After spending a night at an inn in the town, he now decided to go to the capital of this country. He spent up an hour queuing in line with other people at what appeared to be the terminal of the place, before finally taking a ride in a taxi to his destination. The vehicle looked like something out of science fiction, powered by an engine emitting a blue light from under the hood as it hovered smoothly over the ground.
'It's hovering due to magic, right?' He thought as he leaned on the leather seats at the back.
"Hey, maybe it's going to take a while since traffic flow's been disturbed by bandits raiding the path," the driver said as he opened the front cabinet of the car and pulled out a pistol.
'Hey hey hey hey hey!' He thought nervously. 'They had guns here?!'
"Don't be afraid, it's for self defense," the driver reassured him. "Be prepared."
Yuri calmed down for a second, but he was still nervous about the driver. To relax, he looked out of the window, taking in the scenery. As he gazed outside, he was taken aback by the breathtaking landscape that appeared before him. It was like something out of a painting. Birds were flying overhead, farm animals eating the grass on the plains, children playing on the fields and at the sides of the roads, it was beautiful that it almost made him shed a tear.
But then, his thoughts turned to the darker aspects of this world. He thought about the bandits who constantly raided innocent travelers, the recent wars that had erupted decades ago, and the demonic invasion that had been stopped by the heroes of this land.
'Everything's not perfect,' he thought. 'But man, I guess it's common for death and destruction to plague everything here.'
He leaned back in his seat and sat firmly, allowing himself to get comfortable. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep as the taxi continued its journey towards the capital. The engine and the smooth motion of the vehicle provided a soothing atmosphere, and it wasn't long before he was asleep, his fears temporarily forgotten.
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It had been an hour now, and Yuri was suddenly woken up by a loud bang outside the car. He looked at the driver, who was currently holding his pistol tucked under a piece of cloth.
"W-What's happening?!" Yuri questioned. "Was t-that a gunshot?!"
"Yeah, bandits," the driver said, firmly gripping the handle of the gun. "They're shooting at us."
"Where are we?!" Yuri asked.
"In a forest. We're going back in the open since it's too dangerous to be here," the driver replied, speeding up the vehicle.
Just as they were about to reach the exit, a car suddenly blocks the way out, trapping them inside.
"NO!" The driver exclaimed, stopping the vehicle in front of the car. "GET READY TO RUN!"
The driver opened the door to his side and exited the vehicle. Yuri followed soon after.
Two men emerged from the vehicle in front of them and pulled out their handguns from their holsters at their waist. When they aimed their guns at the taxi, the driver began to shoot at them. The men immediately took cover behind their vehicle while firing back at the driver.
The two sides were now exchanging gunfire as one ran out of ammo and began to reload.
'I hope he ran away quickly into the woods!' The driver thought, but he was immediately proven wrong when he saw Yuri running towards the bandits without a weapon.
'W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!'
"HEY!" The driver cried out, but it was too late.
BANG! The bandits fired at Yuri indiscriminately. Expecting the man to die, the driver closed his eyes and paid his respects to his passenger.
...
But to his surprise, he could now hear the screams of the bandits experiencing extreme pain.
"M-MONSTER!" One of the bandits cried out as he was grabbed at the neck by Yuri.
There was a brief pause until Yuri spoke, "Consume."
Red roots emerged from Yuri's hand and began to spread out towards the bandit. The man screamed in terror as the flesh began to spread and engulf his entire body. The flesh now crushed every single bone in the man's body as he let out a final breath. After mere seconds, the man was entirely gone, leaving only traces of blood in front of his supposed-to-be victim.
The other bandit, who was crawling on the ground, bleeding out due to his feet being obliterated by Yuri, picked up his dropped pistol from the ground and faced him, who took on the appearance of his now dead comrade.
"YOU DEMON!" The man shouted as he pulled the trigger with the gun aimed at Yuri's face. To his surprise, Yuri acted like a bullet sponge and just shrugged off the shots like they were nothing. He continued firing the gun at Yuri's face, yet nothing affected him. Yuri slowly walked towards the man, causing the bandit to become more terrified. After firing a couple more rounds, he ran out of ammo. He threw the gun at Yuri and began to crawl away hastily. Yuri caught up to him and placed his hand on the man's back, saying "Blade."
Yuri's hand now turned into a blade, piercing the man's body effortlessly. The man puked out blood and began to beg for mercy.
"S-Spare me!" The man cried out with blood dripping from his mouth. "P-Please!"
Yuri twisted the blade from side to side, giving the man extreme pain. The man screamed in terror before finally succumbing to his wounds. Yuri slashed the body from down to up, splitting him into two.
'HAHAHA! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! I'VE WATCHED TOO MANY GORY SHIT BACK AT HOME, SO THIS DOESN'T FAZE ME A BIT!'
"Satisfying," he muttered under his breath. He now walked towards the taxi, where the driver stood there in shock. The man aimed the gun at him and yelled,
"W-What are you?!"
There was a brief pause until Yuri spoke, "I wouldn't recommend you to shoot me, since you already saw what happened back there."
He looked at his bloodstained shirt, which wasn't actually his shirt. He had taken the form of the bandit he previously consumed, and the shirt was now part of his body.
"Ah, how do I change this?" He muttered, before saying, "Shapeshift."
Flesh now engulfed Yuri's body as he transformed back into his original form, which terrified the driver.
The man continued to aim his pistol at Yuri, ready to pull the trigger. "What the hell are you?!" He shouted.
"Look, can we just talk about this-"
Yuri was suddenly cut off by a gunshot from the driver.
BANG!
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Half an hour later after the events at the forest edge, Yuri was now currently admiring the scenery of the countryside, while the driver was clearly sweating in fear.
Disarmed and threatened, the man didn't have a choice. He knew that he would either be killed in one strike or be eaten alive, and his body stolen.
'I'm going to die, I'm not going to die, I'm going to die, I'm not going to die,' he repeatedly thought. 'It's fine! We've negotiated already!'
'No, I've seen his powers. What if he kills me just so I can be silent?!'
'A dead man tells no tales.'
'I'm not going to die!'
'I'm going to die!'
Back at Yuri, he looked over to the driver who was clearly terrified at him. He took a deep breath and said, "Hey, you could stop being scared of me now."
Startled, the driver didn't respond at first. But slowly, he began to relax a bit and his grip on the steering wheel loosened.
After a moment of silence, the driver spoke up. "So... what are you?"
Yuri looked at him and said, "What do I look like in your eyes?"
There was a brief pause of silence, before the driver spoke. "A... demon?"
"Is it in a literal sense or just a descriptive word?" Yuri asked, wanting to know the difference.
"The powers you have, they seem to come from demons, right?" The driver answered.
"It may look like I'm a demon, but I'm not," Yuri said. "I'm an Evolved."
"Evolved? Like an evolution or something?" The driver asked.
"I'm just a human with incredible powers," Yuri said. "That's it."
There was a brief silence in the vehicle.
"Alright, I'll believe you," The driver said.
'Woah, too easy.'
The driver looked back at the front road, and their destination was near: the City of Ven, the Capital of Stardust. Yuri looked at the front window and saw massive walls surrounding around the city, shielding the infrastructure inside from attacks caused by invasions from monsters or from other countries. He took one long look and leaned back into his seat, feeling excited to explore the place once he got off the vehicle.
"We're almost there, start getting your luggage together," the driver said as they descended downhill towards the gates of the massive city.
Yuri looked up and saw a multitude of flying vehicles floating in the sky, entering and leaving the city, each heading towards their destinations. Airships carrying tourists could also be seen transporting them across the city as they admired the breathtaking scenery in awe. Finally, he caught a glimpse of the shoreline, which was lined with hundreds of large ships trying to dock at the port inside the city walls.
'This is going to be a field trip for me,' Yuri thought.
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After taking the main road to the city gates and passing through multiple checkpoints, they finally reached the entrance, which was incredibly large. Yuri could see hovering cars and other vehicles passing through the gate, entering and exiting the city.
"We're here," the driver said.
"Huh, that was a trip," Yuri commented. He now reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver coin. "Keep the change."
"H-Hey, this is too much-" the man was suddenly cut off by Yuri.
"I said, keep the change," Yuri said, making a thumbs up gesture as he walked away from the vehicle.
"Huh," the driver said, turning his car away from the sidewalk and into the highway, heading back to the rural areas, ready to transport other people to the capital.