Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

“What in the hells are you thinking?” Tauren groaned with an annoyed voice. He closed out his viewing window, sent a quick report to his superiors, and rose from his sitting position. The sounds of other watchers busily recording and reporting on the actions of their assignments filled his ears.

He stretched his muscles and yawned reflexively, squeezing all of the accumulated exhaustion from his soul. His body felt more sore than usual. How long had he been staring through that small portal into the lower realm this time? When it came to this assignment, it could be days or weeks in a row of constant monitoring.

This latest assignment was always up to something. Unlike others, who were far more deliberate with their targets, this one was perfectly reckless. Every time that Tauren looked over, they were in the midst of some life or death struggle; always fighting something or running headlong into a dungeon. Their progress was at a frightening and aggressive speed, making the order for this to be Tauren’s only assignment all the more warranted.

But, that also meant that Tauren was rarely able to take any breaks. Sure, in the beginning, Tauren was able to focus on his own improvement and step out for a while to tackle a dungeon or hunt a higher level concept. Low levels don’t bring a lot of important information, after all.

However, after Tauren missed most of his assignment’s final escapades in the Bowels, he was harshly reprimanded by his supervisor and forced to give up one of his own Black tiered Sin-gots as a reward for his assignment’s accomplishments. He was going to use that on his own equipment and finally get his axe upgraded. Now, he had to begin anew at saving up his XP.

His party, demons that he had traveled with for centuries, were starting to cut him out of their plans since he was never available anymore. Even his partner was getting tired of him. She wouldn’t wrap her tail around him lovingly any longer and only gave him short answers.

No longer. Finally, he would get to go home. His assignment threw aside gifts from above; gifts that Tauren was never provided during his own ascension. His Sin-got was wasted on a traitor.

“Son of a whore,” Tauren bellowed as he punched his chair into splinters. Now that he was alert and the relief of the end of his watch had subsided, hot rage flowed into his body.

“Seeing red, Tauren?” Vahana, Tauren’s seat neighbor and fellow candidate-watcher, asked the Minotaur with a jovial laugh. The chuckle caused the creature’s scaled tusk to bounce around. “Did your assignment go and cause themselves more trouble?”

“They did,” Tauren responded tersely, still angry about his wasted time and XP. He stomped once more before taking a deep breath. “But, it’s no longer my problem. The brazen fucker went and refunded the Aspect’s favorite ability. You can go look for yourself. He’s raining fire like there’s no tomorrow.”

“No magic?” Vahana asked with a serious tone.

“No magic,” Tauren answered with a nod.

Now, Tauren felt the entire room looking at him. His coworkers all peered from their own observation stations in interest. Outbursts and the destruction of equipment were normal actions for those that followed the Aspect of Wrath. However, matters of treachery were rarely heard of and rarer still for assignments that received the Aspect’s favored passive ability.

Tauren had never caught the Aspect’s eye enough to receive such acknowledgement while his foolish assignment had the perfect ability of rage in their hands and tossed it aside. A new flare of anger caused the table that Tauren and Vahana shared to be broken in half.

“I’m surprised,” Vahana remarked, unfazed by the shrapnel that blew by their face. “The Aspect’s chosen usually can take down anything in the first twenty levels with little issue.”

“He got some unlucky opponents strung together and folded,” Tauren answered with a puzzled expression.

As far as Tauren could tell, his assignment was in good mental condition. Sure, the dungeon boss was an unfavorable match-up and the spell casters around him were of a high caliber, but that should not have been enough to make him cast aside his abilities in favor of complete unknowns. Tauren knew that the denial of a quest given was not received well, but there was little Tauren could have done about that. Orders from above were never to be amended.

“Happens,” Vahana said with a shrug. “At least yours was entertaining. I have two that are stuck in death-loops and another that is severely underperforming. They keep following around this wolf-man and letting him take all the best rewards from the dungeons in exchange for love. Fetishists, what can you do?”

“But, it’s strange,” Tauren replied, still hung up on his own betrayal. “I would have expected him to use a weapon before he returned to magic. A longsword or a bow could have taken him a long way if range was such a big issue.”

“He got both no magic and no weapons?” Vahana asked with a raised brow. “Some guys get everything.”

“His opening fight impressed the Fist of Hunan,” Tauren said with a sigh. “But that was the last time the Fist paid any attention to them.”

It was a nerve wracking beginning for Tauren. He still hadn’t fully got his newest assignment’s file together before they called out to the world requesting the opportunity to inflict greater violence. For the first time, Tauren had many powerful eyes watching through his eyes. Even the Aspect personally viewed the spectacle. Amongst the various demons affiliated with Wrath that wished to personally oversee this newest recruit, the Fist won out.

“Oh well,” Vahana said with a shrug. “Anyways, what do you plan on doing with the free time between assignments?”

“Thinking of taking Lams and making a big push for Level 50,” Tauren replied with a smile. “It’s been too long since we partnered up and she’s been a little too open with her displeasure towards me.”

This assignment had single-handedly delayed Tauren’s advancement by quite a bit. He tried to hunt when he could, but he knew that his skills were hurting from a lack of use. Everyone said that Level 50 was the turning point for a demon. His old Supervisor told him as much when she ascended what felt like a century ago. He was only Level 40 back then, a baby.

As soon as he reached the next tier, he’d finally be in consideration for the next promotion. A Mid-Realm Supervisor. He could already imagine his own castle and retinue obeying his orders for a change. Then it was the fast track. High Realm minion all the way to Demon Lord.

Things were going to change for Tauren.

“The big five-oh,” Vahana whistled. “That lines you up for the big promotion right? Where are you looking to get across the line?”

“Thinking of the Hole of Torture,” Tauren replied.

“You’re going to take your lover to the Hole of Torture?” Vahana guffawed, taking Tauren off guard.

“Yeah, she’s great against hallucinations and is able to share the ability,” Tauren replied without understanding what Vahana’s issue was. Sure, it was a hideous place, but it had a lot of valuables inside. If he didn’t know how much time he had until his next assignment, he should go efficiently. “We should be able to get a lot of XP out of it.”

“I don’t know, I just wouldn’t take a woman upset with me to the Hole of Torture as an apology,” Vahana shrugged. “You should probably just do the Necropolis or something.”

“But the lines are just ridiculous,” Tauren groaned as his confidence in his plan was shaken. “Everyone always wants to go to the Necropolis. What about the Roost?”

Vahana shrugged with a polite smile; a gesture that did little to instill confidence in Tauren. A loud ping interrupting Tauren’s thoughts as a message appeared before his eyes.

Message

Tauren, you are summoned to the Supervisor's office.

“Shit,” Tauren murmured. “Supervisor Dakuwaqa wishes to see me.”

“Well, that’s record time. Good luck,” Vahana said, murdering the conversation with a quick wave before their eyes flickered with light. They emitted a pained sigh as they viewed their disappointing assignments.

Tauren quickly hurried his way out of the viewing auditorium and into the courtyard. The sky was a familiar burning red. Off to the side, a new group of demons were being impaled on spikes to be shown out front. The forest of defeated enemies was growing ever larger and the wailing ever louder to bring a sense of security and bliss to the fortress.

He could not make the rounds as he normally did. Greetings that would oftentimes lead to long conversations were nipped in the bud through a rushed and haphazard explanation. However, the mention of Supervisor Dakuwaqa was enough to cease all attempts to gather his attention.

After all, nobody wanted to be the reason Dakuwaqa was left waiting. It was an open secret that the Supervisor could see all that occurred under their domain.

Tauren entered the main castle and quickly made his way to the stairs. They were carpeted by a substance that he would not feel comfortable guessing and felt itchy even through the thick soles of his boots.

On the top floor, he nearly sprinted down the main hallway to a large pair of doors. The guards barely had time to open them to make way for the charging Minotaur before he bowled into the Supervisor’s office.

The first thing anyone noticed about Supervisor Dakuwaqa was their teeth. Rows upon rows of jagged bone daggers showed themselves menacingly through the supervisor’s ever constant faux smile. It was a well-manicured appearance of a leader that had your best interests at heart. However, all it really served to do was take attention away from their dead eyes and quivering gills.

Today, Dakuwaqa was not smiling. Instead, their mouth was downturned into a scowl that threatened to bite off the head of anyone who got a little too close to the shark.

“I read your report,” Dakuwaqa said. “Tell me more about this betrayal from our bright prospect…this Ishmael that we were all so proud of.”

“Well, Supervisor Dakuwaqa,” Tauren began after clearing his throat. “His progress was going steadily. He met his current partner, Yoshitsune. I reported that it was a positive change. He established that slave system in the Tar Gardens and gained valuable experience in more demanding combat. However, there was a large reversal after killing the Corpse-Watcher.”

Dakuwaqa just watched Tauren with bulbous eyes. The pitch black pupils trained directly on him. Several soft red glows covered the supervisor’s eyes while they reviewed some additional material.

“Yoshitsune…says she is an offensive spellblade who’s courting attention from the Chivalric Demon. She’s too level-headed, constantly stymies Ishmael’s real anger. Was it her influence that brought this change?” Dakuwaqa inquired. “Or, perhaps that hyena-faced hunter that the Demons of Duplicity are so keen on messed with his mind.”

“No, she acts as his servant and does not offer any sort of advice as to how he should fight,” Tauren responded with confidence. He had already researched her extensively after their first meeting. “As for Capitaine, Ishmael hated their guts. Killed them in the end. He was very unhappy that the rewards were revoked.”

“If he wanted a gift, he should have established the pecking order sooner,” Dakuwaqa said with a shrug. “You mentioned in previous reports that his attitude began changing after helping that lightning ogre get her revenge. Was there anything else learned about that anomaly after the Drowned Giant Dungeon? You just piss him off?”

Tauren tensed up. His supervisor’s calm observance made him feel transparent. He almost had a heart attack when he looked away to chat with a coworker only to turn around and see that Ishmael had disappeared for several minutes. Nobody knew what had happened. None of the Dungeon experts in Subjugation found anything worth reporting when they made a quest to investigate the area. The Intelligence team did not have any data on rivals that could trap a demon from a lower realm in a temporary space. There were a few candidates, but each was more outlandish than the last.

And, there was no proof of anything afterwards.

“No, I was told that there was no detected tampering,” Tauren reported. “After tracking his responses to the Tips I sent, I haven’t contacted him outside of the Corpse-Watcher rewards distributions. I even made sure to give him the beast’s empowered bite attack from the ability list to help improve his damage.”

“Someone else get a hold of him? Get ideas in his head?”

“We check the channel logs every twelve hours. Nobody else was talking to him,” Tauren denied.

Dakuwaqa rose from their chair and Tauren’s heart felt like it was punched. The shark demon began to circle around him and he felt like chum thrown into the water. However, the supervisor only sighed and leaned on their desk.

“Then it’s just our loss. We are loosening our standards far too much. You know, in life, I was a fisherman,” Dakuwaqa lectured with a deal of personal pride. “I lost my teeth to various tragedies and everyone called me Dakuwaqa and constantly belittled me to make life miserable. I crashed our boat and left many children without their parents. Now look at me. That is a crime of hatred. That is something worthy of wrath.”

“Very impressive, Supervisor Dakuwaqa,” Tauren complimented nervously.

“You better bet your mother’s soul that it’s impressive. I knew that it was a bad idea to trust someone who killed for money and sport,” Dakuwaqa complained to no one in particular. “Sure, there were a couple murders out of passion and hatred. But the world out there is so detached, Tauren. We are getting people responsible for drone strikes coming in now. Who all gets credit in a kill from a drone? The operator, sure. But what about the person that ordered it? The person that built the drone, the person who owns the company that built the drone?”

“I don’t know,” Tauren answered. He knew that technology had long since advanced since his time. But, he still did not grasp the magnitude of the changes in the current world.

“And, it doesn’t even end with the drone,” Dakuwaqa continued, their rant lathering them up into a frenzy. “It can’t really kill anyone if there isn’t a bomb. So the bomb makers for certain should also get their share of the sin. Do the people that sell the materials that make the bombs and drones also get credit? If you know that what you are selling will be turned into a weapon that kills others, do you not also share the burden of the sin?”

“Punish all of them?” Tauren suggested unconfidently.

“Oh, something is,” Dakuwaqa assured. “Who or whatever determines who gets sent down here is going to have a difficult time. Their beliefs and logic are being pressed to the extreme, I’ll tell you that much. World changed too much for it not to. Poor God or whatever the fuck it is. Hope it dies painfully for sending me here.”

Tauren and Dakuwaqa briefly bowed their heads in the prayer that the Aspect of Wrath passed down onto their followers. Despise God and deny mercy to all that crossed them. One is only a true Disciple if they leave their enemies as mincemeat.

“So, what are we going to do, Supervisor?” Tauren asked nervously.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, Tauren,” Dakuwaqa dismissed. “I’ve already taken care of it.”

“You have?”

“Oh, most definitely. I sent it while you were talking,” Dakuwaqa answered. “Saddled him with an ability that marks for all of us that they are a traitor. I’m hoping to give the new blood a solid challenge to go up against. We’ll just start sponsoring the winner. We’re in the business of supporting our leader so they can conquer Hell, Tauren. We don’t have time to sift through the fodder to find our cannon.”

“But, Supervisor, what if he kills them all?” Tauren wondered.

The question only brought a return of Supervisor Dakuwaqa's lovely grin. All that flashed in their expression was an insatiable hunger.

“Perfect. Then we get a shot at him.”