Rivers of the Night

Chapter 734: Real Demons

[Sorry everyone, I’ve been swamped so this will be the second day of one Chapter. We should be back to two tomorrow.]

Theron’s gaze flickered. This was... interesting.

What he was maybe just as curious about, though, was... what was being fought over here?

Sure, sometimes in the cultivation world you didn’t need much reason to fight other than face and resources. However... Names were incredibly important in the cultivation world.

Theron hadn’t been aware of this at first. But after seeing how even a Dome of Heaven expert struggled to speak of Voidwroughts, he realized that even words could carry power.

Maybe he should have realized this earlier. There were a few Mancers who used their words to focus themselves and cast faster. Theron had rarely had a need to do so, but if he was in a difficult situation, even he might mumble out a few words. It wasn’t usually enough to need to make a sound as the motion was enough for him, but the principle still remained the same.

Why would someone call an army of such importance the Resistance Army...?

What were the resisting?

Maybe to someone else, the answer would be obvious. Demons, of course.

But Theron didn’t buy into such things. He had seen humans do too many disgusting things, and as far as he could tell, the people of this "Demon Corps" seemed to also be human they just happened to call Demon. At the very least, these Demons were nothing like the Demons he had heard of in fairy tales.

And even if they weren’t, so what?

His cultivation journey started because someone thougth his home town was a nice place to sacrifice women and children. The Empire he had been born into did nothing to try and protect him, while everyone continued about their lives as though nothing at all had happened.

The moment he stepped into this new world, Matriarch Macie began to pretend as though she was the only person in the world to ever lose someone she cared for, and her response to that heart ache and pain was to turn her entire Sect into a torture chamber. It was like the only thing that would make her feel better was to make sure everyone around her was experiencing the same, terrible heartache.

Then there was the Umbra that appararently had strong ties with the Resistance Army. They had separated a mother and daughter, sealing the latter and restricting her true talent, while allowing the former to struggle in the world on her own for decades.

Their Patriarch was supposedly the reason they still had their lives, but as far as Theron was concerned, he was a terrible excuse of a father, husband, and leader.

Even without checking on the situation, Theron knew that the Patriarch wasn’t protecting Lyrah and Lyra like he should wasn’t because he was so clueless about what was going on. It was because he knew he didn’t ahve the political capital to do such a thing.

This reality alone filled Theron with disgust.

He had lost his own family. The idea of him standing aside as he watched his mother, his father, or his little sister struggle through life on their own, letting others that were supposedly his allies dictate how poor their life conditions became...

He woulud rather slaughter each and every one of them.

What right did any of these people have to say that they were resisting Demons?

They were the Demons.

Theron’s view of the world was far too jaded to believe that they were doing any of this out of the kindness of their hearts, and the fact Lyrah was speculating about the reasons for the Umbra Clan participating told him everything he needed to know.

"What reasons are you thinking of?"

There was a sudden change in Venicin’s expression but Theron pretended not to see it.

"I can only speculate, but as far as I can tell, there is a strong territory dispute between the Resistance Army and the Demon Corps. Whenever either makes gained, large swaths of land become painted in the path fo the other. I’m not sure of how this works as the details are things that one would have to be a Quasi King to understand thoroughly.

"But if I had to guess, the Umbra are gaining quite a lot in these territory disputes, and there’s something especially valuable to them about..." Lyrah’s voice trailed off, hesitation written all over her face.

BANG.

Venicin’s head exploded.

"I understand." Theron said with a nod. "No need to say anything more."

Lyrah’s almost didn’t register what Theron was saying, her head snapping toward where Venicin had just died.

Theron didn’t explain himself in the slightest. But it was obvious enough that Venicin had just made a connection he shouldn’t have, and because of that, he was trying to get a message to the family.

And now he couldn’t do even that.

"What is going on with Lyra?" Theron asked.

Lyrah’s eyes lit up, but when she said the indifference on Theron’s expression, she cooled considerably. Her lips parted, but she was interrupted by Theron.

"Do not embellish. I will be able to tell."

Lyrah shuddered but still nodded in the end.

"She is being sold off in an alliance for one of these territories."

Theron nodded. Lyrah was quite smart, she kenw the real reason he asked that question. He didn’t care much about Lyra at all outside of having a good impression of her.

She was kind and warm to him in ways she didn’t need to be.

Inwardly, Theron couldn’t help but think of Matriarch Macie. He spoke of her and how much she wanted to see the world burn, for it to feel the pain she had.

But wasn’t he the same?

Maybe so. But he wanted to be exactly that... a Demon.

Even so, being forced to face a mirrored image of himself in that way, he couldn’t help but feel disgust.

There was a strong cognitive dissonance in his mind that he just couldn’t resolve.

Not long ago, when he had seen the Alpha caged and about to die, he also felt an irrational rage he couldn’t describe. He had only ever treated the beast like a tool, when had he started to care about its wellbeing?

Theron hadn’t been able to think about himself so clearly in the past. But he found that ever since he gained Dark Mana, the push and pull of his Water Mana had lessened considerably as though there was finally something to ebb it a bit.

Rather that constant chill followed by abrupt fires of rage, it was far more docile.

In fact, that might have been part of the reason he hadn’t been able to enter Veinsong in so long. He couldn’t just rely on his Chilling Path to force his mind to a state of cold, calculated indifference.

He didn’t know if this was a gift or a curse, but it was making him think about things he honestly didn’t know if he wanted to.

"When." Theron said.

The pleading in Lyrah’s eyes returned for a split moment before it faded once again. She tried her best to remain focused and calm.

"Seventeen days from now."

Theron nodded slowly, then he looked up into the skies.

"Where am I now? How far away am I from Venlow City?"

Lyrah blinked. "Venlow City...?"

As someone who had shared a bed with the Umbra Clan Patriarch, her understanding of the scope of the world was decently large. She knew of Venlow City.

Venlow City was one of the largest cities under the Shonagh Clan’s territory, but they were outside the range of this place here. In fact, in small part, the Shonagh could be considered to be enemies with the Umbra.

It wasn’t to the point of life and death, and there were no kill on sight orders, but there was definitely some friction between the two powers.

The marriage alliance Lyra was being sold into was with the Chron Clan, an extremely small Clan of Space Mancers. Much like a certain Clan Theron hated to think of, very few of them were born in every generation, and their territory likewise reflected that.

Even so, their power outsized their population for good reason.

No one wanted to get on the bad side of a Space Mancer.

While most cities had protections against Space Mana so a single bad actor couldn’t wreak havoc, you wouldn’t have that protection everywhere you went. There was only so much you could do to protect against such experts.

It could be said that the Chron Clan’s territory was in a no-man’s land between the Shonagh and the Umbra, while the Hall of Ice and Heart, as well as the Nightingale Sect, all fell beneath the latter’s territory.

This was all to say that Theron was a very long way away from Venlow City right now as it was located nearer the heart of Shonagh Clan territory, though not quite there.

Lyrah slowly explained all of this.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Well, there is no direct teleportation between the two territories for obvious reasons, so it will take at least a month and a half, maybe two from here. Though if you could teleport an edge territory, it will be much faster. The problem is that all of those are well documented and..."

Theorn nodded. "I understand. Bring me to one of them."

Lyrah’s pupils trembled. It seemed that Theron was quite confident in his strength now.