I dropped the corpse of the Oni on the ground. I was a little dizzy from using so much magic but fought the urge to lie down.
I ripped one of his hors from his head and kept it as proof that I killed the Oni.
After that, I took the soul of the Oni. It was almost completely black and gave off a powerful feeling. I decided not to eat it right away. There was a high chance that I would pass out after eating this soul and I could not afford that right now. thus, I stored it in the container where I kept Yeralds soul before I decided to eat that one.
I dropped on my knees and started to dig in the scorched ground.
I would have preferred him to stay open in the field where rats and crows could feast on his slowly rotting burned flesh. But I had to hide the body.
It would not take long for snow to fall again during this season so no one would be able to tell that the fight happened here.
I hoped that the snow would fall before anyone came here. So that none of the Oni's knew what happened. The internal conflict between those who wanted to take his place and those who believed he would come back should keep them busy.
I suspected that his most loyal servant would get a small following that believed that Shuten Doji was still alive and would keep anyone from trying to take his place. The wisest and the strongest would both believe that they were the most qualified to lead the group of Oni's and would constantly fight until a successor emerged victorious. This would keep up at least long enough for us to get reinforcements.
We greatly underestimated the number of Oni's. our current means are not enough to take them all down.
The other Oni's were obviously not as strong as Shuten Doji, but their strength could not be ignored. That Is why we had to wipe them out before the demons would launch their first large scale attack.
I dragged Shuten Doji's heavy body into the hole I dug. Normally it would take little to no effort, but now I was nearly completely drained of energy and wounded.
when the body was in the ground, I covered it with dirt. To make sure that no one could tell at a glance that there was a dead Oni buried there.
I forced myself to walk away from the grave in my tired, wounded state.
I sat down in an area where I would be relatively hidden. I could still use the wing that I may or may not broke on my descent could still move, but I was unable to fly.
Also, I was on the other side of the mountain. And this side was much steeper. Climbing it would take at least a day to reach the castle and by then my wing would have regenerated. So, I didn't feel like climbing and instead tried to remain hidden until my wounds had heeled somewhat.
I waited in the field of leafless shrubs. I kept motionless so I wouldn't attract attention.
Not that there was anyone there in the first place. but even I could never be sure.
It took a few hours before my wing was regenerated enough to carry my weight. When I felt like I had reached that state I kicked off the ground and took to the sky.
I had to make sure that the others were safe as soon as possible. But I suspected that if they were captured that there was not much that I could do.
I tried to fly as high as possible so that I was harder to notice. To my luck it was still dark, so I was a little harder to spot.
Eventually I landed close to the castle and wandered around for a bit. It didn't take long before I picked up the scent of the humans.
I let out a sigh of relieve. They made it out.
I flew off again in search of a place where I could meet up with them or maybe rest a little.
I decided to land close to the main road of which I suspected that they would follow. Of course, I made sure that I was hidden well enough so that no random person would find me when waited for them to pass by.
When waiting in my hiding spot the temptation of the soul only grew. I knew that it would not taste good. But it was the energy and power that I could get out of it that I wanted.
I knew that with that I could completely heal in no time and grow stronger.
So, I decided to distract myself by thinking of a new way to use my illusion magic. The technique that I was using now took way too much energy and I could not make things invisible. Therefore, I had to use the cloak.
But if I were to make an illusion right in front of the eyes of someone, and make it cover their entire vision. Maybe I wouldn't waste that much energy and I would no longer be depending on my cloak.
My illusion magic could be compared to glass. Making an illusion would be the same as building a statue of that glass to give someone the image that I wanted. But if you held a small disk made of the same glass with the image engraved in it, you end up using less glass than when you were to build the statue.
The only downside was that I would have to infiltrate the mind of someone and look through tier eyes to make sure that the surroundings would stay realistic. And I probably couldn't use it in a large group.
When I had my new magic planned out, I no longer had anything to distract myself with.
("It will be fine if I take it, now right. I mean they would surely take at least a day before they come here. If I eat the soul and heal due to that I would no longer require rest and I could join them without slowing them down.")
I knew that I was just making excuses for myself to eat it and decided that it would be of no use to keep resisting. So, I ate the soul and as expected, passed out.