Chapter 448: Kiara’s Arc (8)

Faye watched every single incident that had happened in that small village.

The Demon Perico showed her everything.

He showed her the truth behind his story, the truth that nobody in the world knew. Even the story people had heard about how the Hunger Fool became a demon did not come close to what had actually happened.

Before he became a demon, Perico had been nothing more than a young human boy who had already lost his parents.

Despite everything he had gone through, Perico took care of his little sister, Luna. He struggled every day to provide for her and make sure she had everything she needed. He gathered dry wood, carried thin rags for blankets, and spent his nights keeping the draft away from her small frame.

But the villagers never cared.

They did not help the two siblings. Instead, they cast them aside because of the white hair they carried. Nobody else in the village had white hair except Perico and Luna, and that alone was enough for the villagers to treat them differently. They threw stones whenever the kids walked past the market, shouting warnings to keep away from their doors.

Then the volcano began causing problems. Heavy smoke poured out across the horizon, shaking the dirt under their feet every night. While the villagers were desperately searching for a solution, a woman dressed in black arrived at the village and approached the chief. Her long cloak dragged through the dust, her dark eyes scanning the terrified crowd.

She claimed she could help them.

But she needed a sacrifice.

The moment the woman mentioned a sacrifice, the villagers remembered Perico and his little sister. Whispers spread fast through the crowded square, eyes turning toward the quiet corner where the white-haired kids sat.

They lured the young boy in by trying to gain his trust. They offered him hot bread, patted his shoulders, and promised the twelve-year-old that if he agreed to become the sacrifice, his little sister would be given a promising life.

Perico was naive. He believed them. He nodded with big, hopeful eyes, wiping his dirty face. He was willing to sacrifice himself if it meant his little sister would be safe and have a better life.

He watched as the villagers took care of Luna while he was thrown into a hole, left there to starve as they prepared him for the sacrifice. The dark stone walls were freezing, and his stomach twisted in sharp knots while he waited through the endless nights, holding onto the belief that Luna was warm and fed.

Everything went according to their plan.

The witch performed the ritual, chanting heavy words while the ground trembled. Perico was thrown into the volcano.

Perico accepted his fate.

As the flames consumed him, he embraced death because he believed his sacrifice would allow his sister to live a safe and happy life. Heat tore through his lungs, but he closed his eyes and held onto her tiny smile. That was all that mattered to him.

The ritual was successful.

The volcano dried up. The thick smoke cleared from the sky, and the trembling stopped completely.

But Perico did not die.

His entire body had been burned away, yet somehow, his heart was still beating beneath the now-hardened surface. Red light pulsed faintly under the ash, refusing to stop.

Slowly, his body began to form again from the dust surrounding his beating heart. Flesh and bone pulled back together, wrapping around the core like hot iron cooling into shape.

Then Perico became conscious.

He managed to crawl out of the volcano, weak and barely able to move, but there was only one thing on his mind.

His sister. He needed to find Luna.

But when he finally returned to the village, the sight that greeted him shattered everything he had believed.

His sister’s head was on a spike.

Perico froze. His breath stopped right in his chest, his eyes wide and unblinking while the silence of the empty square pressed against his ears.

The villagers had lied to him. They had betrayed him.They had never intended to save his sister. He was not the real sacrifice.

Luna was.

As Perico stared at his little sister’s head, every promise they had made to him became nothing but a cruel lie.

They had taken the one person he truly cared about.

Something inside Perico awakened. A terrible, dark surge ripped through his chest, breaking whatever was left of his young soul.

The fire he had consumed inside the volcano had changed him. It had turned him into something that was no longer human.

A heartless demon.

Perico wanted nothing but revenge.

He looked at the villagers and saw how happy they were, as if they had not just taken away the most important person in his life. They were dancing around, laughing and drinking, completely unbothered by the horror standing on the pole.

So he burned them all.

The chief. His wife. Their children. The villagers.

Every single soul was consumed by his flames until the entire village was turned into a pool of liquid lava. Screams filled the air for only a second before the intense heat swallowed everything whole, turning homes, stone walls, and bodies into bubbling orange sludge.

But Perico was not done.

He searched for the witch. The woman who had smiled in his face. The woman who had lied to him, used him. The woman who had taken everything from him.

When Perico finally found her, he consumed her and her entire descendants. He tracked down every last drop of her bloodline, burning their villages to ground-up glass and dragging their spirits into the fire.

For centuries, he became Terror. No one could stop him. Sky and land scorched wherever his shadow fell.

Then the rebirth of the Third Moon Wolf did.

After Faye witnessed the tragedy, Perico returned her to the playground, and the first thing Faye did was give him a hug. She stepped forward without holding back, wrapping her arms around his glowing figure. Despite his flame avatar, it did not burn her. Instead, she embraced her big brother. The heat felt soft against her cheek, like warm sunlight resting on her skin.

While he was swinging and Faye was helping him by pushing the swing, Perico looked at her. Her hands pushed against the seat, sending him up into the quiet dark air before pulling him back down.

"Do you want to know how I survived, Luna?" Perico asked Faye.

"Do you want to take me to another place again?" Faye asked, not having the spirit to see another tragedy that was going to haunt her.

"Your bite is a gift. If you did not bite me all the time as a kid, I would never have survived the volcano. You saved me..."

"And happened to be the one who destroyed you..." Faye said, remembering the part where the Moon Wolf ended him by sealing him. Her eyes dropped to the dirt floor, her chest heavy with the guilt of a memory that wasn’t fully hers.

"Yes, you did, but I’m not sad. The place you kept me was a happy place. I liked it there. Then some people broke the happy place and sealed me inside a living souls like this one..." He swung his legs back and forth, the chains clicking quietly with every turn.

Then Faye immediately remembered Kiara.

"Speaking of Kiara, are you sure she is okay? This is her mind, and i don’t want to mess it up..." Faye looked around the dark, empty playground, realizing the walls of the space were still tied directly to the brunette’s sanity.

Perico snapped his fingers, and then Kiara appeared, shouting like someone who was just coming from hell. She hit the ground on her hands and knees, gasping for air while her chest heaved wildly.

Then Kiara stopped, realizing she wasn’t in the horrible place anymore. The agony she had been feeling was gone.

She looked at Faye and the Fire Demon. She pushed herself up off the dirt, her fingers trembling as she wiped her face.

"You have no idea what it felt like... It was like I was burning inside a furnace, furnace cannot compared . It was a never-ending pain..." Kiara said, holding her arms tight against her ribs as she moved closer to them. Her face was pale, her voice rasping with every word.

"Suit you better... You think you are the best and the smartest, huh? Next time you harm me, you’re getting actual burns... from your manicure up to your face..." Faye threatened, smirking at the girl like she had just won a battle.

"You know it’s my body he is using as his home. All I need is an assurance from him that he will not possess any other souls but me..." Kiara said, pointing at the demon. She swallowed hard, trying to keep her standing posture straight even while her legs kept shaking from the shock.

"If you wanted to talk, you should have come alone. Why bring my Luna?" Perico replied. His glowing head tilted, the yellow light turning slightly sharper as he looked down at her.

"Luna? You think she is a Luna?" Kiara blinked, her brow pulling together as her eyes darted between Faye and the towering figure of light.

"That is her name. My sister’s name."

Kiara stared at them, then she finally understood. Her mouth opened slightly, the dots connecting in her head as she realized why the ancient force had acted so strangely around the Omega.

"So that is the reason my blood doesn’t work on her. You calmed down because of her... because she was once your sister? I’m going to be killed because you are inside me..."

"That is not my concern. Your ancestors brought it upon you. You are just reaping the fruits of their greed..." Perico said.

Then he stood up from the swing and walked toward Kiara. His towering frame moved with absolute ease, the heat radiating off him making the dark air warp around his outline.

"I like that you are different from the rest. While others want to destroy me because they fear me, you want to keep me and stay alive. I want something in return, if you want my help, that together we will stop the bad people and you get to live forever..."