Episode 13: Great Forest of the Demon World, Part 2

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Caim holstered the gun (it wasn't worth wasting his limited ammunition on a threat as ordinary as this) and wasted no time unsheathing his sword.

Truth be told, he hadn't expected anything different. He was used to this kind of thing. Even Virgil, who had claimed not to care who he was, had shown his teeth, demonstrated his bias.

But what a pity.

The only thing keeping them from joining forces to face greater dangers, to challenge this Tower, was a pair of small horns on his head. Just that.

Why did everyone have to be so incredibly stupid?

It infuriated him.

"You call me the devil's son, but it's you who forces me to do this. I didn't want to fight!"

An attempt to open dialogue as he crossed swords with the leader of this rabble. He was reacting, not attacking, and he had no other choice, but it wouldn't make him seem very sincere.

"You're the one who started this, corrupting a holy mage and leading her astray," the leader retorted. The succession of attacks and defenses continued without interruption.

The leader of these knights, or whatever they were, these birds of prey, ensured not only that he didn't lose ground but also that he stayed close to him.

He was a bastard, but a clever one.

Since he was facing a mage, he wanted to increase his chances of survival by sticking to his allies, counting on that to tie Victoria's hands to some extent for fear of hitting him too.

"I followed her because I wanted to," Victoria must have been busy preparing a spell, but still responded angrily.

"That's what he made you think."

They didn't admit any logic. Of course not, it wasn't about logic, about what was appropriate. Belief was more important than reasons. They could always find reasons to justify that belief later on, and reject anything that contradicted it in the meantime because it must be true. Intelligence was what differentiated humans from animals, but fanatics like these inverted the order of logical reasoning.

Caim should never have expected to at least avoid this ending in bloodshed. That, if they couldn't ally, they could at least look the other way and leave without further complicating each other's lives in a situation that didn't need to be any more complicated.

But it was so frustrating.

Why?

Why did it have to be like this?

What the hell had they even done to them?

He didn't understand.

He didn't want to understand, just like them.

He was just angry.

"Boss, if the mage is corrupted anyway, it's okay if I have a little fun with her, right?"

Caim was almost unable to process what he was saying. In a situation like this, he still had time to think about such things? Disgusting.

"What nice legs she has, and I haven't seen a wom—"

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There was no turning back anyway, but Caim did something he somewhat regretted. He threw the sword with precision, impaling him between the eyes. Silencing him before he could continue with his degrading filth.

But now he had no weapon other than the gun.

Well, not exactly true.

"Animal!"

They attacked him and were almost surprised when he fought back. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised. He had also been almost surprised even though he had seen the same contradictory emotions in more faces than he cared to count.

The leader redoubled his efforts to break through his guard. Meanwhile, Yonah skillfully dealt with the rest at the same time. She wasn't overwhelming him. Quite the opposite. Power against speed. It was obvious that no matter how much power they had, they couldn't reach her with their blows.

She slid between their attacks. She couldn't deflect them all, but she couldn't dodge them all either. But it couldn't be said that she was winning, making progress, so she was just slowly losing.

Yonah was caught in that delicate balance. If it broke, she would collapse irretrievably.

And Victoria...

She needed more time, apparently. There was no possibility that she would hesitate at the thought of killing other human beings.

Aiden hadn't even been the first.

He had killed dozens of human beings the same day they met.

The tables of Yonah's solitary fight changed in the end. They did so in her favor. She cut the tendons of one, causing him to fall to his knees. With the dagger still firmly embedded, she spun, using him as a pendulum in the air and kicked three or four more in the face.

An unorthodox but effective way of controlling crowds.

Yonah made a full turn. So did her prisoner. As soon as she landed, she cut the throat of the man at her feet from behind. Blood flew far. It reached the shiny steel at her companions' feet.

That was also a way of controlling crowds.

Doubt. Fear. Yonah wasn't doing as well as it might seem. As she had said before, she was simply losing more slowly.

But that was enough. Since the enemies had what should be an overwhelming numerical advantage, they couldn't bear that he hadn't fallen yet. Every second standing fueled the flames of fear.

Because, what if the outcome wasn't inevitable after all?

Because, what if she slaughtered them all like pigs?

The other advantage was her incredible speed. Not only was she fast, but it seemed that there was never a gap in her movements. She never even stopped for a tenth of a second to decide her next course of action. That flawless flow made her seem faster than she actually was.

As for Caim's battle...

It ended in an instant.

The web shot completely caught the leader of this rabble by surprise. Then it ignited, and the flames consumed him in a blink of an eye. Even his agonizing scream quickly disappeared.

Before, they had looked at him with hatred and fear simply because that's what they had learned, what they had been taught to believe. Now the naked emotion in their eyes was much more sincere.

Yes, they were inhuman abilities. So what? Maybe I'm not human, but I'm not evil either. And these things, this power, is part of me.

He was ready to accept everything that came with that.

As the enemy leader dissolved into a skeleton before his eyes, Caim smiled from ear to ear.

In the past, he had been a child who couldn't defend himself, only endure the blows. For too long he had been at the mercy of others. Of the cruel humans around him. Even as he traveled with Yonah and Victoria towards the Tower, he had lived in fear. He was more aware than most humans that his world could come crashing down in an instant.

But now, right now, in this terrible place, the fear vanished like morning mist. As if it had never been more than a mirage. A mere trick of the eye.

He didn't know if he would survive this Tower, but he no longer had anything to fear from the outside world. And indeed, why fear anything coming from the Tower? The people who said it was a cursed place, though filled with riches, were the same ones who made his life impossible. So why should he care what they thought of the place? They had never had the ability to think rationally in the first place.

It was his.

After long decades, he had found his way back home.

But, of course, he wasn't satisfied with that. He still had a long way to go, evolving, developing.

And endless secrets to uncover.

Now that he had rid himself of the most troublesome enemy, Caim was going to support Yonah, but he stopped halfway. More of those bastards emerged from the bushes. Men and women of all shapes and sizes, but all naked and bathed in blood. Newly born mutants.

A dozen of them, maybe more. There were plenty of hiding spots in the forest.

"Caim..."

"It seems like this party has only just begun!"

He just laughed.

Caim abandoned all common sense, any strategy or survival instinct, and charged towards the mutants with his sword raised high.

Great Forest of the Demon World, Part 2: END