Damien landed near a cave and saw some leftover charred logs, which was proof that somebody was cooking something here.
And seeing this cave reminded him of the scene he first saw when he came into this world, 'I guess most Daemons like to live in a cave, huh?'
He didn't use his soul perception to not give away his position in case someone was hiding around here.
But he could see some kind of firelight coming from inside the case, making him squint his eyes as he decided to take a look.
"Careful, Master…" Kalypso said as she didn't like how this was looking.
"These creatures of darkness and death surely like damp and creepy places," Luna mentioned as she saw Damien walk through the muddy ground filled with small pools and puddles.
There were spider webs hanging from the ceiling and stalagmites protruding from the ground.
To his surprise, Damien saw the cave's inner space getting bigger and bigger as he went deeper inside.
The rocky walls were cracked with fire torches adorning them. Now he was sure somebody was using this cave, at least recently.
The mildewy smell of stagnant water wafted through his nostrils as he saw strange insects and bugs crawling through the walls and the ground. Some of them even looked poisonous, and he made sure to not go anywhere near them just to be safe.
But after walking a few meters, Damien came upon something that caught his eye. The walls no longer seemed to be rocky but seemed metallic, and upon close inspection, he saw some numbers and words painted on them but couldn't really tell since they seemed quite faded away.
"What kind of place was this…" Damien felt as if this cave wasn't always a cave.
"My aunt's soul is more powerful than mine, and yet she didn't sense anybody in this place. So nobody should be here unless…" Damien
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Hey, look up. Saw that?" Luna suddenly pointed out as Damien looked up to see a small metal cube stuck to the ceiling of the cave. It looked dark gray in color, and a small red light was constantly blinking.
"What is that? A formation artifact?" Damien wanted to touch it but didn't know if it was dangerous or not. But it did look like something that came from the past of the Old World.
"You can't feel anything?" Luna asked, making Damien wonder if she knew anything, "Nope. But do you?"
Kalypso perked her ears, curious what Luna knew.
"It's quite interesting. This little box is actually radiating ethereal energy at a very low density but at a certain frequency which is why you didn't even notice it," Luna explained.
"Eh? What does it really do? Is it safe to touch it?" Damien curiously asked.
"You can grab it since that artifact seems to suppress any kind of ethereal aura. Strange…Why would these Daemons use such an artifact?" Luna mumbled to herself as she found it puzzling.
Damien grabbed it and simply sent his ethereal energy through it to figure out the formation circuit powering this artifact so that he could learn how to turn this thing on and off.
But to his surprise, the formation circuits were too complicated, making him realize that the expert who designed and made this was definitely at a whole another level when it came to formations.
"Ungh!"
"Eh? What was that?" Damien got startled when he suddenly heard a muffled cry echoing through the walls of this cave.
"Hey, put that thing in your soul space," Luna instructed as Damien followed it as he could guess what she had in mind.
And the moment he put the mysterious artifact in his soul space, he heard the voices of two men echo through the caves,
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"This ghoul bitch! Look at her struggle, haha!"
"Aww, she does not seem so high and mighty now, does she? I have to say, tying her up like this is one of the most satisfying moments of my life, haha. Just one punch from me, and she seems like she is about to cry. I really love this Pulverizer Glove."
"Give me that. I will show you how to punch using such a powerful glove."
"BHAM!*
"UNGH!!"
"Hahaha! Look at her squeal!"
"Oh my…Her creepy eyes are staring daggers at us. We are so scared, hahaha…"
Damien had followed the voices of these men and was surprised when he saw two stocky men wearing strange suits standing before a ghoul woman, hanging in the air as her hands were tied to the ceiling.
Her mouth was also sealed using some kind of tape which made him realize why he had heard muffled cries before.
Her skin was just like any other ghoul he met but was smooth and flawless, while her pearl-shaped eyes were dark silver in color. However, her long silky hair was a pale white that reached till her buttocks. She was wearing black spandex-like pants and an armored vest that revealed a glimpse of her ample breasts and her tempting cleavage.
She had a curvy supple figure, but her face seemed young and made Damien feel like she wouldn't be that older than him, unlike Akira, who was a mature woman.
But he hid behind a rock and suppressed his own aura to the maximum using his Mirage of Myriad Phantasms technique.
Now he realized why he or Akira wasn't able to sense the presence of these two men, but he was sure this restrained ghoul was Akira's disciple. But why were humans here? Weren't the Daemons who kidnapped her?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})These two also seemed to be enjoying torturing her by punching her using some glove-like artifact that seemingly amplified their strength.
He could see her body getting riddled with severe reddish bruises and possibly internal bleeding. He only felt contempt for these two fuckers for bullying someone who was tied up, and knowing that they were torturing his aunt's disciple made him want to take these two down right now.
