Demon and the Abyss

When Naimus left the church, it was already noon. The sun hung like a great disk in the sky, radiating a terrifying heat.

Clearly, the Sky Whale was sunbathing right now.

"It might get dark later today..." His long-established routine flashed through his mind, and Naimus soon formed an idea of where to go next.

"The current trouble lies with Otto and the Village Guardian."

"Otto has secretly done things forbidden by The Church, while the Village Guardian is most likely plotting something in secret, even using the summoning of Demons as a cover."

"The trainee priest and Paladin will arrive in three days. They will most likely come to investigate me."

"I need to find a way to resolve some of these issues within three days, so I can better connect them to my subsequent plans."

Naimus rationally analyzed his current situation. What he needed most right now was the power of faith.

Only with enough power of faith could he continuously analyze Divine Rank and climb higher.

"Given the current situation, I need enough assistance. Otherwise, even if I uncover Otto's secret violations, I alone have no way to cover them up or alter them. The Church will still hold it against me." A plan gradually took shape in Naimus's mind.

Otto had numbers on his side. Of the village's hundred-plus households, most depended on him for their livelihoods and resources.

He also had the financial means to support his control over quite a few "extraordinary individuals."

The simplest example was the merchant caravan.

Given the dangerous environment outside the village, that caravan surely had multiple extraordinary individuals.

"So I should first set my sights on whatever the Village Guardian is planning and obtain enough 'strength' from him."

Naimus then headed out of the village, deciding to open a breach through the Village Guardian.

Village Guardians generally lived along the outskirts of the village, where there were usually one or two Reserve Village Guardians as well.

They were people stripped of their identities, forever lingering on the edge of danger.

Getting such people to talk was both easy and difficult.

The easy part was that they had nothing left. They themselves had become "tools."

The difficult part was also that they had nothing left.

In a sense, Village Guardians were ghosts bound by contracts. They had no lives of their own, so they generally had no needs.

To make someone without needs speak, one had to seize upon their pain.

When Naimus reached the village's edge, he heard continuous howls coming from nearby.

The bushes rustled. Then a somewhat scruffy young man emerged from within them, his gloved hand holding a black-furred creature.

The moment he stepped out, the young man spotted Naimus. He instinctively retreated, one hand already resting at his waist while the hand holding the creature hid it behind his back.

However, he quickly recognized Naimus, lowered his guard, and bowed his head. "Lord Nigel."

After greeting him, the young man prepared to leave.

"What is your name?" Naimus's voice interrupted him.

"Village Guardians have no names..."

"Did you know that even Demons possess true names?" Naimus did not wait for the young man to recite those meaningless words. Instead, he directly began speaking of Demons.

"Demons may have once been wandering souls from the Material Plane."

"Their existence is corrupted by the Abyss and thus captured. Later, when the Abyss transforms them into Demons, it grants them true names."

"So for wandering souls, becoming a Demon is instead a rebirth!"

"Do you long for a name, young man?" Naimus's voice seemed to possess a certain magic, stirring the young man's desire.

Village Guardians were not truly without desires. They had merely been forced to suppress them.

Especially this young man before him.

The instant Naimus saw him, he decided to make him a target of temptation.

His youth meant that there was a good chance he had not been judged useless because of his own failings. It also meant he likely had not yet accepted his fate.

His first reaction to danger had been to reach for a weapon, showing a strong instinct to fight. There was surely unwillingness buried deep within him.

And earlier, he had been torturing something to death. Naimus had seen that thick, negative resentment clearly!

The black-furred creature in his hand was called a Nest Beast.

Nest Beasts were creatures that threatened the safety of villagers.

Covered in black fur, they excelled at hiding. They crouched in dark corners, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on someone, and then their black fur would pierce into the person's body.

After embedding themselves in a human body, those black hairs would lie dormant before transforming the person into a nest.

Thus, those black hairs were essentially biological embryos, which was how the Nest Beast got its name.

The most important duty of a Village Guardian was to guard against creatures like Nest Beasts, which posed enormous threats to humanity.

They had to use their keen noses to search the village outskirts for the rank scent of these little creatures, then eliminate them in advance.

Usually, however, Village Guardians would only kill them with a single arrow and bury them on the spot.

But this young man had not done so.

Naimus looked at the Nest Beast's body. It was not yet dead. Whether deliberately or not, the young man's arrow had struck its leg, and its body was covered in neat wounds carved by a small knife.

Between the black fur, coarse salt granules could faintly be seen.

"Village Guardian..." The young man shuddered, still preparing to recite the Village Guardian Code.

As a Reserve Village Guardian, he too was bound by the contract. Some clauses would inflict torment upon him the moment he violated them.

For example, being dissatisfied with the status of Village Guardian or harboring other intentions.

Once such feelings were clearly expressed, he would violate the contract.

Yet at that moment, the young man raised his head. He looked Naimus directly in the eye. Though his mouth recited the Code, his gaze seemed to contain a certain force.

The next moment, Naimus raised his sword and thrust forward, instantly striking the young man's body.

The sudden attack left the young man no time to react.

The knight's sword easily pierced through his body, leaving a hole in him.

Ropes emerged around Naimus, resembling segments of black, unfathomable tentacles.

One rope wriggled as though sensing something, then crawled along the knight's sword and entered the young man's body, filling the hole left by the blade.

At that moment, the young man could clearly feel the Village Guardian Contract within his body being restrained by another force.

He had broken slightly free from his cage.

"Pur means 'raise your head' in Demon Tongue. That will be your name from now on." The ropes filling the sky withdrew and gradually vanished as Naimus's voice rang out.

"From now on, I will be your Abyss!"

The young man trembled all over. He stared directly at Naimus, but his knees had already fallen to the ground.

Thank you for following along. If any of you are taking the college entrance exams, good luck!