Limitless Summoner: Rise of the Soul God

Just as they were talking, the rustling in the bushes suddenly grew louder and louder until a small group of snarling, ragged demons burst out into the open.

The guards' chatter turned to frantic shouts as they scrambled into formation. One guard tripped over his own feet while another nearly dropped his gear in shock. Even some of the errand boys looked like they might faint right there.

They were definitely not a match for the demons. This was going to become a one-sided massacre really fast.

Ethan wanted to help, but he did not want to get personally involved. He did not want anyone to see what he could do. He couldn't put himself and the people he cared about in danger for random strangers.

But at the same time, he was not a monster. He couldn't let these guards simply be ripped apart into shreds. He moved back a few paces, acting as if he was terrified of the demons, and when he was sure no one was watching him, he immediately summoned Greyback.

Greyback, the pack leader of the twenty-four wolves, leaped forward instantly. His powerful frame surged out of the shadows, teeth bared and eyes glowing with ferocity.

The sudden appearance of the massive wolf made the demons pause—a split-second hesitation that was all the opening the wolf needed. It directly pushed one of the demons away from the group and started mauling the thing viciously.

The rest of the pack joined the fight almost immediately. Two or three wolves tackled a demon together, and from the looks of it, these were all lesser demons because they did not put up too much of a fight.

This gave the group of guards some time to retreat. Ethan had already hidden himself behind some trees. Not that it mattered. When the guards ran back to the camp to inform the others, they did not exactly look around to check if everyone was safe.

They were running for their lives, and Ethan was completely forgotten, which was exactly what he needed. Before his wolves could completely maul and destroy the lower-level demons, he made sure to get in a hit by hurling small bolts of mana.

The fight was over in a jiffy, and Ethan received a series of notifications confirming his newly added minions.

He knew he had very little time to deal with this before more guards started showing up and everything became messy. Without wasting time, he summoned the next batch of minions, some of the recently acquired ones and the other demons in his list.

Now it was time for some real scouting. After asking the demons some basic questions regarding their whereabouts, he narrowed down the direction they needed to head towards. From the looks of it, there were a lot of demons, and Ethan clenched his fists in excitement.

Maybe after he tested his abilities against these demons, he could go down the mines and check what was really going on down there. It had always bothered him in a corner of his mind, and this time, he was not going to run away just like that.

Ethan pushed forward, and soon, within the next few minutes, they had already run into two groups of smaller demons. One group had five demons, and one had six demons, but both groups were composed of only lesser demons.

Just the wolves were easily able to take care of them, and the entire pack gained a level in return. In the blink of an eye, Ethan had also managed to add ten more minions to his summoning list.

Everything was going smoothly. Except he felt as if something was off. What were these many lesser demons doing roaming around in this area? These demons were not weak, but they were also not the strongest.

This was completely opposite to when he had faced the demon army. There were several strong demons, many of the next rank. However, these were weak ass demons that could be taken care of even by a more capable city guards group.

So why were they still alive and roaming about? More importantly, why haven't they been addressed yet? Why even come here if their level is so weak?

No matter what angle he thought about it, it did not make any sense. Their presence here was completely out of place.

Ethan continued pushing forward, and surprisingly, more of the same kept repeating. There were no beasts or human beings or even the common beasts like birds and smaller rodents. There were only these lesser demons.

The entire area also felt very different. He had only recently been here, and yet within a span of few weeks, the landscape itself had become different.

The trees had lost their color. Even when it was summer, the leaves were missing, and the plants had a withered ghostly look as if the very life had been drained from them. The vibrant greens and warm hues he once took for granted had been replaced by a dull, grayish pallor.

None of this made Ethan feel any better. He was now so close to the town, and yet he kept encountering more and more lesser demons. How could these many demons be so close to the town and not affect the people living in the place? Why hasn't help been sent already?

The bad feeling in his gut only deepened as Ethan reached the outskirts of the small town. Normally, there would be a steady rotation of town patrols and vigilant guards, but here—everything was eerily absent.

The streets, which should have been alive with chatter and the clatter of everyday activity, were as empty as a ghost town. Even the small entrance building, which was usually a hub of local life, stood silent and abandoned, its doors creaking in the wind.

Ethan's steps slowed as he cautiously entered the town. Every corner he turned revealed nothing but vacant sidewalks and uninhabited squares.

The silence was overwhelming, punctuated only by the occasional creak of old wood and the rustle of leaves in a dead wind. It was as if the town had been frozen in time, left to decay without a single soul to tend to it.

As he moved deeper into the deserted streets, the oppressive stillness made his heart pound faster.

Every shadow and empty window amplified his sense of isolation, and he couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly, inexplicably wrong. The entire town was empty—no bustling market stalls, no lively chatter, just an eerie, unsettling void. Explore stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Where did they all go? Did they evacuate the place?