Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"You arrived," said Bale from the other side of the mega-dungeon’s barrier, rapping his fingers across his bald head. He looked exhausted, eyes dry and movement lacking the usual bold energy—he had fought. A real hard battle.

Mark walked into the barrier of the dungeon and looked around. Many demon corpses littered the ground, most of them wolf-like. Some Hunters were also dead on the floor, mostly B-rank.

He also noticed Healing Hunter Reema (Heilan’s Grandmother) and another man with an afro hairstyle standing to the side. He turned back to Bale.

"You shouldn’t kill too many demons, brother, or you will end up summoning the angels by accident," Mark said.

Bale just nodded with a grim face.

Mark didn’t say anymore and rounded the corpses silently until he found himself standing in front of two rather special corpses. The biggest of the bunch. They were the corpses of two snow-white wolves. Both wrapped each other’s embrace even in death; both of their bodies bloodied and disfigured.

Tier 2 Demon Corpses. Two wolves from the same kind, too.

Both were as dead as any other corpse there.

"We wanted to keep them alive if possible for the experiment," Bale sighed. "But they struggled too much even after we divided their attention and made them fight separately. We would have all died if Grandmother Reema hadn’t used her Healing Ability at the right moments."

Yuri looked at the snow white wolves silently and put her hands into her lab robe’s pockets. She sighed. "These wolves look beautiful. And strangely melancholic."

"You wouldn’t say that if you saw them in a fight," Reema spat, her wrinkles trembling. "They have all these eyes that can pop up on their bodies and their screams are disgruntling to the ear. So, does the fact that they died matter?"

Yuri rubbed her nose. "Well, it’s okay whether it is a corpse or not, just that I will have to do some simple stuff as extra steps. What matters is that it is not yet burned by the World Will. We can use the foxes’ blood to change the genetic structure of the people whom we want to awaken."

Bale nodded. "Good, the twins I wanted to awaken are in that van near the alley. All the equipment you will ever need is also inside it."

Mark and Yuri both turned to look at a small ambulance-like van lying on the side of an old building. They hadn’t noticed it until now. While Yuri headed towards it with Bale, taling business as they walked, Mark ignored her and moved near Healer Hunter Reema and the other man with an afro.

The man had been silent all along, just watching.

"X-Jerk," Mark greeted.

The afro blinked and licked his thick black lips. "You listen to mi music, boy?"

"I don’t listen to rap songs, but yeah, I know you." Mark laughed and the two men exchanged a dap handshake with each other before the man stood up from the ground using Mark’s hold.

The man had a lean physique, black skin, afro hair with a whole ecosystem within it, and dark eyes. He was nearly two meters tall too. The man was also one of the most loved A-rank Hunter in the world.

A rapper, singer, and a man with a cult-like following on the internet.

X-Jerk—the Sound Hunter.

The man smiled, speaking with a thick accent. "So what are these wolves hunted for, boy? What is the scientist going to do inside the van, inject syrup that would create a hulk?"

"My brother didn’t tell you?" Mark asked, smiling.

"He is secretive, ja," X-Jerk cursed. "I just came to help because I owe your grandmother a favor for healing me in the past. Now that is over and all but I am now curious, what is it that they wanted to kill these wolves for?"

The rapper spat something red on the ground, looking at the wolves. "Not like these kittens would have gone so far into the mega-dungeon to become a lackey of the Boss. If we kill the Boss, these things will also die because the mega-dungeon would vanish. If we didn’t kill the boss, these kittens’ deaths don’t matter. Why did Bale risk his, and our, life at all?"

"Well, let me say that he is doing this for a very important purpose," Mark said with a smile.

The man looked at Mark with an unimpressed frown. "I hate your smile boy. Very hypocritical. A’yway, your brother ain’t want me here, so mi am out." The rapper smacked Mark on the head once and walked away, soon becoming a distant shadow. He sang as he walked, a little dance on his steps.

"What a weird man," Mark said, looking.

He was left alone with his grandma now—Healer Hunter Reema. Her biodata came to his mind.

Reema Neslan. A-rank. She was an expert who nobody knew the face of. A shadow. She didn’t have even a single photo of herself in the entirety of the internet. Many knew a Hunter with her ability did exist but nobody knew who she was, except the other A-rank Hunters and Mark. And Yuri. And some rare others.

"X-Jerk," Reema spat. "That guy is a tsunami, comes and goes around as he pleases. Don’t tell him about the Hunter Awakening Method, don’t tell anybody about it before the Boss is killed. After that, demons would become a business for us rather than a threat. Next time, we won’t allow a dungeon as big as this to be born—ever."

"Indeed." Mark nodded, somewhat reticent.

"What, you seem to have something to ask me?" The old crone looked at him.

Mark didn’t beat around the bush.

"Grandma, if Yuri turned the twins into Hunters, they will only become A-rankers naturally in three months. If we use your ability to constantly heal them once in a while, they will become A-rankers in a week. Right?"

"You are right. So what?"

"And we are hunting the Boss next week. Right?"

"So?"

"Why are we so rushed? Why do we need to attack in a week no matter what?" He said. "Can’t we wait for another two months, become more prepared? Train those twins instead of bringing two greenhorn A-rankers into such a major battle."

The old woman limped towards a boulder and Mark helped her sit on it. She sighed.

"Do you know about the situation among us A-Rankers?"

"...I don’t know."

"There are a total of 10 known A-rankers. It will be 13 if we include Yuri and the Twins, but don’t count them." She took a deep breath and looked up at the murky skies. "Among the ten A-rankers, there are three factions. The neutral faction, the disgusting faction, and the righteous faction."

"..."

"Your brother, me, and X-Jerk are of the neutral faction. There is another guy called Siddique, he is also in our neutral faction—a total of four members. And then the righteous faction led by that ice brat Hanmo which has a total of three members in it including him. And finally, the disgusting faction with their own three members."

"Why are they... disgusting?"

The old woman made a very ugly face. "They are disgusting for many things. We are not all saints but they... they are worse than demons. They eat children after burning them alive; one of them can only eat that or he vomits. And more things I don’t even want to utter, they do it all. They are the scum of our land, and even I don’t know how to describe them to you."

Mark frowned in disagreement, showing an ugly face to his grandma as if in agreement. "We are no saints, true. I’ve killed my fair share of men but this... this is the scum of scum, Grandma. So, why is this related to us being so urgent in attacking the Boss?"

She nodded at his expression.

"The Righteous Faction had always wanted to decimate the Disgusting Faction but do you know why they never could?" She looked at him, then said with emphasis: "Because the dusting bunch are strong. And because only if they help us attack the boss can we truly win against it.

"We wanted to delay the attack on the Boss a bit more but the three from that faction says they can’t wait any longer. They want to attack the mega-dungeon as soon as possible or they said they won’t sign the contract of cooperation ever. So, to accommodate them, we are forced to attack faster."

"Why are they so rushed?"

"They are cowards as much as they are disgusting, they want to get rid of the mega-dungeon before it grows further. And also, at the moment, Hanmo is not around—that guy was one of the biggest deterrents for them. They want to do the attack when Hanmo isn’t around, I guess. Probably just wants to show their intimidation on the Righteous Faction when they can."

Mark sighed. "So we begin the Hunt next week no matter what."

"Not we. You will remain at home. But yes, there is no going back anymore. The Hunt begins next week."