***
―Something was calling to me. In the corner of my eye I can see a glow of a red circle suddenly forming on the ground nearby; drawing my attention with promises of power, opportunities and something else. I can tell, an instinct I didn't know I've had is telling me it will take me far away from here. A way out of hell. My heart starts beating faster at the prospect of―
Please...
Others notice it too.
Some scoff at it and turn away looking back to the great wall, but quite a few starts making their way towards it. One of the smaller demons bursts into a mad sprint towards the strange phenomenon and chaos erupted among those that have shown clear interest. A shout came from somewhere within the resting army; demanding order in a voice that promised pain -but was mostly ignored. Small guy ended up with a hammer to the head. The goat looking man that was keeping especially close attention to me also went for the light and was now grappling with his brethren in a melee over who gets... whatever this means. Demon that get close get tackled to the ground by those following right behind them. Fists flying.
I can see a small child like one, that just like me ended up as a captive to the goats, jumping onto one and biting onto its head. There's a brawl going all over the clearly magical formation. Both our captors and some of the prisoners wanting what the red glow is offering. Fighting over it.
All the while I slowly make my way towards the only hope left for me, avoiding those fighting in the dust. I'm moving with calm despite the pounding in my chest, finding a path through the chaos, trying not to draw attention ―I've made it to the intricate pattern drawn in red on the stone surface. Runes and geometrical shapes enclosed in a circle that shines before me. There is something there, something familiar yet new, and it 'smells' like blood. Just a few steps away. Right then someone is standing behind me, a massive hand reaches for me. My new senses can see as it grabs―
No! I make a leap into the light -too freedom.
I wanna be free!
The piece of silk I used to cover myself through the journey gets thorn off of my shoulders and stays in the claws that were closing around me. Sharp nails left a deep gash in my arm, there is a roar of fury that promises me death. But I'm now out of the demons reach and step into the light.
Mystical powers contained in the symbols surge upwards bathing the wold in red brightness. The empty monochrome landscape, the black wall and all the demons -Gone. I feel almost alive for the first time since coming here; single thought in my mind as I close my eyes: I'm free.
**
As my senses return it becomes immediately obvious that I'm no longer in that hellish place. Even in the dim light, you can see the world regained its colors. I take a deep breath admiring all the different hues and shades; the browns, green... There isn't all that much to this place, but the difference is striking compared to hell I've just left.
A poor slightly old-fashioned room. Wooden floors are dirty and the small house is in clear disrepair; rot and mold on the walls and cobwebs gathering dust in the corners. Broken bottles. I blink still feeling slightly disoriented, but there is so much to take in.
Something in the air, flowing freely in faint streams gets my attention; I've sensed it before. Ever since waking up at the bottom of that ravine, in magic thrown around during the battle and in the demons -in the circle that brought me here. But it's different, somehow pure. Actually it seems to be everywhere around me. It has a different 'flavor' in the wood or the earth I feel under the floor boards but it's all a same thing. And reacts to me as I rise a hand towards it, trying to reach those beautiful phenomena.
Mana, is it? That's what I've been sensing all this time through my horns. There wasn't much time to examine it during the forced march where I had to watch my every step, but there is a system in this world. I might have skills for this. Or that's just a part of being... a demon myself.
It's strongest in the mystical circle drawn in red glowing paint. -No, that's fresh blood. Its smell clear to me now. Yet another mystery force can be felt moving through it, carried by the magic and then into my body, filling me with― Life. The source?
A dead goat...
There is a dead goat laying on the ground, integrated somehow into the magic pattern. I just stare at the sight, as blood and the mysterious energy that feels full of vitality flows from its slit throat into the circle around me. Odd symbols made from mana form lines that rise above it in two opposite spinning and rather lose, triple helixes. Creating something like a net. Curious thing -the lines start at the points of triangles, drawn inside the formation forming a star.
Fascinated I watch all this with my new senses; but even I can tell something is wrong with it—
I noticed a man standing just outside the pattern, next to the dead animal. A human.
Not a demon but another human being! The guy is huge. Is he really human?
> Human. Farmhand (3)
Oh wow, this is also a thing. I now recall seeing an Identify skill in my status. There was so much... Focus me! I might finally be able to get answers to all those questions and maybe even―
"What is this supposed to be..." He is scowling hard, looking at me with sour face. "Some sort of goblin?" The angry man trows his hand into the air, and I can only stare back through the web of mana separating us. Huh?
"Such a pathetic demon. It looks so weak even the bastard's dog could kill it! Is this a damn joke?" Startled, I watch as the giant man -No, I'm just small. Like a kid... and a demon now. This-
He moves towards the goat and kicks it in anger. "Such a fucking waste."
In horror I sense the magic distort in front of me. There is a pull, the room seems to dim even more as the vital energy flowing into me from the formation stops for a moment. And I realize this magic is the only thing that keeps me here. And without it... "Wait!" I scream at the man. Desperation making me sound even more like a child as I grasp for that connection. "Please wait! Don't— I can't go back there! I don't..." I move forward but the symbols light up and a transparent wall blocks me from reaching to him, tiny claws scraping at it. The guy looks up at me with intense glare.
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"What?" He demands, but at least he stopped and the magic appears to stabilize a little as he moves away. Two of the rising spirals gone.
"Please, they are going to kill me... I can't go back. I don't want to." Looking up into his eyes -Human eyes, not a demon's. Dark blue; but there is no sympathy in them. Just contempt. "I'm not-"
"Why would I fucking care?" Spit flies from the snarling man, yet be calms down and starts considering something, muttering about me at least being able to talk. Thinking doesn't seem to belong on his face, look wrong somehow. -I'm not sure where that thought came from, might be I'm starting to feel angry myself-
"Well, you demons are supposed to be cunning, so maybe..." He trails off. But some hope returned to me as I wait and try to gather as much of the familiar, precious, vital power now leaking inside the barrier as I can. It's easier than I thought. I still remember how it feels like to be alive -Even if I'm no longer human myself.
"Alright, Listen here demon." The man points at me. "There is this guy Malone, curse him and his mutt wolf. I have no Idea what Pauline sees in the damn half," He spits the last word like a curse. "I want him gone. Don't care how, that's your job. Understood? If you do well I might even get you some clothes so you don't have to run around naked like an animal"
"Huh, what..." Is this―
"I want him dead you dimwit! He is this village's hunter, goes into the forest alone -well, with his pet." He makes a 'thinking' pose there. "Do it in the woods, maybe make it look like an accident. Yeah, that's a good plan." And then looks back at me with cold eyes. "You can do that much right?"
"What, No! have you lost your mind? This-" That seemed to trigger the crazy man. Furious, murder in his eyes as he pulls a knife from his belt.
"Fucking useless." He the moves to a particular spot in the magic circle, I can instinctively tell it's the most important part keeping it all together. "Go back where you came from little shit. I will-" He raised the knife ready to stab at the glowing runes...
"Nooo!" I can't. Have to make him- "Stop!" I jump and tackle the man.
The barrier was already damaged earlier, two out of six streams of mana gone; Instinct told me it was poorly made from the beginning, waved loosely, the gaps between the lines of symbols to big for a small demon like me. Now even more so as it kept deteriorating, almost collapsing when he got close. Aiming for the gap I was able to reach the other side.
I'm only half his size.
I won't be able to overpower him.
He has a weapon.
But I'm desperate so this all doesn't matter. Only important thing is I stop him. Someone please stop him!
Make him stop! Freeze.
And the world listened.
As my small clawed hands made contact with his head, and the startled man looked at me in horror with his deep blue eyes, rising the knife to― The mana around us stirred. It all rushed towards me before exploding in dark blue light. And the man froze mid swing. Literally. Together with half of the room.
As he was already rising up to retreat from the pouncing demon we toppled down, and his head hit the chair standing behind him. -That didn't stop the fall. His already thin neck snapped. Frozen shards of crimson flying around. Then it was one of his arms, at the elbow.
I just lie there on the frozen corpse, breathing felt hard. Mist freezing just as it left my lips, falling down on the mans chest; sparkling in the moonlight filtering through a hole in the roof. The light from candles that were standing on the table, gone. -So tired.
Dead blue eyes -frozen on his panicked, screaming face, staring into me from the floor under the table. I don't want to move. Or think.
But my clock is ticking. Whatever ritual was keeping me here was now broken. I can sense the power fueling it disperse, and without even a thought I reach for the sweet, sweet Life. Feel it flow to me both from the ritual and then the headless man.
What am I doing? A fresh memory of hell keeps me going. So I will just―
Thud! thud!
"Tom! Is everything alright? I've heard your scream all the way from the palisade! Are you trying to wake up half the village?" Someone is bashing at the doors! "Tom? Are you-" I'm already up on my feet, fear of people finding out... I look around at the still frozen room. No, don't think. The person at the doors is threatening to bust them open. Hide- no Run!
The window! Closed, but nothing is holding the planks covering it from swinging out.
Its night outside, a beautiful crescent moon high above. So many stars... But there's no time. I can actually feel the guard that came to check on what was happening move to one of the front windows. There something in his hand, full of mana. So I ran, like the murderer I am. More houses, people sleeping. Animals in pens, chickens in coops.
And a wall in front of me. Thick wooden pales, driven into the ground with no room even for a rat to fit through. A scream comes from behind, soon followed by another somewhere to my right. And I jump scaling it, nails digging into the hard wood. Something hit it with a sharp twang! just as I jumped over.
Field of wheat, then a forest.
I didn't stop even when the screams coming from the village faded. Once again I ran through a forest; escaping a nightmare -This one green and beautiful; the nightmare my own doing. Burning through what what little vital force I've gathered. Stopping only when I felt intense hunger.
Panting for fresh forest air seemed to make the life energy more vibrant within my core. I slid against a trunk of a big oak like tree and nested between its roots, wrapping a demonic tail over my knees, horned head low.
I can sense mana dancing high up between the branches and tickling the roots down under. A truly beautiful forest. There are flowers on the ground, berries on the bushes, the smell of soil; a warm summer night. But there are no animals, it's quiet. Something in the air 'smells' like fear.
A predator is lurking nearby.
I look up the tree, there are four tiny sparks of life hidden between its leaves. So small, but so very vibrant. I―
I still don't want to go back there. -No thinking, just climb up the damned tree.
And so I did, finding them. Blue with black spots, hiding a real treasure inside their shells. I just stare and them mind blank while another moon shows up up over a distant mountain. Red and full. I watch it make its way across the starry sky -This isn't Earth, huh.
I try them one by one, soon there are no more eggs in the abandoned nest. The predator got to them. The life that was inside them will let me stay.
But why don't I feel any satisfaction. What is this all for?
Hey! A world like a dream, full of color. Filled with magic and ruled by a system. An adventure awaits. I'm getting a second chance at life, free now from the madness. And yet... Just try.
A day came and went as I wander around the forest. Then another ―sleep never came, and so I walked. I have never seen a bluer sky, there's something about blue.
Found a road, nothing much just hard dirt. Then I've surprisingly scared a bunch of wolves that were stalking a girl who was walking there alone.
Then scared the girl.
It rains a lot in this world. I kept walking.
I tried. After a week I was out of time.
...
——
I stir from a stupid memory -So naive and foolish. Feeling... surprisingly good.
> Evolution in progress.
>
> ~
>
> Consumed Essence: Succubi (6), Magog (5)
>
> Wings +1
>
> Hell Rose submits.
>
> ~
>
> Evolution complete:
>
>
>
> > Name: Meow
> >
> > Race: Hell Spawn** (5)
> >
> > Class: Red Rosen-Maiden Imp. (1)
> New Trait: Rose Symbiote (2)
>
> +10 Magic
>
> +10 Resilience
>
> +5 Strength
> You have:
>
> +10 available Attribute points.
>
> +3 available Trait points.
>
> +1 available Skill point.
My eyes snap open and I'm immediately fully awake and sitting up- That was a mistake as my head still hurts.
"Maiden?!" I reach down checking In a panic. But all is where it should be and I fall back tired. Don't scare me like that, stupid system.
Next my hand wanders to my left shoulder. Touching the petals -It tickles. I turn my head and there is a beautiful burgundy rose in full bloom just sitting there. It's pretty big, looks like a fancy pauldron and from it, three dark vines covered in thorns snake down my arm.
There is more of those emerging or fused to my body. A particularly thick one, curiously decorated with two small roses, winds down my right arm. One at the biceps the other even smaller on the forearm still a half bud. Odd.
I can feel roots everywhere inside me.
"Well, this happened." Sigh. Let's try to make sense of this.
—————