The next two months went relatively peacefully. During the day, I kept working on my watches and running the shop. Jade and Chryssie always stayed in the back of the house. At night, I drew out the Astral Blade’s energy from Jade’s wounds, and she got better quickly, though she was not restored to full power yet. I’d then return to my own room, and begin to practice the Devil’s 72 Commandments by entering the purple scroll. I had still yet to learn to do battle with no feeling. The sealing seemed to have lost all effect on Lucifer. I kept at it though.

Business was getting better. I began to make a slight profit.

Perhaps we would stay here.

The first signs of trouble came during the middle of winter. A large troop of soldiers arrived at the village. They were beaten, worn. Tired, hungry. And they had no qualms about putting the townsfolk at spearpoint to obtain what they wanted. They found their way to my watch shop eventually.

Four foot soldiers kicked the door of my watch shop wide open, letting a draft of ice-cold wind into the shop. The lantern light fluttered and settled, through their shadows wide and tall.

“Give it.” The leader held out a hand.

“I’m sorry sir. What can I do for you?” My blood was beginning to boil. I hated this kind of soldier. The kind that thought they could take everything and everything just because they had been in battle. How many times had I come near death? What did these idiots know?

“I want all of your money. And your wife.” I took a look at the other three. One was rather tall, and skinny as a walking stick. The other two were of normal stature, though one was old, the other was young. Wait a minute. I looked back at the young one. He was the one…that had knocked on the door while I was helping to heal Jade a while back.

I nodded tightly. My anger was boiling over.

I turned stiffly to the wall behind me, and laid my hand on a sample clock. I pushed it in, and a portion of the wall opened up to reveal a long, deep storage area. I reached inside, and closed my hands onto its leather wrapped hilt. Flicking the sheath off, I slowly drew it out of the wall.

“Three foot three. Damascus steel blade. Ebony hilt. Brass crossguard, inlaid with emeralds. Emerald pommel.

The blade is named Spring Blizzard. I made this with an old Fae friend of mine.” I paused and watched their expressions. Greed. Anger. I would have a great time reaping these emotions.

“It has draught only the blood of a Fae pig before. Now…it shall feast on human scum.”

I flicked my blade to the side, and walked out from behind the counter towards the man who had spoken first. I was in no hurry, and approached him with a leisurely, casual gait, twirling the blade in the candlelight. A pinwheel of silver light flashed through the shop.

The man grabbed at his own blade. I curled my lip. Cheap. And rusting. He swung at me with his sword. A feint. Too obvious though. I shook my head in disappointment. I flicked my blade upwards, catching his sword in the middle of the blade.

Crack! Thunk, Ting!

Unsurprisingly, the blade shattered. I contemptuously swung my blade down towards his skull. He jumped backwards, my blade just barely shaving his nose. I continued to walk towards him slowly. One of the men ran towards the door, probably to look for help.

“ᚹᛟᛟᛞᛖᚾ ᛚᚨᚹ: ᛒᛁᚾᛞ!”

Wooden law, bind. The man struggling with the door suddenly found that the latch had disappeared, and the door had completely grown into the wall.

I lifted my sword again. I thrust it carelessly at the man with the shattered blade. He jumped backwards again…and then I hit him though the chest with a bolt of Magic. I felt a rush of power as the Devil’s 72 Commandments absorbed his emotions before death. I turned to the one who’d waited out at the door the other day.

“I…I didn’t mean to-'' I shut him up with a swipe of my blade. His head went rolling onto the floor.

“But you did. Magic: Incinerate!” I held the blade out to him, and a small ball of red fire erupted out of the tip of my sword to engulf his body. In a couple seconds, not much was left of him except for ashes. That left two. I turned on them, and their fear - delicious fear - skyrocketed. My back bracket, and hissed, and I looked into the glass face of a clock to see that I had grown a pair of smoky wings. My eyes were red, with hatred, anger.

One of the soldiers finally screamed. “Demon!” I swiped a taloned hand towards him. WIthout even touching him, his head fell to the floor in 4 pieces. I lifted my blade towards the other one. Looking at my sword, I noticed that it was slightly different too. Its silver body had become a dark black, and there was a single line of red down its thin, sharp body.

I muttered to myself, “Demon indeed.”

THUNK!