Ariya ran through the night. Being a demon was great. She was strong and fast. She could see everything, even with the blindfold on. But the best thing was her memories were back. All of them. Now she knew the truth. She wasn't always blind.
She remembered her father and her sisters.
That's why she decided to leave. She needed to get stronger. Strong enough to stand beside her lord. And strong enough to kill her family one day.
But as she ran, a smell hit her nose. It was familiar. It was mutated blood, but this time was different.
She got curious and followed the scent.
She stopped on the rooftop of a tall building and looked down. She saw a group of soldiers and two girls. Her eyes widened under the blindfold. It was them. Kaily and Xxya. Her sisters.
Few Years Ago
Ariya sat in her room, coloring a picture. She could see just fine back then. Her father called her name. "Ariya! Come to my office, please!"
She walked into his home laboratory. It was a room full of strange machines and bottles. Dr. Crenil, her father's friend, was there. He handed her father a small bottle with a strange, glowing liquid inside.
"This is the latest formula," Dr. Crenil said. "It should work this time."
Her father smiled. "This will make you perfect, Ariya. Don't be scared."
He told her to sit down. He took a syringe and filled it with the liquid from the bottle. He injected it into her arm. It hurt a little. At first, nothing happened. Then, she started to feel sick. Her body felt like it was on fire. She screamed and passed out.
The virus had been too much for her body. It broke her eyes and her mind. She fell into a deep coma.
Her father was furious. His experiment was a total failure. He was disappointed.
A few days later, Dr. Crenil came back. He had another bottle. "Maybe the formula works better on older subjects," he said.
Her father agreed. He called her two daughters, Kaily and Xxya. He injected them with the new virus.
They didn't go blind. But the virus twisted their minds. It made them crazy and violent. Their eyes turned cold. A few days after the injection, they snapped. They attacked their father in his lab. They were like animals. They ate him.
They were still hungry. They turned towards Ariya, who was still in a coma in her bed. They were about to eat her too.
But Dr. Crenil came back at that moment. He saw the horrible scene. He quickly took a syringe and injected both girls with an unknown liquid. They fainted immediately.
When they woke up, they had no memories of what they did. They forgot everything, just like Ariya.
Dr. Crenil covered everything up. He called their mother, who was working abroad. He told her there had been a terrible accident. He said the shock made the two girls lose their memories, and that Ariya was in a coma from the trauma.
The police came to investigate. But the secret organization used its power. The government covered up the scene. The case was closed immediately.
The mother flew home as fast as she could. She was devastated. Her husband was dead. One daughter was in a coma, and the other two didn't even know who she was. She was stressed, heartbroken, and the hospital bills for Ariya were piling up.
She started to blame Ariya for everything. "If you weren't so weak, this never would have happened!" she would yell at the comatose girl. "Your father would still be alive! This is all your fault!"
Ariya eventually woke up, blind and confused. Her mother's blame got worse. The two sisters, Kaily and Xxya, learned from their mother that Ariya was the reason for their family's tragedy. Even with no memories, they started to hate her. They blamed her too.
The bullying started. They would trip her, hide her things, and call her names. One day, it went too far. On the top of the stairs, Kaily gave her a hard shove.
"Watch your step, blind girl!" she laughed.
Ariya tumbled down the whole staircase. She landed at the bottom with a sickening crack. Her leg was broken.
Their mother came running. "What happened?!"
Kaily and Xxya immediately lied. "She fell! She's so clumsy because she can't see!"
Their mother believed them. She looked down at Ariya, crying and holding her broken leg. Her face was full of anger. "You motherfucker!! Can't you do anything but bring tragedy and problems to this family! I wish you were never born!"
After that, Ariya was sent to a hospital and left there. That was where Kokushibo found her.
Back to Present
Ariya stood on the rooftop, her fists clenched. Seeing her sisters again made her so angry. All the pain, the loneliness, the bullying came rushing back. She wanted to jump down and kill them herself.
But then she felt it. A heavy, cold presence. It was familiar and powerful. Her lord was here.
She watched from the shadows as Kokushibo appeared.
Her lord was amazing. He moved like a ghost. His moved his sword in a blur. She couldn't even see the blade move, it was so fast. He cut through the soldiers like they were nothing. It was the most incredible thing she had ever seen.
Her lord spoke to them. She saw him kill the general first. Then, he turned his attention to Kaily and Xxya.
They were begging, offering him blood bottles. Ariya felt a sneer form on her lips.
One moment, Kaily's head was there. The next, it was gone. Then Xxya pointed a gun at him. A single, invisible cut split her head in two.
It was over in seconds. Her sisters were dead. Just like that.
Ariya's eyes sparkled with amazement under her blindfold. Her lord was so strong. He had avenged her without even knowing it. He was perfect.
After her lord left, she jumped from the rooftop. She landed softly right next to her sisters' bodies. She looked down at them. No pity. No sadness. Just cold satisfaction.
She knelt down. "My lord told me not to kill innocent people," she said to the corpses. "But it's okay to eat you guys, right? Since you are bad girls."
She didn't wait for an answer. She started to eat. The taste was incredible. It was a hundred times better than zombie meat. It was rich, powerful, and full of energy. She felt her demon power growing with every bite. She was getting so much stronger.
When she was finished, she stood up. She felt amazing. Powerful. Complete.
She licked her lips clean. "So," she said with a happy smile. "This is what my sisters taste like."
She paused, then giggled. "Delicious!"
Her lord had given her everything. Now, she was even more powerful. She would continue to hunt. She would eat more bad humans and grow stronger. She would become the strongest demon for her lord, Kokushibo. She would make sure she was worthy of being his Upper Rank One.
She heard footsteps coming, she vanished into the darkness.
---
The group of soldiers who had been chasing the two girls finally found the general's car. They had followed the General's car here after losing contact. They stopped their vehicles and jumped out, guns ready.
"General? Sir?" one of them called out.
No answer. It was too quiet.
They moved inside, using their flashlights. Then they saw it. The smell hit them first—thick and metallic. Then their lights showed them the horror.
One soldier immediately turned and threw up. Another just stared, his mouth hanging open.
Bodies. Their fellow soldiers were in pieces. Clean cuts. Sliced apart. The General was there too, his head split open. It looked like a butcher's shop. But there were no bullet casings, no sign of a fight. It was like something had just... cut them all down.
Their guts told them something was terribly wrong. Even against zombies, they still would have put up a fight.
---
Ariya, hiding in the shadows above, saw the new soldiers arrive. She was about to leave when she heard them. She could smell their fear. It was strong. She wondered if they were bad humans she could eat.
Then she heard the growls.
Low and rough. Then more of them. The sounds of zombies, but their moving fast. Too fast for normal zombies.
She looked towards the entrance. Dozens of mutated zombies were running towards the scent. They were bigger, faster, with twisted muscles. But why is there so many of them?
Her eyes went to the broken glass and the dark liquid on the floor. The blood vial her sister had smashed. The smell of the concentrated mutated blood was like a dinner bell for these things. It had called them all here.
---
Down below, the soldiers were panicking.
"We need to go! Now!" one yelled.
In their rush to leave, one of the soldiers tripped. His arm landed right in the puddle of the strange blood. He scrambled up, not noticing the dark liquid now soaked into his uniform sleeve.
"Let's get out of here!" the sergeant shouted.
The groans from outside were getting louder. The soldiers didn't wait. They ran for their lives, back out to the street and towards their vehicles. Their only thought was to get back to camp and report this nightmare.
They piled into their truck, hearts pounding. Just as the engine started, a dark shape dropped from the roof above.
It was a mutated zombie, all bone and muscle. It landed on the ground right beside them. Before they could drive away, it lunged and grabbed a soldier who was still climbing into the back.
The soldier screamed and opened fire with his rifle. The loud gunshots echoed in the silent streets.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"It's got me! Help!" he yelled.
But it was too late. The gunfire and the screaming did what the smell had started. It attracted everything.
From the alleys and broken buildings, more zombies appeared. First a few, then a dozen, then a whole crowd. And mixed in with the slow, shambling ones were the fast mutants. Their heads snapped towards the sound, and they began to run.
"Go! Just go!" the sergeant screamed.
The driver slammed his foot on the gas. The truck lurched forward, leaving the captured soldier behind. His screams were quickly cut off as the horde descended on him.
The soldiers in the truck looked back, horrified. The road behind them was filling with zombies. A whole horde was now chasing them. And the mutated ones were fast. They were keeping up with the truck.
"Drive faster!" someone yelled.
Suddenly, a long, fleshy tongue shot out from the mouth of one of the running mutants. It was like a rope, but thick and strong. It wrapped around the leg of a soldier sitting in the open back of the truck.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he shrieked as he was violently yanked from the moving vehicle.
He hit the pavement hard and was immediately swallowed by the chasing horde. The mutants didn't even slow down to eat; they just ran over him, still chasing the truck.
The soldiers were terrified. They opened fire, shooting wildly at the mutants behind them. Bullets hit some, slowing them down, but there were too many. The horde was a moving wall of teeth and claws, gaining on them.
They had no idea. They wasn't just following the truck. They are following the smell. The sweet, powerful scent of the bottle's blood soaked into the driving soldier's sleeve.
The soldier driving was sweating, focused on the road ahead.
He just drove, pushing the car as fast as it would go, desperate to reach the safety of the camp's walls.
He was bringing a horde of mutated zombies right to their doorstep.