—–
Even if they saw him slice the head of a demon, demons were able to praise and follow the strong. Fights between clan leaders happened very commonly, so a demon killing another wasn’t so much of a shock for them to provoke Erdrich to be instantly made into an enemy. The demons felt confused at first, and the Blue Onis, who were more intelligent than the Imps quickly tried to speak things with him. Despite looking savage and bloodthirsty in the outside, Blue Onis were intelligent and capable of holding conversations with one another to express their opinions… and they wondered why a demon so strong as Erdrich was siding with the humans.
When he heard them calling him a “brother” Erdrich felt completely weirded out and thrown off his own mind. What just happened? They just… really called him a brother? Erdrich couldn’t feel any kinship from these monstrous demons at all, and instead felt disgust.
“I am not your brother…! I am a human!” He roared angrily, as the Blue Oni looked at him with surprise.
“No, you’re a demon like us, you emanate demon energy and you have a demon core!”
“You’re one of us… why are you betraying us? Come and join us… They promised us new land to conquer and live on, so we can reproduce and thrive! Let’s defeat the humans together and prosper as a family!”
“What… what are you talking about?!” Roared Erdrich, the more he heard their voices, the more they strangely sounded more and more… human. In his mind Erdrich had always considered demons as simply another clade of monsters. But their high intelligence, their appreciate for family, and everything else… it gave it away very clearly that they were sapient and very intelligent and emotional.
Yet… if they had all of such traits, why were they slaughtering humans so much now? If they were so intelligent… if they cared for family… if they had empathy… why?
Well, why did humans kill one another? Why did they had wars with one another despite all being humans with emotions, feelings, and families? At the end of the day, even if he saw them as humans, what make them less of an enemy anyway?
This was war. People with families fight one another for survival, they fight for their own families, their own nations, their own kin to thrive… and in exchange, the defeated perish and is extinguished.
“Have you been brainwashed by these humans’ weird magic?!”
“Came to your senses! Slay that girl…!”
“She killed many of our brothers!”
“My son died to her powers!”
“What… Stop! Shut up!!!” Cried Erdrich, the more they spoke, the more his mind was turned to shambles. Erdrich looked at Elizabeth, as she touched his leg, fearful and small, trembling… Was she really someone that killed families? Was she truly someone so feared by the demons?
Within the depths of his heart, something bizarre and dark was surging, driving his own emotions and senses for a few seconds. His fangs began to grow sharper and so did his claws, his eyes turned completely red, as Erdrich continued to hear the words of his kin… calling him to aid them.
“Don’t let her touch you, watch out!”
“Slay her before it’s too late!”
“Hurry!”
“N-No…! Shut up… SHUT UP!!! GRAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
FLAAAAAASH!
Erdrich screamed furiously as his own demonic nature was awakening, as if it was trying to force him to help his kin. This was something that all demons had within their own selves, an innate nature that allowed them to join together and aid one another. Of course, it didn’t stopped them to kill each other in times of wars between tribes but it was ever present. Erdrich’s scream unleashed a gigantic aura of demonic power coming from within his body, which spread like a shockwave, the demons and… everything around him was blown away by the concentrated power within his chest coming out.
BOOOOOMMM!!!
The enormous explosion of demonic energy covered everything within his surroundings, as Ellergest and Seth were also caught in the explosion! Ellergest hurriedly created a barrier while his dragon made a few others to protect the surviving troops, while all the demons were taken away by the explosion and killed on the spot…
“S-Shit… What’s going on now?!” Asked Seth, losing his composure and swearing.
“This is… What I feared the most is happening.” Sighed Ellergest. “Erdrich… the Cambion was awakened… by the will of the demons.”
“C-Cambion?” Asked Seth, as he and Ellergest looked into the scene, Erdrich was kneeling in the floor, gasping for air as his veins constantly popped up from all around his body. His aura of red demonic energy was constantly overflowing with incredible levels of energy, too much for him to handle.
“A Cambion is a son between a human and a demon… Erdrich is one. I had discovered through the documents that he is the weapon that the cult had been trying to make for a long time. He’s the perfected result… And now he had been awakened by the language of the demons. His inner demon instincts are running rampart…! I should had thought this better, I perhaps trusted Erdrich too much, he’s still a child after all!” Muttered Ellergest, gritting his teeth as he looked at the boy groaning in anger and agony in the floor.
Erdrich slowly looked around, as his human senses slowly began to emerge, glimpses of his true personality emerged within his demonic fury, he looked back behind him, finding the little Elizabeth in the floor… and Jack as well.
“A-Ah…! Uugh… I-I… I did this? I… Ugh… Graahh… RAAHH…!”
Erdrich’s eyes began to cry desperately, as his demonic instincts began to take over him while his human emotions weakened, his entire body suddenly turned completely red, as the tattoos in the shape of flames completely turned his white skin into fiery red skin… and alongside that, a new tattoo in the color of pure blackness emerged, like runes that began to spread through his body.
But a figure was right in front of him, holding a spear and mounting a tall black wolf.
“What’s gotten into you, Erdrich?”
“B-Blank…?!” Muttered Erdrich in between his terrifying demonic voice.
—–