Jer was not particularly profound at being silent. That was true when he was calm and composed, and it was especially true so now that he was angry at the Demons. Entering the Esserian stealthily and hunting down a handful of Demons while also subduing a few at the 2nd Tier wasn’t as easy as it could have been.

Nonetheless, we made it work. First things first, I turned into a Terro Sparrow further back in the Forea Alliance’s territory. Once transformed, I flew as high as possible to cross the border to the Eserian unseen. As easy as that had been, it was only one of many steps. As soon as I descended to hide in the canopy of a towering tree, I shifted to a Lesser Wisp.

My range of perception as a wisp wasn’t particularly vast, but it was more expansive than it used to be. That...should not have been possible but I ignored it for the time being to focus on the energy streams around me. The streams of Essence were particularly easy for me to perceive. It was everywhere and flowed through the Eserian with considerable force.

However, my focus diverted soon enough to the darker spots. Masses of dark energy, some larger, others smaller and not as potent, entered my range of perception. The smaller masses were Lesser Demons, which was obvious enough when I recognized that one of them was connected to me. The nebulous connection of submission was faint when I wasn’t in my main form, but it was still there.

Focusing on my senses, I reached out to the larger, more condensed masses, and nodded slowly. As a Lesser Wisp I couldn’t perceive too much, but some things were apparent enough. One was that the larger masses were different. Each and every one of the Demons was different, but there was more to it. Some of the demonic energy within them did not belong to the Demons.

It was none other than the signature of an Insignia’s mark. Curious, I considered attacking a marked Tier-2 Demon, but I decided against it. They could be dealt with later.

Instead, I floated across the canopy and traveled deeper into the Eserian, my focus on a particular group of masses. A dozen smaller masses, one of which was more tightly bound to me than the others, surrounding a group of three larger masses.

I transformed into the Ternoa Demon which I’d killed as the dragon form, and stepped forward, branches cracking underfoot.

Trickster squealed something, pointing clawed fingers at the Tier-2 Demons, but they only snapped back at the Trickster Demon. One lunged to the side and effortlessly tore my subordinate’s throat out. Since it wasn’t Trickster who was killed, I didn’t particularly mind the situtiaton, but I released the Ternoa Demon’s attack nonetheless.

Demonic energy gathered in my palm. It condensed within several heartbeats and erupted when I could no longer contain the power amassing within it. Demon Blast. That was the Ternoa Demon’s racial trait, and it was fairly potent when used against other Demons as well.

The Demon who’d attacked and killed my subordinate was struck in the chest, incinerating hide and flesh, while yanking it to the side all the same. As curious as Demon Blast’s destructive power was, there was no time to waste. I release the attack two more times before transforming back to my main form.

In the meantime, my subordinates attacked the injured Tier-2 Demons. The first went down after minimal struggle, whereas the others performed much better. They killed seven subordinates and were only defeated when I rammed Blade of Astor’s conjuration into their chests and abdomen.

As much as I wanted to kill them for their Essence, I had something else planned for them. Pressing my palm against their heads, I forced the Insignia of Dominance upon them.

Forcing them into submission did not add them to my Clan right away, which was an unfortunate turn of events, but the Insignia of Dominance grew nonetheless. Lesser Demons empowered the Insignia only a little. It wasn’t worth mentioning now that I was at the 2nd Tier. To make a difference, I needed more than one-hundred Lesser Demons under my control.

With Tier-2 Demons that looked different. Their empowerment was not massive either but three subordinates at their level were enough to pump enough demonic energy into my Core to make a difference.

It was also only after I forced them into submission that I noticed the demonic energy flowing into my Core. The Core’s saturation level did not rise as more demonic energy flowed into the Core but I felt that I could use it to advance the Core in the future. However, the more demonic energy I used for the Core, the more demonic energy would I need for my next advancement.

Right now, my Core needed no less than two percent demonic energy, with the rest being Essence, to advance to the next Tier, but if I was to use replace more Essence with demonic energy, I’d required a lot more demonic essence to push to the 4th Tier.

Using 10 percent for the advancement to Tier-3, and I would never be able to use more than 90 percent Essence to push to the 4th Tier.

That was one of the restrictions I earned by making up for the lack of Essence with demonic energy.

And that was fine. As long as I didn’t use too much demonic energy for the breakthrough, everything would be alright.

I wonder what happens if I only use demonic energy to break through. I’d have a Demonic Core in that case...so...I’d be a Demon? Was it that easy? I highly doubted it, but I was curious to find out.

For now, I had to kill and subdue a few more Demons though. Nodding at that sentiment, I released a Sonic Boom at the strongest of the Tier-2 Demons. It tried to resist the Insignia of Dominance, which faltered as soon as the Essence-flooded shockwave wrecked its brain.