Nascent Demon Wings

Indeed, Roy could not possibly jump into the lava, but he had never intended to bathe in it from the start!

As a Little Demon who had only been born not long ago, he naturally could not compare to a demon like Alanya. But he had his own advantages: he was small and light.

So when she saw him leap onto the rock, Alanya behind him was instantly stunned!

With her tank-sized body, did she dare keep chasing him and jump onto that rock!?

That would be no different from seeking death...

Watching Roy sit atop that rock as it slowly drifted downstream with the lava, Alanya anxiously stomped her Spider Legs against the ground with booming thuds.

She truly could not tell whether this Little Demon had simply gotten lucky or had thought of this escape method from the beginning. If it was the latter, then this Little Demon was rather terrifying. He clearly looked as though he had only been born recently, yet he was as cunning as an Old Demon. How could such intelligence belong to nothing more than a Lower Demon??

No, her Soul Fragments were still in his hands. If he escaped just like this, he would definitely eat them. That would deal enormous damage to the main body of her soul.

Seeing her Spider Demon clones catch up from behind, Alanya gritted her teeth and ordered them to the riverbank!

Jump! All of you, jump!

Alanya did not dare jump herself, but the much smaller Spider Demons could. However, if those Spider Demons accidentally jumped into the lava and were burned to death, Alanya would likewise be unable to retrieve the Soul Fragments they carried.

But she was already blinded by rage. She could not accept the fact that she had actually been thwarted by a Little Demon. Even at the cost of losing Soul Fragments, she wanted to kill Roy.

However... how could Roy possibly have failed to think of something she could think of?

The rock floating in the lava was not large to begin with. It could only hold Roy alone, with no room for anyone else. Under such circumstances, even if those Spider Demons leaped over, there was only one possible landing spot. So Roy rose to his feet on the rock and swung his tail, knocking the Spider Demons out of mid-air one after another and sending them tumbling into the lava.

As a result, after only a few Spider Demons had been knocked away, Alanya no longer dared send any more after him. She was not stupid. How could she fail to see such a hopeless situation?

"Despicable Little Bug!" With no other options, Alanya began attacking him verbally. Her vocabulary was clearly rather lacking, though, so she kept calling Roy the same thing over and over. "How long can you keep hiding? As long as I keep following you, you will never be able to get ashore again! Then this Lava River will carry you all the way down into the deeper Abyss, where you will encounter even more Powerful Demons. Any one of them could crush you with a single finger!"

Roy was taken aback. There really was an even deeper underground world? And from the sound of it, these native demons called such underground worlds the Abyss?

Did this Lava River also flow deeper at its end?

Of course, Roy could not allow himself to keep drifting along like this. But after saying those words, Alanya put them into action, following Roy along the riverbank. Looking back, the other bank was still far away. This Lava River was much wider than it had appeared from his visual estimation above—at least four or five meters across. There was no way he could jump over it.

Though he wanted to use the rock as a small boat and paddle it, Roy could not find anything that could serve as an oar. Besides, an ordinary oar would probably melt in the lava almost instantly...

Thus, Roy appeared to be trapped...

Seeing Roy hesitate, Alanya was immediately filled with delight and laughed smugly.

However, before she could finish laughing, she saw Roy slap his forehead, then wave a claw through the air.

What is this damned Little Bug doing? Alanya looked utterly puzzled.

How could I forget? I still have quite a few Soul Fragments. Sitting on the rock, Roy muttered to himself as he Summoned the System Interface. Sure enough, he had killed quite a few Spider Demons earlier and obtained a total of forty or fifty Soul Fragments. If these Soul Fragments came from Alanya's soul, perhaps they could be used as well?

If they could be used, perhaps he could get himself out of this predicament!

With that thought, Roy immediately began drawing.

This time, what Roy drew was a pair of wings—a pair of Demon Wings!

If he could not jump across or swim across, then he could only fly. So the first thing Roy thought of was giving himself a pair of wings. However, he only had Soul Fragments on hand, and he did not know whether they would be enough to redeem them. Thus, after drawing them, he did not dare make the wings too large, much less add any complicated Defined Attributes.

He gave this pair of Demon Wings only one definition: [Flight]!

However, when Roy tried to redeem and manifest them, he found that it would not work. He could not redeem them! His Soul Power Value was insufficient! It could only reach 80% completion. Even if the wings were made from the same material as his own flesh, it was still not enough.

Roy had a headache. He had also noticed that the system did not display the specific Soul Power Value of each soul. Likewise, it did not clearly mark how much Soul Power Value each Defined Attribute required. Only when redeeming and manifesting something would it display a completion percentage. This meant Roy had to estimate the Defined Attributes himself.

Roy made a guess. The attribute of flight might have certain strength requirements for the wings. After all, they needed to offset his own weight for him to fly. Wings without sufficient strength would not do. That was probably why he could not redeem them.

So Roy thought for a moment and changed the Defined Attribute to [Gliding]!

The moment he made that change, it succeeded!

It felt to Roy much like a wingsuit. A human wearing a wingsuit might not be able to flap and fly, but they could spread it open and glide...

Roy was still four or five meters away from the opposite bank. As long as he handled it properly, crossing with a glide was not impossible.

Since it was settled, then he would redeem and manifest it!

On the bank, Alanya had still been wondering what Roy was up to. Then, at that very moment, a sharp pain suddenly erupted from her soul!

The agony that arose directly from her soul was indescribable. Alanya's entire body trembled as she let out a bloodcurdling scream. The connection between her main soul and its fragments was abruptly severed, making her immediately realize that Roy had devoured her Soul Fragments!

But that was the strange part. She had not seen Roy take out her Soul Fragments and devour them at all. How had he done it!?

Alanya's massive body was already sprawled on the ground. She forced herself to raise her head and look toward Roy on the rock in the river, only to discover that Roy's body was trembling as well.

But his trembling was different, because Alanya could clearly see two bulges suddenly rise on Roy's back!

As Roy shook, those two bulges suddenly burst through his skin and unfurled. The next moment, a pair of dark red Demon Wings appeared!

Alanya was stunned by the sight before her...

Demon Wings!? Those were real Demon Wings! Could this damned Little Bug actually possess the bloodline of the Upper Demon Race!?

That could not be right. If he truly possessed the bloodline of the Upper Demon Race, how could he possibly appear in the Upper Abyss?

Alanya's confusion was natural. In the Abyssal Realm, bloodline was the most fundamental criterion by which demons were judged. The Lower Demon Race usually consisted of demons with mixed bloodlines. Such demons were generally born from eggs, and they did not even have the concept of parents. Male Lower Demons did not care, while female Lower Demons would, after laying Demon Eggs, send them directly to worlds farther above and place the eggs in the Sea of Demons. The seawater would then carry those eggs to Hatching Grounds scattered everywhere—those volcanic islands, where they would be incubated by scorching volcanic rock beds. Nearly all Lower Demons came into being this way.

But Middle Demons and Upper Demons with relatively pure bloodlines were different. Although some Middle Demons were also egg-born, quite a few were born from embryos. At the level of Upper Demons, all were born from embryos. This method of birth also meant that Upper Demons were few in number, and they placed greater importance on their descendants, educating them from the moment they were born.

And whether a demon's bloodline was pure or not depended on whether it possessed Demon Wings...

Unlike the Elytra of those Insectoid Demons, the wings Roy had created were the true form of Demon Wings. No wonder Alanya was both shocked and puzzled. Demons with pure bloodlines that possessed Demon Wings were exceedingly rare in the Upper Abyss...

Under Alanya's astonished gaze, Roy tried flapping his wings once. The wings looked rather small, and their Wingspan was not very broad, but he could control them freely. So Roy turned toward the opposite bank, crouched on the rock, and began gathering strength!

He concentrated all his strength in his Legs, even curling his tail and bracing it against the rock. Once he had built up enough force, Roy explosively pushed off with both Legs and his tail, launching himself into the air!

He leaped remarkably high. As he shot toward the opposite bank, Roy fully spread his Demon Wings!

At that moment, the hot air above the Lava River also gave him considerable lift, allowing him to glide smoothly toward the other bank. But because he was gliding, Roy's altitude kept dropping. Just as he was about to run out of height, he barely managed to seize the rock wall on the opposite bank with his Claws. With two hard kicks of his Legs, he climbed up at once!

Not a perfect landing! Once Roy realized he had truly escaped his predicament, even he could not help but grin!

Turned Around, Roy waved at Alanya across the river, then tried uttering his first sentence in Demonic Language as a farewell.

"No! Need!"

Well, as the native tongue of the Demon Race, it did not seem too difficult to learn...

Folding the wings on his back, Roy left beneath Alanya's dumbfounded gaze...

Well, in Chapter Thirteen, I finally became a little more like a real demon...