CHAPTER 88: May our paths never cross again

The small demon kept begging for its life and offered me all sorts of things in exchange, but I was furious.

It soon realised that it could not talk its way out of this and managed to slip past me. I turned around and chased after it.

The small demon could only take a few steps outside of the caravan before I grabbed it in its nek. It let out a terrible cry when my claws ripped open its skin.

Some people who were standing outside of the caravans to talk to each other before they went to sleep looked over and saw me slaughtering the small demon in cold blood.

I was a bit disappointed. The small demon had already accepted its fate as soon as I grabbed it. It didn't put up a fight, nor did it beg or scream. And when it died it wasn't I as much agony as it could be. It just died.

This irritated me. I wanted it to suffer the consequences of what it had done. Instead, it only accepted its death.

I guess that a large portion of its acceptance came from its insolence. It probably thought that it would only be sent back to hell when it died, not knowing that it would be different if it was killed by me.

When a demon died in the human realm without anything to trap it there it would get sucked in a small rift between worlds. This of course required enough power to rip open the worlds. That power came from the demons themselves. it was something like magic, but they couldn't use it for anything else. They couldn't even use it at will, or at least not without many years of training.

But when I killed a demon al its remaining power would be absorbed by my mark. Including the energy to get back to hell. When I killed a demon, it would die for real.

I kicked the corpse of the small demon out of the way and walked back to the carriage. There I saw Elissa quietly sobbing over the body of Yohan.

I sat down next to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I-it was all my fault," she whispered while nearly choking on her tears." I could not fight the control of that demon. If only I had been stronger. If only I had been better. Mom was right. She was right all along."

She said more things. But it was not understandable through her sobbing.

Alex and Allenya busted through the door. They had heard the commotion outside and wanted to see if we were fine.

Allenya gasped and put her hands in front of her mouth while tears started to drip down her face. Alex could barely keep himself from throwing up.

We eventually dragged him out of the carriage.

luckily, the guards let us bury him. At this point I did not really care who saw us interact with each other. We just wanted him to rest in peace.

Each one of us. Including Gert said goodbye. Alex had a nearly endless tale about how they met on the streets. Allenya talked about some of the good times they had. And Gert just placed some flowers.

They all left quite soon. I understood that it was hard to stand face to face with such a cruel reality.

Only Elisa and I were still there. She just sat there, silently hugging her knees until she finally fell asleep.

I sighed. I had no one to blame but myself. If I had noticed that demon earlier than this wouldn't have happened. Now Elisa was not only very sad, but she also felt extremely guilty.

("No. it was not my fault, nor that of Elisa. It was the fault of the guards. It was their job to make sure that things like this wouldn't happen. If they had done their job, then things wouldn't have turned out the way it did now. it is their fault; they are the ones to blame!")

I closed my eyes, trying to calm my thoughts. I did not know if I was just trying to shift the blame to make myself feel better or if my mind was just messy again.

I opened my eyes again and sighed as I looked at the unmarked grave.

"Since I know that there is a hell, there must also be a heaven. I'm sorry I couldn't make it in time. May you ascend above the clouds and may we never cross paths again."