Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 59: Trickster

[Familiar Bond has been initiated.]

[Contribution to Bond’s successful hatching detected. Bond strengthened.]

[Total submission. Trickster Demon acknowledged your superiority. Insignia of Dominance has been created.]

None of it made sense. Starting from the way the creature—Trickster Demon or whatever—hatched, up to the creation of the Bond or the Insignia of Dominance. Honestly, I didn’t even know what either of those meant.

I could only stare dumbfounded at the System notifications and the Insignia etched on the back of my hand. It looked quite cool, but what exactly did it mean?

It’s probably one more thing that makes me more desirable prey. I could almost smell it. As little as I knew about the Insignia, which was nothing, to be brutally honest, it was not all that difficult to tell. More people would want to hunt me down for the Insignia, and I hated it to the core.

"You still didn’t answer my question," I growled, shaking my hand in a helpless attempt at getting rid of the Insignia or the Trickster Demon.

A chuckle rang in my head, and I did not doubt for a second that it was the Trickster Demon.

"I know you can hear me. Get out of my head!"

It didn’t listen, but the chuckle resumed. So I did the only thing I could think of: I ignored the Trickster Demon. Newborn or not, it was already getting on my nerves.

That’s not how I imagined my first child to be. I grimaced, already dreading telling Fern about it.

Instead of asking the Trickster Demon more questions, I called out the Status.

Xavier Halur

Core: Tier-1 (66%)

Insignia: Dominance(1)

Bond - Trickster Demon (Newborn - Lesser)

Primary Power: Shift

Two more lines were added to the Status, neither of which helped me understand what was going on. All I could really tell was that I didn’t know anything. Other than the System acknowledging the Trickster Demon’s existence...and our bond.

"Whatever, it’s not that important." I tried to tell myself, but who was I kidding? This was batshit crazy.

It wasn’t even like I bonded with a monster or anything. Even that would have been insane considering I didn’t even have a Power of Taming or Enslavement. But a Demon? The creature within the egg hadn’t been your average monster but a Demon of the Netherworld. As to how the Zetrian Empire managed to acquire a demon’s egg, or how it ended up in the Eserian, I didn’t know.

No...I did know—or theorize, at the very least.

The dungeon entrance.

The only way the egg could have ended up in the Eserian, in the small camp surrounding the dungeon entrance, was for it to be from the Grand Dungeon itself. Precisely, from the Grand Depths. For the Grand Depths was the only Grand Dungeon through which our realm connected to the Netherworld.

That could only mean the Zetrian Empire had already entered the dungeon entrance and that it fought against demons, one of which carried the egg with it.

Glancing at the two remaining eggs, I frowned. Were those demon eggs as well? It shouldn’t be, considering the Juvenile Nature Dragon asked me to protect them. Dragons and Demons were not particularly friendly with each other, after all.

"What if I misunderstood the dragon and it wanted me to protect something else entirely?" I grimaced at the idea and discarded it after a moment.

The deed was done, the Bond complete, the newborn demon now my responsibility to take care of.

"Just be nice and we might make it out alive here," I muttered and turned to study the other eggs. At least now there were only two more eggs to bring with me out of the camp.

Pain raced down my forearm as the Insignia moved. A moment later, the Trickster Demon popped out of the back of my hand, greatly dimming the verdant and black lines of the Insignia.

The newborn demon snarled at me and yapped in a language I couldn’t quite discern. Frustrated, it ruffled its hair when it realized I couldn’t understand it. The demon then turned to the eggs and snapped its long, pointed claws.

In the next instant, the eggs disappeared.

No, they’re still there. I narrowed my eyes at the spots the eggs had been, noticing the irregularities.

"You turned them invisible," I mused, but the demon shook its tiny head, looking a tiny bit cute.

"No? An illusion it is then."

The demon tilted its head as it looked at me but didn’t quite nod yet.

"A trick of the mind?" I tried once again. This time, the demon nodded more vigorously. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Too exhausted to use Shift when it wasn’t necessary to do so, my attention lingered on the Trickster Demon.

Its little chest heaved up and down.

"Can you use that to make me invisible to others as well?" I doubted the newborn demon could maintain its power for long, but it was worth a try.

The Trickster Demon pushed its chest out and squeaked in the same demonic language as before. It snapped its claws again and a thin film of some sort of substance covered me.

"I sure hope you can maintain this for a while," I said, trusting the demon even though I had no reason to do so. Other than the Bond that linked us together, maybe.

Regardless, I stepped out of the tent, bracing myself for the worst while hoping for the best. Several soldiers could be seen wandering through the camp. They carried spears and looked around in a mixture of boredom and vigilance.

Clearly, the news of an invader had spread, but it wasn’t like everyone took it seriously. That was curious and quite helpful, but not as much as the newborn demon’s trickery. I managed to enter the tent to my right searching for a bag and found one almost immediately. Then I returned to the little treasury and placed the eggs inside.

The eggs didn’t react drastically to my touch. Neither Shift activated nor were there any ripples of energy. And that was probably for the best. If anything, it was already lucky that nobody found me when the Trickster Demon hatched.

No, I only had to make it out without being found first.

"What do you think you’re doing?" I hissed quietly, staring at the Trickster Demon as he rushed across the ground, arms filled to the brim with gemstones and crystal shards.