Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re)
Chapter 331 - 331: The Imps and the Demon (1)

Third Person's POV

Acting swiftly, and without a word, Virelle slipped her fingers into his and gently pulled him and thus, the trio, into the side alley beside the bustling, narrow street.

The sounds of the city dimmed behind them as they vanished beneath the shroud of deepening shadows and slipped into the narrow, choked corridor of walls harboring silence.

In a single motion, Ethan lifted his hand, and from the depths of his own shadow, a dark, sludge-like cloak emerged.

It looked to be slow, but in reality, it was fluid and unnaturally silent as it silently draped itself over the trio like a living creature obeying its master's will, and in the next instant, they were swallowed whole by that dark shroud that stretched out of nowhere.

Within seconds, they ceased to exist to the outside world.

Across the street, hidden watchers stirred and in the very next moment, four small, cloaked figures emerged from the shadows and slipped into the same narrow alley where Ethan and his companions had vanished.

Their steps were swift, quiet, and brimming with a hungry anticipation and practiced ease that indicated that they were specialists in their job.

They had been tracking them since their entrance into the city and their eyes had been gleaming with an unsettling delight as what they had seen wasn't just another group of travelers.

Instead, to them, they were prey that were fully ripe, unguarded, and strangely alluring, especially the boy.

As soon as they had spotted him, greedy, feverish fantasies had started to swirl in their minds.

They were already seeing visions of selling him on the Sanctum's black market as a prized beauty man-slave.

In the upper echelons of demon aristocracy, particularly within the two empires that influenced this city, such "items" were coveted luxuries.

And this one, this boy was a dream specimen to them and even more valuable than most young girls.

But when they reached the very spot, all of those sordid dreams shattered and their gleeful grins twisted into expressions of disbelief while their brows furrowed in irritation.

Their prey was gone, completely, absolutely gone.

In the next moment, low and harsh curses slipped from their mouths as growls of frustration began to build within their throats.

Thet started to scour the valley with desperation and their movements grew more and more erratic by second as they secured the alley, prowled the corners, scanning the walls, the air, and even the earth beneath their feet.

But all of those attempts seemed to fail and it looked as if Ethan and the girls had evaporated into thin air.

Suddenly, a sudden sharp call broke through the muttering as one of the cloaked figures let out a garbled, guttural sound and beckoned the others with a strange urgency.

The remaining three quickly gathered around and were drawn to the exact place Ethan had stood before he and his girls had vanished.

They held their breath and tension crackled in the air around them.

Meanwhile, in another space that seemed to be out of sync with the physical world, Ethan stood quietly with the girls.

His brows were slightly drawn as silver light flickered through his eyes and though the creatures' language was foreign, he didn't need to understand the words.

Through the astral field, their soul-waves brushed against his heightened innate perception and felt as if they were keen on whispering their intent to him.

But what he felt led to his frown deepening even more.

The lead figure who was a stubby creature with twitching limbs, was telling the others that he had caught Ethan's scent.

Ethan accurately caught the emotion of excitement mixed with perplexity that the soul ripple echoed.

With narrowed eyes, Ethan reexamined their forms, especially their diminutive stature, the darting movements, and the peculiar aura they radiated.

Soon, he concluded that they were imps as they were known to be specialists in scent-tracking, and due to this they were often used by secretive organizations for their unmatched nose.

But now, even they stood baffled, as the scent trail they had been following abruptly ended at this point.

Their one advantage that was their pride as trackers had been severed and all of their fantasies and this sudden surprise seemed like a cruel joke to them.

The other three froze as they processed this, and their confusion quickly gave way to anger.

As they gritted their teeth with their veins bulged faintly at their temples, the four cloaked figures finally pulled back.

Their narrowed eyes burned with restrained fury of predators who were denied their kill at the last moment.

Ethan could feel the almost tangible malice wafting off them.

It was like oily smoke curling through the Astral Realm though it didn't surprise him.

Still, he remained utterly still, and kept his presence veiled in silence and shadow as he remained in the same space he had when they first vanished.

All this while, he hadn't moved an inch.

And yet, to those imps, he might as well have been erased from existence.

A few heartbeats passed and Ethan let out a silent breath.

He closed his eyes and attempted to reconnect a little deeper with the omnipresent Astral Realm this time with the aim to track those imps back to their source.

But then, he suddenly felt a violent crackle.

A wild and furious reddish black storm surged in his mind, and his connection with the Astral realm was severed in an instant.

A sharp pain struck behind his forehead and his breath hitched while blood started trickling from his nose.

He slowly came back to reality when he felt the warm and wet sensation of his blood trailing down toward his lip and chin.

Calmly, he quickly wiped it with the back of his hand.

Beside him, the girls' expressions shifted, first astonishment, and then an unsettled discomfort.

What they had just witnessed was still echoing in their minds, those four figures had walked through them.