Chapter 2 — Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic

The instant I meet the terrible gazes of the eight legged, eight eyed, black creatures, I speed up my running as fast as possible. Doors fly by me at a rapid pace as I ignore the arrows pointing me in the opposite direction to get as far away from those spiders – who I can hear following me – as possible. Eventually I make it to a dead end, so I choose a random door and enter through it, hoping against hope that I didn’t choose incorrectly.

What I find on the other side of the door is a rather lavishly decorated office. It has a large desk made of wood in the back, with two comfortable chairs facing each other in front of it, and an office chair behind it. One that looks more comfortable than the chairs I have at my own apartment.

I carefully walk further into the room, onto the massive carpet laid out across most of the floor that I bet is a huge pain to vacuum before stumbling forward and catching myself on the table standing between the two chairs.

Seriously, what’s wrong with me?

Out of nowhere, my vision begins to blur, only for everything to gain a red tint and then go back to normal. To get a red tint, and then go back to normal again. Over and over again as the pain in my head gets worse and worse, both around my eyes, and behind them.

I hear a growling sound, making me turn to the door, only to remember that the demons were spider subspecies Spawn if I had to guess. Not anything that could or should be able to growl.

If that’s the case, then where did that sound come from?

The alternation of my vision repeats over and over again until I lose my strength and fall to the ground. I hear the sounds of spiderlike footsteps skittering into the room, only for the red tint in my eyes to suddenly flash really strongly, to the point that I feel like I see a bit of red light reflecting off of the floor.

Then the spiders make a panicked sounding hissing noise and rush out of the room.

Before I can so much as question their actions, I hear a masculine yet robotic sounding voice resonate in my ears.

I barely manage to turn my head in the direction of the voice despite all of the pain that has now spread throughout my entire body instead of just my head, only to find some sort of… what? No, seriously. What?

Some sort of tanuki is just sitting in the air, floating in place. And-

-somehow talking to me?

I blink in surprise, somehow forgetting about the pain I’m in for just a single second. Just one.

Is a tanuki calling me strange?

Oh. Okay. Sorry about that… wait, what?

I groan as the pain grows even worse somehow, shaking me out of my shocked stupor.

The pain may be incredibly severe, but it doesn’t stop the creature’s words from registering in my mind.

Half demon?

I feel tears begin to build up in my eyes as the pain continues to grow, only to suddenly vanish again a second later leaving me to suck in a violent gasp of air before flopping on the ground in exhaustion.

What just happened?!

I blink in surprise. It did what?

Wait a second, never mind that. What is this tanu- err, fae, and how can it read my mind?!

The creature in question floats down to rest right on my chest as he – I’m assuming it’s a he, considering its voice – says,

My eyes shoot open in shock at that.

I’m a… half demon? How is that… how’s that possible?

Wait, wait, wait! I don’t mean that! I mean why did it happen? Why would a human and a demon… you know!

I nod my head repeatedly.

The fae – not tanuki – doesn’t say anything for who knows how long. So I try to move my body, only to find that I have a lot of difficulty doing so.

My mouth drops open for a second before closing again.

Right. All he said was that he numbed my nerves somehow. Not that he fixed me.

How is it possible for a human and a-

Oh.

A vague feeling of fear sweeps through me at the thought of how close I am to death, but I sweep it away with a deep breath that likely doesn’t help anything.

How do we form a contract?

I blink in surprise.

Life… force?

Several seconds pass in silence as I stew over that thought. But after a little bit, the fae reminds me of the remaining time left.

And I make a decision. Right here and now.

Whatever will happen after this, I don’t know. But I want to be one of those players on the board game of life who have the power to be free. The power to make change. Or put simply, who have power.

So yes. I agree to this contract.

The tanuki raises its paw and chomps on it before lowering itself to my face and dripping its blood into my mouth. And as soon as the blood touches my tongue, I feel my eyes widening in shock as a strange yet not unpleasant feeling spreads through me, despite my nerves apparently being numbed.

It then scratches at my face, drawing only a tiny amount of blood that it quickly brings to its own mouth and swallows.

My eyes widen even further as I stare agape at what I know to be one of those System Notices that the Guardians always talk about on the news. And the only thing that comes to mind at the sight of it is that it really does look like a video game.

I stare at the notification for who knows how long, a feeling of hope spreading through my still numbed chest, only for me to blink in surprise as the fae’s words register in my mind.

For the time being? Actually, why are you helping me anyways? Aren’t the ‘fae’ supposed to be helping humanity against demons? So why are you helping a half demon in the first place?

I don’t really want to look a gift tanuki in the mouth, but it just doesn’t make sense. And that doesn’t sit well with me.

The spirits, or according to this one the fae – from what I’ve learned back in school – are mystical beings that come from who knows where to help humanity in its time of need against the demons. They first appeared about two centuries ago, only a few years after the first Demonic Assault, and have been contracting with Guardians, giving them access to the System ever since. And they only ever appear in the middle of a Fracture – an enclosed area being assaulted by demons during a Demonic Assault like the one I’m in now – to offer a contract to one of the humans stuck inside of the Fracture.

The fae just stares at me for a few seconds before snapping its little tanuki claws in a ridiculous display that immediately has me regretting questioning it as the pain returns to me.

I hurriedly nod my head in agreement.

No questioning the fae, and especially no angering it. Got it.

The fae snaps its claws again – which I still question if that’s even possible in a tanuki form – before answering my question despite its rather arroga- err, benevolent display.

My mouth drops open.

They’re… helping the demons too?