The Gap Between Ranks

Meanwhile, Yuri, still lost, hummed to himself as he leisurely searched for the right path.

But just as he was about to pass a corner, a twisted shadow suddenly opened its enormous mouth and lunged at him with sharp, serrated teeth.

Just as it was about to succeed, Yuri, who had been humming to himself, suddenly raised a hand and pointed at the attacking shadow without warning.

In an instant, the shadow retreated as quickly as it had come, stopping only when it was more than ten meters away.

Yuri turned his head and looked at the man-eating flower before him. "Well, well, even the guard dog's come out. That must mean the church isn't too far from here."

The man-eating flower showed no extreme reaction to Yuri's taunt. Instead, it kept a safe distance from him the whole time.

Seeing this, Yuri once again released his terrifying magic, trying to crush the man-eating flower beneath it.

When the man-eating flower sensed Yuri's demonic power, the petals around its mouth and the scales on its body instantly bristled, and it abruptly put a great deal more distance between them!

Clearly, unlike the thorny branches from before, which had been reduced to instinct and couldn't even resist, the man-eating flower's clone was much stronger and more intelligent.

"Oh? Pretty clever. I guess that's what you'd expect from a clone directly connected to the main body." Yuri smiled and withdrew his magic.

The man-eating flower, which had been trembling in the distance, gradually calmed down and peeked at Yuri from afar.

It doesn't want to leave. Is it after my magic?

Yuri found it amusing, though it didn't surprise him.

Gaining strength by eating was an instinct engraved in a creature's genes. From a predator's perspective, it meant treating other creatures as nourishment to make itself stronger.

For demons, whether their own kind or other species, all were nourishment.

After all, in the vast majority of stories, demons were synonymous with "evil." They were often greedy, violent, ruthless, and frenzied... Just like the frightened man-eating flower in the distance: although it had clearly sensed the gap in strength between itself and Yuri, it still couldn't suppress its greed and desire for the blood of a high-rank demon.

Its instincts overrode its already limited intelligence, making it linger in the distance, unwilling to give up but afraid to approach.

The sight of it being so weak yet so eager to try, only to chicken out, immediately put Yuri in a playful mood, so he used his special skill.

He bent down slightly, clapped his hands at the man-eating flower, and called out, "Here, boy, here, boy! Come here, Wangcai! Here, boy, here, boy! Come on, let's go for a walk..."

Faced with such a dramatic scene, anyone nearby would surely have remarked, "Are you playing with a dog or what?"

As comical as the scene was, the most interesting thing was that it actually worked.

The man-eating flower, which had only dared to peek at him before, quickly succumbed to Yuri's all-purpose pet-training skill. It slowly approached, still somewhat doubtful, like a real pet.

"That's right, good boy! Just like that, come here, come here..." Yuri continued calling, and the man-eating flower soon came up to it.

Just as he was about to reach out and stroke the "dog's head" right in front of him, the seemingly obedient "puppy" suddenly showed its true colors, baring its fangs and catching Yuri off guard with a bite.

"You've got some nerve. You really are different from those brainless things." Yuri looked at the man-eating flower, which had most of his body in its mouth and was trying to tear him apart alive, and said with amusement, "Want a taste? I don't mind, but I'm afraid you won't be able to stomach it."

The man-eating flower didn't answer, but its steadily tightening jaws gave him its answer.

"I see. In that case... have it your way!"

With that, Yuri actually relaxed his tensed muscles, allowing the man-eating flower to pierce his defenses and taste his blood.

Compared with humans, animals, and even mages, being able to devour Yuri, a fellow demon, clearly excited it more.

As the scarlet blood flowed into its mouth, the man-eating flower felt at once that it was the finest spring water in the world. Like divine nectar, it made the flower greedily suck without restraint, then float up into the clouds. Without realizing it, the flower became addicted, gradually losing itself and wanting only to remain in this moment forever...

Unfortunately, that was nothing more than its final wishful fantasy.

"Sparda's power isn't something trash like you can covet." Looking at the man-eating flower's utterly enthralled expression, Yuri mercilessly stated the truth.

As soon as Yuri finished speaking, something went wrong with the man-eating flower, which had been wearing a look of bliss.

Its cherry-pink petals turned a deep bloodred, as if engorged with blood. The stem connecting it to the main body swelled like a python that had eaten too much, while bulges began to form repeatedly on the top and bottom of the huge mouth biting Yuri.

Soon, a hoarse, piercing scream rang out from the man-eating flower's mouth. It let go of Yuri as if it had seen a ghost, and its massive body crashed heavily to the ground.

At any other time, such unbearable pain would have sent the man-eating flower twisting, rolling, and thrashing about.

But now, it had already lost even the strength to struggle and vent its pain. It could only keep sending the expanding magic inside it back to the main body, trying to ease the burden on itself.

Unfortunately, the magic was far more immense than it had imagined. Even after the "charging" connection had been severed, the transfer speed still couldn't keep up.

The demonic blood the man-eating flower had sucked into its body was like a high-density compressed biscuit, expanding rapidly upon contact with water and leaving it no time to digest it.

Finally, amid a furious, unwilling roar, the man-eating flower's head exploded, spraying fluid everywhere. Even the stem, which was recovered each time it died, went completely still.

"I told you, you'd get indigestion," Yuri scoffed.

A mere little clone trying to lay claim to the Power of Sparda was the funniest joke he had ever heard.

He might be only a half, and the human half at that, with only some magic and bloodline power remaining, but he wasn't someone just anyone could challenge.

This wasn't merely a matter of magic, but a gap in their very levels of existence.

"All right, my job's done. Time to see how things are going over there."

Yuri rolled his neck for a while and stretched his back up and down, then continued along the stem, which had completely lost all signs of life.