Fire and Despair (2)

<Chapter 3>

"A demon!? How is it inside the cave?"

The father stood in front of his family and cautiously urged them to stay back. How unlucky were they to have directly met a demon after escaping their village? As far as he knew, no one else knew about the whereabouts of the cave aside from him and his hunting group. The cave was hidden behind tall bushes; unless you were actively looking for the entrance, it would be almost impossible to even locate it. Yet, there was a demon inside as if it was waiting for them to arrive.

Wait a minute… Although the demon had monstrous features, it still had some pieces of clothes on its dark body. It was only natural since these demons were formerly people just a few minutes ago. The clothes the demon wore were oddly familiar to Jeri's father, and it caused him to subconsciously swallow his saliva. He recognized the blue jumper and the green shirt under it.

"R-Roland?"

Roland was one of the men Jeri's father usually went out to hunt with. The two men grew up together and one could even say that they had known each other since the two were still in their mothers' wombs. Only him, Roland and four others knew about the existence of this cave; it was no wonder this particular demon found its way to the cave. If that was the case, were these demons able to tap into a human's memories? Are these demons a separate entity that managed to possess those people who heard the scream? Are these demons actually sentient beings after all? Ever since the fainted people finished demonizing, they have shown no obvious sign of intelligence, only killing the closest human they could get their claws on. Is there still remnants of humanity left in them? Should we ask him to leave us alone?

'No, it's impossible. Those monsters have killed most of the people in Saumar. Even if they were former villagers themselves, there's just no way we can expect them to show us sympathy. Whether or not these things were sentient or not is not important.'

A grim expression showed on the father's face. Sweat began to drip from his forehead onto his shirt.

'This is no longer the Roland I used to know.'

Behind him, his wife and son were huddled close. If there was any way to let my family live, it was to stall this demon while the two ran. He looked over his shoulder and stared briefly at his wife. As if having caught the hint, his wife grabbed Jeri and made a run through the woods. Jeri's father faced the demon with resolute eyes prepared for the inevitable but froze in place when he saw the demon's face. It was smiling at him.

Instead of attacking him, the demon turned and made a run towards the direction his wife and son ran towards.

"You son of a bitch!"

Jeri's father chased after the demon as fast as his legs would allow him. The demon was too fast; its metamorphosis into a demon has pushed its previously human body to the limits and even beyond that. Jeri's father was becoming more and more desperate. He was resolved to die here if only his family would survive, but things didn't go as he had planned.

In his desperation, he grabbed a rock he spotted nearby and threw it at the demon's back with all his strength.

Bam!

The rock hit the demon on the back of its head. The demon stopped and turned to face him. His actions seemed to have agitated the demon. An expression of anger could be seen on its ugly and distorted face.

'That's right. Focus on me.'

It was then that a sharp object hit him squarely in the right eye. After that, he felt a few more hit him in the stomach, his left shoulder, his chest, and finally his neck. Blood splattered on the ground, staining the soil and the patches of grass crimson red. The demon's nails had pierced his body in quick successions. It retrieved its nails by shortening them again and licked the blood off before continuing its chase.

Still running with his mother, Jeri knew his father had already perished and that they would be next. His father was a skilled hunter and was adept at using all sorts of weapons. Although he did not contain any ounce of magick in him, he was still a capable man when it came to hunting. However, the demon was not for him to hunt, and he did not have a weapon in his hands. What can a barehanded man even do against a demon who could kill several villagers in one swoop? It would take a miracle for them to escape their predator.

This was the end for his mother and him, he thought. He looked up and saw the moon in the sky; it had already gone out of the blanket of clouds, shining brightly along with countless stars. The dimensional crack had already closed and the sky seemed to be back to normal. It had come and gone, like the gods were playing a joke on them. If Jeri could describe the view he was seeing now, he would call it beautiful -- a beautiful irony contrasting the massacre of his village and his family.

As he was thinking that, a shadow towered over them. The mother and son pair instinctively looked behind them and saw the demon floating in the air. It's fingernails began to elongate until they were eight inches long. The demon dashed towards the two with both hands extended, aiming to pierce through the stomach or the neck. At this point, it did not matter.

However, the demon did not get the chance to claim its kill. A thick blade went through its chest, thrown from several meters away. The tip of the sword shone with a bluish light as it held the demon in place. Jeri could feel the temperature dropping several degrees as the demon's body began to freeze starting from where the blade had pierced through. Soon its body was completely frozen solid and it dropped on the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces.

The two heard a rustle in the bushes. Their survival instincts told them they should run for it, but rational thinking stayed their feet. The person who could kill the demon with a blade and magick could only be from the military.

"You're safe now."

A man's gruff voice was heard. Jeri and his mom looked at the man who just arrived in the nick of time to save them. He wore white metal armor on top of sleek black and red military uniform. He was panting and sweaty from running all the way to their location.

"The Magick Military is here," said the man. He sported a short side beard, giving him a rough look. Captain Zeric Romanoff looked at the boy and then his mother. His eyes were as blue as the ocean, rough and serene at the same time. "I'm sorry. It seems we were too late even though we came as fast as we could."

"What the hell is happening?" Jeri's mother inquired with a shrill voice. Instead of feeling relief at having been saved or even grief at his husband's death, she only felt dread.

Captain Zeric hesitated to answer. Even he didn't know what was going on, but he knew one thing -- things have just begun.

<Chapter 3> End.