The Return Of The Exiled Villain

”That was refreshing...”

Sniff, sniff...

”And I don’t smell anymore,” Gray smiled lightly.

That smell was THAT horrendous.

[What are you going to do now?]

”Well... there should be a portal in this place, so I’ll be looking for it,” he replied, his eyes moving toward the northeast section of the forest.

[A portal?]

”Yeah. I doubt that someone placed those imps inside this realm since this portal was under Aurora’s supervision... but I have my suspicions about her as well.” He started walking.

”Besides, a sealed dungeon doesn’t develop a demonic infestation naturally, which means someone created an entry point. A portal, probably small and well hidden, but present.”

[And you think it’s still active?]

”If whoever sent them wanted a way to monitor the result, yes,” he nodded lightly, ”You don’t invest this much preparation into an operation and then go blind once it starts.”

[Makes sense. But who could access a sealed academy dungeon without triggering the monitoring arrays?]

”That’s what the portal will tell me,” he shrugged.

”Portal construction leaves traces. The inscription signature is unique to whoever built it. Almost like handwriting... everyone has their own style.”

[...You’ve done this before, huh?]

”I’ve read about it.”

He moved through the trees at an easy pace, his mana sense spreading outward in a wide net, reading the dungeon’s ambient energy for anything that didn’t belong to its natural construction.

[Gray.]

”Mm.”

[You mentioned Aurora earlier. You said you had suspicions about her as well.]

”I said I doubted someone placed those imps under her supervision,” he stated.

”Those are different things.”

[Are they?]

He was quiet for a moment.

”Aurora is many things,” Gray stated.

”Careless isn’t one of them. If demons entered a dungeon she was responsible for without her knowledge, one of two things is true.” He stepped over a root without looking down.

”Either someone is considerably more capable than she’s accounted for.”

[Or?]

”Or she accounted for them perfectly, and decided not to intervene.”

Jasmine was quiet for a moment.

[That’s a serious accusation.]

”It’s a serious suspicion... It’s different.”

[You’re very precise about those distinctions.]

”...I prefer having everything within my reach and control,” he mumbled lightly.

He kept walking northeast, his eyes reading the forest floor and the tree line and the quality of the mana current.

But he didn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary, which made his suspicions about Aurora increase even more.

After all, Jasmine had told him that a Demonic Sword doesn’t need a Master to cultivate... so Aurora could have opted for that path.

”Could you explain a bit more about Demonic and Sacred Swords?” Gray suddenly asked.

’...For some reason, some of Dante’s memories are being blocked from me. Almost like... they are sealed by something.’

[Why are you asking about that specifically?]

”Auror.”

[...You think she might have chosen the Demonic Sword path?]

”You told me a Demonic Sword doesn’t need a Master to cultivate. Which means it can develop independently. Which means it can develop its own agenda independently.”

[That’s true.]

Jasmine nodded.

[A Sacred Sword bonds with a chosen wielder and grows through that relationship. The sword and the person become something together. Their development is shared, their growth is mutual, their intent aligns over time.]

”And a Demonic Sword?”

[A Demonic Sword cultivates through consumption.]

[It doesn’t need a wielder. It can absorb the energy of anything it comes into contact with, living or otherwise. Given enough time and enough material, it develops on its own.]

[The problem is that development without a guiding consciousness tends toward one outcome.]

”...Destruction?”

[Hunger.]

Jasmine corrected.

[Destruction is a byproduct. The primary drive is acquisition. More energy, more power... more everything.]

[A Demonic Sword that has been developing independently for a significant period of time would be... difficult to predict. And more difficult to control.]

”Which means Aurora, if she has been operating independently for long enough, might not be controllable by anyone at this point,” Gray added.

[That’s a fair assessment.]

”Including whoever sent the imps.”

[...That’s an interesting angle.]

”If Aurora is in this academy for her own reasons, then whoever orchestrated the demon operation might have placed a piece on the board without fully understanding what that piece was capable of deciding on its own.”

[You think she might act against them?]

”I think she acts for herself. Whatever that currently means,” he shrugged.

After all, Aurora was a very selfish person... to the point of wanting her ’possessions’ left untouched.

Just like how she wants him as her sole disciple.

Gray had actually read one of her contracts, and in one of the statements, something was saying:

Party B cannot become a disciple of anyone else besides Party A.

There were a bunch more clauses that demonstrated a great amount of possessiveness, but of course, Gray rejected the contract every time.

He kept walking, his mana sense spread wide and passive, reading the dungeon’s ambient current.

And yet, the forest gave him nothing unusual for another twenty minutes.

[...Gray.]

”Yes?”

[There’s Demonic Energy nearby. And it’s not imp-level.]

Gray stopped slighly, before asking directly, ”Direction?”

[Northwest, approximately sixty meters... whatever it is, it’s been demonized for a while.]

”Lead me.”

[Follow the treeline left until the large split trunk. Then straight in.]

He found the split trunk in under a minute and turned into the trees, his footsteps quieting automatically, his right hand loose near his rapier without touching it yet.

The demonic energy became detectable to his own mana sense at thirty meters.

Jasmine was right about the density.

It wasn’t the thin, acrid quality of the imps... it was much stronger and rigid.

He stopped at the tree line and took a look at its target.

”Growwwwlll!!!2

It was none other than an Orc, walking ahead with its back partially toward him, and the first thing Gray registered was the size of it.

Orcs were not small creatures under normal circumstances.

...But this one was definitely something else.

It stood nearly three meters tall, its frame so broad that it occupied the clearing the way a boulder occupied a riverbed.

Its skin, which should have been the grey-green of its species, had darkened to something closer to charcoal, the demonization running deep enough that the original color existed only in patches along the joints where the corruption hadn’t fully entered.

Veins of deep crimson traced visible lines across its arms and neck, pulsing slowly with the rhythm of the demonic energy circulating through it.

Its tusks had grown past their natural length, curved upward and outward, and stained at the tips with something dark that wasn’t dirt.

In its right hand, it held what had once been a tree trunk, stripped of its branches, its bark worn smooth where the creature’s grip had been applied repeatedly over what must have been considerable time.

’A peak Great Grandmaster Demonized Orc?’ Gray hummed thoughtfully.

’...Someone must have fed this creature Demonic Energy over time.’

[It’s been demonized for at least several months... maybe longer. The corruption has fully integrated with its cultivation base. So, it’s not fighting the demonic energy anymore, and it’s instead embracing it to the fullest.]

Gray analyzed the orc lightly...

’It doesn’t seem to be hunting... weird.’

A demonized creature at this level with this degree of corruption integrated into its cultivation base should have been in a state of constant, indiscriminate aggression.

The demonic energy at full integration didn’t coexist peacefully with natural instinct.

It consumed it, replacing the creature’s original behavioral framework with something simpler and considerably more destructive.

Hunt. Kill. Consume. Grow.

That was the cycle... but surprisingly, this Orc was simply standing still.

He even had the tree-trunk weapon resting against his shoulder rather than held in an active grip, ready to attack.

It was almost... like it was waiting for something.

’Jasmine...’

[Mhm. I noticed it too, it’s not behaving like a corrupted creature.]

’Yeah... which means that someone is controlling it. They’re probably feeding it, and also regulating the demonic energy input to keep the corruption deep enough to enhance its strength, but shallow enough to preserve basic command reception.’

[...This is a problem for you then.]

’Indeed... only a low to mid-tier demon could do something like this. So, he must be somewhere nearby, at least, close enough to maintain the feed and the behavioral suppression simultaneously.’

”[Spirit Eyes]”

He looked at the edges of the clearing, reading the mana current for any hidden secondary signatures, but he still didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

’Should I kill it right now?’

[...Better not to, as it could call the attention of the so-called low-to-mid-tier demon, and you certainly... aren’t strong enough to kill one of those.]

’I know.’

Instead, the only thing he could actually do was to contact Aurora or Ellen and tell them about the demon.

The point was, there were still over two days left for this hunting competition to end, and until then, he would need to be extra careful.

’...I’ll try to find Sera again as she could potentially be their target.’

He turned away and left.

Gloom...