"This is how you do a fireball, watch!"
The young three-horned demon manifested a fireball the size of a palm in front of his friend before hurling it at the nearest 'weak demon' he could find on the street.
The fireball hit a child, of the same age who had just arrived at the town. The child's bloated backpack combusted in fire as the owner fell to the ground and rolled around with the scorching flame attached to him. The clothes and numerous items were scattered away on the street.
The passing people turned a blind eye as if nothing happened. One of them even kicked the burning kid out of the way.
"Hell yeah! Way to go!"
"Nice shot, Rayon!"
"Chantless too! As expected of you, boss!"
"Muahaha!" The three-horned demon, Rayon, puffed his chest as he smiled with pride. "That's a magus demon for you!"
"All of you laughed joyously, but have you checked the background of that kid?" Another demon pointed out with a wry expression. "I haven't seen him, or her - before, but you might want to confirm before being sorry."
"Tch, you're boring, Deggy."
"I'm just saying." Deggy shrugged.
One of the younglings stared at the victim of the fireball with great interest. Despite being dirty by rolling around and removing his upper clothing before hitting the ground again and again to put out the fire, his skin was surprisingly delicate.
Even with some part of his long silverish hair being burned, he kinda stood out like a sticking thumb for having a fairly delicate face and slender complexion. Feminine, even. In fact, the kids from the group thought that they were sending a fireball to a girl at first. If not for the victim's scream and unreluctant act of removing his clothes to put out the fire, they would never know.
Not to mention, this silver-haired demon actually lacked any distinctive demonic trait. As for his red eyes and sharp ears, the majority of demons have red eyes and sharp ears.
He looked weak, fragile, and unassumingly average. But sometimes, those who looked less demonic tend to derive from a noble bloodline.
"Now that I look at it, he does look like coming from a family with a special bloodline.. If we take 'beauty' into consideration." Rayon furrowed his eyebrows.
"Told you.."
"He is probably one of those Incubi."
"Incubus have wings, unless you're referring 'Incubus' as a profession, hahaha."
"Maybe we can sell him, I heard some thirsty cougar likes to have it as a young and beautiful male."
"You guys are riot!"
"Can I have him instead?" said the demon girl within the group, drooling at the edge of her lips.
"Enough!" Rayon dimmed the fire of conversation immediately with his words. "We'll greet the new kid first. I'll decide what will happen to him!"
Deggy rolled his eyes. "Just don't burn him to a crisp, you hear?"
The group of younglings then approached the wounded kid, lending him a hand in case that he was actually someone with power behind him. What if that was the case? They would try to gaslight him into thinking that the one who threw the fireball was another kid who just ran away, throwing the blame to a nonexistent demon.
"Yo! Are you alright?"
"I-I'm alright." The wounded demon forced a smile.
"Say, I haven't seen you before, you just moved in with your family?"
"Ah." With an innocent smile, the wounded child answered earnestly, "I'm actually traveling alone. And yes! This is my first time being in this town!"
"Ye carry all of that stuff on your own?"
"Ya ran away from your home?"
"Your family got murdered or something?"
"Want me to blow your little brother~?"
"All of you need to take turns when asking…"
"Well." With a weary heart, the young demon tried to answer while ignoring some of the obvious one, "My clan was caught between the feuds of the neighboring Overlords," he said as if it was a normal thing "I'm actually the only one who survives out of everyone… So I'm currently traveling to find some jobs in 'Thornar Town'! I heard that there is a great demand for workers here since the latest usurpation of Demon Lord in this Nether Country, hence why I'm here!"
"Sheesh, that must be harsh." The one who threw the fireball at him began to reach out his hand for a handshake. "The name's Rayon. I'm one of the magus demons here in town, most kids and some adults here feared my name thanks to my fearsome talent. What's yours?"
The wounded demon accepted the invitation for a handshake. "Lothair! I'm actually a magus demon too!" Having to handshake someone at his age after quite a long time, Lothair felt a little bit emotional. Especially since he took around eight months of traveling by foot to come here without much genuine social interaction with others. "I don't have a great talent at spell casting, and I haven't got any new Mentor since mine was felled in the accidental massacre, but I'll try to meet your expectation!"
"Yo! That is nice. Expectation aside. We can be magus buddies! Afterall, not many demons here have the potential for spellcasting here."
"Really!?" After acknowledging his newfound friend, Lothair's face was full of excitement. "Then I hope you don't mind, hehehe."
While smiling, Rayon casually casted a spell.
A surge of fire bursted out of his palm which then furiously spread over every part of Lothair's body. It was even more volatile than the flame that was hurled back then.
As blood spilled from his eyes, Lothair desperately tried to remove the handshake, but was powerless to do so.
"Hey, hey! We're magus buddies now, why do you want to sever our friendship this early?" taunted Rayon while grinning.
Lothair wasn't even able to catch a single breath because of the searing heat engulfing him. He wanted to scream in pain but not a single voice came out of his throat. He then retaliated by trying to punch Rayon using the other hand.
The punch didn't budge him, not even an inch.
"Aww, that is cute. I actually practiced some skin-hardening techniques with the martial master in this town, you know?"
Rayon increased the intensity of the fire.
Lothair wanted to plead for the fire to stop, but was unable to.
The flame began to live rent free on his skin and flesh. His muscles began to slowly melt, along with his drained consciousness.
"Aww, now I can't use him to pleasure myself tonight."
"Rayon, you might want to finish it quickly before someone calls the guard on us."
"What kind of report will they make, Deggy? Smoke pollution?"
"Exactly as you think, dumbass."
"Meh, not fun."
"Yeah, you're not fun, Deggy."
"Way to go to kill the mood, Deggy."
"Shut up."
Rayon let go of the malicious handshake. The fire however, was still churning.
The group of kids left the unconscious Lothair on the side of the street. The flame slowly died out by the breeze of the town.
Even without the group of rascals there, people still turn a blind eye. Except for one, who got tripped by the burnt body and kicked the demon child while lashing out unfiltered profanities.
After ten minutes, Lothair immediately got up on his own like a fresh butterfly out of his cocoon. His burnt skin was back to the fair and white skin that he once had, along with the long silverish hair that was burned completely from the fire.
"Glad that I didn't tell them that I have quite the remarkable regeneration.." Lothair began to pick up his scattered belongings on the road. Many of them were already stolen or picked up by the passerby, which only left little to what he originally had. "Or else they would drag me away and burn me to bits where nobody could complain."
He checked his backpack.
It was no longer usable.
With a pained smile, he scavenged any comprehensive fabric to wear.
"At least the tea leaves are still here." He muttered with a smile, picking up the leaves that were dirtied by soles who passed by. "I might cry if there is none left."
With his money also stolen, he had no choice but to camp on the outskirts of the town where many travelers set up their tents. Of course, his tent material was also stolen when he was unconscious, so he actually needed to find somewhere else to stay for the night.
Asking to stay with one of the campers was also out of the question, unless that there were succubus amongst the travelers, knowing that they would accept someone as beautiful as Lothair as a night partner. Even then, Lothair didn't have the courage to do the deed yet, especially since he always preferred to actually sleep throughout the night and not on the brink of death to pleasure someone, considering that the deed could last an entire day or more at worst.
"I have my pride too... Maybe I need to start training my body…" He glanced at his frail hands, voiding his fantasy.
There was no source of water nearby except for the flowing dirty waste from the weapon factory. A normal demon wouldn't want to take the risk, but Lothair had a better-than-average regeneration capability.
"... I'm not dumb enough to drink this," uttered Lothair with a smile.
He then went farther to the east where the greeneries of nature resided. After an hour, he stumbled upon a river with a perfect tree for shading.
His face let out an innocent expression. A happy one. After all, he expected to get jumped on by bandits or wild beasts on his way here.
"Truly, a peaceful start."
It's not like he could do anything if such thing happens, most of the time.
Unbeknownst to him, the place he was currently in was actually filled with spiders.
An absurd amount of spiders. He then cast a warding spell for insects.
"None compassion shall be shone upon ye!"
It didn't work.
"Ah right, spiders are considered as arachnids, not insects."
He casted the same spell with a mild difference in composition. It worked.
"Sorry, little ones, I hope all of you don't mind if I borrow this place for a bit."
A demon possessed a very conductive soul, this resulted in a heightened spectral sense and greater manipulation of one's own spiritual extension.
Although not all demons were born equally. Some were more sensitive than others, to the point of interacting with an energy factor hidden beneath the sheet of space and time. There were many different names for this energy depending on which side of the world. But mainly for the demon, they refer to this particular energy as one of the three well-known versions.
Ayin, which means 'nothing' or 'beyond existence'.
Ein, which means one, as it was theorized to be the source of the universe's creation.
And then 'ENE', which is the true sound that was made when interacting with this hidden energy, and the very reference that was taken in many places when naming this force of the universe.
This type of energy is then deposited in one's own soul. As the process of harvesting this Ayin is harder than using a cup of water to fill a lake reservoir, spellcasters need to have a steady amount of Ayin supplies at any given time to prepare for any situation.
The rate of harvesting Ayin itself depends on the proficiency and innate talent of each individual. And with enough experience, a trained magus can have their soul replenish their reservoir passively over time.
"... As always, my control of Ayin still needs some work."
The spell was weak, but it was enough to prevent spiders from the tree to lunge and even bite at him. He didn't even mind the company of those spiders.
He then sat while leaning on the nearest tree to the river for a while, before working on a temporary settlement using mother nature as the material. Just like he was accustomed to.
"Guess it's better if I live alone, huh." He still felt a little bit disappointed with his first interaction in Thornar Town. "I'm independent enough to settle in the forest, why would I even think of trying to join the society..." He put on a bitter smile.