Chapter 11: The Unwanted Guide
The silence that followed General Kaelen's question was heavier than the demonic corpses littering the ground. The remaining cultivators of the Phoenix Crest Sect watched, their weapons still glowing with spent Qi, their eyes wide with a mixture of awe, terror, and confusion. They had just witnessed a legend tear itself from the pages of a nightmare and save them all.
Leo turned his head. His new Energy Perception painted General Kaelen not as a man, but as a brilliant, swirling nexus of golden, solar-like energy. His core was powerful, disciplined, and—interestingly—tinged with the faint, aching fatigue of recent loss. This was a leader who fought alongside his men.
When Leo spoke, his voice was flat, devoid of the grandeur Kaelen might have expected. It was the sound of stone grinding on stone. A statement of fact, not a boast.
"I am nobody," Leo said.
The answer was so simple, so utterly dismissive, that it was more disquieting than any title or boast could have been. A nobody did not annihilate a Dread Vizier. A nobody did not radiate an aura that made demonic battlelines break from fear alone. He offered no name, no sect, no explanation for his blindness or his impossible, Qi-less power.
He simply began to walk away, stepping over the dissolving remains of a Brute without a second glance. His business here was done. The demons were in retreat. The EXP was gained. The metamorphosis was complete. He had a new sanctum to find, new System functions to test. The human world held no interest for him.
"Wait!"
General Kaelen's voice was not a command, but a plea. He took a few hurried steps forward, then stopped, wisely not entering Leo's immediate personal space.
"You are… someone to us," Kaelen said, his voice earnest. "That demon army… it wasn't a random incursion. They were driven. They were hunting something. Hunting you, weren't they?"
Leo didn't stop walking, but he didn't accelerate either. His silence was confirmation enough.
"We have been fighting a losing war for generations," Kaelen continued, desperation creeping into his tone. "We hold the line at great cost. We've never seen demons so deep in our territory, and we have never seen them broken like this. You understand them. You know how to fight them in a way we do not."
Leo paused. He could hear the truth in the man's heartbeat, the quickened pulse of genuine need. He also heard the whispers of the other cultivators. "...no Qi at all...how is that possible?" "...saw him move...it wasn't a technique... it was just... death..." "...the Blind Reaper...the stories are true..."
The System provided a cold, logical analysis.
[General Kaelen: Sincerity levels high. Strategic value of alliance: Potential high. Risk of exposure: High. Recommended action: Disengage.]
The logical choice was to leave. Humans were a complication. A liability.
Then Kaelen said the words that changed the calculus. "They are not just at our gates. They are inside our walls. The demonic corruption spreads through deceit and infiltration. We find cults in our own cities, nobles whispering with things that wear human skin. We are being bled dry from the inside. We don't just need a warrior. We need… a perspective we do not have."
Infiltration. Corruption. It was a new variable. Demons weren't just mindless beasts; they were a strategic, insidious threat. This wasn't just about killing; it was about intelligence. And the System's new [Energy Perception] function could be the ultimate lie detector.
Leo finally stopped and half-turned back towards the General. "My path is my own."
"Let it lead to my city, just for a time," Kaelen urged. "As my honored guest. No questions will be pressed. No duties demanded. Simply let us learn from your presence. Let our enemies see that the one who breaks their armies walks our walls." He gestured to the carnage around them. "You have already chosen a side today."
It was a clever argument. Leo had interacted. He had changed the balance of power. Neutrality was no longer an option. The demons would now see all humans as potential allies of the "Blind Reaper." His solitude was compromised.
The System updated its analysis.
[New variable accounted for: Demon strategic infiltration. Host's unique sensory capabilities (Energy Perception) provide a significant tactical advantage in identifying disguised demonic entities. Potential EXP gain from urban demon hunting: Considerable. Risk mitigated by Host's increased power level. Revised recommendation: Conditional engagement.]
Leo was silent for a long moment, his head tilted as if listening to a distant sound. He was weighing the grind. The EXP from culling demons in a city could be immense, and far less dangerous than assaulting the Gate head-on. It was a new hunting ground. A new challenge.
"Your city," Leo said, his voice a low rumble. "You will provide me quarters. Isolated. You will not speak of what you saw here. To anyone."
A wave of relief washed over General Kaelen's features. "You have my vow. On my life and my honor."
"Honor means nothing," Leo stated flatly. "Your usefulness does. Lead the way."
It was not the grateful acceptance the General had hoped for, but it was an acceptance nonetheless. He nodded sharply and began barking orders to his men to form up and prepare to march.
As the Phoenix Crest cultivators gathered their wounded and began their trek home, they cast nervous, reverent glances at the figure walking slightly apart from them. He moved with an unnatural certainty over the rough terrain, his staff never seeming to touch the ground, his blind eyes fixed on a horizon only he could see.
He was a mystery wrapped in shadow and violence. A weapon they barely dared to hope they could aim. They didn't see a savior. They saw a necessary storm they had invited into their home.
And Leo saw them not as allies, but as a means to an end. A new, complex environment to master. A new source of experience. The war was the same. Only the battlefield had changed.