Infernal Entity: Evolving With My Demonic System

Chapter 83: The Seven

The Lumina 1 male student, Jayden, walked slowly toward Axel’s group with his sister close behind him. His shoulders were stiff, and his steps were careful, like he was afraid one wrong move would send them away.

A few feet from the group, Kora stopped suddenly and grabbed Jayden’s sleeve with both hands and pulled him back.

"Jay... wait," she whispered urgently with her eyes darting toward the group. "They won’t take us because they feel they’re all stronger than us."

Jayden turned to her. "Kora—"

"What if we just turn off our collar tags?" she said quickly. "Just for now, they don’t even need to know our levels."

Jayden shook his head immediately. "That’s a bad idea." he said.

"Why is it such a bad idea?"

"If they find out later that we lied, we’re done," he said. "We’ll get kicked out, or worse."

Kora bit her lip and looked away. Jayden then tightened his grip on her hand and pulled gently. "Come on." he urged

She followed him, but her steps were slow and reluctant. They stopped right in front of the group.

Jayden ignored the eyes on him and focused on Axel. Axel was the only one he recognized because of his history with Luke Fern.

For some reason, his eyes scanned the group members tags and the it dropped to Rick’s collar tag.

’Lumina 1’

Seeing that a member of the froup was actually a Lumina 1 boosted his morale.

"Uh... hey," he started. "Axel, right?"

Axel nodded. "Yeah .."

"My name’s Jayden," he said. "This is my sister, Kora. We were wondering if we could join your group for this hint."

Before Axel could reply, Ades stepped forward. He moved in front of Axel, blocking Jayden’s view completely. The faint glow of his Spectra 2 tag was hard to ignore and seeing it made Jayden nervous.

Ares tilted his head and asked. "What’s your ability, bro?"

Jayden blinked. "I—"

"Can you fight?" Ares blurted out.

"Well, I—"

"Are you strong? Can you lift a sword, or do you faint when things get loud?"

Jayden opened his mouth, but no words came out. Ares leaned closer, making him even more intimidating. "Ever killed anything before?"

Jayden’s hands trembled at his sides. "I— I mean—"

Suddenly, Ares burst out laughing.

"Relax," he said, waving a hand. "I’m messing with you." Ares stepped aside and clapped him on the shoulder. "Welcome to the group, Shaky."

Jayden stared at him. "Shaky...?"

"You were vibrating," Ares said. "The name fits."

Axel let out a quiet breath. Rick looked relieved. Kora relaxed slightly, though she still stayed close to her brother.

That’s when Nile clicked her tongue.

"This is a waste of time," she said flatly. "We should already be moving."

Without waiting for anybody’s response, she turned and walked toward the forest ahead.

"Hey!" Ares called after her. "Pocahontas. Do you even know where you’re going?"

Nile didn’t stop. "Forward, deepest."

Everyone follows suit shortly after, going deeper into the forst of Exo.

Ares who was trailing behind Nile asked, "Have you ever hunted a beast before?"

"No," she replied.

"So how do you know where you’re going. You’re acting like you’re a tracker of some sort."

"Beasts usually have lairs in forests or caves. Look around... This place fits." Nile explained.

At the back of the group, Rick was uneasy.

"Isn’t this a bad idea?" he said. "Walking out like this. What if we run into a swarm of beast?"

Nile glanced over her shoulder. "If you’re scared, you can go back and wait."

"Be nice." Ares frowned. Before Nile could reply, a rustling sound came from ahead, followed by a low frowl..

Without hesitation, Nile dashed forward without hesitation, pushing through the bushes.

"Hey!" Ares shouted. "That’s my kill!"

He chased after her while the rest of the group were wondering what wa happening. Suddenly, lightning cracked through the air.

The others immediateky snapped out of their daze and followed the sound. Bythe time Axel reached the clearing, it was already over.

A green beast lay collapsed on the ground, its body split open with b blood spreading beneath it. Nile stood over it calmly, holding red glowing shard in her hand.

She looked at Ares and smirked at him. "Too slow." she teased.

Then she turned and tossed the shard toward Jayden. "Put it somewhere safe in your backpack" she said.

Jayden caught it clumsily and placed it into his backpack with shaking hands.

Axel stood there, staring because that was his first real beast encounter and to Nile and Ares... it looked like they were just having fun.

Axel wasn’t even sure himself he he was capable of defeating a lesser-tier beast.

’Well, I defeated Luke Fern and I’m sure he could take on one of these beasts, right?’ He wondered.

Kinsey looked down at the dead beast and frowned a bit, then she asked, "Does anyone know what that thing is called?"

No one answered. Rick shook his head, Jayden looked confused, Kora stayed quiet. Even Ares and Nile didn’t say anything. No one had even the slightest idea.

Axel hesitated for a second then he decided to try something.

< [ID] >

< [Mythic Creature] >

< [Stonehide Prowler] >

< [Lesser-tier beast] >

"Stonehide Prowler. That’s the name." Axel revealed.

Everyone looked at him curiously, wondering how he knew that.

"Trying to impress the ladies, I see..." Aurora teased in his head.

"And how exactly do you know that?" Nile asked shortly after.

"I read a lot. History stuff and Mythic stuff."

She stared at him for another second, then clicked her tongue and looked away. Before anyone could say anything else, a low, menacing growl rolled out from the bushes behind them.

Everyone froze at first then their posture changed instantly.

"If there’s one beast in a closed area," Nile said calmly, "there’s usually more."

Her body sparked as electricity wrapped around her arms. Kinsey’s eyes glowed blue as two ice spikes formed in her hands.

Ares stepped back and raised a hand. "Rick, Jayden, Kora... Axel stay back."

Axel didn’t have time to wonder why Ares mentioned his name when he bushes exploded outward and red beast leapt into the clearing.

It had the head of a lion, its mouth was filled with sharp teeth and its body was thick and muscular, and behind it dragged a massive tail covered in spikes. It let out a deafening roaring sound in its wake.

Kinsey reacted first by throwing the two ice spikes at the beast. Both did nothing but shatter on impact. The beast didn’t even flinch.

Nile followed up by sending two bolts of lightning, crashing into its side. The beast swung its spiked tail at her and she jumped back just in time as the tail smashed into the ground where she had been standing.

Since no one’s attack was doing much to the beast, Axel pulled the Godrend sword from his side.

< [Infernal Core Active!] >

’I missed that message!’

Axel hadn’t used any infernal skills since fixing his core. The power felt stranger..

With one hard swing, the Hellrand Slash tore through the air and on impact, it tore through the beasts chest causing thick, black blood to spray out.

The beast screeched in pain and everyone stared at Axel.

Ares who had been standing back, shielding the others dashed forward with lightning surging around him.

Upon seeing Ares using her ability, Nile frowned. "Son of a bitch!"

Ares stretched his hand and pointed at the beast. A massive bolt shot forward and slammed straight into the beast’s head.

Its skull burst open and brains splattered across the ground as the body collapsed.

Axel looked at Nile and smirked. "Too slow."

Nile clicked her tongue but didn’t reply.

Ares stepped forward and carved the shard out of the beast. He then tossed it to Jayden.

Inside Axel’s head, Aurora spoke. "That attack Ares deliveddd was powerful."

"If he ever turns that on you," Aurora continued, "you will need to be careful. He absorbs active abilities and releases them with greater force."

Axel agreed silently. It made sense. Ares always did that. He took what was around him and hit back harder. Nile looked around the area, clearly unimpressed.

"This is boring," she said. "Lesser beasts aren’t worth my time."

She pointed toward a nearby cave. "I’m going in there. Advanced-tier beasts would be more interesting."

Everyone’s head snapped up at her.

"Fuck no," Ares said instantly. "You’re not going anywhere."

Ares’s voice had a certain edge to it when he told Nile she wasn’t going anywhere. He sounded hostile and and Nile Reed didn’t like that.

She turned fully toward him. "And who’s going to stop me? You?"

Kinsey quickly stepped between them. "Nile, advanced beasts are too strong," she said. "We could get killed."

Nile scoffed. "If you’re that scared, stay here with the other Luminas."

Kinsey clenched her jaw but didn’t respond.

Axel had to step forward.

"Don’t be unreasonable." he said.

Nile looked at him. "I’m not being unreasonable. I’m just tired of hunting weak trash."

She turned her back on them and started walking toward the cave. "You can come," she said over her shoulder, "or you can stay here and do nothing."

Axel frowned. "And how do you know there’ll be advanced beasts in there?"

Nile lifted her device without stopping. "If there weren’t advanced beasts on this planet," she said, "Lin wouldn’t have installed SOS software on our devices."

After a while of contemplating, Axel says, "Screw it."

He knew one thing. More crystals meant more CNT. More CNT meant progress se followed her.

Once Axel moved, the others had no real choice. Ares clicked his tongue and went after them. Kinsey hesitated, then followed. Rick swallowed hard and grabbed Jayden’s sleeve, pulling Kora along with them.

One by one, all seven stepped into the cave in a foreign planet.