The demon sauntered toward Pheera like an apex predator. “I wonder what the heart of a vanquisher tastes like. I want a taste.”

Narvari tightened her fists. The demon was not bluffing, she was certain of it. She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit back like a coward and watch everyone die. That was not her. She was not one to back down from a fight no matter how impossible it was to win.

She could not let the wraith lord kill the demon hunters. They were the only thing standing between the demon and Sharmandi’s safety. If those three died, so would everyone else. Narvari could not let that happen. There was only one thing left to do.

“Wait.” Narvari’s voice shook. She crawled from behind her hiding place.

She gulped as the demon’s red eyes bore into her. What the hell was she doing? This was a terrible idea. There was no way she could fight that demon. Narvari could not remember the last time she had been this afraid in her life. The fear overpowered her so much that she wished the ground would simply open up and swallow her whole.

But could she just sit back and let this happen? She could not. She would not. Narvari painfully dragged herself towards the demon. Now she was the only thing standing between Pheera and the wraith lord.

“There she is. Little Shar.” His eyes narrowed in disdain. “I thought you ran like a coward.”

“I don’t know who you are.” Narvari forced the fear out of her voice. “But it seems you want me to leave them alone. Leave Sharmandi alone and I’ll come with you. Please.”

“Hey, stand back. It’s not safe.” Azmel’s voice came from behind her. She ignored him, her eyes fixated on the demon instead.

The demon chuckled. “How noble, Little Shar. But it is such foolishness to assume I want you alive. All I want is to hear you scream in pain as you beg me to end your life. That is the will of my master. My master gets what he wants.”

“Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to your master, huh? What did Sharmandi ever do to you?”

“You know what, you’re all about to die anyway so I’ll indulge you. Master Stein doesn’t give a damn about Sharmandi. What he wants are the four-tusks elephants. But you people defied him.” He shrugged. “So now you’re all going to pay with your worthless lives.”

Narvari’s heart raced. She gaped at the demon in shock. Bazwu? What did the four-tusk elephants have to do with this? What was going on?

Suddenly Narvari recalled Tsalaga’s warning. Was this what Tsalaga meant when he said the man after the bazwu was dangerous? But this was no man. This was a whole demon.

Wait. Was her nation in peril because of the bazwu? Had her grandmother and best friend lost their lives because some bastard wanted their bazwu for himself? Narvari’s balled fists trembled even more violently than before. The fear slowly evaporated from her body. In its place came something else. It clawed out from the deepest part of her core and consumed her like wildfire. It was murderous rage and it incinerated her fear into ash. All Narvari wanted to do was tear this demon and the master who sent him from limb to limb.

“I’m going to kill you, demon.”

The demon roared in laughter. “That’s the spirit, Little Shar. Give in to the rage and come to me. Let’s see how long you can last my torture.”

The demon drank something and bellowed in euphoria.

Even when a small part of Narvari’s brain cautioned her that this was the same blue liquid boosting the demon’s power, she still didn’t care. All she wanted was blood. In sheer rage, she ran towards the wraith lord.

“No. Don’t.” It was Pheera. “You’re going to die.”

She didn’t care about that. She cared about one thing only. She would thrash this demon into oblivion. She may not have a special means of killing demons but she could fight. And that was exactly what she was going to do. This demon would wish he had never been born.

Narvari had been fighting battles all her life. But never had she fought one this fierce. One fueled by love and hate. One where she did not care about life or death. One where nothing else mattered but simply eradicating the evil from existence. Even when the demon grabbed Narvari by the throat and hurled her to the ground violently. Her body never stopped. She soon found her way back up, charging at the wraith lord with the rage of a bull.

Again. And again. And again.

She would not stop until she was dead. The body of the demon was like steel to her fists, and soon, her knuckles were nothing but blood and blisters.

Even then, she still did not care. The pain festering in her heart was worse than the blade of mere steel.

The demon rained a powerful palm kick on Narvari’s chest. She was sure she had heard the crack of her ribs. She coughed, and a fountain of blood spurted from her mouth. The world seemed to be in a blur, as though reality itself was warping around her. The metallic taste of blood in her mouth told her that she was still alive.

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No matter how much she bled, she did not care. The blood she spilled was nothing compared to the blood and cries of her people.

With the difference in their strength, the wraith lord could easily kill her with a single slap. But it was clear the demon was taking his sweet time to punish her. Still, Narvari did not care about that either.

All she cared about right now, all that clouded her mind, was revenge. She panted heavily, glaring murderously at the demon.

“I see you’re more resilient than I thought,” said the demon. “Maybe it’s time to see what my new power can do.”

The demon released a blast of black energy toward Narvari. She tried to dodge out of the way, but her aching body simply made her too slow. The demon’s energy consumed her like black flames. Narvari gritted her teeth and screamed. Nothing in the world could have prepared her for this agony. The searing heat on her skin as the energy ate her alive felt like she had been soaked in petrol and set ablaze. She thrashed wildly on the ground as something like thick black veins crawled all over her body squeezing the life out of her.

“That’s it, Little Shar.” The demon cackled in frenzy. “Do you feel that slowly breaking you apart from within? Yes, that’s my demon energy. You pathetic humans cannot withstand possession of any kind, least of all, demon energy. Now you’re going to die most painfully.”

She felt her sanity slowly leaving her. Her head burned, and all she wanted was to crack it open, to stop the pain. She crouched to her knees, hitting her head violently on the ground in rapid succession. Even the pain she felt as she hit her head against the stone pavement was nothing compared to the pain consuming her entire body. Blood gushed out all over her face. It needed to stop. The pain needed to stop.

“You will experience pain like you’ve never experienced in your life,” the demon continued his monologue. “It will destroy you from the inside until nothing is left. Then you will die, Little Shar. Because you are nothing. You w…”

The voice of the demon grew distant in Narvari’s ears. All her senses were centered on nothing but the anguish scraping her skin. She couldn’t hear or see anything. The burning sensation in her head did nothing but increase. She was lost in an abyss of darkness from which she longed to escape. Whispers filled her head. They were like the howling of the wind. But soon, the whispers took the shape and form of actual words. It transformed from the howling of the wind to the rushing of many waters.

Louder and clearer became the voice.

“Ushama.” It was the voice of a little boy. “Say it. Say my name. Ushama, Ushama, say it.” The childish voice echoed continuously in Narvari’s head. It was relentless and full of desperation. “Say my name. Ushama. Say it. Say it now. Ushama. Ushama. Say it. Say my name. Ushama.”

“Stop,” Narvari found her voice and shouted. She held her head as it throbbed painfully. She shook like a snake dying in a fire. “Please stop. Please.”

“Just say my name. Ushama. Say it now.”

What was this? What was going on? Tears mixed with blood flooded her face. Who was Ushama? What was Ushama?

“Say my name and you will know.”

Narvari gritted her teeth, burying her face in the ground. She must have gone insane. “Ushama,” she whispered.

Like a burst dam breaking through walls, something reverberated within her body, threatening to tear her apart. But it was only for a mere second and everything went still.

The agony razing her body withered into nothingness as if she had never experienced pain a day in her life. A dead calm, the likes of which she had never felt before, settled over her entire being. It was like she was living outside her own body.

But while the pain was gone and the voice in her head was no more, one thing remained. Her rage scorched her like the sun and she could not wait to release the heat. Lifting her head, she glowered at the demon.

“Ah,” the demon muttered with wide eyes. Narvari smelt the fear in his voice.

She slowly got to her feet. She narrowed her eyes upon seeing the strange black and red aura emanating from her arms. But it wasn’t just her upper limbs. The misty energy surrounded her torso and legs. She had no idea what was happening, but she instinctively knew what to do.

She sauntered towards the demon. Something cold and hard materialized in both hands. Narvari glanced at her hands only to see that the energy around her body had disappeared. In its place instead were a pair of identical black and red revolvers with thick rectangular barrels. On any other day, she might have questioned the sheer insanity behind this. But now, she was in no such frame of mind to care about magic guns. There was only one thing on her mind. And as she got closer to the demon, that one thing was all she cared about.

The demon stumbled in retreat, his dark gray face warping in horror. The demon’s fear nourished Narvari like the sun would a plant.

“No, no, please. I… no,” His voice trembled. “Please forgive me. I… I merely followed orders. I was nothing but a pawn. Please.”

The demon fell to his knees, bowing to Narvari. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. If I did, I would have killed Stein myself. Forgive me. It was the Stein. It was him. Forgive me. I was merely doing his bidding for power. But I swear this was not my doing. Forgive me.”

Forgive? Narvari cocked her head, staring at the demon in confusion. Forgive? What does it mean? And why does he keep asking for it?

Narvari pointed her guns at the demon and spoke out in a voice she didn’t quite recognize.

“Did you really think I would let you get away with all this?” It was still her voice, but it had a depth of coldness and malice she was not used to. “You attacked my town. You killed my family. Who knows how many more people your demons have killed? Yet, you grovel before me shamelessly asking for my forgiveness. You must take me for a fool, demon.”

“No, no, never. Please. I will never. Your Ma-”

Black and red fiery energy blasted from her guns and consumed the wraith lord as soon as Narvari pressed the triggers of her guns. The demon roared, writhing on the ground like a dying banshee. In mere seconds, the ravenous flames consumed the demon leaving nothing but specks of ash. The ash even disintegrated into nothingness.

But even as the demon was gone, the rage in her heart grew bigger than ever. Narvari clenched her jaws.

Stein. I will kill you.

But just as she was about to run off into the night to find this demon named Stein, Narvari’s legs wobbled. It seemed like the strength in her body had been donated to someone else. She lost her balance and slumped to the ground. Not even a single muscle in her body could move. With her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, the last thing she saw was the lone moon in the starless skies of her homeland.