Second Chance in the Demon Kingdom

After finding a city in the middle of Darkest Nights, the first city she had seen in these two years, Caro and Kagero both made their way to the large town, with the latter going back into the former’s shadow.

Upon entering, as Caro had expected, there were no humans here. Instead, there were monsters and demons roaming around the streets. And from the way many of them were acting, if she didn’t know any better, Caro was still around humans, all dressed up in costumes.

However, the girl knew better than to let down her guard, and her hood. After all, no human had ever entered the Darkest Night and lived to tell tale of it. It was amazing that she was still alive in these couple of years.

The first thing she did when she entered town was search for a place to stay. After sleeping outside for so long, she’d like to finally be in bed for the first time in two years. Unfortunately for her, the language written on every stall, building, and menu were all in different language. No doubt the language of a demon. The demons were speaking in the same language as her, so that was the good news. But if she spoke to any of them, Caro would probably risk exposing herself to the demons, if her presence hadn’t already.

Unfortunately, unknown to her, there are already some demons suspicious of her.

Caro eventually made it to a building that seemed like an inn, if the lobby she could see from the window spoke of anything. Gathering up some courage, she walked in and over to the counter.

“Hello and welcome to Starry Inn!” greeted a human-looking demon with curved horns on her head.

“Hey,” she greeted back. “I’m asking just to be sure, but this is an inn, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. It costs 3 demo-coins per night. Meals included.”

Caro knew the money she had on her served her no purpose in Darkest Night and chose her next words carefully. “Unfortunately, I am quite low on money. By any chance, do you know where I can sell some dismantle materials?”

“Well, you can go to the smith shop that’s right around the corner,” the female demon informed. “Once you exit out, turn right, and you’ll find the shop.”

“I see. You have my thanks.” With that, Caro took her leave out the inn.

What she didn’t know, as she took her leave, however, was that the demon was quite suspicious of her, enough to contact some certain people.

As Caro walked past the crowd of demons, she kept a look out for the smith shop the receptionist spoke of, as well as possible troubles. And it didn’t help that her Shadow Wolf was also on high alert, as the hidden beast couldn’t help but feel like trouble would sprout from under her nose. She may trust Kagero and gave the beast its name, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t be on guard.

Eventually, the human girl made it to a shop with armor, swords, and axes placed right outside. Caro walked right into the store and saw three other demons inside, looking at some weapons and armor the store had. The demons consisted of a werewolf, a cyclops, and a naga, all wearing some kind of armor and had weapons on them. The werewolf had on leather armor and clawed gauntlets, the cyclops a metal armor, similar to a knight’s, and a large axe, and the naga wore some arm and chest guards, as well as a guard for his tail, and had a spear on his back.

Once she reached the counter on the other side, she was greeted by a black, muscular minotaur.

“Welcome to Bull Smith Shop,” he said in a gruff tone. “How may I help you?”

“I have some materials I’d like to sell,” Caro told him.

“Show me them. The kind of materials you have and the condition they’re in defines their price.”

Caro took out her bag from under her cloak and dumped a lot of fur, scales, claws, fangs, feathers, even eyes, and a few horns from within it, all in good condition.

The minotaur looked at all the materials she placed. “You sure had a lot of time on your hands,” he stated.

“I guess,” Caro simply answered.

After he checked over the items, the minotaur told her, “All these materials are in good shape. I can buy them off you, but I won’t have much left if I do. So tell you what? All this is worth 40,000 demo-coins. I’ll pay you max of 30,000 and the remains will go to a weapon and armor of your choice.”

“So long as I get paid, I don’t mind.” Without another word, Caro checked the armor and swords the shop had.

Though she really needed a new sword, as the one she had on her now was wearing out, there was a problem with the weapons in the shop. Rather, there was a problem with the weapons in Darkest Night in general.

The problem wasn’t that she didn’t know the price of the weapons; the prices were on the tags attached to them, in numbers and Darkest Nights’ currency. It wasn’t that the weapons were expensive; she knew how pricy swords and armor were.

The problem of getting a sword here is… she wouldn’t be able to do a Blade Burst.

Apparently, the weapons in Darkest Nights were different from the weapons in Harlan. It wasn’t just the materials that were different; it was also the fact that, for some reason, Blade Bursts are unusable if one were to use a a demon-forged weapon. Well, to say that they’d be unusable would be an overstatement; it was more that it would actually require three times the amount of stamina for non-demons to use a Blade Burst if they use a demon weapon. As such, Caro would tire faster if she were to use her Blade Bursts while using a demon weapon.

She could, on the other hand, ask the minotaur to fix up or sharpen the sword she had on her for the 10,000, but because of the large difference between a demon weapon and a normal one, she feared that giving away her sword would also give away her identity.

Between exhaustion and identity risk, Caro knew which was a better option.

“I’ll take this sword,” she said, grabbing a sword from the barrel that costed exactly 10,000 demo-coins and placed it on the counter.

“I’ll be right with you with the money then,” the minotaur said, walking to the back.

As she waited, the trio of demons also in the shop approached her.

“Hey girl. Who the hell do you think you are?” a werewolf questioned. Caro simply looked at the group.

“What?” she just asked.

“Don’t ‘what’ me. Your scent... You may have monstrous scent like us, but you also have the scent of a human!” Underneath her hood, Caro narrowed her eyes, as she reached towards her hidden blade under her cloak. “Having a human scent can only mean three things. One: you found some humans who snuck their way to our land and killed them. Two: you traveled outside our land and made contact with humans. And three- Well... I’ve a good feeling you’re choice three...” The cyclops and the naga smirked at those words and slowly surrounded her. “For one thing, even if you had killed humans, the last human that was seen here was 20 years ago. That human scent would at least be faint, and yet it still smells so strong. Same thing if you made contact with humans from the outside. And not only that, but the monstrous smell you have doesn’t even smell like it is originally yours. And then again, for the second choice to be possible, you need to have the king’s permission to leave this land. And I don’t smell a hint of his majesty’s scent on you.”

Once all three demons had her surrounded, Caro calmly asked, “Then tell me. What is choice three that you are so sure I am to be?”

There was silence at the question, and the demons reached for their weapon. “You’re a human!” At the werewolf’s shout, he and his friends all charged in to attack her.

Caro may not wanted to attract attention to herself, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to fight back. The lone human ducked to avoid a claw attack to the head and leaned all the way back to avoid the naga’s spear. She then kicked the snake demon to the cyclops, knocking the two back and into some barrels of weapons.

The large clanging caught the shop owner’s attention, as he rushed back out. “What’s going on here?!” he demanded.

“In a minute, minotaur!” the werewolf shouted, rushing in at Caro once more.

The girl avoided each of his attacks to the best of her ability. However, the wolf demon was fast, and she couldn’t keep dodging him for much longer. This was proven, as the wolf demon had managed to rip her cloak off, revealing her face and the clothes underneath.

In place of the blue dress she had worn two years ago, Caro had on a shirt and shorts made from the skin and fur of a Frenzy Bear, arm and leg bands made from the scales of Drill Pythons, and shoes made from the skin and hooves of a Rampaging Buffalo, all sewn together by the silk of an Arachne Spider. Her long, midnight black hair was greasy and in a wild and unkempt style. Where her skin was bare, one can see a lot of scars on them, and she wore Ruby’s ear ring around her wrist like a bracelet.

“Damn it!” Caro gasped, her blue eyes wide and in shock.

One look at her face and the werewolf licked his lips. “Twenty years since the last human who was seen here! And I am the first in these twenty years who gets to eat one!” He jumped with his mouth wide to gobble her up.

Caro wasn’t going to let herself be eaten. Not after surviving for so long on this dangerous land. As such, she took out her original sword and swiped at her opponent, cutting him in the mouth and snout. The sudden cut caused the werewolf to recoil and move away from her, holding his cut face in pain.

Caro didn’t let her guard down, as she sensed the other two demons coming at her from behind. The girl instantly turned and parried the naga’s lance away, as well as disarming the snake demon. As for the cyclops, he tried to catch her by surprise, swinging his heavy axe down. Fortunately for Caro, she had enough experiences with sneaky opponents and axe-wielders to react fast enough to knock the heavy weapon away, enough to redirect it to the floor right by her. She then proceeded to, using the Wind Wave Slash Blade Burst to boost her sword’s power, cut one of the cyclops’ arm off. Said demon was crying and roaring out in pain, holding his bleeding arm in an attempt to stop the blood from flowing out.

If the ruckus in the smith shop didn’t get the attention of the demons outside, the cry and roar did. Many of the passerby watched from the windows, some at a good distance from the door, and couldn’t believe what they were seeing. A human... was fighting off against three demons.

Caro noticed the growing attention and clicked her tongue, knowing full well that it wouldn’t be long until some kind of guards came. That being said, she rushed out the shop.

The civilians of demons all distanced themselves as they saw her rush out, with her remaining two pursuers chasing after her.

“Get back here, human!” hissed the naga, as he used his tail to grab hold of the girl.

Caro saw the tail coming and raised her sword for a jab, having it glow to use her Cliff Hanger Blade Burst. The second the tail attempted to wrap itself around her, she stabbed her sword down, breaking through the armor as she pinned her sword and the naga’s tail to the ground. Said demon cried in agony, trying hard to remove his tail from its place. Caro used his long tail as a footing to run over to the main body and gave him a nice, clean kick to the face. She noticed the werewolf coming from behind his ally and used the naga’s chest as a footing to backflip away from him, avoiding another claw attack, as well as removing her sword from its place.

“Your dodging won’t save you forever, human!” the canine demon shouted.

One word of her species, already out for all to see, brought panic to the other demons, some keeping their kids or loved ones away from the fight.

Caro remained unfazed and simply held her sword to her side, having it give off a glow for a Blade Burst.

The werewolf noticed the glow and position. “Oh? A human’s Blade Bust? To think someone as weak-looking as you can actually use one. This makes it even more interesting!” He crossed his arms, claws facing his opponent and glowing with a dark aura around it. “Let me be the first and only demon to show you, human. Your weak Blade Bursts are nothing to our Demon Breaks!”

The girl stayed silent and just narrowed her eyes at her enemy.

“Prepare yourself, girl! Beowulf Crush Claws!” The werewolf shot himself towards Caro claws ready to rip her to shreds.

The human was not fazed by this. Using her Blade Burner Blade Burst, she swung her flaming sword upward with all her strength, knocking the two sets of claws away. She then swung her blade horizontally, landing a hard strike on the werewolf’s chest armor and forcing him back. With another swing, she unleashed a fiery slash that completely destroyed the armor, as well as burned off some of his fur, leaving a nasty burn and scar on his chest. The werewolf of a demon lied on the ground, screaming and clutching his chest in pain.

“You still want to try your luck?” Caro dared.

The werewolf glared at her, wanting to tear her to pieces. He heard something approach the fight and smirked.

“Not me… But they will!” he exclaimed.

Before she could ask who he meant, goblin and skeleton knights appeared and surrounded her. This made Caro tense up as she kept her guard up and cautiously looked around her.

The knights parted slightly, enough for one more demon to join the circle. This demon had short white hair, blood red eyes, and fangs poking out of his mouth. His ears were a bit long, and his skin was white as snow. Unlike the knights around them, this demon had on a black shirt, coat, pants, and boots. He also had on a pair of black gauntlets on his arms and a huge sword on his back. For some reason, the demon before her reminded Caro of…

’Ruby?’ she thought in shock.

“You damn human!” the commanding demon shouted. “By order of the Royal Warriors of Darkest Nights, formed and chosen by my father, the Demon King, you are under arrest for trespassing, disturbing the peace, and assaulting our fellow demon kin! Surrender now, or face your immediate death!”

It may be because of his similarities to Ruby or because she knew she couldn’t handle so many demons at once, despite her very high level and stamina, but Caro sheathed her sword and put her hands up, allowing herself to be taken. At least, that was the plan…

As one of the knights approached her with cuffs, Kagero shot out of her shadow and started growling at the knights. The sight of it at her side shocked many demons.

“What the-?!”

“A Shadow Wolf? With that human?”

“But that’s unheard of.”

“What are you doing?!” Caro questioned her comrade.

The male Ruby-lookalike recognized the beast standing before them.

“Wolf?!” he gasped. Kagero turned to him at the call. “Aren’t you Wolf?!”

The Shadow Wolf let out some happy barks and rushed to the commanding demon’s side. The demon smiled and caught Kagero in a hug.

“Where were you this whole time?! I missed you!” he said.

Watching this shocked everyone, including Caro, but for a different reason.

“That Shadow Wolf is the Royal Family’s pet?”

“Why was he with that human?”

“It can’t be… Did that human abduct him?!”

“That must be it! That’s the only reason why we haven’t seen it for so long!”

Caro’s eyes widened, not at the accusation, but at the state she was in. No… not her state, but rather what she was seeing in front of her. She thought that at least animals, even monsters, would be more trusting. But hearing the accusations around her, watching Kagero happily reunite with its true master…

Said demon looked at her with malice in his eyes. “To think a human has the soul to dog-nap my pet. You’re quite a gutsy one, aren’t you?” he growled. “The penalty for such a crime is an execution! But… Demon I may be, I am no monster like your kind truly is. I’ll have your execution be public! A fight to the death, if you will. You crossed a line no human had crossed and you will pay for it. With your life, to my sword. Take her to the dungeon!”

Caro didn’t care about her upcoming execution. In fact, she didn’t care about anything, nor did she even notice what was currently going on around her, as a pair of goblins forced her hands behind her back and cuffed them.

All the girl saw… was a replay of the betrayals she had experienced. One with her family from her previous life, one with the person she once loved, and one with the person whom she thought of as a sister.

The many emotions emerging from the memories were so strong, as soon as she was tossed in a cart to be sent to the castle, Caro shed tears, reminded that, in the end, she was still all alone.