Ark was wandering through the forest far away from the mountain, and rather near to the capital, he limped as he walked, it’s been a while since he got into that fight by the mountain, he wasn’t able to get his wounds healed up.
Ark placed a palm on the web-bandage covered stab-wound in his abdomen causing a sharp pain to shoot up his body, if he had eaten anything he would have thrown it up by now, the bandage itself didn’t absorb any of the black blood making it look clean, so Ark never changed it.
Eventually, Ark stumbled by a cave, it had hanging leaves and hay at its mouth, he walked inside noticing a sleeping bag, he walked over to it laying down on his back and breathing deeply, He hasn’t slept for days now…
“Excuse me, are you hurt?” a woman’s voice asked causing Ark to sit up violently only to feel crippling pain from his wound.
“Relax, just lay down!” the woman said in a panicked voice, she rushed over to him, placing a palm over his head.
“If…you try…anything…” Ark tried to sound threatening.
“Don’t go to sleep!” she cried feeling how cold he was, “You won’t wake up,” she added.
“Don’t…underestimate…my stubbornness..” Ark replied.
“I’ll take care of the wounds for you, you’ll make it out alright, I promise!” the white-haired woman promised gently peeling the web-bandage away, whether Ark chose not to or was too weak to stop her is a mystery.
“Did you change these?” she asked.
Ark remained silent.
She rushed over to the corner of the cave bringing out a bucked of water, in it was a rag, she gently drizzled the water onto the wound washing the dried, slimy blood away.
“I’m going to cast healing magic on you now.” She announced quietly before putting her hands an inch above his stab-wound and closing her eyes, a pale green light appeared in her hands, small drops of light, like snowflakes of pure healing, fell onto his skin.
“This will help with the blood poisoning and the pain, but you’ll have to say here for at least two days, alright?” she explained to Ark.
Ark, while still awake was staring off into the roof of the cave.
His consciousness seemingly fading in and out, he suddenly felt something hot on his head, he didn’t have the strength to sit up, “It’s just a cloth soaked in warm water.” the woman explained.
At that point, he could no longer keep his eyes open and drifted away into a deep slumber, when he eventually opened his eyes he was met with a white-haired man.
“Yo.” the man said with a smirk.
“Where am I?” Ark asked looking around.
“Just some cave, you collapsed and an ever-so-kind woman helped heal you up.” the white-haired man explained.
“...where is she?” Ark asked.
“Why you don’t seem like the kind of person to be concerned about her safety?” the white-haired man asked.
“Just answer the question…before I…” Ark struggled to stand up but was unable to move still.
“Before you what?” the white-haired man taunted.
Ark summoned his spider legs, thicker than before and longer, they picked him up, with Ark only hanging loosely,
“Well, this is a surprise.” the white-haired man laughed.
“So you’re a demon,” he added.
“Screw you!” Ark cried before launching two of his legs like spears towards him, with a single swift movement the man grabbed both of them and snapped them off, the bits he broke off turning to smoke, instantly he shot out another leg and as the white-haired man turned to break it off he didn’t notice the web tied around his legs which Ark pulled on making the man fall to the ground.
Despite the fall the man didn’t react much, “How rude, let me tell you who you just dared to push to the floor.” the man said in a threatening voice.
“I don’t give a shit…” Ark exclaimed - a grin spread across his face as he tied his arms and legs with that same web, “I guess I can take my time interrogating you…” Ark said unable to hide his excitement as he moved his remaining legs towards the man’s torso.
The man stood back up snapping the webs around his arms and knees, Ark spits some of his venomous spit at the man who blocked ever drop with his arm, a grin spread across Ark’s face, but it immediately disappeared after Abeyth simply tore his venom covered arm off tossing it aside.
“My name is Abeyth.” the mas announced, seemingly waiting for some sort of reaction, “Well, since we’re getting introduced, then I’ll let you know my name is Ark,” Ark said his tone fluctuating in pitch as excitement grew too big and he plunged his spider legs into the man’s torso.
He shot a long stream of webs covering Abeyth’s entire body except for the head.
The legs dug deep, but Abeyth didn’t react at all, “Hey…you are a demon, right?” Abeyth asked uncertainly.
“Me? Nah… I just have a soul or two more than I should.” Ark exclaimed filling the man with more holes, he didn’t react.
After a while the tired up man sat up, snapping the webs and beginning to laugh, “I see, sorry, sorry, I thought you’re a demon.” the man explained patting his clothes clean, with his two hands.
“Who the hell are you?” Ark demanded when he saw the man laugh despite being filled with holes.
“That’s right, I told you my name because I assumed you’d recognise me, Abeyth, but turns out you’re still mostly human.” Abeyth laughed.
“So are you some sort of demon?” Ark asked, not hiding his spider legs yet.
“Define 'demon'…” Abeyth said looking over to Ark.
“You know what a demon is! Stop playing dumb.” Ark commanded.
Abeyth sighed, “Damn, you’re no fun…”, “Yes, I am a demon technically, although for one reason or another I’m looking for a way to get rid of to other demons and the one creating them,” Abeyth explained.
Ark moved back to the bed not taking his eyes off the man, “What a coincidence…so am I…” Ark said, seemingly the adrenaline wore off and his mobility yet again, disappeared.
“Interesting… and by the way, that woman who healed you up, that’s me.” Abeyth explained.
“...you don’t look like a chick…” Ark said looking at the man again,
“Her and I have a deal, I’m borrowing this body during the night and she gets it back for the day!” Abeyth elaborated.
“Wait…so you are a demon?” Ark asked.
“That’s such a broad term,” Abeyth sighed, “A demon is just a name invented by you cycle souls to call us outcasts, we were thrown out of the cycle for various crimes, that said you calling me a demon is like you calling a lion a fly because they are both animals.” Abeyth lectured Ark,
“So, you’re off hunting other demons?” Ark asked.
“That’s right, all they want to do is go around destroying this world, to be fair by now they have been…marinating in each other’s hatred, envy and so on for aeons..” Abeyth explained.
“Then why aren’t you like that?” Ark asked.
“...I never said I wasn’t.” Abeyth replied, “Regardless of how it looks, we are still cast out for crimes beyond your understanding, I don’t seek the destruction of this world, or to take pleasure from the suffering of innocents, but I’m no good guy.” Abeyth said as a sinister grin spread across his face.
“Well, isn’t that convenient, I guess we have some things in common…” Ark scoffed.
“So, you said your name is Ark?” Abeyth asked awaiting confirmation.
“Yeah, what about it?” Are replied.
“Why don’t you join me, the girl isn’t much of a fighter so I can’t stray far from this cave, since if she was to be attacked during the day I’d be helpless, if you were to tag along, you could repay her for saving your life and you could kill some demons while you’re at it,” Abeyth suggested.
“Tsk, I never asked for help,” Ark complained,
“Yeah, she’s weird like that. I don’t get it…” Abeyth sighed, “But that’s why I’m here.” he added.
“Fine, whatever.” Ark relented.
“Great, in that case, how about I help you out with your soul configuration first?” Abeyth suggested,
Ark’s eyes widened with interest, “What do you mean, soul configuration?” he asked.
“I see…alright, I’ll explain how this soul business works.” Abeyth announced, sitting down and drawing diagrams into some dust on the ground.
“Your soul is like a never-ending battery, it’s used to keep your body working, there are millions of world, each one with endless souls however because of some cosmic laws most people forget their previous lives,” Abeyth explained.
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“Basically, in your body you can only have one-hundred per cent soul power in control, for example, in your case I think you have two…or three souls, that means you have three-hundred per cent soul power, only one hundred of which is in use, by changing which souls are used in what amounts you can maximize your power and remain conscious while using said power.” Abeyth elaborated.
“Fine, but if you try to mess me up, I’ll kick your ass for real,” Ark warned.
Abeyth just smiled before planting a hand on Ark’s forehead before he began casting the spell.
“Your original soul has been depleted to sixty per cent, the spider demon soul is at one-hundred, there is a weird sub soul next to the spider one, it’s about forty per cent, I think I see a…there is an empty soul…it’s at one-hundred…weird…” Abeyth said looking at the souls.
“For the sake of remaining human, you shouldn’t go under fifty per cent of your original soul, so let’s set it to fifty-fifty with original a demon soul, for some reason about one-third of your total soul power in use was the blank one.” Abeyth laughed.
“All done,” Abeyth announced stepping away from Ark.
“I don’t feel any different…” Ark replied summoning and dismissing his spider legs, the bits Abeyth broke off were back to normal.
”It’s not a massive difference, but you’ll be visibly stronger in combat,” Abeyth explained.
“...Could I change these myself?” Ark asked,
“In theory, yeah. But it’s kinda risky.” Abeyth shrugged.
“Whatever…so do you have a plan or something? Or are we just going to sit around in the woods hoping the enemy appears?” Ark asked sarcastically.
“Of course we have a plan! It just so happen I that the certain someone who is summoning the demons decided to start up a country.” Abeyth explained.
“I see…and I assume that’s where we’re heading?” Ark asked.
“Right, you and the girl can get going as soon as the sun rises, I won’t be able to appear until the sun sets, so if there is some big problem, just try to wait it out,” Abeyth suggested.
“Do you know the person doing all this?” Ark asked after a while so silence.
Abeyth let out a sigh, “Asking personal questions already?” he laughed, “No, not personally, but he did screw me over before, and I’m one vengeful son of a bitch…” Abeyth said with a sadistic grin.
The sound of chirping birds warned Abeyth about the coming sunlight, “Well, I’m out.” he said before sitting own, a variety of cracking and snapping sounds later Abeyth’s body now looked like the girl, or was it her body previously looked like Abeyth…
The girl looked around, “Oh…it’s morning already…” she said, her eyes widened slightly as she looked over to Ark relieved to see that he was still alive.
“Thank goodness, you’re alright,” she said looking genuinely relieved.
“Tsk, you could have warned me that you’re half-demon…” Ark hissed.
“S-sorry about that, I was busy…with your wounds…“ she looked over to Ark seeing that his wound was already open and leaking.
“What happened?!” she asked rushing over and applying healing magic to help the blood cloth.
“Forget about it, I made a deal with your demon-boyfriend, we’re meant to head to the demon creator’s country or something,” Ark explained.
The girl blushed at the boyfriend comment but exclaimed: “You can’t go like this, you’re wounded!”
“Don’t worry about me, I’ve been through worse…” he sighed before putting his palm over the wound, filling it with his webs.
“So do you know where to go?” he asked,
“Y-yeah, but are you sure-?” she was cut off by Ark, “Let’s go then…” he commanded.
The girl tried to protest but Ark just walked out into the morning sun which stung his eyes, but overall he felt better.
“Alright, just give me a minute, I’ll get changed!” the girl said frantically as she rushed over to the mouth of the cave pulling the grass down like blinds.
They walked for what seemed like hours in the blistering heat, “It’s so hot…” the white-haired girl complained, Ark found out her name was Sarah.
“Well, you should have taken some water before you left the cave!” Ark complained.
“But water is heavy…” Sarah said in an exhausted tone,
“Whatever, let’s hope there’s a stream nearby…” Ark scoffed picking up the pace, upon seeing this Sarah collapsed to the floor, “Go on without me…” he said in a dramatic voice waving Ark away.
“Damn, you really must be exhausted to be sleeping on an ant’s nest.” Ark said looking over to the girl who recoiled at the idea of laying on an ant’s nest before looking around frantically, “You tricked me!” she complained pouting.
“You were trying to trick me…let’s keep going. If you have the strength to jump around you have the strength to walk.” Ark barked before continuing walking, albeit slightly slower than before.
After Sarah caught up to Ark a while of silence passed.
“Hey Ark-” the girl began but was cut off.
“No,” Ark replied.
“Ah! You don’t even know what I was going to ask!” Sarah complained.
“I still won’t do it,” Ark replied.
“Just five minutes!” Sarah pleaded.
Ark stopped, “No, I’m not carrying you, walk by yourself like an adult!” Ark yelled before turning away and staying silent for the next twenty minutes or so.
“Hey, hey Ark!” Sarah was almost screaming in his ear at this point, “WHAT!?” Ark cried.
“I’m sorry!” Sarah said apologetically.
“Then just stay quiet!” Ark pleaded.
Eventually, Ark reached a bridge, it was a large wooden bridge going over a deep overgrown hole with a shallow stream at the bottom, on the other side of the bridge sat a group of men by a fire, they haven’t noticed Ark yet.
Sarah and Ark made their way across the bridge, halfway through they were approached by the men from the other side, “Hey, what brings you, kids, out here?” one of the men asked.
“W-we’re just passing through!” Sarah explained.
“Well, if that’s the case, we’d hate to be in the way.” the man said stepping aside letting Ark and Sarah cross the bridge and continue on their way through the forest.
After a few minutes of walking Sarah breath a sigh of relief, “I was worried there for a second…” she said looking back to make sure nobody was following them.
“Don’t relax just yet, you don’t actually the thing they just sit there for nothing, do you?” Ark asked.
“Wait, you mean they’re following us?!” Sarah turned back looking around.
“They’re most likely in the woods,” Ark explained, after hearing this Sarah ran up to Ark sticking close to him.
“There’s no way they’d keep up with us while staying off the road, it’s either a separate party, mages or worst case scenario assassins.” Ark shrugged.
A sudden whistling sound came from the woods, when Sarah turned to see what the source of the sound was she saw a blade flying towards her, just before stabbing into her it changed trajectory landing on the floor, she turned to look at the blade seeing it had a thin we attached,
“You’ve lost the element of surprise, come out and fight us properly!” Ark demanded.
After receiving no response Ark wandered around the area, he walked in a square around where Sarah stood still in shock after almost being stabbed.
Eventually, Ark returned to Sarah where he sat down on the ground, “Well, guess I’m staying here until they come out…” Ark proclaimed gesturing Sarah to sit down as well.
A while later a group of ten people stepped out of the woods and towards Ark. Judging by the clothes they were assassins, they wore cloaks and had long collars and hood, both men and women.
“Finally, I was worried you cowards would stay in the woods forever…” Ark sighed.
He stood up and carried Sarah a few meters away before returning, “We’re sorry, but we can’t spare the girl.” One of the assassins announced, it was impossible to tell if it was the leader or if they even had a leader.
For a second Ark froze up, he looked at them and thought about what he just heard, “Oh, I understand, you think I was trying to get her to run away!” Ark exclaimed, before starting to laugh.
“No, no, I’m sorry…that’s not it.” Ark raised one hand into the air, then jerked it down quickly before loosening up and cracking his knuckles, “Go ahead, try and kill her.” he said gesturing with his hands towards her, upon closer inspection he was holding a thin thread in his hands.
“You guys are just in time if I didn’t get a chance to kill something I’d go mad from listening to her.” Ark laughed.
“He’s gone man, either that or he thinks we’ll leave him alone if he was to go mad.” A female voice in the back said with a disappointed sigh before starting to walk over to Sarah.
“Ark!” she exclaimed.
“Just wait…” he said as a grin spread across his face.
As the assassin walked towards Sarah she suddenly bumped into something, it was like a wall, a wall made out of thousands of thin webs…
“We walled her off!” the assassin announced.
Ark was becoming irritated, “No, you don’t get it…” he announced, “I boxed all of you in with me” he said, he began moving towards the assassins and a few of the cloaked figures in the back began their retreat to the forest only to find out that they were in fact, walled in for real.
“Heh, neat trick, kid…but it’ll take more than that to take us down!” the man at the front cried as rushed towards Ark daggers drawn, he rushed over panting a solid punch to Ark’s face causing blood to ooze from his face.
“Hah! Not so tough now are you!?” the man laughed as the other assassins moved in to take Ark out quickly.
Ark drew one single spider leg, “Alright, I’ll give myself a handicap…go ahead…try and kill me…” Ark said, he was unable to contain his excitement any longer and rushed back at the man who punched him stabbing him in the arms and legs with inhuman speeds, to an average person it looked as if he was being shot with a cannon as massive holes erupted in the man’s body, when Ark stopped the man fell to the floor limply.
Ark looked up seeing three cloaked figures moving towards him, right before they slashed him with their blades he skewered their arms with his single spider leg before turning to the rest and displaying his rather lively hanging decorations.
“I’ll leave you three for later, alright?” Adam asked as he used the web to make a cocoon around the three before tossing them into the corner of the square arena.
“Four down…six to go!” he exclaimed before moving in, five stood in a defensive ‘c’ position, in Ark went in for the kill at least two of them should get a chance to stab him.
One was missing though, a female assassin was climbing over the wall of webs, with a single web Ark grabbed a hold of the woman pulling her over to his side, “Hello there, sweaty…it’s rude to run away from a fight you started…how would you like me to dice those legs of yours?” he threatened.
A voice came from the other assassins, “Leave her alone, she’s still in training, she’ll never wield a dagger again!” the voice cried,
“An assassin in training, eh?” Ark asked, he picked the girl up, patted her shoulders and gestured her back to the group, “Go ahead, you can go.” he explained pushing the girl towards the group.
As the girl met up with the group, she stood in front of them, “Go on, get out of here…there is gold at the hideout…enough for one person to lead a decent life…“ a rough masculine voice said.
A rogue standing near the backhanded the assassin in training a dagger, “I doubt I’ll need thin for long…” the woman said in a shaky voice.
The girl tearfully moved towards the back of the group and towards the wall which she intended to climb over.
“Just one more thing,” Ark said raising a finger in the air, the assassins saw that there was a web tired around his pinkie leading to the girl,
“Sorry to do the eye for an eye thing but remember what you told me?” Ark cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, but I can’t spare the girl.” he said a grin spreading across his face with every word before he pulled his pinkie back as a loud crack came from the girl’s neck, her head a rotated about one-eighty degrees too far back.
The sight caused one of the assassins to throw up into the blood-soaked road, the man who told her about the gold charged in first,
“HAVE YOU NO SOUL!?” he demanded landing a punch to Ark’s face, then another, and another, Ark stood perfectly still throughout the entire affair, “Are you done?” he asked stabbing his spider leg into his abdomen, despite this, the man continued his assault to Ark’s face.
“How rude…are you calling me ugly?” Ark faked offence before summoning two extra spider legs and tabbing them deep into the man’s eyes…so deep he died instantly…
“Tsk…overdid it…” Ark cursed before tossing the man aside, “Don’t worry though, I’ll make sure to savour our time together…” Ark said licking his lips as he took another step towards the remaining four assassins.
“Looks like at the very least we managed to push him to his limits!” one of the men said in a shaky albeit reassuring voice.
“Yeah…that’s something…” another laughed.
Upon hearing this Ark’s smile disappeared, it was replaced by a pitiful look, “I feel sorry for you, the fact is none of you imagined the possibility you’d die today…in fact, if you were fighting anyone else…you might have survived…” Ark’s sombre look faded away as the toothy grin returned before Ark summoned the three other legs, bringing him to his maximum of six.
“So then, would you rather be skinned alive, gutted or maybe- ” Ark’s tone rose in ecstasy until he reached a frantic pitch before being cut off, “Ark…” Sarah’s voice came from behind him, he looked back seeing her pressed up against the wall, tears streamed down her face and blood oozed from small cuts on her hands, she must have been trying to get through the wall for a while.
“STOP THIS!” she cried, the word echoed in Ark’s mind much like a foreign word that sound similar to the one you know.
“What-what do you mean?” Ark asked confused, a look of innocence and confusion on his blood-smeared face.
“Stop this…please…you’re acting…you's not acting like a human!” she cried slumping down to her knees still pressed against the web wall.
Ark was starting to feel dizzy, what did she mean by stop…was she on the enemy side?
Ark placed a hand on his head as a crippling headache spread across his entire head, after a while he stopped, and stood up straight, he turned towards Sarah, “Are you…on their side?” Ark asked plainly.
“NO! Of course not!” she replied frantically.
“THEN SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH!” he cried back, he turned to the remaining four, “You are my enemy…” he clenched his fists as he slowly took steps towards them, “You aren’t human…” he continued, “That’s right…you’re not human…would a human attack two helpless kids in the woods?” Ark was mumbling to himself.
“I’ll hold him off…try to dig under the webs!” the female assassin who gave her dagger way instructed as the other three assassins rushed over towards the web wall.
Ark’s mind was blurring, so was the world he saw, “Who are you people…you’re all going to die…but who are you?…” Ark’s speech was become slurred as he walked over to the female assassin who stood there in his way, arms wide open, no weapon.
Ark moved in close, very close, so close he was speaking softly directly into the woman’s ear, “who are you…” he asked, seeing that Ark was clearly delirious the woman took advantage of this to buy more time, “I-it’s me…you know me…”
“I…do…” he asked…”I can’t…I don’t…remember…” he continued,
“Try, thinking about who I am…go ahead.” he placed a reassuring hand onto Ark’s shoulder.
“...m-mom?” he asked uncertainly.
“Y-yes…that’s me…” she spoke slowly and softly, despite this her heart was racing.
“You’re here…you really…are here…you’re back…” tears stream down Ark’s face.
“That’s right, I’m here…” she replied as ark collapsed to his knees, “I’m sorry…I’m very sorry…” Ark spoke, “But I’m going to send you back now…” he said stabbing the six spider legs into the woman’s back, stabbing himself in the process.
“Wha-” the woman was struggling to speak because of the blood.
“Go tell dad…I’ll be coming soon…” Ark said through a tearful smile and he collapsed in the blood-earth mud.
That was when Ark lost consciousness, the spider legs still sticking out but standing sill.