrent of gas, scorched soil, and smoke that obscured their view for a short while before clearing up.

But when the Tengu clan members looked at where Kokjan had landed, she was already gone.

“Whew, that sure took a lot out of me…” After finishing her attack, Aijasyl ended up falling over backwards, only to be caught by Akjan.

“Aijasyl, that was amazing! I never knew you had such a card up your sleeve! When did you learn that?”

“Master Korgan taught me after I requested him after the first trial.”

“If you could do that, why didn’t you do that from the start?” Karli asked in a little irritated voice.

“This spell uses up almost my entire mana pool, after casting it once, I am practically drained….I no longer have energy to even walk now.”

“I see, so it is the maximum level spell you can use right now, right?” Karli was a little too curious.

“Correct, I was lucky enough to have enough mana left over after casting it to use one more spell against that eagle demon, but now I am completely empty of mana….Huh.”

Aijasyl’s body was now entirely supported by Akjan who had her friend wrap an arm around her shoulders, thus supporting her, despite the heavy bleeding on Akjan’s own right arm.

Kizilkoz was merely unconscious, she woke up shortly afterwards.

Sirinke and Sukesir, after receiving some fixing up and being bandaged on their injuries, were able to walk fine.

Akjan, however, had damaged her right arm, making it necessary for her to keep it bandaged and not used.

Overall, they were lucky to be left alive after an onslaught by that water demon.

“But I still don’t understand. Aijasyl, that demon…She blasted you with Holy Water, how did you manage to emerge unscathed?” Akjan was a little curious about how Aijasyl managed to shrug off damage by a substance that is usually fatal to any demon.

“Did you use some spell to nullify her power?” Sirinke asked out of curiosity.

“Or do you have extreme regenerative ability like a Phoenix demon?” Karli asked, now she was looking at Aijasyl with questioning gaze as well.

“No, I did not nullify her power nor do I have power to regenerate myself. I actually thought I would be a goner back there…Who knew it would end up like this…he he….However, the reason I am alive is most likely…”

“…My blood. You see, I am only a half demon; the other half of my blood is human. That is most likely why I was not harmed by Holy Water. Though, I have spent so long cursing my human blood, I never thought it would save me like this.”

Looking at the other demons with lowered head as she spoke, she was obviously not comfortable about telling her clan members about being half human from fear that they would hate her for it.

But much to her surprise, Akjan proceeded to give her a hug.

“Human blood or not, you saved us all. Well done, Aijasyl!”

The other Tengu clan members, even Karli (Who felt it was a little ridiculous, but opted not to stand out) joined into a group hug as well.

Only demon who was not in merry mood and did not join into a group hug was Kizilkoz, who simply stood and looked towards the distance where she was told her sister had disappeared.

“Sister….” With tears streaming down her face she whispered.

* * *

Using travel by water, she barely managed to escape….

But she did not escape unscathed.

Most of her back and left hand was burned by Holy water when she landed on it.

Her True demon form was damaged as well, resulting in her wings no longer being capable of flight. It will take some time for her wings to regenerate.

Considering she was in her true demon form, the damage was not as severe if she was in her base form during the fight.

But as she looked in the reflection, she saw a burn mark on the left side of her face.

No matter what she did, the mark did not completely go away, resulting in a burn-like scar on the left side of her face.

“Attacking his clan members alone was not prudent of me… I was careless and underestimated them…But I must take my vengeance…If only I could find Ren Karatengu alone, when he is not surrounded by his attendants….”

As she heard a sound of demons nearby, she hid herself.

She now saw a pair of demons, one succubus demon, flying up high and under her, holding on to her hands was another demon, albeit he did not seem to have horns.

They were a little far away so Kokjan could not see them clearly, but when she focused her eyes, she clearly saw the face of the fiend she had been dreaming of slaying for so many nights.

The demon that was held up by Succubus demon in the air was none other than Karatengu Ren.

I finally found him!!!