Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

I stood watch as the demon’s flesh stitched itself back together. Nerves snaked from the base of the skull and replaced the destroyed connections. Flesh grew from thin air to line the bones with layer upon layer of muscle while organs nestled into their rightful positions. Fat burbled and bubbled into deposits along the body. Eventually, red skin grew overtop the mass of exposed flesh and black hair spouted from their head.

They laid on their face on the shore of the tar lake; naked as the day they were born. They were the closest thing to a regular human that I had seen outside of the hallucinations of my son. However, there were many alterations to the divine form. Outside of the red skin and two spiked horns that protruded from their forehead, the body was also covered in hands. Most did not stick out from the body, instead, they seemed to be gripping onto various parts of the demon. Hands gripped their legs, hips, and neck. They also wrapped around the blade of the sword attached to their right arm.

As they attempted to rise from the sand, they got on their knees, allowing me to see the hands that covered the front of their feminine form. Namely, the two on their face. They covered their eyes and cheeks. The fingers met at the forehead to form the peak of a mountain.

They got on their feet and brushed the sand from their body. With the snap of their fingers, their body was covered in a blue floral kimono. I took a mental note that such clothing changes were possible.

Quest

Sympathy for the Tragic Villain (complete)

Congratulations! You have saved the warrior from many more years and many more deaths drowning in tar.

In appreciation, she has rewarded you with 1000XP.

I raised my eyebrow at the message. Did that imply that it was the demon herself that created this quest? Now that I knew that it was possible to trade XP for goods, it made sense that it could also be traded for services.

“Thank you for helping me,” the demon said with an appreciative bow. “My name is Yoshitsune.”

“Ishmael,” I answered. “What can I say, your offer was worth my while.”

“Good, if you had said that you did this out of the kindness of your heart, I would have attacked you on the spot. You’d do the same, wouldn’t you, Ishmael-san?” Yoshitsune asked with a mildly displeased face. I did not feel the displeasure directed at me. “No matter, I’d like to speak more, but I don’t want to stay in a place so infested with yokai.”

Yoshitsune would like to create an Equal Benefit Party with you. All future rewards are automatically split evenly. Do you accept?

As I saw no reason to refuse an equal partnership, I accepted Yoshitsune’s request. She nodded in acknowledgement of my decision and began to walk away from the shoreline.

She began to lead us towards the largest dune in our immediate surroundings. The only issue was that it was on the other side of several lakes. Yoshitsune walked with light steps and I trudged heavily behind her. Following her exact footprints, we skirted the lakes to the best of our abilities.

However, the denizens of the lakes had other ideas. Another blob rose from the surface, tentacles reached out greedily to drag hapless victims into the depths.

Before I could react, Yoshitsune already jumped into action; deft footprints in the sand rapidly approached the blob and showed off her high agility. The sound of fingers cracking and snapping entered the air. Like a spring loaded pocket knife, Yoshitsune’s blade slid out of her sleeve and intercepted the limbs.

In effortless motions, the sword flashed rapid patterns through the air. Limbs of the blob were easily sundered from the body like a hot knife through near-melted butter. After only a few cuts, she rendered the creature impotent.

Seeing my opportunity, I pounced on the helpless body of the blob and clawed until all that was left was stinking miasma. I stood in surprise at how trivial such a trial became. Maybe ten seconds had elapsed and the creature was dead. And it only took five seconds to fully disarm it. I usually had to swing twice or three times to fully sever a limb.

“Good,” she complimented, the blade pulled back into her sleeve by innumerable fingers. “It’s always best to kill them before they start to call for support. We can move faster now.”

No longer concerned about our abilities to kill these enemies, Yoshitsune and I sprinted along the beaches. Anything that tried to jump or pounce at us were turned into the steam that they feast upon. Our teamwork was impeccable; Yoshitsune would disarm while I ripped through the exposed weak points. XP was flowing in droves and proverbial dollar signs were forming in my eyes.

My thoughts were consumed with the thought of fighting Yoshitsune; to see if the blade would sever my own hands with the same ferocity. I wanted to know which of us were stronger. I would have to contain myself because, more than that, I needed to form a longer term alliance with this demon.

As she finally crested the top of the dune, she surveyed the surroundings and frowned. Spreading in all directions was more of the same landscape that we ran through. Stretching in the distance ahead of us was a large ring of teeth shaped crags while a giant fog bank sat behind us and obscured whatever laid beyond.

“We are deeper than I remembered,” she commented before turning towards me. “Where have you been resting?”

“I only just got here,” I replied, pointing to the top of a nearby dune. “I ‘woke up,’ just over there. You are the first person I’ve met.”

“Then we are both unfortunate,” Yoshitsune replied with a small sigh. “But, I must admit that I was able to see a portion of your fight between gulps of air. You fight with an impressive savagery…Hold on.”

She fell quiet and stood perfectly still. I assumed that she was looking through her menus so I decided to take watch from our position. Now that I knew about the dangers of the tar pits, I could see signs of the creatures that lurked within. Patterns and ripples from the large outlines shifting around showed the extent of the infestation. Anywhere that we traveled would be met with additional ambushes.

A pair of scythed creatures were birthed from the soupy blackness of a nearby lake. The hot, black amniotic fluid dripped from their clawed limbs. They ventured onto the sands before wandering into the lake that I recently vacated of competition.

“This will have to do for now,” she announced as she sat down upon the sand. “I will be direct with you, Ishmael-san. There is another job that I’d like to ask for your help with. It was not an accident that I ended up in the depths of those lakes. My former comrades betrayed me and disposed of my corpse for the yokai of the swamps to feed on.”

“And you’d like them dead?” I clarified.

Betrayal in a realm of the evil and petty felt more like an eventuality of existence than an unfortunate circumstance. But, I sympathized with the demon to some degree. I had my own traitor to deal with. If nothing else, to smile as I stomped them into pulp over and over again.

“Yes,” Yoshitsune confirmed. “I would have tried to let it go if it were not for the fact that they took an item of sentimental value with them when they emptied my inventory. I do not hold much attachment to my previous life, but I would, at least, like to keep that.”

“Do you think that the two of us will be enough?” I asked.

“No, for now,” Yoshitsune answered honestly. “As foolish as it sounds, our low level will work to our advantage. But, before I share that method with you, I need to know if I can trust someone like you. I want to know why you’re in this place.”

I looked with surprise at this poor girl who clearly hadn’t learned from her last group. With these new systems, there were probably a myriad of ways to ensure long term compliance, but she wished to follow the one of mutual trust? The naivety unsettled me.

“What about yourself?” I asked instead, throwing her attitude a little off balance. “What if your acts to trap you in these hellish depths are something that I cannot reconcile with?”

Oftentimes, it was the ones that were the most outwardly normal that were the most unhinged. I remembered a man named John. He could get along with anyone in the prison; was able to talk about anything with anyone. He’d talk to me about the Falcons and all their stupid roster moves. Only the most deranged wanted to test him at the cost of getting their skulls fractured by his friends. Unless Raymond told me, I never would have guessed he drowned all his children and killed his wife. His scheduled injection was after mine.

Not that any answer would change my mind, I just didn’t like to be the only one to divulge information. Let’s see if she tries to lie to me.

Despite most of her face covered with hands, Yoshitsune looked clearly ashamed about the question posed to her. Her body language sagged and her mouth tightened in a grimace.

“You are right, Ishmael-san,” Yoshitsune agreed. “You also must be given a good reason to trust me. As you may have realized, our first punishment is the removal of our own names. Yoshitsune was the name of a great warrior and leader from my nation’s history. I grew up in the household of a land owning family. I was the eldest daughter and, for a time, the only child in my family.

At my own insistence, I was allowed to train in ways that were considered unbecoming of a lady. My father was a retired samurai and, after serving, did not trust his fellow man. I was decent with a sword, but my real talent was in horse archery. I could hit targets at a full gallop.”

Yoshitsune still seemed to possess some amount of pride in her archery skills. However, that sense of satisfaction was fleeting.

“But, lessons stopped when my brother was born. Now that he was the heir, he was going to be the warrior that protected me and our house. But, my brother was born under bad omens; his body was aging, but his mind continued to stay at near infancy. It was a difficult time for the family and I was trained to be the ruler of the household from behind the scenes. It would not be for another ten years before my second brother was born.

While he was still a young boy, rumors crept from Kyoto that the city was ruled by nobody and that anyone with enough bravery could become the new Shogun. There had been several rebellions in the past, but none as brazen as this. When war began to erupt all over the nation, our daimyo saw their chance to rule and declared a complete conscription of the men of his region. Since my brothers were either infirm or too young, our aging father would have to go to war. Instead, I took my infirm brother’s name and father’s old armor and went out marching instead.

Our daimyo was powerful and led us through many difficult battles with his controlled aggression and I managed to gain a couple accolades for my prowess with a bow. However, as strong as a daimyo is, his soldiers still need to eat. I acted as an escort for his officials tasked with requisitioning millet and rice from his new holdings. Most complied, but the ones that didn’t… The official ordered to be punished. His favorite was the removal of hands. Nobody, not even women and children were to be spared that punishment.”

Yoshitsune gritted her teeth in remembrance. The hands on her body were agitated. I could see the clothing rustle and clench. The ones around her neck squeezed tightly in punishment before going limp.

“When I was hungry, it felt justified,” Yoshitsune explained. “We were starving and needed food to keep going. It was only when my stomach was full that I started to see the people in my dreams. But, before I could do anything about it, I died. I was riding in battle when a stray arrow caught me. Instead of hitting the ground beneath me, I fell down here. My sword fused to my arm and these hands formed over my body. If this is truly a realm of punishment, this is where I belong.”

Ah, the loyal soldier that was just doing their duty. I wondered how many soldiers that killed enemies in war would be down here. Was there a threshold of justified killing in war before it became sin? Did that extend to the ones involved in giving order? If so, there would be a lot of famous politicians to meet down here.

“I will work with you,” I replied, allowing Yoshitsune a sigh of relief.

“For a strange reason, it feels good to admit the evil I’ve done,” Yoshitsune said with a sad smile. But, her face turned my way and I could feel the eyes beneath the hands. “Now, will I be able to accept you?”