The Seven Demon's Tamer

Violet thunder roared in the sky above them, sending lightning crackling haphazardly across the once-peaceful veil of night.

The lightning was unlike anything any of them had ever witnessed, nor did the lightning follow the natural patterns they had grown used to seeing during ordinary storms.

It weaved through the darkness like serpents of pure malevolence, like countless electric snakes momentarily sprawling across the night sky as if the non-living display had some sort of predatory intent.

The portal that had been opening gradually suddenly expanded with astronomical violence.

The growth was so rapid and massive that a small town could fit through it. The sight was both mesmerizing in its own way and utterly terrifying.

Through the violet swirling vortex of the portal, they could see nothing, as they were unable to see through it, making them tense up increasingly.

"The gamma energy in the air is increasing exponentially," Leo alerted, his voice carrying growing panic that he struggled to suppress. "This concentration could cause another portal break, maybe even multiple ones."

His silver gaze was fixed on the opening in the sky while he spoke, his enhanced sight providing him measurements of power that seemed to be on another level he had never seen before, not even during their encounter with Luxy.

The danger of the situation just couldn't seem to stop escalating.

What they had all waited for with dread finally emerged from the opening above.

Despite the astronomical nature of the portal and the tremendous buildup of energy it had been giving out, all that came through was just one relatively small humanoid creature.

The creature that descended through the portal could be estimated to be around six feet tall, slender in build and resembling something from a nightmare.

Its skin was pale to an almost abnormal level. Its face was irregular in ways that made it impossible to categorize as human despite bearing most of the human features like mouth, nose, and partially the general arrangement.

But these features were assembled in a way that was just wrong enough to trigger an instinctive step back from anyone who laid their eyes upon it.

The most disturbing aspect of its appearance, the feature that immediately threw any consideration of regarding its facial structure as human completely out of the window, were its eyes.

Or rather, its eye.

The creature possessed just a single eye, large and menacing, positioned where a human would have two. This sensory organ was large, dominating the upper part of its face completely.

Staring into that eye alone would make even the strongest mind go blank, as if it carried hypnotic features that bypassed consciousness.

The eye was completely white with no visible pupil, giving it an appearance of blindness that was somehow more terrifying than any normal gaze could have been. But the assumed blindness was just in appearance—the mind and soul of everyone staring at it knew that it wasn't blind.

Its other features, particularly its hands, bore irregular nails that were nothing like those of humans.

The nails were long and sharp, appearing as if they were capable of tearing through more than flesh and tangible materials—they looked as though they could tear the air itself.

Lastly, as for its body, the pale torso and limbs weren't covered in skin. Rather, they were covered in scales that caught and reflected the violet lightning above. The scales made the creature feel like a small humanoid dragon that had no wings but could fly.

It was as if gravity wasn't working on it.

The creature stared at the ground with a lost expression that lasted only momentarily, looking at the crew of Master Sung and the others who had gathered in a defensive cluster beneath it.

There was something different about this creature compared to every other familiar they had ever encountered.

Other familiars, when manifesting in the human world, always showed an immediately aggressive nature, as if they were only outside to fulfill their overwhelming desire to devour and kill everything they encountered.

It was wrong for them to bear such desires; that was, in fact, the appropriate instinct of a familiar because they are just like hunting animals. But this creature suspended above them showed the opposite—intelligence.

Not just animal cunning instinctively developed by some weak familiar for hunting, but true intelligence.

One moment it was suspended in the air, looking down at Master Sung's crew while Master Sung's crew stared back. Then, the next moment, without any warning whatsoever, it vanished.

At that moment, panic spread among everyone in Master Sung's group, excluding, of course, the ones who had summoned the creature—Yuki and Mia, who remained positioned atop the flying familiar in the sky, watching everything happen.

Yuki particularly was smirking with satisfaction as he watched the nightmare he had brought to them. Now, they were too bothered to even focus on Yuki anymore—this humanoid creature was a priority to handle.

"Where did it—" Leo was in the middle of asking when his silver gaze suddenly picked up something that moved faster than the others could possibly track.

He turned his head quickly into their midst, his eyes going wide with horror as he focused on the creature that had been suspended above them just half a second ago. Now it was standing among them, mimicking their posture and staring up at the sky as if it had always been part of their group.

The creature had positioned itself so naturally among them that for a split second, Leo just wanted to deceive himself that it was just an illusion.

It raised a single finger to its mouth, gesturing for Leo to remain silent with a devilish smirk on its face extending from one ear to the other before wrapping its arm around Master Sung's shoulder in a nearly friendly gesture.

Leo knew he should speak up immediately, should do something to alert them to the danger that was literally standing among them. But he found himself paralyzed, not just by fear, but by an instinctive understanding of the malicious intent that radiated from this creature.

If he violated its order for silence, if he drew attention to its presence before it was ready to reveal itself, then he knew for sure he might die too quickly for his brain to even process the manner of his death.

"I wonder where I disappeared to," the creature spoke suddenly, using human language with fluency and a casual conversational tone sounding so much like a typical human. "I am so fast, isn't that right?"

"Silence!" Master Sung instructed sharply, his voice cutting in with authority. "I need to focus and track him quickly, and I need silence for that, do...!"

"No, you don't."