PART TWO

“Everyone…”

Suddenly from amongst the foliage beyond the opening we were in, Ezekiel emerged. Ah, so that’s why he didn’t come running to lick my wound like a dog. With his face overcast, his dirty blonde hair falling over his tanned face, the atmosphere around him was quite dark. His voice was barely a whisper, but everyone immediately quieted down as they looked his way.

“I have bad news…”

“Ah, that’s right! You went to discuss terms with the elves, right?”

Angie suddenly remembered, but the only answer from Ezekiel was a sad nod. Sensing the situation, my face darkened as I asked seriously, “What happened?”

For a split second he looked up, and his usual stupid lover-boy expression took over. But then he soon looked down sadly again as he remembered, “I’m sorry, Ellie. I knew you really wanted to do this trip…”

From what he explained, the elves had let us spend the night since it was already late. However, they had no intention of letting us stay longer, or go past their territory. An escort would be provided to guide us back home, but that was it. No matter how much Ezekiel argued against it, he could not change their mind. It seems like the number one war Ciel’s negotiation techniques are not enough for the elves.

A smile started pulling up the corner of my lips as I stood up, a brilliant idea forming in my mind. If negotiations aren’t enough, then…

“Wah…I suddenly have a very bad feeling.”

Magnus looked at me and my smile helplessly. To his side, Felly nodded seriously, “Yep! That is Ellie’s expression for when she has an evil plan!”

“Plan?”

I looked towards them and my evil grin simply widened, “There is no such thing. But…” My expression turned dark, “Looking down on me…not being affected by my beauty…and that stupid golden hair… Hahaha!”

Then I started laughing manically as I put my hands up towards the sky and yelled at the moon, “I needed an outlet for my anger anyway! This is perfect! Perfect! Hahaha!”

“…”

Everyone simply stared at me, dumbstruck and not knowing what to think. Only Ezekiel had assumed his idolizing stance as he clasped his hands together and exclaimed with hearts for eyes, “My angel!”

This caused Magnus to momentarily snap out of it as he glanced at Ezekiel with a twitching smile, “What an idiot…”

Felyn also snapped out of it, putting a sympathizing hand over Magnus shoulder as she nodded twice, “I understand.”

Then, the two looked at each other, their eyes sparkling as they met each other’s, as if they had just found kindred spirits.

Meanwhile…I was still laughing manically.

“Hahahahaha!”

Angie and Felly could only look at the situation with helpless looks on their faces. But then Angie suddenly noticed something, and her eyes snapped to the place I had once been, “Huh? Where did Ellie go?”

Everyone immediately grew quiet as they turned in unison to look at the empty spot I had been standing in. Then, their faces grew deathly pale.

“Shit…”

Magnus voiced their thoughts.

As I faintly heard them panicking in the distance, my smile grew. Still, I went on, deeper and deeper into the forest…to reach the city of the elves.

*

It was a small city filled with elves calmly and elegantly going from one place to another, never looking urgent as graceful smiles adorned their lips. However, people started to curiously look in a certain direction. It was normal, of course, since it was very strange for a human to enter an elven city. A certain elf that looked like a guard, having golden armour adoring his body, matching his golden hair…approached me.

“Human, state your purpose. Why did you trespass on elven territory? Depending on your answer- Guh!”

The man’s arrogant military-like talk was halted as he began gasping for air, his body struggling midair with his legs dangling as my fingers pressed dangerously around his exposed neck. Fools…how could they leave such a vulnerable place open? Well, better for me…kuku…

My crazed smile widened as I laughed softly, pressing my fingers in deeper into his skin, drawing out blood from my nails as his body was pulled further upwards. How did I manage to lift someone taller than me upwards, you ask? Well, the little cloud of black aura pushing me up from the ground helped…

“This war…has just started.”

As I delivered the deathly words, I threw the elf to the side and asked darkly with a smile gracing my lips, “Now…who’s next?”

*

“And on that day, the Demon Lord descended on the first land of elves, eradicating the clan from the face of the Earth completely, beginning his trail of blood and death.”

Excerpt from Collected Legends of the Great Demon Lord

Fire engulfed the buildings and everything around me, mangled bodies lying with twisted, bloody limbs wherever the eye could see. Let me just warn you though, they were breathing! I didn’t kill anyone! Just put them in extreme pain, while not letting them pass out…Hehehe… But…Rumors really do tend to blow out of proportion, huh? I didn’t kill anyone…

Having left the best for last, I was currently on top the arrogant elf that had first greeted us. His hair was still the most golden among them, and his skin the fairest and rosiest…

Straddling him as my dark aura engulfed fingers pressed around his delicate neck, I laughed crazily to myself. I was so happy to have an outlet for all my pent up anger, and for some reason, this elf had particularly irritated me! Enjoying the suffering look on his face, I planned on giving him the most painful experience of all…

My hair draped around me and dripped in red blood, I stared down at his agonized expression, one eye half open staring right at me in a dazzlingly emerald color, his other eye too bruised and swollen to even twitch. Blood was splattered on his skin as well, and I proceeded to inflict even more cuts on his rosy skin. Letting one hand go from his neck, a small knife formed of dark aura in it.

“Hehehe…Let’s carve you a bit…”

Creating slight slices over his face, I laughed quietly to myself as I enjoyed the moment…

“Why…why are you doing this…?”

He managed to let the words escape though painful, panted breaths.

“Hm? Because you irritate me. And you wouldn’t let us pass.”

“Haha…Just because of that…”

I answered quite honestly, but he somehow found it funny. This irritated me further, my smile being replaced by a furrowed brow look as I glared at him.

“To be killed by the woman he loves…what a fate…haha…”

It was hard to tell whether he was laughing or crying, but the tears streaming down his still somehow pretty face were quite obvious. His words made me quite confused, so I asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“Huh? What’s...What’s going on?”

Somehow, everyone had managed to find me now. Panting from having, I assumed, ran looking for me, they stood over the two of us. Unconsciously, my grip on his neck loosened as I looked up at my companions. Magnus was in front of everyone, his breast heaving with every breath as he looked at us with an expression filled with confusion, shock, and horror.

“No one is dead.”

I informed him simply, causing him to answer with a twitching smile, “I see…”

“Heh…It seems appropriate that in my last moments, an audience watches over me…”

The elf looked more relaxed now, not at all like someone who had just been tortured and was still in the middle of it. He closed his eyes momentarily as he spoke, and then opened his one unharmed eye as wide as he could, a slight painful look on his face as he stared directly into my own eyes. 

A sad smile graced his lips as he struggled for a few seconds, pulling up his right hand and finally managing to weakly touch my cheek. His touch felt gentle, like he was scared of me breaking, even though he was the one at breaking point. A tear slid down his cheek, dragging down some blood with it.

“Even if you laugh as you harm me over and over again…even if your look is called by others as crazed and mad, to me…to me, you still look beautiful…If it is by your hands, I don’t even mind dying…Ever since I saw you in that opening, shining so brightly and looking so nobly elegant…Ah, no elf could ever hope to compare with your beauty….You have captured my heart, my fair maiden.”

There was no mistaking that love-torn look. It was as if the pain in his face was caused by love, not by the multiple wounds adorning his body. Everybody had noticed this, and only Magnus voiced their thoughts in a deadpan voice, “…He was in love with her?”

Felyn must want to kill me right about now…

“Alas, I had to be stubborn!”

He continued on with his speech like a hero in a play, with dramatic intonation and everything, “Hiding my heart behind a fake façade…causing misunderstanding in the heart of my beloved…”

“He means hatred right? ‘Cause she hates him.”

Magnus interjected deadpan once more. However, the elf acted like he hadn’t been interrupted and only he and I were there. Looking deeply into my eyes, he continued, “No need to look so sad, my love.”

He forced his smile wider as he stroked my cheek, looking even more pained. My expression was completely blank though. Then, he continued, “Ah…Even in the darkness, you look so bright…brighter than anything…Perhaps it is because it is so dark!”

“…isn’t he talking too much for someone who is on the brink of death?”

Felyn had grown quite annoyed that an elf had fallen for me and not for her, so she was now crossing her arms over her chest, a vein throbbing on her forehead as she venomously commented.

“…Yes, you are like the moon itself, shining in the darkness. My white angel-”

Bam!

“Ah, he asked for it.”

There was no compassion on Magnus’ face as he commented in a still deadpan voice. Then, he simply shook his head as if he had just seen the end of a great fool. Everyone else simply didn’t know how to react.

Taking out my fist from its snug place sunk deep in the nameless elf’s face (I never bothered asking), the dark aura around it fizzing, I got up from on top of the elf, his arms lying lifelessly beside him as he laid passed out. Then, I simply walked forward without looking back, not even pausing as I passed by my companions and simply said, “Let’s go.”

They all obediently followed, except for Felyn who paused for a second before joining us. With her head in her hands, she closed her eyes with a helpless look, “I’m not even gonna bother looking shocked anymore…this is all too much…”

Looking up and seeing everyone following behind me and my fast pace, with an even more helpless look, this time more like a sad smile, she said, “…You all really have gotten used to it, huh?”

Then, she shook her head and ran to catch up, “Who am I kidding…? So have I…”

The smile on her face was not so sad anymore.

“Auuu!!!”

“…”

Ezekiel gave a loving howl for me up ahead, destroying Felyn’s touching moment. A vein throbbed on her forehead as anger boiled up.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

She yelled as she caught up, hitting him over the head. He simply gave her a sheepish smile, sticking out his tongue, which in turn caused her to blush…

*

The tent was dark, with only a single candle flickering in the night. I stood there, my eyes shadowed but a smile adoring my pink lips.

“Hey…how long do you plan on hiding? No one is here.”

A small shadow slithered in the darkness, before finally popping out in front of me. The scales shined smoothly under the candlelight as the small creature looked up at me with big, watery loving eyes that sparkled with admiration.

“You brought it, right?”

The little dragon nodded, going down from its position that looked very much like a dog’s ‘begging’ position, running back into the shadows, and then emerging with a huge white sack dangling from its mouth. When I took it away with one hand, using the other to pat its head distractedly as it purred, a noise of metal hitting metal sounded as the bag’s contents stirred. It really is the perfect thief! It managed to move around with this sack without creating even the slightest noise!

Feeling quite content and happy with it, I smiled and patted its head even more, making the creature even happier. It closed its eyes in pleasure as it buried its small face in my hand, rubbing it in.

“Having you collect all the fine treasures the elves left behind in the confusion was the right decision after all!”

I started rummaging through the contents of the sack, “As expected! I have trained you well. You have brought value over quantity.”

With a loving smile, I added, “I’m quite proud of you.”

The little dragon wagged its little tail happily as I looked its way. However, it looked like it was waiting for something…

“Ah! That’s right! Your reward. I can’t forget that now, can I?”

The scaled face of the dragon was basically pulled into a huge grin now as its tail wagged at an even faster pace, eagerly expecting its reward.

Leaning down, I started gathering the dark element in my hand. As soon as there was enough of it to be visible, the dragon flew towards my hand and hurriedly started licking it, taking in the dark aura – its new food source. It was the food source that had lasted the longest, and it didn’t look like it would tire of it soon. But, there was no problem, because…

I looked at its scales, once a shiny golden. It had already started to fade, but its new silver color had particularly started to shine now that it was taking in even more dark aura. I knew it…its all the dark element’s fault! And that stupid old man’s! But…don’t think I will go down alone! Hahahahaha!

As the little dragon happily ate its meal, it didn’t notice me quietly chuckling to myself with a dark smile gracing my lips…