Demons Beside You

Translator: Larbre Studio  Editor: Larbre Studio

“I won’t be able to defeat you? This is Hell. I don’t need to be stuck in that rotting body anymore and my power won’t be restricted by time. I’ve also eaten my souls here. I am completely different from before now.”

“Confidence is good, but have you thought about what will happen if you lose?”

“I won’t lose…”

“How about you turn around and ask for my friend’s opinion?”

“Your friend?”

Winry Gargamel suddenly felt a huge shadow loom over her. She turned around and saw the most horrifying and hopeless scene in both her previous and current life.

She’d heard from the spirits that wandered the area that this huge snake before her now was the lord—a terrible demon lord.

Winry had once seen this demon from afar when she’d first fallen into Hell. Whenever Raymond ate, he would swallow some spirits in the desert and leave when he was full. Whoever was eaten by him…well, that sucked for them.

Whenever Raymond appeared, all the other spirits would hide from him.

“Let me introduce to you my friend, Raymond Stis.” Chen Zhao smiled at Winry.

“Human, how should I punish her?”

“I don’t want to kill her yet. I have some questions to ask.”

Raymond spat out a mouthful of acid onto Winry. She immediately started screaming as smoke rose up from her body. She fell to the ground in pain.

“Are you sure this won’t kill her?” Chen Zhao asked with some regret while looking at Winry.

“This is how I store my food. My numbing poison will seal off her consciousness and she won’t rot… It’s like how you humans use refrigerators.”

“Okay.”

Chen Zhao saw a ten-foot-tall figure beside Raymond. Of course, this figure was quite small compared to Raymond.

This demon had brown skin, a bald head, long and sharp ears, and a pair of canines poking out of his mouth. He had the skin of an unknown beast on his back while there were various slits on his bare skin.

These slits were all eyelids, opening and closing—they were eyes.

Chen Zhao counted. This demon had at least 100 eyes.

“Hello. Are you the True Visioner?”

“Hello, Living Lord. I am the True Visioner Leos,” the demon said. His voice was weak.

“I’ll check your body.” While checking, Chen Zhao asked a few questions. “Have you done anything special or ran into anything recently?”

“Last time, I accidentally ate a mutant flower and was bedridden for a whole month, but that was half a year ago.”

Chen Zhao thought for a moment. Hell flowers were poisonous and harmful even to demons. What could a mutant flower cause? He wasn’t sure; he had to do more research.

He discovered that one eyeball on Leos’ back was completely bloodshot.

“Leos, can you still see with this eye?”

“That eye doesn’t work anymore.”

Afterward, Chen Zhao discovered several eyes on Leos that had similar symptoms. He reached out and pressed the area around the eyes and finally found what was wrong. The capillaries on the eyes weren’t capillaries at all. They were the roots of a plant.

Chen Zhao took a stethoscope out and listened carefully to the inside of Leos’ body.

“There’s something living inside you,” Chen Zhao said.

“Really? Can you do anything about it?”

It was common to have parasites in Hell. The host and parasite would often live together because neither could do anything to the other. However, some parasites were more invasive and more harmful to the host.

The parasite in Leos right now was obviously the more invasive and aggressive ones. If it couldn’t be removed in time, Leos may be sucked dry by it.

“I need to operate on you and physically remove the parasite.”

“You can do whatever necessary to remove that d*mn thing from me.”

One of the disabled eyes suddenly opened and shot a laser at Chen Zhao. His right hand went out of control. The Mouth of Glutton on his palm opened and the ray shot into the mouth.

Chen Zhao retreated hurriedly in fright. “Leos,” Raymond said, upset. “Why did you attack the human?”

“I didn’t do that. I lost control of that eye long ago.”

“That parasite has a mind,” Chen Zhao analyzed. “I think it sensed my intentions, so it attacked me.”

“Leos, seal the eyes you can’t control. Otherwise, the human can’t do surgery.”

“Okay. When I get that thing out, I’m going to rip it to shreds.”

It took a lot of effort to seal the uncontrollable eyes. Raymond helped a lot during the process too. Leos was numbed by Raymond’s toxin too.

“Raymond, give me some of your anesthetic toxin later.”

…

Surgery begins

If it was a human, Chen Zhao wouldn’t perform surgery in such an environment. However, his patient was a demon this time. He couldn’t send a demon to a hospital’s surgery room, after all.

He had to deal with the difficulties under these conditions. Of course, he had to do everything that was possible. For example, he still disinfected his tools to prevent the patient from getting an infection.

When the sharp knife slit Leos’ stomach, the brown skin opened up like a zipper. Chen Zhao looked at Leos’ innards. There was an obvious thing hiding in the center of his organs. It looked like an octopus.

If the parasite invaded a human, he’d probably be sucked dry quickly. Only demons could survive this long with their strong vitality.

Holding a syringe, Chen Zhao cautiously approached the parasite. The moment that he was about to inject the needle, two tentacles suddenly stuck onto Chen Zhao’s arm.

He tried to take his hand back, but he couldn’t anymore.

The Mouth of Glutton on his hand opened up again. When it bit onto the parasite, Chen Zhao panicked. “Don’t eat everything. Open your mouth! Leos got food poisoning from it. Do you want that to happen too?”

But the Mouth of Glutton didn’t listen at all. It started swallowing with all its might.