The headquarters for the “Demon Lineage Sect” was an abandoned school.
The clouds still covered the skies and heavy rain poured down, but that did not dampen the packed and noisy crowds. As Maruko brought Tess out of the main school building, the crowds parted for them.
Tess’s beauty drew much praise and mutterings could be heard from the crowd, many of which were rather unsavoury.
“Don’t even think about it,” Maruko said in a loud voice as he held the umbrella for Tess, “She is my woman!”
The crowds quietened down. From the looks of it, Maruko held significant sway as the head of the organisation. He approached Tess and whispered softly to her.
“No need to be afraid.”
“I’m not yours.” Tess distanced herself from him.
Maruko pretended not to hear it.
Everyone in the field wore a raincoat with a signature black cloth. Some tied the black cloth around their arms, others on their foreheads; only Maruko had 2, 1 around his right wrist and another was used to tie his long hair. All large organisations liked to do such things, having members wear an accessory that symbolised their organisation. Those with more financial resources would issue uniforms. The Demon Lineage Sect was, however, rather poor as they had no sponsors and could only choose simple black rags.
But this was about to change.
Maruko and Tess passed through the crowd and came to an empty patch of grass where there was a magic formation several tens of meters across drawn in white limestone. Each intersection was marked by a 2 meter tall candle that burnt in the rain with a strange green flame. There were several weird contraptions outside the formation, controlled by some people standing at the side. In the centre of the formation was a throne, and a corpse sat on it.
Tess held her breath.
How does one qualify to be a true monarch? The corpse was a giant and was 2 meters tall even in a sitting position. A thick pitch black armor that looked like jt could swallow all the light in the world encased it.
The majesty it exuded was boundless, like the rising tide of the sea which swallowed the land, driving an overpowering desire in you to kneel in respect of it.
The rain pierced the skies and fell to the ground like swords but it avoided the corpse and landed outside the throne.
Looking from afar, despite it being a corpse of something long dead for 10,000 years, you could clearly imagine it giving a commanding roar and feel fear and awe from it.
This was a true monarch!
“This is my precious toy.” Maruko said as he giggled.
He passed the umbrella to Tess, turned to the crowds and raised his hands high.
“Members of my ilk!”
“Oh!!!”
The cries of the crowd rang out like thunder as everyone got heated up.
“The time has finally come! The ancient demon king will resurrect and be under our ‘Demon Lineage Sect”s command!”
“Oh!!!”
Maruko clenched his fist as sheer joy floated uncontrollably to his face.
“At last… At last… The hardships we have endured all these years, at last we can conquer the world with the power of the demon race! When that time comes,” He shouted at the top his voice, “We will have awesome uniformssssssssss!”
“Oh!!!!”
“And a big mountain of gold!!!!”
“Girls!!!!”
“Loli!!!!”
“Big sisters!!!!”
“Delicious shotas!!!!”
(TL: No, it really does say shota. The Chinese characters literally do not make sense otherwise)
“Oh———!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Everyone shouted their own desires and cheered and jumped before hugging each other passionately.
Maruko coughed a few times from shouting too much and gave a smile when he found Tess looking at him.
“Got to say those words for appearance’s sake no matter what~ To create the mood!”
Tess remained silent.
“Alright alright!” Maruko waved his hands, “Now then, let us welcome the moment we have all been waiting for!”
The crowd quietened down again. Maruko pushed Tess into the magic formation, and with every step, the green flame from the candles would flicker while personnel outside the formation would toggle switches on the contraption. The contraption suddenly started spinning and the limestone totem on the ground lit up unsteadily.
As she neared the throne, cold sweat ran down Tess’s back.
Upon reaching the center of the formation, Maruko took a knife that was on the armrest of the throne and faced Tess.
“Give me your hand.”
“…”
Without magic, Tess could not resist.
“I’ve already infused into his body the demon blood I extracted so what you need to do is simple.”
Maruko made a cut on one finger each of the corpse and Tess, the pain making her crease her eyebrows. Maruko then grabbed Tess’s finger and stuck it to that of the corpse so the wounds were touching.
Tess felt a curious sensation, like touching ironsand.
“Just press down like that and wait.” Maruko said.
He glanced at Tess, “What is with that expression of yours, did you think I would really kill you by draining your blood dry to feed my toy? I wouldn’t be able to bear doing so~”
“The demon race has a strong desire to live,” Maruko continued again, “With just a few drops of fresh blood, fheir corpse can be coaxed awake. But they like putting on airs and refuse to accept human blood. Even dumping after several pails, he wouldn’t even open his eyelids. But the soul doesn’t seem to care and attempts to possess anyone. To have such a difference in behaviour between the corpse and the soul, could the demons actually be tsunderes?”
(TL: Recall that there is soul in blood)
“Because,” Tess answered, “Because the souls guides the body and the demons would never allow a human soul to enter.”
“But when one’s soul is finding a host then that’s okay because it’s the one controlling anyway? When yousay it like that, it makes sense.”
“How do you plan to control him after he revives.”
Tess finally asked the question that had been nagging at her.
“Without a strong soul to control the body, it would just rampage about without end.”
“Of course it’s by using magic~”
Maruko tapped his forehead with a finger.
“The Pentacle’s magic, I know it too.”
“… ‘Control’?”
“That’s right~ For the sake of learning how to use the intangible cultural heritage left behind, I had to give up a lot of things. The way magic works in demons is completely different from humans and so I had to rearrange my organs to learn their spells. From then on I said goodbye to the fire magic I was so proud of~”
(TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intangible_cultural_heritage)
Maruko continued.
“That green hair is really too lousy. To think that he is an elf but can only control a single person for several minutes.
Looking at Maruko’s gleeful look, Tess probed further.
“And you?”
“Depends on the target, but if it’s this 2 meter tall guy… One day maybe~”
Tess was so shocked she couldn’t say a word in reply.
What exactly was this youth? He looked like an ordinary human, but was gifted in magic beyond elves. Even the elven king Zkocha did not know of the “transition” spell but this youth knew everything about it… He said he was a thousandth of the whole, then how powerful and horrific was the original him?
Nobody dared to say a word as they concentrated their fullest attention on the throne. After a long while, there was no sign of the corpse reviving, and Tess began to doubt whether things would go like Maruko said it would.
The god of fate had not told her these things through dreams, and she had guessed that her mission was to destroy the demon king that would revive, but since there was no dream that showed a scene of slaying the ancient giant, the corpse would likely not revive.
Looking at Maruko, his face was filled with doubt as well.
Was it a false alarm?
The field was comepletely silent.
Tess suddenly realised something was wrong. The sound of rain was gone.
The weather had not turned for the better. All the rain had stopped in midair, forming a sphere. People’s clothes looked like they were being blown but there was no wind. Maruko’s expression seemed fixed, and looked like a lifelike oil painting. Sweat from his chin formed a drop, but did not fall, as if it had frozen.
The world had stopped.
*Badump* *Badump*
A powerful heartbeat broke through the silence between heaven and earth.
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