Kill The Old Ones!

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"...are you absolutely sure that’s what you saw in there?" Diana’s expression was severe as she asked for Ren’s confirmation.

He just told her of what he had seen in the depths of that fog, and if what he described was the real thing—which she’s hoping it isn’t, though it doesn’t look like Ren was joking with her—then their camp is close to a truly troublesome monster.

"Yeah, it is," Ren confirmed, and he doesn’t look like he’s lying at all. "It’s the husk of some sort of a demonic bi-pedal creature. It’s alive, very weak, but alive. It’s protected by a thick fog that seems to have a mind on its own. It’s controlling the fog, using it to drain unfortunate animals and stupid monsters who wander inside, transferring their vitality to that thing. Do you know what that is? And is it dangerous?"

Ren was performing. He knew damn well what this creature was, but he also knew that they were being watched. He couldn’t reveal too much of what he knows, or else he’d attract more unwanted attention to himself. That’s why he’s pretending as if he doesn’t know what that creature was.

"That, I believe, is a Nightmare Fog Demon—one of the most troublesome creatures on the first floor."

Diana then proceeded to explain everything she knew about the creature, not holding back any useful information she knew.

Then she asked, "You said that it looks like a dried corpse; I assume that means it’s severely weakened?"

"Yeah, that’s what it looks like. Your description of what a healthy-looking one doesn’t match what I saw in there, but the features bear resemblance."

"Right, it’s also in a prison. It’s inside a Demon Sealing Cage—the same thing as the one in the shop, the one with the price tag of 75,000 merit points."

"Is it!?" Diana exclaimed in surprise.

She absolutely doesn’t mean to sound like she’s doubting Ren’s words, but it’s just too surprising.

"Yeah. I mean, the cage is damaged and barely working—most of its runic inscriptions had faded or had been eroded by, I assume, the demon itself, but it’s still caging it inside, and the demon’s too weak to do anything."

"I think it only has enough strength to keep the fog up and sustain its remaining life support."

"I shouldn’t be wrong, though. I’ve seen a Demon Sealing Cage before. Although the one I saw in the fog was damaged, I’m sure it’s the same thing."

"Could it be..." Diana trailed off, a wild guess forming on her mind.

"...that the previous trialists were the ones who imprisoned it there? Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing, too."

"But if that’s the case," Diana paused, "that means it’s been imprisoned for more than a hundred years...no, actually, yeah, I think that would make sense. Demons can live for that long, especially when they have food to eat. And it would also make sense that it will be weakened that much."

She then looked at Ren’s eyes for a bit, and she couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious.

"You plan on killing it."

She didn’t use an accusatory tone. It sounded more like she came into a realization.

"Well, I mean...it’s this close to the camp, and it felt dangerous too, even at its current state, so, yes, I am thinking of it." Ren stroked his nonexistent beard, not even bothering to deny her statement.

"I’ve already isolated it," he added. "I scattered powered feces of strong monsters around its domain. That should be more than enough to deter the wild game and the small monsters from getting anywhere near that place, essentially starving the thing."

"That wouldn’t be enough, you know that, right?" She countered. "You can’t expect it to die just by starving it for a couple of hours or days. Besides, its nightmare fog will still linger even after it dies, and so long as it’s there, the chances of it resurrecting the demon are high."

"Furthermore, to truly kill it, you’ll need to step into the fog, which is already a bad idea since the moment you’re inside, the demon will begin draining you of your vitality. You’re a great tonic to it. You, of all people, cannot be the one who goes inside to land the killing blow."

"Well, I don’t plan on getting that close." Ren waved his hand. "My plan is to repair the Demon Sealing Cage from outside of its fog domain."

"Oh!" Diana was surprised. "You can do that?"

"I’m pretty sure I can," Ren confidently replied. "I won’t say that I’m an expert when it comes to runic inscriptions or anything, nor do I have enough merit points to buy a new Demon Sealing Cage, but I can repair the old one."

"So long as I can carve the eroded parts of the array, the cage will spring back to life and suppress the crap out of that thing. I can also carve an additional self-repair function for the cage, which will use the energy, vitality, and essence of the prisoner as fuel for the cage’s repair."

"That should kill it, I reckon," he concluded. "If not, then it should push it further to the brink of death that it’s fog will recede and I can be close enough to land a killing blow without it draining me."

Diana stared at him for a bit and was in deep thought.

She calculated his plan, and as much as she tried to look for any holes or mistakes, she couldn’t. Not at this moment at least. So, she could only reluctantly agree that his plan was sound.

"If you could really make that work, then I don’t see harm in trying. Just...make sure you don’t accidentally wander inside the fog no matter what."

"We can’t let that thing be free, or else it’ll be over for all of us."

**

Ren didn’t sleep.

He spent the night practicing his runic carving, using nothing but chakra control to do his work. It’ll be easier with his hands, of course, but he can’t do that since he’d had to carve the missing runes from outside the fog.

Fortunately, Ren was really good at chakra control. He succeeded on his first drawing attempt and in the following ones.

By his 10th attempt, he began making it more complicated just in case of emergency. He walked while craving, making the tools dance and look like they were evading something without disrupting the carving rhythm.

He practiced about a hundred times before switching to the self-repair array.

This one, he doesn’t have to carve from afar. He just needed to carve it on the surface of a small pearl, which he could insert into the control system of the cage, preferably without the demon noticing. And once it’s in there, he could remotely activate it.

His girlfriend was with him all the way. He didn’t sleep, so she didn’t either. She kept him company and talked to him, making his practice a little less boring.

By the time he could say that he’s truly ready, it’s already the next day. The sun was still missing, and the whole rainforest was cold and eerily silent. Even the sound of crickets seemed to be muted.

It’s their seventh day here, and by now, everybody—regardless of whether they like it or not—has already adjusted to this new reality.

Before leaving, Ren and Lily went to Diana’s tent.

She didn’t sleep either. She stayed up because she wanted to be involved. Or at the very least, see the death of the Nightmare Fog Demon with her own eyes.

Diana went out of her tent before they could call out to her, and just like that, they left the camp to deal with the demon.

They ran to the west for a couple of minutes before arriving near the thick and dense fog. Lily and Diana felt solemn.

Even though none of them personally saw what a Nightmare Fog Demon was, they could easily sense the sinister feel hidden within the fog.

"I’m starting," Ren told them in a steadfast manner.

His tools flew out of his bag of holding and penetrated the fog.

They went in there so fast that they almost looked like distant comets.

Ren closed his eyes to focus and perceived the movement within the fog.

His tools arrived before the damaged cage, and the demon remained still. His tools began dancing and repairing the runic inscriptions on the cage. They barely made a sound as they did so.

By the time the demon noticed what was happening, it was already too late, and it was too weak to stop it.

The inscriptions on the cage lit up as if it gained a second life, and immediately pressed the demon down, causing it to shriek in agony and despair—one that the trio heard from outside the domain.

Its fog domain also began collapsing to itself because of the ruthless suppression.

"Go," Ren muttered as he threw the pearl with the self-repair runic array carved into it within the receding tide of fog.

The pearl made its way to the cage’s control system. And when it did, it slotted inside perfectly as if it was always meant to be there.

The cage then seemingly became a digestive system, ruthlessly siphoning the remaining energy of the demon to repair itself.

The poor demon tried its best, but the cage was hungry. Its pitiful cries turned faint over the next couple of minutes, and at the 15th minute, it was over.

The Nightmare Fog Demon was dead.

And Ren earned 100,000 Merit Points for it.