The Painting

"good morning master," a young woman said with a slight bow as Sora got out of his room, Sora shook his head slightly at the woman, she was one of the people he saved from that underground dungeon, and she went on to become one of Sora most trusted people

"Sarah, you need not call me master... and what got you here so easy today?" Sora asked with a shake of his head, this woman was one of his most trusted people, he saw her more as a friend than anything else. she was extremely loyal of course, someone he could put his trust in without worry or fear.

Sarah ignored Sora's first part of the sentence and went on to report her reason for coming, it turned out that there was some trouble amongst the nobles who needed her to look after them.

"Leave that to Sakura, I will be leaving today to travel the world. I will be back within 5 years." Sora said making Sarah almost drop the clipboard in her hands, she looked at Sora in shock. how could a king up and disappear without a second thought?

"Sakura is more than capable of taking my place, is anything done that needs my help, talk to Brandon or any of my summons. they know how to speak to me even if I'm worlds away, I will teleport back here as soon as I could." Sora said with a smile,

"... my lord, you should take some guards with you. I will go and arrange the best of the best to go with you. I will also follow you." She said quickly, but Sora shook his head at her words.

"I will be leaving with Anna, Irene, and Iris, you have nothing to worry about. take a break, you've been working a bit too hard lately, don't overwork yourself to death." Sora said with a smile as he headed off, he had a few things to do before leaving,

"..." Sarah watched Sora leave with blank eyes, she was speechless for a moment, before biting her lips while looking at the clipboard. She didn't know what to think, why was taking Iris and not her?

anyways, Sora went on to tell a few people he was setting off, he made sure that the shadow demons which hide within the shadows heard of this news, and lastly he went on to tell his grandfather.

"... that's not a wise move. the demons have been restless lately, your strength scares them." His grandfather said seriously, stunning Sora slightly. he didn't expect the old man to give him a warning and even tell him about this stuff.

"Why are the demons afraid of a human who would be lucky to live past 100? plus, I don't fear the demons with my current strength. the respect the strong, so I will show them just how strong I am." Sora said with a shake of his head, His grandfather looked at him deeply for a moment, before nodding slightly,

"you have my support." He said softly, Sora smiled as he nodded towards him before waiting for her grandmother, after she came, Sora said goodbye and left. although his grandmother came with a tray of food, Sora was in a rush

"refuse to get many to anyone, and now wouldn't spend a little time with his grandmother." She pouted slightly while looking at Sora, she worked hard to get Sora a wife, but Sora looked down upon all of them, leaving her helpless, Sora standards were a bit... too high.

"don't mind him," Sora's grandfather said with a smile, if any demon were to see this, their eyes would be narrowed seeing a demon with such love and care towards a human.

a few hours later, Sora who was sitting in a bar in a small village saw the bar door open and Irene, Anna, and Iris entered, all 3 were wearing hoodies. seeing Sora, they walked over and sat down at the table with Sora,

"When did you start drinking alcohol?" Irene said with a disapproving look while looking at the mug of beer in Sora's hands,

"first drink, what you wanted to drink with me?" Sora asked with a smile, Irene snorted as she took the mug away, and with a flick, it flew to the counter.

"What was that for?" Sora asked with a frown,

"Watch your half, you don't want to also become an alcoholic," She said seriously, as she got stronger over the years, she was able to tell that Sora's lifespan wasn't like others, only at 60 years, no wonder he wanted to be immortal. he knew he didn't have that long to live.

in this area, if humans are not killed by outside powers, they could easily live for 100 years. some could even reach 200. the strong one is, it's usually the longer that they could live, yet Sora's lifespan was fixed at 60,

"she is right, you shouldn't be drinking," Iris said with a nod of her head, Sora rolled his eyes, but he didn't dive deeper into this matter. he only wanted to see how the alcohol of this world was compared to that of earth, and this world alcohol was indeed far better than that of earth

"Alright, let's head off to the lands of Giants. it's perfect as it's near to the fairy's forest," Irene said everyone nodded, as they got up, but at that moment Irene noticed something around Sora's neck, a glowing necklace, but the glow was slowly disappearing.

"what's that?" Irene asked with a raise of her eyebrow, Sora looked down at what she was pointing at before holding the necklace.

"It's a necklace I created. if I'm going to be immortal, I would like to store my memories, at least the important ones I might forget." Sora said with a smile, Irene's eyebrow raised slightly before a mocking smile appeared on her face,

"so you were moved that I cared so much for your health." She asked, it was not hard to guess that it blowing was storing this moment away.

"It's more of a pain in the ass... this is the start of the journey, so it's most likely choice now to store," Sora said with a sneer. but his words only made Irene smile grow, So Sora didn't know when it would store moments, it was all based how his feelings. it was proven even more so by the fact it was glowing right now,

"I still don't think it's a good idea for you to get immortality," Iris said softly, being immortal and total, you would outlive everyone you care about, and if by chance you can't die even if you want to, then would that not be torture?

"don't worry, I plan to see what makes the foundation of youth so special, and if I could recreate it that would be for the best," Sora said with a smile, stunning Iris for a moment, but at least this would be better than the first options,

and so they headed off, it took them 2 days before they arrived at the Giant kingdom, the number of giants was small, around a few hundred thoughts, this was because they had a low reproductive rate compared to humans. they could live hundreds of years and were extremely powerful, but their reproduction rate was low,

"damn, everything is giant size?" Sora said while carrying Iris on his back, Iris although over 16 years old was a little loli, she was not physically strong so he carried her. they just entered a tribe belonging to the giant race, and as one might expect, everything was huge.

"no wonder they make most of their money by selling ores," Irene said softly, the tribe was built next to a mountain, which was the main place where the giants sleep. giants are skilled with earth magic, they were one with the earth.

"something is off..." Anna said with a frown, why was the tribe empty, the sword was not shaking, or any traces of a giant was nowhere to be seen?

"they seemed to have left a few hours ago, the tracks all point toward a sudden retreat," Iris said while looking around the place, Iris had a sharp mind, easily capable of guessing a person's every move before they could even think of it.

"were they panicking?" Sora asked calmly, Iris shook her head,

"no, it seems like they had time to pack their stuff, but they left behind things that were not needed. but what could care the giants?" She asked in confusion, everyone frowned before they went on to look around.

"what are you doing?" Irene asked with a blank look while looking at Sora who had a huge treasure chest that had a bunch of gold coins.

"It's not like they would be needing it... there are like 50,000 gold coins here." Sora said with a smile, Irene would not be Irene if she allowed Sora to steal the gold.

"sigh, you're a king yet would lower yourself to such a level for a worldly potion," Irene said with a shake of her head, Sora rolled his eyes at her words, he needed the money to buy stuff,

"This should be the tribe leader's house, he seems to have been packing to the gold to run away with it, but left it behind," Sora said as he jumped up, and landed on the bed which was more than 10 times larger than the average bed

"what if he had some giant bed bugs, you just going to sit on the bed?" Irene asked, Sora froze slightly while looking down at her, with a sigh he stood up and looked at the huge bed to see if there was anything useful

"that's a nice painting," Sora said as he pointed towards a painting on the side of the wall not too far away, it was of course giant in size. Irene looked at the panting, and her eyes widened slightly. She and Sora didn't have a sense of art, but they could tell the panting before them was special.

it was of a beautiful woman, she was standing in a hall, overlooking the endless sea, the sun setting, painting the water a unique color. if one looked closely at the sea, one would see that it was filled with a bunch of people who were drawing. the woman was watching all of this, with her hands together as if she was preying on them.

Sora and Irene took a moment to enjoy the planting, but the two suddenly froze when they saw something.

"... weird, I thought I just saw her hair move," Irene said with a frown, she also didn't sense the usage of magic, so what was going on here? Sora was also confused, so they went over to look at the panting,

using wind magic, the two floated up, and went on to look at the painting, they looked at it closely, before noticing that the people drawing were giants, they were wearing the clothing that giants had on, simple clothing which was not hard to make, with helmets

"It's weird, when I focus, I can hear their cries," Irene said with a deep frown, she was getting uneasy, and Sora also nodded as he was getting that uneasy feeling. looking over toward the woman, he flew over to look at her.

her hair was painted in a way where it blew wildly within the sea, being so lost, Sora could see how detailed the painting was. it was like a picture. taken out of reality. Sora could even see her fingers which were together, her eyelashes, the detail of her skin, and so on,

"This... is it not too detailed?" Irene asked while also looking at her, she turned to look at Sora, who also nodded with a deep frown, Sora turned to look around the house, but his attention was drawn by Irene whose face suddenly changed while looking at him... no, it was not at him.

Sora quickly turned around and saw the woman in the painting had turned around and was looking straight at him. her horrifying face was pale as if she had no blood running through her veins. her eyes were a strange blood-red color, which bought a sense of horror to those who saw them.

uncontrollable fear overwhelmed Sora, stunning him to the spot. the woman in the painting suddenly reached out, trying to grab him, but Irene flashed grabbing Sora and pulling him out of her reach while snapping him out of that sense of fear.

Sora had cold sweat covering him, he knew what just happened, and he was stunned. so he had resistance, but he was unlucky and was stunned with fear.

"yoouuu." The woman roared with unimaginable wrath while pointing a finger at Irene as if she killed her mother or something.

"did you steal her boyfriend or something?" Sora asked with a frown, Irene threw a cold look at Sora. seeing this, Sora quickly changed the subject.

"what is see," Sora asked with a frown, Irene was more knowledgeable about this stuff than him, Irene Snorted before turning to look at the painting.

"It's said that thousands of years ago, a woman with unmatched painting skills caught the attention of the gods. Athena grew jealous as it was said she was more skilled than her, so... Athena challenged her, and ended up losing." Irene said softly,

"out of rage, she cursed the woman to become what she was most skilled at... a painting. she went on to hunt others, drawing them into her painting so she can't be alone," Irene said while taking a deep breath,

"... I never understood why people worship those so-called gods," Sora said with a deep frown as he stepped forward towards the painting, Irene's eyes widened at Sora's words. she quickly reached out to stop Sora, but it was too late as Sora entered the painting.

"Haha, I sense she has deep feelings for you." the woman said with a twisted smile while looking at Sora before back towards Irene who shot towards the painting but found that she couldn't enter.

"I know." Sora pointed forward while casting [Cleanse Ward], [Cleanse Ward] was a spell reach removes negative wards upon a person. this of course went for curses, but there were some complex curses that were harder to remove than others. this one was one of such curses.

"... w-what did you do?" the woman who was about to draw Sora before Irene froze as she felt her curse weaken,

"I can of course break that curse of yours, what a ruthless curse. do you want to be free once more?" Sora asked while holding out a palm toward the woman, the woman froze not knowing what to say or do for a moment,

"y-you can help me?" she asked in a soft voice, she didn't want to believe it, after thousands of years like this, she lost herself. the curse affected more than just her body, but even her mind as well, making it twisted. she was once a beautiful teen, but she wanted to prove her talent.

she believed if she defeated a good, she could make enough money to support her family, her sick mother, and help her little brother. she beat the god, but in return, she was punched, and even her parents who had nothing to do with this were punished.

she went mad, and the curse swallowed her, and she turned into the monster who seek others to down. she was the painting she made back then, it was so perfect that even those who knew nothing about art were moved just by seeing it.

she became her own creation but turned into a monster, and now Sora was reaching out a hand saying he could help her. she was moved... but most of all, she was scared. scared that he speaking empty words,

with a roar, she rushed toward Sora, seeing this, Sora sighed as he pointed forward and cast [Freeze]. with that move, she turned ice blue and was unable to move.

"Normally I will kill you... but you are special. I take pity upon you, the gods have wronged you... like many others." Sora said as he cast [Cleanse Ward] none stop.

"..." Irene's eyes brightened slightly while looking at this scene, Sora was a one-of-a-kind person in her eyes. a ruthless man who would kill as he wish but will do it for the greater good. he was willing to go to war with a kingdom after seeing the injustice done to Iris and others, slaughter all of the nobles within his own kingdom who were doing dirty things

and now, he was willing to offend the gods to help a random person he stumbled upon, meanwhile, she was thinking of killing her...

'even if he isn't the hero... he is mine.' She thought with bright eyes, did Irene like Sora? of course. sadly, she was going to be queen and Sora was a king of another kingdom, so Sora could only become her best friend. like an elder brother she looks up to even though she was older, but at times would step forward when Sora is about to do the wrong thing. like stealing gold or something like that.

'now, this would be someone good to turn against the gods. this curse seems to have strengthened her, and with thousands of years' worth of souls devoured... I can't wait to see how powerful she would be.' Sora thought with bright eyes, he had stumbled upon someone who the gods have wronged, this was a good step