Chapter 36: The Demon Risen from Ashes [3]
As the man’s final, guttural rattle was swallowed by the silence of the night, Cassian stood amidst the carnage he had wrought.
The flickering light of the campfire performed an eerie dance over the scattered corpses and pools of dark red blood.
The air was thick with the sharp scent of metal, burnt flesh, and fresh blood.
Cassian yawned with a faintly bored expression, as if what he had just done wasn’t taking nine lives, but merely finishing a simple chore.
He rolled his shoulders back with ease and calmly walked through the bodies to the side of the campfire.
He crouched down and tore off a large piece of the now-unclaimed meat the slave traders had been cooking for themselves.
As the first bite reached his lips, a look of pure pleasure spread across his face. In the midst of this savagery, it was as if he were eating the most delicious meal in the world.
Meanwhile, the other slaves, still behind the bars of the iron cage, watched him with bated breath.
Their faces were a complex mixture of fear, astonishment, and absolute disbelief. They couldn’t make sense of the scene before them.
This silver-haired, frail-looking boy, whom they had seen as just another slave abandoned to his fate behind those rusty bars moments ago, was now eating by the fire like an angel of apocalypse drenched in blood. He had slaughtered nine armed, muscular, and ruthless men with an unimaginable ferocity and madness, as if it were all a game.
A single, terrifying question echoed in their minds: What would happen to them now?
They had been freed from the hands of one monster, only to be left to the mercy of another, far more terrifying, far more unpredictable.
No one dared to utter a single word or make the slightest movement in the face of the overwhelming and intimidating presence that surrounded the boy. The silence grew heavier, punctuated only by the crackling of the fire and the sound of Cassian chewing.
Finally, it was a young girl who broke the suffocating silence.
She was one of the youngest in the group, perhaps thirteen, perhaps fourteen. Despite her tattered clothes and the grime on her face, her eyes shone not with a glimmer of hope, but with a desperate resolve.
She took a deep breath, and with trembling legs, stepped out of the iron cage and slowly approached Cassian. The others froze in horror at her audacious move.
Cassian, though he noticed the girl approaching, didn’t even glance in her direction. He was so focused on his meal that he displayed an absolute indifference to her presence. To him, she was no different from a passing breeze.
The girl stopped a few steps from Cassian. She gathered all her courage and spoke in a trembling but clear voice.
"Are... are you going to hurt us?"
Cassian swallowed, his mouth still full, and mumbled in an indifferent tone. His answer was more chilling than the question.
"Whether a few insects live or die is of no importance to me."
This response was neither a reassurance nor a threat. It was simply an expression of absolute apathy.
The girl swallowed hard; this indifference was as terrifying as the violence. She glanced briefly at the other slaves and asked again.
"Then... what will happen to us now?"
Cassian did not answer this question.
As if he hadn’t heard her, he finished his meal, savoring the last bite. Then he stood up and walked toward the corpses.
As if harvesting crops from a field, he began to search the dead men one by one. He took the small pouches of gold hanging from their belts and rummaged through their pockets.
When he came to the body of the dead leader, he noticed a small, embroidered leather pouch hanging at his waist. When he reached for it, his fingers touched not a simple pouch, but a void. A fleeting smirk appeared on his face.
A dimensional storage item. This was far more valuable to him than gold.
He transferred most of the gold he had collected into the storage pouch. Then he examined the corpses’ weapons. Most were rusty and of poor quality, but one, a well-balanced sword, was in better condition than the rest. He took it as well and placed it in the storage item.
When he was finished, he wore the smile of a hunter pleased with his prey.
Then he turned to the slaves.
His gaze fell upon the young girl who was still standing there.
Without a second thought, he tossed the two small pouches of gold at her feet. They landed on the ground with a dull thud.
"I don’t much care if you make it to safety or not," Cassian said, without a trace of emotion in his voice. "But if you do manage to survive, you’ll need money."
He paused, the smile on his face twisting into a mocking grin.
"So... good luck."
With those words, he turned his back, stepped out of the area illuminated by the campfire, and took a step toward the nearest shadow. His body vanished, melting into the darkness as if swallowed by the night itself.
He left behind a handful of free but terrified people, standing in the middle of the carnage he had created, with no idea what to do next.
A week had passed.
Cassian moved like a ghost through the depths of a dense forest where ancient trees reached for the sky, far from the noise and chaos of civilization.
His target was no ordinary prey. He was hunting a special type of monster, extremely rare and just as difficult to find: a [Doppelganger].
These creatures were beings of low intelligence with the ability to shapeshift. According to one legend, they were known as a degenerate offshoot of the ancient and now-extinct Skinwalker race. They usually lived in the quietest and darkest corners of the forest, hiding from predators. Their survival mechanism was simple; they would copy the silhouette of frightening creatures that threatened or interested them. However, this was merely a visual mimicry; they could not possess the abilities or strength of the creature they copied. For them, this skill was just camouflage.
But the reason Cassian needed this ability was entirely different. Perched on the highest branch of a tree, scanning the forest floor below, he thought, "Not to make my life tranquil and peaceful... Quite the opposite, to create chaos."
He couldn’t suppress the devilish grin on his face even just thinking about what he could do with this power. To take on any form he desired, to turn the most trusted allies against each other, to shatter the very concept of trust. The possibilities were endless, and each one was more delightful than the last.
Thanks to Lilith’s Blessing, the [Soul Thief] ability, he could permanently copy the skills of the creatures he killed, albeit with a low probability. That was why he was in this forest, hunting this specific prey.
But this hunt was testing his patience. Despite hunting relentlessly for a week and having killed exactly twenty-three Doppelgängers so far, he had yet to obtain the much-desired skill. Still, he had no intention of giving up.
His will was stronger than the hardest steel.
As he moved through the forest, a damp, rotten smell burned his nostrils. Soon, he arrived at the edge of a massive swamp. The moss and water lilies floating on the muddy, stagnant water displayed a deadly beauty.
The swamp was teeming with hundreds of crocodiles. Most lay in ambush in the water, only their eyes and nostrils visible on the surface. A few, however, were lying motionless on the muddy bank at the water’s edge. There was a strange and unnatural feeling about them that set them apart, their appearances slightly but clearly different from the other crocodiles.
Cassian knew instantly what they were.
He knew approaching the crocodile swarm would be dangerous; a head-on fight would be foolish. He slipped between the dense trees at the edge of the swamp and found a high position that was both safe and had a perfect line of sight.
He locked his eyes on the strange crocodiles.
He clasped his hands in the air, and the air around him instantly began to freeze. Simultaneously, four massive lances of ice, each as thick as a human torso, materialized in the air. Then, he coated the lances in crackling, black lightning.
He took aim at his targets and, finally, with a whisper, used a wind spell.
The lances shot forward with a speed that defied the senses. With a sharp whir, they reached their targets, moving faster than the speed of sound.
The lances pierced the tough hides of the fake crocodiles as if they were paper. An instant later, the lightning energy stored within was released as the ice shattered, and four separate, deafening explosions tore the crocodiles apart from the inside.
Chunks of flesh and mud scattered everywhere.
Just then, a system message, visible only to him, appeared before Cassian’s eyes.
[Congratulations! You have acquired a skill.]
[Doppelganger]
• You can take on any form you desire.
• This ability consumes a great deal of mana, and the user must constantly focus to maintain the form.
A wide, satisfied smile spread across his face. He had finally succeeded.
As night fell, Cassian lay on his back on a thick branch of a large tree.
The joy of his new ability and the cool night breeze on his skin brought a sense of relief to his soul. The sky was cloudless, and the silvery glow of the full moon filtered through the leaves, creating patterns on the forest floor. He never tired of this view, no matter how long he looked at it.
These moments were rare.
They were fleeting instances that made him forget the unceasing rage, the burning hatred rooted deep within his soul. It was as if, for that moment, he felt cleansed of all his troubles, all his memories.
It was like a moment of silence in the middle of a storm.
He knew it wouldn’t last, but he savored it anyway as he drifted off to sleep.