A Demon's Journey

It had been just one week since Sean and Gibson had been hypnotized.

Azaroth was sitting in his room with the sun rays striking his blue hair and making them shine brightly.

There was an egg placed on the table where the sunlight could barely reach it.

Azaroth walked over to its side and placed his palm over that egg. He gently infused his Red Lightning in that egg.

This was his daily routine. Azaroth would infuse his Heavenly Lightning until it would reach the egg's limit.

It would take a full day for the egg to digest that amount of Heavenly Lightning.

It had already been a week since this egg gave the feeling that it was about to hatch.

'Maybe the mutation is going on right now.'

It would be wrong to say Azaroth wasn't excited. Even he had no idea just what sort of beast it will become after mutation.

The egg began to wiggle slightly just as Azaroth completed infusing his Heavenly Lightning.

Azaroth immediately stopped infusing his Heavenly Lightning as he understood that the beast was about to get out.

As the monsters' gorgeous crimson wings expanded, the upper sides of the egg split. The next thing to break was the front side of the egg because of the bird's peck.

The crimson wings and the beak began to shine with vermillion lightning as the entire covering of the egg was destroyed.

Azaroth laid his eyes on a tiny bird with crimson wings and stripes of golden hair on her head.

When Azaroth noticed the body of this bird, he couldn't help and exclaim with excitement, "The Queen of Lightning, the Crimson Lightning Phoenix?!"

Azaroth now understood that the egg he had stolen possessed the bloodline of a sparrow or someone within that species.

After absorbing the Holy Lightning, it had evolved to its strongest form, The Crimson Lightning Phoenix.

The Crimson Lightning Phoenix was the holy form possessing the densest Phoenix Blood within it.

The Crimson Phoenix's lightning was considered the bane of all demons. Its lightning would deliver 10 times more damage to the demons.

Moreover, because of its strong affinity towards lightning, no other lightning attack could harm it. Its superior bloodline suppressed the bloodline of all beasts with weaker bloodlines.

This tiny bird glanced at Azaroth for a short period. It was analyzing Azaroth deeply.

After some seconds, the tiny bird began to chirp cheerfully.

Azaroth extended his hand towards the tiny bird and it soon got on Azaroth's hand before making its way towards Azaroth's shoulder.

It started cuddling up to Azaroth's face.

Azaroth also lightly patted the tiny bird and thought 'To think I would own a divine beast so early in this life.'

He soon began to walk outside of his quarters. The bird had just been born and it should be thirsty.

The only ones living in the wooden mansion were Azaroth and his retainers.

His retainers were already in the dining hall and serving food for themselves. The ones who cooked the food were the guards.

From guarding to cooking, their daily routine had shifted. They had made so much food in the previous ten days that they were convinced they could compete with any Wrihull City chef.

Some even planned to quit their guard job and become a chef. The pay was nice and there was no danger involved. Moreover, they were pretty skilled at it now.

When Azaroth entered the dining hall, all his retainers saw him. They also noticed a tiny bird on Azaroth's shoulder.

"Woah! You even had a pet, master?" The first one to ask the question was Noah.

He immediately went over to Azaroth's side.

Azaroth replied, "It hatched just today. I brought it here to get it some food."

"Can I hold him?" Laura asked, her eyes twinkling at the sight of that little bird.

"I won't recommend it," Azaroth replied with a shrug but he grabbed the bird. The bird didn't resist his touch and Azaroth soon handed the bird to Noah.

Well, since Noah was standing closest to him, he figured it would be best to give it to him.

Noah looked very nervous as the little bird stood over his palm. He felt as if this little bird had no weight. He brought his other hand and gently patted the bird.

Its fur was so soft that Noah felt he wouldn't get bored of caressing it.

Soon, Laura, Yrellea, Sargan, Tiana, and Ralph approached Noah.

"I want to hold her next!" Laura excitedly spoke as she brought her hands close to the little bird.

Soon, the little bird was on top of Laura's palm. She began to exclaim, "This bird is so cute. Also, it has such soft fur."

At this moment, Laura didn't hesitate to turn towards Azaroth and ask him, "Master, master, I want one as well."

Azaroth rolled his eyes and ignored Laura. This girl was just hopeless.

This was a mutated Holy Beast. It was good enough they possessed even one of these beasts.

Laura soon turned the little bird towards Yrellea and wanted her to hold it.

However, before Yrellea could even touch the little bird, red sparks were released from the bird's body and struck Yrellea's hand.

Yrellea winced in pain as she felt the red sparks hit her hand.

Sargan narrowed his eyes when he saw those red sparks and mentally shouted 'Heavenly Lightning?! This little bird is a Holy Beast?!'

He couldn't believe his eyes at all.

He had assumed it was just Azaroth's pet at first. Perhaps it had noble ancestry, but to think it was actually a Holy Beast with Heavenly Lightning!

Yrellea was somewhat sad as the bird hit her with its red lightning. She wanted to hold this little bird as well.

Azaroth spoke at that moment, "This is a Holy Bird. Its instincts are probably mistaking you as enemies since you are a demon. The same thing will happen to Sargan. I think you should wait for some time until it gets used to you."

"Have you named it yet, master?" Laura asked with some interest evident in her voice.

Azaroth understood that she probably wanted to name the bird.

"Zena, the Crimson Lightning Phoenix."

Once the little beard heard its name, it flapped its wings and tried to fly. However, it could only hover slightly above Laura's palm.

Laura's shoulders dropped as she understood that she won't get to name the little bird, now named Zena.

Azaroth brought his palm forwards and Zena soon hovered over it and stopped trying to fly.

"Alright, return back to eating. Today I will deactivate the gravity arrays. Your physique has massively changed so get used to it. Practice your attacks."

"Sir, boss/master!" All of them replied at the same time.

Since eating food was somewhat impossible for Zena right now, Azaroth only had it drink milk.

~~

Just as Azaroth had told them, the gravity arrays deactivated.

All his retainers were surprised when they felt the suppression on them disappear. It was as if a massive load had been lifted.

They had felt that load for so long that they even felt something was missing. It was as if their body was incomplete.

"Woah! My body is so light now." Noah spoke as he jumped with all his might. He jumped nearly 4 meters high and this was without the use of Ardor!

The others were experiencing similar effects.

Their muscles had grown quite strong to adapt to the 10 times gravity they experienced all this time.

"Hey, Ralph, Sargan. Let's race to that tree." Noah excitedly shouted at the two.

Ralph and Sargan looked at each other. And the two held challenging looks on their faces, "Bring it on!"

They ran with all their might to run towards the tree. The Tree was nearly a mile away from their position.

No one of them used Ardor to increase his speed. They were competing with their pure physique.

Unsurprisingly, Ralph was the fastest among those three.

He reached that tree in just under a minute. While it was a close match for Noah and Sargan.

However, if observed carefully, they would notice that Noah was just slightly behind Sargan.

The two were running with all their might and finally reached the finish line.

Ralph announced the results, "Sargan second, and Noah third."

It was a close call but Noah lost to Sargan.

However, Sargan couldn't help but grow more serious. He and Ralph personally knew just how bad Noah's physique was as compared to them. Yet, he was now capable of nearly overtaking him in speed.

It showed how much his physique had improved.

Sargan and Ralph remembered Azaroth's words when he declared that in one year, Noah would surpass them both.

'I need to train harder.' Ralph and Sargan thought simultaneously. They didn't want to lose!

Even though they just ran 1 whole mile, none of them was panting or was out of breath.

They looked ready for another round!

Noah picked up his sword and went away, "I am going for some sword practice."

Sargan and Ralph also went to their respective locations and began cultivating their Ardor.. It had been nearly 2 weeks since they last cultivated.