Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 3: The Hunt Begins

"I get the feeling you and I are similar...... I reconize talent when I see it, and you, my guy, have what it takes to ascend to Demon Lord status."
I flick his blood off my Wakizashi,
then clean what's left by rubbing it off my left arm and finally sheath it.
"Are you implying I'm stronger than my Tribe's men?"
The Demon chuckles.
"If you want to get stronger and foster your talents, then come find me again, I get the feeling we'll meet real soon again,
oh, and by the way,
thanks for keeping me entertained while my familiar found that bow."

He shatters a hole in reality again and yanks out the Shujinko No Yumi,
then his body turns into that black mist again as he escapes,
after that excitement,
I tended to the wounded and counted our casualties,
surprisingly,
the kill count was low as according to rumor,
he only killed men who wanted to become allies with the Dusk Tribe for some reason,
not that it was a bad idea,
my own personal opinion,
I'd rather remain at war with them.

The advisor of the Chief makes the announcement of electing another Chief, and by majority vote,
our new Chief was elected.
The new Chief has all his soldiers and guards line up,
then announces he wants the Demon found and killed and told us not to return otherwise,
with no family left to keep me tetherd to my Tribe,
I saw this as fate or destiny telling me to venture out into the world byond the confides of my Tribe,
so I packed some travel gear and made way for the gate.

"Neil!" I turn around to see fellow soldiers ready to leave with me.
"A moment of your time, brother." I nod as the rest assemble at the gate. "What does the Demon fight like?" I give a honest in depth summary of how the fight went down and immediately I shut down any bright ideas of underestimating him, once the explanation was done we as a unit set out and I tell them to smell for a person that reeks of blood and Axe deodorant.

(Seth's POV)

I hitch a ride back to South Carolina via airplane in shadow form,
sense I'm not returning to my mansion anytime soon I begin walking to the old Exorcist base where I fought Brandon Yeets, several unpleasant memories begin to arise, but I close off my heart to the thoughts,
I can't keep moping forever.
I open the old doors to the archive and spend all night looking for the different tribes.
I know they have documents on that shit somewhere.
The next day,
I found a map to all the Tribes and specific locations in the world where they are.

I take a pin that's on the desk and make circles around each Tribe then labeled them as this book will provide me valuable information,
I stuff it into my pocket dimension, then seal it away and lock it via my aura, I slept the rest of the day and was up that evening,
I packed a road map of the United States, and the Flame Tribe and Water Tribe are in the U.S.

I whip out Google on my phone, and I find myself a cheap flight to Alaska, home of the Ice Tribe and Dusk Tribe. Another payment free flight,
of course,
I'm not against spending money,
I just don't feel like spending money to get to my destinations.

So I'm in Alaska to a human's point of view it's sunny,
to a Demon Lord's point of view,
I see darkness like in an entirely different world,
there are two portal dimensions looking things at opposite sides of Alaska, so I head to the closest portal and apon entering a mighty blizzard way below freezing kicks up.

It was so bad I had to tread into waist deep snow in my Demon Lord form, I used my Majin Flames to warm up my body and melt most of the snow but the further I went the deeper it got until I resorted to flying around all over the place just to keep my body warm from my extreme speed,
breaking the spund barrier.
Once I was good and toasty,
I flew up just high enough to get an eagle eye view and saw houses made of ice and ice fortresses.
I land down there and a bunch of Yukionnas,
they all look at me confused as they were all in their human forms,
most of them with light blue hair or dark blue hair,
some with black hair,
as I revert back into my human form, they look a bit on guard,
don't blame them,
but just like any cornerd rat,
they know I'm more powerful them so if push comes to shove,
they will fight their way out.

"Seth?" I look around until I see a pair of twins leave a mansion out of ice,
Flecia,
the Yukionna with pink hair, pink eyes, and ghost pale skin,
Crystal,
the older sister with light blue hair, almost a neon color with blue eyes. "Flecia, Crystal."
I bow to them out of respect,
and that gets the crowd to calm down somewhat.
"We thought you died after you saved us."
Flecia says with worry.

"Sorry but I couldn't reveal my real body to you guys, I sent a familiar to be with y'all the whole mission while I stayed on a near by building, commanding a different force to wipe out the Exorcist forces, after they killed the Demon Council and our main force."
A tall man with the same hair color as Crystal comes out,
clad in a mage like robe,
a long cape attached to the back,
a staff in one hand,
his left eye is covered by an eye patch, and he just stares at me as if trying to be intimidating,
I keep eye contact and show him no fear before he finally speaks.

"Seth Thompson, winner of the Rank Up Tournament held by the Demon Council, savior of my two girls and from what I hear, Bringer Of Peace, Slayer Of Exorcist, the list goes on."
I add a slight correction in there.
"You forgot Demon Lord, too."
His aura flares for a second before calming down.
This man doesn't have hostile intentions, but he's prepared for battle,
something I don't wish to do.

"Well, Demon Lord Seth Thompson, come into my home. I'll have the servants make us a meal fot for men of our status."
This man has the balls to put us in the same status,
how laughable.
I enter his mansion where a bright red carpet lays,
cross the main drag,
an expensive ice table,
some ice chairs,
a blue fire that isn't anywhere close to hot enough to melt the chairs.
"Flecia, Crystal, make our guest some hot tea if you would?"
The twins leave us talk.

It was an awkward silence as I know this man has a Legendary Weapon, and as much as I'd rather talk about peace with this man,
I get the feeling I'm not truly wanted. "So, Demon Lord Seth, a quadruple S rank demon, a pure blood at that, would you mind being so kind as to indulge me in how you went from a E rank Artificial Demon to a Demon Lord? I am curious to know the events that happened that day."

I give the Ice Tribe Chief an abridged version of the events from the beginning,
and I talk super fast,
but in a way that's still comprehensible, then take a deep breath.
"I see. Well, you're definitely NOT like most Artificial Demons. To be quite honest, it amazes me just how human you act."
I scratch my,
I am unsure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult,
Crystal and Flecia bring expensive china tea set and pour us some hot tea,
I take the plate and begin blowing on my tea cup.

"Yeah well I personally feel like if I let go of what makes me human then I'm no better then a heartless devil, in my humble opinion, there's too many demons that don't have a heart and I for one plan on remaking the Demon Council and making it better for the Artificial race. A Council that won't be corrupt, a society free of demons like the previous Council and Brandon Yeets."

The Ice Tribe Chief looks at me like I'm a naive child and has this unamused look. "And how pray tell do you plan on making this better Council?"
He hasn't even sipped his tea yet,
and I begin to drink mine,
almost guzzling it.
"Ah, well, for starters, the very man that's responsible for nearly causing our race to go extinct wanted me to collect all Legendary Weapons so that another him is never made again."
The Chief laughs at me,
and I give him my serious look.
"So, do you attend to use violence to get your way? To me, that sounds like a naive boy with wishful thinking that ultimately plans to make a dictatorship."

He begins drinking his tea,
okay,
so much for a peaceful talk,
but even if I can't talk my way out of this,
I refuse to do any senseless killing, especially since his daughters are my friends.
"Call it whatever you want, but in the end, you and I both know that some Artificial Demons will act above the law and start eating more humans than they should. Right now, the shadow government called The Church is wiped out, but how much longer will it be before they rebuild their numbers? Honestly, if they didn't keep their mouth shut, then the whole world would know of our race, and it would be chaos worldwide. Ultimately, we'd be wiped off the face of the earth. Or at least all Tribes would. Not me, of course, I'm a Demon Lord."

We place the tea back on our plates and give them back to Crystal and Flecia. "Well boy let's agree to disagree, now I've entertained you, served you some fresh hot tea, let you into my own home and you intend to use force to take my family's heirloom, I suggest you leave boy."
I sigh,
plan B it is. "Yeah, no, with all due respect, old man. That's not happening, so instead of us throwing down in here, let's take this outside so that I don't destroy your homes."
I get up and walk towards the door and look over my shoulder.
"And if you don't stop me, I really will destroy anything that looks like a vault."