Where Had All the Magic Gone?

Roy retreated backward as he left. He had to guard against the possibility that Alanya might lose her mind and leap straight across the river after him.

But he later realized he had been overthinking it. Alanya was currently trapped in unbearable pain and had no strength left to continue hunting Roy down. She could only watch him leave and let out furious hisses.

Demons were experts at manipulating souls. The more they did it, the more they understood. Through special methods, they could separate a portion of their own souls without damaging the soul itself. What resulted were Soul Fragments. These Soul Fragments could be lodged within living creatures, and because they carried Demonic Aura, ordinary creatures would turn into Demonic Creatures as well.

These Demonic Creatures carrying Soul Fragments were usually used by demons to help capture prey or fight. All of their senses would be conveyed to the demon possessing the soul fragments. The more Soul Fragments a demon separated, the more nodes it had, and the stronger its perception became. It was a special kind of "Soul Network"!

From that perspective, demons were creatures who liked "surfing the internet" too...

Besides being lodged in living creatures, Soul Fragments could actually be lodged in certain objects as well. Such objects were generally called Demon Artifacts or Magic Items, and they often possessed some very unusual effects...

However, separating Soul Fragments was not without side effects. Once those separated Soul Fragments were devoured or purified by someone else, the Soul Main Body would suffer a severe blow. It was even possible for someone to use special methods to read a demon's true name from a Soul Fragment...

A damaged soul could inflict grave harm on a demon, such as Mental Collapse or Demonic Energy Dissipation, causing its strength to plummet. When Roy had exchanged souls to manifest his Demon Wings, he had consumed forty or fifty of Alanya's Soul Fragments in one go. That kind of damage was truly severe. It was already fortunate that Alanya had not gone insane on the spot. How could she possibly have had the strength to leap across the river and continue hunting him?

To Alanya, he was now an enemy she would never forgive...

Of course, Roy, who still knew very little about the Demon World, had no idea what outrageously unforgivable thing he had done. After leaving the riverbank, he was even feeling rather depressed.

Wasn't he supposed to be driving away an evil neighbor? Why had he been the one driven away instead??

This really was something he had never expected! Wang Dachui was a good comrade—he had even crossed worlds and still remained by my side...

He definitely could not return to his cave for the time being. At least not until he found a way to kill Alanya.

What a shame. A cave like that had been quite hard to find. Fortunately, Roy had originally planned to slowly explore this underground world anyway. His plans had merely been moved ahead of schedule, so he was not depressed for long.

So Roy chose a direction and began traveling onward.

He kept searching for prey. Being hunted by Spider Queen Alanya had made Roy realize that all kinds of unexpected events could happen in this unknown world. If he was not careful enough or clever enough, he could lose his life at any moment. The best approach was to store up as many souls as possible, so that he would have room to maneuver in an emergency.

Thus, while traveling, Roy also made a move against Demonic Creatures he could handle, hunting them and taking their souls.

More than a month passed quietly. During that time, Roy gradually figured out a few things.

Perhaps, just as Alanya had said, the more Powerful Demons had gone to live in the deeper layers of the Abyss. The ones remaining in this Upper Abyss were basically all lower-ranking demonic lifeforms!

Slaughter and predation were the Main Theme of this world. Demons hunted Demonic Creatures, and they also hunted their own kind. Likewise, Demonic Creatures hunted not only their own kind but demons as well. That was because Demonic Creatures also had the potential to transform into demons!

As long as they devoured enough demons, Demonic Creatures could accumulate sufficient Demonic Aura and then evolve into demons.

That also explained why Lower Demons came in such bizarre forms and had such complicated bloodlines...

Because of this rule, some ferocious and powerful Demonic Creatures especially loved hunting Little Demons like Roy. Roy had personally seen a Little Demon about his size get knocked to the ground by a huge Bird-type Demonic Creature diving down from the sky. The next moment, the giant bird monster seized it in its beak, threw back its head, and swallowed it whole. Even as it passed through the creature's throat, it was still struggling and twitching...

That scene had chilled Roy to the bone and made him realize that if he could not grow stronger quickly, he might one day be eaten like that too!

The pressure and urgency of survival made Roy realize that he was becoming increasingly cold-blooded through one hunt after another. Now, even when he killed his own kind, he could do so without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

Roy could not defeat demons and Demonic Creatures that were too powerful. But thanks to his Alien Tail, he could easily kill opponents of the same level in many battles. Whether he ambushed them or charged in headfirst, the tail's high Killing Efficiency benefited Roy immensely.

After obtaining enough souls, the first thing Roy did was modify his Demon Wings.

He enlarged the wings again. Now, when spread out, his Demon Wings had a Wingspan of more than two meters. And after discovering that their load-bearing capacity was sufficient, Roy changed the [Gliding] attribute back to [Flight]!

Now, he could finally take off from the ground by flapping his wings and freely perform flying maneuvers in the air, though he was not very fast yet.

Roy had already planned the next upgrade for his Demon Wings: adding the [High-Speed Flight] attribute...

After gaining the ability to fly, Roy's hunting range expanded considerably. He could now fight flying demons and Demonic Creatures.

Day after day passed, and the area Roy explored continued to expand. But in reality, he had only traveled a little over a hundred kilometers from where he used to live. After experiencing many hunts and being hunted himself, Roy discovered something that puzzled him.

He found that the creatures living in the Upper Abyss, whether Demonic Creatures or demons, basically fought only with their bodies. Some used hunting methods such as venom or acid, but those were merely products of their own bodies. There were only two criteria for judging whether a demon or Demonic Creature was powerful: Body Size and muscle.

This style of fighting, all fists and flesh, certainly looked exciting, but it also left Roy deeply puzzled.

Where was the magic? Why had he never seen any demon use magic in battle??