"I suppose that marks the end of this then. Alright, good night. I hope to wake up and continue early morning tomorow."

With that, the demon moved away, towards the weird thing. It went in and so did the other demon who was always with him.

The rest of the demons fastly finished whatever food was left and then walked in small groups to the tents. It wasn't too good at reading expressions for new demons but, it was fairly sure that none of them looked too happy about the dark. Something it couldn't say it got.

The dark was a good time. It felt...bigger. Like there was more things to see and find, even in the same place. That, and the light kind of...annoyed it. It had been getting slightly lighter over time as they moved. Just a little at a time, but still an amount it could know. It felt bad. For whatever reason, the light felt bad.

Oh right, but where would it go? Could it stay here?

Sun. It didn't need to sleep. So could it stay here? It had to be a guard and watch the back. Since it didn't to sleep this was smarter!

Well sun and Styx didn't say anything and went for their tents, so it was thinking that meant that it was good now. That it could do as it said. Good.

It walked away from where it was before to listen to the stories to go back and away from the group. Here, it had space to stop the enemy before they got too close.

Yet it hadn't been there for long before it heard something.

"...hey..."

It already knowed what it was. The person came in slowly, watching their feet.

"...hey."

Yes, it was sun, holding a fire in his hand to see. He swung it around to put light in the dark.

"You'll tell me if any monsters or whatever show up right? Wake me up if you're not sure about fighting it on your own. But, there won't be any monsters that sneak up on us right?"

There could be. It couldn't say things for sure when it wasn't sure.

"That's not what I wanted to hear..." sun said less loudly as he looked around more. "Alright, just, just, wake me up if it gets bad. Especially if something big is coming. Even from - especially from - the ground. Ok? Ok? Uh, see you."

Then sun went away, looking around all over, even down as he walked. Was he bad with the dark?

Oh well. It just had to do as normal.

Hm. Did this count as big?

It did right? Whatever it was was bigger than a weird thing. But smaller than a mountain. Or the city for that. It wasn't too sure but it was probably - oh? This was bad. It was fa - it was here. Right on top of it.

"What a weird thing I found here! A horrific golem that can see me! How fun! Hey, take me to your leader, or owner! I desire to ask where you're from!"

This big...wolf? Wolf. Yes it was probably a wolf. It looked close enough. And what did one do with big wolves? Tell sun and hit them with a club. See? It was so smart. It wasn't sure about the talking though. Did that make them ok? Oh well.

SUN SUN IT'S A BIG MONSTER COMING TO EAT YOU!

And hit it with the club.

It didn't seem to do anything but well, it tried.

Then the wolf hit it. It breaked and fell into parts, with the parts nearer to the hit being throwed more away.

"Oops." The wolf thing stopped and looked at its own...hand thing. "Did I hit it that hard...?"

Uh, corrosion it was.

But that didn't seem to do much either. The mana on the wolf thing pushed away its own and then - AND THEN WAS HITTTING ITS ACTUAL BODY OH THAT WASN'T GOOD AT ALL!

RUN AWAY! SUN YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN! IT WASN'T SOME STORY PERSON TO FIGHT HERE!

"Can't have that."

Then the mana around it holded it, stopping it where it was. This...may be bad. More bad than ever.

Uh. SUN MORE FASTER COME TO KILL IT WITH MANY CLUBS AND SWORDS!

KILL IT WITH FIRE! BURN IT! BUUUUUURRRRRRNNNNN IIIIT!

"Whoa calm down. Stop struggling. I'm not going to kill you."

Really? Well sure then it was fine.

EXCEPT FOR BEING CLOSED UP BY MANA LIKE THIS! THIS FELT WRONG! SO WRONG! HATE! HATE! HATE!

"STYX THERE IT IS, FIRE EVERYTHING! FIRE FIRE FIRE FI - oh it's just you. Hey calm down. Also, professor please let it go. It's freaking out."

SUN! Oh, what, they knowed each other? SUN YOU WERE TRYING TO KILL IT TOO!

"What? No!"

Oh right no he helped it. Right. Think normally. Normal. Yes.

Ok. All was well. It was not holded by other mana and not about to be killed. Ok.

Styx who was ready to attack when he came was also not throwing around mana. The demons that were looking from a far place also put down their weird things that throwed more things and went down. It could tell the demon with the story demon telled them to go down. It could see it after all.

"How unlikely for us all to meet again so soon! Not that I would have come if I didn't feel a certain someone's gaze. Hahaha."

"Professor. What are you doing out here?" Styx moved up to where sun was and kept the sword out.

The "professor" watched Styx and then laughed. "Caution? Good! Well, you'd still die if I wanted to kill you so relax. Anyway. I was just out here watching the scenery for inspiration. Were you two heading back to the Academy already? While I admire your enthusiasm but..."

Sun shook his head, "No, we have a letter from the General for -"

The professor wolf started talking before sun finished. "Education for that one, hm?" It was pointing at it with its head.

It knowed already? But how?

"Yes. Well, it's not too inte - I mean, bright."

Yes it wasn't. It was dark!

Styx looked side to side. "I still don't see why a literature teacher would come all the way out here..."

The professor showed the things in its mouth, "That isn't really for you to ask, now is it?"

Everyone was silent for a bit and then the professor continued. "A joke, but what's wrong with me taking a break for a bit? I'm not confined to the place like some people, yes?"

"I suppose." Styx said it less loudly and then looked away. Was he scared? Probably. It was starting to see that looking away could be fear. Not always, but sometimes. Like at the story telling. When people were in fear, they went away from the thing. Good to know.

Then there was more not talking. Everyone seemed to be thinking like it sometimes did. A good silent. It liked silent.

"Nevertheless, I'm surprised. That you found something so interesting while you were out. Goes to show, you can't just stay cooped up in a building now can you?"

The professor didn't look at any of them when it talked, looking up at something else instead. The moon? No, it didn't seem to be. What was it looking at, out there in the up?

"Ahhh, I'm inspired again! Farewell, I have poems to write!"

With that, the professor started running. Very weird running. It was just hitting the ground with its legs once and it seemed to disappear and then appear even more away. It could only kind of tell where it started and where it stopped to hit the ground again. Not where it went in the not start and not end.

Sun looked in the way the professor wolf went and talked, "I still find him weird."

Styx nodded. "Yeah."

Then sun continued. "I mean, who makes those huge desks for him?"

"That's what you're worried about!?" Styx fastly turned around to look at sun. "Seriously? I mean, you don't find it weird that a giant wolf is our literature teacher!?"

Sun shook his head. "I mean, my room mate is a talking cat from another world. My room's washroom is stained with blood from the one time some students got murdered in it. My clothes were robbed from a corpse. I don't know what you're talking about with a wolf as a literature teacher."

Styx stopped and looked down. "...That's...probably true....I guess you're right...?"

It also went a bit behind them before it remembered it was to be rear-guarding. Guarding the rear. Watching. Watching.

"See you in the morning," sun said back at it as he left.

Yes. But, what were those things the demon gave after?

This time sun stopped and laughed weirdly, "H-ha-hahaha-a. Those weren't security blankets. Those were just for the cold you know?"

But, why didn't it get any then?

"You don't need blankets."

Oh. But. They got to keep their "security blankets." It wanted to have things too.

"N-no! I need mine!" Then, sun runned away.

Fine. Fine then. It would not take a blanket now even if they gave it one. Acting like that even though it was just one blanket. All the other ones got one. Everyone. It "saw" the other blankets too! The more! Fine.

Watching.

Watching.

It was still night because the sun wasn't up at the same place it usually was in its thought, but apparently this was what "early morning" was. Good. It learned something more about time.

The tents were made smaller and put back onto the weird things and then they started moving. In the night, some of the demons went to sleep and others left the tents to watch instead.

As before, when they started moving it followed behind, at its own moving speed.

As was normal, monsters came and attacked. Not in large groups like the wolves. Or just large like the professor wolf. But just in small groups.

Like bears. They came as twos and threes. Somehow, it was thinking that was bad, until sun and Styx easily one hitted the bears.

Right. It was the weak one here.

Some weird things came down from above to attack but the ones with the throwing things hit them and made them fall out of the up. Others came down to attack and got hit and killed by clubs and swords by the demons on the ground.

Apparently, it was useless to move above like that if you couldn't attack from there, because when you came down you still just died like an enemy from the ground would.

That was kind of bad. It thought being up above would be more useable.

It was looking bad for its usefulness...

They stopped again for the night.

They did the same thing again as the last time. Putting the tents and then eating. This time seemed to be bear.

And this time no stories. Why?

Why were there none? It wanted more stories!

But instead, this time, all the demons talked to each other. Sun and Styx too, started talking to the other demons. Apparently, this was actual more normal than stories.

It certainly had seen many demons talking with each other all the time, and not a lot of stories...but then other times, the talks sounded like stories too.

Like right now, one demon was telling Styx about the one time it saw a chimera or whatever.

"It was hideous! The weirdo who made it was parading it around like it was some genius though. I mean, I didn't really get it. Looked hideous! I say it twice because it's true. I mean, there's ugly and then hideous. And that was hideous! I swear it traumatized some of the kids it did!"

Styx was nodding as he listened, slowly moving his mouth to eat the bear in his mouth. He covered his mouth with his hand and then talked, "But how hideous is hideous? I mean, what did it really look like?"

The demon who was talking turned his head up and stopped to think. Then looked back at Styx as he continued. "It was...I don't really know what went into it. It was too messed up for me to tell. But it oozed greenish slime and yellow pus. Not to mention it was a ball of tentacles and mouths and claws all stuffed on haphazardly!"

Sounds bad. If it was "oozing" everywhere wasn't that bad? It had to clean up a lot so it knowed just fine what was or wasn't ok when talking about cleaning.

Being so...unclean, was weird. Indeed, "hideous."

Sun was telling some other demons about how he did in the Pit.

Other demons were talking to each other...well, it was...not really as fun as the day before.

Then same as the day before, they put away the things and went to sleep.

This time though, it didn't see another giant monster that was actually a professor. Literature or other.

And they were moving again.

And it guarded again.

And they killed a very big amount of wolves. And even bears. Also the ones from above. There were a lot of monsters.

Nothing to show for it but a level though.

And they stopped again.

Same normal talking. Some bad stories.

Like how the Duke of whatever and something was having another "child."

That the Grendot world's God died in some war and the Lenden's took over Grendot.

Also some stupid stuff about how three cities were destroyed after some enemy world's necormancer raised an undead army in the civilized areas.

Basically, useless stuff. Not fun and long stories like the first day's story demon. It was sad.

This day was the same as well. Get up, move, fight, whatever.

But then it changed. A big amount of light hit it. It was very ungood.

The demons also stopped here and covered their eyes. Then they slowly put their hands down and kept moving. Was this normal? This light? This very undark light?

But that was not the end of it. The light got better as they moved.

Hideous was the word for this right?

And the monsters became less here too. They were the same still, but weaker somehow. The amount too, was less.

The random monster here and there that did attack, was killed even more easily than before. There was nothing weirder than that. Weren't they going to even stronger enemies? Or were all monsters just that weak?

Most importantly. Why was it that the ground seemed...lighter.

As the other days, they stopped here for the night. With tents and everything.

But everyone seemed happy now. Like they felt good to be out of the dark. Weird. It wanted to be anywhere but here. The dark was the better place to be. It didn't know light could be this bad before. Now it did.

As the everyone finished eating and went for their sleep, the story demon came up.

"We have left the outer zone now. And made a good distance from it. Likely, after this point, we are much safer. So, with that in mind, we will set out at the same time. But, we will have a rest day if we make enough distance."

Wait, it had questions. Many questions. Mostly about light.

But sun was going to sleep. And it still had to rearguard. Also the light didn't even hurt, just felt bad. If hurt couldn't make it have fear, then should feeling bad?

And it didn't want to act like that time with the wolf professor...fine. No, it could take this.

It would just be happier in the dark...

While everyone else in the place looked happy, only it looked up in dislike for the hideous light.

Wouldn't it be nice, to be back in the dark...? It seemed that, for learning, some hurt and bad was normal too...

Spoiler: Status Unnamed Pseudo-void Spirit Level: 4/10 Species: Pseudo-void Armor Avatar of Soul Bewitching Shadow Domain Spirit (C-) Affinities: Darkness, Death, Pseudo-void, Pseudo-Space Age: 664 years

Titles:

Body Status:

Normal

Status Points: 48 Health Points (HP): 467/467 Mana Points (MP): 445/445 Intelligence 74 Wisdom 16 Strength 10 Dexterity 5 Endurance 15