I need to avoid getting eaten by dragons at any cost. After checking that everything was quiet inside the underground room, I proceeded to read through the books. I took my time and in three days I was able to finish over half of them. The strangest part was I actually found myself unconsciously memorizing everything I read.

Many of the concepts appear to have variety of uses. The one I took of particular note was the book about contracts. Contracts between witches and demons. Considering the fact that I am a demon I thought it could be useful for my dilemma.

According to the book, the contract works in a way that is a mutually beneficial relationship between a demon and a witch. A certain seal is written on the hand of the demon using demon blood and then to finalize the contract the seal has to be touched by the witch, uniting their hands, tying their fates in the process. The demon will obtain ability to change form into a certain element and be able to use the mana of the witch he is contracted to. The witch obtains demon’s loyalty and obedience. Their lives are linked. If witch dies the demon dies as well. There was a way to prevent that but I kind of ignored it in favor of reading more about the contracts.

After another three days, the same event with the dragons had occurred. This time, knowing that there were red dragons outside the demolished library, I made sure to stay underground. I even had food and water prepared to last for about a week. Ignoring the sounds of fighting and bloodshed outside, I immersed myself in reading the rest of the books.

In five days’ time, I was finished. I memorized everything.

Now, I thought the matter with the dragons must have been taken care of by now, considering there were knights fighting dragons the last time, so if everything has gone quiet then it would mean the fight is finished. Either the dragons have won and already left or the humanity was victorious, restoring the peace in the process.

What I found was neither. Unlike the fighting I saw the last time, not a single movement could be heard. That was because the city was covered in corpses, of humans, demi-humans, elves, and most visibly, dragons.

Burnt bodies, smashed into pieces, cut up, all lifeless, rotting there, not able to go to rest.

“Heeeeelp….heeeelp….” the voices were audible to me. I thought someone survived and were asking to be rescued, but the reality was much worse.

The ones asking for help were spirits, tied to their earthly bodies by chains, preventing them from passing on. I knew it would take a Shinigami to help them but there was not one in sight. By myself, I could do nothing.

“Wait! You can see us can’t you?” one of the ghost asked me.

“I am sorry, there is nothing I can do to help you.” I said that before walking through the ghost. The scenery was unbearable. Even if I could prevent myself from feeling sympathy for the dead, the gruesomeness of the scenery made me vomit.

After vomiting uncontrollably, shaken by the sight of the place, I proceeded to walk forward.

I walked for only a few moments before I heard a lullaby.

“Come the restless souls, don’t say goodbye, cling on to your lifeless flesh, animate the bones, stare with your lifeless eyes, stand up to hear Kanka’s song~” it was a melody of someone wearing a dark cloak, playing with an instrument. The instrument looked to be made of human bones.

“Come, devour all life, feed your unfulfilled souls, come, devour it all” now I finally could see the musician’s face. A pale face of a young man, with red eyes.

Before I noticed it, I was surrounded by reanimated corpses. All of them were pouncing upon me. I was held down by them. Held by my limbs, I was unable to resist when they proceeded to rip me apart and devour me whole.

I ended up back inside the library, paying twenty bronze coins to the clerk in what seems to be my third time being there.

This was not good; I need to leave this city pronto. I got all the knowledge I needed from the library; there was no longer a reason to remain here. In six days, the city will be sacked by dragons and afterwards the dead will be reanimated as zombies. The best solution was to flee this cursed city and go somewhere I am not going to be killed.

So, I proceeded to by a few days’ worth of food and water, packed it all up, and proceeded to exit the city.

I walked for a few hours along the road, and then I heard the unmistakable sound of horse hooves. I was wearing a hood over my head, concealing my face.

The ones coming my way seemed to be knights. Leading them was a knight I jet black armor.

Afraid to die, I crouched into a fetal pose, expecting to be killed on the spot. But curiously, they passed by me without harming a hair on my head.

“Exterminate the demons!” the knights were shouting.

Then I saw the reason they were on horses. They were fighting against a group of demons. I saw other demons flee leaving a bunch as decoys.

There was a demon who resembled a giant with ox-like horns, winged demon with spiked tail, foxlike demon, a demon covered in needles, a large bear-like demon, and a demon with bandaged face wielding a pair of large knives. The one feature each one had in common was the fact each had horns on their heads. The bandaged one had only one horn, on the right side of his head.

The knights and the demons were engaged in a rather brutal fight.

I did not stick around to find out who would win.

I proceeded to run for my life and ran towards the forest. I hid behind a tree and held my breath, trying to conceal my presence. Apparently, unsuccessfully.

“It seems we have a human here.” A voice behind me said with a growl.

I turned around to see a demon that resembled a giant crow, complete with a beak staring at me. He had a sword in his hand, floating in the air with the aid of his wings.

Before I could say that I am not a human, the crow demon slashed me across the throat with his sword.

As my consciousness faded, I could hear the crow demon say “Serves you right, human, for imprisoning our king.”

“Twenty bronze coins.” I was back here again. Without even checking, I pulled out the exact change of coins.

Apparently getting out of the city is not going to be possible. This was a losing game, staying here meant certain death, while going away guaranteed death. Either way I would end up dying and coming back here.

“I need to think of this calmly. I need to calm down” thinking of all the ways I have been killed so far, I couldn’t help but shiver uncontrollably. The paranoia of having to watch out for everything, aware of the fact that one false move could get me killed was not the best type of feeling.

I had six days. Six days before the dragons would come here. According to the books, the red dragons largely kept to themselves and were not inclined towards destruction as black dragons were. Then why in the world they would cause such carnage?

I proceeded to investigate on my own. I looked around, tried to hear rumors in the streets. But aside from the useless rumors about some knights shooting down a dragon with an enchanted spear, nothing was of much use.

“I heard they were searching for its corpse. They say they are going to bring the corpse back to the city and put its head up on the walls of the city as a warning for all of our enemies!”

Ok, that last part caught my ear. I wasn’t sure if should believe the last part but the next day I found out how true the rumors really were.

A group of ten knights brought a dead red dragon’s body into the city, dragged by horses; attached by ropes to the dragon’s corpse. The body of the dragon showed its extensive injuries. There was a spear embedded through its left wing into its chest. Many spots on its body were covered in slash marks. There was a deep cut on its neck. I understood one thing for sure-the dragon was alive when they found it. It was injured but it was alive. In a sense they found and killed the wounded dragon.

True to their words, the knights proceeded to butcher the dragon. Its head ended up being put on the highest building, for everyone to see. Its wings were taken by some nobles. Its body was scrapped for meat, while the bones were taken as trophies. By the end of it, each person has taken a piece of the dragon, there was nothing left of the once majestic beast.

In four days, I knew the red Dragons would come, so I awaited them on top the roof, looking at the sky.

The clear sky suddenly started to be filled with crimson clouds. It looked like someone set the sky in flames. From within the flames, the red dragons emerged.

With a large roar, they flew down towards the city and started to destroy everything around them. Only I knew the dragons were coming, I did try to tell the city lord that dragons were coming two days ago, but I was thrown out of his office by his guards, the city lord is most likely regretting ignoring me right now. It’s not like I didn’t try to warn everyone, I told practically everyone I ran into that red dragons were coming, but no, none listened to what I said. They just looked at me as if I said something crazy. Bunch of them even threw me off the bridge into the water beneath it. After that kind of treatment, I gave up on trying to rescue them. I could only face my inevitable death with dignity, for the umpteenth time.

Then I heard something unexpected.

“HUMAN SCUM! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER!” the largest red dragon was raging uncontrollably, killing everyone on sight.

“FOR TAKING LIFE OF MY CHILD, YOU DESERVE ONLY DEATH!” there was no mistaking it, the sound came from the large red dragon.

As it was wreaking havoc, I was transfixed on the red dragon. The red dragon saw me approach it, and momentarily looked me in the eye.

Now I was face to face with the dragon.

“Why?” I asked, looking at all the destruction the dragons have caused, all the dead, calamity, everything looked like some kind of a messed up nightmare.

“YOU DARE ASK WHY? MURDERER OF MY CHILDREN!” the red dragon looked me in the eyes. “THOUGH UNLIKE THEM, YOU CAN HEAR US CAN’T YOU?” I nodded.

“THEN KNOW THAT THIS IS OUR RETRIBUTION.” The red dragon opened its mouth, from which red and black flames emerged. “NOW, BEGONE!”

In a flash of light and darkness, everything disappeared from my sight as my body evaporated into dust.