The night lay heavy over the city.
On the deserted street before the Everlife Medical Center, even the streetlights seemed afraid to flicker.
Then came the sound of hurried footsteps.
A woman stumbled from the dark, terrified beyond reason. Her face, once delicate, was now twisted by panic. She ran barefoot along the cracked road, the rhythm of her breath ragged and shallow.
When she fell, the sharp scrape of her knees against the pavement tore her skin open.
Still, she pushed forward.
She dared to glance behind her… nothing. Only darkness, and the sigh of wind slipping between the buildings.
"Jie… jie… jie…"
The laughter slithered through the air. It brushed the back of her neck like the cold breath of death itself.
The woman stumbled again, dragging herself across the ground as her ankle gave out. The Everlife Medical Center loomed ahead like a sanctuary, its sign half-lit, its doors locked tight. She crawled toward it, smearing blood across the cold concrete.
Behind her, the laughter grew louder.
The wind coiling like a serpent. The whisper became a growl. From the shifting air, a shape took form~ a dark figure wrapped in writhing gusts, its body half-mist, half-flesh.
The Wind Demon.
He had been following her for blocks, savoring her terror. Fear was sweeter than blood, it filled the soul with flavor.
At the bar she'd fled from, he and his kind had slaughtered everyone. Only this woman had escaped, running wild into the night. And now, the chase was reaching its end.
The demon's laughter sharpened. He floated above the street, his movements light as a whisper. The woman tried to speak, something caught between sob and scream.
"Please… please, don't… don't kill me…"
The demon crouched low, claws extended, his grin widening as he felt her despair sinking deeper. He wasn't in a hurry, her fear was far too delicious to waste on a quick death.
The night thickened. The lamplight died. Only the whisper of the wind remained.
At that same moment, inside the Everlife Medical Center, Soren stirred from quiet reflection.
The first scream had reached him and then came the unmistakable stench of death. It wasn't human. "Unpleasant dreams,"
The woman could barely breathe.
The air around her twisted… a faint breeze at first, then a thousand invisible blades. The wind coiled against her skin, slicing her with every touch.
Thin lines of crimson appeared across her arms and neck, each cut so shallow it only deepened her terror.
She tried to scream, but only a broken whisper escaped her throat. The pain dulled into numbness, her vision swam, and despair settled like ice in her chest.
She stopped crawling.
Lying on the cold pavement, she stared at the dark blur that was the Wind Demon, her trembling fingers clawing weakly at the ground.
There was no point in running now. Death had already found her.
The demon leaned forward, its grin stretching impossibly wide. The air rippled with malice. He inhaled her fear, savoring it like perfume.
When she stopped struggling, his amusement faded.
"Boring," the demon hissed, his fanged mouth twisting. His clawed hand lifted, the wind around it spiraling into a blade. "Time to end it~"
Creak.
The sound broke the night like a gunshot. The heavy doors of the Everlife Medical Center swung open.
A man stepped out barefoot, his hair was tousled from sleep, his tone more weary than alarmed.
"Hey," Soren said flatly, rubbing at his temple. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
The Wind Demon was thrown off by the sheer audacity of the man's tone.
Mortals screamed when they saw him… this one sounded like he'd just been woken from deep sleep.
Soren's eyes flicked from the trembling woman to the mass of swirling black wind that encircled her.
"Do you know," He said softly, "What happens to things that interrupt my sleep?"
"Jie Jie Jie Jie…"
The Wind Demon's laugh tore through the night again, jagged and hollow. "This mortal dares threaten me?"
A violent gust surged forward, dark energy rolling like a storm tide toward Soren. Dust rose in spirals, metal signs rattled and tore from their hinges. The woman shielded her face, expecting to be torn apart.
But Soren didn't move.
The demonic wind hit an invisible barrier and vanished, swallowed whole by a shimmer in the air before it even touched him.
Inside the boundary of the medical center, the pressure changed. The air became impossibly heavy. The world itself seemed to slow, as though time was being held in place.
Soren's tired expression faded.
That aura… it was familiar, the same corruption that clung to the Lord of the Abyss.
So this thing wasn't of Earth after all.
"You shouldn't have come here."
The Wind Demon snarled, its form blurring into storm and shadow. "You think you can bind the wind?"
He dissolved, becoming formless and surged toward Soren in a roaring gale.
But the moment he crossed the hospital's threshold.
A crushing force pressed down from all directions, a gravity so dense it bent the light itself. The demon froze midair, unable to move, his formless body flickering and spasming.
"Inside this place," he said quietly, "I decide who lives."
The demon's voice shrieked into static.