Riki's entire life is uprooted when a mysterious injured man shows up at her front door...As well as the enigmatic creature chasing him, which bears a suspicious likeness to the death god of legend.
She has to flee along with the man, who turns out...
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Fortunately, the arrival of a certain bird prevented me from having to answer Rikis' questions. Large talons landed on the ground, and my old friend flapped his wings a bit to steady himself, and then looked down at us. He looked like a bird, but not quite-he had 5 eyes, with two on either side of his head and one on his forehead, and fox-like ears that had no business being on a bird, as well as orange fur.
His name is Rhuarrin, and he's sort of like the guardian creature of my country-specifically, the guardian of the royal family. Currently, my guardian. Taking a glance at Riki, she was quaking-poor girl. I feel bad for her-I've basically just uprooted her entire life. Her ears were completely laid-back, and her tail was tucked between her legs-her being a demihuman was only exemplifing her fear. I was about to greet Rhuarrin and introduce him to Riki and vice versa, and most definitely prevent a bad situation, when suddenly his head shot up from looking down at us to looking at something behind us. Startled by the sudden movement, Riki yelped and jumped a bit, and I turned my head sharply-something was definitely approaching us. I heard some soft rustling through the bushes, and whatever was making those noises sounded very...Large. I knew that Rhuarrin would probably be able to protect me, as it still sounded smaller than him, but I was still extremely tense. Then, it slithered out of the bushes.
It was a snake-but considering how we were in the Ichor Woods, it wasn't a normal snake. It was a demon, one that had seemingly been a normal snake at some point, but had been contaminated by demon blood and transformed. Its scales were a light bronze, with completely white eyes and 3...3 mouths. Disgusting. It had a completely red eye that was leaking blood in the middle of its forward-also disgusting. It hissed at us, and I think Riki started to cry a little. Its scales were golden-bronze, and the two "normal" eyes were completely white and lacking pupils. The trees appeared to be leaning a bit, as if they were 'watching' these events unfold. It hissed again, the noise being echoed by its other two mouths, and poised itself to strike-if I had any weapons on me, I could probably fight it off by myself, but I can't work with my bare fists on a creature such as this...
You could use the abilities my spirit grants you, Soleil. I don't want to. Why not? Everybody should know what you are by now. Just...Not in front of this girl. She didn't even know that I was the king of Waix, and she might very well think I was a demon all along if I use your abilities now-which is a situation I'd rather avoid. Very well, my Vessel.
Lucky for me, Rhuarrin's right here. The large bird-like creature lowers his head and stares at me, and I have a strong feeling as to what he's going to do. "Riki!" I shout. "Get down!" I crouch down, and after a second, she crouches too, staring at me. She looks as though she's going to faint.. The demon snake, having noticed Rhuarrin, sets its sights on him instead of us-the larger creature was far more threatening and therefore far more important. Hissing even louder, it lunged at him-
-and bounced back, shrieking in agony. Its cries were earbleeding, and it writhed, the stench of burning scales and flesh filling my nostrils. Its scales were burning away to reveal twitching muscle, and then the muscle was burning away to reveal bones. It shrieked its terrible shriek once more, then collapsed, and slowly began to fall still, burning all the while. I was rooted to the spot, petrified-I may have seen this happen before, but it never gets easier. I...don't like violence. After a minute or so, I turn around and look up at the bird-like creature. "Thanks, Rhuarrin..." I mutter, still a bit shaken from watching a creature being burned alive. He bows his head at me, not speaking a word, and glanced at Riki. Trembling, she took a step back, and fainted. Oh dear. ----------------------------------------------------------- https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/hollow-hearted-life/list?title_no=422138 The wattpad version is now almost completely caught up to the comic!
I might start adding images from the comic here on out. I wasn't doing it earlier because the art in the older chapters is kind of bad, but now we're at the most recent chapters, which have better artwork. I'm going to go back and put some images in the older chapters, too.
