The Moonlight Demon

7 | Lessons after Lessons

NADIA'S POV

"Remember, today I will only be your overseer. I'm not going to help you at all." Asura said while we stayed hidden outside of an old abandoned cottage.

"Yes, master." I went through what I had been training for inside my head. First, I need to greet them with a smile because devils always smile even they're killing someone.

Second, determine the perfect weapon to defeat a vampire. Because there's a lot of different kinds out there. The question is, how do I determine the differences?

"It's time," Asura said before she places an invisibility spell on herself. I sighed and made my way towards the front door. I don't know why we have to be so polite towards them though.

"Why are you knocking dumb ass ...." The vampire who opened the door jumped backward and was immediately on an attack stance when she saw me knocking at the door.

"DEVIL!" She announced. Soon a few more vampires appeared from the rooms and ceiling of the cottage.

I examined every single one of them but while doing so, I can smell dry blood, angel blood.

"What are you doing here, demon? You're not even allowed to be in here!" Said the vampire who opened the door. "First it was the angel and now a devil? We're really popular today huh." They all laughed.

"It's stupid of you to come alone ..." she looks at me from head to toe. "Newborn." How did she know I'm a newborn?

"From the looks of things, you have not yet awakened your powers. I mean, why would you have to bring a whole box of a vampire hunting kit, right?" He smirked. How did he manage to know I'm concealing a lot of weapon under my clothing?!

"Kill her! Belial will kill us if she knows these devil scum know our hideout." Belial? Who's that? I used my arm to hold off the vampire who bit me.

I took a wooden stake that was wrapped around my waist and stabbed its heart with it. I pulled the stake and watched as the first vampire I stabbed died on my feet.

"You b***h!" He used his strength and break my whole arm by twisting it. I quickly grabbed a small bottle of powdered garlic from my pocket and threw it on his face. It burned his skin off and used the same wooden stake to stabbed his heart.

I jumped backward while keeping an eye from the others. Two down, 3 more to go.

"Come on!" I mumbled as my arm took its time to heal. The vampires smirked before they attacked me all at once! I began to panic and suddenly remembered the little bottle I packed together with the others.

I know I shouldn't but, desperate time calls for desperate measure.

I grabbed a bottle of Holy water.

I used my mouth to removed its cork and splashed these vampires with it. I feel the indefinite pain from the holy water touching my skin. My flesh started dissolving by the power of a blessed water.

Before it gets worst, I took the gun and shoot them on the head and heart.

Asura suddenly appeared from hiding and staring me down. She looks mad. "Let me see your hand." I showed her my skeletal hand with no skin nor flesh left. "Your stupid for doing such reckless killing." She bit her own wrist and ordered me to drink it.

I licked the dripping blood from her wrist and drink it like she ordered me to. I was surprised to see that my hands and twisted arm started to heal instantly.

"Your overall mark for this is 40. But, you did kill all of the targets per say. 20 additional mark for that. You passed but barely. We should get back now."

I only have 60 marks?! Being a devil is much harder than being a human! I sighed mentally and followed my master into the circle.

"Let me ask you this Nadia. What do you want to achieve in your life before you die?" Huh? What's with that question? Since she asked, I might just tell her, right?

"I want to ... I want ... I want to show my parents I can succeed. To be honest, I hate them. I hate my family for abandoning me just because I'm not like the rest of their children. I hate my brothers, I hate my sisters. I hate them all. I hate my so call fake friends, I hate living. I was this hateful that I want to die every single day but I couldn't find the strength to do so."

Asura suddenly stopped whatever she's doing and face me.

"Tell me, is this what you want? Hunting vampires, protecting me." So far, my undead life has been fun.

"Yes because now I have a purpose. I have to fulfill my master's wishes. Last time I was forced to have a life because I'm lost. Now, I have a master to protect." I hope I'm not saying anything that may offend her.

She looks expressionless.

"Your family, the Romans, politician, am I right?" I nodded. Seems like she did some research on my family. "Your siblings, doctors, politician, businessman and a scientist, correct?" I nodded.

"Let me ask you again, my servant. What do you want to accomplish in your life now?" She seems determined to ask me that.

"I ... I want ... I want to surpass my siblings who look at me lowly." She smiled. "Good. That's what I want to hear. Being your master I have a duty to fulfill my servant's desire." what does she mean by that?

"You know exactly what I mean my servant, we're going to surpass your siblings. But for that to happen, I need to train you with everything I know and my skills." She turned her attention to the bookshelf inside her chamber. "We should start with skills."

Skills? What kind of skills she's talking about?

***

"Have you heard of superpowers?" Obviously. I nodded. "Devils have such things. Angels, fallen angels, vampires, all of those creatures we know have their own powers. Except for zombies. Despite being undead, they're a bunch of walking corpses." Zombies probably the useless one in the hierarchy.

"Don't get me wrong, zombies and ghouls can be used for pawns. They follow orders better than any creature can." She opened a book and showed me about devil's history.

"You see, the origins of us Devils is quite unknown. All we know is that our ancestor was born from the hatred that human's produce." This got sidetrack to a new level.

"Anyway, I can control the four main element powers. Such as fire." I was curious when her hand was on fire.

"Water." The fire quickly turn to water in seconds!

"Earth." A ball of green light appeared on her hand.

"Of course, air." I was astonished when a small storm appeared on her hand.

"I also can use electricity magic." She slammed both her hands together and she showed me how she produced a strong electricity.

"I too have some healing magic." She stabbed her own palm using a knife and used her other hand to heal the wound.

She's talented. I wonder if I can control those things like she does. "For close combat, I have a weapon made from a razor-sharp dragon's skin on my hands. Behold ..." her arms skin slowly transformed into a dragon scales. She even let me touched it.

"For a newborn to have powers like their master or to have powers you personally develop, you have to search for a familiar. This is my familiar."

I was taken aback when she summoned a different circle than the one she usually uses and a fiery dragon was trying to freeing itself.

"She's beautiful right?" The dragon is a she?! "Harmonica, say hello to my servant, Nadia." The dragon leaned its long head to me.

"Hello." THE DRAGON CAN TALK?!

"Remember about my dragon scale arms, this is the dragon I made a deal with." She was treating the dragon as if she's a dog!

"My strong forte is fire. Hence my dragon's specialty as well. But being the bearer of the title Behemoth, I can learn any magic, summoning circle, and even psychic power. Now let me ask you this crucial question, what kind of powers do you wish to have? As my servants, you can choose anything you desire."

Anything? She means it? Anything that I desire? Total domination.

"Conquer the world." That gained her attention. "Oh really? Why?" Why? "Because I want to show my family who abandoned me that I'm far more superior than them." Asura laughed.

"Basically you want my power?" What? I didn't mean that. I shake my head vigorously. I was too afraid to say anything to her while she's looking at me with those piercing blood red eyes.

"If you want to show your family you've surpassed them, you need to have the power like mine. Money, power, and influential connection in the human world and the underworld. It doesn't come cheap as well. In my opinion, you've surpassed your family in so many ways. You're now one of the undead. You've won without even realizing it. You have far more superiority."

She's right. What could I ask for more than life without death in my near future?

"Lesson 1, how to develop your powers from within." She smiled and took my hands. "These hands will be your answer. Most of the powers we Demonix possessed came from our hands. Except for my mother, she used the power of her mind. She's a brilliant mind reader."

She traces something on both of my palm.

"This crest will be your ticket to summon any power that you may have within your body. Now, focus on your hands and take a couple of a deep breath. Close your eyes and think of the powers you want to conjure in your hands." I did as told and a few minutes had passed, nothing.

I don't feel anything at all. "Open your eyes." I heard my master ordered me to do so. "Behold, the power of darkness, Cosmos." She said when I looked at hands.

The power of darkness? What does she mean by that? "What does it do?" I asked. "Exactly like the name." Darkness? Cosmos?

"This power will make your opponent rue the day they decide to fight you. Once you activate this power, you will have the complete power of their fear. Even the emotionless creature will kneel in front of you. That's a great power to have but there's a bad side as well."

Bad side?

"Once you activate it, you will consume your opponent's life source. To power up the power you have, you have to kill them slowly, painfully. There's no escape from death." That's the bad side huh.

That's bad, literally. Meaning I can't use this power when I'm having a practice match with anyone.

My hands went back to normal again. "Let's find another power shall we. Close your eyes and focus." I did and somehow I felt something cold brushed against my skins. "Open your eyes." I did and was shocked to see my hands completely turned into ice!

"Amazing. It's fragile but such a deadly long-range weapon. You've earned the ice queen title by default. There are no devils that I know could manipulate the ice like you do. If you want to make this power to be your forte, you can have an ice fairy as your familiar."

"What's an ice fairy?" I asked. "Like the name, it's a fairy. It was believed that an ice fairy was once a great queen of the north. But somehow she was tricked by a mere male human in giving the human her powers. Once she did, the human betrayed her. His betrayal was so great that the former queen herself was banished by her own people."

It seems like a love story gone wrong to me. To have such familiar beside you, she's probably all moody and depressed if I decide to choose her.

"What about the power of darkness? If I choose that as my forte, what kind of familiar will I get?" Asura thinks for a minute. "That's a good question. From my experience, you either get an evil witch swamp or my personal favorite, the queen of darkness herself."

So I have three choices huh, a witch, a queen of darkness and a depressed fairy? How am I suppose to choose?

***

"Lesson 2, superpowers aren't the only strength out there," Asura said when we suddenly arrived a Japanese style shrine gate after we walked into the circle.

Suddenly a group of girls surrounded us.

"These girls are the shrine maiden. Be careful while you're dealing with them. They might seem to have a bombshell body, covered in that traditional attire but their fighting skills are off the charts." I should get ready anytime.

"The person we're going to see is their master, who's a former warrior priestess. We're currently in the human world. Japan, if I recall correctly." A warrior priestess? Why are we meeting her and why in a shrine of all places?!

"Asura, What are you doing tainting my shrine with your impure presence?" At the top of the stairs, stood a beautiful woman wearing the same clothing. She must be the warrior priestess.

"Yuko, it's been a while since we met. I bet it was years ago, your old shrine maiden is nowhere to be found." The woman walked down the stairs and I can't help but look at her bouncing breast. "They all grow old and died. This girl is my new maiden." She stood in front of us.

Wait, if the shrine maiden grew old and died here, why didn't she grow old and died here too? Something fishy going on here.

"Since your here, there must be something that you want." I myself not sure with this sudden trip as well. She turned her attention to me. "You must be the new servant everyone's talking about." Asura grabbed the woman's hand before it could touch me.

Is it just I or I'm seeing my master's hand started to dissolving when she touched the warrior priestess.

"That's stupid of you." Asura smiled at the priestess. "I was hoping Yuki would meet me. I want her to teach my servant how to control her powers properly." I'm beginning to worry about my master when her hands haven't healed properly.

"This suck Yuko!" Asura yelled before decapitate her dissolving hand herself.

The warrior priestess laughed and grabbed the hand on the floor. "I'm sorry Asura. I always forget that I have the power to kill devils with the touch of my hand." Asura sighed as she trying to clench her newly formed hand.

"Where's Yuki?"

"I'm here." It was so sudden, I fell on my butt when a woman wearing a black kimono with silver hair appeared beside me. With the red umbrella and her piercing red eyes looking down at me, she looks like a demon herself.

"Ahh Yuki. Meet Nadia, my servant." She offered her hand to me. "It's okay to touch her. She's a corpse." Huh? Why would a corpse staying with a priestess?!

"I was resurrected after I died. I was a geisha when I was alive." Geisha? I turned to my own master. "Geisha is a trained hostess." So in other words, a prostitute?

"I'm not a prostitute. I'm just simply someone who entertain man and woman by dancing, singing and having a conversation. Like a hired friend." For a corpse she's beautiful. Wait, how did she know what I'm thinking?!

"What kind of powers does your servant has, Asura?" The priestess asked. "From what I know off, cosmos and the power to manipulate ice. I'm sure Yuki can handle it. Right?" Yuki nodded. "Why would my servant be helping you?" Yuko asked my master.

"Because years ago, you begged me to help you regarding the invasion of the Sho Sect. I helped you back then and now you have to return the favor." The priestess clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Yuki, you may help Nadia." Yuki now her head to her master before grabbing my hands.

"Follow me." She dragged me all the way to the back of the shrine. Once again I came across the young shrine maiden. Their eyes could shoot dagger because of how cold they stare at me.

"Don't worry about them. Since they vow to protect this shrine, they only have one goal, to protect. Every shrine maiden who walk past the gate towards this shrine will never go back to their normal life. They dedicated their lives to protect this place and its territory."

She let go of me and motioned for me to follow her.

"Where are we going?" I asked while walking up the stairs.

"To the mountains of course. Don't worry, from the foot of the shrine stairs, through the mountain, it belongs to my master, Yuko." Oh wow.

She owned such a huge territory.

I wonder how did she know Asura. Did they had a fight before and then turn friends?

"We're here. Could you wait for a second." I nodded and watched her enter the home not far from where I stand. That must be the living quarters.

"Meet the rest of the gang," Yuki announced.

"This is Kiyoko, the archer. And this is Yume, the sword." They both bow their head to me.

They wore the same kimono as Yuki does. Now that they standing in line beside each other, Kiyoko has the biggest breast out of all of them. Not even Yuko could compete with that gazongas.

"We may not look the part but we're all corpse that was resurrected by your master, Lady Demonix." Huh? "Now get ready to train." They all in their fighting stance.

Wait! I'm not ready yet! "Kiyoko, Yume, she's a cosmos and ice practicioner. Be careful with her hands."

"Yes!" Kiyoko And Yume said in unison.

"ATTACK!" What the hell did I just agreed on doing!!!