Salvos (A Monster Evolution)

Chapter 20 - Temple

The library was a place of books.

A lot of books.

Lots and lots of books.

I didn't know how else to describe it— all I knew was that we once again left it with no new information on how to get me back to the Netherworld.

"I'm sorry, Salvos. I thought they would have had some information in there about it."

"And they didn't?"

"They did, but nothing beyond the bare basics."

Apparently what the bare basics meant was just 'Human summons Demon with a sacrifice, Human and Demon form contract, Demon completes contract then goes back'. It was not something I had known prior to this, but it was just so vague that I almost felt like I was no more knowledgeable now about it than before.

So we were now headed to the local temple. Daniel had explained what they were to me briefly while we were still in the library. He compared them to be Demon-like creatures— except they were not?

They came from what he called the Spirit Plane, which seemed something akin to the Netherworld for me. I asked the Human man to describe it, but he didn't really grasp the idea either. He just knew that that was where Spirits came from— connecting to the Mortal Realm through temples.

The [Priests] of the temple maintained this connection although it wasn't active at all times; they simply ensured that the connection was ready to be made for whenever a Spirit summoning ritual was needed for whatever reason. And apparently, some Spirits liked to stay in these temples, choosing not to return to the Spirit Plane.

And that was what worried Daniel.

"Do you think they'll be able to see through this necklace you gave me?"

"No— but don't you think it's possible they can tell you're a Demon just by looking at you?"

I stared at him, face blank.

"No."

"But why not? Isn't there like, some sort of intuition that tells you whether someone is a Demon or not? Wouldn't it be the same thing for Spirits?"

I scratched the side of my head, considering this.

"I don't think so. If a [Fiend] wore this Cloak of Shadows and hid their Subspecies, nothing would tell me that they're a Demon and not a Human."

"Are you sure?"

Daniel looked at me uncertainly. I nodded.

"I'm sure. Now let's just go to the temple. I want to go back already."

Not much time had actually passed since we began trekking through Hazelbury in search for a way to get me back to the Netherworld. The sun was still high up in the sky. And compared to the amount of time I had spent running around fighting monsters, the morning we wasted in the Adventurers Guild and library was like a small rock in a pile of large rocks.

So clearly, my drive to return to the Netherworld wasn't the most pressing compulsion; Haec could wait for me as long as I returned eventually. He seemed capable of taking care of himself. But there was something that drove me even harder; something that made me want to get this over with as soon as possible. And it was—

I glanced around at the [Traders] and [Vendors] lining the streets, their shouts filling my ears as they tried to sell their wares; at the [Butchers] and [Hunters], carrying the meat of dead animals with them to their shops as the scent of food wafted to my nose; and at the dozens and dozens of Humans bustling about, hustling to the things they had to do. I saw all this, and I knew...