9 Curse

Enraged by the feisty little beast—that had come to rescue the already injured nymph-like creature who was covered with a sturdy, green armor from head to toe, and was curled up, lying on the ground—Hei Long tried his hardest to resist the burning urge to destroy, and to kill whatever he could see in the world around him. Gasping for air to breath, he kneeled on the ground with his bare hands on his head. He shouted,

"No, no! Not here and not this time!"

But Hate and Anger had already began to grow inside his head, and heart. They were very gentle when they whispered on his ears, as a matter of fact, it was just like listening to the sound of water flowing down the stream, from the river to his thoughts.

"Yes, you should destroy everything you could see, Boy—that is the only thing that could appease the pact that we've made. The more you kill the stronger you get… have you already forgotten?"

"Begone! You devil! I have already offered, and fulfilled the required deeds to undo the pact! Yet you are still here?"

"Oh, I ain't no devil," it laugh, but the gentleness in its voice it had once had, was gone—replaced with an eerie, twisted voice that most people could only, and probably hear in the midst of night where the vicious devils likes lurk and to feed on the people who are in their direst state.

"You are right, the pact has been undone. But I ain't dead, I'm you, and you are me—we are one!"

Feeling severe pain in his back, Hei Long had to bend low with his limbs close to his body just to relief the pain a little bit. "How could that be! I already have Shadow!"

When it heard Hei Long questioning its existence, and even comparing itself to Shadow, it snorted.

"That inferior being is only an innate ability—but I, on the side of the spectrum, am different!"

While he was confused by his own thoughts, the severe pain in his back was getting worse. Then, within a matter of time, two lesions were bulging out-wards on his back. "It's coming out!" turning his head, he saw two lesions. He shouted. "Shadow where are you, come and restrict me!"

"Don't try to evade the inevitable, Boy. You will never overcome this ordeal. Quickly embrace destruction, that is the only way for you to no longer feel pain!"

"Shut up, you lying bastard." he said. "Shadow where are you, come out fast!"

The evil voice laugh inside his head, and said, "You are alone, once again. Come embrace me!"

"You—you better shut the fuck up, or else you're going to be the first one who's going to be destroy."

To what Hei Long had said had actually made it laugh. " Destroy?" it asked. "Me? You can only dream of it, Boy!"

"I will! Just you wait."

He had never expected that the voice would actually quite down, and unless he had some kind of ability to block that certain kind of voice from travelling to his ears and mind—which was something he's not sure if there are something like that out there, but ever if there were, it would certainly be expensive for poor bloke like him— he was certain that he could never make it quiet down unless it wants to.

Feeling troubled by the severe pain caused by the two lesions growing on his back, he frowned, and thought, "Where are you shadow? Why are you not here?"

Dismayed, at the same time, feeling betrayed, he swayed and felt a drizzle of vertigo. He had never thought that the only person—in whom he had always placed his trust—would gone, just like that!

If only he had time and ability to reminisce the things he did before, he would certainly cry, for he would have never thought that the person, who had been his friend for as long as he could remember, was actually swatted like fly, and sent flying through the woods, making him land in dirty marsh.

Flying not far away from Hei Long, Shadow was in deep contemplation. "What am I going to do?"

After trying to restrain Hei Long—in which he failed—in the "soft" way, which he had vowed to never-ever try again if ever he got to come in a situation like that, Shadow decided to restrain him in a hard way—the only way—since that was the only best thing he could ever think of after falling into a deep contemplation, in the myriads of ways.

Knowing that Hei Long could never hold long after being corrupted by his emotion, he flexed his big pair of black wings—which were spanning a staggering 5 meter-long—picked up his speed, and sped past the slight elevation ahead of him. Dry leaves swayed side by side as he flew in between with great haste.

He said with grave expression on his face, "I'm coming, just hold on!"

In the direction where Shadow was flying to, a person could be seen from away. Sweating profusely, Hei Long lied on the ground while shaking from time-to-time.

Writhing, he mumble weakly, "Shadow where are you?"

But before anyone could answer his weak calls, someone said, "Give in already! This is fate!"

Having heard the demon again, he replied, "I will never let you get the best of me. And the only person who can decide my fate is me, and not, nor anyone!"

He laugh at Hei Long's stupidity. "Foolish mortal!"

"Foolish old man!" he replied with a laugh. "Die then!" His voice disappeared once more.

At his back, a half-meter black wings were already growing and having a unprecedented level of speed. It would only be a matter of time when it grows as big as Shadow's wings, and by the time, that happened, he would no longer be able to control himself—and that would spell disaster to the beings that were living here.

Years ago, back in the time when he was still starting to make a name for himself as a subjugating enforcer—or what he personally called bounty hunter—he once stumbled upon a unconscious person, which was a actually a wounded soldier, at a closer look, on the mountain, that he was scouting. As soon as he saw that the soldier had multiple inflicted wounds, that was big and scary, littered around his body, he decided to help him. So he bend down, and slowly and carefully put the man on his back. After that he climbed down the ravenous mountain with difficulty, considering he was he weak and small at that time. Climbing down the mountain, he brought him to the place where he was staying. He tended him for days, feeding him with the food he procured with great difficulty, and yet the soldier was still unconscious and weak. And when the time Hei Long had no longer food to eat for himself, he decided to pick some in the mountain, thinking the wounded man in his place would die without drinking and eating. In the end, he did a lot of things in order for the soldier to survived, but, unfortunately, in the end, the soldier never regained his consciousness and died in the winter snow. The time he came back with raw material on his hand, he made porridge—consisting of the herbs and spices that he found on the mountain—for the two of them. He would always check the pulse of man in front of him once in a while, but while checking the pulse of the soldier, the bowl of porridge he was holding dropped.

Unknowingly, he had treated the man as his only kin, but to suddenly know that the soldier died on his bed all alone. A drop of tear dripped on his rosy cheeks—he cried and cried till he can't cry no longer. Then blood started to drip from his eyes, wings started sprout from his back, and darkness took over. Burying the man, and everything at the time of winter snow, Hei Long saw that the mountain and its surrounding were wreck, he clearly knew that grieve overcame him once more. By then, he discovered that every-time his emotions would fluctuate beyond his means of control, disaster would absolutely follow.