<h4>Chapter 208 Hope in Abyss. Part-1.</h4>


    ''Exception'' is a word used for those beings who are truly exceptional among their kin.


    Talent, status, power, and skills aren''t the only things that can make someone exceptional.


    It takes millions or even billions of years for a single ''Exception'' to appear, but with its appearance the world changes by a vast amount.


    Sometimes even that exception doesn''t get to grow up to its full potential but its existence must not be questioned.


    ''Exceptions'' are what create new possibilities and hopes for a new and better future.


    One such uncertain ''Exception'' also appeared in the long-lived Demon Race. Its existence impacted others like a torch in the dark.


    And this ''Exception'' might have been the long-awaited hope of the Demon Race itself.


    ...


    The demon continent of Esalith is located in the southern hemisphere of the.


    Esalith is the closest ce to the south pole of the, heavy snowstorms ravage thend of this continent all year long and most of the southern area of this continent is covered in thick snow.


    Very few nts grow on the whole continent of Esalith and there are no edible nt species on this continent.


    Because farming is impossible on this continent, all lower or above-rank demons kill and devour each other for food.


    The demon race has no actual civilization, all lower and above-rank demons live in small and big tribes that hunt down each other for food and entertainment.


    If heavy snowfall happens and the number of lower-rank demons dwindles greatly, then the upper-rank demons wage wars against other races to plunder food.


    But even in such pointless wars, the lower-ranked demons suffer the most, they have to serve the upper-ranked demons and act as cannon fodders in those wars after all.


    Usually, this type of war results in a counter-attack of the alliance, which ends up wiping out the whole invading army of the demon race.


    Millions of casualties ur with each war, yet no one cares about it. Instead of the numbers being reduced, more demons are born after the wars, thus their numbers increase.


    This situation gives headaches to all the members of the racial alliance, but the demon race doesn''t care about these subtle things.


    The only thing that drives the demon race to kill and destroy is theck of food and their gically inherited war-hungry mentality.


    For some odd reason, all demons have the same chaotic and sadistic personality.


    They all like to y with the weak and bully them to their heart''s content, and they avoid the strong like a gue.


    The sadistic personality of finding entertainment in other''s suffering is one of the main reasons why the demon race is not able to coexist peacefully with the other races.


    Wherever the demon armies pass by, they destroy the ecosystem andy waste to that ce.


    Miasma spreads everywhere due to these demon armies and contaminates the area with ''Corruption'', which is very difficult to purify.


    But even among the demon race ''Exceptions'' can be born and that''s exactly what happened on that one fateful day.


    ...


    Demon Continent, Esalith.


    A small Dark Werewolf tribe lived at the southernmost edge of the continent. The tribe had migrated here just a few months ago to escape the pursuit of arge demon hound pack.


    Demon hounds are medium-rank demons and they hunt their prey by pursuing them for days relentlessly.


    They take hunting as a form of enjoyment and they like to slowly reduce the number of their prey one by one till the end of the pursuit.


    Dark werewolves are stronger than demon hounds individually, but their number is very low, meanwhile, the number of demon hounds is very high.


    Moreover, the pack of demon hounds that pursued them was arge one, it had more than a thousand members in it.


    Demon hounds like to use the gueri warfare technique to harass their prey, they overwhelm the other party by their sheer numbers.


    This small tribe of dark werewolves had around a hundred members before the pursuit, but now fewer than thirty remain. They can''t even be considered a proper tribe at this point.


    But even in these dire situations, an ''Exception'' was born.


    A young female dark werewolf looked at her kin trying to hunt down the prey for food and her big eyes shined with curiosity.


    (Dark Werewolves have a body structure simr to humans, but their hands and feet are like the paws of wolves, they have fluffy tails and wolf ears on their heads...)


    Dark Werewolves are a highly aggressive demon species, they can even kill each other for food and worsees to worst they sometimes even eat their own children too.


    As they are demons, no moral ethics bind them from doing sinister things.


    Usually, these demon wolves are not very intelligent and they have the intelligence of a beast, they don''t even have a propernguage system to talk.


    Due to this, they just do what other beasts do, hunt, eat, and sleep.


    The appearance of the emotion ''Curiosity'' was the biggest ''Exception'' that the young female wolf had awakened.


    She looked at everything with immense curiosity, her kin didn''t notice anything strange with her, but she felt that everything was very fascinating.


    To her, all things brought new questions and thoughts to her mind.


    She was ''Exceptionally'' intelligent and her thoughts were more mature than all of her tribe membersbined.


    A thought that no demon ever dared to think in thousands of years appeared in the mind of this young demon wolf.


    ''Why must we hunt others? Why can''t we just live with others peacefully?''


    This thought may seem very simple and weird, but for a demon to think about ''peace'' and ''co-existence'' it was as rare as the creation of a new universe itself.


    This event was so rare that it would not be wrong to call it a genuine ''Exception.


    …


    The young wolf grew up over the years and learned to hunt and scout. Herbat capabilities improved fast and she became the strongest member of her tribe in no time at all.


    But her ''curiosity'' never died out.


    The sparks of wisdom continued to linger in her head as she tried to find reasons for everything. It was as if she was a pioneer, who was searching for the truth of this world.


    She questioned the reason for her existence, she tried tomunicate with her tribe members but due tonguage constraints, it was impossible.


    Finding that she was unable tomunicate by voice, she started to use signs and various other methods to talk with her kin.


    But it turned out that her tribe members were far too irritable and aggressive with each other, there was simply no way to talk to them on friendly terms.


    Temporary cooperation during hunting was already the limit of the demons, they had no camaraderie among each other at all.


    In her attempts to find the ''truth'' the young demon wolf figured out that introducing herself politely was the key to the start of a conversation and to introduce herself, she needed a ''Name''.


    Individual names are a luxury on the demon continent. Only S-


    rank or above-level demons have true names that define their existence.


    All the demons below S-rank are usually nameless and have no sense of ''Self'' at all.


    For a young demon like her to have awakened such aplex thought process and a sense of ''Self'', it was already an extremely rare event.


    The young wolf traveled along with her tribe around the southernmost area all year long.


    She confronted many demon hound packs all year long and aggression was very frequent among them.


    Every battle made her question the reason behind that fight, and gradually a thought appeared in her mind.


    ''What if there is a way to make all demons live peacefully with each other?''


    This one thought made her very different from all of the demons. Her thoughts were not like any other demon that existed in this world.


    She looked at her kin with eyes of wisdom, her existence itself was different from any other demon.


    She experimented and tried to use various methods to make friends with other demons but all of them failed miserably.


    All of her attempts brought her nothing but retaliation and anger from the other party.


    But this didn''t reduce her curiosity at all, instead, she became even more obsessed with one simple thought.


    ''There must be a way out there, which can make all demons live peacefully with each other…''


    Her mind was already made up, all she needed now was just one opportunity.


    And sure enough, that opportunity also came on one faithful day when her tribe was attacked by the samerge demon hound pack that had pursued them before they migrated to this area.


    The attack of the hounds brought great misfortune for her tribe, but that turned out to be the perfect opportunity for her.


    …


    …


    Author''s Notes.


    Yo! It''s your beloved author here! A new volume starts from here onwards. I will call it the ''Truth arc'' for some obvious reasons.


    Many hidden meanings and truths are going to be revealed in this arc and with the start of this arc we have finally reached the intermission in this story.


    Question of the day.


    Who do you specte this young wolf demon is?


    1. A new character (Demon girls are here, let''s go!!)


    2. A mystery character (The author is cooking something it seems…)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.