My Shadow Monarch's System
Chapter 38: A Demon.

Chapter 38: A Demon.

Something was terribly wrong. That shadow, shape, gait, it all felt so wrong, unlike anything Shadow had ever seen.

He hadn’t noticed it at first, seeing the dismembered bodies of the villagers who gathered around, he expected the shadows that lay about to be in dishevel. Until, he saw that monstrosity.

He couldn’t make sense of it, was it an animal, a beast, or perhaps a species that he had never seen before, in any case, the bloodlust coming from the monster was suffocating.

Liora was about to say something, but he couldn’t risk giving out their locations. There was still some light that leaked into the cave from the entrance, giving him a leeway to hide and observe the beast. He simply couldn’t understand its shadow.

He held her mouth before she spoke, dragging her into a corner hidden in the shadows, he stayed there, his heart thumping wildly as he felt the presence approaching him.

Each step sent vibrations through the entire cave, Shadow thought how this kind of monster would exist and not catching the attention of the Adventurers Guild or the Mage’s Association.

The vibrations stopped, the beast sniffed the air, growling deeply.

"Humans!"

"Sweet Humans..."

Shadows eyes widened in shock, monsters and beasts weren’t able to speak so why? Why did this beast know the common tongue?

"Come out Humans. It is pointless hiding from me" the monster called out, Shadow became unsure of what to do, but more than anything, he couldn’t stop Liora from shaking so fervently.

She kept muttering to herself, and not in the manner of binding spells, one word was all she kept saying. Shadow edged his ears closer to her lips and heard the words.

"Demon... It’s a demon, a demon" she kept saying.

A demon huh?

He sighed inwardly, forcing himself to calm down, other than his fear, this was his first real lead on the demon cult, which obviously had demons.

"If you don’t come out, then I’ll bring you out" it chuckled deeply.

Shadow felt a certain pull on his body, a pull that he couldn’t resist as he was pulled into the air, his feet weren’t touching the ground, but he could turn into a shadow and escape. But Liora...

He held on to her tightly as she screamed out, he has never seen her this panicked before, it seemed she had a good reason to be so, the same reason that made Shadow stutter as he saw the creature that stood before him.

This was no mere beast or monster, or demon, infact this was something completely out of a fantasy novel.

It had a skull for a face with muscle ligaments wrapping around its face, not concealing the bone properly, the rest of its body was more hideous, claws as long as his daggers gave off a faint glint, Shadow delt with daggers, he knew one attack was all it needed to send his head flying.

Shadows eyes wandered further down, observing the demon’s body. To put it simply, it had no skin. Just a mess of muscled and flesh fibres wrapped around each other, covering and worming around each other.

Yes, the muscle fibres moved.

"Uuurgh.." Shadow held his breath, the smell coming from the demon was horrendous, like that of rotting flesh.

Shadow positioned himself in front of the demon, as it reached out to grab them.

He immediately summoned two ice barriers that blocked the demon’s hand from holding onto them. The ice barriers shattered instantly.

"Insolence..." The demon flicked its hand as though Shadow’s defense meant nothing.

"It seems the other mage has brought more friends for me to feast upon" the demon lunged at them, barring its sharpened claws with intense bloodlust.

Shadow quickly maneuvered in the air, barely dodging the attack as he threw Liora to the ground behind him, instantly he covered himself with ice as the demon caught him midair.

"Hide! Don’t you dare leave the cave without me. Hide!!!" Shadow shouted a command at Liora, he added his mind manipulation, just to ensure that she did as she was told.

At the same time, he froze the air around him instantly, cold enough to make his skin crack. Still the demon held on, squeezing him as tightly as possible. Shadow felt his insides being squished into mush, he had to act fast or he would really die.

The demon’s hands were large enough to wrap his entire torso and lift him up, the same way a human could lift a cat with relative ease. Unwillingly, he places both his hands on the skin of the Demon.

He felt the muscles wriggle about and shift, he took a deep breath and concentrated all his strength into this attack, at the same time he slightly covered himself in shadow magic. He had Scar to thank for that.

In less than a breath, the demon’s hand was frozen solid, Shadow slipped out of its grip, falling to the ground and brandishing his blade, a dark steeled Odachi. He made a single slice at the frozen hand, splitting it in half before putting some distance between he and the demon.

He was breathing heavily, in all his encounters, he had never had to exert himself like this, he crouched to the ground, his ribs had been broken, puncturing his lungs. He coughed out some blood and tried standing.

"Hmmm? Spirit magic? Impressive, for a human" the demon sounded amused, he looked at the stump where his hand had been, he felt at it and chuckled.

"A clean cut. Good!" It laughed gleefully, right before Shadow, the muscle fibres began moving about on their own, it shot into the debris that lay by the wall, wrapping itself over a bunch of bones that lay there forgotten. It dragged the bones up the demon’s arm, forming itself into a new hand.

Shadow gasped in shock, this wasn’t just mere regeneration, it was mutation!

"Don’t be scared, you managed to wound me, unlike that cowardly mage" it grunted then looked back to Shadow.

"Come, entertain me." The demon beckoned forward.

"Where are the villagers?" Shadow shouted out, realizing why he had been here in the first place..

"Huh? Villagers?" The demon looked about thinking.

So, not very highly intelligent then?

"Aahhh" the demon slapped its hands together, as though just remembering something important.

"I’ve eaten them" the demon grinned happily.

Shadow hesitated...

"Eaten?" He asked again, just to be sure.

"What else should I have done with them? They served their purpose. That is all" the demon spread out it’s arms. "But why does this bother you so?"

Shadow felt growing rage pulling itself forth from the depths of his mind, he quelled it immediately. He would not afford to be emotional in this state, he couldn’t die, or let Liora die.

"You’ve had your full then? No need to eat more humans right?" He egged the demon, hoping it would take his bait, he just had to escape with Liora, and report this back to the Adventurers guild.

"Hmmm! I suppose so, but you smell delicious. Especially the other girl hiding in the walls" the demon pointed to a certain corner of the wall, Shadow looked there but couldn’t see Liora. But he didn’t have too, something told him she was there, hiding like he had told her too.

"Ooii. Focus on me you Bastard!!!" He shouted, he couldn’t afford to be emotional right now, but...

The demon turned its gaze back to Shadow. "Of course, I’ll eat you first then savour her later. Her and the other one" the demon grinned.

Other one?

Shadow had been so immersed trying to escape that he forgot the hints the demon had given off at first, the voice that had called him here in the first place.

"Don’t think you can escape..." The demon stretched out its hand. "Hmmmph" it grunted.

Shadow expected an attack to follow right after, but nothing happened. Then it happened...

A weight weighed down on his soul, making it difficult for him to breathe and move around freely, he looked around, not noticing any instant changes to the cave, except the grin on the demon’s face.

"Hmm! This should be enough to keep you all in". The demon began walking towards Shadow. "Need to eat more..." It plucked off the head of one of the impaled villagers, throwing the head into its mouth and chewing away happily.

Shadow lurched over in disgust, almost throwing up.

He threw his head up, watching the demon chew away happily, then extended his shadow sense. He was startled, something was wrong, rather this had never happened to him before.

His shadow sense was being restricted by something around him, from the entrance of the cave to the end of it, he couldn’t sense beyond that, something was stopping him. A barrier of some sort.

"Have you noticed human?" It asked Shadow. "I’ve set up a barrier stopping the three of you from leaving here" he said.

Three of you? Then she was still alive? Shadow had to act quickly---

A fist appeared in front of Shadow, landing a solid hit on Shadow’s torso, sending him flying to the ceiling of the cave, smashing into it whilst sending fragments of rock flying about. Shadow coughed out an unhealthy amount of blood as he fell to the ground.

He screamed in pain, anguish, his broken rib had pierced deeper into his lungs, he had an internal bleeding and wasn’t sure what to do next. Unconsciously, he looked to the corner where Liora had been hiding, he needed to save her.

Something huge picked him up from his neck, he struggled defiantly, trying to loosen the demons grip on his neck. His body wasn’t moving as well as he wanted it too.

He began freezing the demon’s hand again, Instead, the demon threw him up slightly, folded its fists together and smacked them along the back of Shadow. Sending him smashing to the floor of the cave so hard that he bounced back up.

The demon caught him midair and slammed him to the wall, folded its fists and drove another punch into Shadows belly.

Crack!

He spluttered out another torrent of blood. He placed his hands in front of him to defend, another punch came, it dislocated his right shoulder, rendering his right arm useless.

The demon kept attacking, and all Shadow could do was keep taking on the attacks.

Crack!

Something else had broken, he wasn’t sure what it was, neither was he sure where it was. But it was too late, he had exhausted his mana using shadow energy to cover himself and reinforce his body, or else he would have died from the first attack.

"You disappoint me human!" The demon picked Shadow up from his head. "You raise my expectations just to be.... This?" It cried out, flinging Shadow to another section of the wall, grinding his face against it.

"Why!" It threw Shadow back to the ground like a rag doll, stomping on him, breaking his bones, destroying his entire body as it pleased.

Shadow was on the verge of death, he could hardly even move, not breathe, his eyes were barely open as he accepted his fate. Death wasn’t so foreign to him, he just wished that he could have gotten her to safety.

He wished to was strong enough to save Liora. He felt himself fading away, death’s arms wide open, welcoming him to eternal slumber.

[NOTICE]

[PLAYER’S LIFE IS IN PERIL]

[REQUEST FOR POSSESSION]

Syl... His mind was fading away, any moment now his heart would stop.

[REQUEST FOR POSSESSION]

[EMERGENCY...]

[REQUEST OVERRIDDEN]

[BEGINNING POSSESSION]

[POSSESSION COMPLETE].