Chapter 2 - Shadow

Reina continued to head down the alley in a good mood, her head swaying left to right as she hummed a song.

[You seem to be in a good mood] a dry, emotionless voice suddenly rang out in her mind

"Eek!"

Reina squeaked in surprise, nearly dropping the bag of coins. Clutching the bag to her chest, a frown appeared on her face as she responded.

"Shadow! why must you scare me so?"

[We have been bound for almost 10 years child, when exactly will my voice stop scaring you?]

"I don't think anyone will stop fearing a daemon, and it wasn't my choice to be bound to you.... "

Daemons, creatures that have plagued the minds and bodies of all the races of the world for as long as they could remember. They Daemons meddled in the affairs of man, tempting them with wealth and influence. They whispered into the ears of beastmen, of the power they could obtain to rise against other tribes so long as they listened. They worked to corrupt the faith of the elves whom protect and worship the forests, the daemons work tirelessly to twist that faith towards themselves and their element: Darkness. Of course the worship of daemons is not exclusive to the elves, all beastman tribes and humans have portions that practice worship, granting them affinity to the dark element. These groups eventually gathered under one person, dubbing themselves "The Holy Daemon Cult", they have waged a silent war against all nonbelievers for hundreds of years. As a result, any person who is detected to have an affinity for darkness or is tainted with the presence of a daemon will be executed on the spot.

[So, what is the cause of your joy?]

"You weren't paying attention! I'll finally be able to get to eat roast duck again! This is obviously a sign from the heavens that my luck is turning!"

Shadow ignored her pouting face and responded

[Child, 3 individuals are approaching you from behind]

"I'm not a child! I'm turning 16 in a couple days!"

[They're carrying weapons]

"Ah, how strong are they?" Reina asked as she cut into a narrow alley passage, darkening as the sun began to sink behind the mountains. She silently cursed herself for showing off the coins she rightfully earned so brazenly,

'Why must misfortune come so quickly, I earned this money fair and square ah!'

Such thoughts invaded her mind as she slowly made her way down the alley, shivering slightly as the darkness rejected the warmth of the sun.

[Two of them are Rank 4 Spirit Apprentices and the other is Rank 7, they're still following]

As a general rule, every living thing had a Spirit Sea, a core piece of their being that allowed them to use skills and become attuned to certain elements. These elements are determined at birth, and cannot be changed, except through daemon influence, the stronger one becomes through training, meditation, the bonding of treasures, or the consumption of specifically designed pills, the more they will advance through the stages of the spirit sea, which goes Spirit Apprentice -> Spirit Master -> Spirit Scholar -> Spirit Sage -> Spirit King -> Spirit Saint. There were tales of there being an even further stage, yet although as one ascends up to the higher levels of existence and aging becomes less and less relevant, nobody has been able to ascend pass Spirit Saint, and those who even reached it number a few dozen.

Reina continued to walk down the alley that had been covered in increasing darkness

"Hey brat" a voice sounded out behind her.

Reina couldn't help but complain in her heart 'Why do people always call me a brat? I may be short but my sister is only a head taller then me! and she's a fully grown adult!'. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she turned around to face the one speaking and was met with the wide chest of a man. Craning her head up, she was able to make out some features of the man speaking to her, an unkempt beard, scars covered his face, a pair of beady black eyes stared back at her observing gaze.

"Hm? how can this one be of assistance?"

"Don't play dumb, hand over the coins and you won't get hurt"

"B-but this is all that this little one has, surely you can leave me with a-" Reina's words were cut off as she felt the cold touch of steel on her neck.

"Hand it over, now"

Reina took another deep breath and thought

'Shadow, please'

[Understood]

Reina handed over the bag to the giant of a man, who hefted it in his palm, weighing it. Sneering at her, the man said "Good, now get the hell out of my sight before I ki-" he stopped. He couldn't help but stop speaking, stop breathing, stop moving as he gazed at the thing behind the girl he had just robbed. The alley had become rather dark at this point, but light still snuck over the buildings to accompany them here, so nobody was stumbling around blindly. Yet in the darkness behind the girl, there was something even darker moving, barely making out its form, there were no arms or legs. Dimly he realized it was a snake, at least it took the form of one.

It had become deathly silent, not even the previous chatter from the main road made it's way over to where the 4 figures stood. The man was covered in sweat, starring at the pair of glowing eyes that hovered over the girl. He didn't know if it had been seconds, minutes, or hours, but he finally snapped out of his state of paralysis and began to turn to run, as he did so the nightmare moved like lightning, catching his head in its jaws and biting down with a sickening crunch.

Reina watched the snake do the same to the 2 others with no expression on her face, the only sign that showed she acknowledged what just happened was her hand moving to cover her nose from the scent of blood. She picked up the bag of coins, stowed them safely in her pocket, and carefully avoided the piles of blood from the corpses as she made her way back to the main road.

If one paid attention to the feet of the girl, they would notice a complete lack of a shadow.