"Oh really, that does sound interesting," Khalissi responded, nodding her head.

"Do you mean Catori, darling? The girl you found living with the skinwalkers?" Kumo asked.

"Yes. Floki told me how rare a seers are. That only a few witches have ever been born a seer. For that reason, they are highly coveted by witches because of their rarity."

"So you would’ve just handed over a member of your pack just like that?" Khalissi asked, looking a bit intrigued for some reason.

"I’ve already explained the situation to Catori, and she agreed. Our plan would be for me to rescue her when we got to Purgatory if I handed her over to the witches. But now, since we have the mana crystals, I won’t have to move forward with that plan."

"Hmm... So what now?" Khalissi asked. "Will you take me back to your pack?"

’I guess this means I’ll have to go back home. That means I’ll have to face Sylvie and come up with an answer for her.

I wonder how Selthia is faring. Did she talk with her sister? And Isabella... The last time she went without drinking my blood, she almost lost her mind. There are so many things that I need to resolve.’

...

With everything concluded, the obvious choice was to go back to my pack. We traveled until night fell, and we made a small camp. I hunted a wild deer, then used my heat manipulation ability to cook it for us.

"That’s quite pitiful if that’s the only thing you can do with your fire affinity. You need to awaken the bloodline that gave you fire affinity in the first place or you’ll be stuck like this," Khalissi said.

Kumo frowned at her.

"My darling is not pitiful. Take that back!"

"What bloodline do you think it is?" I questioned.

After sticking out her tongue at Kumo, Khalissi turned to answer my question.

"It could be a number of things. Maybe one of your ancestors was a salamander, and you’ll awaken with the Igni bloodline. Or maybe it’s something more legendary like the Sōl bloodline, which is only held by phoenixes. The truth is that there are a number of bloodlines that have a high affinity for fire. Some are powerful while some are weak."

"But you do have a suspicion, don’t you? Which is why you asked about the first ability I had. The thermal vision ability. Tell me what bloodline you think I have."

"I’m sorry, but my contract with you prohibits me."

"What? That doesn’t make any sense."

"I’m sorry, but I physically can’t tell you since it would be breaching the contract we made. You remember the terms, don’t you?"

Sigh.

"I do. Fine if you won’t tell me about that, then give me some information about your kind."

"Like what?"

"Like your ranking, for example. How does it work?"

"Okay, very well then, I’ll tell you about that. In the demon army, there are seven ranks. The lowest rank is feral beasts. This rank is for demons who belong to another demon’s legions. They are like zombies, and my bloodmoths, or even your shadow hounds."

So my hounds are demons. I’ve had that suspicion for a while, but this just confirms it.

"As leaders of feral beasts, it’s our job to make sure they evolve. I see that none of your shadow hounds have managed to evolve yet. I remember it took me half a century to get my legion through their first evolution. I remember my moths started out as nothing but caterpillars."

Khalissi spoke fondly of her moths. I could tell that she loved them the same way I loved my shadow hounds.

"My shadow hounds were nothing but mangy dogs when I got them."

She giggled.

"Then you’ve done an excellent job so far. Your legion seems happy. Anyway, the rank above feral beasts is corrupted predators. These are demons who aren’t a part of a legion. So they are neither a leader nor a follower. They move by their own instincts, doing whatever pleases them. Most demons fall under this rank. An example of a corrupted predator is demogorgons. They are like stray dogs. They do whatever they please. Demogorgons also have a strange ability that allows them to cross through dimensions."

"That sounds familiar. I remember when I fought an evolved demogorgon, it transported me to a place called the abyss."

"Yes, the abyss is where they live. Anyway, the rank above corrupted predators is the Greater Fiends like me. Greater Fiends are demons who control their own legions. We gain EXP and level up whenever our legion kills, along with other benefits."

"Wait, I don’t get that. I don’t level up whenever my shadow hounds kill a monster."

"Then you have the same issue as with your fire affinity. You have another bloodline you need to unlock. So that’s two bloodlines. So at the very least, you have two more evolutions to undergo. But who knows if you have other bloodlines waiting to be unlocked. Though having two bloodlines exceedingly rare. I wonder which bloodline you’ll unlock first."

"About that there was something I wanted to ask you. I heard that the awakened human who killed the Greater Fiend demon awakened a bloodline. shouldn’t that be impossible for humans. I thought they awakened classes instead of bloodline." I said.

"No it’s not impossible for humans to awaken a bloodline. it’s just extremely rare. That human must’ve awakened a bloodline unique to only him. Though it pains me to admit it, that human must be some sort of genius. Plus he holds a sacred demonic blade. If the rest of the human race rallies behind him then Conquest will have one hell of a fight when he gets here."

I bet that human will get even stronger by the time Conquest gets here. By then he’ll be even more of a monster. Plus there are others like him. I can’t allow myself to fall behind.

"Anyway, the two final rankings are archdemons and above that, you have the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. I can’t tell you much about the archdemons since it will violate our contract, so instead, let’s discuss the 4 horsemen."

"Wait, hold up a second," I stopped her. "You can’t tell me about the archdemons, but you can tell me about the 4 horsemen, which is of a higher rank. Shouldn’t the 4 horsemen be more classified than the archdemons in that case?"

"It doesn’t matter which rank is higher. I can’t tell you about the archdemons because it will violate our contract."

"You also said that telling me about my bloodline would violate the terms of the contract," I said, looking at her suspiciously.

"Yes, that’s because it will. Remember the condition I gave you when we formed our contract: I can’t disclose anything related to the demon king Lucifer, hence I can’t tell you about archdemons or what bloodline I think you’ll unlock. But what I can tell you though is that I have an idea as to when you’ll evolve."

"Hmm... When will I evolve?"

"Based on what I know about you, it’s highly likely that you’ll evolve at level 50. And not only that, but it will be much harder for people who didn’t evolve at level 25 to level up. You’ll only get a fraction of the EXP you normally get."

"What? You can’t be serious?"

"I am. You see, most of the people who don’t evolve at level 25 have a high lifespan, normally living four hundred or even thousands of years, so they have the time to gain EXP slowly. Greater Fiends like myself also evolve at level 50. It took me 70 years to finally evolve. Though that was mostly because I wasn’t in any kind of rush since 70 years is nothing for a demon. If I was fully committed to it, maybe I could’ve done it in 30 years instead."

"That is still a long time. You said Conquest will be arriving in a year. What are the odds of me evolving in time?"