The sharp pain in Kayn's wrist pulsed with every heartbeat.
The steel sword had been tossed aside, and Kayn was left with only his hands. His feeble, ordinary human hands.
The creature's black-red eyes were still looking at him. Though seemed a little vacant, it didn't dissipate the terror that they were radiating.
But the creature didn't strike. It just stood there, silent, legs slightly wobbling.
The headache the creature felt was strong enough for it to stumble.
The sword might not be strong enough to pierce the creature's skull, but the blunt force it carried was definitely enough for the creature to be stuck in a daze.
It twitched, one of its claws clenching as it shook its head, trying to recover its senses. It held his head straight with its other hand, trying to remain standing.
Kayn didn't waste another second.
Using every ounce of adrenaline to ignore his trembling legs, he turned and sprinted toward the forest of ash-colored bark and crimson leaves.
His lungs burned, but the panic flooding his chest pushed him forward. Branches scratched his face and leather armor as he darted between the trees, praying the creature behind him would struggle with the dense underbrush.
The fear and panic clutched his heart, numbing his senses as the only thought existing in his mind was,
'run, run, run, run, run, run, run'
Behind him, a bone-chilling shriek tore through the air. The creature had shaken off the hit.
It started chasing him again.
Kayn's plan, or at least the only thought that his panic-stricken mind could come up with, was as simple as it gets.
If he could weave through the trees fast enough, he might lose the creature.
Maybe the creature would get caught, maybe it would stumble onto one of the tall roots and fall behind.
Anything was better than the thought of fighting the creature head-on again.
A year of preparation, planning, and training went down the drain as the notion of death crept closer and closer towards him.
But as Kayn dashed deeper into the grove, something shifted.
The win- no, not wind. There was no wind. And yet the crimson leaves moved, fluttering with unnatural grace as if dancing in joy.
The deeper Kayn went, the more he felt that there was something wrong with the forest.
He didn't know whether it was the swaying branches or the ash-colored bark surrounding him from all sides, but something was definitely wrong here.
Just as Kayn feared, the demon kept chasing behind him, getting closer and closer as it was just stronger, faster than him.
The branches and roots did nothing as the demon was even more agile than a human.
Despair began filling up Kayn's being when he realized that this might be his end.
A hopeless smile began creeping up on his face, 'At least father and mother got one less mouth to feed…'
Kayn steeled himself, ready to pounce back onto the demon in a suicide attempt when the demon caught up to him. 'I will at least try to do as much damage as I can, I won't let you get away unscathed.'
And then he saw it.
A tree stood alone, its bark darker than the others, almost black, and hanging from its low-reaching branch was a fruit.
A blood-red fruit, giving a faint glow that seemed to contrast with everything around it. A gleaming orb the size of a fist, blood-red, as if it had been plucked from the sun he'd seen in the sky. It pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
Its appearance was nothing short of menacing. The ash-colored trees all around it seemingly glorify its existence.
But fear was not what Kayn's heart felt.
Kayn's eyes locked on the fruit, and something pulled him.
Not physically, but a feeling, as if his very soul was being drawn to the glowing fruit. His aching wrist, his racing heart, even the threat behind him seemed to blur, replaced with a singular urge,
'Take and eat the fruit.'
Kayn absent-mindedly moved forward, his hand reaching out to grab the glowing red fruit.
But before he could get close enough to take the fruit, Kayn jerked on the spot as he paused his moving hand.
A guttural growl reminded him that he wasn't alone.
Snapping out of his daze, Kayn turned his head backward.
The creature had stopped a few meters away, and not a single sign of fatigue was visible on its red skin.
But the creature wasn't looking at him.
Just like Kayn before he snapped out of his daze, the demon was staring at the fruit.
Not with curiosity, but with a desire, hunger, as it also began making its way towards the fruit, ignoring Kayn as if he wasn't even there.
The creature's mouth was slightly open, saliva dripped from the edge of its lips.
The same alluring force that had tugged at Kayn before now gripped the creature even tighter.
Then it made its move, not toward Kayn, but toward the tree.
Instead of walking slowly like Kayn did, the creature leapt, claws outstretched, eyes wide at the prize.
But the creature never reached the fruit.
The ground trembled as if it was struck by an earthquake.
But it wasn't the earth that had moved.
Kayn stumbled back just as the roots of the tree moved. They came to life and surged upward like vipers, their sharp ends acting just like a viper's fangs, searching for their next prey.
The roots shot through the air and skewered the demon mid-leap. They stabbed into the creature's feet, halting its movement.
It then stabbed the creature's arms before pulling the creature's body in 4 directions, lifting the creature off the ground, pulling the creature's limbs apart in different directions, rendering it unable to do anything.
A shriek tore from the creature's throat as the roots kept impaling the area around its chest, arms, and legs. One stabbed through its jaw, cutting off its scream in a wet gargle.
The creature struggled, its life flashing before its eyes, screaming, expending all the power it could muster to break free from the entanglement of the roots.
But the more it struggled, the more roots lodged into its body. And soon, almost all of its body was covered in the ash-colored roots.
If it were an ordinary human, they would be dead long after the 10th root pierced through their body, but the creature was resilient, grasping onto the last strands of life it had.
Kayn stood frozen. a small pool of black blood began forming on the ground under, making the already charred-colored ground even darker.
Kayn's legs trembled as he thought of running away.
The alluring feeling from the fruit had completely disappeared as if it had served its purpose, making Kayn realize how it was clearly a trap by the forest, or whatever entity it was that thirsted for blood.
But he stopped.
All around him, the roots moved. Slowly, rhythmically. Watching. Waiting.
He realized at that moment, if he turned and ran, the roots would do the same to him.
The only reason he wasn't already dead was probably because the creature was currently taking the roots' attention, and he was standing completely still.
His eyes flicked back to the glowing orb.
He swallowed.
'It's still calling for me, but it feels…different…'
The allure of the fruit returned, stronger now. Not just desire. Need.
Kayn thought that it was the forest playing tricks on his mind again, but he quickly dispelled the thought as he realized that the allure came from a different source.
It didn't come from the fruit, it came from deep within him, it came from his soul.
Kayn took a deep breath, tightened the grip of his good hand, and sprinted toward the tree.
It was do or die, and Kayn would decide the former, despite he might get the latter as a result.
The roots became lively once more.
They lashed at him like whips. One grazed his thigh, slicing the leather armor. Another stabbed through the edge of his shoulder. Blood splattered the grass, but Kayn kept moving.
The pain in his shoulder was nothing he could ordinarily bear, but Kayn was determined.
He didn't scream.
He bit down on his pain and lunged forward, causing the roots to stab deeper into his body.
The pain that he felt almost made him give up.
But he didn't.
A root pierced his abdomen. He coughed up blood.
But he didn't stop.
With a final desperate reach, Kayn's hand barely touched the fruit.
The moment his skin touched it, his dormant core became alive as it sucked the abundance of essence contained inside the fruit.
His core, which had just come alive a split second ago, greedily absorbed all the essence.
Then the roots froze. The crimson leaves stopped dancing. The sounds of struggle the creature made also stopped.
It was as if time stopped moving around Kayn as he barely holding onto his consciousness from enduring all the pain from the roots stabbing him.
The last words that he heard in his head were,
"Demon essence consumed."
"You are the first human to absorb a demon."
"You have become the progenitor."
"You may customize your demon transformation."