章 22: First Steps Towards A Peaceful Future

Leaping across the tree branches alongside the silver ape king, Kameron questioned them about why he called all silver apes his family. This made the ape king look at him for a second before responding with a simple answer.

"It is simple, I was raised by the elders of the family and became stronger thanks to them and my brothers and sisters."

"How are you able to speak at rank two and not rank three?"

"Seriously? Most beasts gain the ability to speak the human language at rank 3. Can gain humanized forms at rank 4 that are human-looking but still show traits of their beast form. At rank 5 beasts are able to hide their beast traits completely. I on the other hand am a variant of my species and gained the ability to speak at this rank before reaching the next.

Are you demons not the same as us beasts? Though some demons don't need to gain humanized forms and are simply born with them, others go through the same stages of evolution like us beasts." the silver ape asked as he turned his head to Kameron for a few seconds while stopping on top of a tree branch.

"I.... am a unique demon, I could speak the human language, and as you can see I have already started to gain my demonic traits. I'm basically going in reverse..." He said as his tail swayed slowly behind him.

...

It had already been about forty-five minutes since the ape king had agreed to trust Kameron, If only a little. He agreed to gather the remaining apes in the family which now only number a little over three hundred, and lead them to the Lumen. Kameron opted to watch the process and the ape king agreed, seeing as Kameron seemed to not want to fight him before.

The two of them had already agreed to a contract with the world as the witness. The terms were that Kameron would relocate the entire silver ape family to Lumen and integrate them into the population.

While Kameron did that, the silver apes would need to assist in the construction and upgrading of Lumen to the level of a small town.

At that time, the ape king would assess the actions of Kameron and if he wished, he could either stay a citizen of Lumen or he could lead the silver apes back into the forest where Kameron and the villagers would not be able to hunt them for the next 100 years.

"We are here now." The ape king said as he stopped on a distant tree branch a jumped down onto the forest floor. Following him, Kameron jumped down behind him to see that in the near distance, dozens of silver apes were walking around. Inspecting all of the silver apes, Kameron noticed that most were rank one while many of the baby silver apes were rank zero.

"We keep the home organized if you are able to tell. The older and stronger apes move and sleep in the trees while the weaker and younger ones sleep in nests under the same trees. " The silver ape king explained as a few silver apes spotted their leader, causing a commotion that soon spread across many of the rank two apes.

As they all ran up to Kameron and watched him for a distance, the ape king simply made a few noises and gestures before updating Kameron.

"They know now that we are allies. They should not attack you even though they dislike your kind, anyone foolish enough to try would be exiled from the family." The silver ape said confidently as the younger silver apes walked closer to Kameron and pushed his legs a little, seemingly to lead him deeper into their home.

"I see, thank you, ape king! Now, can you explain the situation to them since none of them would be able to understand me until they reach rank 2? I will explore your home a bit if you don't mind." Kameron said grateful for the hospitality being shown to him.

As he walked off with the young silver apes running in front, leading him to different places, the ape king began to explain his agreement with Kameron.

After around twenty minutes, most of the apes had heard of the agreement. Many of the elder silver apes were in disagreement but as the lone rank two in the family, the Ape King was able to pressure them into giving it a chance.

Walking around their home, the Ape King found Kameron among a few dozen young silver apes as they gave him palm-size stones, clumps of leaves, and even their food. They knew little of demons so seeing someone that their leader respects come and visit, they want to make themselves a new friend that they can play with.

"Ok ok, I will accept your stones as well." Kameron relented with a joyful laugh as he accepted more stones and tossed them into the air before putting them into his inventory just as they landed in his palm. It looked like a magic trick to the young apes so seeing them go crazy over it and hand him even more things was funny to Kameron.

Walking over to the laughing demon surrounded by baby silver apes, the Ape King was a bit shocked to see that he wasn't annoyed in the slightest.

"Maybe this plan can actually work out." He said hopefully in his mind before stepping into Kameron's eyesight.

"We are ready to go, everyone will follow you to Lumen and we will fulfill our part of the contract." the Ape king said as the rest of the apes in the area, a number totaling over three hundred, crowded around both figures.

"I see, I will not disappoint you all. Let's go!" Kameron said as he stood up while placing the twentieth stone handed to him into his inventory.

...

Jumping out of the forest, followed by hundreds of apes, Kameron ran tiredly in the direction of Lumen. As he made it closer to the gate of the village, villager near it began screaming as they took shelter behind the walls.

Moments later, As Kameron made it about twenty meters from the gate, he saw a familiar man wearing a blue uniform and another with a white shirt and black pants run out of the gate. Kameron clearly knew that these two people were Mikoto and Munakata. He also saw them begin to cover themselves in their respective auras.

Seeing that they were planning to attack the hundreds of apes behind him, Kameron started shouting at them while slowing down.

"STOP RIGHT NOW! THEY ARE ALL FRIENDLY!" He screamed frantically at the top of his lungs before quickly looking at the Ape King.

"Tell them all to stop following me so I can go talk to those guys!"

Seeing how serious Kameron was acting, the ape king roared loudly, causing all of the apes to stop behind him while Kameron continued onwards towards his now confused summons. Reaching them after almost 10 seconds of sprinting, Kameron stopped in front of them while out of breath and panting heavily.

Seeing the apes stop in the distance, Munakata had halted his flow of power while looking at Mikoto who was about to run right at the group of primates to begin a slaughter.

"What is this Kameron?" Munakata asked as he locked eyes with the distant Ape King for a moment before shifting them back to Kameron, who has stood straight up while panting less heavily.

"Those... Those Silver Apes..." He tried saying while trying to control his breathing. "They are friends..." Kameron finally got the words out as he sat down to take a few deep breaths for a moment.

"All of them?" Mikoto asked a bit stunned by how he has been able to cause such a big change after he and Anna had left earlier.

After a minute, Kameron stood back up while breathing through his nose, looking to the crown of silver apes in the distance, he waved the Ape King to come over, With another slightly different shout from Ape King, he was followed by all of the apes as he started walking towards Mikoto, Munakata, and the stunned villagers watching from the gate.