Ivor Hansen was upset. The last time he had seen Gareth Elson he was diving into a hole in the canyon wall. Then the great Ivor Hansen was forced to run in the opposite direction.

  It took his considerable skills of evasion to avoid the light-fast raptors. Even by his standards, the creatures were a challenge to encounter.

  It took even his prodigal stealth skills a total of three cycles to lure them far enough away from Gareth, so that he could attempt searching for him.

  When he finally did pick up Gareth's scent, he was alarmed to discover his junior brother had fallen into an Oni den of sorts. Using his new nose he ascertained that Gareth Elson was gravely injured, judging by the scent of acrid adrenaline, blood, and fear.

  Oni were a type of demon that were sent out ahead of a main demon army to sap and deplete enemy numbers and morale. They would try to remain hidden from the empire for as long as possible, because the more people they stealthily killed, the stronger their position would become as they created more cursed creatures.

  It was alarming that an Oni was this close to Volun, and even more alarming that there were enough bodies to even support an Oni den. He had to report this to Lord Margrave as soon as possible.

  When he ventured inside, he found numerous cursed wandering around aimlessly. They attacked him on sight; directionless and without aim.

  Their master is dead: The only logical conclusion.

  It was a massive relief that the Oni Broodmother lay dead, because they were extremely difficult to deal with, especially in their expansive and confusing burrows. The low leveled cursed weren't a challenge for the great Ivor Hansen, but he had gotten covered in foul smelling fluids by killing them. It irritated his extremely sensitive nose to no end.

  He recognised Gareth's tracks as having dragged himself down the tunnel. He was intercepted by a cursed, and dragged deeper into the warren. A brief struggle was evidenced by claw marks in the soft dirt as Gareth tried to stop himself from being dragged. The signs of struggle ended after about four meters, when the nail marks stopped and a bloody trail led deeper into the darkness.

  Ivor Hansen worried for the young man because, even if Ivor had suspicions of his immortality, this type of trauma…

  He sped up his search.

  He soon found the main chamber of the warren where multiple cursed creatures were still milling about aimlessly. A dead Oni Broodmother lay on her side, and stared vacantly into nothingness near a gore-strewn altar.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Corpses littered the cavern. The smell alone made the hardy Ivor Hansen gag and vomit uncontrollably. The side of the large room was blown open, as if by some explosion. Through it Ivor could see the open sky…and the Looming Cliff.

  It was a simple matter to dispose of the ten remaining cursed, once he had regained control of himself. It was impossible to track Gareth by scent as the room smelled so strongly of decaying carrion. It was similarly impossible to track Gareth’s movements, as there were so many intercepting tracks.

  The Oni broodmother had no visible injuries on her except that her core was gone. Strange.

  He carefully combed over the room, there were multiple earthen tunnels leading off in different directions from the main chamber. They were all dark and ominously silent. The part of the cliff that Ivor Hansen could see through the hole, showed a curving overhang that hid everything below it.

  The room was bereft of any valuables except rotting clothes. The altar itself was made of a low tier 4 pig-iron that was flaked with old blood and viscera. Utterly disgusting. Silver candlesticks lay around, and that worried him most of all.

  Silver: a holy metal, usually anathema to demonic creatures, was a core component in blasphemous rituals because it was a slap in the face of everything holy.

  Gareth did not seem to be among the corpses or the dead cursed, so he must have escaped. Now it just became a matter of where he escaped to…or whether he was to blame for the hole in the cavern wall.

  He checked each of the five exits branching from the room but found nothing to indicate a person moved through them. The only other option would be the massive hole in the cavern, though Ivor Hansen had no idea how a mortal could have killed an Oni Broodmother, or caused such an explosion…perhaps by breaking the Oni’s core?

  The cracks in the cavern roof corroborated the explosion of a core, but Ivor had no idea how Gareth could have broken an Oni core. Oni were, at minimum, tier 4, and judging by the size of the warren it had to be at least tier 5. Not something a mortal could defeat in their wildest dreams.

  Golden orange light spilled through the hole, starkly contrasting the horrific scene. Once Ivor looked at the golden expanse of clouds, it provided him at least some comfort. It illuminated disturbed dirt and blood splatters across the walls. Another fight had taken place here, but unfortunately...the tracks disappeared into the light.

  He cautiously leaned over and peeked outside. Wind whipped at his hair. It finally got rid of the last death stank that seemed to cling to his nostrils. He took a deep pull and could faintly pick up Gareth's scent.

  If he hadn't suspected that Gareth was immortal he would have written him off as dead, but he needed to make sure. He would have to find him and make sure the boy didn't get himself into too much trouble.

  He took multiple heavy sighs, once to pick up the scent, once to acknowledge his weariness, and finally to find the willpower to push forward once more.

  He took one step and tipped over the edge.