Chapter One: The Not-So-Grand Resurgence of the Mad Corpse Demon

In the darkness of night, on an empty hill, a highly confused Nikolai is thrust back into a body he hasn't seen in almost two decades.

He wakes with a sharp intake of air filling empty and old lungs, burning his dry throat and leaving a dull ache in his chest. Before he can even begin to gather himself, loose skin begins to stretch taught as something inside him is filling the previously withered body back up with the muscle and fat it lost in his last days of life. Tears well up in his eyes and begin to flow, unable to register anything but the agony. His body is reeling, aching, doing things a body should never do so rapidly and all in the pursuit to reanimate and reinvigorate. Everything is so intense it feels like it takes hours but in reality it's mere seconds before his body is back to the condition it was in before, well, before. Letting out a low groan, he tries to calm himself, his head dizzy and vision in a haze for a few moments before he can truly assess his situation.

He's in a field, the grass around him covered in a bloody sigil that reeks of death. His head is turned to the left, where it will be staying for a while because moving is not in the cards right now. Out past the field he can see the large presence of the moon, it's red now, but he's willing to bet it wasn't before the summoning. Turning his attention back to the ground he notices the candles bordering the sigil, the flames black and dancing wildly in the windless night. They seem to circle around five times, showing just how serious the summoner must have been.

Each circle of candles takes immense power to keep lit, but it also draws immense power to it. High risk, high reward. He's fairly certain the largest amount ever used before was three rows, especially around something as big as a body. Whoever actually managed this is impressive in more ways than one.

Suddenly he feels the fact he is inside a previously buried body. It's still wearing his death shroud, dirty and tattered from being in the ground for fifteen years. The scratchy fabric clinging to his body, where it had not already been devoured by insects. Luckily, although it was previously in poor shape from how he died, his body had no decay. The corpses of immortal beings remain stagnant, forever in the form of the previous owner when they took their last breath, and no creature dares to try and feast upon them.

It does make them highly sought after for spirits to possess, though.

Except Nikolai is not a spirit, he's a demon.

The first demon to be successfully summoned, at that.

Nikolai sure does break a lot of barriers; the first human to become a necromancer, first immortal being to be sent to hell, and now first demon to be summoned to earth. He truly knows no limits. What an amazing man he is, everyone should be in awe.

"Demon." A voice from his right calls and Nikolai reluctantly turns his head to gaze upon his new master. The witch is tall, taller than him, and covered in an eerily familiar lavender cloak with long and disheveled blue hair peeking out under the hood. She's wearing a stern expression on her noticeably pale face, beads of sweat sliding down her forehead and cheeks from beneath her bangs. It clearly took a lot out of her to do this, and for a moment he feels bad.

A very short moment, mind you.

"Witch." He counters with a mocking tone. His voice is hoarse and weak and almost immediately after saying just the one word he finds himself hacking up large amounts of old and blackened blood that had no doubt pooled somewhere in his body as it lay dead in the dirt. He sends her a wry smile, dark blood still on his lips, "Impressed yet?"

The woman stares down, unreadable green eyes boring holes into him, "You are The Mad Corpse Demon, are you not? The necromancer Nikolai Iliev."

Nikolai laughs so hard and deep from his stomach that more blood spills out in an unseemly fashion. "What kind of name is that!? 'The Mad Corpse Demon'!? Have I become some sort of boogey man?"

Crossing her arms, the witch looks at him unimpressed, "Seems fitting enough to me. Given what you did to the innocent civilians of Ileo."

Nikolai raises a brow, an amused smile on his face, "Innocent, huh? Is that how you see it? The big bad necromancer came and destroyed an entire kingdom of innocent people?"

"Yes." She answers without missing a beat. "You could have killed the king and left his people, easily."

Nikolai doesn't bother to say more on the subject, but lets out a bitter laugh at his own reputation. He stands up with a groan, patting the dirt off what's left of his burial shroud before walking to a small creek a few feet behind the unimpressed woman, inspecting his reflection in the moonlight. "You worked some real magic, huh?" He praises, appreciating just how much had to go into bringing such a ghastly husk back to its previous glory. No wonder she's wiped. In his last days, his energy had been rapidly devoured until nothing was left except skin and bones, but you'd never know it now.

Brittle white hair clinging to his body had now returned to its original silky auburn glory, flowing down his back as elegantly as it had in the past. His face, sunken and pale behind his unkempt bangs before, was back to its fully fleshed out state, truly complimenting the large brown eyes looking back at him with a renewed life. Running a hand through his hair he revels in his fingers long and slender beauty, no hint of the twisted and unusable appendages from his final hours. Even his legs and arms, which are showing in almost their entirety due to the small amount of fabric truly left to his death shroud, showcase the thin yet strong build he'd had before.

"Incredible," He mutters to himself before turning to a very unimpressed witch, "So what is my impressive master's name?

"I am Aria Hatzis."

"Never heard of you. How old?"

"Twenty five."

"Wow, the same age as me when I died." Nikolai looks her over, letting out an impressed whistle, "You even look twenty-five. Pretty rare for an immortal to use the aging spell. Once our bodies stop at twenty, most tend to stay there."

"I'm not interested in looking like a child," She says, giving him a pointed stare.

"Hey, now! I'm not either!" He raises his hands up, "I used it, too, you know! I just have a youthful appearance in general. My amazing genetics are both a blessing and a curse, truly."

"Mmhm." Aria is clearly unimpressed. She looks exhausted and her stance is becoming unsteady. To use so much power, to risk her life for a spell with a 0% success rate until now, Nikolai is curious what could have driven her to this point.

Revenge? Maybe. If it's revenge, that's easy enough. Hell, anything she asks for is doable. She's given him a new chance on life, so he'll happily fulfill whatever wish she desires.

"Why are you staring at me?" Aria asks, clearly disturbed.

"Just concerned for you, master! Perhaps you want me to carry you?" Nikolai teases, watching as the goosebumps form on her skin immediately.

"Do not call me that and absolutely do not touch me. It is Aria, and only Aria, understand?"

"I suppose."

"There's an inn nearby," Aria begins, pulling clothes out of a bag hidden somewhere under her cloak, "A death shroud would garner too much attention, even without the blood, dirt and copious amounts of missing fabric, so put this on." She says before handing him a stack of clothes along with a cloth and bar of soap, "After you clean yourself up some in the creek."

"A creek isn't the cleanest body of water, but I suppose it'll do until we arrive at the inn," Nikolai is honestly grateful, these clothes and his skin feel downright grimey. He waits for Aria to turn away and makes quick work of wiping himself down before putting on his new outfit. Almost everything, save for the red tunic in the pile, is pure black. Two of the three cheapest colored clothes one can get. Clearly Aria is not rich, which is a bit of a let down, but not much to do about it. He reaches out to put on his last boot, a red ribbon falling out and to the ground. Leaning forward, Nikolai examines it curiously.

Now that he thinks about it, these clothes fit perfectly, and while long hair is the usual style he cannot help feeling that he actually knows this ribbon. The small embroidery of smoke flowing along the edges of it, and the familiar scent of cherry blossoms almost brings forth memories, but not quite. Like there's a block on it, a spell of some sort.

It's certainly not Aria, though. She's only twenty-five, so she would have been ten when he died, there was no chance for them to have met with such a large age gap. After all, none of his school friends had taken on an apprentice and he certainly hadn't either.

He shrugs the thought off for now, taking the ribbon and tying his hair in a ponytail. Despite his best effort, ends up more towards the right than the middle of his head. Life was so much easier in the Ekstrom Palace.

"All set!" Nikolai calls and Aria turns to look at him.

"Good, you're no longer half naked."

"Come now, with a body like this, who would truly complain about seeing me half naked?" He jokes, but it's obvious Aria doesn't find it funny. Her eyes narrow, and she becomes tense for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh.

"I suppose I might as well tell you now, since we will be working together," Aria says, an uneasy look on her face, "Flirting with me is a waste of your time. I…prefer the company of women."

"Oh." He says before it fully sinks in, "Ohhhh, I see." Nikolai smiles, "Even better! Can't have you falling in love with me!" He laughs, because he's honestly relieved.

Aria looks surprised for a moment before relief washes over her face, "Yeah, you definitely don't have to worry about that with me," She assures him, before giving him a once-over, "Although I doubt you would really have to worry about that with any girl for that matter."

Nikolai just laughs, brushing off the attempted insult easily, "One can only hope!" He looks out to the desolate hill and then turns to Aria, "So we're going to an inn, you said? Why aren't we going to your house? Don't want the wife to see you summoned a demon?" He teases and Aria rolls her eyes.

"I have neither a house nor a wife. I lived with my mentor before, but I left her a few months ago."

"A wandering witch, huh? Fair enough. Quite a few witches I knew in my day hated to be stagnant. Of course they didn't use Inns. They preferred to cast a spell to create a cottage out of a random tree or something for a week or so. It was always fun getting messages from them with their newest coordinates." He sighs wistfully, he truly misses them, but given his ending there's no doubt in his mind none would return the feeling. "Still it sucks you don't have someone. I think? Unless you want to be single, which I definitely get. Obviously."

This woman is insanely silent, so Nikolai can't help but ramble. It's been fifteen years since he's casually spoken to someone, after all. She needs to get comfortable with him quick or whatever journey she has in mind for the two of them is gonna be torture.

"I don't exactly want to be single," Aria admits, "I've just been focused on my studies and successfully summoning you."

"Right, summoning me." Nikolai nods, "Why did you do that exactly?"

Aria begins to lead them down the hill, "In the past ten years this world has grown…tumultuous." She explains, her expression turning grim, "Monsters began to come out of the shadows in droves, as if someone was calling for them. It's not even just minor monsters, either, but truly deadly creatures are an everyday occurrence now. When I was fifteen, my entire town was destroyed by some high level ones, no one but me made it out alive. My own parents died protecting me, allowing me to escape." Her bottom lip quivers for a moment before a bitter scowl comes back to her face, "Everyone is losing people. No one is safe. I hadn't met my mentor at that time, so my power amounted to nothing then, but my parents were a strong witch and wizard! They were the immortals tasked with protecting that town and did so amazingly for decades! Then these…these things came and none of their spells made a dent!" Stopping for a moment, Aria breathes in and out to calm herself before she continues, "My mentor found me shortly after that, and while under her care I discovered her dark arts book. It was about a year into living there, and from then on I worked hard to become an amazing witch, and do all I could to ensure I could summon you."

Nikolai frowns, he never would have guessed the world would fly into such chaos. Luckily, it doesn't sound like his actions caused it. "So you were determined to summon me, specifically, from day one?" He asks and Aria nods, "I mean I'm flattered, but, why?"

"Necromancy." Aria answers, looking at him, "You're still the only one who has mastered necromancy, hell the only one who could live past the summoning incantation! And now that you are a demon you can handle it easily, so it makes you the best choice." She explains before giving a small shrug, "Well that and your humanity hopefully working in my favor so you don't try to kill me or something."

Nikolai's lips turn up into a slightly twisted smile, "What makes you think I won't kill you?"

Aria stares him down, "Don't try to be intimidating. I literally watched you cough up blood and swoon over your own reflection."

"That's…that's a fair point."

She sighs, her body swaying slightly from exhaustion, "Now stop acting stupid and let's go to the Inn. I need rest."

Nikolai lets out a long yawn, stretching his arms to the sky lazily, "Yeah, me too. Turns out coming back to a withered and stagnant body takes a lot out of a soul."

"Who'd have thought?" Aria replies dryly and Nikolai laughs, following her as the distant lights from the small town come into view.