Many ideas flashed through Veal's mind before he retracted his gaze, stepped back, clenched his right fist, and punched the barrier with all his might...
Nothing happened.
Not a sound or even the slightest fluctuation. It was as if he hadn't just launched a force containing over a hundred tons into it.
"As expected," he sighed. He was not surprised by this outcome, for he knew that not even a core rank demon would dream of leaving a dent on it.
But he still wanted to test it for himself.
He turned and gazed at Velra, who had just arrived a few meters away next to him. She was also burning with vitality. The moment he ignited his heart, she had been alerted and concerned, thinking he had encountered something dangerous.
"It's nothing..." he said, putting an end to her concerns.
She nodded slightly while her eyes drifted to the barrier. she narrowed her eyes, penetrating it. The next second, a surprised expression appeared on her face. And it wasn't the flaming world that surprised her, no, for she had seen it already. It was something else...
Veal, noticing her surprise, immediately turned around, and what he saw caused his eyes to shine and his tails stood to attention.
An eye.
An eye that was bigger than his chest, reptilian, with an obsidian vertical slit. it lay directly on the other side of the barrier, and it shone with extreme hunger as it gazed down at him.
There was also something about the eye that triggered something inside of him.
It was feminine.
A lustful look appeared in his eyes. He rammed his tails into the ground and raised himself up to the height of the eye. He placed his open palm on the barrier directly at it and lipped because sound could not penetrate the barrier.
"It's been a while."
Seeing Veal's lustful look and understanding the words that he mouthed, the demon behind the barrier flashed with anger. She leaned backwards, allowing her full eel-like head blazing with vitality, to come into view. She then slammed her head into the barrier.
A futile act.
"Why are you so upset after not seeing me for so long... shouldn't you be excited like our first meeting?" Veal's smile widened as he mouthed, "If I recall correctly you were so happy that you rushed to me excitedly."
Reading his lips, the demon recalled something, then mouthed,
"You are that lucky demon that escaped from my fangs at the river of birth."
"Yes, that's me," answered Veal, "but unfortunately, because of this barrier we cannot reunite properly."
"Yes, indeed. If it weren't for this barrier, we would have been able to reunite like proper demons," agreed the demon, gazing at Veal deeply one last time before slithering away.
She knew their threats were pointless, and continuing any further would just be a waste of her vital blood.
Veal gazed at her body vanishing into the blood lava, then stopped burning his vital blood. He, too, knew their conversation was pointless since there was no way they could actually do anything to each other with the barrier standing between them.
But he couldn't help but wonder how her heart tasted.
He lowered himself, gazed at Velra.
"Now that I've satisfied my burning curiosity, we will return," he said. "Only, we shall circle the cradle on our way back."
Velra nodded and also stopped burning her vital blood. The two then turned into a blur.
Even though this trip of Veal's might seem random, it wasn't. It was done with thought and purpose, with three goals behind it.
One, to satisfy his curiosity.
Two, to map his cradle and make sure there were no vital ranks hiding.
And three, to set a bait.
The first goal was complete. The second, almost. The last, he wouldn't know until he returned home.
Halfway out, they saw Alexandra, who was struggling under the pressure. The weight was too much for her crimson bone body to bear. Her teeth clenched tightly, and her knee bent as if it would buckle if she took one more step.
He didn't utter a word or stop; he picked her up by her waist and continued forward.
In no time, they exited the 2km range of the force and hopped onto the goat demon, starting their return journey.
Whoosh!
After crossing 200km, they came across a humanoid, 3-meter-tall, lizard-like demon.
Veal appeared before it and viciously pulled out its heart before it even processed what was happening.
He and Velra devoured it completely, replenishing some of their depleted vital blood.
They continued their travel.
A day passed when Veal stopped the goat, and his eyes gazed at the sand below him. He sensed that there was something off, he dismounted the demon.
Knelt on the ground, pressed his ear to the soil, closed his eyes, and listened.
A minute passed, and he heard it, the thing that he had faintly sensed.
Ba-dump!
His eyes flashed. Then his tails started digging a path underground.
He dug for a hundred meters before he encountered a cavity, which was about 30 meters wide, and at the center of this cavity slumbered the demon whose heartbeat he had heard.
It was a demon in the shape of a star. That's all he could make out because its body was covered in the bloody sand, and there were also small demonic plants growing all over its body. Evident that it had been sleeping here for a long time.
Probably over five hundred years.
Veal blurred before raising his right hand in a spearing motion and splat! He penetrated its body and grabbed its heart.
The demon woke and let out a roar of shock and pain.
"Sheeee... Sheeee... calm down. There is no need to fret, for I will grant you a gift," mused Veal. "The gift of eternal rest."
After he pulled out the demon's heart, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed it.
The demon twitched and sprayed blood for a few seconds before sinking into the cold hands of death.
Veal grabbed its body and flashed out of the hole. When he arrived above ground with the corpse, everyone was shocked, especially Velra. The fact that there was a vital rank demon lying right beneath her nose and she hadn't noticed surprised her.
Veal ripped the corpse into pieces, which he shared with them equally, including the goat demon, though it only got a tiny piece.
But still, it was grateful, for that tiny piece of flesh was stained with vital energy, something that would push it closer to the end of the vital rank.