Chapter 20: Mountain 2
Looking at the crooked map, I couldn't help but sigh. I had no idea how far or close the destination was, only a simple dotted line pointed me to a crude drawing of a cottage.
I placed the map in my shirt and began getting up when I saw one of the demon's hands still on the floor, slowly fading away.
An idea popped into my head and I rushed over to the hand before it completely disintegrated. I reached into my sack for a simple vial containing an assortment of condiments and dumped them all on the floor. Then, I grabbed my sword and slit the hand's wrist, letting the blood accumulate into the vial.
After I filled it up with demon blood, I brought it up to my face and looked at the glistening liquid inside. For the first time ever, I seriously pondered over what would happen if I actually drank the blood and turned into a demon.
'Would I still become a demon now that she's dead? Will I lose my reason like grandpa warned?' These thoughts crossed my mind as I stared at the vial.
There was too much I still didn't know about demons. The woman said I could become one just by drinking blood, but was that true? Could I believe everything that came out of a demon's mouth?
The more I thought about it, the less attractive the idea of gulping down the liquid in front of me became. I wouldn't be able to step foot outside in the sunlight, but most importantly I feared losing myself. Power at the cost of sanity wasn't a deal I was willing to make. What's the point of being stronger than everyone if you're not there to witness it.
In a roundabout way, becoming a demon would also invalidate everything I've worked for, I would effectively be relying on the crutch of a demon's ability instead of my own strength. Even if I could get my arm back, it would only be a cheap way out of this predicament. Not to mention I would never be able to face my family again.
Following that line of thought, I decided to store the vial away for a rainy day. Only when I was truly out of options, truly stuck with nowhere else to go would I drink it.
I stepped out of the building, the fire outside still raging on, just now reaching the inside of the shop.
'What just happened. My god.' The weight of the situation just dawned on me as I left. 'Did I really just see a demon use magic?'
I looked at mountain slicer, my sword. Its snow white scabbard now dyed red with blood, my blood. Similarly, my clothes were also soaked in either my or the demon's blood.
The moment I exited the building, the full moon was still high in the sky, unobstructed by clouds, letting the moonlight permeate through every nook and cranny of the burning village.
The moment my foot stepped onto the snow, I took out my map and began heading in the direction of the marked cabin, wasting no time getting any rest.
As I ran through the dilapidated village, I kept scanning around for demons, yet I found none. They were either taking their sweet time dining, or someone was taking them out. Either way I didn't want to stick around to find out.
*
1 day later, Daybreak.
"Sir, they've all been defeated." A young man in his late teens with a high pitched voice reported.
"What of the lower moon?" A man in his mid twenties asked.
"There's.. No sign of it. I apologize, lord hashira." The high pitched man bowed, apologizing to his superior.
The hashira looked at his surroundings, clicking his tongue at the sight of the destroyed village and mountain of corpses.
"We were too late." He hissed. "And to top it all off, we don't even know where our target is."
The young man looked away in shame.
"I'm really sorry, if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have taken so long."
"It's not your fault. I didn't expect there to be that many demons either." The hashira said.
They both looked towards the bright blue sky.
"We're fucked aren't we?"
"Right."
"Lord hashira, we've found evidence of a fight, in the rubble." A masked woman reported. "A retired demon slayer was found dead, along with a severed hand that does not belong to him."
"Do we know who the hand belongs to?" The hashira asked, knowing he wouldn't receive a proper answer.
"From what we can tell it belongs to a kid?"
"A kid?"
"Affirmative, and what's more, all the blood vessels in the hand have burst."
"A telltale sign of a slayer. Keep this quiet. From what we know, no one else was sent on this mission. I'll have to report directly to lord Okami."
"Yes sir!" Both the woman and the young man bowed in unison.
*
7 days later.
Running through the mountain for the first few days had been easy enough. The food and water stored in my sack allowed me to keep moving day in and day out while total concentration provided me with a large pool of stamina.
That said though,
"Where the fuck am I even going?!" I shouted out. "This map is absolute dogshit. I'm probably lost. Damned old men, making everything harder than it has to be."
In front of me stood a tall rockface, at least 800 meters high and angled 90 degrees. Climbing it was out of the question, so I ultimately decided to just walk around, making my ever increasing detour mileage even higher.
Walking around the jagged cliff face, I heard a thunderous rumbling coming from above. I raised my head to look in the direction of the sound, only to be met with an avalanche of snow barreling towards me at an ungodly speed.
Even with the enhanced durability, speed and strength total concentration provides me, I was still a weak, defenseless human when faced with the night of nature.
I quickly rushed down the mountain so the snow wouldn't hit me directly, causing my body to be flattened like a pancake, I covered my mouth with my hand and hoped for the best.
A loud, resounding thud that shook the mountain to its very core rang out as the snow came into contact with the base of the cliff.
Yet the avalanche didn't stop, it continued sweeping everything in its path, from trees to boulders, catching up to me faster than I could run away.
Eventually though, I was swept away like everything else. I rolled around for a while, my consciousness almost getting ripped away from all the spinning before the avalanche stopped dead in its tracks.
I dug a hole in front of my face with the hand I used to cover my mouth so I could breathe.
Disoriented from all the tumbling around, I couldn't even tell which way was up and which was down, leaving me in a battered and confused state.
'Fuck this mountain.' I thought, as I was beginning to feel light headed from all the carbon dioxide build up in my small air hole.
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