296. Demon Hunting
Ben takes the job just with Bella now. He didn't bring her to the 10 Years Quest before because he didn't know how dangerous it was. But it wasn't as dangerous as he thought. Maybe because his power was very compatible with that job, but it was quite easy.
The current job might be easier because it's just a normal S-Class job. Their job is to hunt 3 demons that destroyed 2 towns simultaneously in Bosco. Those 3 demons have been confirmed to be Demons from the Books of Zeref.
Bosco's Mages have tried to slay the demons, but those demons were strong. They also disappear without any trace after destroying the 2 towns. That's why the job is to hunt the demons, not just subjugate them because no one knows where the demons have gone to.
"Isn't this quite exciting, Bella? We'll hunt creatures like the good old days. The difference is that we hunt animals for food in the past and now we hunt demons," says Ben.
"Hunt milk," says Belle while extending her hands to Ben.
"Ye-yeah, we've hunted milk too because we were running out of milk for you." Ben sweatdrops and gives Bella a bottle of milk from his space storage. She has a lot in her storage bag, but she rarely takes hers and often asks for the ones that Ben keeps.
Anyway, they arrive in Bosco after a day, and they go to Bosco's Council Branch to confirm their arrival. To their surprise, many Mages are taking this job. It pays well, after all, and there is no limit on job applicants because they need to find the Demons fast.
Almost everyone there recognizes Ben, but he doesn't recognize anyone there. None of his acquaintances seems to take this job. Well, doesn't matter though because he doesn't come here to meet with friends.
Ben & Bella immediately leave after receiving the details of the job. They immediately go to the 2nd town that got attacked. Ben doesn't want to lose the traces of those 3 demons. It will be harder to find them if the traces have disappeared.
The destruction in the 2nd town is horrible, almost all buildings get destroyed. It's worse than the 1st town because a big fight between strong Mages and the demons happened here. But the casualties are lower here because the battle gave the civilians time to evacuate.
Ben doesn't waste his time and immediately searches the Etherious Demons' traces. His Devil Slayer's senses are very sensitive to the demon's traces, so he finds them quite fast. He grabs Bella and moves fast to follow the traces into the wilderness beside the town.
Many people who recognize Ben were planning to follow him. He is a very well-known Dragon Slayer and a Wizard Saint. So they all know he has keen senses and they want to make use of that to find the demons by following him.
Ben realized that too and he couldn't care less about them. None of these stalkers can follow him when he runs to follow the traces, after all. They can't keep up with his speed which is faster than even Speed Magic users.
After running for almost an hour at his high speed, Ben finally finds the demons' location. It is in a cave on a mountain quite far away from the 2nd town. The cave is rather close to a town and the demons kept moving since they destroyed the previous town, so Ben assumes they will attack the next town soon.
"Good thing I found them first. More people will get killed if the demons aren't found soon," says Ben while looking at the cave from the shadows in the forest.
"Fight?" asks Bella.
"Yeah, we'll fight, if they are still alive later," says Ben while grinning.
Ben goes to the cave entrance and spread his strong magic sense. He makes sure that there are only demons inside because his plan will kill anything inside the cave. Too bad though, there are signs of other living beings other than the demons.
"Sigh, it seems we can't just burn the whole cave. Let's go inside to see if the living beings are humans or other creatures," says Ben.
They enter the cave with Bella staying on Ben's head as usual. Ben uses the magic that he created to hide their presence. With this magic, they can enter the cave without any worry of being found by the demons.
Ben keeps using his strong magic sense and finally finds the demons. In the same room as the demons are some people wearing black robes. They are kneeling to the demons, so Ben immediately knows who these people are.
'Demon worshippers. Tch, and here I thought that there are innocents here. I should've just used that plan,' thinks Ben pissedly.
But then he cancels that thought because suddenly some demon worshippers enter the room from a different tunnel. Behind them are some children who are chained. There are some signs of abuse on the children's bodies which make Ben furious.
"Bastards! I planned to give you all an easy death, but it seems you want the painful one," says Ben with a very furious tone.
Ben doesn't want to waste time anymore and flashes toward the demon worshippers who pull the children. There are 4 of them and Ben burns them all in one sweep. They scream in agony as their bodies get burnt and finally everyone in the room gets alerted by Ben's presence.
The demon worshippers and the Etherious demons are looking at him hostilely, but he ignores them. He approaches the children but they all back off because they are scared of him. He sighs and tells Bella to approach the children.
"Is okay. Ben help, Bella help. You go home," says Bella very confidently with a serious face that looks cute.
"W-We can go home?" asks a boy who looks to be the oldest.
"Oui, we save you," says Bella.
The children seem to believe Bella, but they are still scared of Ben. Bella looks very harmless, after all, so the children aren't too scared of her, and believe her more than Ben. If Ben didn't suddenly burn the demon worshippers, they might not be too scared of him.
But he was too angry because these demon worshippers just need to involve children. He sighs and says, "Bella, go to the corner with them and use your barrier amulet. I will take care of the baddies."
Bella nods and tells the children to follow her to the corner. They do as she says and go to a corner. Then Bella activates the new barrier amulet that Ben made a few months ago. It creates a big transparent yellow barrier that protects all the children.
"Kids, is there anyone that gets captured other than you?" asks Ben.
The children are still wary of him even though they know he is helping them. But then the oldest boy stands up and talks to Ben even though he is still quite scared. He is the oldest, so he knows he needs to be the bravest.
"The-there are other children in the room where we were gathered before. So-some children have left that room before us, but they never returned," says the boy.
Ben frowns before looking at the demons giggling and the worshippers smirking.
"Bella, go with the children to where they were placed before. My clones will follow you, so don't worry and focus on maintaining your barrier," says Ben as he makes 7 clones.
Bella nods and then she leaves the room with the children. Some demon worshippers try to attack them, but Ben defeats them easily without killing them. He just hits them 'lightly' because he doesn't want to kill them yet.
After Bella & the children left, Ben closes the tunnel with a firewall. Then he finally asks, "Where're the children that you took before them?"
The one who answers Ben's question isn't the demon worshippers, but one of the demons who looks like a young man with purple hair now. The other 2 demons who look hideous before also transform into humans, one looks like a buttler, while the other one looks like a little girl.
"Why don't you make me talk about it?" asks the purple-haired demon smugly.
That smug suddenly disappears because Ben suddenly grabs his face and slams him to the wall behind him. "Feel like talking now?"
Ben doesn't wait for an answer and throws the purple-haired demon at the other demons that rush at him. He cracks his fists and says, "Let's see how long you can hold on because I can do this all day."
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