Chapter 16

It was a quiet and peaceful night, but Shadow couldn't sleep. He laid awake, staring at the ceiling. Even though it was late, still before midnight, Shadow slid out of his bed and walked silently down stairs. On the table, near the vase of roses, he left a note for Jay and Emperion, saying he was going on a walk. Then he quietly left the house.

It was dark outside. No sounds, no people. Only street lights. No one else seemed to be awake, even the animals kept the peaceful quiet of night. He didn't like it. The quiet seemed so natural that it felt unnatural. Normally, even if it was close to midnight, at least a few businesses would be open and few people would be prowling around, but there was no one. It was as if the whole city was rid of life. To check that there wasn't some kind of silencing spell, Shadow lifted up his left hand and a magic circle appeared. He created a small bell, no bigger than a marble, and held it out in front of him. He suddenly felt a cold, chilling energy behind him that made him shake. 

Shadow dropped the bell as he spun around and it jingled as it hit the ground. He hardly noticed. In front of him stood a black four legged creature. Its legs and face were covered in scars and one of its left horns was broken in half. The creature spread its wings in intimidation and released a wave of magical energy that made Shadow shiver. It swished its tail back and forth and lifted its head as if to assert its authority.

Hoping he was hallucinating, Shadow rubbed his eyes but the creature was still there. Nervous, Shadow backed away and bumped into something. A person painted pitch black was standing in front of him. It had white eyes along with two horns, a tail and five wings, a right wing missing from the first set. Red marks crossed its whole body in the shape of scars and it stood with slouched posture. When Shadow retreated, some black and burning liquid hung on his back, burning through his shirt. The person before him was covered in it. The person gave off an intense aura, similar to the creature behind him, that made him freeze on the spot. The person reached out and grabbed Shadow by the neck with an iron grip. Shadow clutched at the person's fingers, trying to break free from its grasp. His skin started to burn the longer the person held him. Suddenly, he was watching from the black person's point of view. He was holding up an unfamiliar man by the throat. He wished to let go, tried as hard as he could, but the black person lifted a hand with sharp claws and sliced the man's head right off his shoulders, letting his head roll towards the four-legged creature. The creature stomped on the head, crushing it beneath its massive paws. Shadow looked around to see the streets littered with bodies. His hands were colored red and his feet began to sink into a pool of blood. He struggled to move, to free himself from the endless depths of the crimson ocean, but his body wouldn't let him. So he fell into the sea of blood. As he sank he struggled to breath and the salty taste of blood filled his mouth. 

Shadow jolted awake, gasping for air. He looked frantically around to find him sitting up in one of the guest beds of Jay's house. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself before he got out of bed. He had to blow off some steam. He left the house, with a note, just like in his dream, but unlike his dream, he could see people wandering around the streets. Some were demons, some were humans, but he didn't want to be around others right now. He rushed over to the sixth section of Demon City and stared up the mountain. He jumped into the air and flew up the side of the mountain. Even as he flew higher and higher, the side of the mountain was always covered in grass. He landed on the side of the mountain and laid down, staring at the stars. At the height he was at, he couldn't hear the bustling of the city below him, and all the street and house lights looked like orange stars. He unfolded all three pairs of wings and began to stretch them out when he sensed another's magical energy approaching him. He recognized it as Silver's and hid his wings as fast as he could.

"Hey there!" Silver called, walking over to Shadow's side. He laid down next to Shadow and stretched out his wings as far as they would go. Shadow just watched him. "I came to ask about the excessive amount of magic-sealing stone you wanted built into your house." Silver stated, looking over at Shadow. His expression was plain but his eyes betrayed a hint of confusion mixed with curiosity.

"Training." Shadow replied simply. "The harder it is to use magic, the stronger and smoother my magic will become."

"I was also wondering why you're up here on the mountain instead of sleeping at your friend's house."

"I couldn't sleep. It's the perfect place to get away from people."

"Do you still hate humans?"

"What makes you think I hated humans in the first place?" Silver's eyes widened. He sat up and looked directly into Shadow's eyes. Shadow looked back with a blank expression.

"Your eyes betray your fear." Silver stated. Shadow looked back at the stars.

"I see. It's a logical assumption."

"What did they do to you that makes you so scared of them?" Silver worried.

"Who said I was scared of them?" Silver looked at him, not hiding his confusion this time. "I'm not afraid of humans nor do I hate them. All that is directed at myself."

"What? Why? That's even more confusing than not hating or fearing humans." Silver claimed. Shadow turned his head to look directly at Silver. Silver's face expressed only question and his eyes portrayed nothing, like he had gotten rid of his emotions in that brief time he was looking at the sky Shadow looked down towards his lap. 

"Don't get me wrong, there are some humans that I hate more than ever. After all, I lost my family because of humans. But that was also only a select few. It's not something I should blame the entire race for. However, I also hate demons for selfishly hurting humans. Sure, most of us are revenge driven, fear driven, because humans terrorize us and hunt us just for living our lives. But I think their hatred is, in a way, unfounded. Humans are simply as scared of us as we are of them. So in the end, it's everyone's fault for not trying harder to understand each other. That's why this city is such a huge step forward. Here, humans and demons coexist and you don't see any pitchforks and torches or bleeding streets and heads on pikes. There's peace here, and I trust that the humans here respect that, otherwise they wouldn't be here." 

"How does that correlate to you fearing and hating yourself?" Shadow leaned forward and raised a hand to stare at.

"I have this feeling that there's something deep inside of me that is stronger than I am. It's waiting for something to unleash it. It's something that revels in violence and bloodshed, and the more I feed it, the less I will be me. I'm scared that on this path to saving other demons that are less fortunate than I am could lead me to becoming something I don't want to be. Something that doesn't care properly for life and its blessings. It's like walking on ice. The slower you go, the longer it takes, and the less you'll realize it when you slip and fall through the ice. Would I even notice if I began to slip in such a slow process?"

"I think I might know what you're talking about." Silver stated. Shadow turned to look at him. "There's this trance, or state, that demons that have unlocked their third pair of wings can enter. It's a mindless state a demon can enter when a demon's life is put in danger through battle, which forcibly changes the body of the demon to that of their true form, or underworldic form. In this state, the demon will lose their sense of self and attack anything in sight until the demon is no longer in life-threatening danger. Sometimes, demons never turn back after transformation and can only be stopped upon death. It's a pretty brutal defense but there's no way to control it." A spike of fear coursed through Shadow's heart and he shivered a little, but he covered his fear with curiosity. Silver didn't notice.

"Is there any way to find out if you will turn back ahead of time? Or any way you will be able to know your true form before you transform?" Shadow asked calmly.

"There's no way to tell if you can turn back but there is a way to guess at your true form. The Five Great families all have similar types of true forms so we can always guess at what our true forms might be. For the White Wolf family, we all become wolves, except huge wolves." he explained.

"What about the other Great families?"

"First, let me tell you the names of all the Great families, from highest in rank to lowest in rank. It goes Black Lion, Red Wyvern, Yellow Griffon, White Wolf, Green Serpent, and Ash."

"But that's six."

"According to legend, the strongest demon family to ever exist turned their back on the demon king and became an outcast family. The only reason the name wasn't forgotten is because when a family becomes a Great family, their color and emblem is tattooed on their backs with magic. There's no way to remove the mark so Satan burned them off and created a new Great family with a new color and mythical creature. This outcast family is known as the Ash family, the strongest demon family in the history of the underworld. Their original color and mythical creature is lost in time." Silver explained. He turned his back to Shadow and lifted up his shirt. On his back in between his wings was the white outline of a howling wolf head. 

"This proves I'm from the White Wolf family." As he said that, a look of realization crossed his face and he suddenly leaned in real close to Shadow.

"You're a bit close, there, Silver." Shadow objected.

"We were trying to figure out what Great family you come from but we completely forgot you would be born with a mark on your back! Can you turn around for me?" Silver exclaimed with excitement.

"O-Ok." Shadow stammered. He turned away from Silver and lifted up his shirt as high as he could. Silver stared at his back for a long time. After a while, Shadow began to feel awkward. 

"So? Which one am I?"

"I can't tell..."

"What?"

"I can't tell."

"Shouldn't there be a certain color or mythical creature?"

"That's true, but the creature doesn't match the mascot of any of the five I listed."

"What is it then?"

"You have a dragon on your back in an Ouroboros symbol." Silver let go of his shirt and met Shadow's eyes as he turned around. "And it looks like it was burned into our back." 

"Does that mean I'm from the Ash family? And would I turn into a dragon?" Silver shrugged.

"It's not guaranteed to transform into the creature of the family's crest. You might just gain innate abilities that correlate to the creature or it could be something completely unrelated." They sat there for a long time in silence. Silver had a confused look on his face. He then ruffled up his hair in frustration.

"So what kind of transformations do the other Great families have?" Shadow changed the subject.

"I don't know many, but I do know the Red Wyvern transformation. They become wyverns, obviously, but the size and that stuff depends on the person." Silver explained. "That's all I know about the Great family transformations though. May I ask why you're so interested in them? You only have your first wing so this doesn't really concern you." Shadow hesitated.

"I had a nightmare. It's why I can't sleep. A four-legged creature appeared in the streets with this chilling aura. Then a person covered in this black acid attacked me. After that, I woke up and flew up here. Fresh air to clear the mind, y'know?" Shadow explained, leaving out the last part of his dream.

"It was just a nightmare." Silver assured. Shadow nodded in agreement, but he still had his doubts. They sat there in silence for a few more moments and the sky began to turn pink. 

"It's almost morning. I should get back to my job. You should head back to Jay's house before he wakes up and starts to worry."

"I left him a note saying I'd be up on the mountain. I need to get used to the height as soon as possible so I'm ready for the test." Shadow stated. Silver nodded and waved goodbye. 

Once the sun rose above the horizon and Silver was nowhere to be seen, Shadow turned around and continued to fly up the mountain. He was constantly stopping for long periods of time to catch his breath and readjust to the air as it got thinner the higher he flew. It was almost lunchtime when he spotted the foundation of his house. He was a little surprised to find it had barely been started. Only about three workers were flying around. He landed on the side of the mountain and walked over to the workers.

"I thought there would be a few more of you." he called. One of the workers stopped and flew over to him.

"Are you going to be the owner of this house?" the man asked.

"Yes."

"Well you sure picked a tough spot to build your house at. The air is so thin up here and we're the only workers who can stand being up so high." Shadow blushed from embarrassment.

"Sorry." he whispered.

"It's ok." the man laughed. He then held out his hand to Shadow. "My name's Dallmund, the chief of construction." Shadow shook the man's hand.

"Shadow Zastaroth. Nice to meet you."