A dead tree

A few more days passed and what was supposed to be just a week turned into fifteen days, Nicola had still not found any traces of the balor. The brothers had recently reached level 12 and were tired of the constant fight that Nicola put them through. "Master, we need to rest. Please, just a few days." they pleaded with big eyes and tired arms that could not get up from the sides of their bodies.

Nicola knew that this break in training was necessary. Since they were able to double their cultivation base, the correct behavior now would be to stabilize their foundations and get used to their own strength before engaging in further fighting. So he placed them inside the space artifact so they could rest.

Nicola stood up and stretched his body, the four lean and muscular arms moved in different positions before he opened his mouth in a big yawn. Tuatha had returned once more to the place where Nicola was. During these weeks he went out alone through the forest to know many things that he was curious about, in fact he had become a collector of trinkets and always returned to the spatial artifact and put the most diverse items in his house, in the end it looked like an junk yard.

Nicola was very fond of the little wisp of gray flames that floated in front of him, he was very powerful but he still had a little childlike mentality for the real things of the world. "Nicola! Nicola! See what I found now. I found this a few kilometers north of here, it's very beautiful, isn't it?" He showed Nicola a black scale that released a red mist around him.

Even though he had never met other demons, except for the sulfur beetles, Nicola felt the sting inside his body when he saw that scale in front of him. Something in his blood said that the owner of that scale was similar to himself. It was there that Nicola found the first clue in weeks of where the balor was.

"Where did you find this, Tuatha?" Nicola asked.

"Far away from here, Nicola, to the north, if you want I can show you." The glowing sphere bounced in the air in excitement as it changed to pale colors. Over time Nicola taught Tuatha to hide the colors that showed his feelings and even change them at will. However, sometimes it still changed color, as this time it changed between a pale yellow and an almost imperceptible blue.

"Come on then, guide the way friend." Nicola said pointing to the north. He was excited to finally discover something about the demon that prowled the area, but he was apparently a long way from where he had last been spotted.

Nicola had ordered Beatrice and Antoniette to return beside him, collecting their henchmen bees and ants back in their mechanical core. The two puppets were next to Nicola, the queen bee flying and the queen ant walking on the ground. They looked the same as always, with some scratches on the surface from use. Nicola left a mental note to make a preventive maintenance on them both when he had some spare time.

He also ordered his undead servants to maintain a perimeter around the small moving group and sent the beetles ahead as scouts to find something and inform him beforehand.

Still on the way moving with Tuatha he found two or three magical beasts on the silver level, which Tuatha made a point of ignoring and going unnoticed by his territory. But moving with such a large group of undead Nicola has not been able to remain unnoticed either. But hopefully none of them had large groups and acted alone. Nicola ended their lives before they even caused any commotion in the forest.

The quick attacks of their daggers produced only sharp whistles, announcing the swift death they received.

[You killed the magic beast Frozen stallion, you gained experience]

[You killed the magic beast Endurance armadillo, you gained experience]

[You killed the magic beast Magma salamander, you gained experience]

Some time later they had both arrived at the place where Tuatha had found that scale. He indicated a large tree, which, unlike all others, seemed to be in autumn instead of summer, its yellow and orange leaves falling to the ground while the rest of the forest was green.

Nicola looked around and sent his undead to study the perimeter before approaching the tree. He could see the hole where the scale was previously stuck marked on the tree's trunk. Very close to the ground. Then he crouched down to examine it, realizing that there was something different there.

For some reason the earth seemed to have been dug and put back in place, carefully placed so that no one would notice. Nicola used the earth magic to dig the place and make room for whatever was buried there could be found. But he didn't know that what he was going to find would be a passage to the underground. There was enough space for him to go through that tunnel that went down. So he decided to go down with Tuatha to find out what was there.