Mind Demon's Path of Domination

In a silent forest some distance away from the Laboratory Dungeon.

Mark and Dona were at the periphery of a small river.

They had just gotten fresh after Dona's evolution. Due to his wings and his ludicrous size, Mark had no use for clothes, but Dona had taken a liking for such things, so she wrapped a long white cloth around her as she sat on top of a boulder atop the water.

They had stolen that cloth on the way.

She gently dipped her fair legs into the river and swung them back and forth as she looked at Mark, who was in the water, with a warm gaze.

Mark looked back at her and smirked.

The demoness, illuminated by the gentle moonlight, her hair and face wet after a bath and her feminine body covered in a white cloth, was a sight to behold—she oozed with a sense of innocence and charm.

"So, what do you think about your evolution, milady?" he asked.

Dona didn't answer but grinned.

She planted one of her slender hands into the water, and the reflection of the moon was disturbed as she splashed it towards him. She was pretty powerful, so the water was like a small ball as it hit him in the stomach.

She immediately giggled cheekily.

"Oh? How dare you?" Mark flapped his wings and floated behind her before taking a seat on the boulder himself. Then, he wrapped his hands around her small build.

Her clothes rustled as she leaned her head back and looked up at him.

"Tell me, so, can you speak now?" he caressed her belly and placed his chin on her shoulder. "You are not mocking your mate, right?"

Dona leaned back against him. "Mhhm," she paused.

"What?" he asked, eyes slightly wide.

"M…"

"..."

"Mm…"

"..."

"Ma…rk…" she said, puffing up her cheeks immediately after.

Mark gulped slightly.

So she had been noticing it when others called him Mark, and he responded to it.

Can something be cuter than this?!

After that, she didn't say anything; she just took one of his hands and hugged it with both of her own. He didn't force her to speak anymore.

Mark was feeling a lot of things now, and he couldn't help but clench his hands around hers.

He had been worried about her—a bit. When Mark first appeared in the Demon World and ate the egg he came out of; he had gotten some kind of language infusion into his mind. That made talking as simple as breathing for him.

He was worried that Dona hadn't gotten that language inheritance.

But maybe it was easy for him to absorb the entire language because his violet screen and other demons needed a lot of time. Maybe.

"Dona, take it slow. No rush."

"Ur!" she puffed up her chest.

"Really?"

"Urr! Urr!"

"Haha, I am waiting for it then."

They gazed at the moon and just silently sat with each other. Then, Mark sighed. "Night's going to end if this goes on, and the pesky humans will notice me if I enter the city after morning. You will wait for me outside the lab, and I'll return shortly. Gotta go beat down the ass of the demon inside that laboratory first."

"Urr!"

"No, you cannot come in!"

"Grr…"

Mark rubbed her head and stood up. Then, he checked his surroundings. This was a river somewhat deep into a small forest.

She didn't let go of his hand.

"M..ark..."

***

Mark was back inside the Laboratory Dungeon, his face rigid. Dona walked a step behind him.

"This doesn't seem good…" he said.

All the Demonlings that had been prowling across the Dungeon were now sliced corpses—none of them were alive.

There were supposed to be hundreds of them inside the Dungeon. In fact, even though Mark had killed many, many of them were still alive when he left.

Now?

All dead.

The whole laboratory had many glass shards scattered across the ground, and the lab itself was bright. Yet, now, it was filled with sliced demonic corpses.

Mark walked forward with a frown. According to what he understood, a Dungeon Demon can't kill the Demons that it summons using the Demon Summoning demonic trick. That would make the contract it has with the Demons become nill.

How were these demons killed?

He had the urge to back down from unnecessary risk.

What was going on with this weird Dungeon?

Dona—covered back in her dirty white t-shirt and trousers—followed behind him.

Mark's golden eyes widened.

Whoosh~

A Soul Sense suddenly wrapped around both of them, and they stood still. Dona was particularly nervous. For a demon who grew anxious at the first signs of danger, she was incredibly averse to walking away from her mate.

Mark's soul sense spread like the enemy's, and he followed the sense through a basement door before he came face to face with it.

The basement was full of vines, and a creature stood in the middle. The demon looked like a warrior, covered in skin-wrapped scales and with an arrow-like figure.

Mark frowned at first sight. There was no Dungeon Demon inside.

Are you warning me to get out?

Mark jeered inwardly.

This demon was nothing much—just a (Pinnacle) Lower Demon. Mark was sure he could kill it in a prolonged battle. But if this Demon was here, some other Dungeon Demon might have summoned it here.

He walked forward—

Flap.

—then came to a halt.

With his Soul Sense, he sensed something within the Dungeon. It was small and inconspicuous compared to the mini giant of a Demon. It was in a small corner, stuck in the wall was an ice slab.

The ice slab was so cold even his Soul Sense immediately froze at a single glance.

His face paled.

Inside the ice slab, frozen and without movement, slept a woman. The woman was so beautiful, her features carved like jade. Her hair was as white as snow, and her body seemed to have been designed by the gods themselves.

This woman was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

Staring at her, deep within his Soul Sphere, the violet mirror thrummed.

Thump. Thump.

The woman's eyes blinked open, and she stared straight at him with her amethyst eyes. Then, the whole place grew silent, and just as soon, she was frozen again.

A voice echoed into his mind in an enchantingly serene voice, "Save me. You. You need me."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The violet mirror thrummed wildly.

Mark cautiously made Dona stop in her tracks.

Who the hell was this woman? Why did the violet mirror react so much to her? And why did she end up right where he ended up coming to?

The warrior-like demon didn't seem to want to listen to him, and just as he was contemptuously looking at it, it began to transform. The vines all around the basement contracted into the Demon and—

—a menacing gigantic armor filled with vines inside appeared in the basement.

Mark's face drained of color.

The vines inside the basement was a demon of its own, and it had taken over the other warrior-like demon. The whole creature seemed ferocious.

Barrier of Non-Escape!

The Dungeon Barrier around the laboratory shimmered and darkened. Mark had a bad feeling.

He ran back in retreat and tried to move out of the Dungeon.

He couldn't.

Some kind of barrier held him here.

"Fuck!"

He had been so, so cautious. So, so cautious. Yet, was this his caution?

Entering an unknown Dungeon with a heart full of greed?

This had been a stupid idea. He had believed he could always retreat. His wings had given him too much confidence, but he didn't notice it when that became arrogance.

Dona nervously clenched her hands.