Without hesitation, I grabbed the child and pulled her up to the top.
Instead of giving her a healing potion, I bit into my finger, letting my blood flow into her mouth.
Her fingers returned to normal, and she didn’t look malnourished anymore.
My blood really was like a special elixir.
I backed off, and alongside Clementine, we waited until the child woke up.
And just five minutes later, the child finally opened her eyes as tears began to flow.
"Hick..."
"WAAAAH!"
"Mhm."
I patted Clementine on the shoulder.
"How would you like to deal with this one?"
"I... I’d rather not."
But seeing my persistent smile, Clementine simply groaned and stepped up, calming the child down with her singing.
When all seemed well and the child could communicate, I decided to step in and ask a few questions.
"Hey there... I know you might not want to talk about it, but when did all of this happen?"
The child flinched, then lowered her head.
"Yesterday... My mom told me to go hide, but I..."
Yesterday, huh.
That means the demons were still close.
But how close?
I knew that their movements really depended on who was leading them.
Though if this really did happen yesterday, and they moved on already, then that means we’re most likely dealing with an Earl ranked demon.
Back then, I might’ve been a little spooked.
But now, I kind of wanted to fight an Earl ranked demon, since I was sure I could deal with it very swiftly.
Regardless of that though, Clementine and I proceeded to ask the child a few more questions.
Though in the end, it looked like there was nothing we could do for these people.
After all... aside from the child, everyone else was dead.
"Cle—Evangeline, could you bring the child back to Lenice?"
She nodded without hesitation.
It really looked like when it came to things like these, she was more serious than ever.
So by simply grabbing the child, she dashed away much faster than before, eventually fading into the distance.
I was glad I had someone like her beside me.
I could rely on her, and she could rely on me.
But since she’d be gone for at least 40 minutes, I wanted to do some searching.
It was a little disgusting, but the only way I could figure out the demons’ movements was by inspecting the dead bodies.
So that’s exactly what I did.
I went up to each one I saw, and after a couple of minutes, I deduced that the demons started their slaughter from the south side of the village and ended in the east.
Since they didn’t stick around, that likely meant they continued going east as well.
With this newfound knowledge, I closed my eyes and visualized the map of this continent.
There were a lot of villages close together in the east.
"..."
This is troublesome.
Nonetheless, I spent the next half hour piecing together the puzzle and how each person was killed.
Rough clawing and sword slashes.
It was a capable demon.
Could he be higher than an Earl?
I scratched the back of my head in annoyance, and just then, Clementine landed beside me.
"I took the little girl to the librarian... How horrible for someone so young to experience something so tragic."
Yeah...
"This is how it is. So long as demons are alive, these things will keep happening."
I didn’t dwell on that for too long, and neither did Clementine, as I began explaining everything that I deduced.
She seemed a little surprised, but also conflicted.
"Does that mean we’ll have to split up?"
I gave her a nod, then smiled slightly.
"We’re both strong enough to deal with whoever’s there. Also, I trust you, so you should also trust me."
"It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just kind of wanted to see you fight demons..."
Seeing the small pout on her face, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Then, I pinched her cheek, and right after, I took off.
She soon went after me.
Although we were both heading in the same direction at first, we eventually split apart.
I soon reached a village.
Or rather, ruins.
Not a single person was left alive.
But the traces continued leading me east.
So I didn’t hesitate to pick up my pace and even slightly boost myself with Telekinesis.
I thundered through the ground as my figure was a literal blur.
Destroyed village after destroyed village, I thought this trail would go on forever.
But eventually, the trace switched up.
It was now straight north.
Coincidentally, that was exactly where Clementine had headed.
So once again, I picked up my pace as I basically broke the sound barrier.
I passed more ruined villages until finally, I saw smoke in the distance.
And when I got closer, I saw a raging fire, as well as countless demons running around.
Clementine wasn’t here, which meant she was much further ahead.
Either way... these demons were massacring everyone.
They weren’t powerful demons.
Some weren’t even ranked.
Tens of barons.
At least three viscounts.
Lastly, an Earl.
But this Demon Earl seemed a little different than the others.
It wore a dark outfit, and it also wielded a katana.
Every strike it made cleaved a building in two and massacred tens of people.
But it didn’t take the demon long to lock onto my presence as it slashed its katana at me, sending a blackish purple arc of energy toward me.
An unstable burst of energy... I could whisk it away with my Telekinesis.
But for now, I was Mikael.
So instead of all the theatrics, I reached into my dimensional ring and took out my sword.
Then, right as the blackish purple arc was just a few inches away from me, I covered my blade in lightning and brought my sword down.
My own arc of lightning burst forward and overpowered the blackish purple energy as it hurtled toward the Demon Earl.
But the demon earl simply smiled at me, and just as my lightning was about to hit it, the demon parried my attack and sent it straight into a crowd of people, killing them instantly.
My eyes widened in anger.
I knew it was going to play dirty.
I really did.
But using my own attack against the people...
I should stop fooling around.