Adults often use stories to keep children in check and to educate them. Stories are popular among people of all ages, not just for entertainment value but also for the lessons and morals they contain. A story about a girl who is lost in the forest after ignoring her parents’ instructions, for example, can teach children about the dangers of disregarding one’s parents. Some are heroic tales which inspire and enthrall those who go to war.

There was a person who would read to me on almost every night when I was very young, while my parents were busy with the kingdom’s affairs. This person was my mother’s sister, aunt Dimia. A story she used to read for me was the Tale of the Black Rose. I still remember it well.

It begins with a young boy who lives alone in a small castle at the center of a lush forest. Every day, he ventures into the thicket, gathers wild fruit and makes traps to catch animals. Being clever, he is able to outwit even wolves and bears who are stronger than him. The castle was also built by his hand. Perched upon a hilltop, it stands as a mark of his achievement.

One day, the boy finds a peculiar plant in the forest. It is a rose in full bloom but the flower’s petals are black instead of the normal red. Impressed by the discovery, he decides to pluck the black rose and take it back to the castle, putting it in a vase of water for preservation. Upon taking this action, the rose comes alive and speaks.

“I thank you for the sustenance, great King! Your rule over this land is surely undisputed. Yet, are you satisfied by this much? The forest is small and the world large. Do you not wish to see the lands beyond? Do you not wish to claim them and prove yourself greater still?”

The boy is intrigued by this suggestion and decides to follow it. He packs up everything he needs and sets out into the wild, carrying the black rose with him.

After a tiring journey, they reach the edge of the forest. This is further than the boy has ever been from his castle. What lies before him is a daunting place; an arduous wasteland with deserts as far as the eye can see. Upon seeing that the boy is hesitant to step into this inhospitable place, the black rose urges him onward.

“Oh great King, there are wondrous sights to be seen and great riches to be found. Will you let fear drive you back? Or will you demonstrate your valor here and now? Surely a great King will choose valor above all!”

Heeding the rose’s words and not wanting to appear weak, the boy pushes himself to continue the journey. On the way, they encounter dangerous and unfamiliar creatures. Using his might and ingenuity, he overcomes the obstacles one by one. Wolves are caught in his traps, vicious vultures are felled by his sword and even large elephants are brought down by his tenacity.

As the victories accumulate and his confidence rises, the boy seeks harder and harder challenges until one day he encounters the largest, fiercest creature he has ever seen; a behemoth with grizzly claws that towers over the boy like a mountain. The boy’s courage instantly vanishes at the sight of such a fearsome creature and he runs away. Yet, it is futile. The behemoth is much too strong and much too fast. The boy is easily caught and dragged back to the creature’s lair from which he is never seen again. One assumes he was devoured, but the story doesn’t actually say what happened and leaves it to the imagination instead.

It’s a humbling tale for which I can think of a few interpretations. It could be saying that the rose intentionally led the boy to his death. The moral is therefore not to allow oneself to be deceived by a conspicuous stranger with an alluring suggestion. Or perhaps the idea is to resist the temptation of excessive greed and pride before it ends up destroying you. Humans have a habit of exploring and conquering new lands. The boy could be a metaphor for humankind itself, which means this is a warning not to forget our place in the world, lest we suffer the same fate as the boy. The open ending makes it hard to guess which one is the correct interpretation. Aunt Dimia never told me what to think either. She said that I should draw my own conclusion.

The reason why the Tale of the Black Rose crosses my mind is that, at this moment, I feel exactly like the young boy when he started into the jaws of a monster he could not imagine defeating, a creature beyond reason. The demon before me is a bit smaller than a horse and it has hooves instead of grizzly claws, but all of my senses are telling me that I must not make a move. Fighting would be suicide and escape is impossible. If I give it any reason to be hostile, this bleak underground cave will become my tomb. I know it in my bones. The hair on the back of my neck is standing on end. Muscles are tensing up. I do not move. My body is rigid like a rock.

The demon does not budge either. It stands unmoving in the pool of water on the floor of this underground cave, staring at me through the eye slits on its face. The black, spiky hair on its back moves ever so slightly. I think I can hear it breathing; it’s a faint grumbling noise. The flame in my hand continues to burn silently, illuminating the space around me. I have an urge to stop the spell but that would make everything dark again. This thought prevents me from halting the mana flow.

When my time comes, I want to see death coming at me. I will not die with my back turned nor with my eyes closed. That is my resolve.

And so we stare at each other silently. Every second in this state of maximum tension feels like an hour. It’s only when I notice mana from a spell gathering both above and below the monster that the standoff ends.

“Frost Nova”

I hear Gamo chanting magic from behind me. The knee-deep pool of water beneath the monster quickly turns into solid ice, trapping the monster’s legs within it. The effect is very fast, showing how much skill he has.

“Lightning Spire”

Inaya follows it up with a lightning attack from above. Once the spell is ready, it shoots downward onto the demon’s position faster than anyone can react. The lighting passes through the demon’s body and enters the frozen water below. A large amount of heat is generated by the electricity. The pool of ice literally explodes and turns into steam because of the intense heat, covering the area with a thick cloud of vapor, like a fog. I look behind and see that everyone except Nashira has dropped down through the hole.

“Now you’ve done it…” I return my gaze to the front, put my free hand on the ground and pump a large amount of mana into it. “Fortified Earth Shield”

I conjure a wall of solid earth in front of us for protection and make it just high enough that I can see over it while standing. That black demon isn’t dead. Of that I am certain. The lightning probably wounded it a bit. We’ve angered it and retaliation will come any second now. This wall should slow it down.

“Rigel! Are you alright?”

After slipping through the hole in the ceiling, Nashira lands on a cushion of air generated by magic. She runs up to me with obvious concern on her face.

“I’m fine” I assure her. Out of the corner of my eye, I check the pool of water but the mist is still obscuring everything. “Did you see that demon in the water?”

“Yes I—”

An inhuman laughter rings out, making the entire cavern rumble.

“AhaHAHAHah! Most humans either faint or scream and run away upon seeing me. To attack without hesitation, what a… spirited bunch.”

It sounds more like growling than actual speech, but the words are somehow intelligible. Although it is clearly heard, the echo of the cavern walls makes it difficult to tell where the voice is coming from. Something must be done about this.

“Jetstream”

I cast some wind magic to push away the mist which is blocking our line-of-sight. A hole was made in the frozen water where it exploded from Inaya’s spell but the black demon is nowhere to be seen.

“Where did it go!?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t see any movement!”

Gamo and Inaya are elite soldiers, but even they are starting to panic. There isn’t any space for a horse-sized demon to hide here. The largest stalagmites sticking out of the ground are less than half a meter wide. A human could use them to hide but that demon surely can’t. Losing track of it so easily makes no sense.

“Calm down you two. Gamonias, we need more light in here.” Asher snaps them out of their confusion and gives out orders while staying vigilant of the surroundings.

“… Got it.” He accumulates mana in the palm of his hand, gives it a new structure using arcane magic and then releases the spell toward the cavern’s center. “Guiding Star”

The chant activates a brilliant orb of light in midair, lighting everything and giving us clear visibility over the entire cavern. Five pairs of eyes scour the surroundings and find nothing. I search for any sign of mana, but just like earlier when I first saw demon, there was nothing. It doesn’t have a visible aura.

All living creatures contain mana. Surely demons can’t be exempt from this rule. That leaves one explanation; its body has mana circuits like Nashira and me and is therefore able to hide its aura. Damn it, we’re fighting blind here.

“This is such a… rare opportunity. Perhaps I should show myself to not be — how you humans say — rude.”

This time the demon’s guttural voice comes not from the front, but from behind us. We turn around to see the black, elongated head sticking out of a rock wall like a stuffed animal’s head hanging in some noble’s living room. Seeing the creepy eye slits and gruesome teeth from up close is enough to send a shiver though my spine.

“What in the—”

“Get back!”

“Did it teleport!?”

Everyone is baffled by the sight. The rest of the monster’s body comes out of the wall as if there’s nothing there. I know that rock is solid because I hit it with my own body when I fell in here.

We jump back several times, trying to get away from the horrific creature. Nashira falls behind because she is slowly backing away one step at a time.

Shit! I can’t let that thing get to her!

With no time to spare, I activate ‘Divine Step’, a spell I’ve practiced hundreds of times in the past few months, in order to instantly jump between Nashira and the demon. I concentrate my aura like a shield in front of me and prepare to receive an attack, but the attack doesn’t come. The monster simply stands there like when I first saw it.

“Oh~ this is what they call… bravery? Valor? Honor? Self-sacrifice? Humans have so many confusing notions. Hard to remember them all” the ugly creature muses out loud.

What is this? I expected it to try and bite me or something, but instead it’s just talking again. Maybe we can communicate with it?

“You can relax. I do not sense hostility from him” Nashira whispers while hugging me softly from behind.

Wait, why am I being hugged? Is it to calm me down?

As I’m wondering what is going on, she lets go and steps beside me, facing the black demon seemingly without fear and ignoring Asher and the others who are yelling at us to get back. There must be some misunderstanding here.

“Greetings, esteemed Third of the Firstborn. I am called Nashira Malik, former apprentice mage of Lufus. I sincerely apologize for the actions of my companions. They are simply frightened. I ask for your understanding.” While speaking with her usual formal tone, she makes a small bow for the demon while the rest of us stare at her baffled.

“Oho~ seeing is believing. The little girl from that time. I remember. Lufus, he called it fate. Is that what you are doing? Are you following fate?”

“Indeed, esteemed Third, that is what I must do. I only saw you briefly last time but I am glad you are well. Lufus, my teacher, sends his regards.”

“Very good, very good. Eloquent as ever, are you not? I can see why Lufus took you in. To think an… antisocial guy like him took on an apprentice. Even the impossible can happen sometimes. AhaHAHah!”

Another unnerving laugh comes out of the demon’s throat. Nashira doesn’t mind it. She faces the creature with her usual composure despite the tense situation. It sounds like they know each other from somewhere. If they met when she was a little girl, it must be long ago. This Lufus who was her teacher could be a member of that dead civilization she mentioned before, in which case he’s gone now.

“That reminds me” the demon continues. “The Abyss has been… noisy as of late. Have you noticed?”

“I have not ventured into the Abyss in quite some time.”

“No matter, no matter. Staying safe on the surface will prolong your life. Humans are rather… feeble after all. Rip just one arm off and they make a lot of noise and then go limp. What to do~? Some of them are too… eager for their own good. They don’t listen to good sense. The Fifth and Ninth have been luring humans from the surface and making them into playthings. They have developed such… crass habits. I remember a time when the Firstborn did not concern themselves with trifles.”

To the demon’s incomprehensible words, Nashira simply nods in response. After the short monologue follows a period of awkward silence where neither one says anything. It seemed like the conversation was over but then his head suddenly points toward me.

“And whom might this one be, hmm~?”

I get a sideways glace from Nashira. She doesn’t say anything and has a slightly worried look. Maybe I’m supposed to introduce myself?

“I’m just a mage who met Nashira Malik by chance due to our magic-related work near Mount Olympus.”

“Just-a-mage? Human names are strange as always.”

“Uh, actually my name is—”

The demon’s lips curl up as if it’s trying to smile. This reveals 3 entire rows of gruesome teeth on each jaw. Stacked on top of each other in a way you would not think possible on a head this thin, each one bends inward all the way around the demon’s long jaws and looks sharp enough to cut through bone. The sight alone is enough to make me drop what I wanted to say and take on a defensive stance.

“Hmm~ your scent is similar to little Nashira and the others, but also different. Human flesh is repulsive to me, but yours seems almost… palatable. How curious~”

This guy is supposed to be friendly, right?

The demon stops showing its teeth and turns its gaze back to Nashira.

“It is time I take my leave. Until our next opportune meeting, little Nashira~”

Without even waiting for a reply, the demon quickly turns around and walks back into the solid rock surface it came out of, leaving us to stare at the wall and wonder how it did that and whether it might come back out.

<><><><><><><><><><>

“So you’re saying we encountered one of the ancient demons?”

The five of us are returning to Tyrin on foot after exiting the mines. Once everyone calmed down after our brief scuffle with the black demon, it was simple for a few mages to work out a way back from that hole.

“Indeed. The Firstborn, as the name implies, are the oldest and most powerful demons. They are said to be immortal and all lesser demons came from them. They also place a high value on the order in which they appeared, which is why they refer to each other as First, Second, Third, Fourth and so on. The one we saw is called ‘Third’ for this reason” Nashira explains while the rest of us listen intently.

“My hometown had a lot of stories floating around about demons and sea monsters” Gamo recalls, “but I always thought they were just scary stories to frighten children. Is it true that demons fear sunlight?”

“To my knowledge, demons are indeed vulnerable to sunlight, but I do not know if that is true for all of them. It is difficult to come by any reliable information on this topic because they live in the Abyss, the deepest parts of the earth. For the surface world to encounter a Firstborn is a remarkable occurrence. Although I have seen the Third once before, I never expected a second encounter. We are fortunate to have caught him in a good mood. If you ever see him again, please do not be so thoughtless as to provoke him like you did now.”

Gamo and Asher nod affirmatively. Inaya looks annoyed.

“What was I supposed to do after seeing that— that thing.”

Asher gives her a scolding glare. “A soldier should maintain his composure and follow the orders of his superiors in any situation. Two of you panicked and attacked an opponent whose abilities you had no grasp of and endangered us all as a result, including miss Malik who is a civilian. As your captain, I am extremely disappointed. Bloodmoon will have a fresh round of marching drills starting tomorrow. Be prepared.”

“Ugh…”

“What was that?”

“By your order, sir!”

Asher berates his subordinates in an indignant manner. At least he speaks to us like adults. I’ve seen a few military drills during my time at the Royal Palace in Delos and the commanders often treated their soldiers like children and even personally humiliated them for small mistakes during training. I do not agree that discipline should be taught through humiliation but I couldn’t do anything about it. It’s good to see that things are better among Bloodmoon’s ranks at least.

“There is one thing I must warn you about” Nashira continues in a serious tone. “The Third mentioned that some of the Firstborn are luring humans underground for some mischievous purpose. If true, this is very worrying. I hope nothing will come of it, but it would be wise to remain vigilant nonetheless. Any interaction between humans and demons should not be treated lightly.”

“I will take that under advisement” he replies.