Harthur arrived at the Rigers Estate. Dust and dirt started to accumulate and form on the white walls now. Grass and vines also started to grow and crawl out of the garden.

“There is no one here, Harthur.”

“I know. I just needed to confirm something. We’ll be quick.”

He walked around the mansion. At the back of the house, at the leftmost corner was a small hut. This was where all the gardening tools were kept. He entered the hut, there were only cabinets, a long wooden chair, and a small table inside. He looked under the chair and found a small wooden box. He opened the box and found a small piece of parchment with something written on it.

“Talon”

“Talon? He should have been more specific.”

“It's the White Talon Guild”, the horned beast said.

“Talon Guild? Where is that?” Harthur burned the parchment.

“Two days from here, South”

“Thank you. Let’s go,” Harthur said and then he went out of the hut.

“Wrong move going here,” a husky and mature voice from above said. A knight in full-plate decorated armor was standing at the roof of the mansion. He looked old, must be around sixty years but with a clean look, no beard or mustache. Two hilts were crisscrossed on his back and an image of a golden-horned turtle was drawn on his shawl.

“It's the Great Knight Adrian! No, this is bad! His weapon is specialized in dealing with shields!”

The Great Knight jumped down to the ground in front of Harthur. His power shook the ground and when he stood straight, the young man in front of him was only at the level of his chest.

Harthur froze.

“Move human!”

“Sorry kid, but you know too much now,” the Knight held both of his weapon and slashed forward.

Harthur was able to evade at the last second by jumping to the left. The leather on his right shoulder was destroyed and his arm was grazed by the air around the attack. If he wasn’t able to deploy his shield, his arm might have been destroyed.

“Thank you for getting my attention!”

“That’s not your shield. And that beast? Where is it?” The Knight faced him again holding two axes with hooks on the lower part of the blade.

“We have to run human! You can’t use spirit properly yet! You will die!”

“They are both mine now,” Hurthur said walking backwards.

“No, they are the King’s property and I will take it back.”

The knight disappeared and Harhur covered himself with his shield. Immediately, the axe hit his shield but it slid upwards and hooked his shield on the edge.

“No!”

The Knight pulled his shield down as he used the other axe to slash Harthur’s head. A loud sound of crashing force echoed at the mansion. Harthur was able to block the other axe attack with his knife using his left hand.

“You have good reflexes kid! Karnold taught you well” the old knight pushed down his axe closer to Harthur’s face.

“I can’t move! He got both my hands occupied!”

“I will protect you with my spirit human! His attacks are too strong for you to handle alone!”

“But let me see if you’re prepared for this!” The knight's weapon glowed white and it spun forward like a wheel.

Blood gushed out of Harthur’s face as he let himself fall to the ground to avoid the spinning blade of the axe. Harthur rolled away and the Knight followed him swinging the spinning axe.

“Human! Create a few steps distance and I will take you away here!”

“I’m trying!”

While still rolling, Harthur snapped his shield and deflected the spinning axe by quickly bashing it and pulling away. The hit produced white and blue sparks that sent a small shockwave around the two. The knight's arms were pushed upwards by the force giving time for Harthur to stand up and jump away.

“Let’s go human!”

The beast appeared and carried Harthur on its back.

“Hmm... so there's the beast. I’m too old to run after that!” the knight said. “Right, Sir Shane?”

Another knight came out of the mansion holding a man who looked almost dying. His whole face swollen and bloodied. He was trying to open his eyes.

“Forgive me, young master.” he said.

###

“What the hell is this?” Magnum whispered.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The stairs lit up as he walked down to it. Armor, skulls and weapons lay around every step. Bones cracked under his boots as he navigated through the busy path. An archway was at the end of the stairs and the room behind it was bright.

“Be ready,” Tanna said.

They stood at each side of the archway. They tried to hear if something was at the other side but it was a complete silence.

“Hey demon! If this is a trap! I will kill you!”

“There’s no trap stupid human! Just enter the room! And find me!”

Magnum peeped and saw no one. He looked back at Tanna and she didn’t approve of what he did. The room was bright indeed. He looked inside again and this time he entered. A source of white light was at the ceiling, a sphere. The hall led to a corridor that had several rooms and each room has an archway. Magnum checked all the rooms one by one. All the others have nothing inside except for one, who has a black sphere on a pedestal. He walked inside and Tanna followed.

“Is that… a black egg?” she said, “Is that what we’re looking for?”

They both looked closer at the egg.

“I think so…” He said.

“Human! before you touch the sphere. Answer this!”

“Do you offer your soul to me?”

“What?”

“Answer me! Do you offer your soul to me!”

Magnum looked up and took a deep breath, “Yes”.

“Say it aloud!”

“Yes! I offer my soul to you!”

“Oh shit!” Tanna was shocked by what he said.

The demon laughed in Magnum’s head. A maniacal laugh.

“Do it! Touch the sphere!” the demon commanded.

He touched the sphere and It lit up with red light. Magnum started to feel weak. He fainted and fell to the floor.

“Oh no! Hey! You alright?” Tanna picked up Magnum and started shaking him.

###

“Hey stop! licking me!” Tanna said, sitting down beside Magnum.

“I’m not licking!” Magnum said as he woke up. He saw a dog wagging its short tail in front of Tanna.

The dog looked back at him with its three heads. All six eyes of it glowed with a deep red color. Each head has a single small horn. The head on the right was looking away, the head on the middle sported a demonic smile while looking straight at his eyes while the head on the left wasn’t smiling at all but just had its tongue out while also looking at him.

“Good work human! I am finally free!” it spoke on his mind.

Magnum stood up and looked around. “You are the demon?” he picked up the dog and put it up to his face.

“Yes, Human. I am the demon!”

“What in the world is this?” he said.

“Give him to me!” Tanna said as she took away the puppy from Magnum. “And why are you glaring at him! Look! He’s afraid of you! What a cute dog! You’re mine now!” she said.

Magnum pulled her by the shoulder, “Don’t trust that thing! That’s a demon!” he said.

“Is it?” Tanna said. She looked at the dog closely.

Magnum also looked. Its hair was pure black. Its nail, teeth and skin was also black.

“I don’t think it's a demon. Are you a demon? A demon cutie? Haha!” she said.

“Be serious! It has three heads!” Magnum said while touching his gunblade.

“Don’t worry. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a black beast like this. I saw a few on the Merc Town when I was a kid. Let’s ask my father? He knows this stuff.” Tanna said while hugging the dog.

“There are more of this?” He pointed to the puppy, “Who’s your father?”

“He’s a researcher. Don’t worry he won’t hurt you!”

“Huhmm, okay. I think we can get out of here now,” Magnum said.

“Great, let’s go back!” She stood up carrying the dog, “You’re so light!”

“Arf Arf!”

“Don’t you arf arf me! You fucking demon! You tricked me! I barely feel anything new. Where’s my power?”

Tanna started walking to the archway and Magnum followed. She was carrying the dog like a baby and the dog liked it.

“Hey demon! Stop pretending you didn’t hear me! Where’s my power!”

“We didn't! We didn’t trick you!” a different voice came into his mind. “We-we-we can give you power! But not now! Hehehe!

“Shut up! I do the talking!” This voice was the voice he had been talking to in the past days.

“Who’s that!” Magnum said.

“Me! me! The head on your right! The cute one! Hehe!”

“What do you mean not now?” he said.

“Human, we just took some spirit from you so we can’t give you power now. Or else we’ll die.”

“I don’t care which of you is speaking now! You’re all confusing me! But I won’t hesitate to end this pact now!”

“Hmmm, Just let us eat first. We’ve been caged for thousands of years.” another different voice.

“You’re the head on my left, right?” Magnum asked.

“Hmmm… Yes”

“Why don’t you just tell me your names now?”

“Human, you’re not worthy of our names yet”

“Ah shit! Then you’re Askel! The one who kept on stuttering is Bunta and the smart sounding one is Carzi! Okay?”

“Smartest one? I am the smartest here! Human!”

“No Askel, you’re not! But why do you need to eat? You’re demons!”

“To be, to be stronger! Hehehe! Yes, Yes! Feed us and as we become stronger. You also become stronger.”

“Makes sense, what do you eat?”

“Demons demons demons! Hehehe!”

“So you want me to kill demon’s for you? I think there are many outside the ruins.”

“Yes yes yes! Then we’ll eat the core!”

“You’re talking too much Bunta! Didn’t I say, I do the talking?” Askel said.

“I’m hungry! Then we can share our power with you.”

“Okay, let’s go out!”

###

As the two walked out of the temple, they heard someone crying for help. They looked around and saw a man dressed in leather armor running away from the other side of the ruins.

“Help!” the man was crawling and was heavily wounded “Help!” he cried again.

“Human, I felt something quickly ran away from here. It's not a human.”

“Yes, yes! Hehe! Not a human! But it looked like a human! I felt it.”

Magnum and Tanna ran to the man. His clothes were full of blood, “What happened?” Magnum said.

“They got it!” the man said.

“What? Got what?”

“It's the Hell Gu… Gu!” the man collapsed on Magnum’s arms.

He placed his ears on his chest, “He’s still alive! But his heartbeat is so weak, do you know any healing spells?”

“No, but I can clean his wounds and apply some oils.” she said and started rummaging at the small bag on her waist.

“We can heal him! We can!” Bunta said.

“You and your big mouth. No, just let him die. He’s almost dead already!” Askel said.

“Heal him! Bunta!” Magnum commanded.

“I will will! But at the cost of your spirit!

“Don't abuse this human. We can only mend wounds and were not good at it.” Askel said.

“I'll remember it”

The puppy sat in front of the man. Magnum put his ears on the man’s chest again and started to hear his heartbeat better.

Tanna started looking at the man’s wounds. Her kit was spread on a piece of thin cloth on the sand.

Magnum stood up and started to feel a bit dizzy.

“Hey, are okay?” Tanna said. She saw Magnum's head fall for a second as if he almost fainted.

“Yes, I'm okay. But stay here and watch him. I know this guy’s face. He was with the group that I saw in the Inn. I’ll check the area if there are survivors.” he said.

“No! It's dangerous!” she said.

Magnum ran following the trail the man came from. He found the party but everyone was already dead.

“A human did this,” he said looking at the wounds inflicted by a blade.

He looked around, trying to find clues on who was the culprit. There were five bodies and all of them were from the Inn. He went back to Tanna.

“He was saying something, Hell Gu?” he said.

“Hell Guild, It's a mercenary group. I don’t know why they came here but usually they are trouble. We have to go back now. The Master needs to know this," she said.