10 Escape

The demon was in front of Bruce but he couldn't move.

His eyes trailed off to the dismembered head of the little girl and tears couldn't help but well up in his eyes.

"I am afraid all right but at least I should try to run," Bruce thought to himself not understanding what was going on with his own body.

At that moment he remembered the state his parents were in when they were ravaged by a demon.

He almost couldn't recognize them and he was just a teenager, also he remembered his friend Aiden who left too soon, "am I about to join them?" He asked himself in doubt.

"Hehehehe," the demon uttered a human-like chuckle most likely in reaction to Bruce's fear, all demons enjoyed seeing their prey tremble in fear, but they wouldn't enjoy that more than the taste of their victim's fresh blood.

"Bang," it lunged forward ready to rip Bruce from limb to limb, seeing the nearing figure of the demon Bruce closed his eyes waiting for a painless death, but the death, the pain didn't come, after a few seconds Bruce opened his blurry eyes.

A large black arm that seemed almost metallic gripped the demon holding it in midair, compared to the demon the arm holding it seemed small, but the demon didn't move it just stayed still.

There was a myth in the shelter that demons couldn't feel fear but that myth seemed to have been proven wrong because right now this demon seemed submissive as if fearing a higher being.

There was only one thing that could command such fear from a demon at first sight, and that was a stronger demon.

"WIIIIIIIIII WIIIIIIIIII threat level 61 demon detected at the sixth building on Addams street all citizens are advised to evacuate, threat level 61 demon detected at the sixth building of Addams street all citizens are advised to evacuate."

The sound of the Shelter's alarms made Bruce's heart skip a beat.

"Cough, cough, hello human," a sickly but domineering voice sounded out from behind him.

Bruce didn't dare to move, his brain worked fast as he observed the metallic-looking hand that hovered over his shoulder firmly gripping the demon in front of him.

The higher-level demon was behind him, and any wrong move could get him killed.

"Shhh,"

Bruce could faintly hear the sound of rushing water in the pipes, through the open bathroom door he could practically see water leaking from the taps and floating in mid-air.

"I'll make this simple and quick." The demon said.

"Whoosh!"

A dark-colored piece of paper appeared in front of Bruce, making him gasp in surprise.

"It's on fire," Bruce thought as he stared at this floating piece of paper, and indeed the floating piece of paper was on fire.

"I'm injured, and I'm about to die," the demon started, its voice sounding weak and firm at the same time.

Pausing a bid the demon let out a breath, "But it seems I'm not the only one that's dying today, looking at your situation I can say the same for you as well," the demon added, a hint of bemusement in its weakened tone.

Letting out a low grunt the demon continued, "I can live on by possessing you, but I would lose much of my strength, more strength than I have already lost."

"Cough, cough," the demon coughed each breath sounding weaker than the last, it seemed to be fighting an internal battle within itself but it never gave up and continued speaking.

"The only way to grow stronger is through a contract of body and soul, in exchange for granting one wish of mine I will give you all my strength and even the potential to surpass me, you might start with the power of a low-level demon but it would be enough for you to survive this scenario." The demon declared before darting in.

"In exchange for my power, I want you to surpass me and kill the demon that did this to me, that is all I ask human, do you accept?" It proposed.

As soon as the demon finished speaking fiery words started to appear on the blank piece of paper, it was written in English, and its terms were the same as the demon proposed just now.

"Accept?" Bruce pondered with a dry smile, the word sounded odd, as the demon behind him made it seem as if he had a choice.

"But isn't this what I wanted?" Bruce asked himself, honestly such a contract seemed too good to be true, he could take revenge on the demons he so hated starting from the one in front of him, and all he had to do was kill another demon In the future, it seemed like a win-win.

Not thinking any further "I accept," Bruce said.

"Owch!" he let out a short wince of pain as he felt a sting on his arm, looking at his arm he didn't know how it happened but a small cut had appeared on it.

Slowly a drop of blood leaked out from the cut; it floated in mid-air eventually reaching the floating paper.

"Whooooo!"

The sound of raging fire sounded out, and the contract burned as soon as it made contact with Bruce's blood.

Bruce on the other hand felt his vision darken, he was losing consciousness but as he went out he could faintly hear the pain-filled screams of the demon that killed the little girl.

And a domineering voice followed, "You made the right choice Bruce, let me take care of this weakling for you, after all, your opponents from now on will be much tougher."

***************

Aiden sat on the rock with a solemn expression on his face; he had been stuck here for god knows how long, but he was about to escape, he could feel it.

Today was the day he killed the tall demon and then he could finally open the book and find the next clue to get out of here.

"You wish!"

A gender-neutral voice sounded out in his head, interrupting Aiden's thoughts.

"Shut up while I think," Aiden said expressionlessly as he slammed his arm on the stone table "Bang!" large cracks were left in its wake.

A lot had happened in the years that Aiden had been stuck here and the first change was his body.

Standing up Aiden revealed his well-defined abs and muscles; as a shade of purple light shone on him, he no longer looked malnourished and instead had the figure of a slim male model.

His shoulders had broadened and his features looked sharper, other than that his hair was even longer than before reaching his shoulders.

After killing thousands upon thousands of demons his body had just kept on improving, and he had started to carefully develop his own combat style, but that came at a cost.

Walking towards the large hall where a hundred thousand statues used to be Aiden could only find nine more statues.

That meant that our dear Aiden had died 99,991 times since he had been here, an alarming number to some but he wasn't that worried.

He believed that he could kill the tall lady, and as for the voice inside his head well that happened for some reason, it seemed to be the demon who brought him here in the first place.

Aiden had tried asking the demon some questions but the demon didn't answer him normally, instead, it just talked about random topics like the strength of the demon he just killed or laughed at him any time he suffered a defeat against a strong demon.

"Tsk, there's no way I'm telling you anything," the gender-neutral voice in Aiden's head sneered.

Honestly, Aiden was used to the demon by now, and to some extent, he even appreciated its company, the only problem was that it seemed a little immature.

"You're immature, your family's immature," the demon yelled, hearing this Aiden smiled.

"I can't believe a demon like you terrified me back then," Aiden laughed.

After Aiden's words there was a faint silence until finally he heard something.

"That's because you've grown a lot Aiden and you are the most compatible participant to ever take the trial."

Jumping from where he was Aiden landed on the ground with a thud, he picked up a spear from the side carved completely out of stone.

He had been attempting to make a suitable weapon in his spare time and after countless trials and errors, he finally got the hang of it.

But why stop at just a spear, he picked up a small dagger made out of stone as well and stuffed it by the side of his boots, looking at Aiden properly you could see that apart from his body his outfit had also changed.

His pants remained the same but you could see that his boots seemed to be made out of some kind of animal skin.

He didn't wear a shirt and a knife made out of stone could be seen on his waist firmly held in place by some animal skin, this wasn't animal skin though but demon skin, clearly Aiden had been busy.

Picking up the last piece of equipment Aiden smiled, this was his latest work, something that he was most proud of, he met a demon that looked like a bird, this bird had a sword-shaped spike extending out from its back with much effort Aiden managed to kill this demon and obtained this sword after severing the spike.

But it didn't have a hilt so Aiden just tied a piece of cloth (his shirt) around the base to protect his hand.

Now he had a spear, a dagger, a small knife, and a makeshift sword, feeling that he had prepared enough Aiden started moving.

As he crawled through the narrow hole at the back of the cave, he realized that it was harder than usual with all his equipment.

Struggling a bit Aiden managed to force his way through and he was greeted by the sight of a purple moon shining down on this mist-covered realm bathing it in a purple glow.

See this Aiden was indifferent, he didn't feel like enjoying the scenery and instead had other plans in mind.

"Bang," his feet left the ground creating a muffled bang.

As he sprinted in a straight line Aiden was amazed by his speed, his speed had already reached the realm of a professional athlete and even after running with all his strength for a while he still didn't feel tired.

After about forty minutes of running Aiden finally saw something, you might not know this but Aiden had already killed every demon in this realm, and what was left were the children that attracted the tall woman.

Seeing the figure in the distance Aiden narrowed his eyes, he stabbed his spear at the ground as he neared it, he finally saw what the child looked like, at most a four-year-old boy, and of course, its mouth was stuffed with dirt.

"Slice!" the sound of slicing sounded out before the boy could even react, blood gushed out and sprayed everywhere, and some even splashed on Aiden's face.

Thinking back Aiden smiled bitterly, because of his weakness he had been injured by this creature the first time.

At every moment he was terrified and on edge, but he had adapted killing his way to the top of the food chain, slowly his fear disappeared as he had experienced death multiple times.

He didn't live life on the edge, he had gone past the edge multiple times.

Instead of standing at the edge of the pit he had jumped in again, and again and again.

A familiar smell invaded Aiden's nostrils and he saw a white orb floating above the corpse of the dead creature.

But surprisingly Aiden didn't rush to pick it up, instead, he scooped a handful of dirt and threw it towards the area behind the orb.

"Thud," the sound of a thud sounded out as the dirt collided with something in midair.

But nothing was there, all that could be seen was an empty open space.

The area distorted and a lady eight to fifteen feet tall could finally be seen, she had a smile that reached her ears in the most inhuman way possible as she stared at Aiden in amusement.

if Aiden had foolishly stepped forward to eat that orb he would have been dead by now, Aiden made sure to maintain eye contact with this being in front of him, and upon seeing this its smile widened.

Aiden had broken all the rules, apart from killing a creature that resembled a human child he had wasted time not even bothering to move, and after sensing the demon's presence he had hit her with a handful of dirt instead of ignoring her.

In response to Aiden's bravery the demon did something new, for the first time, it did something strange, and it ignored the child.

Stepping over it the demon focused its undivided attention on Aiden.

Loosening his body Aiden remained calm, readying himself for the epic battle that was about to unfold.

"Bang," a loud bang sounded out as Aiden's feet left the ground, the sheer force of his movements causing dust to move.

But he wasn't moving forward he was moving backward, "Slice," the hissing of air sounded out striking where he stood previously.

The fight had started and before Aiden knew it the lady was in front of him swinging her claws with so much force that the air hissed.

"Tang!" the sound of metal colliding sounded out as Aiden used his bone sword to barely block the attack, and like a ragdoll, his arms were thrown backward by the force of the attack.

But Aiden's goal was never to fight, he had been multitasking throughout the fight and was using his eyes to look for the bone spear he stabbed in the ground, it was easy to lose your sense of direction in the mist so Aiden stabbed his spear on the ground as a landmark all he had to do was run straight in the direction he left his spear in and he would succeed.

Finally, he found it and ran towards the spear but the tall lady wasn't playing, she was right behind Aiden chasing him with an excited smile on her face.

"Whoosh," the tall lady increased her speed catching up to Aiden instantly her mouth widened as she prepared to swallow him whole from behind, but Aiden turned back abruptly "Swoosh," he threw the spear as it cut through the air piercing itself in the tall ladies thigh.

"Ekkkkkkkk!"

A loud inhuman shriek sounded out echoing throughout the valley, but Aiden was long gone sprinting for his life, note that the feats performed in his acts here happened at top human speed, his stamina wasn't endless so Aiden didn't want to exhaust it.

He used all the force he could muster, rushing through the valley of purple mist, but in the distance, he saw something the shadow of an eight to fifteen feet tall lady, "shit, shit" Aiden cursed in his mind.

"How did she get in front of me, and so fast no it's not possible," Aiden reflected.

Picking up speed, Aiden ran and ran until finally he collided with the tall lady, but unexpectedly she exploded into pieces of mist and scattered.

"Badump, Badump," Aiden felt his heart beating, he was excited as a devilish smile formed on his lips, at the same time he was amazed by her intelligence.

She wanted to slow him down and he was never told that she could create illusions.

Suddenly Aiden made an abnormally large jump significantly slowing him down as he landed on top of a rock but before he could even regain his balance he heard the sound of the air tearing.

"Slash!"

Before he could even react a white object slid past his waist leaving a ghastly wound on it, it was his spear, the tall lady had somehow thrown it back at him.

He looked behind him and could see the tall lady closing in rapidly her inhuman mouth opening as wide as possible as she uttered inhuman shrieks of anger.

Looking towards her thighs you could see that the wound that Aiden had inflicted, had completely healed.

"Is it too late to say I'm sorry?" Aiden thought as he ran away inciting a scoff from the voice in his head.