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25 hours after Thomas signed the devil’s contract.
“Hahahaha, my luck is so good tonight! Pull 10, pull 10, pull 10 again!” Thomas laughed with such a veracity he appeared manical, bread crumbs and othher half eaten food projecting out of his mouth.
In one hand, he held a pulled turkey and chutney sandwich he had made himself, whilst the other held a phone with a display emitting countless flashing lights that seemed to mesmerise him.
Thomas was playing Age of Heroes. He was constantly pressing the button to buy a pack of 10 cards, each of which would be either a hero or a weapon. When opening a ten pack of cards however, at least three were guaranteed to be heroes, at least one of which would be above the common grade.
“Hahaahahaaah!! It’s an SSR, and one that I need as well. Just you wait, Gϋnther, I’m coming for your team!”
Sitting nearby before a platter of custard tarts with various fruits on them, Senna had been trying to ignore him for the past hour with progressively less success.
At first he was quiet, but now he was blatantly wasting money on the mobile game which immediately ruffled her feathers.
“Idiot, are you spending all our money again?! Give me that!”
Senna dashed from the couch and tried to grab his phone, but was promptly repelled by the butt of a spear that appeared out of thin air.
“!!!”
The fae girl charged again, but Thomas stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and used his spare hand to fend her off with his soul spear.
“Umph hmm you ghthmp!?”
“You can’t speak with a mouthful of food, idiot! Now give me that damn phone and stop wasting all of our money!”
Senna deftly fought against the spear which moved like a snake and prevented her from getting closer, but there was no opening in its defense.
She knew she could enhance her body with magic and easily overpower him in his mortal vessel, but escalating this fight would have catastrophic consequences on their apartment.
“Aha! I got another SSR! Luck is on my side today!”
Just as Thomas became distracted by the flashing platinum and gold lights on the screen, Senna found and opening and ducked low, passing underneath the obsidian soul spear and closing the distance between the two of them.
Before Thomas could readjust his stance, she snatched his phone directly from his hand before retreating to the other side of the room.
“Hey! Give that back!”
Like a true addict, Thomas chased after her but she kept moving around the room, even detouring through the kitchen, whilst looking over his recent purchases in the game, her face contorting more and more the further she looked.
“What the fuck! How are we going to pay for food, let alone our mortgage!”
“It’s not what it looks like!”
“It isn’t?? You have spent nearly 30 thousand credits in the past hour. Where did you even get that kind of money fro……”
The demi-fallen fae’s expression darkened and tightened her grip, the phone in her hand creaking under threat of being shattered at any moment.
In a panic that he would lose it, Thomas vanished before reforming his body beside her so fast he looked like he teleported. He quickly grabbed the phone before checking it all over for damage.
“You accepted the credits, didn’t you… The credits for the devil’s contract.”
“Eh… no, it’s not like that! It was put into my account via a cash deposit at some backstreet broker. I couldn’t return the money even if I… I couldn’t return the money.”
Senna grabbed on his shirt with one hand and tightly held onto it, her hand shaking ever so slightly.
“Why do this?” She asked without raising her head to look him in the eye. “Do you not care for your own safety?”
Thomas didn’t know how to respond and only looked at the crown of her head with a conflicted gaze.
“Perhaps you don’t fear dying, or having your soul consumed by a demon, but what about me? What am I to do when you are gone?… Stop being selfish.”
Without leaving a chance for him to respond, Senna abruptly vanished from sight, the front entrance partially open as if indicating that she had left the building.
The faint sound of wheels and antigrav engines sounded from above, where several overpasses bridged the park. Not far away was the city monorail, the train’s maglev engines humming with activity as it passed by.
The modern age could be seen at its finest here, where every space was utilized for forcing people to view more paid advertisments.
Needle point projectors on the bridge overhead displayed advertisements on the giant concrete support pillars of the overpasses. Extravagent displays selling the latest cologne from Ylvonne, articles of fashion displayed what was in season and where to buy it.
The side of the train carriages were covered in expansive and colorful banners. Currently, three of the carriages were displaying the latest bio-enhancements by ReYou, bionic eyes that one can purchase to replace their own eyes.
Throw away your glasses, recycle your binoculars, these even come with image recording functions and other military grade software enhancements – now available in multiple colors and designs.
Senna scoffed at the product. It was targeted at the average person who did not have the talent for magic or cultivation, did not have a superpower, or any other form of strength. Those without strength craved it the most, even under the danger of having to undergo life long immunotherapy and dependency on drugs just to live.
She recalled Yuri Amarkov, “The Animator”, had bionic eyes. Unlike these consumer grade products however, his were a feat of combining magic engineering with bio engineering and were of a quality far beyond the current level of technology.
In the centre of all this, Senna strolled through the small urban park that transformed into a night market every saturday.
Whilst there were stalls selling cheap clothing and accessories, or even food one would eat whilst looking through the market, there were also more illicit goods being traded.
This place was home to many of the darker facets to humanity.
Shadier stalls not in the main strip had darker lighting and hid in the shadows, stalls that traded in drugs, weapons, even stolen cultivation resources.
The park was bustling with activity as a result with lots of lights and people passing through, often in groups.
Despite the liveliness though, not far away were those consuming the latest hallucinogenic chems to fuel their addictions. Some just wanted to remember older, happier memories, others a life more successful than their own.
It was common for people to lose themselves in fantasy and become addicted to the euphoria these drugs gave.
Senna avoided touching anyone as she passed through the crowd like a ghost, only the faint flicker of the crimson tails of her hair visible from time to time.
Even when she passed through the shadier sections of the market, she seemed untouchable. Criminals and others felt desire when they saw such a beautiful girl pass through their area all alone, but none of them dared take action.
The reason for this was displayed moments later as a drone buzzed by overhead, two spotlights sifting through the crowd who would hide in the shadows or cover their faces.
Even though patrol drones passed overhead from time to time, crime seemed to prevail, springing to life the moment the authorities weren’t looking. Senna’s senses picked up more than one cry of pain, people promising to get the money they owe, even the stench of fresh blood from a stall selling organs.
Senna eventually reached a section of the park that was unusually quiet, the trees and back of tents somehow seeming to seclude this area from the market. It was an area void of others.
This wasn’t a natural space though, it was inside of a magic barrier cast to deter others from entering or focusing their gaze on it. Even sound was suppressed so those outside would only be able to hear a whisper, unable to locate where the sound originated from.
Once here, Senna halted before facing a certain direction.
“Oh, so you already noticed me, did you?” From the shadows walked out Jack Riddle, no longer in his school uniform but instead a much more extravagent casual outfit. “You walked straight into the trap despite knowing it was one. I must say, you have quite the arrogance.”
“Enough rubbish. Why are you following me?”
Jack looked at Senna with an icy gaze that couldn’t be seen as anything but condescending. He snapped his fingers and a large magic formation, completely different from the usual type used by mages, appeared on the ground within the barrier.
“When a nature fae, or many other type of fae, degrade into sin, they are consumed by that sin more and more until there is nothing left but a creature of sin. I haven’t seen a type of nature fae grow as large as you have, but the aura of wrath fills your mana. It is only a matter of time before you are fully consumed and turn into a mindless beast, destroying and consuming until you eventually destroy yourself”
This seemed to hit a sore spot for Senna, whose expression darkened in anger.
“You speak as if you know everything about me.”
“It is simply the way things are. It is only a matter of time.” Jack shook his head helplessly as he stated matter-of-factly. “I will eliminate you before you become a mindless beast, protecting humankind from your fangs. Your corrupted essence will also be used to restore my power, thoroughly removing all trace of you from this world.”
“Hmph, there it is. Despite your preaching, you don’t give a fuck about other humans, it’s all about yourself. You are just another filthy human who wants my body.”
Jack didn’t bother to argue with her, simply clapping his hands together and summoned a whip made of fire that dripped magma. He struck towards the fae girl with his blazing whip, droplets of magma flinging about and causing the ground to start smoldering.
Senna abruptly vanished from sight as she avoided the whip and closed the distance between the two. Jack scoffed arrogantly and with a twist of his wrist, the whip turned midair and attacked the fae from the back with even more force than before.
Senna clenched her fist and with a single step forwards to brace her body and shift her body weight, delivered a straight punch to the mage’s sternum with lightning speed.
Jack had long prepared a shield over his body, but not even he suspected that as soon as Senna detected the resistance from the shield, she would increase the power behind her strike proportionally.
Before the blazing whip could his Senna, her fist penetrated straight through the shield Jack held so much confidence in before striking his chest.
Jack was sent flying several meters from the blow and began coughing up blood from his injured lungs as the fae girl twisted her body and effortlessly deflected the incoming fire whip with her bare hands.
The mage was even more shocked when he saw how effortlessly she did this.
This was because he knew the power of that whip. Once deflected, this whip tore a giant ravine through the ground, the walls of which melted into slag from the extreme heat. Despite how agile the whip appeared, it was extremely dense and heavy, being controlled via magic rather than actual strength.
Despite this, Senna didn’t have so much as a blemish on her hand.
“I didn’t realize you had degenerated this far, you are stronger than I anticipated. How many humans have you consumed for this strength?”
Senna didn’t answer Jack, nor did he pursue the question.
Jack was also extremely skilled in martial arts, despite magic being his forte. He enhanced his body with the mana channeling through it before taking a martial arts pose.
Senna at first thought in ridicule that he was about to compete with her in terms of strength, but Jack had his own combat style that revolved around summoning blades that would attack in coordination of his movements.
She steadied her breath before fending off the storm of blades made of metal, stone, even wind and water, that were as numerous as raindrops and came from every direction.
The ground cracked below her feet as she moved about the battlefield, intent on striking the magic caster down, but the moment she closed in on Jack, he teleported away in a flash of blue light.
“You were just lucky before, monster. It won’t happen again.”
Jack seemed to have an endless amount of magic at first, but small beads of sweat began to form on his forehead the long the fight went on. Abruptly, he slammed his palm down onto the ground and a portion of the magic circle under their feet lit up.
“Let me cast off that disguise and reveal what a monster you truly are.”
Senna felt her inner anger turn into a volcano, threatening to erupt in a fiery rage at any moment.
Thomas’ face with his stupid grin came to mind, and she could see him wasting all of their money while smoking. She recalled all the slights he did, and taking Aveline’s side over her own. She recalled him sneezing and projecting a large amount of spit into her mouth.
The demi-fallen fae’s eyes glowed crimson and her magic erupted into maximum activity all of a sudden. The earth shook beneath their feet, almost throwing Jack to the ground, as a storm of dirt and debris swirled about.
Jack’s barrier also creaked under the pressure, threatening to shatter at any moment.
With her conscious mind absent, Senna was no longer defending herself. The blades all began to strike her unhindered. Her body was strengthened by her enormous mana supply though, meaning all these blades merely bounced off her without creating any damage.
Her clothes, which were not protected by her mana, were quickly becoming rags however. Her pristine skin became visible, as did the corners of her pink lingerie.
*CRACK*
Jack didn’t see what happened next. All he felt was a storm of mana that reminded him of his previous life in the other world, before the world spun before him.
The barrier he set up shattered into millions of fragments and the earth below him seemed to explode. His magic attacks all evaporated or were sent flying off into the distance before running out of mana and vanishing, and his body turned numb.
Senna stood before him, her hair a mess that swayed in a wind which wasn’t present, her hand gripping his throat and blocking his airway while lifting him in the air. Her other hand was poised in a claw grip, he lethally toxic nails barely a hair’s breadth away from his chest as if she were about to tear out his heart.
Jack’s body soon caught up with his senses and pain exploded from every joint. They had moved a hundred feet away from the initial battlefield at such a speed it was far beyond what his current body could handle.
The former location was now thoroughly destroyed and even caught several nearby stalls as collateral, resulting in screams and people fleeing in a panic screaming about an explosion.
Patrol bots also quickly flew over to investigate, their search lights focusing on the area and searching for the culprit. The police would be here shortly too, or even a hero from the Protectorate.
Senna simply glared at Jack with her glowing crimson irises, the latter feeling his consciousness fading along with the shock and regret that he had miscalculated the strength of his opponent.
If he knew how strong she was, he would have waited until he was much stronger before killing her and refining her corrupted essense into power.
Senna didn’t take his life though. Jack limply fell to the ground as the fae girl spat on his face before abruptly vanishing from sight.
By the time the search lights of the patrol drones shone down on where the two had been, Jack had vanished too, resulting in the drones passing by and continuing their search.
Whilst there was a disruption, the night market remained and the incident was all but forgotten as everything returned to usual.
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