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Red Moon
Chapter 8 - Epiphany of blood

Chapter 8 - Epiphany of blood

She beheaded both guards with one swing of her sword. The gush of blood squirted out from their necks. While the heads were still in the air, blood was sprayed out of the two Carotid arteries forming not only two small geysers of blood but also a fine mist of small blood drips in the air. The orange light of the setting sun was refracted in the small drips of blood floating in the air. If it was water a rainbow would have formed but blood absorbs much more light than water. The drops of blood glowed in a otherworldly adamantine lustre. Luna watched absorbed by the view. 'So beautiful.' was the only thing she could think. All her worries and sorrows were washed away by the beauty of this fleeting moment. The epiphany moment seemed to stop forever. But everything has to end. The bodies of the two guards collapsed on the ground while the blood flowing out from their necks formed two small puddles. Meanwhile the heads hit the ground and rolled away a few meters. Luna looked down at the bodies for a few seconds. She then closed and opened her eyes. She had calmed down. She was like the ocean after a storm. With a small content smile she looked up and through the open gate at the villagers nearby. She loved them all. She wanted to see them die. Who should she kill first? The clustered group of women on the left or the two small boys on her right.

All demons nearby had seen the two guards die by the hand of a single human girl. They were struck by terror. What has happened and why? But Luna was happy. They all waited obediently for her to make a choice. It would be impolite to let them wait. So she choose the group of women to her left. Her holy sword infused with mana cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Body parts were flying in all directions and blood was gushing out again in an especially beautiful way. As if this was the cue, panic spread immediately. The were running screaming for their lives. Screaming for help.

The massacre that followed was like hell for the demons. But for Luna it was like a dance. She tried to move as graceful and fluid as possible. Her body and mind was one. Sometimes she stopped in the middle of a group and rotated like a ballerina in the middle of a fountain of blood. Sometimes she would cut down people in a fluid motion one at a time. She paid attention to never stop moving. Not because of strategic reasons but because it would disrupt her dance.

It was a different kind of dance when she was confronted with guards or civilians with swords. Gracefully averting attacks while cutting the enemy down was also a form of a dance.

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Duren was lying on the ground of the market place in a sea of blood pretending he was dead. Blessed be demon god Arka! But what was happening. The screams and moans of pain have stopped and deathly silence sized the whole town. He was so scared. 'I don't want to die here.' he thought. He has left the coastal city Kark two weeks ago and was on his way to the demon capital Arkarna, because of rumors about a human invasion. But he had never expected to be killed by a human this far inland. How could this be. A single human girl has annihilated the whole town. The soldiers and adventures could do nothing. She was just dancing through them like a death fairy. Duren thought of his family waiting in Arkarna. 'I can't give up here.' The silence continued. 'Maybe she went away.' Hope filled his heart. Scared he looked up to confirm that the air was clean. What he saw scared him to death. In the middle of the field of blood and body parts stood the human girl. She was soaked in blood and neither her white skin nor her white hair was visible. Like a death goddess she was looking up in the sky to the moon. But suddenly she turned around and looked at Duren with a bone-chilling smile. Was this really the livestock of the nobles? How could they anger such terrifying beings? Were they crazy?

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"Hi there, little demon." she said in demon tongue.

He startled up and, still sitting in the sea of blood, he crawled away from her his eyed fixated on her.

"Do you really think you can escape from me?" she asked in an amused tone.

He stopped. She was right he was sooo dead. But she spoke to him. Maybe he could talk his way out of this. He had nothing to loss.

"Why are you doing this? Is it because the nobles are eating humans? That has nothing to do with me! I've never eaten human. I'm just a normal plebeian. Please let me go! I have a family. Please!"

He bowed down in front of the death goddess. He wanted to see his wife and their child again. He didn't want to die here.

"Why are you so afraid? You are not real after all." she looked curious at him.

'Huh? Not real? What does that mean?' He didn't understand what she meant.

"I don't understand what you mean but please let me go!"

"I mean that you don't have a soul."

"I don't have a soul?"

"Yeah, that is the reason why you can't accumulate mana."

"Wasn't it the human goddess Nama that stole this from us because she was jealous of god Arka's creations, the demons?"

"The humans believe that Arka doesn't exist and that the demons betrayed the one and only god Nama. But I'm not speaking about that.Just think about it logical. Animals have weak souls and accumulate only a little bit mana. Humans have stronger souls and accumulate more mana. And demons accumulate no mana."

She talked patiently as if she would explain something to a child.

"Demons don't have souls. The don't have consciousness. That is also the reason why the slave collars are not working on demons."

She slowly began walking in the direction of Duren.

"You are just illusions made by the gods to haunt the humans reborn in this world. The curse of this rebirth cycle."

Duren was scared to death.

"No!! I'm real! I have feelings, memories, everything! Please believe me!"

"Can you prove that?"

She slowly raised her sword while smilling.

'Prove?! That's impossible!' he thought in a state of panic.

"You see?"

Darkness enveloped Duren.

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Luna was not really talking to the demon. He was not real after all. She was talking to herself reminding her why it was ok to kill them without compunction. She used the term 'real' but she didn't mean that they don't exist. Of course they do. She meant that they are nothing more than a computer program or a force of nature. Without awareness.

Many religions in her past life described demons as the beings torturing humans in hell. She even considered that this world was indeed literal hell during her first eight years on the demon continent. She disregarded this idea after she met the first free humans. But she was sure that demons are indeed just an object imitating the humans being reborn in this world. But she didn't know why they exist. Maybe there really is a goddess Numa and she created the demons to haunt the humans or maybe to test them. Who knows.

The fact that they showed emotions so similar to humans was probably a trap trying to fool humans in thinking that demons are just like them just looking different.

She looked around. The sun has setted and the moon has risen during her blood dance.

The pallid bluish moonlight was now shinning on the sea of red blood and on the bodyparts scattered on the market place of Kirk. Luna smilled remembering a similar picture from her childhood. She was probably six when she saw such a scene and decided to give herself a name honouring the beautiful image.

Luna Rubra, latin for Red Moon.