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I will also be creating a post soon for a running status update that will be stickied to the top of the main page. This will detail my current status for the completion of End Online Volume 7.
The Reeds’ home was a two story townhouse with only tiny courtyards for a front and backyard, seemingly indistinct from all the others houses that were crammed together nearly wall to wall. This was an inevitable result of land being spliced over and over again, but it also kept homes within the price range of the standard worker, leading to a large popularity in them in the modern day.
The paint on the face of the home was cracked and faded, the previously painted color viewable in some patches altogether. The garden was barren, the plants sickly and even weeds struggling to grow in the soil.
What was strange was not that the house was weathered, it was that it was weathered significantly more than every other residence in the area.
There were no driveways, each property instead having a single car space on the side of the road in front of themselves.
Just as Senna and Mr. Reeds arrived, the fae girl glanced around the area.
“This is…”
Just several houses further down the road, the owner of one of the houses was shouting at someone who had parked in his car spot. His entire face was red, and they looked like they were about to come to physical blows in a single instance.
In the opposite direction, a man escaped out a window holding most of his clothes rather than wearing them. The husband tried to charge out the front door but was held back by a scantily dressed woman. The two broke into an extremely heated argument where she tried to hit him but instead had her wrist captured and hand slammed against the door frame, wincing in pain as tears formed in her eyes.
It wasn’t just that there were some arguments happening in the street, but there was a thick tension that was almost palpable covering the area. Senna could feel it trying to infiltrate her mind and cause her rage towards humanity explode out of control.
“Please… Come. CoMe!” Mr. Reeds seemed over eager to get Senna into his house, once against reaching to grab her wrist but having his hand casually slapped aside.
“Show me this curse,” Senna commented as she followed behind him into the house.
Senna entered just after Mr. Reeds after placing her school bag down outside the front door, but the home owner had mysteriously disappeared. There were no sounds of distant foodsteps or the faintest sensation of his presence.
She felt as if she was the only person inside the house.
*BANG*!
The front door swung on its own and slammed behind her. She tried to open it again, but it was locked and sealed shut.
Unwilling to let a lock stop her, she pulled with more force, eventually exerting more strength than the door should have been able to sustain without tearing apart. The hinges groaned under pressure as the door was forced open once again, but whatever had locked the door was unwilling to give up and continued exerting its strength on the door.
Senna soon gave up this futile battle and allowed the door to slam shut. The only method she had to fully prevent this was to completely destroy the obviously magically reinforced and locked door, but it seemed like a thankless effort so she simply left it in its current state.
Unlike outside, the inside of the house was rich with the presence of evil and sin, something that resonated with Senna’s fallen fae half.
It was as if maledictions were constantly being whispered into her ear, tempting her to give into her darker instincts.
Senna walked through the narrow townhouse, feeling the evil stained into the blood-marred walls with her fingertips. Large gouges had been carved through the plaster, whilst there was a bloody kitchen knife still embedded at the staircase.
She felt that the source of this curse was coming from underneath the house, inside the basement.
Opening the door that led to the narrow staircase, she was assaulted by the pungent stench of blood and mould. The plumbing was rusty and a small leak caused a slow but persistent drip to sound in the basement.
“SenNa, yOu have ComE!” Mr. Reeds looked at her with a maniacal smile and breathing heavily in anticipation.
“So this is the curse?”
Senna realized why she hadn’t seen Mrs. Reeds as of yet. The newly wedded wife was strapped atop a kitchen table that had been made into a makeshift altar. A torn strip of cloth covered her eyes whilst a bloody kitchen knife had been impaled through her chest with superhuman force.
He clothes were in tatters and large patches of skin were visible, even some traces of her undergarments.
If that wasn’t a clear indication of her death, her throat was also slit with her blood staining the entirety of the makeshift altar.
Bare half burned candles were placed in the blood with flames that quietly flickered under and a formless breeze.
With the altar at the center, a large circle was drawn from blood on the ground. Inside were strange and twisted demonic characters, whilst larger symbols were drawn on all four walls.
“GrEat dEmoN of dESpair!” Mr. Reeds called out fanatically, his voice hoarse and cracking, as Senna looked over the room with her nose scrunched up. “I sUMmoN thEe. EnTer tHis worlD aNd bRIng rEbirTH!”
Mr. Reeds extracted a small hunting knife from his waist as he called out and without any hesitation, slit his wrist deeply above the corpse of Mrs. Reeds. His blood poured down onto her exposed bare stomach before running down and soaking the makeshift altar beneath her with new, fresh blood.
The lights in the room dimmed and the blood seemed to glow as the scent of evil immediately grew more powerful.
It hadn’t been visible before, but Senna now saw the demon, the source of the curse on this house, as it’s form became visible in the material plane.
In the core of the basement, directly above the altar, space solidified before beginning to tear and break apart like ashes in a fire. The demon was a pitch black smog that was the personification of taboo. It’s form constantly twisted and malformed into various forms. Sometimes humanoid, sometimes bestial, other purely monstrous or some form of twisted being.
Senna felt her instincts flare up and bared her teeth and clawed her fingers in hostility at the creature, wanting to tear it, and everything else in this room, into pieces with her bare hands.
The creature was currently stuck halfway between this world and wherever it came from, most likely hell. It scratched at the fabric of reality to try and enter this world, but it could not free itself from its entrapment.
With Mr. Reeds sacrifice however, that very fabric of reality was fraying apart, like the embers of fire eating away at a sheet of paper. Bit by bit, the demon was pushing its way into this world.
“Like I will let you!” Senna cried out and covered the distance between herself and the demon in the blink of an eye.
She tore at what could only be assumed to be the face of the demon, but her hand merely disturbed the smog as it passed through. The evil of the creature clung to her skin however, like a thousand needles pricking her skin.
The fae girl snarled and continued to attack, but it proved pointless. Mr. Reeds laughed but soon regretted it as she instead turned towards him to focus on the summoner.
“I waited to see what was going on as I could smell the stench of something evil on you. If I can’t kill this foul thing, I will simply stop the summoning.”
Senna crossed the distance between herself and Mr. Reeds with such a speed that it appeared as if she teleported. He attempted to block in front of him with his arms, but the fae girl was faster.
Her seemingly innocuous hand was pressed against his chest before the man was shot into the wall like a cannonball, the entire basement vibrating from the impact with several trails of dust drifting down from the ceiling.
Mr. Reeds fell to the ground lifelessly, his life or death unknown.
Without the conductor of the ritual present, the eerie luminescence of the blood seemed to vanish and it turned off, but it was too late. The twisting mass of smog that was the demon finally freed itself and fully entered the world.
Senna turned around and dispersed the pitch black smog with her hands as it tried to attack her. The smog seemed intent on possessing her as it flowed around her hands and attempted to attack her face with a speed no human would be able to avoid.
The fae was not about to simply let it infiltrate into her body and dodged to the side, causing the smog to miss before swirling about and coming for her again.
Senna fought against the demon with little effect, but it also proved unable of keeping up with her raw physical capabilities and thus unable to possess her.
Perhaps it compromised, but it suddenly shifted its target towards the fallen Mr. Reeds. The black smog forced his mouth and eyes open as it poured into his body through the orifices until nothing was left.
Lying down on the ground, Mr. Reeds eyes turned into a swirling pitch black, the same color as the former smog, as he stood up and dusted himself off.
“Interesting,” Mr. Reeds said in an unnatural voice that was darker and more grating than it should have been. “You actually did not kill this man… why?”
“He must have been lucky.”
“Luck? No, the difference between yourself and an ordinary mortal is far too great for luck to be involved. You held back. Despite being half fallen and having your entire existence governed by wrath, you held back. Truly, truly fascinating. Perhaps, the reason why you haven’t fully fallen yet is that you still care for humans.”
“Shut your disgusting mouth!”
Senna bore her teeth and appeared beside the demon possessed Mr. Reeds and released a merciless punch, but the demon only smiled.
It calmly raised a hand and caught Senna’s fist bare handed, resulting in the girl’s eyebrows rising in astonishment.
“Senna, right?” The demon leaned towards her and sniffed with an intoxicated grin. “I knew it, as soon as I saw it in this meat sack’s mind. You would make the perfect vessel for myself, it was our destiny to meet!
“Do you think you can possess me?”
“Of course, and there is nothing you can do about it. Why do you think I spent so long talking to you?”
Senna suddenly had an foreboding feeling and glared at the demon in anger. With her hand still captured, she jumped off her feet and planted both her heels in the demon’s stomach with a merciless kick.
The demon had no time to respond before he destroyed a steel shelving rack beside a wall and destroyed all the brick wall behind it. The entire house above them creaked and groaned under the aftershock of the collision, threatening to fall atop them.
Without wasting any time, Senna decided to escape from this location and whatever trap the demon was preparing. She would then be able to confront it once again under terms that were favorable to her, even find some items that demons were weak towards.
She sprinted to the stairs leading out of the basement, but all she found at the top was a solid brick wall. The door to enter and leave the basement of the house had completely vanished.
An invisible force suddenly overtook the fae’s body and she was flung down the stairs and through several storage shelves. Jars of old timber oils and some paint buckets broke open and stained her body as she crashed.
“Hahaha, I told you, there is nothing you can do! Just giVE UP!”
The demon’s voice was increasing in volume and becoming more maniacal the more he talked. He was ecstatic to an almost perverse degree and did not attempt to disguise it.
Senna was in no mood to play games with him. She attacked once again, her palms and feet striking the demon possessed Mr. Reeds’ joints. She was not holding back anywhere near what she had previously, fully aware that the demon was reinforcing the body with his own uncanny power.
The demon tried to fight back, but Senna had superseded it’s strength greatly.
It attempted to catch her with it’s telekinesis once again, but she grabbed it by the collar to forcibly prevent it from being able to create a distance between them.
The demon blocked with one arm, but Senna knocked it aside before landing an open palm strike on its shoulder that completely shattered the joint.
She then broke the other shoulder and both knees in a complete steamroll of the demon.
“HAHAHAHAAAaa, even now, you don’t make a killing blow. Why, creature of evil, do you hold yourself back so?”
The demon stood back up as if he didn’t feel pain. Its shattered joints wrenched themselves back into position and it spread its arms wide.
“Come, tear at my throat, rip out my heart. Consume my intestines, bath in my blood. Give into your instincts!”
“I told you to shut your filthy mouth!”
Senna attacked again, but the demon stood its ground and despite her strikes crushing its ribs, it smiled and latched onto her before she could recover.
“I have you now, little fae girl.”
‘Mr. Reeds’ opened his mouth and a mass of pitch black smog poured out. Senna tried to escape, but the demon’s power had taken a hold of her and caused her to have a momentary lapse of defense.
It forced its way into her mouth, up her nostrils, and even through the glands of her eyes as it invaded her body.
She tried to fight it, struggling to grasp it in her fingers, but it was like an oily residue that could slip through any gap, and continued to infiltrate into the deepest recesses of her body.
The transfer was over in no time and both the body of Mr. Reeds and Senna collapsed on the floor lifelessly.
In the Senna’s vessel, the metaphysical space where her soul resided, dark cloud filled with red lightning filled the void shortly followed by the evil cackle of the demon.
“Hahahah! Your body is now mine! I will eat your soul and-”
With a soul rending scream of pain black smog poured out of Senna’s body even faster than it entered. The smog twisted and leaked ashes that faded away as it fled.
It’s malice had vanished, instead replaced by pure terror. It didn’t dare stay and flew out of the basement and house.
Senna’s eyes shot open and she immediately appeared on her feet with a look of confusion.
“What… happened?”
The fae girl had no clue as to what happened in her inner world, but she had instinctively fought back against the possession with all her effort and had somehow managed to resist the demon.
She looked at the body of Mr. Reeds who was eerily laying there with his eyes open. He wasn’t a corpse though, his body was still breathing and eyes periodically blinking. Waving her hand in front of him, he was completely unresponsive.
“His soul has been destroyed or… eaten…”
Senna knew a bit about possession as a fae. There were spiritual creatures, and fae, that could possess the body of others. When one was possessed, their very soul was exposed and extremely vulnerable to the possessor.
A spiritual creature of that nature may destroy the soul of the body they possess, thus removing all resistance in the body and gaining complete control. The soul in a vessel would resist the possession after all.
The issue was that once the soul was destroyed, the vessel would slowly but inevitably break down, even if means were employed to slow or temporarily halt that process. This meant the demon was deliberately burning through Mr. Reeds body with no intent on preserving it for long.
“I will give you peace, if it can still be called that.”
Senna resolutely twisted his head and effortlessly broke his neck, resulting in the body soon stopping function. Reaching into the pocket inside Mr. Reeds’ coat, she pulled out his pile of credit chips, the same money he had offered her earlier.
“You will not be needing this anymore, and the curse on your house has also been lifted. The demon is no longer trapped in your basement and has left.”
She then took out her phone and took pictures of what remained of the demonic ritual for later research. This demon had obviously been here since before the newlywed Reeds had purchased the house, so a former owner had conducted the initial summoning ritual. Or perhaps it was an exorcism that couldn’t fully expel the demon.
In either scenario, she was determined to find out more about why a demon appeared here, and how she could kill it if it or any other appeared before her again.
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