"Demons are like obedient dogs, they come when they are called." -Remy de Gourmant
"Where are we?" Josiah, awakened from his sleep, asked.
"Ah, you finally woke up. We are in the Dead Gods valley. We are looking for a cave where the golden thumb is. So keep a lookout for any cave."
"Dead Gods valley? Why is the name so scary?"
"It is a very long story. Do you know about the Second Great Mortal War?"
"... No?"
"It is a... another long story. But in short, it was the second war between the gods and the demons. It was the war that led to the Tiga Agreement, which prohibits any god or demon from intervening directly in the mortal realm. At the climax of the battle, the gods were ambushed by the demons in this very valley, which led to such a massacre that the valley was filled with their corpses. The King of the Gods brought his reinforcement, but he was too late. The legend goes that in this valley, there is a lake where he cried to mourn the loss of his kin. This incident led him to finally agree to sign the Tiga Agreement. But, out of pettiness, the King of the Demons asked to be given the Dead Gods valley as part of the agreement. Thus, now we are technically in the demons' territory."
"Shouldn't we leave then?" Josiah asked as he began to tremble.
"Don't worry, Josiah. I am an expert at killing demonic creatures. Besides, the demonic creatures here aren't as powerful as the ones in the nether."
Josiah didn't reply. Honestly, if I had a choice to leave him out of this, I would. I understand that this kind of experience is unsuitable for a child. The fear and paranoia that come from encountering extraordinary beings can have an everlasting effect on the child's mental health. But this valley... is too calm. We are nowhere near the centre of the valley, but we should be deep enough to encounter hordes of demonic creatures already. I have sent crows to scatter and search this place, but I can't seem to find any disturbance. It is a good thing... but at the same time, unsettling.
"Mr Jack?" Josiah called.
"You can just call me Jack, no need for the salutation."
"What is that?" Josiah asked as he pointed towards a giant boulder on the side of our road.
"That... that is what we call a boulder," I said, a bit confused.
"Why is it emitting black mist?"
"Black mi-?" In a split second, I caught a blitzing dark spear that was aimed at Josiah's head. The boulder revealed itself as a gross-looking hellspawn. Its camouflage fooled me, but it didn't seem to fool Josiah. The hellspawn crawled towards us with a thousand legs like the insect.... thousand legs... Who named those things?
The hellspawn prepared to throw another spear with its human-looking arm. I quickly pulled out Gabriel's shield. I have a feeling I am going to use this more often now. The hellspawn threw its spear at us, and I deflected it with the shield. The hellspawn jumped towards us and was about to land on us. "Josiah, dismount from the camel!" I yelled out. Josiah quickly jumped down.
I raised the shield, and the hellspawn slammed into me from above, crushing the camel and me to the ground. The camel was dead and buried in the dirt beneath us. The hellspawn stayed on top of my shield, its legs found their way to my arms and started stabbing them violently, weakening my grip on the shield. It should be very obvious that I have no experience using a shield. Why would I ever use it before? Thus, with all my strength, I threw the shield, along with the hellspawn, aside and pulled out the purple lightning bolt. In an instant, the hellspawn went back to camouflage. I have never been good at finding invisible things, to be honest. But I do know where the hellspawn is. I threw the bolt directly towards Josiah as the bolt hit the hellspawn from the back, burning a hole through its chest, killing it.
"Sorry if I spooked you just now," I said to Josiah as I helped him get up. "Is... Is it dead?" Josiah asked. "Yeah, it was nothing more than a hellspawn. They are not that hard to kill, unless they are in the nethers." "That wasn't a demon?" Josiah asked.
"Nope, the demons are on par in strength with the gods. Therefore, based on the Tiga Agreement, they are not allowed to appear directly in the mortal realm. Hellspawns and other weaker demonic creatures can."
"I thought you said that this valley is their territory as well?" Josiah asked.
"Wow, you are a great listener. Yeah, this valley is their territory, but it is still in the mortal realm. Being in their territory means the gods' influences are not allowed to enter this place. No champion or servant of the gods is allowed to be here. If they come here anyway, the demons are allowed to ascend simply to remove them. Which is probably why a champion of a powerful god like Jaka was still killed at the end," I said as I retrieved Gabriel's shield.
"Wait, but aren't you-"
"A god?" a sinister voice echoed from behind us. As I turned around, I saw a woman-looking creature with red eyes, long black hair, and a red gown. "He is right, you know? Being the famed immortal traveller you are, you are still a god, bound to the Tiga Agreement," she smirked.
"I suppose so... but then again, if we are getting technical. I do not ally myself with the King of the Gods. The term "gods" in the Tiga Agreement focused on gods that answer to the King of the Gods; most gods do, but not all of them. Not to mention, I wasn't even born back when the agreement was made, so..."
She smiled, "You wished to use word-play against a demoness?" The ground began to shake as the sky turned black, and then... rain began to pour from the sky. But the droplets are not ordinary water; they are blood. Of course, I am unfazed by it, but it seemed to be affecting Josiah. He started to tremble once more, as his trauma kicked in. Each blood droplet that reached the ground spawned a hellspawn, and there are a million of them. In a matter of seconds, we are surrounded by hellspawns. The demoness laughed, "You really expected you could barge in here and not meet any resistance? You should have realised you were walking into the lion's den."
"What a shame... I was about to offer you an alliance, but it seemed like I had to fight you after all," as I prepared to slam Gabriel's shield to the ground.
The demoness's smirk vanished. "Wait now, why are you in such a hurry?" she asked. "What's this about an alliance you mentioned?" With a wave, a hellspawn bent down, and she sat on it. "I don't know if you know this, but I was taught by the former god of strength, Bima. He was like a father figure to me. But he was unjustly killed by the King of the Gods. In that sense, you demons and I have something in common. We both despise the King of the Gods, thus I thought we could work up an alliance."
"Bima, you say?" The demoness was intrigued. "He has a daughter, you know?" she said.
"Yes, she and I were close," I said. "Close, you say? I remember her acquiring the shadow cloak from my kin. She claimed she needed it to kill the King of the Gods. Oh, she was on a warpath," she chuckled. "But... She didn't acquire it through an alliance." Her tone shifted. "She killed my kin and stole it from us." The hellspawns began to growl, ready to fight.
"Oh, well, you know her. She can be a bit too excited sometimes, you know..." Damn it, Jane. "Oh, it is fine, I will have that child's head as reparation," she pointed at Josiah
To be continued.