Chapter 470: He’ll do it again…

Vergil had just turned his back, the Yamato reattached to his obi, when Rize raised her hand. “Wait, master.”

His steps stopped mid-stride. There was no rush in his reaction—just the slight turn of his head to face her, a gesture that carried weight in itself. “…Yes?”

Titania was the first to speak, flapping her wings to gain altitude, glancing nervously around. “Hey, we can’t wait! We can’t stay in this area for long.” Her voice held true urgency. “Those demonic oxen didn’t fall alone… and the smell of blood will attract predators. And I’m not talking about just any—I’m talking about things you probably don’t want to encounter when the sun goes down.”

Vergil remained silent, but his golden eyes followed the comment with interest.

Rize, however, nodded slowly. “That’s exactly why.”

“…That’s why what?” Titania frowned, clearly irritated at not being immediately understood.

Rize didn’t turn to her; she kept her gaze firmly on Vergil. “Master, did you know… that demonic animal flesh is one of the purest sources of nutrients for other demonic beings?”

Vergil arched an eyebrow, while Zuri, curled up on his shoulder, nodded slowly, interested. Titania blinked, as if she hadn’t grasped the connection. “Nutrients?”

Rize’s faint smile appeared, and there was something predatory about it.

“Yes.” She took a few steps toward one of the bodies, bending down to touch the still-warm flesh. “Their muscle tissue is saturated with unstable mana, the result of the fusion of demonic energy and primal instincts. To most humans, it’s poison. But… to a demon, or something close to it, it’s like a concentrated dose of raw power.”

She ran her fingers over the cut Vergil had made on one of the fallen oxen, revealing the muscle fibers pulsing faintly.

“Each bite is like consuming weeks of training and mana absorption all at once. Of course, it’s unstable… if you don’t know how to handle it, it can be dangerous.”

Titania grimaced. “You’re talking about eating raw monster meat as if it were a… fancy dinner.”

“No, you can heat it up too, and besides,” Rize corrected, her tone almost professorial, “I’m talking about a natural catalyst. Think of it this way: a demonic body needs to break limits. This meat is… a ladder. You don’t need to climb one step at a time—just jump several at a time.”

Vergil, rarely impressed, kept his gaze fixed on her. There was no judgment on his face, only calculation. “And you… know that how?”

The answer came without hesitation: “Instinct.” She smiled almost innocently, but her eyes were shining. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten… but until recently, I was a spider.”

The silence that followed was awkward. Even the rustling of leaves seemed to stop.

Zuri was the first to break it, lifting her head slightly to look at Vergil. “That doesn’t make any sense, but okay.”

Titania, still flying, looked at Rize as if seeing her for the first time.

“Wait… are you saying you ate that kind of meat?”

Rize tilted her head, a faint smile on her lips. “Not only did I eat it… but I survived thanks to it. Underground, smaller predators end up being larger prey. That’s how creatures like me—or what I was—grow so quickly.”

Vergil narrowed his eyes, clearly processing more than just biological information.

“So…” He glanced at the scattered bodies, some still smoking with the residue of demonic energy. “You’re suggesting we take advantage of this.”

“Exactly.” Rize stood, wiping her hands unhurriedly on the fabric of her skirt. “Those oxen weren’t ordinary. The energy in them is dense enough to strengthen any of us. Even just a little, it’ll be something we wouldn’t need to spend days obtaining.”

Zuri rocked against his shoulder. “Yeah… that makes sense. But there’s a problem…” She glanced at the surrounding forest. “Titania wasn’t wrong. It’ll stink so much that if we stay longer than a few minutes, the feast will be ours… only with us as the main course.”

“That’s why we need to be quick.” Rize’s voice remained calm, but there was a certain urgency now. “Let’s kill them all; after all, the master would go after them anyway.”

Vergil didn’t respond immediately, but the faint glint in his golden eyes showed that Rize had tapped into something that truly piqued his interest. He surveyed the bodies strewn across the field, the vapors of demonic energy escaping from each open wound, and seemed to weigh the possibilities with the coolness of a strategist.

“Interesting…” he muttered, almost to himself.

Zuri, still resting on his shoulder, lifted her head and muttered, “But I’m not a demonic being. This flesh wouldn’t do anything for me… other than probably kill me. And that hysterical fairy is also off the list.” She waved her tail at Titania, who was flying overhead, keeping her distance from the corpses.

Titania, offended, crossed her arms in the air. “And it’s not like I want that crap! The smell is already making me nauseous. Only you two have the stomach for it.”

Vergil shifted his gaze to Rize. “Indeed… it’s only the two of us who could consume something like that. But in my case, my body already has a… peculiar balance. An excessive amount of that energy would break down more than strengthen it.”

He said it dryly, as if it were merely a technical fact, but Rize watched him intently, absorbing every word.

Then she tilted her head slightly, and the smile that emerged was different from usual—it wasn’t just predatory, but calculating. “Master… didn’t you say before that you’d like to see that little cow with a humanoid body?”

Vergil raised an eyebrow, interested. “And?”

“If she ingests this meat… and can withstand the energy… who knows, she might evolve?” Rize’s voice was soft, but laced with malice. “You yourself have seen her strength. Imagine that strength in a more intelligent form… or at least more adapted to combat. Perhaps… even something capable of wielding weapons.”

Zuri let out a long sigh, her eyes almost weary. “…Here we go.”

Vergil remained silent for a few seconds, staring at Rize as if trying to gauge how far that idea could go. Then he shifted his gaze to the demonic cow, which stood a few meters away, still snorting and kicking the ground, its body covered in marks, but its eyes alight with pure fury.

His smile appeared, slow and restrained. “Do you really think she’d resist?”

“I don’t know…” Rize replied, approaching the animal with calm steps, never breaking eye contact. “But rare creatures only become legendary when they survive things that would kill all others. And this one… seems like the kind that won’t take the fall easily.”

Titania lowered herself slightly, glancing back and forth between the two. “Are you… serious? You want to conduct an experiment in the middle of an open field, surrounded by the smell of blood, with predators on the prowl?!”

“Yes,” Vergil replied dryly, without even looking at her.

Rize smiled wider, almost as if amused by the fairy’s desperation. “I can prepare the meat. Remove the excess unstable mana… leave just enough to push her body to its limits. But if she survives…”

“She won’t be the same creature anymore,” Vergil added, now looking directly at the cow.

The animal, as if sensing its attention, let out a deep moo, which reverberated like thunder across the field. There was no fear in its eyes, only defiance.

Zuri shook her head slowly, resigned. “I know that look, Vergil. You’ve already decided.”

He ran his thumb along the Yamato’s guard, an almost unconscious gesture. “If she survives… we might have something truly interesting on our hands.”