Sirin stayed with Amanda for a few weeks. The dead forest was as quiet as ever, but now he found it quite soothing.
Beyond the forest edge, the young demons born at the same time as Sirin were already migrating to the deeper parts of Hell. Sirin had also gone to take a look, the creatures there had better souls than he could get from killing other demons, which made a territory there very attractive.
But his situation was different from that of the other demons. Yes, in general the souls of demons gave him less power, but with the help of the system, they were a lot more valuable than those of the strange monsters that the other demons hunted.
He may have broken some unspoken rules of hell with this, but staying here by Amanda's side and killing the new younger demons was very effective.
He got up from the rock he was sitting on. Even though he liked staying in the dead forest, he somehow had to avoid falling behind in terms of brute strength compared to his peers. And having a territory that was mostly empty meant he had to go to the living worlds for non-demon souls.
After a short farewell to Amanda and Spot, he walked further into the dead forest. This time he did not go directly to an altar. When he had visited the deeper levels of hell, he had seen some demons making their own way into the living worlds instead of simply being summoned.
The reason he wasn't going to try this in the cave with Amanda was because she would probably try to stop him.
He bit his wrist and let the black blood drip on the floor. After this he began to copy the runs that were normally written around and on the altar.
Since he healed a lot faster now, he had to do it again a few times to get enough blood. He'd thought about ripping his arm off so he could finish the drawing in one go, but it probably would take too long for it to grow back.
When it was finally done, he pushed as much magic in as he could at the moment. He still had to learn how to use magic in other wais than this someday, but until now he'd had other things on his mind.
It wasn't long before the runes lit up with a bright blue glow. Without really thinking about it, Sirin jumped through the circle.
He barely noticed that he had arrived in another world. Everything around him was dark and he was exhausted. To make matters worse, without an anchor he had to use his own magic to keep him from being sent back to hell.
Slowly and with great effort he managed to open his eyes. Everything was blurry, he could only make out the two muttering shapes for him.
"Do you think it's still alive?"
"I think I saw it move!"
"Is it a spirit?"
"I do not know. It doesn't look very human. Maybe it's an albino oni? Do you think they exist?"
"But this thing has a tail. Most onis don't have tails."
Sirin tried to get up. The world revolved around him and he fell to his knees again.
"I think it's injured or sick. We must take it to the temple."
The rest was a blur. Sirin was barely awake as the two people took him.
Finally, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. He was more focused on not passing out than his surroundings.
At one point, one of the figures made him drink a warm liquid. It was pretty tasteless, but it didn't matter much because most of the things people ate and drank was tasteless to him.
But whatever that fluid was, after a while he felt a lot better. A quick check of the system indicated that whatever that drink was, it had helped him replenish his magic.
Now that he was a bit awake again, he looked around curiously. The thick stone walls were decorated with a kind of cloth covered with text. In the center of the room was a low table with a cauldron and some small cups. There was a statue with incense and fruit on the other side of the room, and in each corner was a bowl of salt that, for some unknown reason, was slowly turning black.
The room itself felt eerily pure. Not holy, but it simply had no trace of evil. This made Sirin quite uncomfortable, but it wasn't that it could do much harm.
Just one of the people who brought him to this place was here. He smiled when he saw that Sirin had become more active now. "It's good to see you're feeling a little better. We wanted to help you further, but we couldn't find any wounds to heal so we decided to wait and see if your condition would improve or not."
Sirin looked at the human obliquely and observed him. The man had very short blond hair and wore a yellow and brown cloak that he hadn't seen in any other world. "And who are you then?"
"I'm Ronald. I am a student here." The man spoke as he replaced the incense. "May I ask you a question now? If that's okay with you, of course."
Sirin got up and walked across the room to get a closer look at some of the decorations. "It doesn't really matter to me. Ask what you want to ask."
"What exactly are you? Your existence is very similar to that of an evil spirit," the man pointed to the black salt. "But they usually still look the same as when they died. Although there are sometimes exceptions in special cases, they are never as special as you. Furthermore you seem to be alive, so you could be an oni. But then you are the most unusual oni I've ever seen."
"Nah, I'm a demon... probably. Now its my turn again! If my existence is so much like that of an evil spirit, why didn't you just laeve me where you found me?"
Ronald slowly came a little closer, although he was now a little more wary of this 'demon'. "Because that's our job. We seek out evil spirits, calm them down and grant them rest so that the other people are safe."
Sirin literally grinned from ear to ear, just to see how this man would react. "But I'm not a spirit." Unfortunately, he was disappointed with Ronald's calm response.
"It doesn't matter much. In all my life I have never seen anything that is completely evil. We'll keep you here for a while until we're sure you're healthy and not a danger to others. Then we will discuss what we will do with you."
Sirin tilted his head. "And what if I want to leave early?"
"Then we'll let you go. Only if you are an active threat will we see if we should lock you up or kill you if it is nessesary for the greater good."
"Yeah sure!" Sirin rolled his eyes.
Suddenly he thought of something. Those ghosts the man was talking about. If those are really dead people, weren't they just souls with their consciousness still attached? If so, then this world was like a buffet for him. He wouldn't even have to bother opening the package of his food!
"What do you say if we make a deal out of it? I will not kill people and stay near you. How does that sound?"
Ronald raised his eyebrow. "If it's a deal, you probably want something back from us."
"Good of you to ask about that. I wish you would not try to throw me out of this world unless i want to go back myself."
The man sighed. "Why do I think this is a bad idea? Okay, yes we have a deal."
Sirin grinned as he shook the man's hand to seal the deal.