The Damned Demon

The oppressive silence of the ruins was broken only by the faint sound of Asher’s boots crunching against the debris-strewn ground and Lori’s low, rhythmic hissing as she scanned her surroundings warily.

The air felt heavy, thick with an ominous energy that prickled at their senses. The scattered crystalline stones barely illuminated their path, though they were just rubbish upon taking a closer look.

The deeper they ventured, the more Asher felt an unease creeping into his thoughts, though he refused to let it slow him down.

Yet, no matter how fast he was trying to navigate, this place seemed endless. He couldn’t even think of flying lest he fly past any clue to help them leave this place.

But he came to a sudden halt, his eyes widening as the path opened into a clearing. Before them stood a towering structure, its colossal facade stretching upward into the darkness above.

The building was unlike anything Asher had ever seen; its architecture was alien yet impossibly elegant.

Time and ruin had taken their toll, with cracks splintering its surface and dark vines creeping along its edges, but the majesty of its design still shone through.

Intricate carvings, geometric patterns, and sweeping arches adorned its surface, exuding a sense of both power and mystery.

"What… is this place?" Asher muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the towering edifice, his mind racing to make sense of what he was seeing, "Who could’ve built something like this? Could it be the First Demons?"

Lori slithered closer, her massive body coiling slightly as her eyes scanned the structure, "Thisss isss not the work of the First Demonsss," she hissed, her tone laced with unease, "I have read the history of the First Demons; and they were too crude and brutish to even come close to think about building such things. Thisss… this is beyond anything even the grandest kingdoms in our world could have imagined."

Asher’s gaze shifted downward as he noticed the remnants of what had once been a massive statue standing before the building’s entrance. All that remained were the feet, carved from a special white marble and standing atop a cracked base. He could see that it was a statue of someone very important and belonged to a man based on the scattered parts.

The rest of the statue lay in ruins, fragments of stone scattered haphazardly around the clearing. At the base of the statue, faint scribbles caught his attention.

He crouched down, narrowing his eyes as he tried to decipher the alien writing, "There’s something written here," he said, gesturing for Lori to join him. "But I can’t read it. It’s in a language I’ve never seen before."

Lori lowered her head, her forked tongue flicking out as she studied the etchings, "I don’t recognize it either," she admitted, her voice tinged with frustration, "It’s not our language or any language belonging to Zalthor, and I know every single language spoken in our world. Thisss is something… else."

The two exchanged a glance, the mystery deepening with every step they took. Asher straightened, his gaze lingering on the broken statue for a moment longer before turning toward the building, "Let’s head inside. Maybe we’ll find something that can help us leave this weird place."

The entrance yawned before them, its massive doors long since fallen away, leaving only an open archway that led into darkness.

Asher’s boots echoed faintly as he stepped inside, the sound amplified by the vast, empty space beyond. Lori looked around curiously, trying to make sense of this place.

Inside, the hall was enormous, its sheer scale almost overwhelming. Once-grand columns lined the space, their surfaces adorned with elegant carvings and patterns that seemed to shimmer faintly in the dim light.

Rubble littered the floor, evidence of the building’s collapse over countless centuries, but even in its ruined state, the hall exuded an air of grandeur and reverence.

"This place…" Asher murmured, running a hand along one of the cracked columns, "Are you sure this place wasn’t built by the First Demons? They were more powerful than us, right? Drakaris was also alive at that time. Maybe this was some secret place they built."

Lori kept shaking her head confidently, "Brat, are you underestimating the history I know of our world?" she asked, her tone piqued.

"Of course not, but if not them, then who?" Asher asked while scanning his surroundings, hoping to find something, especially whatever was trapping them here.

Lori nudged him closer to a mural etched into the wall, her eyes narrowing as she studied the figures depicted, "And the radiant mana here…" She hissed softly, her voice dropping. "No demon would dare ssstay in a place like this, let alone build it. Thisss isn’t their doing."

Asher nodded slowly, her words aligning with his own realization. But if it wasn’t demons, then who could it be?

"It possibly can’t be-"

Before he could ask further, his boot caught on something buried beneath the rubble, making him stumble slightly. "What the…" He looked down, his brows furrowing. "I think something’s buried here."

Channeling his dark green mana, Asher unleashed a controlled burst, blasting away the debris. Dust and stone scattered across the hall, revealing what lay beneath. His eyes widened as he took a step back, his breath catching in his throat.

Bones. Large, decayed, and unmistakably humanoid.

Lori hissed in disbelief, her massive form recoiling slightly as she peered down at the remains, "Bonesss?" she whispered, her voice tinged with both awe and unease. "For them to ssstill be intact after all this time… These bones must belong to someone very powerful. Yet not even the bones of peak Soul Devourers should last this long. If my senses are right, this place should at least be hundreds of thousands of years old."

She slithered closer, her sharp eyes narrowing as she studied the remains more closely. Her voice dropped to a hushed murmur, "But these… they look like-"

"Human bones…" Asher finished, his voice low and filled with shock. He crouched down, his fingers hovering just above the ancient remains, yet he felt a strange energy coming from it.

"What the hell…What are human bones doing here? It’s not possible..."

Lori shook her head, her serpentine form coiling tighter in bafflement and shock, "This can’t be... Did someone bury these little humanssss here? But that doesn’t ssssound right..."

"I doubt that," Asher said as he crouched and picked up one of the bones, studying it carefully. But the moment he picked it up, he felt as if every cell in his body was being reinvigorated before that feeling suddenly disappeared, making him wonder if he just imagined it.

"Take a closer look at this bone. What do you see?" He moved the bone closer to Lori’s face, pointing at faint, dark crimson veins etched along its surface.

"HSSSS! Don’t bring it closer!" Lori hissed suddenly, recoiling sharply. Her tail lashed out, swatting Asher’s hand and sending the bone tumbling to the ground.

"Shit! What was that for?" Asher winced, shaking his stinging hand as he glared at her.

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"Hsssss, Y-You didn’t feel anything from that?" Lori asked, her wide eyes brimming with disbelief.

Asher blinked, confused. "I did feel something strange from it. But it’s just a bone belonging to some dead person. Why did you overreact as if it hurt you or something?"

"SSSS! You can’t be serious," Lori hissed, her voice trembling slightly. "How could you not be affected by that Cursed mana??"

"Cursed mana?" Asher echoed, his brows furrowing deeper, "What are you talking about?" Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Lori’s snout twitched, and she tilted her head, her disbelief clear, "Ssssss... didn’t you see? That human... he seemed to have died from mana corruption!"

"Mana corruption?" Asher repeated, his voice skeptical but curious.

"How do you think the Oseon Continent and the Eclipsion Kingdom turned into a wasteland?" Lori asked sharply, her serpentine body shifting uneasily.

"Didn’t those from my kingdom use some kind of powerful weapons to destroy them?" Asher asked with a shrug. "I did ask Rowena about it, but she also didn’t seem to know what exactly they used. Not even Rebecca or Esther knew, though they were pretty young at that time."

"You are right that it wassss a weapon of some sort," Lori hissed, her eyes narrowing, "But no weapon in history was ever capable of such destruction—let alone killing the place entirely with no chance of recovering and filling it with death even to this day. I wassss there when it happened but didn’t get to witness it. All I know is that whatever weapon it wassss, it released such a deadly dark power that it ate away at every wisp of life present in the lands of this continent, corrupting and eating away at everything, dead or alive."

She paused, her voice dropping slightly as she continued, "After it happened, I decided to take a quick look, only to realize it made every nerve in my body writhe in pain even after standing a couple of miles away from it. But thanks to my superior eyes, I was able to get a glimpse and saw that the bonessss of the dead had these very same lines of death. That is why the locals called it the Cursed Mana," she said, her tone laced with lingering unease.

"So even the powerful ones like the Caleumbra King, who must have had high proficiency in using dark mana, got corrupted by this Cursed Mana that completely overwhelmed him?" Asher muttered, his voice low as he plucked another bone from beneath the rubble, his fingers trailing over its surface, "Just what kind of darkness could it be?"

Lori hissed softly, blinking rapidly as her eyes kept darting to the bone in his hands, still in disbelief that he was holding that cursed bone as if it was nothing. It can’t be that his bloodline was that superior…can it be?

Asher’s dark yellow eyes glimmered as a thought seemed to spark in his mind, "I was wondering... can I learn something from this dead guy and maybe find out a way to get out of here?" he mumbled, his gaze sharpening as he remembered the crown of the Wraith Lord he had in his possession.