57 Demonic Being

It was alchemy.

In this day and age, alchemy was sorely looked down upon in more than half the continents. It was usually known for its fraudulent ways. But what was even less known was its dark powers.

There were many in the world who would scam off of people in the name of alchemy, giving it a bad name, but what people had forgotten was the very first incident that had caused alchemy's name to stumble into a never ending downfall.

And that was the birth of the dark arch alchemist.

He was revered as the most unholy alchemist a millennium ago. The man who yanked corpses from graves and wrenched souls out of body's as if they were mere objects.

He defied the will of nature and stepped on the words of the Gods, becoming a heretic to all followers of God.

And once he reached the peak of his power, he had raised an army of the undead and platoons of puppets who were nothing else but living shells.

It was in that dark age that each continent arose and fought as one.

The beasts of the south.

The wanderers of the west.

The pagans of the north.

The lords of the east, and even the demons from the central continent.

Each and every one of the five continents came together and settled their differences to fight the arch alchemist in a battle that lasted centuries.

And when he finally fell, the world seemed to have regained its peace. But the world wasn't the only thing to regain something.

Each continent had lost their common goal. And so each continent had regained its prejudices towards each other, resulting in the fierce battle that followed.

With this sort of history, you would think that people would have learned something of it centuries ago. Taking into account everything that had happened.

But it was as if the continents erased their deeds of working together as if it was a disgrace and erased this history from the lands. And slowly but surely, everyone forgot. No one knew of what had transpired that millennium ago.

But somehow, Kayda knew. She remembered that event her parents told her all those years ago as a bedtime story.

A story about demons, humans, beasts, elves and dwarfs working together to defeat undead puppets and evil alchemists.

A story about corpses with rotting nails and pale eyes that looked like people, but were merely rotting shells.

And she knew their weakness as well.

But even with those coachmen standing before her then, with every distinct characteristic she remembered from that old fable, she still held on to doubt.

It wasn't possible, was it?

That a mere bedtime story could come true. And what if these beings before her weren't corpses and she was wrong?

But what else could it be?

With doubts swirling in her mind like an unwavering storm, Kayda took on a defensive stand with her hands raised to fight.

But right as she moved, the coachmen moved as well.

As if locked onto her, they move forward if she so much as flinched. But when she held still, so did they.

Kayda narrowed her eyes. Even if she was wrong, it didn't matter. These men had to die.

Seeming to have taken in a deep breath, Kayda held an abundance of mana within her lungs before making a sudden move.

As her tail swung around her, the corpses leapt forward at her with teeth bared and nails outreached.

And finally with the momentum, Kayda used the breath of mana she had held in and blew out a breath of fire.

The white flames licked at each one of the corpses. It didn't take much, but when the corpses felt the heat of her flame, they backed off wearily, showing an uncharacteristic expression of fear in their otherwise stiff faces.

But it was already too late.

The flames had licked their fingertips, and that was all it took before it consumed them from the inside out.

Each corpse made an attempt to flee or to make a gargled cry of pain, but before it could properly reach the air, they quickly turned to dust.

And any noise that they did make was quickly drowned out by the sound of fighting beasts.

Looking at the piles of ashes before her, Kayda's mind turned at an unbearable pace as questions filled her mind. Questions that seemed to hold no answers.

Right as she was deep in thought, there was a slight nose coming from one of the carriages.

Snapping herself out of her daze, Kayda quickly shoved each and every question into the recesses of her mind before hopping on top of a carriage to see Mr. Gerad hurriedly trying to make his escape.

How unlucky he was to have hired her as an adventurer.

Blood lust quickly consumed her when she thought about what he was going to do to Louren and then her.

As if feeling the blood lust, Mr. Gerad turned on his heels, trying to survey his surroundings.

If only he had looked up he would have seen a pair of emerald green eyes that had glowed in the dark like fireflies lighting up the night.

But he saw no such thing and tried to make a turn to leave. But before he could even step foot onto the carriage, white flames consumed his vision and the next second, he was consumed within a raging fire.

Mr. Gerad couldn't make a single sound at first but as the flames disappeared around his limbs, he felt a hot, scalding heat burn under his skin.

He could feel his blood boil as blisters started to form along his arms and legs before they popped, leaving a warm and disgusting burning scent to waft through the air.

It was at that moment that the pain registered and his screams echoed out. Before he could continue though, a dirty piece of rag was shoved into his gaping mouth cutting his blood curdling cry's short.

When his tear stained eyes looked up, his body froze in shock.

Kayda stood before him with a white flame dancing in between her fingers. It's lithe and graceful movements resembled a living thing as it licked her finger tips.

As the flame danced, it lit up her thin face and her grim expression.

And as the flickering light catched upon her hair, it also gave Mr. Gerad a glimpse of her curved ivory horns and her swaying scaled tail.

When he realized what she was, Mr. Gerad immediately started to struggle. Despite the slow and torturous burning of his limbs, he still tried to fight for his life.

Kayda only looked at him with indifference.

Leaning forward, Kayda's eyes held the deadly threat of death.

"Where did you get those coachmen?"

Kayda's words shocked Mr. Gerad but he only continued to struggle in pain. Seeming to not even care to try and answer her question.

Kayda was becoming inpatient. Brandishing her claws, she yanked out the gag and pressed her nails against his throat.

Feeling the sharp claws pressing against his throat pierce his skin, he could only stay still as his scalp went numb with fear and pain.

An eerie grin seemed to form on Kayda's lips. Her expression causing Mr. Gerad to feel another type of fear crawling up his spine like spiders against his skin.

"Mr. Gerad." Her cold voice pierced his ears. He suddenly felt a new wave of heat travel through his limbs causing him to scream out. But then, it suddenly subsided.

"I can make sure that every one of your tendons, blood vessels and bones burn one by one while your blood boils under your skin for days.

You won't be able to sleep or eat, as every time you pass out from the pain, another wave of fire will slowly make its way through your body to wake you up once again."

Listening to her promise, Mr. Gerad's breath hitched with fear before he felt a warm liquid run in between his legs.

Kayda wanted to throw up at the sight but kept a straight face.

"Where did you get those coachmen?" She repeated.

This time, Mr. Gerad was more "motivated" to answer.

"The auction house!" He screamed.

"Every merchant under the Serpent of the Sun auction house gets servants to drive their merchandise! But I'm only a level two merchant so all I know is that the person who distributes the servants is manag-"

Before he could finish his statement, he seemed to have choked on something.

Without warning, Mr. Gerad spurted out a mouthful of a clotted black substance before his body suddenly started spasming like that of a seizure.

Rabidly, his body lost weight as a black substance poured out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nose before his skin turned black and all that was left was a slimy black substance that was absorbed into the ground, killing any plant that touched it.

Kayda looked at this scene with cold eyes. The smell of the black goo made Kayda scrunch up her nose in disgust.

It was poison. One that acted out when certain words were said. She had seen this before when she had worked under a noble.

But what did this mean? Was the name of the manager that Mr. Gerad was about to speak of so important that it triggered the poison?

And there was another thing that he had said. The Serpent of the Sun auction house. She had heard of someplace similar before. The largest auction house in the western continent Zedrul, the Serpent of the Moon auction house. This couldn't be a coincidence.

"Snap*"

The single sound echoed like thunder. Kayda twisted around only to see Jacksan all mangled and bloody staring at her like he was staring at some demonic being.