C15 Shadows

"And you're telling me that the demon was trapped in this sword by your ancestor, a certain Alarik'n Vallen, and that the reason your family is so strong is because of this demon, the bloodlust he forces you all to endure is enough to change your body and make you stronger?" I nod and stand up, the blood is finally gone, thanks to the bath that I hurriedly took, and with some food in my stomach and Sera rubbing against me like a cat the bloodlust from the sword is almost gone "if I keep it in the sheathe the demon can't do anything, but when I take the sword out that's when it wakes up, and it's always hungry. Luckily my ancestor was a genius and put three rules in place. If you kill something with the sword or sheathe it doesn't let the demon get stronger, in fact it strengthens me so that I can defend against the demon longer. If I kill a lot of beings without using the sword but I have it, I can unleash the demon, but that should only be done when I can kill it. The third is that if I am strong enough to defeat the demon I can directly make it my contracted pet through the sheathe and sword, in that case when I die it will too. Or, it's supposed to. My stupid father liked killing things with his hands according to the demon, that's why I can barely defend against the demon even now. Hell when I first got the sword I killed almost... well, I killed a lot of people. Since then I've arrived to fix my sin." Celeste pulls me onto the horse she's riding, and soon we're out of the mountains, damn, it took us almost two hours to get to the spot I left the sword, and on this horse it took barely thirty minutes to return. "That's an amazing story, but according to what I know your father never used a sword, he never even carried one, how do you explain that?" I give her a look and make the sword smaller "easy, the whole reason my ancestor was able to seal the demon was because he took the demons power in a deal, he alone is the reason we are still called the warring clan of Vallen. Even now you can find stories of the man that bathed this world in the blood of everyone he fought." Celeste pales a bit but Alvana cocks her head "I've read a lot of books but rarely do I hear about the Vallens, they just, appeared, around two thousand years ago." I hate yelling, but we need to get to the mountain I sent my students to soon. "We've been around for over five thousand years, it's been in the last two that we started becoming so active, and look what happened after we did. I'm one of four Vallens left in this country, in the known world, there are maybe ten of us. And I have the thickest bloodline, making me the leader. Do you think I can lead anything more than a group of cats?" I make Althea sword bigger and hear a growl from the demon, they don't need to know that this thing never really sleeps. There's not anything they could do anyway, so it's best to just keep quiet. "So, how annoying is the demon when it's awake?" It growls again and I secretly punch the sword to make it shut up, Celeste kind of looks back at me but doesn't say anything "it's annoying when it's asleep, when it's awake I want to break the damn sword." It growls louder, this is why I don't let others hold it, it won't shut up for a while afterwards. I punch it again and when it growls again, by this time their both looking at me, I jump off the horse, rolling to break the fall "alright, let's shut you up first." I pull the sheathe off and ram the sword back into it, the demons dazed, and makes a hiccuping sound, but I find a boulder quickly, the sword, using the demons aura, is sharp enough to cut steel in one strike, so I quickly hollow out a secondary sheathe for the thing, it starts screaming, and even Celeste grabs her ears, but after I put it in the rock sheathe and pour some blood, I cut my hand when I was shearing the rock apart, it shuts up, it's never liked my blood, though it sometimes croons about the sweetness of Vallen blood. "It's like an old man, when you annoy it it annoys you, but soon it forgets why it's annoying you, soon it'll even forget its being put in time out." They both state at me for a minute and I realize I could've just made the sword smaller and put it in my canteen. While we ride on I focus on drawing my tattoo along the border of the new sheathe, soon the rock will crumble away and it'll starts growling at me again, the tattoo can help slow that process though. "What's with that tattoo, I wouldn't have expected you to have one?" I shrug and wave the sword "the tattoo is my only defense against this thing, it also serves as a last resort to find it, and a last resort if I get pushed too far under my bloodlust. If I say art turning into a demon myself this tattoo can pull me back... it requires the blood of something precious to me though, which is why I'm very careful about what I kill when I'm raging. Those beasts back there? I don't care, and they help shut the demon up, I can kill all of them. But... well, I learned the hard way to make sure that I don't give in." Celestes eyes widen as she remembers something "your sister?" I shake my head, no, it wasn't her that died that day "that's what sent me over the edge. I don't know if you remember but there used to be a village towards the edge of the desert named shifting sands?" They both shakes their heads, so I continue "it isn't there anymore, but back then it was full of people, the streets were bustling, the houses were warm and welcoming." I close my eyes and remember the past, but soon the blood fills my mind and I open my eyes "it's gone now. I was forced to watch my sister be killed and I made a one time pact with the demon, I would offer it as much blood as it requested, but our deal would end after I killed everyone that had anything to do with my families deaths. The demon almost got out of the seal but I managed to trick it at the last second, it thought I was completely under the effects of the bloodlust, I was a kid after all, and I had kept a shred of my sanity... I lost my emotions for almost five years after that, and just spent the time wandering the wastes. I killed a lot of people when I did that, and all these years I have strived for three things. To prove to myself that my fathers path was one of fear and hatred, to prove to myself that I can be a hero without sacrificing my life, and third... look there they are." They both follow my finger to find Ciora waving at us. "The reason I spend so much time with Ciora is because she reminds me of my sister, and when we're together the past doesn't hurt quite so bad." I get a hug and wonder how Celeste managed to get behind me, what, why am I on the front of the horse, I don't think me or the horse knows what to do now.