"Well then, I think I've figured it out,"
Kairo announced, still perched comfortably on the tall smiler's back. His arms rested loosely around the broad shoulders as the twisted forest path wound deeper into shadow.
The tall figure kept walking with steady, effortless strides, his long legs devouring the distance. "I don't remember my name."
"Hmm… My name is Kairo, so your name should be… hmm… Kai. Yeah—big brother Kai."
Kai's milky-white eyes blinked slowly. A faint, almost shy twitch tugged at the corner of his unnaturally stretched mouth.
"Yeah… that's my name. You can call me Kai."
"Ok, big brother Kai. Let's check other routes. You know that mysterious black figure guy who's tormenting me—also known as the Tormentor—he told me I need to defeat nations and steer them away from bad deeds. So if I do that, I may be able to bring you to my land as well."
Kai's steps faltered for half a second before resuming their smooth rhythm. He tilted his head slightly, the lion-skin cloak shifting over his lean shoulders.
"Ohh, is it?" A quiet pause followed.
"If you say so, then let's go."
"Do you know about this place, big brother?"
Kairo asked, craning his neck to peer at the dense, shadowy trees pressing in from all sides.
"This place… it is a mystery, Kairo. A mystery. You know, even though I look like a demon, I can't see demons."
"Hey, you don't look like a demon,"
Kairo began, but the words died as Kai slowly turned his head fully toward him.
That too-wide, bloody-tear-stained grin and those empty white eyes sent a fresh spike of fear through Kairo's chest. His grip tightened on Kai's shoulders, knuckles whitening.
"Maybe you do…"
Kai's smile faltered. His long fingers flexed against Kairo's legs, and his posture stiffened, shoulders hunching forward in clear upset.
Kairo's stomach twisted with guilt. He quickly softened his voice.
"But it's better to have a beautiful heart while having a demon face instead of having a beautiful face and a demon heart."
The tension in Kai's shoulders eased. He gave a slow nod, voice quieter.
"Yeah… that's true. If that man didn't have a demon heart, I would have been a wonderful father… or a son. But I couldn't be any of that because of him."
"Lucian??" Kairo's eyes widened.
"Hmm. Lucian won't have time to do that for someone like me. So he has his lousy guy who did that to me."
"Did what?"
Kai didn't reply. He simply kept walking, pulling slightly ahead as the forest grew thicker around them. Kairo hurried to match his pace, unease coiling tighter in his gut.
"Woah, I have become so fast,"
Kairo muttered, surprised at how effortlessly he kept up.
"Yeah. You're becoming like me after all. So no wonder you'll be stronger and faster."
A low growl rumbled from behind them. Before Kairo could turn, a monstrous creature lunged from the underbrush. He spun on instinct and drove his fist straight into its skull with a sickening crunch. The beast dropped dead instantly.
"Let's eat this,"
Kairo declared, already dragging the corpse closer.
Kai opened his mouth to refuse, but the memory of Kairo's earlier words about eating out of love made him pause. His creepy smile twitched.
"Ok… if you say so, Kairo."
Kairo's face lit up with genuine happiness. He gathered two sharp stones and struck them together until sparks caught on dry tinder. Soon, a small fire crackled warmly between them. The savory scent of roasting meat filled the air as he turned the spit with focused care.
The two sat side by side on a fallen log, the fire casting flickering shadows across Kai's lanky frame. For a while, they simply talked and chilled, the earlier tension easing into something almost comfortable. In that moment, Kai didn't look like a demon at all—just a strange, battered older brother sharing a quiet meal under the dark canopy.
"Why didn't you go to your land?"
Kai asked later, his long strides never slowing as he carried Kairo deeper through the shadowy forest. His milky-white eyes flicked back, a faint crease forming between his brows.
"If I go there, it will be a waste of time… or it might be even worse,"
Kairo replied, shifting his weight. His fingers tightened on Kai's lion-skin cloak as dark memories resurfaced.
"Last time, he took Leonhart with me and tortured him like a maniac. Now I don't want to take any risk. I want to complete the task he gave me."
Kai's grip on Kairo's legs loosened for a moment, then tightened again.
"What kind of task?"
"Well, it seems like I need to destroy other nations. They have a large sin in common, and he sent me to destroy it so that they might die and suffer… so they may go to Hell."
Kai's steps faltered briefly. He exhaled a slow, raspy breath, shoulders tensing.
"Hell… that place is way too worse than this place. Well, I don't judge you. As your brother, I will support you. So, do you need any help?"
"I am still way too weak to defeat a nation, so will you teach me techniques?"
Kairo asked, leaning forward with renewed hope lighting his eyes.
"Ok. If you say so, now I don't have any choice. I will make you a monster who can destroy a nation,"
Kai said, tone turning serious. He stopped walking and gently lowered Kairo to the ground, turning to face him fully.
"But before I teach you, there is something very important I wanna say."
"What is it?"
Kai's creepy smile softened for a heartbeat, bloody-tear-stained cheeks twitching.
"Well, it's nothing much, but what I wanted to say was… make sure you become way too strong so that there is no evil in this goddamn place. That's it."
Kairo smiled back with the same creepy, stretched grin he had recently acquired, eyes gleaming with fierce determination.
"So, about my face… When I started calling you brother, I began becoming a demon. Will they accept me like I do to you?"
Kairo asked, touching his own cheek self-consciously, posture shifting with nervous tension.
"No, they won't,"
Kai replied, shaking his head slowly as he crossed his long arms over his lean chest.
"Well, I will teach you a magic which will hide that monstrous face."
"Woah, cool! What's that?"
Kairo's eyes widened with excitement as he leaned closer.
Kai reached into a hidden pocket of his tiger-skin cloak and pulled out an old, weathered scroll. He handed it over with careful fingers.
"Well, Kairo, you need to learn this language. You have that summoning power, am I right? So use it and learn this magic. This language helps you cast magic. It is used by the genies as well. That language is the language of genies."
"Woah, that's cool,"
Kairo said, unrolling the scroll and staring at the strange symbols with fascination.
"Also, take this sword and copy my techniques."
Kai pulled a worn but sharp blade from the same cloak and pressed it into Kairo's hands.
Kairo nodded eagerly, gripping the hilt tightly.
"Ok, brother."
Kai smiled normally for a brief moment—warm and almost brotherly—before it twisted back into his usual creepy grin.
"Ok. Well then, you have to carry that whole boulder and you need to run, jump, and also dodge attacks from me. As you have become a half-demon, you have great strength. So just copy me."
Kairo hoisted the massive boulder onto his shoulders with surprising ease. It balanced perfectly no matter how violently he moved. He began imitating Kai's fluid sword techniques—slashes, thrusts, and dodges—while running and leaping through the uneven terrain. Sweat poured down his face as he gasped for air.
"I can't breathe… This place has no clean air. I can't breathe properly. Thanks to that training, I can't even breathe. If I was a human, I would have died already."
The brutal lower-body training continued for a whole month. Kai watched with quiet approval, occasionally correcting Kairo's form with a gentle tap of his long fingers.
"Impressive. Now you have enough stamina to battle for ten hours in human form. In half-demon form, you might be able to fight for a whole month. So now you have to train for the upper body."
"Ok. If you say so," Kairo replied, chest heaving but eyes burning with resolve.
"Now you will remove this boulder?"
Kai nodded, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
"Yeah, I will." He lifted the boulder off Kairo's shoulders as if it weighed nothing, then handed him a simple dark robe.
"Wear this."
The moment Kairo slipped on the robe, his entire body began to tremble under a sudden, crushing weight.
Next, Kai produced a pair of heavy bracelets and clasped them around Kairo's wrists.
"Why is this bracelet so heavy?" Kairo asked, arms shaking as he struggled to adjust.
"A little bit of magic,"
Kai replied casually, stepping back.
"Now take this sword and practice those stances, dodges, and attacks. Also, I won't spar with you. You have to imagine your opponent and think of it as attacking you. You have to dodge it and use my sword techniques to attack him. Are you clear?"
"Ok, I will. About magic… when will you give me more scrolls?"
Kai's expression darkened slightly, his white eyes narrowing as he placed a hand on Kairo's shoulder. "Kairo, magic is way too bad for humans. I recommend you don't use it no matter what happens. Because of that magic, look at me—I am not even alive, nor am I dead. And the one who loves me becomes just like me and dies. But you are an exception, Kairo. You survived all that. That's why I accepted you as a brother… or else I would have killed you long ago."
Hmm… that's why that tormentor left me in this forest. He would have killed me over and over again. Who knows—even years of agony. Then I would find that place I am trying to destroy. But the thing is, will I succeed in finding that place without any sacrifice?
Kairo's creepy smile returned as he pushed the dark thoughts aside. Well, anyway. No time to overthink. Time to work even harder.
Kairo threw himself into training with relentless intensity. Days blurred into weeks. Another full month passed in a haze of sweat, pain, and growing demonic power. His body grew stronger, faster, and more monstrous with every grueling session.
Then, without warning, a void-like figure materialized from the shadows and approached. Kai stepped up beside the newcomer, placing a long hand on his shoulder.
"He is one of my best friends. So, wanna have a chat with him?" Kai asked, his creepy smile widening.
"Ok. If you say so," Kairo replied cautiously.
The void man turned his empty gaze toward Kai, who smiled back with that signature too-wide, bloody grin. In the next instant, the void man's hand plunged into Kairo's abdomen, ripping out his stomach and intestines in one fluid, horrifying motion.
Kairo collapsed to his knees, clutching the gaping wound as white-hot agony exploded through him. "Why did you do that?!"
"Well, to make sure you reach that place, you need some sacrifices. And yeah… I wanted to fill myself. I wanted to feel hunger, so I took it from you." The void man casually lifted the organs to his mouth and began eating with wet, satisfied sounds. "Uhh, it is so good. Well then, here's the scroll. I hope you can read it. It will take you where you need to go. That contract you have formed… yeah, it will make sure you reach his commands. So, well then, I will leave."
The void man vanished into darkness. Kai stepped closer, towering over the kneeling boy.
"You need to tolerate pain too, Kairo. It is part of the training."
Kairo tried to scream, but unknown magic sealed his mouth shut. Muffled cries tore from his throat as he writhed on the ground. The pain was brutal—worse than anything the Tormentor had inflicted. It lasted three full days, each second an eternity of fire and tearing flesh.
After that terrible pain Kairo he was way to curious
"Do you know about this place, big brother?" Kairo asked, craning his neck to peer at the dense, shadowy trees that seemed to press closer with every step.
"This place… it is a mystery, Kairo. A mystery." Kai's voice carried a distant, almost hollow tone. "You know, even though I look like a demon, I can't see demons."
"Hey, you don't look like a demon," Kairo began, but the words died in his throat as Kai slowly turned his head fully toward him.
Those too-wide, bloody-tear-stained lips stretched into that perpetual grin, and the empty white eyes seemed to swallow the dim light. A fresh spike of fear shot through Kairo's chest. His fingers instinctively tightened on Kai's shoulders, knuckles whitening.
"Maybe you do…" he finished weakly.
Kai's smile faltered. His long fingers flexed against Kairo's legs, and his posture stiffened, shoulders hunching forward as clear upset radiated from his frame.
Kairo's stomach twisted with guilt. He quickly softened his voice. "But it's better to have a beautiful heart while having a demon face instead of having a beautiful face and a demon heart."
The tension in Kai's shoulders eased. He gave a slow, deliberate nod, his voice dropping quieter than before. "Yeah… that's true. If that man didn't have a demon heart, I would have been a wonderful father… or a son. But I couldn't be any of that because of him."
"Lucian??" Kairo's eyes widened, his grip loosening slightly in surprise.
"Hmm. Lucian won't have time to do that for someone like me. So he has his lousy guy who did that to me."
"Did what?"
Kai didn't reply. He simply kept walking, his pace pulling slightly ahead as the forest grew thicker, the branches overhead knitting into a suffocating canopy. Kairo hurried to keep up, matching the taller figure's stride even as unease coiled tighter in his gut.
A low growl rumbled from behind them, deep and guttural.
Before Kairo could even turn his head, a monstrous creature burst from the underbrush in a blur of fangs and shadow. On pure instinct, Kairo spun and drove his fist straight into its skull with a sickening crunch. The beast crumpled instantly, lifeless.
"Let's eat this,"
Kairo declared without hesitation, already crouching to drag the heavy corpse closer to the path.
Kai opened his mouth to refuse, but the memory of Kairo's earlier words about eating out of love made him pause. His creepy smile twitched uncertainly.
"Ok… if you say so, Kairo."
Kairo's face lit up with genuine, bright happiness. He quickly gathered two sharp stones and struck them together repeatedly until sparks finally caught on a small pile of dry tinder. Soon, a modest fire crackled warmly between them, its orange glow pushing back against the encroaching darkness. The savory scent of roasting meat gradually filled the air as Kairo turned the makeshift spit with focused care.
The two sat side by side on a fallen log, the fire casting flickering shadows across Kai's lanky frame. For a while, they simply talked and chilled, the earlier tension easing into something almost comfortable.
In that moment, with the warm light dancing across his features, Kai didn't look like a demon at all—just a strange, battered older brother sharing a quiet meal under the dark canopy.