Point of view: Feitan

  The pressure was intentional. I didn't need to ease up so much, but I liked the effect of seeing people fall, the demon retreating. It always worked. I walked slowly, letting my presence do the initial work. Miserable village. Smell of mold and fear. Bodies on the ground, fresh blood. It wasn't what I expected to find, but it wasn't a surprise either.

  I stopped about five meters from the demon. Horns, yellow eyes, humanoid appearance, but clearly not human. So there was something beyond poverty and oppression happening there. Interesting.

  "Your clothes," said the demon, his voice tense. "Axoland. What is a knight from Axoland doing in Kitsumi territory?"

  I looked at him, then at the bodies, then at the child the villagers were holding. A girl, perhaps six years old. Red hair, covered in blood and wounds. Empty eyes, completely empty. Deep shock.

  "I came to investigate rumors," I replied casually. "Mass immigration. People from Kitsumi fleeing to Axoland, Cuttlee, even Orchadia, though there they end up enslaved or killed by the elves."

  I put my sword on my shoulder.

  "I thought it was just because of extreme poverty, exorbitant taxes, corrupt nobility, the usual bullshit of a poorly run matriarchal kingdom."

  I smiled without humor.

  "But it seems there's something more going on. Like a demon terrorizing villages."

  I shrugged.

  "I thought demons were just folklore, stories to scare children. But look at this."

  I pointed at him with my chin.

  "You're real. Who would've thought."

  I changed how I was holding the sword.

  "My name is Feitan Lugubres, knight of the kingdom of Axoland, coming from a family of assassins. But today I stand under the king's banner." I smiled, a smile that didn't reach my eyes. "And you? Do you have a name, or are you just 'demonic son of a bitch'?"

  He didn't respond. Just studied me, calculating.

  "What happened here is none of your business, knight. Return to Axoland. Forget what you saw."

  "Hmm, no."

  "No?"

  "Yeah, no." I pointed at the bodies with my chin. "A dead woman, a nearly dead child, an entire village terrorized. Now it makes sense why so many people are fleeing from Kitsumi."

  He clenched his fists.

  "This is not—"

  "I don't care," I interrupted. "Seriously, as a knight of Axoland, I have jurisdiction over threats to the border, and you are a threat. And my past didn't teach me to ignore clear threats."

  I took a step forward.

  "But some things are very clear. You're a demon, you're terrorizing people, and you just left a child on the brink of death right in front of me."

  I smiled, but there was no humor whatsoever.

  "So I'm going to kill you. It's cleaner than my family's methods, but the result is the same."

  He attacked cowardly, without warning. Water condensed, multiple blades flew. I disappeared. Not invisibility, just speed. An efficient and economical movement, inherited. I appeared beside the villagers holding the girl. I took her, gentle but firm. The villagers didn't even have time to react.

  I returned, near the dead woman's body. I placed the child beside her, carefully. Her chest barely rose and fell. Weak breathing, almost imperceptible. On the brink of death. So debilitated she couldn't even die properly. My assassin's instinct calculated the wasted effort. My current role as a knight insisted otherwise. Damn.

  I stood up, turned to the demon, and pointed my sword.

  "Coward and son of a bitch. Classic combination."

  He growled. Water and wind began to swirl around him.

  "Destruction Magic: Annihilating Strike!"

  Mana flowed black with purple traces. The sword glowed. I swung it. The energy blade shot out, horizontal, fast. It cut through the air, through his magic. He dodged, barely. The blade passed, hit the sanctuary wall behind. It exploded. Half the structure collapsed.

  "Holy shit," I muttered. "Used too much force."

  He took advantage of the opportunity. Counterattack. Water formed liquid serpents, dozens of them. All came at me. I cut. One, two, five, ten. Destruction mana vaporized the water, but there were still many. One managed to get through, hit my arm, a deep cut. Blood.

  "Heh."

  I ignored it. Pain was an old acquaintance. I advanced. He retreated. Coward.

  "Water Magic: Torrential Prison!"

  Water gushed from the ground, enveloping me in a spinning sphere that imprisoned me. I gripped the sword handle tighter.

  "Destruction Magic: Devastating Pulse!"

  Mana exploded radially. The water prison evaporated instantly. I emerged, steaming. He was already far away, near the villagers. And then he did something that irritated me: he grabbed a villager, an old man, terrified, and used him as a shield.

  "Stop, or I'll kill him."

  I stopped. I looked at the old man, then at the demon.

  "Seriously?"

  "You care about innocent lives, don't you?" He smiled, cruelly. "Knights of Axoland, always so noble."

  "Tch." Nobility had little to do with it. It was a matter of efficiency. Hostages complicated things.

  This time, he grabbed another woman.

  "Back off, or everyone will die."

  I looked around. Dozens of villagers, all paralyzed with fear. Perfect hostages. Smart son of a bitch.

  "Water Magic: Blade—"

  I didn't let him finish. I disappeared at maximum speed. The silent speed of someone who learned to move in shadows. I reappeared beside him, sword at his neck. He dropped the hostages and jumped back. Water formed a barrier. I cut through it.

  "Destruction Magic: Devouring Strike!"

  The barrier cracked, broke. But he had already moved, into the middle of the villagers. And killed three. Quick, brutal. Necks cut by water. They fell.

  "With every second you delay," he said, calmly, "more people die."

  Rage grew. Not for the death itself I'd caused many but for the waste, the lack of elegance. Lives thrown away just to buy time. Pathetic.

  "You know what?"

  I drove the sword into the ground.

  "I'm tired."

  Mana began to flow. Not a little, all of it. The air became heavy, dense. First Phase of the Vital Path: Limited Release. My body began to change. Muscles expanded slightly. Veins glowed with pure mana, energy leaking through my pores. The demon felt it. Fear returned to his eyes.

  "What"

  "Destruction Magic: Absolute Devastation!"

  I grabbed the sword and raised it. An absurd amount of mana concentrated on it. The blade turned black, expelling purple energy.

  "Screw the hostages. Screw subtlety. Screw assassination tactics. Sometimes pure and simple destruction is the answer."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I struck downward. The energy exploded. Not a blade, a wave, a tsunami of destructive mana. It swept everything. The demon tried to block. Water, wind, everything he had. Useless. The wave hit him, consumed him. He screamed for three seconds, then silence.

  When the mana dissipated, nothing remained. Of the demon, of the sanctuary, of half the nearby houses. Only craters, ashes, destruction.

  I took a deep breath. I released the First Phase. My body returned to normal. I felt fatigue, but nothing serious. I looked around. Some villagers were still alive, those who were far enough away.

  I ran to where I'd left the nearly dead child. She was still there, beside the woman's body. Motionless. Empty eyes. Breathing even weaker. I picked her up in my arms, carefully. I pressed two fingers against her neck. Weak pulse, but still present. Almost imperceptible. Too light. Six years old and barely weighed anything. Malnutrition, probably.

  I turned to leave.

  "MURDERER!"

  A villager shouted.

  "You killed the Master!"

  "Monster!"

  "Demon!"

  Stones began to fly. One hit my head, another my shoulder. I looked at them. Blind devotion even after the death of the object of worship. Repulsive.

  "KILL HIM!"

  More villagers joined. Tools became weapons: scythes, hoes, knives. They attacked.

  I sighed.

  I wasn't going to kill them. It wasn't worth the effort. Killing them would be easy, but would complicate the political situation even more. But staying wasn't an option either, especially since I felt a presence, powerful, approaching quickly. A Kitsumi authority. General-level power. Probably a Kyuubi, one of the nine elite officers, or perhaps another regional authority. Damn. I killed a demon in neighboring territory without formal authorization. Violation of diplomatic protocols. Massive property destruction. A huge diplomatic problem.

  "Tch, what a pain."

  I held the girl tighter. She didn't react. Just kept breathing with difficulty, completely debilitated and nearly dead. She needed care, and fast. Immediate problem.

  I jumped high, using mana to propel myself. I landed on a roof, then on another. Villagers screamed behind me. I ignored them. I ran. Forest, border. Axoland was three days on foot, one day running. The powerful presence was approaching. I couldn't identify exactly who or what, but it was heavy, official. I accelerated. Trees passed in a blur. The girl in my arms didn't move. Not when I jumped over a ravine, not when I dodged branches. She simply existed by a thread. Empty.

  After thirty minutes, I stopped. That was enough, for now. I leaned against a tree, placed the girl on the ground, propping her against the trunk. She fell sideways like a rag doll. I picked her up again and adjusted her. I opened my leather bag basic medicines, a revitalizing powder. I mixed it with water in a bowl and forced some into her lips. She choked but swallowed. Eyes still empty.

  "Hey, kid."

  Nothing.

  "Hey, can you hear me?"

  Nothing.

  I sighed.

  Deep shock. Severe trauma. And near death. I'd seen this before, in the eyes of victims who knew they were going to die, but also in useless survivors afterward. Some recovered. Others didn't.

  I looked at her. At the red hair stained with blood. At the poorly healed wounds. At the small hands, almost lifeless.

  "What a mess," I muttered.

  An assassin would have let her die. A knight cannot. And I... I no longer know what I am. I only know I can't get rid of a burden now. So here I was, with a dying child, in enemy territory, being hunted by a Kitsumi authority who certainly wasn't there to chat.

  "My life is shit," I said to the universe.

  The universe didn't respond.

  The girl continued breathing with difficulty.

  I picked her up in my arms again.

  "So let's go to Axoland. There we'll find a real healer."

  I started running again, slower this time, conserving energy, but with renewed urgency. Three days, maybe two if I was lucky. She might not have three days.

  I looked at the child.

  She didn't even blink.

  "Do you have a name?"

  Silence.

  "Of course you're not going to answer."

  I kept running.

  The forest passed. Night fell. I needed to find a place to rest, food, water, and something to keep her alive. Practical problems. But for now, I just ran with a dying child in my arms, fleeing the consequences of having made a choice that neither my assassin's past nor my knight's present knew how to name adequately.

  "For sure, my life is shit."

  Storms don't ask permission. They just arrive, destroy, and leave.

  Point of view: Hooded girl

  From the top of the hill, there was a complete view of the village, or what remained of it. Smoke still rose. Craters where houses used to be. Bodies being collected by survivors. Total destruction.

  I sat on a rock, watching. I didn't feel anything in particular. Just slight curiosity.

  "Someone got too excited," commented the voice beside me.

  The old man was leaning against a tree, hood covering his eyes, relaxed posture. Annoying.

  "Whoever it was didn't hold back," I said. "Half the village was swept away."

  "Hmm." He scratched his chin under the hood. "Strong warrior. Very strong. Not just anyone kills a demon like that."

  "We arrived late."

  "We arrived at the right time," he corrected. "If we'd arrived earlier, we would've had to deal with the demon, the powerful warrior, and a complicated political situation."

  I shrugged.

  He was right, but it was still annoying.

  I watched the survivors below. They were acting strangely. They weren't mourning, weren't properly crying, but shouting, pointing toward where the forest began.

  "The survivors seem... furious," I commented.

  "Devotees," said the old man, with a tone of disgust. "See how they move, how they speak. Pure fanatics."

  He was right. Even from here you could tell by the way they gestured, how they grouped together. They weren't people relieved by the death of a tyrant. They were cultists who lost their object of worship.

  "Lunatics," I muttered.

  "The worst kind. They'll probably blame whoever killed the demon, maybe even try to take revenge."

  "Pathetic."

  "But dangerous. Desperate fanatics are unpredictable."

  I kept watching for another moment, and then I felt it.

  "You felt it too, didn't you?" I asked. "Earlier, the demonic power."

  "Yes. Strong, raw, unstable." He tilted his head. "Different from yours, but with similar resonance."

  "Greater than mine."

  The old man looked at me, or tried to look, with the hood in front.

  "Envious?"

  "Curious."

  "Hmm."

  We were silent for a moment, then he spoke, in a more serious tone.

  "Probably another Kitsumi experiment. Just like you."

  My stomach contracted.

  "Old man."

  "Yes?"

  "Never speak of that near me again."

  My voice came out cold. Dead.

  He raised his hands in an appeasing gesture.

  "Sorry, sorry. That was an inappropriate touch on my part, Lyenne."

  Lyenne.

  My name sounded strange coming from him now. Loaded.

  An uncomfortable silence settled in, then he sighed, pulled back his hood, revealing an elven face. Pale skin, pointed ears, tired but kind violet eyes. White hair tied loosely.

  "You know I didn't mean to hurt you."

  "I know, Prizion."

  And I did know. Prizion was an idiot sometimes, but never malicious. He saved me, took me in, taught me. Even being an elf from Liliora. Even me being... what I was.

  "But I don't like to remember."

  "I understand." He put the hood back on. "I won't mention it again."

  "Thank you."

  I stood up, dusting off my spy uniform. Black, tight, practical. Nothing flashy.

  "Shall we return to Liliora?"

  "Not yet." Prizion straightened up. "I sense presences approaching. Fast. Very fast."

  I turned and concentrated.

  He was right. Two strong and powerful presences were coming from the direction of Kitsumi's capital.

  "Kyubi," I murmured.

  "Two of them." Prizion was already moving. "Probably investigating the destruction and the dead demon. Let's leave before they detect us."

  We began to move. Silently, quickly, through the forest, moving away from the village. The presences kept approaching, but weren't following us. They were focused on the destroyed village.

  After twenty minutes, we stopped. Mountain ahead. High, rocky.

  "Let's analyze this," said Prizion. "The fastest path to the Liliora border."

  I nodded.

  We began to climb. The mountain was steep. Loose rocks, cold wind. But it wasn't difficult, not for us. At the top, I stopped. I looked back and saw Kitsumi territory stretching out. The girl was there somewhere, the one who had demonic power greater than mine. Who was she? Where did she go? What would she become?

  "Lyenne," called Prizion. "Come on. We can't waste any more time."

  "Coming."

  But I kept searching for another moment, feeling that resonance echoing in memory. Familiar, strange, powerful.

  Who are you?

  Then I turned and followed Prizion down the mountain. Back to Liliora. Back home.

  Point of view: Sekire

  I woke up. I don't know how much time had passed. Hours, days. It didn't matter. Everything was empty anyway.

  I looked around. Forest. Night. A small campfire. And the man, disheveled black hair, red scarf, sword at his side. He was eating something, chewing noisily. He noticed I was awake.

  "Hey, finally woke up. I was starting to think you were going to turn into a mummy or something."

  I looked at him, then at myself. Clean clothes, much cleaner. Bandaged wounds. He took care of me.

  Why?

  "Are you going to kill me?"

  The words came out automatically, without emotion.

  He stopped chewing. Looked at me.

  "Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"

  "Or do something with the body. Sell it. Use it."

  He spat out the food.

  "AAAH, what the fuck, girl! What kind of sick thought is that?"

  Despite the emptiness, something small flickered. Surprise, perhaps. He seemed genuinely... offended.

  "Listen here, brat. I saved you. Killed that demonic son of a bitch. Grabbed you before those lunatic fanatics turned you into mincemeat. And ran like an idiot with you in my arms."

  He grabbed more food and stuffed it in his mouth.

  "I have zero interest in doing any shit with you. Got it?"

  "Why?"

  "Why what?"

  "Why did you save me?"

  He stopped. Thought.

  "Well... damn, I don't know. Instinct. Leaving a bloodied child in a crazy village didn't seem like a good idea to me."

  He chewed more.

  "And also... I don't know. You reminded me of someone."

  "Who?"

  "Me." He shrugged. "When I was a brat. Alone, screwed, with a dead look."

  He looked at the fire.

  "So I thought, screw it, I'll do something decent for the first time in my life. Sue me."

  We remained silent.

  He didn't seem to be lying. The way he spoke, casual, direct, without flourishes, reminded me... of my father.

  Something tightened in my chest.

  "What happened?" he asked. "That village, the demon. Tell me."

  I hesitated, but there was something in his presence... that gave me security. Not really, but it was sincere. So I told him. Not everything. I omitted the part about being a cambion. But I told him about Vhorkan, the sacrifices, my father, Jullen.

  He listened, eating and making noises occasionally. When I finished, he burped.

  "What a shit story."

  Pause.

  "Fucked kingdom, fucked village, fucked demon."

  He grabbed more food.

  "And now, what are you going to do? Become a forest ghost?"

  I looked at the fire.

  I didn't know.

  "I don't know."

  "Hmm."

  He threw a package at me.

  I caught it by instinct.

  "Eat. It's horrible, but it fills you up."

  I opened the package. Hard bread, dried meat. I looked at the food, then at him. He was eating his, indifferent. It wasn't a trap. Just... food.

  I bit. It was horrible indeed. Hard, tasteless. But it was food, and I realized I was hungry. I ate more.

  "Even for free," I began, voice still hollow but a little less so, "Kitsumi is shit. There's no future for me there."

  Feitan scratched his head.

  "Then don't stay."

  I looked at him.

  "Come with me to Axoland. I know the princess. She owes me a favor. I can arrange a place for you."

  He made a disgusted face.

  "The Abyciss family is very annoying. They're too kind. But they won't hurt you."

  Axoland. A different kingdom. A new beginning.

  I looked at the fire.

  Live, for us.

  Jullen's voice echoed.

  And for the first time since I woke up, I felt something beyond emptiness. Not hope, not yet. But... possibility.

  "Okay."

  Feitan nodded.

  "Cool. We leave early tomorrow. Three days' journey."

  He stood up and stretched.

  "Sleep. You look like a walking corpse."

  I lay down near the campfire. I watched the flames. Orange, dancing, alive. Different from everything I felt. But maybe... maybe one day I'll feel like that again. Alive.

  I closed my eyes. This time, the emptiness was a little less oppressive. Just a little. But it was something.