Chapter 2: Disqualified as Human, Passed as Demon(2)

The answer was right in front of me.

“Kreuk, aaak… ugh… ugh.”

He stuck out his tongue, flailing it wildly before spewing bubbling blood. Red, like spaghetti sauce, splattered onto the grass.

His limbs shook and collapsed, as if electrocuted. Secretions leaked out, reeking horribly.

In a panic, I fired Zoltrak, aiming at them as they charged. It erased the heads of the spearman and swordsman in an instant.

The archer, Rosen, saw their heads vanish like they’d been wiped away with an eraser. He froze. A scream, like a strangled monkey, burst from his mouth.

“You, you fcking idiot! Johan, Jack—!”

‘Are you serious?’ his scream seemed to say. But the two corpses, soulless, stayed silent.

Blood from the bodies soaked into the soil, turning pale maroon to an ominous black. The air around Rosen shifted, heavy and palpable.

From courage, determination, and greed.

To fear, regret, and a desperate will to live.

But Rosen didn’t run. Gripping his dagger with trembling hands, he charged like a wild leopard.

“You fcking demon bastard! Get lost!”

I took a deep breath.

‘One more shot. One more kill.’ I bit my lip. Blood filled my mouth, but I ignored it. The need to survive screamed in my head.

“Zoltrak!”

A silver gleam, laced with death, shot from my fingertips—

—and tore off Rosen’s right side.

“Ugh! Ugh, whoosh, eww!”

Blood poured from his mouth like a waterfall, splashing my face. His insides spilled through the gash in his side.

He staggered but stayed upright. One hand held the dagger; the other shoved his straying organs back inside.

He came at me with sheer stubbornness.

“What? Why are you alive? Why aren’t you dead…?”

My voice dripped with fear and confusion. Tears welled up again. ‘I’m terrified. Why aren’t you falling? Your side’s ripped open. It’s gotta hurt.’

I turned to run. As I stretched out my arms to crawl, a shadow loomed over me. Hot blood dripped onto my skin.

It was Rosen.

“Magic, three times… you can’t use it anymore.”

He meant Zoltrak. He was right. I didn’t know how old Aura’s body was, but it was small, childlike. A loli, basically.

My magic was drained. I could feel it, an instinct from this magic-using demon body.

So I begged, pathetic and desperate.

“I-I’m sorry! I… I lost my mind for a second! Can we talk? Please?”

I sobbed, rambling nonsense, not even sure what I was saying.

Rosen grinned.

“Fck you, btch.”

Something cold and hot sliced through my flesh, burrowing deep.

“Ah, ahhh! Ahhhhh!”

Pain shot up my spine, raging in my brain. Sharp stabs burned where the dagger cut my side.

Blood to blood, side to side. ‘No, that’s bullsht.’ It hurt. I was dizzy. Going crazy. My vision burned red and black.

“…”

My body moved on its own, despite my screaming mind. I poured every bit of magic left into the wound in my abdomen, trying to heal it.

Through gritted teeth, enduring the pain, my obsession carved itself into the air.

“I’ll live… I’ll live. Until the very end… I’ll survive!”

Before I knew it, Rosen dropped his dagger. He collapsed silently, draped over me.

My eyelids sank, like a curtain closing on a play.

I fought, clinging to the thought of not dying, but it was useless.

I passed out.

…

…

…

My eyes opened.

Birds chirped faintly, their sound bouncing off countless leaves, humming. The sun blazed high in the sky.

My face was sticky, caked in blood and flesh. I rubbed it with my palms, wincing as pain flared in my side.

A weight pressed on my body.

“He’s dead.”

Rosen, crushing my lower half, looked asleep in death. His eyes stayed open, but his mouth curved slightly, like a smile or a sob.

Staring into his frozen eyes, I thought, ‘I won.’

‘I survived.’

I clenched my fist, muttering to myself.

My side, where the dagger had sliced, had somehow healed. A blood-crusted dagger lay a foot away.

I looked at it, then at Rosen.

A late gasp of awe escaped me.

“A person can live like this…?”

I didn’t know what drove him—revenge, maybe—but he’d dragged himself, half-dead, after I killed his comrades with Zoltrak, and still stabbed me. What was life if not a blazing fire? A fire that burns brightest before it fades.

My heart pounded. Longing? Jealousy? Love? No. It was admiration.

Awe for something I’d never touch.

I’d never understand what drove him to burn so fiercely. A vast chasm, bigger than the divide between human and demon, separated us.

I stood, shaky. Rosen’s rotting corpse lay limp. I stared at him for a long time.

Then I grabbed the dagger, limped to a tree, and cut two straight branches.

I wove some vines together, making a rough cross.

I arranged Rosen’s body neatly and placed the cross at his head. I wasn’t religious, but it felt right.

My thigh, still injured, oozed blood. I ignored it and stood before him, limping.

“Goodbye. It was a messy meeting. I don’t know if ghosts exist, but let’s never meet again. Goodbye.”

I turned and walked.

I wanted to go somewhere.

Somewhere without a lake.