Versatile: Alternate World



Ragga wiped off the blood that splashed on his cheek. The dead bodies of the demons were scattered on the grass, totally broken to the point that they looked more like they had been mauled by a bear in an accident. I didn't expect Ragga to go wild so much the demons have died brutally like this.

"Uh...I am sorry that I soiled the green grass here with their dirty blood."

I shook my head. "It's fine, one can sweep up the blood around here with a bit of magic."

I pulled out another scroll in my inventory and tore it, conjuring the [Water Bubble] and encasing the dead bodies in the water bubble. That also includes the blood that splashed on the grass, cleaning the mess instantly.

After the bubble encased the dead bodies, they swirled around like they were inside the washing machine, washing off all of their blood and causing the blue water bubble to turn red after a while, the dead bodies were dropped back to the grass, devoid from the blood which then results for the bubble to burst for a bit. Ragga and the two soldiers thought it would rain with blood but the water disappeared which completed the cleanup.

"And done. Simple and easy. Now, only we needed to do is bring these dead bodies below and let the others see the fate of the moles that tried to invade your tribe."

Ragga can only shake his head in disbelief after everything. "To think the invaders that we are gonna deal with would be demons."

"Are you surprised?"

"A little bit. Who wouldn't be surprised if the people they have known for so long were actually demons?"

"Remember that we are not yet done. Let's go to your camp. Now that we are positive about them blending in with the people, there will be a big chance that they are also inside the tribe and are just feigning their innocence, waiting for their time to strike."

"But what if they are good demons and are just disguising to avoid the prejudice of other people?" one of the soldiers who witnessed everything tried to reason it out.

Hearing that, Lucia seems to not be able to hold back her words.

"If they are good demons, then they are not afraid to show their true colors as demons. They shouldn't have hidden their true form. Besides, to acquire their form, they have to kill the original owners of their disguises. If that is the case, they have already killed them and assumed their identities."

Ragga was a bit stunned to see Lucia appear out of nowhere.

"Wait, isn't she a demon? She has horns..." Ragga frowned and unconsciously gripped on his axes.

"Calm down Ragga, she is not one of them. She is trying to eliminate all of the demons who stopped acting as a demon and instead embraced evil ways. She is one of the demons I saved back then so I can assure you of her loyalty.

Lucia bowed down as well to show she was different from the others. "I am Lucia, the former princess of the demons back in the primordial times when the gods have walked alongside the humans and all beings in this world. After I have awakened in my slumber, I have seen what my race is currently doing while I am asleep. So as their princess, it's my duty to exterminate and tear out the problem from the roots."

Ragga almost staggered when he heard that. "Primordial times?!"

"Is it that shocking?"

"N-no..." Ragga slowly backs off, showing that he fears Lucia now. It seems he knows how strong anyone who has lived during those times is after he backs off involuntarily."

"Alright, I think that's enough talk, we should head to your tribe and lure out the demons hiding. With Lucia who can detect who is a demon and not a demon, you can effectively find them before they can find us plotting it."

"Y-yeah, good idea."

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When we returned to the ground, the soldiers were shocked when they saw the dead bodies of their former comrades, now in the form of demons.

Ragga explained the situation to them while we just remained on the sideline, waiting for Ragga to finish talking. After the discussion, everyone started to return to the tribe camp. Ragga and Mimiko allowed us to follow them.

While on the way, Riko who was following behind asked something to me.

"Manato, how many demons do you think we will be able to pick out from the tribe?"

"Why are you asking?" I looked at her and I think I can guess why though she immediately confirmed it in the next sentence.

"Because it would be boring if there were only a few of them. I wanted to have a lot of them in there so that we can have some "fun" with them."

I don't know whether I would be amused by her way of "fun" or I would be a bit worried about how she likes to do war crimes instead.

Still, we continued to move. Zena is more helpful in directions here as she has been in the camp before because sometimes, the thick foliage and the tall trees sometimes cause us to lose track of the natives. Thankfully, we managed to keep up with them and it didn't take too long before we arrived at their tribe.

I have seen this place using the Shikigami familiar, but it's different if you go personally there. Not only that. Now that I have reached the place personally, I can see that this "camp" is more of a small village than a camp. Although most houses are tent, some of the important houses like the healer's house and the house of the chieftain is made of wood.

"Alright boys, gather up everyone and escort them to the clearing. You already know what to do."

Everyone nodded and they started to talk to the villagers one by one. As for me, I conjured two shikigamis and used them to monitor the surroundings. After all, there is a big chance they already know what our purpose is there and they might try to escape. However, escape is not an option here. Of course, they might not have noticed but I just have to make sure as I don't want mistakes to happen.

Thankfully, it seems my worries did not happen. No one escaped and everyone was escorted to the clearing, an area around the forest that is specifically cleared by the tribe to act as their own town square.

Ragga then climbed on top of a rock that seemed to act as the podium for him to talk to everyone.

"Alright. You all might have been wondering why I let you all gather here all of a sudden. But there were some circumstances that we discovered after my daughter was abducted and held hostage by what we suspected were the "invaders". However, upon our closer inspection and also discussing matters with them, we found out that we just assaulted people who were just passing by and were currently resting as they took their bearings to find their way to their destination.

Thankfully, they were reasonable people and we managed to make amends with them peacefully. However, thanks to their help, we also have discovered the identities of our "invaders" in the process and we have, in fact, executed them after we found out they were traitors."

As soon as Ragga delivered the word, everyone started whispering and discussing with each other.

"Lucia, are there demons in the crowd?" I asked.

"Yes, Master. A lot of them. There are even a few who are still in the form of a child but seeing through their disguise, they were already old people."

I can only shake my head. This is a pretty troublesome camp they have for the demons to be able to invade and replace their inhabitants slowly but surely.

"How many are we talking about here?"

"Based on what I am seeing, they occupied almost half of the people gathered here."

Half?! I almost choked when I heard that. Does that mean the majority of them here are demons then? Well, this seems like Riko's lucky day. She wished for a lot of enemies to be defeated. There we go, we have a lot of demons to defeat indeed.

The soldiers are now on my command as well since they believed me now after the two soldiers who had seen everything told them what I did earlier. I silently commanded them to encircle the whole place and make sure that the group remained neutral for the time being but once the situation began, they could immediately close in.

As Ragga continued to talk, I talked to Mimiko about the situation since she noticed me command the soldiers.

"Does that mean, there are also those invaders here as well?" Mimiko asked."

"Yes. And it's very bad as I thought they would be. I suggest you back away for a bit as I can see this will get very nasty a bit later on.