"Use heal."

Those were the last words that Eryas whispered to Clara. Right after she heard that Eryas was about to sell her to those demons, she felt really betrayed. 

Previously, she had already encountered a similar incident where people betrayed her because she was so trusting of others, even with strangers she had just met.

She promised herself that she would be more cautious in the future and not become too trusting of others. But she herself could not do it. 

When there are people in need, she would always help them. That is her principle. The moment she discovered her personal magic, she promised to always help others.

This time, things were different. Instead of being sacrificed for others' interests, another person sacrificed himself for her interests. At first, she thought that she would die in the hands of corrupting darkness. In the end, she is the one who manages to get out of the dust cloud alive.

When Eryas holds her beside, shoulder to shoulder, that is when Eryas whispers those words. Even the two demons in front of them didn't realise when Eryas whispered those words. 

Luckily, one of the skills Eryas had learned from his time as an assassin was ventriloquism. At one point, he had to go undercover and disguise himself as a ventriloquist to infiltrate his target. He spent months trying to learn the skill. Due to his manaless condition, he must tackle his mission the hard way.

Other assassins would use their own magic to assassinate their targets, doing so with little hassle. But that is also why he was once one of the most skilled assassins to have ever lived. And now he had long left the world of killing. 

Most of the skills that he has learned are of no use in the everyday world, which is why he becomes rusty when it comes to killing or assassinating. The biggest reason of all is that his heart already despises the act of killing themselves. 

But now he was forced to relive the dark version of himself.

Clara was looking right at the dome of cloud of dust in front of her. She was still reeling from what had happened. For a moment, she was in a dark, dusty place, but now everything is bright with clean air all around. She slowly rises from the ground.

"I need to report this to authorities now!"

She ran away from where she was heading to find any city guards or soldiers.

***

Eryas was lying on the ground in pain. He rolls to the side, trying to get up, but then he is stepped on, causing him to fall back to the ground. The force applied felt like his bones were about to be broken.

His head turned to gaze at the owner of the foot and saw the demon harpy, Vex. Then another set of footsteps approaches. It was Hars, he was holding onto his burning hand and directly gazed at Eryas. 

Then, using the sharp claws on his hand, Hars sliced through the burning hand. It falls to the ground in front of Eryas and slowly turns into ashes.

"You must be the one who tells her to use heal, right?" asked Hars.

"Well, I guess it works then." replied Eryas.

Hars laughed, then he slowly crouched down, looking at Eryas. At the same time, the hand that was cut off was slowly growing back.

"For someone as intelligent as you, you sure make a terrible decision. You could have walked away safely, but you chose to be the hero."

Eryas looked Hars directly in the eyes.

"Well, somebody would be mad at me for leaving a girl behind. Besides, there will be no safe place after all of this. Everyone will die."

"Enough with all of this nonsense. Let me kill him now!" Vex said in a harsh voice.

He has been holding himself the entire time, giving Hars chances. But now he really felt his anger was about to explode. 

His black feathers on the wings turn sharp as blades. Then he raised it high in the air. He then brings down the blade fast onto Eryas' neck.

But as the feathery blade was about to hit, a vast ground tremor hit them, causing Vex and Hars to stagger. Vex immediately cancelled his slash onto Eryas.

Vex and Hars looked at each other before Hars uttered his words.

"Go check it."

Then Vex flaps his wings and flies away, heading to where the tremor came from. Eryas finally got to breathe properly after the crushing force on his body left.

'This is my chance.'

Eryas pushed himself off the ground and tried to run away, but was left disappointed when suddenly a hand grabbed him by the neck behind him. 

Eryas struggled, but it was useless. The power that is choking him from behind is so strong, stronger than average humans.

"Where did you think you're going to go?" said Hars in a mocking tone.

Without waiting to see what Hars is gonna do next, Eryas took out the last knife he had collected from the dead dark bird and stabbed it into Hars' hand. Eryas instantly released from the hold and lunged towards Hars, attacking him.

But then, a sharp pain travelled from the front of his stomach into the back of it. Eryas was frozen in place before he turned his gaze down. He was shocked to see that a long black tail was piercing deep into his abdomen.

Blood gushing out from his body, and when he tries to utter some words, blood is the only thing that comes out. Eryas's body was slowly raised by Hars's tail.

"Come on, you think the same trick gonna work again?" Hars questioned.

Eryas tries to slash Hars' face with the knife on the left, but he was so weak that Hars could easily catch his hand. Eryas groans in pain immediately after Hars crushed his fingers. The black knife falls to the ground. Hars laughed.

"Well now, you have no weapons, no people to help, nobody! What a tragic way to die, especially from someone as weak as you."

Hars sighed.

Another ground tremor strikes them. Hars was shaken by it, but he recovered quickly.

"What is happening over there? I need to wrap this quickly. So any last word?"

Eryas gazed directly at Hars. A hint of anger can be seen from his grin. After that, he let out his last word.

"I'll kill you!"

After hearing that, Hars immediately laughs. He could not contain his laughter as Eryas just spat some absurd nonsense. Hars laughed for a while before finally stopping to utter his words.

"You're such a joker. People on their deathbed sure spit some weird stuff. Well, it was fun while it lasted."

After those last words, Eryas immediately felt a sharp pang piercing through his left chest. Blood flowed out of his mouth rapidly. His vision started to become blurry, then he turned to the pain in his chest. He could see that Hars's hand was already piercing deep inside, into his heart. Anything below the forearm had already passed through the back of his body. Everywhere around the area turns deep red.

Suddenly, everything became silent. The gushing sound of struggles, the sorrowful conversation, everything just turns silent for a moment. 

The one body that was struggling to break free from the hold of the demon now becomes limp, unable to move, as the life is gone. 

The expressionful face turns lifeless, and the eyes that gazed straight into his enemy with hate now become void.

Then the silence of the moment was broken with a sigh from the demon of the former human.

"I didn't even need to use my curse."

***

Somewhere, dark where even light does not dare to enter, a huge, long, black chain that was wrapping something in the middle of everything, the chains that were swaying around as if winds blew upon it, stopped its motion. 

The cracking of each black chain that travelled from each end did not even manage to reach the centre of it.

The spaces that were once filled with the noise of rustling chains and cracking were instantly transformed into silence. The place where it once became lively with all those sounds turns deadly once again.