Meeting the Demon

“Who are you?” A voice asked me in my head, but it seemed lacing in aggression.

A large snake head asked me through my soul. I stopped Jasar before he could attack it, and realized he couldn’t hear it.

“She is who I was looking for. Please, give me some time to talk with her.”

The eyes still watched me, and Jasar reluctantly left before I responded.

“Someone who wants to be a friend. Why did you come here?”

“So, you can hear me? You had killed that gorilla earlier, so I assumed some strong monsters were here… You want to be my friend?”

“That was the intent. Is that okay? What was that feeling earlier?”

“Hmm. I had planned to kill you, but had changed my mind. How can you understand me?”

“I can communicate with your soul easily. Killing intent huh? First time I have really sensed it, why didn’t you kill me?”

“I had a feeling I shouldn’t. What do you want to be friends for?”

“Well, I would like it if you helped my settlement. In exchange,  I would be willing to offer you several valuables.”

“Such as?”

“I can only tell you if you agree to a soul pact, not to tell others my secret ever. Me and my people won’t attack you, or betray you whether you choose to accept or not.”

“That’s acceptable...”

Animals instincts guided them much stronger than with humans, and so they had a stronger intuition with matters of the soul. This makes it easy for them to use soul spells, soul methods, or just cultivate. They could even cultivate just sitting around.

We formed a pact on our souls. It was raw, but it was easy to design, obvious to understand, and as long as two parties had similar souls it couldn’t be broken.

“Well, I can give you and your descendants my blessing. Your cultivation can be repaired in order for you to grow again, and I will prevent your descendants from dying.”

“You can do this?!”

“Of course. Do you accept?”

“How must I help the humans?”

“It’s simple. I just need you to make a new nest near the human territory, and cooperate with them. I have been made aware of a demon beast cultivation method. It would allow for humans to pair with demons to gain power, and the demon beast benefits the same. I would like some of your descendants to participate in this cultivation, maybe a few descendants a year or decade.”

”And they will live? And be treated safely?”

“Of course. I won’t accept any mistreatment for them, and will bless them with an early consciousness.”

“You can do that too?! How? Who are you?!”

“A passing god.”

"I see, thus the secret…"

Soul communication didn’t use words, but intents and ideas. This meant messages were perfectly conveyed, ignoring language and conception barriers. Although this world didn’t know gods yet, she could understand being powerful enough to alter the world.

Earlier when I had searched for techniques, I had found a demon beast cultivation method. It linked the two souls of the cultivators, and benefited both. The problem was that the maker of this technique died without a successor to it.

He had created a method to forge demon's souls into rings, which empowered ones soul and cultivation. The stronger the demon, the stronger the rings. Strength often corresponded with age, and the maker of this technique went to fight what appeared to be a dragon.

He was killed with a smack.

I see potential in the technique though. It seems like a real technique, with complex thought behind it. After some modification, it could even provide the soul abilities to the owner of the rings. The demon cultivation technique also had benefits, and combining the two let the demon absorb these soul rings as well.

"I accept, as long as you save my children"

The snake agreed without much difficulty, and I called out to Jasar.

"We're gonna help her out a bit! Can you come with us?"

"That's a she? Hgggh. Sure, You surprise me again.."

I led Jasar to the snake, and we rode her to her cave. She was massive, big enough to swallow a lion, and pretty fast as well. After about twenty minutes, we arrived at our destination.

A cave was before us, above the ground level a bit. There was space away from the shrubbery and trees, and the snake led us inside.

We got off of her, and I produced light with my qi. It was a standard cave, though huge on the inside. We followed the snake for several minutes, before reaching a large open space.

"Here they are."

"I see. Jasar, please watch the mouth of the cave. This will take a while."

Jasar was happy to help, and quickly obliged. After he was gone, I began to diagnose everyone.

The snake had been injured, and as such suffered several complications. She couldn't gain more cultivation, and some of her abilities were suppressed.

As for her eggs, they had a waning lifeforce, meaning they would all die soon.

Seeing this, I left my body for a bit to give my blessings to them all. I first blessed the eggs with life energy and vitality, allowing them to live. After that was done, I began a process to repair the snake's cultivation.

"Can I call you Jira?"

"Of course, I don't mind."

I spent an hour healing Jira, and told Jasar when I was done to get some rest. Entering my god state removed my sleepiness, and since Jasar was sleeping, I decided to talk with Jira.

"So, where did these eggs come from? I haven't seen any snakes like you."

"We can lay eggs with or without mates if we are queens."

"I see. And how does being a queen work?"

"Queens are born, not made. Most will be born normally, but queens can start their own families."

'Interesting. So they can produce guards, citizens, or even queens by themselves?'

"And what's the normal process for them?"

"I am not fully aware. I assume some would kill queens, while some wouldn't. Those born to us are subordinate."

Most monsters weren't born with high intelligence, including these snakes. Jira gained it due to her cultivation level, and with it being repaired would only grow more. I had blessed her descendants with intelligence, which would give them an edge, but others would be instinct based entirely.

I spoke with her through her soul a bit more, and she went to sleep. I decided to as well a few hours later, and we all woke up the next day.

There were 23 eggs in the nest, and we needed to take them all back. After a while, I just decided to use my god powers and had Jira stay behind.

Me and Jasar went ahead for three days, and upon arriving at the village I explained the situation.

“You invited a demon beast to live here?! What were you thinking, and how?!”

“We have a soul contract. It will assist us, in exchange for living here. It benefits you both ways.”

“And how can you guarantee it won’t eat us?!”

My father and the elders of the settlement were angry. My father seemed more concerned, while the elders seemed to think I was a fool. They were both angry to some degree, but my father was more inclined to believing in me of course.

“I made a soul contract with her.”

“Her? Now you’re acting like it’s a human! What will we do if it kills everyone?”

“It won’t. If it were to try, I would deal with it.”

The elders seemed angry, but ready to accept it. One in particular was extremely angry, and I believed he had a grudge against me personally. After a few more minutes of arguing though, they accepted and I moved to the mountainous area behind the settlement.

Jasar and I cleared out some more space in a sort of cave on the side of the mountain. It was higher than the settlement by about fifty feet, and quite a bit away. The mouth was rather wide, but it was stable and had a lot of space inside of it. After we cleared a deeper pathway, and destroyed some rocks to the sides I summoned the snakes and their den into the cave.

“How’d they appear?”

“It’s something monsters can do sometimes. Jura is just very special.”

I lied, for one of the first times to Jasar. It was due to the potential drawbacks of people knowing, or even suspecting me to be a god, or god.

Jira appeared, and smiled at the situation of this cave area. It had more potential lighting, more space for movement, and they were blocked off from monsters by the settlement.

“So, as of now my people are suspicious of you, which I am sure you can understand. I would like to introduce you, and translate your intentions for the others.”

“Why not.”

I led Jira and Jasar from the cave, and told Jasar he could hang around if he wanted. He decided to stick around a bit longer, and I gathered the people and elers to meet with Jira.

“It’s huge!”

“What did you bring back!”

“Calm down, this is Jira. She will be providing some assistance to us. Her presence will prevent weaker monsters from bothering us, and some of her children can become cultivation partners to some of you.”

“Hello”

Only a couple of people with stronger or more sensitive souls could hear her. This was due to both a lack of sensitivity to soul energy, and Jira having a relatively low level for her soul due to injuries.

“She says hi. Any questions?”

People just sat in silence, and those that heard her were even less responsive. I returned with her to the cave, and we began to talk for a bit. I wanted to understand the killing intent from earlier, the soul, and talk about her treatment here.

“I wanted to ask a few things, and discuss a few things if that was okay with you.”

“Sure. I like this place more than expected.”

“That’s good! Firstly, I want to talk about how you children are treated. I want you to handle the queens, and a few of your children entirely.”

“Why? Wasn’t the goal to have them help your people?”

“Well you’re still gonna need help. I also don’t want to give potential traitors power, give you a chance yourself to grow, and I don’t want to drain a resource.”

“I see. As long as they are respected.”

“Of course. I also want to tell you about their intelligence. It wouldn’t be healthy for them to instantly be mature, so they will be the same as a normal snake for the first twenty days. After that, they will form a childish intellect, and develop like an intelligent demon afterwards”

“Thank you. I hadn’t considered the possible effects of advancing their aging...”

“It’s not a problem. Secondly, I wanted to ask a few things about the soul and killing intent.”

“I don’t really know much, it’s just natural.”

“That’s fine, can you direct some killing intent at me for a bit?”

I used my god state to sense the energy directly, feeling its entirety. Intent, It was energy that all creatures, and even matter emanated. Intent was just will, and killing intent was the will to kill. With good sensitivity one could sense minute amounts, but without that it would need to be in a large mass or strength.

This could be harnessed as a sort of weapon if used correctly, giving someone the feeling they would die or be injured. If I could understand it, as least. I perceived it for a bit, and replicated it relatively easily. I didn’t make it though, simply released what I had.

“Interesting. May you also use your soul senses on me?”

I asked Jira for about another hour, and we guided each other on various topics. I showed her some methods to speed up and solidify her cultivation, and she helped me to comprehend the soul and intents of the world. This was likely the power behind gods and their ability to change the world with their followers.

After that was done I decided to help around the settlement more. It was rather small, with only a little more than four hundred people, almost five hundred. I had about twelve days before the eggs would hatch, due to their newfound vitality. With this being the case, I wanted to begin training the first batch of demon cultivators, or whatever they would be called and now was the time to do it.

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