**Four years ago**
In the middle of the forest, a young girl had woken up naked. Her days started anywhere from 1000 to 1100 on a daily basis—though she had no concept of time nor could she speak properly. Scavenging for food was the only thing she knew how to do, and she was fairly good at hunting large beasts. Her pink hair was dirty, and the dark gray horns on her head were scathed. The only thing she kept up were her nails and teeth, which were sharp as knives.
The girl had spent her days doing the same thing. Hunting. Eating. Chasing small animals and beasts and claiming them as pets. Day in and day out. She had no purpose and had no memory of where she came from or how she came to be. The last thing she remembered was waking up and doing what she's been doing since she was small.
One day, however, a clumsy mage and his newbie had made their way into the forest, lost and quite frankly, confused on how they even ended up there.
"By the fucking Keeper, man… How the hell did we end up out here?" a middle-aged male said, his voice raspy but settling. He was in his late thirties.
"This shit is all your fault. One hundred fuckin percent," a young male responded. His hair was medium length and had bangs that just barely covered his right eye. When he bared his teeth, they resembled those of a shark. He also had a tattoo of half a wolf's face on the front left side of his neck—the other half intentionally unfinished.
"Now, I wouldn't go that far as to blame me 'one hundred fuckin' percent, you damn brat, '" the older male mocked.
"I told you we should have turned right, but nooo. 'Trust me, turn left! Turn left now, word for word."
"This place wasn't like this before. It must be the change in season…"
"Sure. Blame it on the season while we continue to sink in FUCKING QUICKSAND."
Both males were shoulder deep into the quicksand they had accidentally run across, completely stuck.
The girl had just so happened to be passing by and was hiding behind some bushes, watching the two males proceed to bicker as they sank. Her bright green eyes gleamed from the sunlight peaking through the trees. She watched quietly, waiting to see what would happen.
However, aside from her, the two males weren't alone. Within the quicksand, something had been moving below them. The two of them stopped bickering for a moment and listened to the unusual sound and shudders that they felt around the quicksand. Shudder after shudder, they felt until finally they saw a huge lump protrude a few yards ahead of them, and then went back into the quicksand.
"Uh, Asura… what the fuck was that?!"
"Keeper save us." The older male, Asura, wept.
"ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING, YOU USELESS OLD MAN?!?!" the younger male shouted from right next to him.
The lumps that swam in the quicksand got so close that the two males thought they had felt it rub up against them.
From the mush, a huge worm-like creature with wings shot out. Its mouth looked like a black hole with rows of intersecting jagged teeth rotating in opposite directions. It was probably the size of an oak tree. When both males witnessed the beast, they immediately started bickering again at each other in front of the beast like it wasn't there to begin with.
From the bushes, the girl had readied herself, waiting for the right moment. The beast continued its raging attack toward the two males, rushing in vehemently.
Not yet. She said to herself.
Closer it came.
Not yet.
At this time, the mouth of the beast was inches away from them both. The younger male, as well as the older one, turned their heads in slow motion, finally facing the huge gaping mouth of the monster.
Then, in that moment, a naked girl had shot out from the bushes, kicking the beast on the right side of its head, tossing it feet away. The beast was so big it didn't seem like it went anywhere, but the girl landed just in front of the two males who were now neck deep in the quicksand. Both males looked up only to witness the girl in full nude glory from below.
She stood barefoot atop the quicksand, not even sinking into it. From where she kicked it, the beast whipped back its huge worm-like head, facing her.
She dashed and began running on top of the quicksand at high speed. The beast closed its mouth, reeling it back a bit before spitting out mud bombs at her. She dodged each one with ease, still managing not to sink into the quicksand below. When she got close enough to it, she jumped up directly in front of its mouth and threw her right arm out. When she did this, she yelled and rows of spiked bones shot out of her hand engulfing the size of the beast's mouth, heading inside of it. The glacier of bones continued to grow unendingly from the inside of the beast. Spikes pierced through it from the inside out, all over its body.
The beast began suffering a slow and agonizing death as the bone spikes continued to spread throughout it like a disease. The girl, having defeated it in one swift and powerful move, broke the bone that protruded from her hand, stopping the spell from spreading within the beast. All that was left now was its giant carcass fading, leaving the spiked bones that had once been within it, decorated atop the quicksand of this marshy forest area.
Despite her rugged look, she landed on the quicksand so gracefully, like she weighed as much as a feather. Right then, she made her way to the two males, and by some crazy strength she somehow mustered, pulled them out completely, and dragged them out of the pit.
When they were finally out and on stable ground, before the two males got a chance to thank her, the girl had fainted and fallen on her face. Passing out cold on the cold ground.
***
It took her a while to finally open her eyes fully without shutting them to sleep more. When she awoke, the girl was by a small campfire leaning against a tree, and she was covered with a charcoal-dark hooded jacket with a logo of a wolf on it. It covered her private parts, only revealing her bare legs and feet from underneath.
The two males were just around the other side of the campfire, cooking some game they had caught not too long ago. It was nighttime time and the place they had decided to rest was just under a clearing of trees where you could visibly see the billions of stars up above.
She looked up to the glowing night sky. Her eyes glinted from the lights above, dancing within her bright green eyes. She spoke her first words to them.
"Pretty."
The two males looked at her, pleasantly surprised to see that she was okay, then looked up at the stars to share the view.
"So, you like stars?" Asura asked curiously.
"Stars?" the girl asked, not knowing what he meant, nor knowing the word.
"Oh, you don't know?" Asura tilted his head gently. "Those lights up there—those are called stars."
"Stars…" The girl repeated to herself as she continued to bask in the lighted sky.
"You got a name?" the younger male asked.
"Now, Greed, it's rude to ask for others' names before introducing yourself. Be polite and tell her yours first." Asura corrected.
"Yeah, yeah…" the male, Greed, said disinterestedly.
"Names Greed. Appreciate you saving us. We probably would have figured out a way out of that situation eventually… inside the fucking thing's stomach."
He glared at Asura. "But you came by just in time. So, thanks."
The girl looked at him curiously after he said that, like she wanted to eat him. Perhaps in a more intimate way rather than out of pure hunger.
The male looked her up and down from her bare legs and feet all the way up to her surprisingly cute face. "You know, I bet if you cleaned yourself up a bit, you'd be a snack," he said flirtatiously.
"Greed, by the Keeper, you were doing so good, too. Goddamn brat," Asura snapped at him.
"Snack?" the girl repeated.
"Hm? Do you not know what a snack is?" he asked her coquettishly.
"You better show her an actual snack and not whatever your perverted mind is thinking. Keeper, have some decency, stupid brat."
"What the hell? You really thought I'd… with you here? Oh, Keeper, please!" he incredulously gestured to Asura.
"Well anyway, it's like"—he dug through his pockets, but only found a crushed-up choco bar—"it's like this… It's a bit crushed up since being in the quicksand, but at least these things don't melt."
He barely finished his sentence as he looked up to see the girl inches away from the choco bar he was holding. The jacket that had covered her fluttered in mid-air from where she last was by the tree. She was now on all fours with her hands and knees on the ground in front of him, naked.
Her bright green eyes reflected the crackling fire next to them as she drooled over the choco bar he held.
"Hooo…" she managed to say.
"Here it's yours."
She snatched it from Greed's hand immediately and ate it just as fast. When she finished, she sat in front of him and stared intently back, waiting for more.
"I think she wants more, Greed," Asura jested, chuckling as he did.
"I got more. You can have it."
Greed then pulled at least three more of those wondrous snacks from his pocket and gave them to her. She ate them up hastily, sitting in a crisscross position next to him.
He laughed, then said, "Man, if you don't have a name, I just might actually call you Snack!"
Asura jeered at him.
But when she finished the last one, she stopped for a second as if realizing something, dropping her hands to her lap. There were tears forming in her eyes.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice now where that playful tone had once been.
When she turned to face him, the tears streamed down her face. She then wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly.
"Teddy…" was all she said with a soft voice.
"Teddy? Like a lyconbear?" Greed repeated obliviously, but she was already sound asleep, holding him by the waist and arms wrapped around him.
Asura chuckled softly then got up to grab the jacket she left behind at the tree, putting it over her again while she slept.
"Perhaps you remind her of one."
Greed raised an eyebrow to Asura, saying nothing more.
"You know, I don't think she has a home. We should take her in. Train her. Teach her how to communicate. She'll be one of us. What do you think?"
Greed looked at her sleeping peacefully on his lap and stroked her pink, dirty hair. He noticed those edgy, scathed horns on her head that wrapped the front like a crown or tiara of some kind, but said nothing of it.
"I guess we could do that." He said nonchalantly.
Asura smiled and then sat back down across from him by the campfire, continuing to banter.
"She has some crazy magic too. Did you see her take on that Colossal Sand Dragon? I mean, it was a baby, but that thing is at least a Grade 3 starting off. Her combat ability is also nothing to pass up too. Girl knows how to fight." Asura's eyes twinkled as he geeked out.
"I don't blame her for passing out, though, She used way too much mana for that last attack. And she used a nameless spell cast. That's an extremely rare ability among mages. They say only one out of every hundred mages can cast spells without incantation. That Sand Dragon's Distortion magic probably kicked in while she was casting it right in front of the thing—disrupting her mana."
"Okay, we get it. You're a fucking nerd, old man," Greed teased back, igniting their usual bickering. They kept on like this for a good while as the girl continued to sleep, unbothered.
"Anyway…" He finally said. "She probably doesn't have a name of her own. What do you think we should call her?"
"You're asking me?"
"And no, I will not allow you to call her 'Snack,' you fucking brat."
"Fine…"
Greed looked at the stars she was staring at so intently earlier; they still twinkled brightly and filled the sky with light. They really were pretty.
"We'll call her Star."
***
**Back to present. Wolves Den**
The sky was blue and partly cloudy. Weather, perfect as always in the Valley. There was a slight breeze that rustled the trees out by the East Gate of the Kingdom. Silent and whispering. In contrast to the blood-stained ground that had splattered just in front of the Wolves Den.
Recalling her memory about that day, Star knelt on her knees in front of Henza—battered and beaten with both her arms, all the way up to her shoulders, cut clear off.
Blood spewed from the sides of her, staining the dirt and grass around where she knelt. Her Black Wolves jacket had fallen just behind her as her severed arms lay there drenched in her own blood. Her face was emotionless as she opened her mouth and blood gushed out from it—staring out into nothingness.
"Goodbye, pretty girl." Henza's last words as he raised his black blade and swung down to her neck to behead her.
Brand watched in horror, unable to do or say anything, trapped in Henza's Bonding magic.
SLASH!
The sound that was made. As if cutting through a body part. In this case, a head.
However…
The black blade that Henza swung down did not cut. Instead, a purple, demonic-looking arm had caught it just before it could cut her head clean off. The blade was so close to her neck, it had still slit, bleeding lightly. The small trail of blood trickled down her chest and into her cleavage. The purple demon arm was hers and it was her right arm that had regenerated.
"What the fuck," Henza said with a tired shock.
Star growled. When she looked up at him, her eyes, instead of her normal bright greens, were pure white, and long fangs bore from her already sharp teeth—sharper and longer than they originally were.
"Impossible," Henza said under his breath.
At this moment, Star's left arm regenerated as well, exhibiting that same purple demon look that her other right arm had. Still holding the black blade on her neck, she swung her left arm backward and shot it intensely into Henza's gut like a claw. The impact made him spit blood as the claw blasted him into two of the pillars diagonally parallel from each other. They shattered as the stone pieces toppled onto him from the second pillar. Brand, once again, was released from the bond as Henza crashed.
"Star, are you—!" he was finally able to say, but didn't finish his sentence. He stared at her in awe.
She did not respond.
Still growling, Star located Henza, who was again rising from where he had been lashed.
"That one hurt. Fuck…" he said, breathing heavily. His Bonding shield didn't activate in time, so it was a direct hit. He did, however, manage to lighten the impact from the pillars and the stones that fell on him with his Bonding shields.
When he stood up, he reached into his sleeves and threw ribbons of bandages all around himself. After this, he threw his hands in a hand sign, clasping his two hands together tightly, casting more Bonding magic on himself. The bandages wrapped all over him, adding another layer on top of the bonding rings that were already there from earlier.
"Seems he's using his Bonding magic to hold his muscles and bones in place. That's why no matter how hard we hit him, it seems like we're not doing any damage. That must be taking a huge toll on him afterward, though. Which explains the bandages for reinforcement. He's about to cast a powerful spell on himself." Brand observed, talking to Star. All the while knowing she wasn't listening. He sighed. "Never mind. You probably can't hear me right now—not in the state you're in at least… and well, let's face it, even if you did, it's not like this information is gonna matter to you anyway."
As Henza's Bonding magic completed wrapping onto him, his bones cracked, and he let out a grunt of agony once again like the first time. His clothes had seemed to tighten onto his skin along with the bandages that now wrapped all over his entire body. He looked more like a mummy now than anything, and you could see faint traces of those yellow rings hovering all over his limbs and body. There was even one thick yellow bonding ring that hovered around his head like a halo. The bandages covered his face completely, revealing only his left eye.
He stood there in a squatted stance, having released his hand sign, head and arms straight down, facing the ground.
"Bonding Magic: Pharaoh's Rebirth."
He chanted in a low, raspy voice, looking up slightly as the process finished and steam seeped out from him. His only revealing eye glowed red where it had once been gray.
Henza dashed to the left side at a staggering speed. Almost disappearing completely from where he was. When he did this, Star dashed too in that same direction. They clashed multiple times, so fast that it looked like two orbs bashing into each other repeatedly—one pink and the other yellow. Both of them reached velocities higher than what they were fighting at previously.
"Amazing. They're on par in terms of speed. They may be as fast as my Mono Shift… Almost." Brand watched from the sidelines.
At a moment's glance, when Star wasn't a blur, one could see her features a bit clearer as they clashed. Her skin had turned a light purple, and her eyes were still a stark white. Her gray horns had grown a bit larger, looking more like a crown now than a tiara on her head, and her fingernails were like talons. She hadn't even used magic yet.
The two colored orbs smashed into each other again and locked hands as they both pushed against themselves. The collision blew winds so strong that they pushed Brand back a little bit, even from the distance he was from them.
From behind her, Star grew a long, bone-like tail resembling that of a large scorpion and threw it down onto Henza from above. He dodged it, jumping backward as the scorpion's tail stabbed the ground, cracking where it made impact. Henza skid backward, still focusing on Star, not letting his eye off her for one second.
Her pink bangs covered her eyes, shadowing them temporarily as she swayed back and forth with her head and arms dangling. The large-boned scorpion tail retracted from the ground it stabbed and rattled as it raised, curving over her, suspending there for now.
"I see. I had a feeling earlier, but I wasn't sure. No wonder I couldn't bond you, you're—" Henza said, but couldn't complete his own sentence.
Star then let out a harsh scream, halting movement for just a second, making even Henza shudder from it.
When her scream died down, Henza finished his sentence, "—you're part Demon, aren't you, girl?"