Chasing Shadows (p)

About a week had passed since his encounter with Blighters Vine in Tolgalen, as well as the invitation that came to draw him into the west fiore trading company. Not being much of a Guild person as he hated being told what to do by a bunch of bureaucrats, or anyone for that matter, Solmar had ventured back to the Greenscape for a while. As a portal had been made within the most forest-rich area of Tolgalen, he could use the natural world as a means of traveling between Tolgalen and Fiore, since the other portal was located deep within Sakuramori. Though it was not something that should be used as such, Solmar currently being the only person who was aware of them meant he was the only one who could make use of such a trick. Besides, it also allowed him to check up on the small bits and pieces of the Greenscape he wandered through, making sure everything was alright on the other end too. After all, he had a lot more responsibilities back there than he had over here in Earthland, or at least that was what it felt like to him.

When he re-emerged on Earthland through the Sakuramori portal however, he smelled something that had most likely been laid out as a means to trick him. It was without a doubt the same thing he had smelled after both he and Gangting took out a monster used to breed other, smaller monsters in an attempt at devouring the beanstalk and thereby destroying the village built inside of it. The scent in particular belonged to the man… or rather the thing that posed itself as a human priest and had planned to start sacrificing people to the gods of nature that had blessed them with their beanstalk. As the thing the priest worshipped was in fact not something that had anything to do with nature at all, but was rather a thing that would see all life corrupted and devoured, he had known the gig was up when his behemoth had been slain. Showing himself to the two mages responsible for killing it, the priest proved that he was a monster too, just not of the massively overgrown variety, though equally ugly. Showing his ability to take the shape of people he had killed, he made it clear to Solmar and Gangting that others like him had infiltrated society and would bring about its destruction from within.

At first, Solmar had spent some time wondering why the priest would tell him such a thing when he, at the time, could have clearly been able to keep his mouth shut and probably kill the two mages in their weakened states to boot. Though the past three months had made him a lot stronger and in control of his magic and his abilities, he was still adjusting to it and the fact that it constantly adapted to other magics used around him. Due to this ever evolving manner of growth, truly adjusting was something he might never truly be able to do, though it had made certain things easier for him already. One of these things being his slayer senses, which allowed him to track this otherworldly scent across the woodlands of Sakuramori all the way to the Phoenix mountains. As both areas were quite familiar to him as a result of his hunts and other escapades within the region, he did not have a hard time following the scent. At times, he was sure he could see the priest up ahead, though always out of his reach. At other times, he could swear he heard an eerie laughter carried upon the winds, all clear signs that it was messing with him and clearly wanted the young mage to follow.

By the time they got further up into the mountains, the harsh winds and occasional snowfall at times nearly killed the scent, though it lingered just long enough for Solmar to follow it into a small village on the far side of the mountain. While he had been to the village at the foot of the mountain and had ventured into the mountains themselves, this was a place he had never had to visit up until today, meaning he had no idea what would await him once he entered. Luckily for him, it seemed to be a very calm and quiet place, or maybe that was merely what it was meant to seem like that were the case. After all, something wicked was pulling the strings here and had willfully drawn him to this place, not knowing that the black haired mage had gone through quite some developments of his own since the last time they met. Doing his best to follow what remained of the scent, he turned around a corner and saw but a single person wandering about. Normally, he might not have thought to much of it, but the fact that he had been led here all the way from the woodlands made him believe that the priest, or one of his followers just might hide themselves as a green haired woman. After all, it stood out quite a bit from your normal black, brown or blond hair.

Trying not to stand out too much as he normally stood out plenty when he didn't even try, he put his hood down while keeping the rest of his body hidden beneath a thick fur coat. With his shaggy black hair and fairly tall stature, he would walk towards her with his golden yellow eyes fixated on his targets. As he did, his pupils contracted from their normal round shape into a more reptilian slit, finding it hard to contain any anxiety he felt towards potentially ridding the world of a larger threat to society. So as he closed the distance between them, he was ready for either of two outcomes. It was either going to be an ordinary human being, or he was going to step on the toes of a cosmic being that had been waiting for him to get her for whatever purpose that might be. As he drew ever closer, only time would tell what would come up next.


(1037)

Yona Hisamori normally went everywhere in her guild clothing, adorned in all white with a guild pin every where she went. She had worn the white clothing to her home village in the mountains a several of days ago, however since she had arrived, Yona had retreated back into her regular pants and a dense brown overcoat. The coat was obviously too big for her, having been her father's once, and it dragged its hem behind her heels along the cobble pathway through the village's only real street. Yona would be leaving tomorrow and so had spent the evening walking around the quiet village in equally quiet reflection. It was so close to nightfall that the chill in the air had sent everyone else back inside for the night. Families ate their supper, tucked in their children, and rested up for the next hard days work and this day was no different than any other. Her white boots were the only thing that remained of her usual guild clothing and they tapped along the stone until nearing the end of the street. Yona looked at the lavender and peach sky, seeing the light twinkle of stars as they crept into view and considered the safe feeling she carried with her as she had always done when gazing up at the open night sky.

As a girl, Yona and her brother, Sato, were just like the village children: her father dutifully collecting them from play and setting them to bed. They would wash their hands and faces before crawling into their rudimentary beds where her father would pinch the sheets and quilts in tightly around their bodies. All snuggled in, the children would listen to their father's nightly bedtime stories, appeased most often when he told of folklore, his own travels, or the tales of their mother. Yona would look out her bright window up at the stars, listening to her father's voice as she fell asleep, content and sure that nothing could ever harm her, positive that nothing would ever disrupt the life she was living then. Everything changed after the fire consumed her home and her family. Her legs still bore the scars of the fire and her mind still bore the scars as equally powerful with the memories of her father and brother calling out for aid as the house came crumbling down around them. She could practically feel her lungs fill up with imaginary ash and dust and the mage had to take a deep breath as her green eyes refocused on the stars above. She had reconnected with her brother through miraculous magic and fortune and the kindness of Oykai, Ruvel's contracted reaper, though he hated the term. She owed Oykai her and Sato's life.

It was Oykai's truths recently that gave her the bravery she had needed this time when she ventured back to the Mountain village. Instead of sleeping and enduring the elements outdoors, she elected to stay with her former neighbor, Hope Miller while visiting the area for her yearly pilgrimage of sorts. Yearly, Yona would travel here, assist the village with a variety of chores or challenging jobs, visit her father's grave, and find some peace by reflecting alone. Hope had been the woman in charge of caring for Yona long ago, tending to her wounds, mental and physical, and helping her to relearn how to walk and the now elderly woman was glad to have Yona staying with her. Still, as it was her last night in the village, the guild mage knew she wasn't finished until she went back up the hill outside the main village and visited her father's grave in the same place where he had been killed.

She exhaled and crossed her arms, feeling the cool crisp wind around her ears and fingertips. "It'll be my first time visiting dear old dad....tsehehehee..." Yona heard the voice inside of her head and closed her eyes. Ketsueki had reared his awful head and dared show his pointed fangs. Whenever Oykai was absent, Ketsueki tried his best to show himself considering he was far too afraid of the reaper to do so in those occasions. "I could help you dig him up... ashes and all... maybe I can lay down in that grave with you..." Yona clenched her teeth. Ignore him, she told herself. The demon was just trying to get a rise out of her, sensing her weakness in the face of her emotional trauma. "Love to just get the family back together... you could give me your body so I can feast here... you could have dozens of bodies to join your father... he won't feel so alone then will he..?" Yona stomped her foot and shouted, "Just shut up! Shut up!" The demon let out a howl of wicked laughter in her mind as he grabbed the reigns of her body.

For just a moment, her collarbone had split open, sprouting into two symmetric and large antler-like branches. Her mouth filled with sharpened teeth and her eyes became a blazing blue, as if they were literally on fire. Yona's nails grew sharp and the claws continued to grow all in the span of a few seconds. Yona felt the ache in her heart as Ketsueki showed her images of the people of her hometown dead by her hands. He spammed her with images of grotesque and gory depictions of all those she had encountered in the past few days, focusing on several torturous ones of dear old Hope Miller. Yona's rage was palpable, coming off her form in a single wave of heat. The light mist around her body, as if her whole being had let out a heated breath in the cold dusk air, circled her. "Behind you..~"

Yona turned and saw a tall shaggy black haired man walking towards her. The light came from behind him, hiding the figure's face in shadow, whereas her features were all lit up. Yona jerked control back and she reverted into the unusually beautiful appearance she had always worn: her own pale face, green eyes, supple pink lips, and brilliant and rich emerald hair. She wondered if the man approaching her had seen the transformation or had sensed Ketsueki's power, as some powerful mages could. "E-evening!" She called out. "I uh... thought I was alone. I don't remember seeing you around, are you just traveling through? Could I assist you with finding a place to stay the night?" The Mountain Village had a bunch of villages, and her small village was not really known for tourism, but what else would this stranger be doing here?

WC: 1126

Approaching her, he slowed his approach when he noticed something that made his right arm itch a bit. Whenever he sensed something demonic in origin, his tattoo would start itching like that as an early warning system for the young demon slayer. Due to the black ink turning white when it did so, he had chosen to cover the whole thing up with an elbow sleeve, one that did the job entirely too well as even the white glow of the tattoo could not shine through it. Funnily enough, he had never had this happen when Vetis threatened to emerge, which should have told him earlier that Vetis had never truly been a pureblooded demon to begin with. But that was a thought to dwell on some other time. Noticing a change in the atmosphere, one that became more notable when she suddenly shouted at someone to shut up and be quiet. Either this was a really good trick thrown his way by the priest, or this was an entirely different person who was plagued with something demonic that was tugging at her sanity, as Vetis had done so often to him. Noticing some strange growths, he could feel a heat radiating off of her as a fine mist started to form.

For better or for worse, it seemed like she was about to becoming something more demonic, something less human. When she turned to face him, he could see a glimpse of glowing blue eyes, though all of these odd features seemed to disperse once she realized that he was watching her. Seemingly being the shove she needed to take back control, his own firsthand knowledge on the matter made him realize pretty quickly that this woman was not the one he was looking for. Whether that made things better or made matters worse was something he still needed to figure out. In a way, knowing this person was not the one he was after meant that he wouldn’t have to fight and potentially kill a woman. On the other hand, if it had been the priest, he could have gotten things over with as he knew what he was dealing with, which was not so much the case with this woman. And now that she had seen him, and he had seen her and her… other outlandish features, there was really no way of knowing what to expect. At this point, he was quite aware of how his own eyes were not as they normally were, being capable of feeling the change as it came upon him, finding it comparable to a shiver going down one’s spine, except in the eyes.

An odd sensation indeed. It was clear enough to him that she had not noticed him before, likely due to whatever problem she was dealing with internally, so her shocked expression and response was not altogether unexpected. Upon asking him whether he was just passing through here or if she could help him find a place to spend the night, the itching along his right arm stopped as the entity had most likely receded back inside the dark portion of her subconscious that it called home. Though the itching on his arm went away, he could not shake the feeling that he was still being watched as a faint scent lingered around them, the scent he had followed all the way to this quaint little township. For some reason, the priest had brought him here to this person, though he could not figure out what the purpose for it was. Maybe he had wanted for Solmar to attack her, or be attacked by her and strike at him once his attention was focused on the battle. Though it was most likely a bad one altogether, this gave him the idea that might bring the priest out, even though the girl would most likely not like it much at all. Raising his right arm, white flames flickered on his fingertips as he looked at her.

“Actually… I came here to slay a demon. But seeing as you’re just a girl, I’ll give you a head start of five seconds before I’m coming for you. Wouldn’t want to get any villagers caught as collateral damage.”

As he spoke, he noticed how a few citizens of the mountain town had their attention drawn towards them, which was rather odd given the distance between them. To him, this proved that the priest might not have been out here alone and might have started gathering more of his kind in this location. Given how few people came through here from the outside, which was proven to be true when the girl spoke to him, chances of this being true were quite high. This meant that he needed to try something that could only be called shady at best. With a bit of luck, she would take the bait and start running away from the town in hopes of escaping him. If she made her way to the small forest on the outskirts of the town, it would be harder for prying eyes to pinpoint them and he might make an attempt at fixing the situation. That was, if he was correct in assessing that he was faster than her, which he most likely was as he hadn’t met a single person alive that could outrun him at this point. Outright refusing to be treated as a pawn by the otherworldly forces of which the priest was but one, he gave the girl a fiendish grin, showing his elongated canines along with the reptilian eyes, all traits of Fomorian origin.

“One…. Two….”


(939 // 1976)

Yona watched as the male's expression grew darker, and a smile appeared on his lips. The white flames on his fingertips set off alarm bells in her mind, drawing her into her rage, drowning her in the fear of fire from the grotesque past she had managed to survive. The VP's green eyes intensified their look as she fought against her own beating heart; she hadn't been perfect at facing her fears, she never had. Her usual response was swift and violent justice, or rather just the woman lashing out. When her flight or fight complex kicked in, it was the fight that prevailed not the flight. The fact that he had used the phrasing "just a girl" only made her angrier. Yona had a fierce temper and she had gone months without any incidents. She had been a perfect VP, handling herself very professionally. But this, she wasn't sure if she could deal with.

She inhaled deeply and exhaled, a shaky breath leaving her. He was threatening the villagers of her home town and she couldn't have that, but she didn't want to see any of them injured from a loss of her temper either. "Surely, you can be reasoned with, stranger," She began. The white flames danced on his fingers and she set her jaw down. Maybe he couldn't be reasoned with. If these people were in danger and he was bent on threatening her, going after her for her demon... well that was something she was accustomed with. In most cases, without another guild member or Oykai to back her up, people did not believe that she had the power to control the demon and they could not fathom the ability to be good and also host an evil entity. A quick look into the nearby homes and shops in the sparse town told her that the onlooking civilians would need to be protected. The fastest way to be protected, she thought, Ketsueki cackling in glee inside as her claws returned to her hands, would be to simply put the mage down. He was strong no doubt, but as strong as her and Ketsueki, certainly not.

"I think you should be the one running from me," Yona professed, her teeth sharpening and the antler like branches bursting from her collarbone. She offered him no time to do so, no count down, no condescending words (though some did come to mind). She tore her own arm open to unleash the bloodlust that fueled the power of the demon within her. "Yes... yess!" Shouted Ketsueki from within. Her eyes flashed into blue flames and the civilians watched from the windows, understanding and knowing Yona and her abilities, being more concerned about the man who had come for her. Yona felt her magical power and speed increased, flooding her body with a wave of energy.

She stretched out her hand so quickly it was a blur and her claws grew exponentially so, acting like dark blood colored tree roots. They aimed to skewer into the man and suck out the liquid life force, his blood, in a powerful vampiric attempt to take the threatening male and make him weaker. Yona hoped it would be enough to get him to flee. It was the best that she could do to protect the people of her home, though it did appeal to that angry side of her that was appalled at the notion of running from his weak fire-fingered male.

WC: 586+1126= 1712

Unfortunately for him, his gamble hadn’t paid off, as there was always the chance of the coin landing on tails when he asked for heads. Instead of going off and running for it like he hoped she would, instead she gave in to the demonic entity as her visage rapidly changed back into the one she had tucked away before. Claiming that he should be the one who should be running away from her, he could only sigh a bit when she fully transformed. At this point, he knew that having to fight her was most likely an unescapable fact, which bothered him quite a bit as he knew exactly how easy it was for him to destroy his surroundings or hurt bystanders when he was forced into a fight. Figuring that this was a mess of his own making, his yellow eyes glowed a bit as he fixed them upon the girl before releasing his full magic power. As it did, those who possessed little to no magic power visibly fell to the ground as it felt like gravity itself had decided to work against them.

By the time his magic power became visible around him like a white aura the size of a towering pillar heading straight up towards the clouds, he forced back his own urge to fight back properly. Instead, he gave off a rather uncomfortable heat that only got stronger as one got closer to his being. Within moments of being released, his magic power caused the villagers in their direct vicinity into an unconscious state. Both as a means of intimidation and as a way to keep any of them from moving around and becoming hit in the crossfire of a potential fight. With them all laying in the spots they stood, he could at the very least keep them from becoming collateral damage, as well as work out another thought he had had for a while now. To him, it had become clear that a couple of villagers had not dropped down but were merely struggling for a moment and eventually just dropped down to the ground once the rest did. This told him one thing, that there were absolutely others like the priest hiding in a fleshy human disguise within this township.

Unable to focus on it as an attack was thrown his way in the form of dark claws, there was only so much he could do about it without injuring the girl in the process. In that same instance, a lot of thoughts ran through his head as he remained in the same spot, rushing through potential ways of dealing with the attack. Because speed was one of those things he was known for, he moved his right hand in front of him before swiping it to the right. As soon as he would swipe it, a bright light broke from his hand as the little white flickering flames on the tips of his fingers coated his entire hand in it. Upon swiping it to the side, the demon-slaying flame would aim to make contact with the claws shooting towards him and slap them aside with a good amount of force, thus redirecting them away from him and keeping himself from getting hit while also not directly harming or injuring the girl. Still, the amount of force behind his attack and the claws being attached to her body might result in her being smacked out of balance.

A more unintended repercussion of his counter was the shockwave of his slap digging a path through the stone paving, a small fence and a good portion of a garden got unearthed entirely as a trench got dug in the wake of it all. Luckily, the owner of the garden and the fence was likely still vast asleep due to him releasing his magic power the way he did. Hoping that this demonstration would be enough to make the girl think twice about continuing and throwing yet another attack his way, he could potentially have made it that much more credible by sending an attack her way, though he would rather not do that if he could avoid it. That said, if she could still think clearly while under the influence of her demon like she was now, Solmar hoped that her worrying about the now unconscious citizens would shake her up and realize that it would be better to take things elsewhere. That, and his demonstration of magical strength would, hopefully, have made her realize that he was in a league of his own, especially when facing a demon.

“Three…. Four…. “


(770 // 2746)

The chilly wind pulled Yona's green hair behind her half transformed body. The bright moon above illuminated the stand-still between the mages and also Yona's face. To her opponent's fortune, his visage was in the shadow of the spotlight that the moon had created. She couldn't see his expression, found it harder to plot his moves. The preemptive attack on her part was supposed to weaken the enemy, force him to flee or hide. It was supposed to keep the people safe. Instead, a flash of flame later had uprooted and tore holes between Yona and her attacker. The collapsing of the innocent civilians who had been peeking through their windows set off further alarm bells in Yona's head. She concluded that he might not have been as weak as she had presumed initially and the people of her home town were already in great risk as she continued this man's strange confrontation here in the village square. "Let the people be and know that in your continuance of this battle, you risk only your own death or arrest, if I am feeling merciful enough." Her voice was sophisticated and stronger, a different sound than before, likely part of her transformation.

Yona had no way to tell if the people who had collapsed were really okay, but remaining in reach of any others was dangerous enough. She set her jaw angrily, hating that he had forced her into a corner on this matter. "You'll regret this soon enough. Fine, catch me if you can. Harm a single person in this village instead of chasing me, and you will find your last sight will be of me slurping up your intestines like noodles from a warm broth. You better believe that." She narrowed her flaming blue eyes on the man. If she was going to run, following his ridiculous counting, she too would force him into a time limit. It annoyed her that he was counting as if she were a child, but it worried her too. How had he simply wiped away her attack? How could he put everyone down so quickly? How had he found her and why was she his personal target? If he was some sort of demon hunter, it was possible that he was a higher rank than she was, but the amount of people with that level of power seemed to be in short supply. At least she knew that she couldn't die, not without Oykai claiming her, and he had no intention to do so. That was some small bit of peace she could hold onto in the middle of all this mess.

Her hands wove together in some strange looking unholy prayer, the claws receding so as to not get in Yona's way. Her spell appeared as a green glow around her target, looking for any bare skin visible to infect. The skin would become infected and show a blackening of pigment and then multiple puckering lesions. She wasn't going to stick around to see what happened consequently, trusting in one of her most powerful spells to do its job. The damage would begin small but increase with time; moving over the skin and spreading like a fungal disease and staining it black. The pain was described as sharp and itching and the presence of the black blight crawling up and over the skin usually filled her enemy with both fear and dread. In the meantime, the plant mage in a half demonic form bolted for the nearest plant: a warped and barely alive tree beside a shop in the street, its roots breaking through the stony pathway and its branches bent around the building as it tried to find the best lighting.

The VP ran straight through the tree with her teleportation spell and reappeared in the forest a hundred meters away, outside of the little village. She swallowed hard, her boots pressing into the frosted grass at her feet and she asked herself the same question that was in her head out loud, "Where did he come from? Why did he want me?"

WC: 692+1712= 2404

Through means of his sensory magic, he could tell that most of the people within roughly six hundred meters of him had gone down, meaning his plan had succeeded up until a certain point. Believing that she was still unaware of what was going on, she boasted how she was feeling merciful today and that by continuing to fight, all he would be doing would be getting his own ass deeper into trouble. While arguably true, he knew for a fact that he would be able to keep this up for a very long time if he needed to, but that the village itself might get wrecked in the process. Solmar didn’t enjoy destroying part of the stonework and the fence… or the backyard, though it had been an accident. He still didn’t really know what the full extent of his powers were due to his magic being in a near constant state of flux. It was for that same reason that he had used this same magical pressure as a means of making sure no people would be hurt if things did carry on. Unfortunately, he imagined things would sooner take a turn for the worse than for the better, and that wasn’t because of this little kerfuffle.

If the priest had his people infiltrate this place, an overturned backyard and a toppled fence were the least of their worries. By the time the girl had also noticed that the people had taken a little nap, it seemed that his gambit had finally paid off as it gave the impression that staying around these people actually harmed them. Claiming that she would leave the place, she also made it quite clear that she would come back to kill him if he chose not to chase her and hurt the villagers with a rather precise and gory threat. As his eyes widened a bit, he imagined that having that done to someone wouldn’t be that pleasant a situation for either party, unless one was to cook them properly. Deciding not to dwell on the threat, the girl put her hands together in some strange manner and released a strange kind of green glow before turning tail and running for it. While some might fall for it, his sensory magic told him that this was not the kind of thing one wanted to come into contact with, and that countermeasures had to be taken. Quickly. As much as he wanted to break character and nerd out about this awesome use of magic, he knew that he couldn’t, at least not yet.

Having just the spell for it that might counteract it without having to actually use anything that would further destroy his surroundings, the flame around his hand crawled up his arm before spreading to cover the rest of his body, using his cloak as a medium. Clapping his hands together, the intensity of the flames increased and made it so anything that managed to make it through his cloak would be incinerated while any potential damage to his body would be healed. That was the difference between fire magic and demon slayer’s fire. His had the capacity to do more than just hurt dark beings, it also had the potential for healing, though he rarely got to use it to that effect. Still making her escape, he registered the use of a spell as she seemed to just disappear into an old tree. Walking towards it while the flames fought off the magical miasma, which was certainly something he would be willing to see more of soon, he reached the tree a couple of seconds after the girl disappeared from the village as her magical signature passed through and out of his sensory range.

Placing his hand on the base of the tree, he closed his eyes and let his mabynnogyon do what it did. Recalling the spell that was used in this position and copying the effects, he slipped into the tree and moved into the direction in which the signature of the girl had disappeared. Given the speed at which he moved and the manner in which this spell was executed, it became clear as crystal that this woman possessed a kind of natural magic as well. Though he did too, there was still a good amount about it that he still needed to learn more about, seeing as how calling forth his twin blades was about all he could draw from it for now. Still, it was interesting to see other people who possessed this same natural link that he had while also being connected to some kind of demonic force. Truth be told, it seemed the two of them had quite a bit in common, even if things had taken a rather different turn for him. Mere moments after disappearing into the tree, the white flames disappeared from around him as he moved through the network of roots and heard the girl speak out loud how she did not know where he had come from or what he wanted from her.

“I came from Sakuramori, and the goal was to get you out of the village for a bit. Apologies for the farce, couldn’t risk people not falling for it. Speaking of, they’re just taking a little nap.”

Speaking up as soon as he made his way out of a tree opposite to the one the girl had stepped out of, he imagined that this whole thing raised a lot more questions than the ones he had just answered. Most people felt that way when they saw someone else using their spells, ones they believed unique to themselves. Having already reverted his elongated canines to their regular form, as well as returning his slits to human pupils, he figured that he looked more human and like less of a threat now. Sweeping some of the dust off of his coat, he did not entirely let his guard down since the woman could still choose to attack him. After all, he had made it rather clear that he was a demon hunter who had come to take her out specifically, and that wasn’t the kind of thing people cursed with a dark entity took lightly. He should know, seeing as he was just like that at one time, and in a way still was. That said, it was a necessary risk, one he would see played out soon enough.


(1073 // 3819)

Ketsueki was still in control of her body, in terms of power balance. Her clawed hands, spiked clavicle, and wings made her almost unrecognizable to any who had known her. She was certain if the demon hunter was after her and Ketsueki, that the man would follow her. Her heart pounded as she tried to prepare herself. Could she set a trap? Did she have time to set up an ambush? Her thoughts hadn't even finished, her boots back-stepping in the frosted green, before the hunter stepped through the same tree that she herself had used. How in the hell!?

She lifted up her hands ready to fight but his teeth were reverting, his eyes too. He appeared more or less human again and as he swept dust off his coat and spoke, Yona tensed up. "You wanted me out of the village?" She glanced up through the trees towards the lights of the mountain village. Had he planned something? Was there an accomplice? "A.. nap? I thought I was your target. I swear if you lay hands on a single one of them." She clenched her hands into fists and her body remained in partial demonic transformation. Yona didn't know what to make of this man. He attacked her, threatened her, and lured her out of the village. "The farce? What do you want from me? Speak quickly or regret it." Her eyes turned blue with little flames again. Ketsueki was just under the surface, the demon raring to go, ready to kill.

WC: 257+2404= 2661

Taking in a deep breath, he brought his hand to his face and grabbed hold of his chin, making it look like he was thinking of what to say. In truth, he already knew exactly what to say, but kept quiet for a moment to let things simmer down for a bit. He could imagine how things might be quite strange for the woman, what with him trying to kill her one moment and claiming he wasn’t a threat to her during the next. It truly was a shame that this was the world they were living in, a place where they sometimes needed to resort to cloak and dagger-esque means to get what one wanted. And in this case, doing just that was the only way in which he could get the girl away from the village and into a place like this forest so they could speak without having to worry about people spying on them and overhearing their conversation. In the forest at least, he would be more than aware of what was going on and who was around them, of that he was certain. Turning his attention back to the girl, he imagined the best thing to do now was be straight and honest.

“I did indeed. You say, I have reason to believe someone infiltrated the town a short while ago, and is impersonating someone who used to always be part of it. What they did to the actual inhabitant, that is something I do not know unfortunately, though I fear the worst. That, and it might not be limited to just one person, as there might well be others.”

With the cat out of the bag, he figured that the girl would take the reigns back and reel her aggression back in. After all, he had spilled the beans, so she was aware of why he had come here at least. That, and he had answered the question she had thrown at him. All of these things had been performed as a show of good faith, and as a means of potentially redeeming himself after behaving like an asshole, for lack of a better word. But he wasn’t done yet, he just took a moment to make sure his senses would not pick up on anything or anyone else being around and listening in on this conversation. All things considered, being aware of this information did make someone into a target as it made them aware of things from outside of this world coming around, snatching someone’s body and pretending to be them, all the while gathering up information and replacing other people until maybe an entire town got taken over. At this point, he could only hope that the people that had been “replaced” were still alive somewhere and were being kept prisoner, though he had seen enough of the world by now to know better.

“So, obviously I needed to make sure if you were a person or if you were one of them. Once I knew, I wanted to move us away from the place without them being any wiser as to what I was up to. While I admit that the plan was a little… rough around the edges, it got you here didn’t it?”

Though the latter of what he said might have come across as a little bit smug, that was not at all how it was intended, it was just something he couldn’t really do a whole lot about. A lot of the things he said came out sounded smug or sarcastic, often rubbing people the wrong way when he really had good intentions. Making what was his attempt at a smile as a means of showing he meant well, which could be misconstrued as a fiendish grin or as a dog baring fangs, his focus was taken to something else entirely as he got a little closer to the girl and bent through his knees a bit. Getting a better look at her, he looked her over from various angles before standing straight again and posing a perhaps unexpected question.

“Those spells you used, I could tell they had strong ties to nature magic, which is usually not something affiliated with those who are possessed by a demonic entity. That said, I would love to know more about it if you’re willing to share!”


(729 // 4548)

The longer he kept quiet, the more tense Yona became. She didn't feel like she was being toyed with, as if this meeting was planned or as if she were a means to an end. Her mind was on the Mountain village and her worries were with those he had said were only sleeping. What he finally described, when he finally started explaining himself, made little sense at all. "Are you suggesting one of the people in my home town here are really a villainous subject of some sort?" The plant mage thought about Hope Miller in her thick woolen sweaters, Melina the youngest barmaid in their bed and breakfast and bar, or Corland Broost the leader of the their band of hunters. The names of each person passed through her head, sifting like flour, and images of their jobs, their roles in the community each excusing them. "There's no chance. The community here is too close to be fooled by such a trick."

He proclaimed his reasoning for luring her out of the village being to prevent losing his cover and potentially losing the villain he was tracking. It made little sense still: if he just approached her in the cover of night, he might have found the secrecy he desired anyway. She exhaled and called her demon off the hunt, reverting her body back to its normal green haired green eyed self. "Do you have anyway to prove that what you're saying is even true?" His fiendish grin puzzled her, as he scoured his own eyes over her clean human form in the moonlight.

"Back off with that look on your face. I don't know your intentions and I don't know if you're telling the truth yet either. I'm not afraid to say that we are by far, not friends." She folded her arms crossly, "What would this person you're tracking even want with the body of a humble person of this mountain village? It doesn't sound very smart and I can't see what advantage they would get. Not to mention the risks if you are at best not lying, but simply wrong. I can't have you harming any of these people." She narrowed her eyes on him dangerously, "I can tell you may be able to copy me, but I can do things that you can't mimic."

WC: 402+2661= 3063

“Ah, but that is where you’re taking a wrong turn with your thought process. These things are not people, nor are they from this world or even from this galaxy. Their species is a cancer that eats life, growing more abundantly and fierce with every new place they consume. They infect people they capture while taking their shape and infiltrating societies, figuring out where best to strike to deal as much damage with as little effort as possible. Those that disappear are broken down to nothing but a black puddle of cells, becoming a creature of their own creation that can in turn infect others. They’re called the Hungering Abyssals, and they’re here.”

Breaking out quite the scoop of a story right there, he saw no point in holding back anything that might help him make his point here. Because she made it so overabundantly clear that she was not in the business of believing him on his word and required some sort of proof, all he could do at this point was to share this bit of information with her. Once they returned to the village, which they would at some point have to do either together or on their own, his quick scan and knockout maneuver allowed him to find those that provided the most resistance and went to sleep as a means of blending in with the others. They were, for all intents and purposes, infiltrators that had been sent here to gather information for their overlords and put people up against one another while they were doing so. Likely not being the best fighters, Solmar remembered quite well the massive being that had been summoned to Fiore by the one he had come to know as the Priest. Given his involvement in this place, which was the second village he had gotten involved with, underestimating the situation was not something the young mage was willing to do.

More importantly than that, he did not want there to be any collateral damage if he could help it. So while he did not doubt that he could kill the Priest on his own, as well as those that had been replaced, there was no telling what tricks it had cooked up in however long it had been here. For all Solmar knew, there could have been yet another great beast hidden out here something, or worse. While he did not really know how things could really get worse than that, there was no doubt in his mind that creatures as long lived as the Abyssals could come up with something. So if he could do this in a way that meant not having to do it alone, that would work out quite well for him, or so he believed. If anything, two people would be able to save more than he would be able to do on his own. More importantly, this woman had ties to the village, so she had more reason to protect them than he did. Though that did not mean that he would actually want people to die or that he couldn’t give a damn whether they did or did not, beating the evil that had started to infest this place was more important than anything else right now.

“You’re just a human, you haven’t seen the terror of these things like I have, so I won’t pretend otherwise, and I do suggest you don’t underestimate them just because you can’t wrap your head around the concept yet. I promise you, you will understand soon enough. At the end of the day, you’ll probably hate the fact that you met me even more than you do right now, but that’s okay.”

When he first saw the havoc caused by the blight corrupted during his time within the Greenscape, he had seen enough to know that this could not be allowed to spread on Earthland. All he knew would disappear in a matter of weeks, maybe even days if this kind of filth was allowed to fester and take root within the world. So whether this woman could be made to see reason and maybe join him in taking care of this village, either in the sense of looking after it or in literally taking care of it if the infection had already spread too far, that would only prove to be beneficial to the both of them. If she however proved to be a threat to him finishing his mission here in the mountains, he would not hesitate to take her out of the equation by knocking her out like the other villages. While it would not be anywhere near as easy as that, he would not let the health of nature itself be determined by one person and whatever attachments they might have to some people he himself did not know at all. Turning a friendly face towards her as he formulated his words, he imagined doing so in this manner might very well make it sound like a threat, even though it wasn’t exactly meant like that.

“So if you’re not willing to be friendly or look past it and work with me here, I suggest you stay here and don’t get in my way, okay?”


(875 // 5423)

"Hungering Abyssals," Yona said dubiously, "They absorb people's bodies and come from another world. I'll have to see that to believe it." She didn't point out all the discrepancies, the questions she had weren't likely to be answered if this man rationally believed in all this nonsense himself. Saying she was just a human felt insulting, but then she didn't see anything wrong with who she was. This man stopped seeming like a threat and more like someone she should pity. She needed an excuse to stick close to him, ensuring that he wouldn't cast further magic on the mountain people or injure himself in his ravings of the paranormal. The green haired woman twisted about in her own head, silently considering it. "Could just let me eat him. Be done with it.." crooned Ketsueki from inside, sensing her agitation. Yona took that consideration in mind and replied, "If he is still a threat by the end of tomorrow, then sure. I'm going to give him time to prove himself or leave."

Instead of conversing solely within her own head, her green eyes met the man before her and gave him a nod. "I'll give you a full day's time to sort this out. You find the Abyssal thing, and I'll help you however I can. If you don't, then you leave my village in peace and move on. Can we call it a deal?" Yona offered, outstretching a hand. Assuming that he had taken it, the mage would follow up with, "My name is Yona Hisamori. Unless you prefer to address me as "demon" or something, though in your best interest I suggest that you don't. I am a guild mage, the VP of the West Fiore Trading Company."

WC: 3063+290= 3353