The echoes of the explosion still lingered in the misty air, a ghostly reminder of the power Kayn had just unleashed.
The three remaining demons, scattered and disoriented, didn't know whether their leader had lived or died.
They only knew that something massive had happened, and their eyes couldn't see a thing.
But Kayn wasn't.
Kayn jumped up once again and spread his wings. Using short glides, he circled the edge of the dense mist like a predator.
He spotted the three separated demons and made his move.
Before diving into the dense mist once again, Kayn cast another spell, "Mana, reinforce, strength, circular body-sized input."
Another circle made of dark mana appeared in front of him, but it was large enough for his whole body to go through the circle.
When Kayn passed the circle, mana entered his body and enhanced his muscles and bones.
With the strengthening spell, Kayn could use his wings to fly as he locked into one of the demons.
He flew down quickly, surprising one of the demons.
Kayn opened his mouth and shot a fireball, but the demon made it in time to dodge to the side.
However, Kayn had predicted this and turned his body, sending his tail towards the neck of the demon and strangling it.
His claws then shot forward to the struggling demon, piercing its head, which only gave slight resistance.
Another hand soon pierced the demon's body, grabbing the soul and putting it into Kayn's mouth.
Kayn's moment of bliss arrived once more and left just a few seconds later, reminding Kayn that he still had more to consume.
He flew upward and went on another hunt.
A slash across the throat. A fireball to the face. A heavy stomp to the back of the neck.
One by one, the demons fell, never even realizing their companion had died before them. Their souls nourished Kayn even more.
As the last soul of the demon entered his mouth, Kayn closed his eyes to feel the full effect of consuming a soul.
He staggered for a moment, almost losing himself.
Then it was gone.
Only a residual warmth in his chest remained, just enough to make him crave the sensation again.
"Now I really know why those demons in the movies are obsessed with souls so much… This feeling… You can never get enough of it…"
After getting everything he could from the group of demons that dared to chase after him, Kayn continued moving through the frozen terrain.
The mist from his battle slowly cleared as the wind picked up, revealing the region in its frigid stillness once more. Mountains of jagged ice loomed in the distance, and even further beyond, hidden by layers of snowfall, was the Ice Temple, his next destination.
He knew of it instinctively. After searching for knowledge about the temple, the one residing in the middle of an elemental region, he knew what they were.
There were multiple elemental regions in the demon world, and in the middle of those regions stood a temple.
Inside the temple exists a trial, a trial that a demon could take to try and gain an elemental affinity.
Kayn wanted to find a way back home, but being weak in the demon world wouldn't let him do anything.
Let alone finding a way home, even just walking around was impossible without the necessary strength to keep oneself alive.
And gaining an elemental affinity was certainly one of the ways for Kayn to act even more freely in this world.
The Ice Temple wasn't the only thing ahead, though.
Kayn looked upward once more and saw the tower. His knowledge was a little hazy before, but now that he had acclimated to his new body, he knew how the tower could make him stronger.
The tower gave the adult demons who had eaten enough souls to evolve once more by infusing them with richer demonic mana.
After evolving, they would then be transported to the next layer of the demon world.
And the deeper one went into the demon realm, the stronger and more intelligent the demons became.
Kayn hoped that by meeting these demons, he would be able to learn how one could go into another world.
Kayn didn't actually know whether it was even possible in the first place, but recalling the movies about people summoning demons into their world to grant their wishes, there must be something that enables the demons to move between worlds.
With that thought in mind, Kayn quickened his footsteps as he made his way towards the ice temple.
A few hours passed in silence.
Kayn navigated through the frozen wastelands, getting closer to the glaciers that stood as tall as a mountain that guarded the ice temple.
He didn't see any other groups of demons along the way, and he thought that he would arrive quickly at the ice temple, complete the trial, and gain the ice affinity.
But then he saw it.
A tall, slender figure walking alone in the frozen expanse. Its skin was grey, nothing like the red demon skin he had seen so far.
Each time it took a breath, it formed fractal shapes in the air. No wings. No tail. But it radiated pressure. The kind of pressure Kayn could only describe as bone-chilling.
Kayn approached cautiously, sniffing the air.
"No more scents of souls nearby.. This demon is alone."
Kayn decided to fire a fireball toward the demon as a test.
Seeing the fireball towards itself, the demon didn't even flinch.
The fireball got close enough to the demon, only a few meters away from exploding and burning the demon.
But it never did. When it reached the demon, the fireball suddenly became frozen solid in midair before crumbling into ice dust.
'What…?' Kayn froze on the spot, not knowing what his eyes were seeing.
In the next second, Kayn's instincts screamed.
He felt a sudden surge of mana above him, and he quickly jumped sideways, opening his wings and gliding away.
Icy spears fell on the spot where he had stood before.
'How could it cast a spell so fast?! I got distracted for a second and he finished his spell!??'
Kayn stared back at the demon, and he finally saw the demon casting its spell.
Without even drawing the runes on his own, the grey-skinned demon just opened up its palm, and a set of runes appeared out of thin air.
"Ice Spear." The runes were spelled out before it disappeared into the air.
For the second time, Kayn felt another surge of mana, this time from below him as he flapped his wings to go and try to dodge again.
However, the ice spears, seemingly knowing that he would try to dodge, were aimed towards the spot where Kayn was going.
He managed to use his wings and tail to spin abruptly in another direction, but he could only do so much with his huge body that a spear succeeded in grazing one of his four arms.
Kayn dropped to the ground, wincing. It wasn't any ordinary pain. The cut that the single ice spear made was much worse than being stabbed by the roots of the ashen forest.
The cut on his arm pulsed, sending frozen waves of mana into Kayn's body.
The area around the cut began freezing as Kayn could feel one of his hands going numb.
"This fucker…" Kayn stared at the ice demon once more.
The ice demon wasn't moving. It still stood in the same place. It had only raised a single hand, and it was enough to bring Kayn back down to the ground.