In a jungle that echoed with ominous sounds all around, dense fog that made the place an enigma to even the greatest of minds, black trees that seemed to touch the sky and devour any light in its nearby surroundings, roots that seemed to hold seemed to stretch for miles and as wide as some rivers. However, the most curious thing was seen on top of a gigantic branch where a small demon, no bigger than a 2-year-old child, devoured a blood-red fruit that was the size of an adult human.
"Phaa~" exclaimed Ares after devouring a good part of the fruit as if it were the sweetest lollipop.
After filling himself, Ares moved the leftovers of the fruit to a 'small' hollow which, in actuality, was as big as a cave.
5 days have passed since Ares was born and he has found his life to be quite easy ever since he made his home on this tree. All he has to do is use his ability [Fragments] to turn into millions of purple particles, each part of his subconscious, to find food or locate sources of water. This ability however only lasts 2 minutes at its current stage with a whole 24-hour cooldown duration.
Sitting down Ares begins to reminisce about the day of his birth. He still remembers the connection he felt before and after his birth. When everything was dark around him, he sensed somebody giving a certain 'feeling' tugging at him so he decided to tug the same 'feeling' back to that person. However, after he was born, he saw the identity of the person who had been nudging at him for so long: white hair, ocean-like eyes, and someone willing to give him everything.
"A-ar-aae-ss" Ares kept trying to replicate the word that the woman said, he didn't know what it meant but he felt that it was important.
"-hy do we-" Suddenly Ares's ears picked up a sound coming a dozen meters away.
Quickly, Ares hid inside the hollow and poked his head out to see the source of the noise.
There he saw 3 humans grouped, with a variety of weapons strapped on them, moving through the forest with dark looks on their faces. Ares, unintentionally, enhanced all his senses and was able to pick up more of the strange sounds that the humans were making from their mouths.
"How in the hell couldn't we catch a single demon?! All the other hunters I heard caught over a dozen each! EACH. And guess how many we caught? None. NONE! You all keep coming up with the excuse of us having bad luck but you all know that it isn't our luck that's the problem but us, there is a reason why all of you are still stuck at the 2nd Circle!" said a middle-aged man who seemed to have dark circles under his eyes.
"Jacob, the mood's already bad don't make it worse." spoke a rough-looking man who looked equally as tired.
"Haaah... whatever, Jace any readi-"
*BEEP* *BEEP*
"!!!" suddenly the group huddled together and became tense.
"W-where is orb pointing t-towards?" spoke Jacob with a grim look on his face.
"In that direction," Jace said while pointing toward the direction where Ares was watching from.
Ares, who couldn't understand what the humans were saying, became confused for what reason the human was pointing near him. However, he felt it was best to hide from the unknown instead of foolishly trying to discover it, so he went to the deepest part of the hollow.
****
The group of humans began moving forward until they reached in front of a tree.
"Jacob, the demon is in that hollow," spoke Jace
"How sure are you?" said Jacob with a more positive look on his face.
"Unless the orb went broke during our trip, I don't see anywhere else the demon can be."
"Alright, Dan give me the Poison Ball. Remember the plan, if the demon runs out it means it is affected by the poison and therefore weaker than us. If the demon doesn't run out, we will all run for it. Understand?" Jacob said, and seeing the other two nod, he chucked the Poison Ball toward the hollow and made it land as far as he could.
*FOOOSH*
Suddenly, red gas began to form and spread everywhere. The group tensed up and it didn't take long for them to hear a reaction.
*Step**Step**Step**Step*
Quick footsteps were heard and soon a demon child was seen. The group quickly moved in closer to the demon and before Ares could react, Jacob used the hilt of his sword to hit him on the back of his head, knocking him out.
"To think we were all so scared of this child, is he even going to bring any money if we sell him?" spoke Jacob as slowly sheathed his sword.
"Who knows? Some people in the market have got some sick fetishes so we might earn 10 silver if we get really lucky," spoke Dan while lifting Ares.
"My question is why is a child doing in the middle of the forest?" Jace inquired
"Who knows? Maybe he got lost from his parents and ended up here?" Jacob replied.
"Even so, how did he manage to climb the tree?"
"Just ignore it, what matters now is that we got the kid so we aren't completely starving tonight." saying those words, Jacob and the rest began moving outside the forest.