Demon Slayers

Beginning of Arc 2: The Frontier

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After several hours of slow, deliberate crawling up and down the demonic tree—which seemed to dry out and crack at a rapid pace—Achilles managed to rescue Captain Kestrel and the surviving Hirelings. The top of the tree was warped and shaped into something like a village, a mass of houses much too small for an adult human to occupy.

“I guess the monkeys lived here,” Achilles muttered to himself upon first seeing them. There was no trace of the monkeys now, but many of the strange knives they had wielded were scattered around on the “ground” which was the top of the tree trunk.

In addition to the houses, there were glassy, red-glowing bubbles growing from the wood. Achilles quickly realized these were the pods which the Demons had referred to, the ones that apparently drained people of their energy and turned them into Demons.

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t just cut these things open?” asked Achilles.