A humanoid figure hidden under the shroud of a jet black cloak, wielding a long staff stared at the image of carnage. Dozens of corpses, man, woman, elderly, and young, were all charred to the point of being unrecognizable. Those who were barely able to survive the sudden attack ran into the forest hoping to find sanctuary, and yet their fate has indefinitely been set inside the stomach of the demonic beast living within who waiting for careless prey to tread upon their territory.

“You humans never change…”

The figure turned around towards the forest behind her and prepared to leave the horrendous scene, but before she could, the weak dying voice of a woman called out to her from somewhere amidst the sea of raging fire and disfigured corpses.

“Please…”

Turning her head towards the source of the pitiful plea the cloaked figure saw a young woman, her legs crushed under a large wooden beam which used to support one of the houses. In her embrace was a newly born baby.

“Please save my child…” With tears running down her face the mother begged as she stretched out the baby within her arms towards the cloaked figure which laid motionless before her.

Seeing the baby within the dying woman’s hands, the cloaked figure bent over and picked up the child.

“What’s the child’s name?” The cloaked figure asked the mother.

“Sirus… his name is Sirus…” Answered the woman, smiling.

Moments later the fires died down and what was left of what was once a small humble town was nothing more but a pile of burnt corpses.

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Standing in front of the corpse of the mother of the child within her hands, the cloaked figure offered her respect, “may your soul rest in peace…”

With a simple snap of the cloaked figures fingers, the ground as if it was alive, swallowed the woman’s body, and in its place a single crimson flower bloomed.

Then, walking around the ruined village was a man wearing rusty iron armor with a huge scar on his left eye and a steel longsword on his back. He was the leader of the human bandits which pillaged the village, and behind him was fifteen of his subordinates.

“Boss! There’s someone still alive over there!” Shouted one of the subordinate bandits upon spotting the cloaked figure.

“Bring ‘em here then!” Shouted back the leader of the bandits who was busy looting off a silver ring from the burnt corpse of an old man.

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!!!” A sudden head splittingly loud cry resounded within the entire vicinity causing all the bandits to shut their ears closed.

Looking at the crying child within her arms, the cloaked figure placed her hand which had a soft green glow on the boy’s stomach, “don’t cry child, mother will take care of this.”

With the boy in her hands put to sleep, the cloaked figure put him on the ground and erected a transparent magic barrier around him before turning to face five bandits closing in on her with their weapons drawn.

“You humans should really learn not to judge simply by appearance.”

From within the cloak which blended with the darkness of the night came out four creatures, they had a long silver body comparable to a snake with a width of an adult human male, covered in scales of steel and a head of a giant wolf-like beast.

The beasts’ eyes glowed in a deep crimson as they bared their sharp serrated teeth at the armed men, snarling and growling like monsters starved of food, their dripping saliva more deadly than any poison.

Seeing the beasts’ which came out of the cloaked figure the bandits froze in fear, although one of the was able to gain enough strength in their legs to make a run for it and screamed, “DEMON!!!”

Panic and dismay spread around even faster than the wild fire which consumed the village, even the bandit leader was forced to drop all that he had looted from the village to hasten his escape. In the end they were nothing but a slave to fear.

“Tonight you shall have a feast,” said the cloaked figure, petting one of the beasts’ on the head.

And before any of the other bandits could escaped the scene, the beasts’ launched towards their prey like arrows fired from a longbow. One tore off a bandit’s leg while he tried to run away, the other got his head severed from his neck, and another was torn in half with his innards spilling on the ground before he even knew what had happened. A few minutes passed with only the sounds of deathly screams, flesh being torn, and blood spilling on charred earth.

It was now about the time of daybreak, the sun had started to creep up from the horizon coloring the surrounding area with its soft gentle light, illuminating what was once a human village beside the said forest of demons. Now, what was left was nothing but ashes of what used to be houses, rotting flesh of what used to be people, and in the middle of it all was a patch of earth with a single crimson flower in full bloom with the severed heads of sixteen men, faces full of anguish, decorated around it as an offering.