Chapter 3 - Years as a Hybrid Demon

[There are people who ran away. Aren’t you going to capture them?]

His split tongue darted in and out.

“I feel lazy,” stroking his clear scales carelessly, she responded to him.

[Tsk,] he clicked his tongue unpleasantly. [Then you could’ve left it in the form I can eat it. When you turn them into stones like that, how am I supposed to eat them?]

He fumed and expressed his anger. One would be terrified to see him, thinking it was a viper’s attack, but she had been seeing him for as long as 25 years. She just felt annoyed.

“I will give you demons for your meal when we return.”

His tongue stopped at her words.

[Then, give me a griffin.]

“Luna will get upset if I do.”

[Psst. No matter how much that thing fused with a lowly demon gets mad, I’m not scared a bit.]

His remark was somehow funny that it made her burst into laughter. Then she gazed at his body that boasted smooth scales. It all suddenly felt new: the fact that she was living with a demon snake, conversing with it with unstudied ease, and building friendship with him after naming him ‘Hiron.’ Everything felt strange. Whenever she saw Hiron, she was reassured that she was not a human. However, she could not be ignorant. Even if she was, it was not like she could become a human anyway.

[But your skills have improved a lot. You’ve petrified more than 30 humans.]

She looked up at Hiron’s remark to see the pile of stones that had collapsed in the wilderness. Like he said, she had killed more than 30 humans, but she did not feel any emotion. If she did not kill, she would be killed. Thus, she had to kill whether it was human or demon. That was the only way she could survive. She was merely doing it to survive and if one blamed her for it, who would be responsible for her life? She often pondered upon such a question with no answer.

“I need to get stronger.”

[You are strong enough already.]

“It’s not enough,” pushing Hiron’s bridge of the nose, she talked back. “Shouldn’t I become strong enough to kill Xile?”

Asking to herself in a whisper, she stretched out her wings. Then she landed towards the seven apostles who were looking up at her.

“Lady Karina!”

The people, who were covered in black robes, delightedly knelt down. They were the apostles appointed by her father to serve her family, Apocalita. The seven apostles: Each of them symbolized arrogance, stinginess, envy, rage, carnal desire, greed, indolence, and was given power to match the name. Receiving such a power, they could no longer be called humans. Humans who had received inhumane power, hence, they were optimized to gather believers.

“Death, soon, is birth, and the Apocalita that is close to death is equal to God!”

The seven apostles preached such a doctrine and gathered believers. As a result, believers grew in number and soon became a mass. At last, people as many as the believers of the King of the gods were gathered. However, she did not think that those humans became believers because they truly believed that the Apocalita was God but thought that they were mere hypocrites.

“This is the information of the believers who registered this month. The names next to them were the sacrifice offered for the Apocalita and…”

They were merely following the Apocalita for their own revenge. The sacrifice was the lives of their sworn enemies. The Apocalita avenged on behalf of the believers and received a certain amount of their vitality in exchange. What a reasonable deal. She involuntarily laughed to think that humans were oddly contradictory beings. Putting aside her smile, she pushed their hands that were holding out a parchment.

“Saladin is coming, so pass that to her. You know I don’t handle these things.”

“Oh…! Y, yes ma’am!”

With their faces reddened, they lowered their chins. But they still looked up at her to catch a glimpse of her. Every time they met her eyes, they shivered not knowing what to do, which even seemed cute. Of course, they would not have been able to help it. Her face was too beautiful as she inherited the blood of Medusa who charmed the god of the ocean.

The apostles praised that her dark blue hair could be matched to that of the night god, that her yellow green eyes could be compared to those of the earth god, and that even the god of beauty would envy her eyes, nose, and lips. They also told her that the song that praised her was spread among believers. Thus, her face was pretty useful. When she slightly smiled, people would kneel down and swear for obedience, not knowing what to do. Because of that, annoying petty flies would also bother her as well…

Clonk!

At that moment, she heard the ground skin. Dusty dirt spurted at the same time. Cough. She frowned as she covered her mouth with Hiron’s body.

[I am not your handkerchief.]

“My neck sores.”

[Then you can just soar to the sky!]

“I’m a bit lazy for that.”

[You are such a…!]

Ignoring Hiron’s grilling, she turned her eyes downward. It was to prepare to receive the fly that was soon to arrive.

“Karina!”

Indeed. It was as she expected. It was Saladin, a test subject that was created far later than her. Saladin rushed to Karina, pricking up his pointy ears.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I was going to come right away…” smiling, he grabbed her hand. “I had a drag and was busy taking care of it.”

Saladin’s clothes were stained with sticky blood everywhere. The smell of blood drops that had not been hardened was heavy.

“It was the people of Latem. Oh, don’t worry about it! I’m not hurt!”