Maybe a few hours away from Accursed forest of Verenta. Human army stopped in vast plain to take a break as they were marching for the entire night.

While majority of soldiers were sitting on the grass and resting, some were feeding the horses, few went on patrol or to scout the area and the rest needed to stand guard.

In the middle of this temporary resting place around one almost flat shaped boulder many torches were stuck in the ground. It gave little bit of light in this still dark night. On the boulder a map was placed with lord Serid and his three generals looking down on it.

‘We should detach at least a hundred man from our rear guard and give them rested horses to go inform these two towns and villages in their vicinity to start with evacuation.’

Sais Serid while pointing out to two towns that were close to the Accursed forest of Verenta on the map.

‘But my lord, if we do that the demon could see us coming and retreat further to the forest. If that happens our chance of killing it will be none.’

Sais general that stood in the middle. He was tall with a bulky build.

‘I agree with Brunth, we must lure him out of forest. Fighting demon in the forest is basically suicide and we can’t use our numerical advantage.’

On Brunth’s right, about three times smaller than him is a dwarf. With a bushy beard that got to his ankles and many scars on his face. Maybe because he was ugly, he always looked mean.

‘But, what about people!’

Next to Serid, the youngest one out of four of them. He wasn’t even 30 yet, while having short beard and messed up hair.

‘Serid, I mean my lord! We can’t abandon them!’

‘Fes, I know from were you came from. But we can’t risk lives of many by saving few. You just became a general, so you need to follow our lead. This isn’t one of those skirmishes that you are used to. This is full out war.’

‘I understand that Russ, but...’

‘Enough! Brunth, start to evacuate the people. And make sure to make as much noise that you can.’

‘My lord! What if he goes deeper into the forest?!’

‘That is what I hope for. Enemy that we are facing is strong and I don’t know how much power he has in his weaken form. What we found in old records is that their home is believed to be in deepest part of the forest. After the Great purge their was almost no sign of them again, if we don’t count what happened little less than millennium ago.’

‘SO, ARE YOU HOPPING IT WOULD RUN AWAY’

Little Russ’s face turned angry red as he stops speaking polite and starts to yell at Serid.

‘Russ, I would like for you to leave your personal grudges at home. My biggest concern is to bring these man that came to risk their life back home.’

‘I heard of your heroic tales from when I was a child. But didn’t except for you to be such a coward, viscount Serid de Elergar.’

‘WHO DARES TO SPEAK AGAINST SERID, I MEAN MY LORD’

Fes shouts as all four , with few guards around them turned towards the place where voice came from.

Under this dark night and with only couple of torches to light their way, a group of people were approaching. There was at least a dozen of full plate soldiers with high quality weapons. Leading them were a two knights with frightening aura surrounding them.

In the middle of this impressive formation two horses are being pulled by young man who was 17 at best. He was full of scars and bruises, like he was treated worse than a slave. On the horses like privileged bitches that they are, two boys were riding them. They looked both same age, but younger then a bruised up horse shit in front of them. One was little taller than other, while at same time fatter. On the other hand, the second was shorter with a small rich person belly and he had much better and flashier clothes than first one.

‘HOW DARE A LOWLY COMMONER YELL AT OUR YOUNG LORD’

One of the knights start to yell

‘Do you know in front of who you are!! This here is second son of count Ludvin; he points at fatter one; and with him is third son of marquise Riverd, the lord of northern region!! If you don’t knell down and apologize I will take this as a treason and cut you down on place where you stand!!!’

‘But, I...’

As Fes tried to plead his case, Serid’s arm came like thunder putting poor general on the ground.

‘Your excellency, please forgive this foolish subordinate of mine. He didn’t mean you any harm.’

‘My lord, I...’

Suddenly Serid’s grip became stronger as Fes’es face kisses the ground.

‘Everyone knows how merciful young lord is. I will personally discipline him so that this doesn’t happen again.’

‘When viscount Serid sais it like that, how can this lord refuse. Man at ease, we are not here to butcher some dog.’

‘Then your lordship, may I known why have you greeted us with your presence?’

Young master smirks as he signals to one of the soldiers to come forward. Soldier was carrying a big scroll with marquise seal on it. He hands it over to knelling Serid, who with nervous look slowly opens it.

‘This is order from my father the marquise. He appointed me as acting general of this army and given me full control over it.’

At the sound of that Serid’s nervousness quickly turned to anger, as he gripped the parchment so hard like trying to rip it apart.

‘And as my first order as the acting general is to forbid any communication with the border towns.’

There could be seen many shocked faces amongst the crowd, but Serid’s face felt only a displeasure like he was expecting this.

‘You are to set ambush a mile away from mining town Galeshade, as it is closest and most likely place that it will go. And while is it distracted by feasting...’

Giant smirk formed on little brats face

‘We are going to destroy the town whole!’

Everyone around them became mortified without the ability to process what has been said. Serid on the other hand was filled with rage, but he kept it in. His face became red like he was going to blow up.

‘Haa haa haa, magnificent plan my lord!’

Fat one from count’s house starts to laugh.

‘I see that master Niel of house Ludvin knows what he is talking about, ha ha ha! Viscount Serid’s warm hospitality was a bit too much on this lord, so I say that we retire for the night.’

‘As you wish my lord’ sais knight that previously yelled.

Two lords and entire platoon of the soldiers that they brought with them, turned around and start to leave. As they were leaving young lord lifts his arm and sais

‘I hope that we do our best, commander Serid.’

As he said that the glass that was holding Serid’s rage cracks. Out of him a wave of red aura starts to gush out. Dwarf Russ noticed it and signals to the four mages that were there next to them, quietly.

‘Do it quickly’

Four mages surround Serid and start to cast magic

‘Casting 2th circle magic – Wall of tranquillity’

They conjure a big barrier around them, while sound from outside seizes to be.

The glass breaks...

‘THIS LITTLE PIECE OF FATHERFUCKING, TROLL’S SHIT’

Crash...

Tremble...

Serid punched the ground so hard that it started to shake and a barrier was showing a sign of breaking.

‘Serid calm down!!’ Brunth placed a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down.

Ah... Ah... Ah...

‘You are right, I needed just to get it out a little. Russ, gather the man. We are continuing the march.’

‘As you wish sire.’

‘Let’s pray to the goddess that threat isn’t serious, or...’

Gulp...

‘... we are all going to die.’

While one of the moons watches them and hopes for their triumph, the other shines upon dark forest with his light barely penetrating through thick treetops. Only one place was fully lit by it.

A place where trees are withered, where life energy looked like it was sucked dry. In the middle of it two undead skeletons were standing. One was holding one entire and one broken sword, while other had on his shoulder a one small withered tree. And in the middle of them there was a young spirit that radiates with black like energy. He had black hair with few red strands, pitch black eyes and was floating little bit above the ground while in sitting position.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘What took you so long Damian’

Behind him lands a monstrosity of a being. His body was literally half human and half demon with only one horn on it, but his entire hair turned silky white without growing even an inch.

‘Seeing that you can sense me I can guess that your promotion was a success.’

‘More or less.’ Sais Erin while slowly floating up and stretching his legs, without turning around.

‘Can you now finally tell me, what am I?’

As he said that, suddenly Damian appears right in front of him. He was so close that they could make out.

‘That is what I want to know as well!’

In surprise Erin backs away while still floating.

‘Let’s check!’

Even when Erin tried to back away, Damian was still right next to him as his glowing finger touches Erin’s forehead. Another set of blue veins pop out of it and after a moment subtract.

Now instead of Damian being surprised like last time, he is smirking as he was expecting it.

‘To think something like this would occur. What a pleasant surprise, ha ha!’

‘COULD YOU FINALLY TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED’

Erin now sick of it all starts to yell. As he lets out loud sound a few dead trees in vicinity fell.

‘Okay, okay stop yelling. My new ears will go deaf.’

Damian took few steps back and started to explain

‘Simply you have become a fallen spirit.’

‘A what now?’

‘Your soul while it was controlled by that thing evolved into “Spiritual spring”. That is type of the soul that only spirits have. It was strange mutation.’

‘Why strange?

‘Are your brain made out of rocks?’

‘Even if it was, now is yours.’

Damian looks a little bit angry.

‘You little shit, I wanted to say that you had body of human and soul of spirit.’

‘Should it be possible that one of my parents were a spirit?’

Slap... Slap...

Damian slaps his head few times in case he would hear the rocks rolling.

‘Just tell me a one thing, how do you FUCK a spirit?!’

Few trees were blown away.

‘But then how can you touch me?’

‘Because demon’s body is similar to the spirit’s. Only difference is that while their bodies are made out of only pure spiritual energy, mine is made from Chaos itself and because it feasts on owner’s flesh it makes it magical and physical at the same time. And besides that have you ever tried to fuck a spirit? They don’t feel anything, you don’t feel anything. You better off fucking the air.’

Erin looks at him like he was explaining how world came to be. Damian clenched his fist thinking how to beat the spirit out of him.

‘What I was about to say is that your origin is definitely that of a human. What most likely happened is that at the moment of your birth a true spirit nearby died and you merged with his dead essence. What we found in your soul is probably a wisp of his will that refused to die and through me killing it you became the new owner of it’s spring transforming you to the fallen spirit.’

At this moment Erin is already sitting on the floor and trying really hard to listen.

‘You said this already twice, but what is a Fallen spirit?’

‘It is similar and at the same time exactly opposite of the true spirit.’

Damian stretches his right, blue arm. On it forms few dozen particles of white light.’

‘For true spirit’s purity is more important than ones life and they can only fed off the pure things that are extremely rare. If you ever want to torture a spirit try feeding it a wisp of dark or Chaos energy.’

That last sentence was said with big grin while looking like he was reminiscing about the past. At that moment one small black particle appeared on top of Damian’s palm.

‘But Fallen are much more interesting, because they also pursue purity just for different reasons. While True want to purify their existence...’

Black particle starts to spread to other white ones making them to slowly change colour.

‘... the Fallen want to corrupt it and make it their own. Does this answers your question?’

‘So in short, I ‘am spiritual being that can’t touch or feel anything.

Hahahahahahahahahaha... Damian bursts out laughing.

‘Ha ha ha, that would be the case if you manifested dark or fire element, but Chaos is different. As for demons which bodies were made purely from Chaos, who sais that you can’t make your own body or two.’

‘Does that mean...’

Just as Erin was trying to ask something Damian puts a finger again on his forehead.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Erin screams in pain as black energy from Damian’s finger starts to corrode his entire body.

‘If I start to answer every question that even a newborn knows, we will be here all night.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Aaaaa...

Gasp...

After a few seconds of screaming, corrosive black energy settles in as Erin gasped for air.

‘Was it too much?’

Asks Damian while retracting his finger. On place where he touched him there was a small black dot that started to fade away.

‘W... What wa... was, ah ah, that f... for?’

‘I just imparted all the knowledge I know about spirits and some common knowledge that you need to know. I hoped because your existence improved you could take it all at once.’

‘Wait... knowledge I... remember!?’

‘It isn’t much as spirits aren’t my speciality. This is information that I got after torturing a few. I even put few images of their abilities, but don’t know how they work. Later we will find you a few spiritualist or some of those long eared humans and beat, hum, I mean ask them for teaching.’

‘Do you know anything except torturing and beating someone up? Asks Erin mortified

‘Okay, enough of that. We don’t have the entire night. Don’t you feel it?’

‘What?’

‘Concentrate and spread your aura in that direction. You should be able to reach it.’

Damian points to one side of the forest.

‘Let me try. It should go like this.’

Erin gets up, closes his eyes and start to levitate a feet or two above the ground. A thick black aura formed around him barely revealing his form. With a slight wave of his hand thick aura quickly became thin as it starts to spread around the area.

‘(W... What is this!?)'

From massive trees and long rivers to a single leaf of grass he could feel it. On the path that his aura took, for him nothing was left unnoticed.

‘DAMIAN, around us..!’

In the instant with his black eye Damian glanced at the forest. In place where trees still stand could be seen many glowing eyes glaring at them. His black eye suddenly gets red like glow that was followed with loud noises coming from between the trees as eyes that were glaring at them one by one disappear.

‘Don’t get distracted by that monster food. Now concentrate in direction that I pointed out. Your control is worse than the shit, but it should be barely enough.’

Erin just looks at Damian and signs before closing his eyes once more.

This time most of the aura starts to spread in one direction. It goes through dead and mostly overgrown alive trees, through horde of monsters big and small with fear in their eyes as they kept on running away from them...

Thinner...

... through the end of this dense forest and through small town next to it...

Thinner...

... beyond their wall, through vast plain and thick night's mist he saw it. An army of few thousand that was marching straight towards them.

‘(So... So many...)’

‘Judging by your expression, you saw it.’

Erin released his aura and came back to his senses.

‘Why are there so many, is war going on somewhere close.’

‘You moron, did you think nobody saw that flashy spectacle that we put on!’

‘T... Then, you m... mean...’

‘Yes, they rounded up few thousand soldiers to kill us. Those wet goblin shits!!’

‘(Even a demon is afraid of those numbers!?)’

‘How dare those shits underestimate me! What do they think, that I ‘am some weak ass demon that they can crush with few thousand untrained soldiers!!’

Damian is really angry while leaving Erin speechless.

‘(I... I forgot how full of himself he can be.)’

‘Hey Erin, are you there!?’

Damian waves his hand in front of spaced out spirit.’

‘Ah, yes...’

‘If you are worried about it just so you know, they are not enough even for me to clean my teeth with.’

‘G... Great. (What a monster!!)’

‘Let’s first complete contract, then we can play with them.’

Erin stared at Damian like he just said a reason for his very existence. Huge lunatic grin formed on his face, as Damian started to explain with same grin on him.

‘I said we don’t have time because I wanted to thoroughly make single one of them beg for death over and over again!’

‘I... I... finally... revenge...’

Erin was so excited that he forgot to speak for a moment.

‘But, this is your revenge and I will try to make mine evolvement minimal. Only thing that I will do is this.’

He stretched his right arm towards the undead that Erin summoned. His blue skin starts to glow as skeletons fall apart and out of their core white balls of light emerged.

Two from skeletons and one from dry corpse.

‘You see, I ‘am special type of demon that Soul Sovereign himself appointed his proxy and gave me full authority over souls. So I can do something like this.’

With a wave of his hand all three souls started to burn with pale flame.

‘Can you hear it?’

Erin’s eyes widened as he heard terrified screams of those three without even a need to concentrate. They didn’t stopped, they didn’t even quieted down and just kept on screaming in excruciating pain before fire finally burned them down.

‘Just so you know, they can’t get rid of that fire. It will follow them in the afterlife and continue to burn them for eternity to come! You wanted to revenge your sister and I gave you power to do so! Then...’

With innocent smile Damian sais: ‘... have fun while it lasts.’

Erin immediately stopped levitating and on all fours with his head on the floor knells in front of Damian with tears in his eyes that fade away .

‘I Erin as a sky as mine witness, I swear by mine true name @#&£#...’

Black piece of paper appeared in front of him.

‘... an absolute loyalty towards my lord Damian Varta Dragras von Ferset and if I ever break this oath let me return to nothingness without a chance to be reborn. My lord do you accept my oath of loyalty?!’

‘I REFUSE’

Black piece of paper scatters in many pieces before fading away.

Erin’s face looked pale as he in shock slowly lifts his head up.

‘L... L... Lord, di... did I dis... displease y...’

‘STOP ALREADY WITH THE LORD THING’

Damian looks flustered a bit.

‘I just want a someone to talk to without being addressed as lord or young master and someone to make fun of me without fearing for their life.’

He shivers while recalling the past

‘Trust me I already have one lunatic who swore absolute loyalty, I don’t need the other!’

At the sound of that Erin without believing what he heard and without meaning to he spouts

‘Y... You want a FRIEND!??’

Confusion could be seen in Damian’s eyes

‘Friend?? Don’t mix this with what you humans do. I just want to talk to someone as a equal.’

‘(Isn’t that the same though)’

‘Ah fuck, now my mood is ruined!’

Erin gets up with a slight smirk on his face and sais

‘Sorry Damian, I didn’t realize that I hurt your fragile feelings.’

‘You...’

‘Let me fix my mistake...’

Black spirit’s eyes looked like blood coursed through them as they get red glow.

‘... will a watching of few hundred people getting tortured and them brutally slaughtered improve your mood?’

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

Ear deafening laughter echoes through the forest.

‘Ha ha ha ha, that sounds amusing, ha ha...’

Damian gets closer to him and grabs his body like he is grabbing piece of cloth.

‘But, lets see if you have an ability to fulfil it.’

Stomp...

Crack... Crack... Crack...

Crash... Crash...

Wvoooooossssshhhhhhhhhhh...

Damian launched himself off the ground while holding onto the Erin. Ground underneath them caved in leaving a massive crater behind. Only when their momentum slowed down did Erin realized what happened, but by then they were high above tree line overlooking a massive forest from the above.

‘W... WHAT... WERE...’

‘I sense a big group of humans in that direction, is that it?’

He points little at the right to where the army was.

‘P... Probably, there isn’t anyone crazy enough to settle around here!’

‘Then...’

Few pebbles from the ground flew with them. They were not bigger than the fist as Damian stepped on one of them.

Wvooooooooossssshhhhhhhhhhh...

That piece quickly turned black as he propelled himself of off it. Pebble only spins a few times but stays in place, while Damian dragging his spirit “friend” closes the distance very quickly between him and his destination.

‘Then lets say hi to them!’

As they were losing the momentum he lands on top of a tree and repeats.

3th tree...

7th tree...

11th tree...

It goes on all the way until he stepped on 17th tree. He thru Erin on one of the branches.

Kugh... Kugh...

He immediately started to throw up a translucent liquid that disappeared before hitting anything.

‘C... C... Could you, kugh, warn me, kugh, next time!?’

‘Erin!’

‘What!’

‘Look down.’

As he looked down, his eyes were brimming with light and his sick face quickly turned excited.

‘Judging by your expression we are at the right place.’

Sais Damian while looking over fortified bandit camp. It was the dead of night, but there could still be heard a commotion coming from it.

From drunkards passed out on the floor to the others splashing them with water, from slaves packing the boxes up to bandits whipping them to hurry up.

They were leaving.

But, what they didn’t know how far that dream was from reality as two pairs of eyes watched them from a far.

They weren’t the eyes of a beast looking for food or of a hunter that stalk their prey, but of a monster that looks forward to your every scream, to your every plead for death and to your every blood red tear filled with broken up hope.

‘Damian, lets not end this fast.’

‘Don’t worry, we can play all night long, he he...’

Hahahahahaha...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...