THE LUSTING WORLD - Season 2 Episode 42

Sophia didn’t really had any regrets. All her life she had only seen loss. There had been very few moments of joy in her life. *Crunch* The images of last night flashed in her mind as she heard her ribs crack under pressure from the wolfs claw. ‘I should have kissed him when I had the chance.’ She smiled wryly as blood gushed out from her mouth. Her transformation had been undone. She had no mana left to continue it any further. All her reserves had depleted, both her arms had their bones broken and all across her body she had multiple deep gash marks oozing blood. She turned her face to see the boy looking at her while laying in the pool of his own blood. He was still alive. She can see the despair in his eyes but she knew he can’t get up now. His condition was even worse than Jake. Only if she had been a little more powerful.

But who was she kidding. She was simply no match for this guy. ‘Sorry, father.’ Just when she had gained the courage to call that old man her ‘father’. First time in the entire batte tears fell for her eyes. She didn’t even flinch when the beast broke her entire arm but now she was tried and wanted all this to end. “Grrrr…” She can see the large knife like fangs enlarge in her vision. ‘This is the end then.’ She closed her eyes presumably for the last time.

*Boooomm!!* It hadn’t even been a second when she closed her eyes when a huge blast battered against the beasts body. It was a large wave of mana, gushing towards them from all around. It was like something was sucking on mana from the surroundings at a rapid pace. She could barely turn her head in that direction. Ryu? No. A man? No. It was someone who didn’t look human at all. He had a hulking muscular body with large shoulders. His skin was dark while his hair long hair floated in air under the extreme rush of mana. He put forth his hands infront of him, like he was checking how he looked. He was muttering something but Sophia’s eardrums had ruptured already this making her unable to comprehend anything.

“This is a progress. I need to be patient.” The demon was talking to himself. *Grrrrrr* *Grrrrr* He looked at the wolf growling at him from a distance. “Hah.. I better save the girl when I still have the chance.” He can hear her heart beating and that was more than enough for him. His body was still draining the mana from the atmosphere when he floated towards the beast. “I don’t want to kill you. It’s only because of you that I can surface, so why don’t we come to a truce?” The wolf jumped back, taking defensive posture. He ignored it and descend down to the ground beside Sophia. “Well well you should be glad that I am here.” Saying that he place a hand on her chest. Thick mana gushed into her body forcing her body to heal at a visible pace. The pressure exerted by this being was such that she couldn’t hold on and ended up fainting.

The shadow wolf had assumed that he might be able to take on this new opponent but with every second it’s power levels was rising rapidly. Once it surpassed it’s own all of its instincts screamed at him to run away. So it did just that. Leaping in the opposite direction, it ran for its life.

“Hmm? Looks like it can’t be helped hehe..” The demon turned around to take a look at Jake. With a single motion of its hand, large amount of vegetation grew from the ground under the boy before engulfing his body within. “No that we are done here, shall we go on some hunting?” His body vanished from the spot appearing in the sky above. His sharp eyes instantly located the beast running through the forest. It was cunning enough to use shadows to keep changing its direction from time to time so that it can’t be follow. “You see I also love to give some hope to others before snuffing it off. It is much more satisfying this way.” Under the beast feet the ground itself began shrinking. Didn’t matter how fast it ran, only direction it moved was backward. *Howl* *Howl* “Two large trees grew from under him, their branches held onto each of its limbs before pulling him up in the sky. *Howl* The beast was intelligent enough to know it was not getting out alive from here. It gave up on the struggles.

“Hmm? Just that?” He turned his head up to see a large swirl of thick mana continuously entering into its body. “ohh.. Looks like I scared you there. Then I guess it’s time to put you out of your misery.” With a signal from his hands the trees instantly pulled on all its limbs as they tore it’s body in four parts. *Splash* Red blood spattered over the demon’s face and he licked it off his lips with a long tongue. “How long had it been since I tasted blood?” He looked to be reminiscing about some matters.

“Well then, now that we are done with this, can you please come out? Benefactor. Hehehe..” He turned around and looked towards a direction in the jungle. Even after his call no one came out. But he didn’t mind, his gaze stood there in that direction as he made some conjectures “Hmm.. You were always suspecting of the boy from the beginning. All this sham for just confirming your doubts? What would you have done had I not surfaced? You could have lost your precious grandson in all this, you know. Grand Magus Emily.”

“Huuuff” At last a sigh echoed in the forest. A lady in white clothes rose up in the air from the same direction the demon was looking. “You don’t need to worry about that, wretched demon. I would have saved them had the it come to that. But compared to that it’s more important to deal with you.” Emily was hiding the fact that she was feeling very guilty that she had to put not only her grandson but his friends through such a tragedy. She was the one who had placed that shadow wolf in this forest and manipulated it to attack them. There was no other way for her to confirm that Ryu’s body really housed a real demon. She had been prepared to jump in when any of them can’t hold on anylonger. But to her luck the demon revealed itself at the last second.

She was actually the first one in the town to notice the sudden appearance of the massive forest right outside. Next she had seen Ryu coming out of the forest and leaving for his home. On top of that she can very easily feel the left over presence of demonic mana in the fresh vegetation. This was a huge matter. Humanity hated demons even more than the beastmen. It was just that many centuries had passed and their memories about the demons had faded by quite a bit. But still she can very easily imagine what is going to happen to Ryu if the truth came to light. Death will be a luxury for him if the royal court got to know about it. And thus she can’t allow this truth to be revealed. That was the reason she had killed off the Wilders father and son pair when they were en route to the capital to put forth their report. She had found out that they too had sensed the demonic presence in the vegetation at the border of Korua.

They had to be eliminated, otherwise the court would have definitely taken the matter very seriously and then it was just a matter of time before Ryu was found out. She made it seem like they were killed off by the beastmen tribe and that will perfectly shift their focus back to the menace caused by the beastmen. Now even if they send other investigators, it was of no use. The demonic mana had vanished from the forest. With all that taken care off, she had to now settle what was wrong with her grandson. There is no way she can let him be taken away by the army of the empire. She will do whatever she can to help him out of this situation.

The demon leered at the white haired woman, staring all the way up from her feet to her head before licking his lips. “You humans really hate us, don’t you hahaha… It’s been so long that my brethren disappeared from the world but you guys still can’t give up on this hate. So childish.” The disgust on Emily’s face was rather evident. “The horrors your species inflicted on us can never be forgotten. We won’t rest untill each one of you are eradicated completely.” Till now the demon had always been smiling but this time her words seem to have triggered some bad memories. Emily saw him clench his fist.

He looked towards the sky before seemingly muttering to himself “Haha.. looks like are just doomed to be hated mother. I told you but you would never believe me.” A speck of tear flashed in his eyes but it vanished just as fast. “To tell you the truth Mrs. Emily, I got no grievances with you humans. Don’t get me wrong but you guys are not even worthy of being my enemies. So why don’t you just leave me alone?” His eyes flashed deeper shade of red. The swirling mass of mana over his head seems to be disappearing now, meaning that he had his reserves filled now. Simply speaking such large mana reserves were terrifying to say the least. Yet, Emily didn’t flinch at all.

“Although I hate the demons just as much but we don’t have to do this if you leave my grandson alone.” If possible she would like to settle this without any bloodshed. Firstly, she was not even sure if she could take him on. Secondly, this guy was in Ryu’s body. Even if she overpowers him, there was a risk that it might hurt her own child. She was at a level where she could easily heal any physical injuries but what will she do if his soul was harmed? She would try her best to minimise that risk.

On the other hand the demon too didn’t want to fight someone related to Ryu. He ran the risk of the guy awakening once again and wrest control of this body back. But she was clearly determined to not leave him alone. “Then you leave me no choice Mrs. Emily. I will suggest you to not hold back at all. If you do so, you might die!” He said his last sentence with a creepy smile. “I know that.” Emily responded as she pulled out her staff from her storage ring. Putting her hands together she began chanting her spell. “Hmm? Interesting.” The demon looked like he was in no hurry. Rather he was enjoying what Emily was doing.

A large spinning magic circle manifested over her head. It glowed with bright light and a small being showed itself. It was a little fairy, just a foot long. She had short blue hair and proportionally small clothes. Her little transparent wings glittered as she flew all around Emily. The magic circle had vanished leaving both of them to face against the demon. “Ohh.. my.. my… Emily, how is it that you remember me hehe.” The fairy spun all around the lady before settling on her shoulders. Emily turned her head towards her opponent and the little fairy followed her gaze and nearly fell from her seat, once she noticed the being looking down on them. “I need your help Nerissa. I can’t defeat him alone.” It took the little girl some time to process the situation. “Isn’t he a demon? Or half demon? Whatever it is, why is it alive?”

Emily shook her head. “That’s a rather long story, I will tell you later. Please help me out here.” The little girl face palmed herself. “Stupid Emily, you got a death wish? Look at him, that guy is going to eat both of us alive and I mean that literally. Come run away with me. Hurry.” She used her small hands to grab Emily’s fingers before trying to tug her away. “We need to fight, Nerissa!” Nerissa can’t make any sense of this situation. Sure they can’t defeat the demon but it won’t be that much difficult for someone on her level to run away. The little girl immediately switched to the demon. Flying away towards the guy sitting cross-legged mid-air, she took a bow “Please Mr. Demon let us go. You see my partner here has clearly lost her mind. I assure you we got no ill wish for you.”