Death's Door

The hypnotized cab driver still was under the orders from Aida to escort us to Holy city of Sana, she informed Nur however that as soon as they reach that city, the hypnosis will wear off and the cab driver will see through the deceit. Until then, he was a mindless drone that only took orders. Even hearing the wolves approaching, he didn"t budge an inch from fear, so consumed he was by his given orders that he only hurried their pace after Nur told him to.

Unfortunately, the sound of the wolves kept coming closer and closer to the point the Nur was worried that they might catch up very soon. With Aida gone, now the crew was a target. Apparently having a dragon among us allowed us to travel safely because the predators sensed that dealing with a bonafide dragon was a risk not worth taking. Now that the dragon was gone, there was nothing stopping the wolves from chasing their prey.

After a few hours, the cab finally stopped.

"Master, the horses need to rest." The cab driver said in a monotonous voice. Apparently with Aida gone, he now answered to Nur, but still calling Nur "Master" was too weird.

The cab driver with eyes as empty as his awareness of the situation sat inside the cab, not noticing anything around him. He was too lost within the hypnosis; apparently the dragon"s mind control technique is extremely potent. Nur just hoped that was not permanent.

Sitting over the bonfire, Nur and Sariu struck up a conversation.

"Do you think he will ever go back to normal?" Sariu asked, looking at the expressionless cab driver.

"According to Aida, yes, he should be back to normal soon, but as soon as we get into the city, we need to scram." Nur said with a smile.

"Don"t you mean when you get to the city, Mr. Finnerman?" Sariu asked.

"What do you mean? Aren"t we going there together?" Nur was confused by her implication.

"Mr. Finnerman, you must understand, going to a city with many people is the last thing I want. If anything, it is best for me to stay and die here, that way there will be no casualties when I pa.s.s on." Sariu was dead serious, which alarmed Nur.

"So the reason you asked to go with me was…"

"In order to get as far as possible from the city of Oran. I wanted to pa.s.s away in peace, somewhere very far away, somewhere where my curse will not kill anyone." Sariu replied.

"Curse you say? You mean…" Nur began.

"My Supremacy, the Sin of Life. There is a chance that once I die, the curse inside my body will be unleashed upon the land, killing anything near my corpse. That is the reason I wanted to get out of the city of Oran."

"So, when you begged me to take you with me…" said Nur.

"Yes, I wanted to make sure that my curse will not harm any of the citizens upon my death. If I was going to be executed there and my curse went out of control, there would have been many innocents dead. This way, I can minimize the amount of casualties and end myself here."

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a second! End yourself here? Are you crazy? You are contracted to me, so if you die I will die as well!"

"That is no problem. I shall remove the contract from you shortly and when you have left a certain distance, beyond the range of my curse, I shall purge myself." Sariu said without any hesitation.

"What you said is just plain wrong! Why would you want to kill yourself!? You have all your life ahead of you! There are so many things you haven"t seen…"

As if in response to Nur"s argument, Sariu took off the bracelet on her arm, the same bracelet Aida made for her out of mana binding chains. She picked up a small, yellow flower and gently plucked it from the base of the plant.

The plant was fresh; looking like it was still alive, in a sense.

Now the plant"s yellow color slowly started to fade, and within a minute the entire plant was reduced to rotting stem and what remained of petals were dry and crumbled. A moment later, the plant faded into dust, slipping out of Sariu"s fingers, gone with the wind. Sariu now put the bracelet back on.

"That was something, all right." Nur admitted. He didn"t know what he just witnessed, but he knew it was not ordinary.

"My curse sucks the life away out of anything I touch, if it weren"t for the bracelet, I would have killed you already."

"Then keep that thing on."

"But then what? The bracelet can only keep my curse contained while my body is alive, after I die; the curse will be set free, free to roam across anyone unfortunate enough to be close by."

Nur knew for a fact that in his previous loops, after Sariu"s death, no such phenomenon occurred. None died after she was burnt on the stake, her curse went away with her. Yet, he knew he couldn"t say that, she would believe him even if he told her, so convincing her otherwise was the only option.

"But what if your curse does not harm anyone after your death?"

"I cannot take that chance, Mr. Finnerman. I would rather die alone that take others with me."

"But it is just wrong! To wish yourself to die, even if it"s a curse, why would you even…"

"What do you know about being cursed!? Do you think I like it!? Do you think I wanted to be born this way?! I am tired of this…I do not wish to continue this miserable existence, living by feeding upon the lives of others, so many have perished because of me, I just… I just wish it to be over with." Sariu"s face now was streaming with tears; the cold and indifferent look on her face was gone, replaced by a look of pure anguish.

Nur didn"t know what to say; perhaps it is best not to say anything.

Suddenly, the howl of wolves sounded out, and it sounded very close.

Nur turned around and saw a gigantic wolf standing on top of the hill, looking down upon them, standing on two feet. Its upper body was disproportionally larger it"s lower body. The claws looked more like polished weapons, it"s chest was muscular, with its entire body covered in bluish grey fur.

"What kind of a wolf is that?" Nur wondered.

"That is no wolf, that is a werewolf! Mr. Finnerman, Run!!!" Sariu cried out, but it was too late.

The werewolf in front of them apparently signaled the other werewolves who advanced upon Nur and Sariu.

Nur did not manage to unsheathe his sword when he was pounced by the werewolf and promptly dragged away, with the werewolf holding him by the neck. It happened so fast that Sariu thought that she might have imagined it. The speed of the pounce was astounding, the moment it wasn"t there, and then it just appeared in a flash, pouncing upon its prey.

Nur"s limp body now was dragged away at high speed towards the higher ground, the werewolf was fast, and within a moment it along with Nur"s body was out of sight.

"Mr. FINNERMAN!" horrified Sariu cried out as she saw her companion disappear, dragged away by the werewolves to be their supper.

* * *

Well….Being mauled by werewolves, sure is a new way to die…

Huh? I am not dead? Then why is it so dark? And why does it feel so slimy and smelly? Was that saliva dripping on my forehead? And why do I feel sensation of piercing sharpness all over my skull?

Oh no, no, no, no! I am not going through that again!

Wriggling my head back and forth, back and forth, I managed to get the jaws to part and I ended up being spit out.

Maybe I should have stayed inside that mongrel"s jaws because what I saw made me immediately want to faint.

I was missing all my limbs, hands and legs were nowhere near where they are supposed to be, but strangely I felt no pain.

Werewolves apparently tore off my limbs and now they were trying to maul them to no avail. Somehow, no matter how much they bit my detached limbs, they couldn"t get a concrete bite.

The power of the contract, complete invulnerability to non-magical damage, which meant that werewolves were not adept at magic, or at least neglected to use it.

Concentrating upon my severed pieces, I called upon them, willing them to return to me.

Slowly, the limbs the werewolves were chewing on transformed into dust, which started to move in my torso"s direction. The dust concentrated around me and settled down. When all the dust was gone, I lay there, good as new, minus clothing in rags. All signs of being mauled remained except for the physical injuries. It looked like I tore up my clothing myself.

Unfortunately, the werewolves noticed this phenomenon, so after seeing my body reform, they growled and proceeded to howl and bark menacingly.

This was bad, if this continues, they will dismantle me again.

My sword was still attached to my belt so I drew it out, flailing it around couple of times just in order to frighten the werewolves.

Now we were facing off each other.

On one side, a pack of mighty werewolves with physical strength and speed surpa.s.sing humanity. On the other, me, a lowly demon with no physical ability to speak of other than the contract Sariu put on me. Her contract saved my life; if it wasn"t for it I would have been long dead by now.

After squaring off with the werewolves, I realized one crucial fact; I am vastly outnumbered, at least forty to one. Unless some miracle happened I was not going to leave this place in one piece, maybe in pieces but I don"t want to entertain that possibility.

By the time I thought this stare down would continue for eternity, I heard a howl. At least it sounded like one, but it sounded more puny and pathetic, almost like the werewolf took its last breath. It was just that.

Several werewolves fell down on the ground as someone approached them.

With white hair floating in the air like tentacles, with left eye glowing eerie color of yellow, with an expression that could scare any brave man to death, a monster with a body of a young girl was approaching. As I looked closer, I could see aura of darkness extending from her body, touching the werewolves around her, each strand was taking something from the bodies. I understood immediately what it was. She was absorbing their life force, essentially robbing them of life.

As monstrous as she appeared, there was no mistaking it, this was Sariu. She came for him.

"Don"t you dare touch him!" Her voice sounded ominous, almost as if someone subst.i.tuted her gentle voice with an orchestra of horror.

Many of the werewolves hesitated, trying to get away from her as far as they can. But one werewolf was different, the one with red fur.

The werewolf with red fur was at least twice as big as the other ones and its body was covered in multiple scars. That was their alpha, their leader.

The red werewolf signaled the other werewolves to attack. Despite their mortal fear of Sariu, they obliged for they were far more afraid of upsetting their chief.

One by one, they attacked. Using her dark energy to shield herself, Sariu tried to desperately deflect their physical attacks. But that was only a distraction.

The red werewolf sneaked from behind Sariu and landed a critical hit on Sariu"s back, knocking her unconscious and dissipating her dark aura. The impact from red werewolf"s attack ended up sending Sariu"s unconscious body flying towards the edge of the cliff, just a few inches away from falling to her doom. Apparently that was the plan.

I couldn"t let that happen. Even if the werewolves attack me, I can reform thanks to the power of the contract, but if Sariu dies, and then it would be the end of me. As long as the contract remains, our lives are linked. I gave up my weakness in exchange for making her my Achilles"s heel. I had to protect her, lest face the consequences.

With a sword in my hand, I called out to the red wolf.

"HEY! YOU WANT PIECE OF ME, Come and Get IT!!" I shouted out while throwing a rock at the red werewolf. It took the bait; I am not sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. It no longer was focused on knocking Sariu off the edge, but now its target was me.

With a howl, the red werewolf signaled the others to attack me.

One werewolf slashed at my left hand, my left side dissipated into dust, but I swung my sword with my right at the werewolf"s temple and knocked it away.

The other werewolf tried to bite through me, with predictable results. My body quickly reformed from dust, much to the werewolf"s shock, followed by a slash of a sword that ended up severing one of the werewolf"s ears. The werewolf ended up scurrying away in pain.

No matter how they attacked, they were all nullified by the power of the contract. None of them could use magic, which was good, so I ended up slicing through several of them at the moment they struck me.

But nothing good lasts.

The red werewolf decided to take the matters into its hands. With a savage howl it slashed me. I managed to avoid the slash, but it felt a hot sensation on my face. It was blood. No way. This werewolf, it can use mana!

The slash was imbued with mana to make its slash"s reach longer, thus even if I dodged the slash, I would still receive a shallow cut to my face.

The leader of the pack was squaring off against me, I did the same.

One move will decide the winner or the loser.

It was looking at my jugular; most likely it is going to use mana in order to pierce my neck with its jaws. I couldn"t let that happen.

After a moment of a face off, it proceeded to pounce upon me, aiming for my neck.

Luckily, I managed to subst.i.tute my vital area with my left hand. The red werewolf bit my left hand, but the moment it realized it messed up it was too late.

With a single thrust I pierced the neck of the werewolf with my sword. Blood now started to uncontrollably spill down towards the ground.

We stood still, just like that, with its jaws on my left hand, and my blade piercing its neck. After about a minute the life faded from the werewolf"s eyes, and its limp body was going down, with its weight dragging me down with it. I managed to unclamp its jaws, freeing my hand in the process.

My left hand was injured, but I could still use my right.

Holding a sword, I half expected the others to come at me.

"Who is next!?" I pointed my sword.

The other werewolves were standing still; no longer were they in battle mode, now they seemed more like puppies than savage predators.

I see, they lost their leader so now they are afraid. I can use it to my advantage.

I proceeded to raise a battle cry, as pathetic as it was, with a loud shout of savagery. I did it in order to scare away the werewolves.

And it worked. It worked too well.

All of them proceeded to run away, causing the ground to shake from underneath their feet. Along with their leader, I killed at least five of them, so those corpses littered the ground; the ones left alive were fleeing this place as fast as their feet could carry them. So it seems that without their leader, a pack is nothing.

The shaking of the ground caused by the fleeing werewolves caused Sariu"s unconscious body to move closer and closer towards the cliff. By the time I ran up to her she was about to fall off.

"Gotcha!" I ended up catching her hand.

"Uhmm.." Sariu opened her eyes and saw the height at which she was and how much below her the ground was. She looked alarmed but then looked at it peacefully. "So this is how I will die, I see" she accepted her fate in her heart. The bracelet in her pocket fell off towards the ground below.

"Don"t worry I will get you out of there!" Nur shouted out.

"Mr. Finnerman?" Sariu now looked up and to her surprise saw Nur holding her up by her hand. She was ready to accept death, but here he was holding on to her as if her life held value.

"Heave-ho!" Nur managed to pull Sariu out of the cliff"s edge. Of course by doing so, he ended up overdoing it, causing her to fall on top of him.

Now she was lying on top of him, their eyes now looking at each other.

Sariu was neither weirded out by the situation nor was she embarra.s.sed, instead her face had a look of shock painted all over it.

"Your eyes….Don"t tell me…" Sariu stared right into Nur"s eyes. One was brown, the other was crimson. Until this day, she saw Nur with hair parted over his left eye showing only the right, but now both eyes were in view.

At the same time, Nur stared into her yellow and purple mismatched eyes. The moment lasted for few seconds before both realized the awkward position they were in.

"Sorry about this." Sariu stood off Nur"s body. He stood up after her.

Both now looked at each other with awkward smiles.

Mismatched eyes, the proof of one has Supremacy, a sin that cursed for entire life. Sariu felt guilty for telling him that he knew not what it felt like to be cursed. "He knew, he perfectly knows what it is like, and I ended up shouting at him, I am horrible!"

"Master! Master! The horses are ready!" the cab driver sounded out.

"When did you get there!?" Nur ended up shouting out.

Looking at his embarra.s.sed expression, Sariu couldn"t help but chuckle. Yet, in her heart she knew one truth- he knew what it was like to live with a burden of Sin, he was just like her.

* * *

"Back there, on the top of the cliff, why did you save me? Why didn"t you let me fall?" Sariu asked. Both were inside the cab now, with the cab driver taking them towards the Holy city of Sana. Sariu was bandaging Nur"s wounded arm. Nur now wore a new set of clothing in place of the clothing destroyed by the werewolves. Apparently, the cab driver had an extra set of pants, boots, and shirt just lying there for convenience. With some size adjustments, it was a fine fit.

"The same reason you came for me there, Sariu."

"That is not the same thing! I lost control, I didn"t know what to do, my curse activated and…I could have killed you!"

"But you didn"t, did you? In fact you did quite the opposite, you saved me, for that you have my sincerest thanks!" Nur said with a smile. He was happy that at least this time he was able to avoid dying.

"You wouldn"t be saying that if you knew the truth." Sariu said sadly.

"I know enough." Before she could react, Nur took her hand into his own. "And I am glad you were here for me, my friend." He smiled.

Sariu"s eyes couldn"t believe what she was seeing. Her touch, it was not harming him, although her touch was lethal to everything living, somehow he was immune to it. It was unprecedented. Ever since her curse manifested, she never touched another person, much less held someone"s hands, she was afraid she would kill them. But now, after so many years, when she almost forgot what another living being"s warmth meant, she was holding hands with him, her rescuer.

Unable to control her emotions, she ended up crying, that gesture of his, holding her hand was the last thing she expected anyone to do. But seeing that it did him no harm, she was happy…so happy. Her eyes couldn"t help but fill with tears.

"For so long I thought I would never be able to touch another living being, I thought being left alone was my destiny. I thought that it was my eternal punishment, to be unable to feel warmth of another"s touch…Thank you." She ended up holding his right hand with both her hands.

"Think nothing of it. Anything for a friend."

"Friend? We are friends?" She hesitantly asked.

"I wasn"t sure until today, but indeed, you are my friend." Nur said with a warm smile. "And friends share each other"s burden, so let me help you even if it"s just a little."

"Nur…." She ended up whispering his name.

"Oh? You finally quit with Mr. Finnerman routine? I am so glad." Nur said with a touch of humor.

Thus, they ended up opening up the burdens each held, locked up within their hearts. Nur calmly listened to Sariu"s story, not interrupting even once. Then it came Nur"s turn to tell, and he told her everything, from the start to the finish, excluding the fact that he died and returned multiple times of course.

"So the reason you wish to go to the Holy City of Sana is…"

"In order to go back to my family. My master Desolai and my son Kunjarik, those two are everything to me. Never pa.s.ses a day where I wouldn"t dream of going back to them and holding them in my embrace. I just wish to find them again." Without a doubt, the one thing that made Nur keep going was his desire to see his Master; he was fanatically loyal to her.

Sariu listened to his tale with fascination, but also sensing a strange feeling within her heart. When he told her that Kunjarik was his and Desolai"s son, she couldn"t help but feel a little sad in her heart, but nevertheless, she was happy Nur had people he held dear to him.

But then, what am I to him? Question popped into her mind, but she chose to ignore it. I am his friend, nothing more.

Just like that, the cab kept moving towards its destination.

* * *

Three shadowy figures were on top of the mountain, watching a certain cab headed towards the Holy City of Sana.

"You saw that, didn"t you? That was the power of the contract, the one he used against the werewolves." The eagle type demon said with awed voice.

"The plan to use the witch has been compromised; she has given her contract to him. Now we will have to find another Supremacy user in order to have the chance…" said the crow type demon.

"Not necessarily. Even if she gave him the power of the contract, it does not make it a hindrance for us, in fact, based on that, we can confirm that he is a demon. We could sway him to our side, as a demon he might understand. But judging by his actions, he is not the type that listens to orders. Then, we will just have to make him." The fox type demon said calmly with the other two nodding in unison. They had to act before the cab reached the city, for their goal lies within that city.