“Garen, Tront! Buy me time! Strike its arms when it attacks the barrier!”

Hal starts chanting an incantation, lightning starts to swirl on the tip of his staff.

The Grendel emerges from the darkness, a longsword protruding from its eye, and it unleashes a terrible bellow.

The demon swings at Tront, however his claw stops at the barrier. The knights swing at the Grendel’s outstretched arm, and Garen’s blade strike into it and get stuck. The Grendel howl’s again and pulls back its arm, before biting the blade in half.

Enraged, it swings at the barrier multiple times at an extreme speed. Each time, its claws get repulsed. Tront steps back, shaking in fear.

“We’re gonna die, it’s going to kill us, oh god, help us!”

“Don’t lose your cool, my spell is almost ready!”

Damn my age! Damn my weakness! It takes so long for me to prepare a spell of just this level! If I had the mana, I could unleash this much faster! This is bad… If I don’t land this just right… Just a little more…

The Grendel stops swinging at the barrier, and looks at Hal. Lightning is swirling ferociously around his staff. Then, he starts to squat really low… before he takes off in a leap over the barrier.

It lands in front of Hal.

“T-t-t-THUNDERBOLT!”

He is out of time and couldn’t finish charging his spell. He unleashes the energy he accumulated this far, and it strikes Gregory’s sword, sending the electricity straight in to the demon. It screams in agony, wildly swinging at Hal. The old man is send flying as the claws rake through him.

“HAAAAL! NOOOOO!!!” Diane screams at the top of her lungs. That old man was the closest thing she had to a father, and she just watched him die before her eyes.

Tront screams, and pierces the demon’s leg with his sword. The Grendel turns around as he starts to run. Diane jumps from the carriage, and points her hands at the demon.

She starts screaming “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Please…. Work! Work! FIREBALL!”

In moments, Tront and Garen are killed. They were yelling at her, but she couldn’t hear them. Her eyes were full of tears, and he heart felt nothing but pain and rage.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The world was darkness. I couldn’t see anything. All I felt was pain.

Silence. I suppose that is a relief in and of itself. I was terrified I would hear that voice again, but it has been over a week, and nothing.

Ahhh. I suppose it is worth it. I wondered what life would be like under a contract. Powerful magical and spiritual beings are able to bind souls in contracts, but I had never been in one myself. Short of claiming another’s soul in exchange for something, Demon’s rarely enter in to contracts, unlike elementals and fey spirits. Add in my isolated study, while I had mastered numerous offensive magic’s and skills, I am extremely ignorant when it comes to these kinds of things. Although I am pretty sure, in a contract I should be able to feel my contractor’s presence.

Let me see… I feel… something. Yet, it seems so weak. There is almost no magic to it… why?

Huh? I feel like I can see Diane’s silhouette. And… I can see all the magic circuits in her body… why are they empty? Something is wrong with her mana heart. It looks almost like… someone blocked it up? Well that is no good. I can’t have a contractor who can’t use magic, now can I?

Maybe if I fill her mana heart to overflowing, it will burst through the blockage?

Or would that hurt her? I’ve only recovered a little bit, but even a small amount of my mana would be overwhelming to her… she is still just 8…

Hmm? Something is wrong. I feel something… in my chest… is this… heartache? Ah? It isn’t coming from my chest… I feel like this is her pain… why is she in pain? Why is she angry?

I start to stretch out my mana a little, to feel what is outside the cart.

I see… this is a problem. Ah… I can’t do anything about it? That’s right, Diane forbid me…… Ahhhhhhh this leaves me with only one choice then. This better work, otherwise what kind of Demon Lord would I be if I let my first contract just die?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Grendel finished killing the two remaining knights.

It didn’t know why, it just knew that his master wanted to annihilate the humans and dominate the world.

It also knew it had to fulfill his master’s will. Plus, these humans were both soft and crunchy. They sated his hunger. There was one left, and the horses.

He turned around, and saw the little girl screaming at him. She would make a nice treat. All I would need to do is…

*badump badump*

The Grendel froze. It never felt anything like the before.

It looked at the little girl, its body shaking. It felt… fear?

Why? What is making it feel fear? This girl… has an aura of death.

It’s expanding, fast! This aura, this darkness… it made the Grendel feel so small! A towering demonic aura, and within it a face straight from the depths of hell, and it was furiously emanating from this little girl!

At her hands, a glow began to form. And it grew, rapidly. The heat from the flames was enough to sear him from a dozen feet away. The Grendel turned, it wanted to run, but it was far too late.

“FIREBALL!”

It was hit, the ball of fire carried him several hundred feet down the road before it blew.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Diane felt as if something exploded inside of her. Her entire body felt as if it was burning, energy roiling through her.

She could hardly concentrate. Fire burst from her hands. Then a quarter of the village… was gone in flames.

The overwhelming energy was gone. She felt empty, and couldn’t concentrate anymore, and now she was suddenly exhausted. Diane collapsed.

After the explosion quieted down, the coachman crawled out from under the carriage.

“W-w-what just happened? Is it gone?”

He looks around. The horses remain frozen in fear, and he takes the opportunity to harness the other horse. Then the coachman looks and sees Diane collapsed on the floor.

“Ah! My Lady! Are you hurt?”

He runs up to her and sees she is just passed out. He picks her up and places her back in the carriage. He may be old, but he would be damned if anyone could critique his dedication to a coachman’s honor. He will always see his clients to their destination, no matter what!

And now, his destination is one he looks forward to more than ever… home.

“Hiya! Move horses!”

The carriage begins to roll rapidly back out of the village.

The coachmen swears to himself he will never accept dangerous jobs like this again.