There I was face to face with a… Something that very much looked like a demon… It… Or she… Stood up, her weight shifting, slowly leaning into a fall off the back of the coffin, appearing directly behind me in an instant, almost before she even left my line of sight.
With a quick jerk of my arms, I blocked her scythe, but the blade reached around my sword and nicked my shoulder. 'That's not an illusion… She's actually teleporting!'
She smiled again, and the moment her feet hit the ground, she kept falling, down into the abyss, this time appearing to my side and nearly cutting off both my feet with a sharp pull before twirling around and flipping her scythe back across her shoulders. "You should know. I've never lost a fight to a Riftwalker. But, then again. If there was actually a chance of my losing, it probably wouldn't be this much fun." She lifted a finger to her chin, her eyes trailing off to the side.. "It might be kinda scary…"
'Well… At the very least, I bet she's never faced one quite like me, so her not losing to the others hardly means anything… Especially since I can do things they couldn't… I took a deep breath, my brow pushing together reflexively as if my body was begging me not to go through with the signals it had already received to spark a flame in my stomach. 'This is going to hurt… I'm not in the right form…'
She slowly sank into the ground and appeared directly above me. I surged my soul into my greatsword and took her scythe head-on, hitting the shaft hard enough to force it out of the way before punching her arm hard enough that she dropped it. Before she could land, I flooded the ground with black ice that reached up and wrapped around her while I breathed fire and scorched every part of her that wasn't trapped.
Even in the abyss, it hurt so bad my eyes watered as fire scorched my insides… But I was sure she wasn't having a great day either… I kept moving, stabbing her in the chest straight through. All the while, her eyes just went wide, staring at me in shock. Her expression gave me a sense of relief that I had won… But after a moment, her wide smile came back, making that same relief turn to another shot of adrenaline.
'My sword was big enough that it should have taken out both hearts just then… I mean… Her entire torso is practically gone…'
She disappeared the way Rafi did, vanishing into a black fog instead of moonshiners. Once again, she appeared behind me, sitting on top of the coffin, the coffin that was now moving on its own… As if something was trying to get out… Black blood was dripping down her chin from her mouth, but instead of slowing to a crawling death, her body was regenerating.
"Ok, you won... In exchange, I guess I'll tell you." Rolling her eyes, she extended out an arm and looked at her nails, slowly shortening as if she was retracting her claws. Flicking them a few times, she leaned over on her right knee, staring at me for a moment before she smirked again. Not a wry smile, or even a wide one, but one soft enough that it felt out of place on her wide and jagged mouth, maybe even a little sad, if she was capable of such an emotion.
A soul burst forth next to her, jerking her body and making her shudder, her neck twitching before she calmed down. It was just a scared little girl shaking and crying, keeping her head down and covering her ears with fingers tensed between strands of her long hair. "This is the original soul of the person that turned into this demon. She doesn't like feeling despair, so she's sad."
'Who would have guessed…' "If her original soul was in there… Why can't she turn back into a… You know, not a demon…" 'Is there a word for half human half goblin? Halfbreed seems kind of like a slur… It's not very specific either.'
"Who says she can't?" Standing back up on the coffin she carefully reached out her hand as if afraid to touch the child, sucking her soul back into the body when she finally did. "You of all people should know your soul can separate into many different parts, and if a soul has turned black, it only means it can separate into even more parts, and change even more… Not that it loses the ability to change. It's not like she turned into a dragon."
"You mean… Ok, why aren't you dead? Sorry… But the big hole… And the dripping blood just kinda… It's kinda freaking me out…" My voice shook slightly, as my nerves forced me to twist my foot, as if trying to find a better grip on the ground that wasn't even there, my stomach starting to twist.
She just began laughing, "Don't worry about it. I admit, I was surprised, not only can you use sword soul arts, but black magic, sense arts, and dragon breath? What you've done to your body is… Monstrous." Once one of her hearts had been restored, she fell to the ground in a heap, and the coffin vanished. "I'll give her to you as a present. I've had my fill of fun for the day." Her last words echoed. Through the black fog itself, the body twitched one more time, and finally began acting… Normal? Becoming unresponsive, though still regenerating, now able to rely on its working heart and demonic blood.
Instead of please help, the girl's soul was simply just weeping, and that was the only resounding sound I could hear. The gremlin corpse started growling like a feral dog with blank eyes as it gagged on its own blood, and my sword was still dripping with a black stain, resting just inches away from a final slash… It was moments like that that I was truly grateful I could stop time, even if it was only so I could think.
'Why can't I get rid of the darkened part of her soul… I mean… There was that time with Lu when my dragon repelled Rafi's influence on her… But she wasn't a demon… The principle is similar, though, right? A part of me feels like I should just finish it… Even if I revert her form, her soul won't fundamentally change… Putting her out of her misery… Or, maybe she isn't even in control… I could just be seeing a fragment, like those that follow Rafi. She might already be gone.'
I was in the abyss, so even as time began to move again, there was no breath to feel in my lungs, no air to waft between my fingers as I moved… Nothing really to tell me I was alive… Despite how cold and emotionless I felt standing there… I suppose my actions spoke for themselves. I squatted down next to her. 'Then again, this kid is only half demon… She was only half human. So if ever there was a chance, wouldn't it be given to someone like her?' I grabbed her deformed body and took us both back to the mortal plane. 'Now for the hard part… Come on out, Mr Dragon.'
Focusing my soul, I merged with the dragon inside of me, simultaneously trying to use dark magic to focus my soul around the girl. Instead of changing forms, a massive ring of gold and orange exploded outward from my body as if the two halves of my soul had just bounced off of each other, causing me to completely lose all feeling for a moment and fall to the ground. Just like the backlash from changing forms, but so… So much worse…
'Incompatible… Is a bit of an understatement… Don't you think, Rafi?'
I opened my eyes to see the girl begin to blink. Pupils formed in her eyes, and her claws fully retracted, her proportions normalising as her hands shrank slightly and her bones shortened here and there.
'No way… So… Does this mean you can reverse becoming a demon? Or… Will her soul still be trapped in the abyss when she dies? Maybe she'll just turn back into a demon later? or…'
No matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn't move, my own nervousness eventually stopping my thoughts at the realization that I just incapacitated myself… Without killing the demon right next to me, which was quickly regenerating.
'Her wounds aren't healing as fast as before… Maybe I should have waited… I'm lucky they are still healing like this at all. Did she not revert fully? No… It would be crazier if she did right? Like how I can still breathe fire, even when I'm not in my dragon form. She still has two hearts and can heal faster… Not the worst changes I could imagine… Then again, I don't know what she looked like before. Goblins don't usually have black and white skin like ash.'
I sighed, finding some relief once her eyes closed and she appeared to be resting, rather than becoming an immediate threat. "She's as small as Rune… Half goblin huh…' I wound up nearly falling asleep myself, both her hearts beating strongly again by the time I got my bearings and stood up… Her shirt was still a bit torn, of course, but to remedy that, I just gave her the poncho thing from my school uniform.
'Uh… My head…' A voice echoed, not through the air, but in my mind.
'Her mouth didn't move… Can I hear her thoughts?'
Her eyes went completely out of focus before zooming in, changing like lenses on a camera before finally adjusting, her ears twitching and her brow shaking as she came too.
"Hey, how do you feel? You're not going to try and eat me, are you?"
"What…" She groaned, raising a hand to her head. "Are you crazy? Who even are you? Do you have food?" her voice growled out, much raspier than before. "Ah… Must be a new kid… Listen, we're all super hungry, but if we talk about eating each other, it's just jokes, right? No one's ever actually done something like that."
'We're… We're off to a great start… "Do you remember anything that just happened? We fought, and you ended up hurt pretty badly."
After a short pause, her eyes went wide as she started reaching for her chest, not satisfied until she ripped everything off and stared at where the wound was.
"What uh… What did you do to me?" She asked, surprisingly calmly, despite her breath being a little short.
'I thought she'd be panicking more.' "You turned into a demon… And I brought you back… I did mess up your shirt, though, sorry about that."
She traced the massive scar with her fingernails, covering her from neck to waist. "You turned me back? No, you didn't? This isn't even my body… Wait, but…" Her fingers shook slightly, probably having too many questions to even think of any of them.
"Yeah well… About that…"
"And what do you mean by mess up? This is the only shirt I have, you know!" She growled. "You owe me a new one!" Her voice dropped dramatically, almost off the scale of audio I could even hear before she quickly inhaled and covered her mouth, still making her anger as threatening as if she were a demon.
'Well… I saved her… It's not like I can just leave her now anyway…' "Yeah, yeah… I was planning on buying you a new one anyway… You should put that back on before we leave, though… There is a reason people wear clothes…"
"Pft. Might as well just not wear one."
"No… I mean, my cloak…" I grimaced, pointing over to where she had thrown it…'Is she serious?' "Hey kid… How old are you anyway?"
"Who cares? Stopped caring after I stopped growing when I was 8. That was like forever ago. Wait, wait…" She lifted a hand to her head, thinking intently as her brow furrowed and she widened her stance. "I think that one kid said he was like 6 when he got here, and he was like… So then I'm like…" She closed her eyes, rubbing her face. "Like 20 or something? Or like 14, or 33, those numbers sound cool."
'Right…' I sighed, deciding to treat her like a child until she gave me a reason not to… "You have to wear something you know… The fact that you're fully grown… Really just makes that more important… I think?"
"Says you. If I'm naked, people are more likely to give me clothes."
"That's… One way to look at it… I guess…" I sighed. "If you cover yourself up and follow me, I'll buy you some new clothes… And if you behave… I'll give you some food too. Sounds good, right?"
She looked down at herself and awkwardly covered up, her fangs poking out as she softly bit her lip, speaking out the side of her mouth. "So I have a new body now… Is that right?"
"Yeah… Sorry…"
Her voice suddenly quieted down, becoming timid and far away. "But that means this body is clean, right?"
"I mean… Your whole upper half is basically brand-new tissue… So… Yeah… That's one way to look at it."
"Forget it… It doesn't matter…" She picked herself up and put her clothes back on, brushing off the dust and wiping some of her blood. "What's all this black stuff by the way? Is this like your kink or something?"
'Oh… This kid… It's going to be fun… Isn't she…' "It's your blood… Demons bleed black. Although I don't know if that's still true since I undemofied you."
"Undemofied… There's no way that's a word… Hey, do you have a knife I can borrow?"
"Uh… Sure." 'Is she going to try and fix her clothes? How would a knife help with that, though?' I pulled my small knife out from my belt and flipped it so I was holding the blade before handing it to her.
"Wow, it's so sharp!" She marveled before slashing her forearm in one clean stroke, revealing bright pink blood that began to leak across her pale skin. "Hey, I thought you said I had black blood, what the heck is this?"
"I-I… told you 'demons' have black blood…" I groaned, my brow pushing together as I quickly took the knife away from her, bonking her on the head with the handle. "Don't cut yourself! What's wrong with you!"
"You gave me the knife…" She muttered back.
'Is she serious? How is this kid not dead?'
"It looks like candy."
I was pinching the bridge of my nose when I raised my eyes back to see her admiring the streak running down her arm and dripping on the ground. "You mean your blood…" 'at least she regenerates on her own, but… She shouldn't have known that…
She licked it… Keeping her eyes locked on mine, the whole time before her face quickly contorted, and she spat it out. "Ugh… So bitter…"
'I wonder if it's at all similar to demon blood? Would it make my fire turn black? Like when I fought the conqueror demon with Lu?'
Her eyes locked with mine again, almost betraying her timid face. "You wanna try it?" She asked, raising her arm.
"NO!" I shouted, hurting my throat as it recovered from the burns. 'Wel… Kinda… But not in this form, at least. And certainly not under these circumstances…'
She jerked back, flinching away before recovering with an awkward laugh. "Figures, I should have. Woh, hey, the wound's already healed… What the…"
I sighed again, leading her out of the neighborhood, and all of the kids slowly lifted their heads as they saw us walking out. Staring as if I had raised her from the dead… Which might not have been far off… 'I'll have the Mafia come by here and recruit them all. That should be better than this at least…'
"Remember this. A new feature of that body of yours is rapid healing… But you still shouldn't hurt yourself, ok? You also have a second heart near your stomach, too…" My feet suddenly stopped as I looked back at her. 'Wait… But demons feed off emotions… So… If she's not a demon anymore, then… Can she even eat food? If she has a second heart, is her stomach also gone then? Or maybe it's just smaller…'
"Hey… You're blanking out."
"I'm not blanking out… I was just thinking about what we should eat."
Her eyes slowly drifted to the side as she shied away, almost like she felt as though she had done something wrong, but also like… She was somehow relieved, expecting a much harsher answer. "Oh…"