The young man released a grunt, sweat soaking his body. Yet even with the increased anxiety and agonising pain caused by Nyx pressing the foreign object deeper into his wound, he refused to speak.
A defiant, unyielding spark flashed across his eyes, but Nyx wasn't impressed in the slightest.
Sighing, Nyx used a small amount of dark energy to stimulate the muscles in her leg, causing her to kick downwards with a force no mortal could muster.
A scream, similar to a pig who was about to have its throat slit, echoed around the room.
The sound ended as abruptly as it started as the man fell to the floor limpy, having either fainted or been killed outright.
Nyx had already vowed to kill everyone who was involved with her kidnapping, the man's fate wouldn't have changed even if he answered her yet, she couldn't help but wish he had decided to help her out a bit first.
She knew that it was already unlikely that the fat man was still nearby, but the burning anger in her heart wouldn't let her give up so easily.
"So~." Nyx took her foot away, putting it on the floor and feeling a stinging sensation from where the chunk of wood had pierced her foot before looking towards the shadows. "Are you going to tell me where the fat man is?"
"It's a demon, we have to run." From behind a slightly cracked pedestal, submerged in shadow, a feminine shriek resonated just before a somewhat plump woman bolted for the double doors on the other side of the room.
Sensing other people were still hiding in the shadows, Nyx decided to eliminate a few of them in case they realised the dire state she was in and rushed her.
Pushing the last bit of energy into the silver core in her hands, Nyx's heart spasmed as she felt something wasn't quite right.
Just as she was about to throw the core and dive for cover, lightning erupted with a terrific boom, hurtling towards the fleeing woman that had been Nyx's target as if it had its own intelligence.
A hole the size of a first appeared in the woman's chest as the lightning passed through, carrying on until it blasted through the doors and finally spluttered out.
The wood surrounding the hole in the door, as well as the woman's white clothes, smouldered due to the extreme heat that had just passed through.
Though it couldn't be seen on Nyx's face, she was shocked speechless, quickly feeling disappointed as she discovered that there were no more silver cores in her makeshift pouch and the core in her hand had turned to dust after it had been used.
The woman's body took a few more steps forward, seemingly on autopilot, before crashing to the floor with a dull thud.
The sound brought those that had been hiding in the shadows, shocked by the terrifying sight, back to their senses.
Scattering like cockroaches when the light had been turned on, six people erupted into chaos. Their only objective was to escape the terrifying existence, who appeared to be wrapped in shadows, before them.
An old man, pushed by one of the others, stumbled to the floor at the center of the room, however, just as he was about to get back up, he saw Nyx's feet slowly approaching him, quickly losing the control of his arms and legs.
The dark energy that Nyx had summoned earlier, too impure to absorb but good enough to intimidate those around her, continued to swirl around her body like an angry serpent looking for its prey.
"S, shadow D,d, demon," stuttered the man as he started crawling backwards in a similar fashion to the man earlier.
Loud bags, as well as wails of despair rang out from the main entrance nearby as those that had attempted to escape outside, found that the door was locked.
Not wanting to pass or get close to Nyx, they quickly gave up and started running towards the doors with the smouldering hole.
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As the doors were already critically damaged, the five people easily burst through, those at the lead falling at the sudden loss of resistance and tripping the people behind.
The old man froze seeing the bemused smile on Nyx's face as she carelessly flung a glowing, red orb, flying over twenty metres before landing into the pile of people who were trying to free themselves.
Nyx closed her eyes and braced herself, remembering the lesson she had learnt earlier.
A terrifying boom, accompanied by a wave of flames, flung chunks of marble and flesh out in a circle.
The old man's hair and eyebrows were slightly singed by the flames while his ears rang with a high pitched noise.
However, it was only momentary. As the thuds of flesh and stone rained down behind, the man couldn't help but look back.
His gaze immediately returned to the young woman who was steadily approaching him, seemingly indifferent to the horror she had just caused.
However, to Nyx, those five people had died a good death. It was clean and quick with a limited amount of pain. An act of mercy from her.
One that the fat man would not be getting.
The old man shivered, seemingly to visibly age as he gazed into the soulless eyes that offset the smile that had once again adorned Nyx's face.
"They say third times a charm. Let's try this one more time, shall we?" Nyx's eyes bore into the man, causing him to shrink back while silently praying that he would faint, saving him from bearing whatever horrors the monster in human form would invoke upon him.
However, even though he was terrified, the old man had taken his vows and would never break them. "You shall get nothing from me, foul demon."
Nyx frowned. She was too close to use the cores to kill the man and, at the same time, too injured to eliminate him with her own strength. Apart from the beast cores, she didn't even have a weapon on her.
Seeing Nyx hesitate, the man wasn't filled with relief. In fact, he was terrified believing that Nyx was coming up with some inhuman torture to put him through.
The sound of people escaping, fleeing in all directions from the large house could be heard by Nyx, but as she knew that she couldn't get all of them anyway, there was no difference to her if she let one or a hundred escape.
The warm smile, utterly different from the previous ones he had seen, all but confirmed the suspicions in the man's mind about Nyx planning something terrible for him and he started praying to every god that he knew.
"I have a task for you, old man," Like the devil offering a gift, while Nyx's voice sounded sweet and innocent, yet it ignited a sense of terror that resonated deep in the man's heart.
"Tell the fat man and those he associates with that I am coming." Nyx's stepped next to the man, slightly leaning down and making eye contact. "The darkness does not forgive, nor does it forget."
"W,w,w, who are y,y, you?" The man's stutter became worse, the suffocating pressure that he felt being close to Nyx almost granting his wish to faint.
It was this feeling, accompanied by Nyx's control over her eyes that had sown the seeds of fear and doubt into those she had come across so far.
While the strength of her soul played a significant part, it was actually Nyx's body's level of attunement with the dark energy that multiplied its effect tremendously, generating an unconscious aura of darkness that she was unaware of, even now.
Instinctually, most diurnal species shied away from darkness, their survival instincts linking it to danger and the unknown. The more intelligent species, wanting to explain their irrational fears, often found excuses like darkness was evil to explain away their sense of unease.
This was the feeling Nyx now naturally emitted, having already come one step closer to the darkness she was obsessed with.
That wasn't to say that the effect would be the same for nocturnal creatures, but as Nyx hadn't encountered any yet, she wasn't able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Turning around and walking back the way she came, knowing that so much time had passed that either the fat man had succumbed to his wounds, or already escaped, Nyx wanted to see if there was any information she could find amongst the documents scattered in the small office.
For a prolonged hunt, one needed information.
As the small office was the only room that appeared to have been well maintained, and she felt she didn't have the energy to search the rest of the house, Nyx decided to gather what she could and leave. She had already stayed in one place too long.
With a red beast core faintly glowing in her hands, she didn't feel threatened or worried about anyone in the house. If they could have attacked, with all the noise and opportunities she gave them, they already would have.
Just as her figure disappeared into the room destroyed by the light core, Nyx's voice floated to the old man's ears.
"From the darkness, I am born, to the darkness I shall return. My name is Nyx. Remember it well old man, for you shall be seeing me soon."
The old man remained frozen to the spot for dozens of minutes, his mind trying to work out how he had survived or if this was just a dream.
Hearing a crash from the direction Nyx had left, he immediately regained his senses and scrambled to his feet, fleeing past the gruesome remains of his comrades and towards the exit at the back of the mannor.
"Nyx," The demon's, at least in the eyes of the man, name continuously sounded out in his mind as the man fled down a small, overgrown dirt road and towards the lights of a vast city in the distance.
Recalling her appearance, cloaked in darkness, the man subconsciously tacked on more words, quickly replacing the chant in his mind. "Nyx the Demoness of Shadow."