After work, the office party heads to an elegant club. The group makes their way inside and heads to their reserved Karaoke room. Chief Chén orders food and drinks as the office members go up and begin to sing. Reyn is tactfully not asked to not sing as Mr. Yáng and the gang had spread the honest, but the exaggerated truth that if one did not want to hear an animal’s dying wails, then the tone-deaf Reyn should never be allowed to sing in public.
Seeing as the party had to get into full swing, Reyn finally went up to perform for Chief Chén. Reyn lip-syncs to the classic song of Twist and Shout, while dancing the choreographed dance from the movie, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Chief Chén and the rest of the office workers enjoyed Reyn’s theatrical lip-syncing and dance. With a sigh of relief, Reyn bows as the office party members clap at her performance, before taking her seat.
Next up is Chief Chén and everyone intently turns to watch him. Reyn takes a sip of her drink when she senses something above the club. Reyn refrains from glancing upward at sensing two men battling over the city that is underneath them. Ignoring the intense battle overhead, Reyn claps along with the rest of the office as Chief Chén sings an oldie love song.
By the end of the night, Reyn was exhausted and excused herself a bit early. Several office members offer to accompany her back to the subway station, but Reyn politely waves them off. For heaven’s sake, what could possibly happen to her, when she was the scariest thing on the streets?
Reyn happily walks to the nearest subway station, when she suddenly pauses in route. The alleyway right next to her holds the fading pulse of an injured young man. Reyn recognizes the mana signature as belonging to one of the men that had been fighting overhead the club. Reyn glances at her phone and considers calling, emergency services. However, knowing how these things worked more than likely the injured man’s opponent would finish him off the moment he arrived for medical aid at any hospital.
Reyn takes a step forward, when she hears a soft whisper from the injured man, “I’m sorry, Mom and Dad.”
Reyn winces as guilt coursed through her body, but merely adjusts the leather strap of her bag on her shoulder. Reyn stoutly turns away and walks around the corner of the street when a chiding feeling hits her smack on the face. “Oh, bleeding hearts of the world UNITE!” Reyn darkly grunted and turns translucent as she leaps over the building to land neatly without a sound in the alleyway.
Reyn makes her way to the end of the alley to find a rather badly wounded teenage boy on the cusp of being a man. If she had to guess the kid was either 17 or 18 years of age. Reyn reaches up and removes her glasses, but firmly keeps her eyes closed until she puts her glasses away. Reyn didn’t need glasses to see, but rather she used them to blur her surroundings. Seeing too many details at a time could prove quite distracting.
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Taking a deep breath Reyn opens her eyes for a closer look. Every detail zooms into focus as time itself seems to slow down as Reyn sees the boy breath in and out in slow motion. The internal energy pathways had been cruelly destroyed including his energy core which had been ruthlessly crushed in his lower abdomen.
Reyn frowns as she studies the major damage to the boy’s body itself which included broken bones, severe damage to internal organs and intensive internal bleeding. Even if she picked him up, there was no guaranteed that the kid would survive the night.
Demons weren’t known for being healers and though Reyn could heal herself that particular skill did not apply very well to others. Reyn thoughtfully pauses and feels an instinct telling her to try. Reyn’s eyes glow with a crimson light as she stares at the dying boy. “Do you wish to live?” Reyn asked in a frigid voice capable of freezing one’s very blood.
The dying kid blinks slowly as a gleam of life and hatred can be seen in their murky blue depths. “Yes,” the kid barely chocked out.
“Are you certain? For the price to pay is your absolute loyalty to your Demon King for the rest of your miserable existence. Is your hatred and will for vengeance that great that you are willing to undertake the rash consequences of accepting my terms and conditions?” Reyn coldly asked.
The kid pauses for a moment as hatred fills his eyes and unborn fury. “Yes!” The kid hissed with a bitter fury.
Reyn reaches into her core and pulls out a tiny glowing seed in her hand, it was a tiny World Tree seed. If cultivated properly, a World Tree could grow and allow one once more to absorb mana. Taking a risk, Reyn’s hand becomes translucent as she reaches into the boy’s chest and plants the World Tree, therein. Unlike, humans who cultivated in the area just below their heart in their abdomen area, Demons absorbed mana directly into their hearts and chest cavity.
With care, Reyn picks the kid up in her arms in a princess style carry. Pressing her feet into the ground for a second, Reyn instantly vanishes from the alley without a single trace. Moments, later, Reyn appears on the outside balcony area of her apartment. One-handed she opens the balcony sliding door and closes it behind her.
Not even bothering to dress the kid’s wounds, Reyn carefully sets him on a couch with a blanket underneath and over him. If the kid survived the night, that would mean the seed had taken root. And if not, she would just have to dispose of his corpse tomorrow.
And with that in mind, Reyn calmly went to bed with absolute certainty, everything would be fine in the morning. Demons were rather pragmatic that way. (And it was times like these that Reyn’s Demon King’s callous personality characteristics manifested themselves.) However, just in case, Reyn did put a ward around the building to hide the kid’s presence should anyone come looking for him. Once could never afford to be too careful after all.