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- NO.200+DUKUNG
Bronze Prize for WSA 2022 ContestThe tale of a man who brings death and a girl who denies it. ---- On the haunted mountain in the kingdom, they say there lived a witch. She was born a princess. But even before her birth, the priest declared her to be cursed and demanded her death. They poisoned the mother to kill the baby before she gave birth, but the baby was born out of the dead mother—a cursed child. Again and again, they tried to kill the baby but she miraculously survived every single attempt. Giving up, they abandoned her on the haunted mountain to die but she still survived on that barren land— A witch ‘Why won’t she die?’ Years later, the people finally had enough of the witch and decided to burn the mountain. But the Devil arrived to her rescue and took her with him from that burning place, because dying was not her destiny even then. Draven Amaris. The Black Dragon, who ruled over supernatural beings, the Devil who no one wished to cross a path with. He hated humans but this certain human girl would pull him towards her whenever she was in danger. ‘Is she really a human?’ He took the human with him and named this mysteriously tenacious girl “Ember”, a piece of glowing coal in a dying fire. A soul tainted with vengeance and the darkness of hell, would rise from the ashes and fulfil her revenge. ------ This is the second book from the series of The Devils and Witches. 1st book - Witch's daughter and the Devil's son. 3rd book- The Devil's Betrothed. All books are connected to each other but you can read them as stand-alone.
Stab!
A knife pierced through his heart and he felt a sharp pain, as if it would tear apart his entire body. The world turned black for a moment, and when he regained his sight, a beautiful woman came into view.
A small delicate face, long wavy hair the color of mahogany, her eyes shedding tears as she held the handle of that knife piercing his chest.
"Forgive me," she said in between sobs. "This all happened because of me. Wait for me. No matter what happens, I will come to you. We will meet again…"
Those words rang in his head as the man tossed and turned in his sleep. Despite knowing it was a dream, anxiety filled him as the woman started to disappear from his vision.
"We will meet again…wait for me…'' the distant voice repeated until it faded. The silence that followed brought him another wave of pain.
"No. Don't go…who are you…?"
The man woke up with a jolt. He sat up in bed with his hand pressing against the left side of his chest as his red eyes searched around his bed. His strong muscular body was covered with cold sweat, causing his dark night robe to cling onto his muscles. Even though he was no longer in the dream, it was as if he could still feel the knife piercing his heart.
'Why am I having this dream again?'
Just then, the door swung open and a young servant entered, gasping for air as if he had run towards his master as fast as he could. His silver hair looked unkempt and his pointed ears twitched nervously.
"S-Sire, I heard your voice. Is there something wrong?"
The red-eyed man glared at the servant who dared intrude into the King's chamber without permission. "One day you will lose your ears, Erlos." His voice was cold and full of warning.
"I..I was just worried, Sire," he immediately went towards the table, "I will get you water."
Unknown to them, strange white energy enveloped that cold man's body, and before he could react, he disappeared from his royal chamber.
Silence filled the chamber, and only the sound of the young servant pouring water into glass could be heard.
'Why is he not saying anything or threatening to kill me?' With a doubtful face, the servant turned to look at the bed and found it empty.
He frowned, "Argghh! Not again. Where did he go this time?"
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, in a human kingdom far away…
"Burn that witch."
"Today make sure that either that witch dies or leaves our kingdom."
"She has caused enough harm to us for so many years. It's enough now."
"Let's just kill her today and get rid of her."
"Even the king has sent a troop of soldiers so we can burn this entire mountain and not leave a single inch of land to let that witch hide."
In the dark night under the moonlight, people were walking with the lamps and torches in their hands inside the woods in the mountain.
The entire mountain was surrounded by people from all sides. They poured the cans of oil everywhere and the high up areas where no one could reach or more like scared to reach, the arrows dipped in oil and burned with fire were shot in all the directions.
"Today is the last day for that witch. Just die here."
Soon after, the entire mountain caught fire and the flames were trying to reach higher and higher. Birds, mostly scavengers could be seen flying everywhere as their homes caught fire.
"I am sure that witch must be dead by now. She had no place to go."
People started to celebrate their achievement, not knowing what was happening in the deepest part of the mountain.
-------
Somewhere near the peak of the haunted mountain, a sharp light flashed, like a zap of lightning amidst the black smoke. The light took on a huge oval shape like a portal and a red-eyed man in a black robe stepped out of it. He seemed to be shocked when he looked around.
"What is this place? Who dares summon me here?" His voice was cold and his expression looked angry as his red eyes looked fierce due to the reflection of fire flames in them. "Why is this place burning?"
The moment he took a step forward, he stumbled upon something.
"What's this creature?" he mumbled and kneeled down to look at it.
He saw a frail injured body curled into a ball, surrounded by the burnt wood logs. He simply observed it for a moment carrying no sympathy in his eyes.
"Doesn't concern me," and closed his eyes to teleport, "I need to return."
In a moment he opened his eyes, only to see himself in the same place.
"Why am I still here?" Seems like this place is not good. I need to try it from somewhere else."
He was about to step ahead, crossing that body but the bottom hem of his long robe was caught in something, making him stop. Clenching his fist angrily, he turned back only to see that the bruised body had caught the hem of his robe in its hand.
"What? Aren't you dead?" He commented indifferently and tried to pull back his robe to free it but he simply could not.
"You are about to die then die peacefully. Don't suffer in my hands. You don't know what I can make you suffer with."
Still, that body didn't let go of his robe. The strength in that weak body amused him. He was the most powerful one that everyone feared but this frail body, what kind of power it had to overpower him.
He kneeled down and checked it closely. Its clothes were burned only leaving a minimum at the required places that he could guess it was a female.
Her face was covered with long dark hair. He moved his hand to check the face but the moment he touched it, he realized something.
'Human? How can a human have any powers?'
