Back in another forest Azemo was very upset. Not only had he failed to get revenge for Sillis and Zaebos, he had also lost his teacher. Of course this experience could not compare to the fall of the demon stronghold seeing as no one actually died, however, Azemo was still down in the dumps.
'I guess I need to get stronger because a sneak attack will be much too difficult after my last attempt.' Azemo was trying to use all of his brain power to think of a plan so that he did not have to think about what had just happened.
At this time Ima and Bella finally woke up.
"Another forest, really?"
"Didn't you guys used to live in a forest?"
"I guess I got a taste for a different kind of life."
The simple banter helped soothe Azemo by showing him that he was not alone. Once again he vowed to keep the two sisters from harm even if it cost him his life.
"So what exactly are we doing in a forest."
"Uhh well my cover kind of got blown and now the humans know about me."
"... Oh." Imagine went quiet for a bit but Bella was much more talkative.
"Well good riddance now we can get back to revenge, after all I think you have gotten pretty good with a spear."
Both Bella and Ima would miss Kaede but they knew Azemo was the most hurt so they decided not to bring her up.
The trio continued walking through the forest munching on some meat skewers that Azemo had bought in Fresk. It seemed like an eternity ago when he had just arrived at the city and Monster Parts. 'Monster Parts.'
"Hey do you two want to eat that Beskar wing, I think it can empower monsters."
"Hell yeah let me eat that thing." This voice of course belonged to Bella, she would do almost anything for more power.
"Uhh Az you don't seem that certain. Are you sure?"
"Of course I am sure, don't you trust me? At least I think you are strong enough to fight any negative side effects." Azemo muttered the second part of his words to himself but Ima still heard everything.
"Okay… we had better not die."
After gaining their permission Azemo quickly sliced up the well kept wing and boiled it. He could not add any other ingredients or it would lessen the effectiveness of the part. Giving monsters parts of other monsters was a long held demon secret which they used to reward monsters and keep their loyalty.
"Foods ready." Azemo was a bit tempted to try the wing but Master had told him that there were no benefits for demons and Beskars tasted kind of gross.
Bella quickly devoured her piece of the wing while Imagine took her time.
"This is so bland and yucky."
"Come on Imagine it will make you stronger, don't you want that?"
"Ugh." Imagine slowly finished off her piece and looked to Azemo.
"So when is this power up supposed to take effect?"
This question made Azemo laugh because apparently Ima did not notice that both her and her sister's claws were glowing with a faint silvery light. Ima did not like being laughed at so she quickly found the anomaly before glaring at Azemo.
"Okay I see that my claws are now more silvery but what does that actually mean?"
"How am I to know? Here let me try something."
Azemo cast (skill) Hover on a small rock making it float towards Ima.
"Try and cut the mana, Beskar wings have some sort of anti mana thing so maybe you inherited that."
Ima swiped out underneath the rock cutting the tendril of mana that connected the rock to Azemo. The rock instantly fell to the ground.
By this point Bella was rolling in excitement because she had now gained a powerful new weapon. The only limitation was that it was extremely difficult to clearly see mana. No matter, with enough practice her skill would increase.
After a meal of Beskar wings the three went to sleep in the room bag unaware of the commotion happening back in Zenath.
"Are you serious? You had a demon and instead of instantly killing it you let it go?"
The Supreme General was not yelling but instead speaking rather calmly. Only those that knew him well could feel the intense anger in his voice.
"We wanted to let you have the pleasure of ending the last demon." The Lightning Sword was stuttering in the face of the Supreme General's displeasure.
"There should be no possible way he could escape my specifically prepared cell. There is just no way. The only way would be if he was aided by an archmage level person but I am the only one left." The archmage was extremely shocked that his cell had failed and had no idea that it was his item that allowed Azemo to escape.
"Obviously you failed, demons cannot be underestimated. When did he escape?"
"I don't know sir, no one visited him last night. Should we tell the Spear Goddess?" The Lightning Sword hoped with his entire being that he would not have to tell Kaede as her anger was famous throughout the ranks of the army.
"Of course you need to tell her that you failed to get justice for her disciple." The Supreme General had already been informed about the whole situation and wanted to see Kaede's reaction. He was not as quick to believe that Kaede would not notice a demon.
The Lightning Sword left and returned with the Spear Goddess and a large welt on his face.
"SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW YOU LET THAT F*CKING DEMON ESCAPE." Anger was evident on her face but no one could tell that the anger came from the fact that humanity had imprisoned her student.
With those words the Supreme General's suspicions were cleared, he knew that Kaede was not good with emotions and could not easily fake them.
"Yes it is a great failure, but he shall not escape us. We now know what he looks like so post a bounty with both of his forms. No where in the human empire will be safe for him."
Kaede's eyes clouded for a split second but no one noticed as they were too busy issuing the Supreme General's orders.
In one night Azemo's face was spread across the country. If Azemo had known he would have said something about how he had become famous but he was too tangled up with the throes of sleep.