The ashen one had no time to react. My clawed fingers reached its head, crossed its skull and impaled its brain in five different locations. Its body fell lifeless to the ground.

“It’s here!” - “Monster!” - “It’s the monster!” several cultists shouted at my appearance.

The general public didn’t know about me, but the demon followers had certainly heard of the “Guardian Monster of Everleigh”, the ruthless slaughterer that never left his protegé side.

“D-didn't he disappear?” one of them stuttered.

I never did. With an ever-changing appearance, I always remained by my contractee's side. I seldomly strayed from her, and when I did that it was only when I needed to dispose of annoying presences. I had given her my word I would keep her safe until the end of the stipulated time. She was still under my wing.

I resumed my attack and immediately dashed towards another ashen one. It raised its fist and punched at me, its body covered in thick strata of miasma. It was clearly a physical type. Its fist connected with my ribcage.

The miasma disappeared and its knuckles broke. Even before it could groan in pain I was mimicking its actions. My hand passed through its sternum and broke through its heart. Their physiology was quite similar to that of humans, and as humans they died.

Next, it was the turn of the last ashen one there. It took a step back when I looked at it. Dark energy quickly engulfed it and it disappeared from my sight. Its sudden escape surprised me. It was more clever than I thought.

“John!” Violet’s screams reached me.

I turned towards her and saw her frantically running towards me.

“Please help them!” she begged, mixed feelings in her eyes.

I ignored her. I had given my word to protect her and only her, not unknown third parties. She kept on screaming, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. She tugged at me, trying to push me to move, but I didn’t make a step.

“P-please! Don’t you feel anything when you see all of this?!”

As before, I didn’t respond.

“... Fine. Have it your way”

Her words were resolute. She turned towards the fray and started walking in its direction. I grabbed her by the wrist.

“What are you doing?” I questioned her coldly.

“What am I doing?! I’m helping, of course!” she snapped at me.

“Do not move”

“You can’t tell me what to do!”

“You must leave this place, it’s not safe. You are under my protection, I won’t let you put yourself in harm’s way”

“We must help all these people!”

“I have no obligation to do so”

“Obligation?! Do you even hear yourself?! What is wrong with you?! Can’t you see what is going on?! All these people are dying! Dying! You have the strength to save them! Why you are doing nothing?”

“We must go,” I reiterated.

She broke out in a distorted laugh.

“You know what? Actually, it doesn’t even surprise me. After I saw the way you killed my sister, it became clear to me. I thought an angel had come to rescue me, now I know I made a deal with is a demon”

Her words were venomous and her eyes were full of poison. The admiration and special feelings she had briefly held towards me completely disappeared.

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Anyway, I still held her firmly. Her words, actions or feelings meant nothing. The whims of a child were not to be taken seriously. I started walking towards a window.

“What are you doing?! Let go of me! Help! Help!”

She tried to fight back against my grasp, but she didn't have the strength to do so. I had never restricted her freedom, nor I intended to do so in the future, but for now, she needed to be brought to safety. It was clear at a glance she would not be able to fight back the attackers.

“The girl!” - “Get the girl!” - “Stop the monster!” the cultists noticed our escape attempt.

I groaned. The annoyances never ended. I thought about running away for a moment, but I didn’t know if Violet would survive the trip. After all, she was a fragile little thing. The cultists should have been wiser and let us leave.

I ultimately let go of her wrist and turned around.

“I’ll try to do it quickly,” I said briefly. I had tried to avoid a confrontation as I took no pleasure in breaking automatons, but if the swarm craved for a fight, it would definitely get one.

Violet looked puzzled.

“What?”

I wasted no time answering her and met the incoming wave of cultists head-on. I grabbed one by the side of his head and broke it against the floor. I kicked another one, tearing her jaw off. I grabbed by the spine one who was trying to flee and swung him against his comrades.

And so the battle continued, with spells, weapons and blood raining everywhere. The hall, which had already turned red, took quickly an even deeper crimson tone and the scarlet puddles scattered around grew both in size and number.

Finally, the room grew quiet. Several bodies laid all around me, metres-high piles of them. Behind me there was Violet, her mouth hanging open.

“You barely moved…” she muttered.

All that had just transpired had happened less than ten metres from our initial location. After all, I needed to keep a certain distance from her to be sure nobody could escape me. I was quick on my feet, but I couldn’t be in two places at once.

“Are you fine?” I asked her. It was a formality, as I could analyse her physical state just by looking at her, but there was always room for error and I didn’t want to take any chances.

“... Yes,” she answered after a while, still a bit dazed.

She got up and brushed her clothes. Her dazed look turned to horrified as she realised she was completely covered in blood and human remains. I had not really paid attention to cleanliness while dispatching the disturbances.

“Let’s go,” she immediately added, her displeasure of me drowned by the displeasure for her current state.

“Too late,” I groaned.

“What?”

“Too late,” I repeated once again. I had perceived a strangeness in her and in the air and I had tried to get her away from this place, but she had refused to do so.

As I muttered these words, arcane symbols engraved in the floor, walls and ceiling began to shine a dark crimson light. The few remaining cultists began to laugh maniacally and the surviving guests appeared confused by the sudden chain of events.

“What’s happening?!” Violet cried out as the marks on her skin shone even brighter.

The cultists chanted a malignant, corrupted melody that filled the air. The shadows moved as if alive and engulfed every light except those shined by the unholy glyphs. The carcasses stirred as their blood was sucked out. Rivers formed by the bodily fluids and melted flesh and bones crossed the hall and flowed towards its centre. More than a few unlucky enough to station too close to the scarlet streams were captured by the melting hands of the dead and made one with the flood.

“What are those things?!” Violet cried out terrified as several hands tried to get a hold of her.

My previous exploit had littered the area around us with corpses and those same corpses had begun to move once again.

“I don’t know,” I answered, kicking the dead away. A few hands reached out for me but were splattered before they could do anything, so they quickly lost interest in me.

I got hold of Violet, lifted her small and fragile body and relocated her to an area away from the streams.

The rivers began to scatter when they neared the centre of the hall. They condensed, split up and flattened to the ground, drawing a familiar sight.

“It’s an evocation circle,” I commented and before I knew it, a column of black light exploded towards the sky.

The concentration of mana grew rapidly, quickly becoming unbearable for the locals. Many began to bleed from their eyes and even more collapsed on the ground foaming. Even Violet lost consciousness.

I found myself torn in two. On the one hand, I wanted to be true to the word I gave and guarantee Viole’s safety by bringing her far away from there. On the other hand, I wanted to stay here. A strange excitement was coursing through my body. After months of stillness and boredom, an opportunity had arisen. I could already sense a great presence from behind the abominable gates of black granite that had formed inside the black column of light.

My eyes wavered. At that very moment, a familiar person caught my sight. He was breathing roughly but he was still conscious and capable of moving. I immediately took Violet into my arms and approached him. Violet had called me a demon, so I could maybe behave like one.

“Let’s make a deal,” I spoke, smiling at the kneeling Headmaster Sinclair.