Have you ever thought that plants are disgusting?
Flowers. Leaves. Stems. Fruits.
Just imagine the fresh and beautiful plants.
The beauty of mother nature, full of vitality.
Such an expression was completely unrelated to the residents of the gap who invaded the demon world.
Kkieeee-!
The weeds are also plants.
The sight of weeds straining to imitate humans by twisting and twiddling their vines was clearly disgusting.
Kekekekekeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeekkeek!
Their structure resembled a kind of flower pot.
If the skull gourd on their heads was an upside-down flower pot, countless purple stems of plants sticking out from underneath were crawling on the floor like octopuses.
However, when the battle began in earnest, the stems intertwined and twisted, and began to walk, clumsily imitating their arms and legs.
Seeing that, the demons felt a bit uneasy and attacked them.
"The residents of the gap are imitating us!"
"Stop them! Don't let them come!"
Why?
From the moment the trial began, the demons were helpless from the instinctive discomfort they felt.
This disgusting feeling was felt equally by both intelligent and non-intelligent demons.
Isn't this strange in the first place?
The demons lived without even knowing about the residents of the gap.'
But the moment they saw them, the demons instinctively recognized their names.
As if they knew it from the beginning.
'There's something strange about these guys.'
Esil found this fact more ominous than anyone else and felt alarmed.
For demons, the sense of 'instinct' was directly related to survival and was a sense that should never be ignored.
In particular, the fact that information that was not originally in their memory suddenly came to their mind, means it's information engraved in the demon's blood or soul.
"Aaaah!"
"... ... !"
"Everyone be careful! If you touch these guys, your mana will be sucked out!"
But there was no time to think for long.
At that moment, the demons who had been at the forefront of the battle against the residents of the gap were seen retreating in confusion.
The purple vines that wrapped around their bodies sucked their mana out.
"Get out of the way!"
Tsk Tsk!
At that moment, demon knights, armed with their demonic armor, leap forward with great force and tore apart the vines wrapped around the demons without hesitation.
But the vines were persistent.
Sigh!
The torn-off vines twisted like snakes in the air and wrapped around the bodies of the demon knights.
"Aha!"
Thank goodness.
The evil spirit armor they wore prevented mana from being sucked out even if they touched the residents of the gap.
At Suho's command, Harmakan had specifically modified the armor for the demons and it served its purpose perfectly.
But the weeds moved even more persistently, they found a narrow gap in the evil spirit's armor, and swat! Jabbed using sharp thorny tentacles.
"Hey, guys!"
The demon knight felt dizzy and quickly ripped them off, then looked back at Esil and shouted.
"Esil! Be careful!"
"These guys don't just suck out mana, they inject strange poison with their spiny tentacles!"
They were truly like mosquitoes.
No, they were a combination of the unpleasant aspects of mosquitoes and leeches.
Even if you touch or brush against a vine, your blood will be sucked out.
If you get pricked by a thorn, an unknown poison penetrates you.
"Damn them. I'm going in too!"
Crunch!
At that moment, Esil also jumped forward wearing the evil spirit armor.
"Die!"
Wedge - Kwasik!
Esil fired her spear, used it to pierce the weed's skulls, and shattered them.
Then, the vines that had been growing around the skeleton like flower pots lost their strength and fell down.
Esil, who confirmed that, gave a loud order.
"Their heads are their weak point! Aim for their heads!"
At Esil's words, the demons spread the message to their fellow countrymen who were scattered and fighting.
"Everyone aim for the head!"
"Their skulls are their weak point!"
Following that command, the demons rushed in to crush the weed's heads.
"If you wear armor, your mana won't go away even if it touches your body! Death Knights take the lead, just watch out for the thorns!"
"I don't know what kind of poison it is! Don't get pricked by the thorns!"
Kwasik! Flutter! Damn it!
Skeleton-like skulls are helplessly broken by the demons' attacks.
A full-scale battle began.
However, even if the weed's weakness was discovered, the battle did not go so easily.
Ever since the start, there has been an overwhelming difference in quantity.
The number of weeds was far greater than the demons under Esil's command.
Esil gritted her teeth.
'I should have gathered more demons!'
She felt resentful.
If this was the demon world of the past, there would never have been a shortage of supplies like now.
But what could she do?
Currently, the demon world was torn apart and wandering through the gaps in the dimension.
But if all the demons scattered across the fragmented pieces of the demon world were gathered together, then they had a chance.
'Each one of these guys is weak. But there are too many. Where have they been hiding for so long and then suddenly show up?'
"Ugh!"
In the midst of the fierce fighting, the first casualty was eventually reported.
"Grrrrrr."
The demon, who had been wrapped in vines and had all his mana sucked out, foamed at the mouth and lost focus in his eyes.
At that moment.
Tsk, tsk, tsk!
Suddenly, laughter broke out.
A clear sound of laughter came from a skeleton that had succeeded in catching and eating a demon, in other words, a weed.
"...!"
At that moment, Esil finally witnessed it.
The identity of the uneasiness she had been feeling from the moment she encountered the residents of the gap, those unidentified beings.
Wow-
Suddenly, vine plants wrap around the skull.
Their shape began to create a 'proper body' in the shape of muscle, like real muscle fibers attached to a skeleton.
"...oh my god."
At that amazing sight, sighs flowed from the mouths of all the demons, including Esil.
Okay. Something was strange from the start.
These creepy guys created limbs by weaving vines as if imitating demons.
The moment they sucked in a whole demon.
"Hehe! Kihihi!"
The nameless weed finally became a 'demon'.
* * *
"... Is this the demon world?"
Suho, who entered the double dungeon through a crack, opened his mouth in despair as he saw the demonic beasts swarming in front of him.
Then Antares shook his head.
"No, it's just a dimensional gap."
"So who are these demons?"
"Well. They are the residents of the gap who prey upon demons and prove themselves worthy of becoming demons."
"... !"
Just as the Dragon Emperor said, purple demons were now swarming in front of them.
[Demon of the gap]
[Demon of the gap]
[Demon of the gap]
Above their heads was a name tag clearly written as a demon, but the seeds were still weeds made of vines.
However, the ones that were like octopuses living in skulls were now creating their own muscles by weaving vines together and turned into human models that you could see in a science lab.
No, in terms of size and shape, it was closer to the shape of a demon than a human.
Because one even had horns.
The problem was that this was not simply an imitation of a demon's shape.
['Title: Demon Slayer' buff takes effect.]
[All stats increase by 40% when dealing with demon-type monsters.]
"He's a real demon."
Suho's eyes sparkled.
The fact that the title effect, which only applies when dealing with demons, was automatically activated was proof that these weeds were real demons.
"They ate a demon and became a demon themselves?"
"Yes. It looks like the fragments of the demon world scattered across the dimensional rift have been invaded by these guys. In short, they've been 'contaminated.'"
Antares' gaze at the demons in the gap was clearly unpleasant.
"As I said, the residents of the gap are leftovers created by the Absolute. So these weeds always yearn to become something. Among them, the most formidable are the demon's soul."
Suho seemed to somehow know what he was going to say next.
"Is it because the demon's souls cannot go to the sea after death even when they die?"
"No, the order is a little different. When a living being dies, its souls wander around the sea of the afterlife and are used as food for the world tree. That's natural."
Kihihi! Grumble!
The conversation stopped and a battle suddenly began.
[Demons of the gap] surrounded them and began attacking them from all directions.
"I'll take care of this!"
Because the area was wide open, Seo Jiwoo took charge of Suho's rearguard.
Suho swung Vulcan's horn at the demons of the gap rushing in from the front.
Grumble! Kuwaan-!
However, the reaction was quite different from the weeds they had fought earlier.
The weeds named [??] that they fought earlier were helplessly burned by Suho's flames, but the [Demons of the Gap] dodged and fought back.
"The way they react is the same as a real demon."
It was interesting, but that was it.
[Use 'Skill: Storm of Black Flame'.]
Wow!
[The demon of the gap has been defeated.]
[The demon of the gap has been defeated.]
[The demon of the gap has been defeated.]
... ... .
As the battle became more intense, the Dragon Lord Antares spread his short wings and floated, landing on Suho's head.
He continued his explanation with a solemn expression.
"I think I should tell you about the World Tree first. The World Tree uses dead souls as nourishment to grow itself and bear fruit.
And from that fruit, a new soul is born.
The ruler's soldiers were born from the most beautiful and pure of the fruits, and the souls of countless races you are familiar with are born from the other fruits."
"Like a rebirth?"
"Well any expression can be used, but no one knows what functions take place within the world tree. Since a dead soul is once nourished and then reborn, no one can be sure if it is the same soul."
Antares continued speaking while looking at the demons in the gap.
"As I said, among the souls that fall into the sea after death, there are quite a few souls that are caught and eaten by weeds before being eaten by the World Tree. We express this as 'contaminated mana.'"
Suho's eyes widened at the familiar expression.
"... contaminated mana?"
"Okay. Among the roles of the World Tree is the purification of dead souls. However, if you get caught by a weed without going through the World Tree, your soul will be polluted. Then the soul can never return to the sea after death."
Kihihi!
Kkekekekeke!
"... ... And then you become a demon just like these guys. It is the moment when the weeds that were nothing finally gain an identity."
Before he could finish his words, something happened to come into Suho's field of vision.
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
Suho realized the truth as he looked at the messages floating above the corpses of the demons he had just killed.
'Okay. I was always curious.'
Every time he fought demons.
He saw a message that their souls could not be extracted.
Suho was really curious about that.
Why on earth doesn't it work?
Why can't the souls of demons be extracted?
The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't understand it.
What is the difference between the souls of beast-type monsters, insect-type beasts, and countless other races, and the souls of demons?
Well, what a difference there is.
The Shadow Lord's power to control even death does not work.
-Mana is contaminated? What on earth is it contaminated with?
If the meaning of pollution is 'poison', then the problem is to detoxify it.
If the meaning of pollution is 'dirty,' then how dirty is it?
If Harmakan's villains' souls, were evil in the first place, wouldn't it make sense for it to be possible to extract them as shadow soldiers?
But why are demons the only ones that cannot be extracted?
But only today did he realize.
Now he knew the reason.
What on earth are the souls of demons contaminated with?
"Weeds are persistent. Once they set their sights on prey, they never give up."
While listening to the Dragon Emperor Antares' words, Suho remembered.
"Demon's souls cannot go to the sea of the afterlife. They are already food for weeds, not food for the world tree."
Demon world.
From the beginning until now, demons have lived in a relationship of eating and being eaten by each other.
"Demons were originally residents of the gap."
The identity of the trial Esil was waiting for.
It seemed like proof of who was worthy of becoming a real demon.
But then.
A single line from the system arrived in front of Suho.
[A quest has arrived.]