With our horses galloping at full speed under the blazing hot sun, we managed to reach Zaid Town within the hour. By then, the sun had dipped toward the horizon, its rays a lot less fierce than before, as the coming of evening dawned.
"This…"
The monsters were gone by the time we reached them. I wasn't sure what happened either, even though I kept an eye on the town with my enchanted glasses and magnified vision this entire time. They seemed to have moved through the various houses and disappeared.
All that was left behind was a ghost town. Puddles of blood were splattered about, but even the bodies were gone.
"The Possessed are…cannibals, if you still consider them to be humans," Eleanor explained when I jumped off the horse to examine the pools of blood. "They feed on human flesh."
"Do they eat human guts?" I asked dryly.
"Huh?" Eleanor's beautiful features twisted in confusion. "No, not just the guts. They eat everything. Even the bones."
"My lord, do you need a claymore?" Stella asked, also dismounting from my horse to stand by my side. I shook my head. As expected, she was the only one who caught the reference.
"On the topic of cannibalism…" Larson was kneeling by a splatter of blood. He ran a finger through it, and then licked the blood off. He rose to his feet and shrugged. "We vampires drink human blood too, even though there's a significant number of us who were formerly human. So we're in no position to condemn the Possessed."
"I don't think anyone intends to condemn anybody," Eleanor replied, looking around. Out of all of us, she was the only one still on her horse. Well, she and her personal retinue. Larson's knights had dismounted and was moving out to form a protective circle. Eleanor and her personal guards remained at the back, probably maintaining an elevated perspective. "I'm just giving an explanation for why we don't see any bodies."
Moving around cautiously, I tracked the town for any sign of movements. The motion tracker on my enchanted lenses beeped, but didn't detect any sign of movement. The infrared readings also remained silent, not picking up on any body heat. This was weird. Even if the townsfolk were all dead, with how recently their deaths had occurred, they would still have left some lingering body heat. It would take a while for their corpses to cool down.
Then I stiffened, my glasses finally picking up some signs of life. Throwing a hand out to forestall any sudden movement from my subordinates, I took a step forward.
"It's okay. We're here to help."
The door to one of the houses opened and a man shambled outward, looking emaciated and haunted. It wasn't just him. One by one, more townsfolk joined him, dressed shabbily in torn clothing and looking pale.
"Are you guys all right?" I asked, approaching them. One of them, a young lady about my age, stepped forwad and nodded. Unlike the others, she was dressed in a decent, frilly dress that wasn't torn or tattered, and her long brown hair was stylishly pinned up with a couple of flowers. She bowed her head modestly.
"Thank you, kind sir. We…managed to escape the massacre from the demons earlier." She took a deep breath and watched us warily. "Are you soldiers from the kingdom? Has the royal family finally dispatched troops to help us drive away the demons?"
"Uh, well, we're a mercenary unit." That was a half-truth. We certainly weren't soldiers or knights of the Havan Kingdom. "We came here because we heard reports of demons approaching Zaid Town. It appears we are too late."
I lowered my head in apology. There was some mumbling amidst the townsfolk, but strangely enough I heard no anger or bitterness. Just surprise. They didn't resent us for coming late, it appeared. I was prepared for them to curse us, to blame them for the deaths of their fellow townsfolk, but their reactions seemed so…tame.
"How did you guys survive?" Stella asked. "I mean no offense, but we saw the demons earlier. None of you seem to be armed…"
"We hid," the girl at the front replied simply, her hands clasped in front of her frilly dress. "We stayed in our houses and waited for the demons to leave."
I raised an eyebrow at that. The townsfolk certainly didn't look like people who had just come out of hiding. There was no fear, no shock…not even caution against a bunch of strangers who appeared shortly after a monster's attack.
There was something weird about this…
"The Possessed have human forms," Eleanor explained when I turned to her, having shared my suspicions as well. "They are shapeshifters, often able to conceal their monstrous forms under the appearance of their human hosts. When they do so, they become indistinguishable from normal humans. It is impossible to visually tell them apart."
In order for the townsfolk not to hear us, she had dropped her voice to a whisper. The enhanced hearing of the vampires was what allowed her to pick up her words.
"I say we just kill them all," Larson suggested, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "No sense taking unnecessary risks."
"No," Stella objected. "You know our lord's plan. There will be no killing of innocents."
"How do we know if any of them are innocents? What if they attack us when our backs are turned?"
While the two knights argued in hushed tones, I kept my gaze on Eleanor. She sighed and nodded.
"As you suspect, my liege, there is another way to distinguish the Possessed from normal humans."
"What?" Larson turned to her. "How?"
"Magical senses," Eleanor replied. "You should be able to tell them apart from humans by the demonic aura they emanate. All demons, including vampires, should be able to detect the demonic aura. Human mages and priests are capable of that as well."
Right. I remembered the priestess in Harold's party. Priscilla was almost able to tell that Stella and I weren't any ordinary humans.
"Unlike vampires, the Possessed can't conceal their demonic aura completely because they have been changed from the core…biologically and physiologically."
"Oh, that's simple enough." Larson turned back to the townsfolk while gesturing to his knights to ready themselves. "Then we'll just…"
I understood the reason why he trailed off. Right after Eleanor's explanation, I had tried to reach out with my magical perception and sense for demonic aura.
And right now, I could see that every single "townsfolk" in front of me were emanating demonic auras.
"You're all Possessed!" Larson hissed, drawing his sword. His knights did the same, as did Stella, who silently gripped her crimson sword with both hands.
"Ah…we've been found out." The girl in the frilly dress threw both of her hands up dramatically and practically spun about. She giggled, her long, brown tresses sliding past her shoulders. "You guys aren't ordinary humans, are you? To be able to detect our demonic aura…"
My eyes were focused solely on her at that moment. The girl…she was different from the others. Even though the other townsfolk were radiating dangerous and monstrous air, the girl's demonic aura eclipsed all of them. It almost felt as if there was an ocean of demonic mana contained within her seemingly delicate frame.
No, it was almost as if I was peering into an endless abyss, one with a bottomless depth.
"If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
I recalled the quote from some distant past somewhere. That was what it felt like right now. The girl's eyes were so dark and profound that I almost felt like I was drowning in them.
"Luciela," I said. "The Abysmal Ruler, Luciela…of the South."
"Oh? You've heard of me? I'm honored." Luciela did a curtsy with her dress, holding up the frilly hem with her fingers and bowing mischievously. "That is correct. I am Luciela. Some say I rule the south because of my home in Musha province. But I've only settled down here because this was where I was born."
"When you were human," I said. Musha province was a province in the Havan Kingdom and not the Demonic Empire, after all. Interesting…so the Possessed got their nicknames because of their locations in the human kingdom?
"That's correct." Luciela spun about lazily, throwing her hands out. She then stopped to look seriously at me. "It has changed a lot since I've been back here. I never thought those fools in the capital would be stupid enough to hand over the southern provinces to that tyrannical huntress. Now Musha is supposed to be under her jurisdiction too."
She clenched her fists.
"I plan to take back Musha from that bitch, and drive her hunter tribe out of the south."
"What a coincidence," I said. "I also plan to destroy her hunter tribe. If you don't mind, perhaps we can cooperate."
"Ha ha ha!" Luciela began giggling. "I knew it! I knew you aren't simple humans! No…"
She looked at us more intensely.
"You're not humans at all, are you?"
"Not entirely," I admitted. Raising a hand, I ordered Larson and the others back. They were glaring hostilely at the Possessed, who were looking a lot sharper and more intimidating than before, now that their identities had been revealed. There was a predatory glint in their eyes, and their demonic auras had thickened considerably.
"Seems like I am correct." Luciela continued to study us for a few more seconds. "I don't recognize your auras. But…the only ones adept at hiding them like this…the only ones I'm aware of that has such skill are vampires."
"We are vampires," Eleanor affirmed with a cold smile. "And you are the Possessed. We are fellow demons."
"Oh? I'm surprised that there are other demons this far out, and this deep into human territory." Luciela narrowed her eyes. "How did you end up all the way here?"
"Our goal is to destroy the hunter tribe, like I said earlier," I replied. "And the subjugation of Yvonne. Seems like our goals align, so there's no reason why we can't work together."
"Work together?"
Luciela began giggling uncontrollably. The vampires watched her warily while the Possessed gathered behind her, as if for support. The brunette placed a hand on her forehead before forcing herself to calm down. She shook her head and smiled.
"Seems like you're mistaking something."
"How so?" I asked frostily.
"We don't work together. You will be working for me. I don't care if you're the high and mighty vampires. I'll only accept you guys as my subordinates."
She leaned forward slightly, her hands on her hips.
"I'm the woman who will become the future Demonic Empress, after all."
"That's what I thought too," Eleanor muttered. "But I'm glad I saw the sense to stop before I allowed myself to get crushed by the weight of my dreams and ambitions."
"How dare you!" Stella snarled, stepping forward with her sword, but I stopped her. Staying in front, I held up a hand and pulled off my right glove.
"Even if I possess this crest?"
For a moment, Luciela paused. She stared at the crimson crest etched into the back of my right hand, clearly recognizing it as the Demonic Emperor's crest. The symbol of his authority and the proof that I had been chosen.
"I see. So you are that new Demonic Emperor that I've been hearing about recently."
I held my breath, hoping this would convince her. We were all demons. I would prefer to avoid pointless bloodshed, after all. And I could really use the Possessed Being's help against Yvonne and her hunter tribe. As the seconds dragged on, and Luciela's lips curled into a grin, I suddenly understood that it was a futile hope.
"Do you recognize my authority?" I asked anyway, trying one last time to settle this diplomatically. As I expected, though, Luciela shook her head.
"Are you crazy?" she scoffed. "For the Demonic Emperor himself to personally come here and offer his head to me? As long as I kill you, that's all the proof I need to succeed as the new Demonic Empress. Why wouldn't I do it?"
"As if we'll let you!" Stella snapped, moving forward. However, she didn't get very far before one of the Possessed lunged forward, her body shifting and transforming. Within a few seconds, the lady had transformed into a bulbous body that sported whirring razor-sharp appendages and spider-like legs, and slashed at her.
"Protect his majesty!" Larson ordered and his knights raced forward, their armored figures wreathed in the familiar crimson of blood magic. They drew their weapons and augmented themselves.
At the same time, the other Possessed charged forward, their bodies expanding, growing and transforming into hideous monstrosities.
While vampires clashed against Possessed all around us, Luciela remained the only one amidst the Possessed who hadn't transformed. She appeared to dance gracefully toward me, her elegant figure clad in demonic aura.
"Now then," she said as she stretched an inviting hand toward me. "Shall we settle this once and for all?"