Demon-ization?

Come on, think! Iris looked around the room and racked her brain, trying to think of a way to get out of this mess. Boxes, boxes, and more boxes. That was the only thing that she could find in the room. She ran to the door and pulled the closest ones and placed them in front of the door. This will buy some time.

Iris then ran back and started opening some of the other boxes to see what was in them. The first box had a worn-out sword. It looked like it was just collecting dust in the box, but it was still usable. She threw it on the ground behind her and went through the other boxes. A pile of old clothes, some rotting fruits, stacks of papers, some sort of black powder, and water? Boxed water... This was new... It wasn't that far from barreled water, Iris guessed... But this wasn't the time to ponder over something as useless as this.

There was nothing in the boxes that could aid her in her escape. Iris picked up the sword just in time to what a voice from outside the door.

"She's in here!" He called out to the rest of the kidnappers, informing them all of her location. The man tried to open the door but saw that it was locked. The handle rattled and Iris moved back.

"Sh*t!"

More footsteps came and another voice said out loud, "Move! I'll get this open!" Something hit the door and the splinters of wood exploded into the room, one almost catching Iris in the eye. Iris squeezed the sword's handle, frightened and unsure of what to do. There was no way she could take on the kidnappers alone.

Iris dropped the weapon and bolted for the window. It was do or die. "Here goes nothing!" She jumped out of the window, feeling gravity grab her and pull her to the ground. She concentrated her magic into the necklace and got ready to shoot it at the ground to break her fall a little.

But something happened. He felt a sudden pain on the right side of her head, stunning her. Her ears rang and she shut her eyes. No... Not now! Why did it have to happen now!?

Due to the loss of her concentration, her magic went wild and dispersed. Even without looking, she knew that she was very close to the ground now. Worst-case scenario, she dies. Best case, she breaks a leg or two and gets caught by the kidnappers anyway. Of which, both outcomes were bad.

Iris closed her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the fall. But at that moment, a strong wind blew into her, almost defeating her ears. Instead of hitting the ground like a boulder, she landed soundly in what felt like someone's arms.

"What were you thinking!?" a voice shouted at her. Upon hearing that voice, Iris almost burst out crying. Without even looking at her savior, she turned and hugged him. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly, burying her face into his clothes.

"What-" Kies was taken aback by what Iris suddenly did without any warning, but he didn't push her away. Just taking a quick look at her, he saw that she was a complete mess and went through a lot.

"There's blood..." he noticed a bulge on the side of her head. It looked severe. He needed to bring her back to Nyana and have the elf take a look at it. But first...

The door of the house flew open, a leg sticking out from it. Several men ran out onto the streets, all armed to the teeth with weapons.

"There she is! Get her!" one of them shouted. "Kill the other one. We don't need him!" he also said, pointing at Kies.

"Hmph, kill me? You need a lot more people for that..."

Normally, it would be hard to fight when there is a person in one's arms, but this wasn't a problem for Kies, who controlled the winds. A gust of wind came down from the sky and killed all the men, piercing their vitals and taking them out cleanly in a heartbeat.

The leader of the group didn't have the chance to see what killed his men as he was swept off his feet by an unknown force and had his weapon taken from him.

"What was that?" The man didn't understand what happened and got up from the ground, only to find himself standing in a pool of blood, surrendered by his brethren. "Huh? What are you all doing, lying on the ground!? Get them!" he ordered the men, unbeknownst to the fact that they were already dead.

Since it was dark, it was hard for the man to see the blood and so he didn't realize until he raised his hand and noticed that it was wet. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out what it was and that's when he saw. "What... Is this blood?"

"Took you long enough," Kies said. The kidnapper looked around at the ground and saw that all his men were dead.

The leader didn't know when this happened and was stunned. "Just what did you do? You... Monster!" However, even though he said that, his facial expression didn't match his words. His face turned from one that was shocked to one that was amused.

"Hahaha!" The man bent over, clutching his stomach, laughing.

Did he lose his mind? It looked that way to Kies. He raised his hand to finish the man off since he doubted that he would be able to get information from him now that the kidnapper was in this state, but something happened that stopped him from doing so.

The man reached into his pocket and took out a syringe, stabbing it into the side of his neck. Kies watched as he injected the unknown substance into his body. When he emptied the entire thing, he threw the syringe onto the ground and stomped on it. "This was our payment for the task. I didn't think I would have to use it so soon, but it doesn't matter..."

The man's eyes expanded and turned red. His body also underwent some changes. His skin hardened into black scales and a pair of wings shot out from behind his back. He clutched his face, screaming in pain as the transformation took place. When it was all over, he lowered his hands and stared at Kies with bloodshot eyes.

"So this is what it feels like..." he smiled. His voice was also different now. It crackled with every word and was a lot deeper than before. It was safe to say that he wasn't human anymore. Kies recognized the wings and horns. He was now a demon...

A substance that could convert a human into a demon... This was no small matter. How did the man get his hands on something as dangerous as that? But first thing's first, Kies put down Iris, who was now unconscious. He was a little annoyed that she got her tears and snot all over his cloak, but he will let this one slide after seeing what the girl went through. He sat her against a crate and turned back around to face the ex-human demon, whatever he was now. The transformation was complete and traces of his humanity were gone.

"This deal was worth it..." he chuckled, not regretting what he turned into. On the contrary, he looked quite pleased about abandoning his human body, though it was hard to read his face since it was a jumbled mess. Blue-purplish skin with lumps all over, overall, the man looked like an abomination rather than a demon. Something like a hybrid if Kies had to guess.

"Heh." The monster was done checking out his body and turned to Kies. His red eyes brimmed with glee as he saw someone who he could test his newborn powers on. "You'll be my first victim..."

"Victim? We'll see about that." It was a good thing that it was Kies who discovered him like this first. Had it been anyone else, say one of the guards or soldiers, then there would've been a lot of casualties. The hybrid was so busy celebrating his transformation that he didn't notice that Kies was already preparing for an attack. A current of winds blew down from the skies, picking up the hybrid, catching him by surprise.

"Huh? What is this?" The hybrid thrashed his arms and legs, trying to stop himself from flying into the air but it was no use. After making it up high enough, Kies let go of the hybrid, dropping him back down to the floor. He used the winds to increase the speed of the fall, making it so that the drop was fast enough to kill a normal human. The monster hit the ground with a loud thump. Knowing that it was probably not enough to kill him, Kies did a follow-up attack and shot a barrage of Wind Jets at him.

The hybrid grunted, but he didn't yell out in pain or anything. Right after receiving all those attacks from Kies, he hopped back onto his feet and charged at Kies. "Ha, that isn't enough!" Aiming for Kies' throat, the hybrid lashed out with his claws, slashing at him. Kies took a step back and summoned his sword. He sliced at the outstretched arm before the hybrid had a chance to react. It cut clean through and he severed the limb off.

"Argh!" the hybrid stumbled back, screaming in pain. Kies rushed forward and slash again with his sword. The hybrid ducked the attack that was aimed at his head and tumbled over to where his arm was, grabbing it and sticking it back on. Within seconds, the arm was reattached back.

"..."

"Would you look at that! It actually works!" the man laughed. Kies swung his sword at his torso but he nimbly jumped up into the air and landed behind him. "Hehe, this is so much fun!" The hybrid stuck his hand out and a blade shot out from his wrist. Blood spilled onto the sand as a blade shot out of the other hand as well. "Time for you to die!"

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