Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic - Book 3: Chapter 70: Nests and Evolved Demons

Scarlet

After getting out of the tunnel, I glance to the side as I notice one of the bodyguards missing. Nickolai to be exact. One of my quietest guards.

Hmm. Guess he probably had business to take care of.

I immediately begin to set off into the desert again while activating the features of the armor to protect my face from the sand, not bothering to put my cloak back on in the process. Because it’s annoying to wear that thing even if it does work well.

And besides. I don’t care if someone recognizes me as a blood lycan outside of the city.

In fact, from what I’ve heard, a lot of people like to challenge the blood lycans by attacking their young when they don’t have their insignias on display. Simply to bring down the most powerful demon species a notch.

Although this is driven solely by their Demonic Instincts and not by any sort of sanity since they’re basically just asking to be wiped out when they try that crap. And the ones that do manage to retain their sanity while attacking always leave it at just that. Attacking. Not killing.

Not that I’m complaining since it gives me people who will be attacking me.

After getting a little ways away from the city, I glance back when Nickolai appears next to me holding a map out to me.

I raise a brow, waiting for him to explain.

“I have gotten the Baroness to notify the nearby Nobles to leave you alone should you arrive in their cities and have been provided a map of the nearby nests now that you’ve already gotten a map of the area yourself,” he explains, making me raise my other brow.

Interesting.

“Nests?” I ask with a frown.

He bows slightly and answers, “Nests on Tartarus are locations filled with demons ruled by one or more Class III or higher demons, where all of the species in the nest are unintelligent and only able to be led by a Class III or IV demon of a superior and evolved species to or of their own.”

My frown grows deeper for a moment, only to turn into a smile.

“That’ll work for my next hunt,” I tell him, making the guy seem extremely happy. To the point that I notice his ears twitching slightly.

Okay, I really hope I don’t ever develop a habit of showing my emotions with my ears. That would be way too embarrassing.

Ignoring the overly happy blood lycan Duke, I take the map and look at it, finding that one of these nests should be located just about an hour’s walk from here. So I look up at the man again with a brief, “Thank you,” before turning in the direction stated by the map.

Let’s see… evolved species include things like arachnae being evolved species of arachne – the creature that almost killed me during the Class V Fracture – and things like draugr which are one type of species evolved from zombies. With evolved species basically being just that. A demon that evolved its race after growing into a Noble themselves.

Generally the inferior versions of the demons are either not intelligent at all or are less intelligent than the evolved versions. Like how zombies can’t have any intelligence, only acting on their Gluttony Sin as they try to eat others for no reason aside from the Sin.

I begin to sprint in the direction of the nest as I think.

What type of evolved demons do you think would be in the desert, Tar?

“Well, you’ve already seen some,” he answers, making me frown for a second before it comes to me.

The mummified orcs?

“Right,” he answers as he appears in the air and lies down on my shoulder with a happy sigh, likely due to finally being able to do that again now that we’re out of the city, “and any other mummified demon. They’re all evolved from mummies.”

Yeah, guess that was to be expected.

I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the nests I end up going to is filled with mummies, now that I think about it. Those creatures will infest anywhere given the time to multiply.

They’re much worse than the zombies in that all they have to do is get that infected cloth wrapping to touch a creature’s skin and they’ll be infected with their curse. Although the curse’s strength is dependent on the strength of the demon who is doing the infecting, so a level one mummy can’t infect a level one hundred.

I frown as I try to remember what caused the curse in the first place, only to realize that they never taught that.

“You can always ask your bodyguards,” Tar comments, making a good point. Although I’d be surprised if he didn’t know the answer himself. “I think you should ask them for things more often. They seem to like helping you at the very least. Might as well make them happy.”

They’re keeping an eye on me and making it so I can’t escape to Earth. Why would I want to-

“If you make them happy, it might make them drop their guard and perhaps allow you to escape to Earth while it’s dropped?” Tar suggests, making my mouth part open for a second only to close again.

That’s sneaky.

I like it.

So I glance at one of the life forces I can sense before asking, “Would you mind telling me what started the mummy race?”

Seraphina appears floating along next to me as she answers, “The mummy race was originally created one hundred and seventeen years ago when an arachnae decided they wanted a pyramid owned by a race known as the anubi. The arachnae Noble cursed all of the residents of the pyramid with an incredibly strong curse, erasing their intelligence and turning them into mindless monsters that attack everything on sight.”

I blink at that.

“So Gramps didn’t do anything?” I ask out of curiosity, but Seraphina just glances at me in confusion as she answers, “Why would he? It was a feud between a Noble demon and lesser demons. Even if he did interfere, he would side with the Noble.”

“And the mummies? He just let them stay alive and spread?” I continue as we run.

Seraphina nods, “He did, because they serve as excellent fodder for higher Class demons to hunt.”

Interesting.

Then again, there’s no way they could be a threat to the world, so why would he interfere?

I guess I’m still thinking more along the lines of what a human would do. And Gramps is by no means a human anymore, even if he was originally one.