Bella looked at the box in David’s hands, it was the size of a shoebox and appeared to be covered in rust and black runes that the demon suddenly realized as Infernal runes. These were the runes used by demons as a part of their magic, only high-tier or supreme-tier beings were able to study these runes. They tied into the very existence of the Blood Sea and were able to draw out the very power of hell itself.

 

David stood calmly in the large laundry room, he was standing in front of the only exits, one was behind him that led to the kitchen, and to his left was the door outside. The room had only a few windows and it had an old floral print wallpaper on the walls that depicted sunflowers. The sound of several washing machines running was in the background along with dryers.

 

“Sing for me!” David commanded the box.

 

The light that was being kept on by generators began to flicker when David issued this command to the box. The runes all seemed to shine red for a moment before they slowly faded, then the lid of the box separated into two halves and began to slide open making a creaking noise. What it revealed inside was even eerier than the outside.

 

A small shelf in the bottom stored a music box that was an enchanted tool that was made to very rigid specifications. In the middle of the back wall was a round mirror, it was held onto the back of the mirror by silver solder that had many runes carved into the messy solder. In the center of the rusty box was a single dark red candle that was held to the base of the box by melted wax.

 

The demon inhabiting Bella was still young, this was how it was able to slip onto Earth before there was much mana in the world. Even as young as it was though, it felt an acute sense of danger the moment it saw the inside of that box. This was only magnified tenfold when an eerie sound began to come from the inside of the box.

 

“Capture the demon!” David said.

 

The moment these words were issued a flame lit onto the blood-red candle, this flame seemed to change from blue, to red, then to purple in a cycle before going back to red. David held this box up by the chain and it seemed to orient itself towards the demon, Bella could even see her face reflected in the mirror. The face of the young girl seemed to start to change in the silver mirror, as the runes all lit up with blood-red energy.

 

“What are you doing to me!” Bella cried out in a voice that was deep and seemed to make the walls and glass vibrate.

 

“What the hell!” Susie cried out in horror.

 

David was expressionless, as he held the box towards his cousin, the image in the mirror was beginning to change to show the image of a demonic-looking child with long bony limbs and a bald head. Horns were growing from its head and it had blood-red eyes, these glowing eyes were also showing on his cousin. Bella was horrified as she began to use her infernal energy over her mana to try to resist the suction power that was coming from the box.

 

“What is that thing!” She said in horror.

 

Her skin was becoming plaid and corpselike, from the moment he had seen her mana tinge he already knew that there was no chance of saving her. The only thing he could do for her after this was to ensure that she was properly taken care of after the demon was exorcised. The only emotion he could feel right now was anger.

 

The demon inside Bella realized that it was fighting a losing battle, the moment it saw its reflection in the mirror it was unable to look away. The more horrifying thing it discovered was that it had lost its connection to the Blood Sea, it didn’t even know that something like this was possible. It then made a choice that caught David by surprise to escape from its initial confinement.

 

Like cutting off the leg that was trapped by a chain to save the rest of the body, the demon did the equivalent of peeling off its skin and immediately fleeing the body it was occupying. This caused Bella to vomit out a mouthful of rotted blood and fall to the ground lifelessly. David could only suppress his rage as he saw her body begin to quickly start rotting, he also decided to make another decision.

 

Reaching behind his back with his left arm, he grabbed the poleaxe and tossed it to Lena. When he had made their weapons, he carved several Infernal runes to protect against demons. David instead reached down for the chain that was hanging on the ground and began to wrap it around his waist like a belt.

 

“Do you think that will be enough?” The Machine Lord’s voice said inside of his head.

 

“David… Who do you think is the one who taught you how to make this in the first place?” The voice said.

 

“Damn! Lena, light me!” He said to the blonde woman.

 

David had tossed the poleaxe to her to provide extra protection while she operated the light, since such a low-tier magic stone was used the light it produced was weak. This effect could only be supplemented by supplying it large amounts of mana, something that David couldn’t do while he was also operating the box. This led to a gap in his protection since he was more worried about protecting the detector.

 

Lena shone the light on him and David was able to see several black spots inside of his mana tinge showing it was trying desperately to bore into him. David assumed that the voice that he was hearing was a result of it being able to slip through gaps in the chain's sealing power. This was something he expected since it was meant to seal a box and not a human body.

 

“What an idiot, now you have no way out. I am guessing that you must have attacked the moment I tossed the poleaxe and before I wrapped the chain around my waist, didn’t you?” David asked calmly. 

 

The moment he heard the voice of this Machine Lord, he found that he was not assaulted by any of the ocean of killing intent that the man had accrued. Without that terrible, crushing fear, he realized that the voice sounded almost therapeutic to him. If he didn’t have to always experience that terrible sense of dread that came from his victims being killed in horrific ways that made them feel like cattle walking into a meat plant, it might just be like a horror movie.

 

“I am warning you!” It said in anger.

 

David slowly twisted the chin he was holding, pointing the box at himself. Before the box could start to exert its power on the demon, David suddenly felt a deep fear he was very familiar with, as well as a mocking voice.

 

“What a farce! I don’t even speak like that! Little demon, your parents must not have told you anything about me?” This tone was mocking as if it was scolding a misbehaving child.

 

David suddenly froze when he heard this voice in the real world like this for the first time, not even the Wight was able to reproduce this feeling. His voice was almost calming like what a doctor would have, with just enough energy to draw you into it. This was if you were able to ignore the feeling of walking slowly towards a cliff with a line in front of you, everyone trapped in their position until they were thrown to their deaths.

 

“You should never invoke something you know nothing about. That is the surest path to sudden death, unfortunately… not all beings are granted a second chance when they make a mistake. Sometimes oblivion is the only thing left to us!” The voice said happily, as the box turned towards David.

 

The pain from the demon getting ripped from his soul was jarring, but David suddenly realized that the box seemed to be functioning much better all of a sudden. What he had made was a crude imitation of something the Machine Lord created to refine low-level demons. When he was finished with it he planned to dispose of it somewhere safe.

 

“No, please! I don’t want to die!” This was the voice of a young child.

 

“Hahahaha! I don’t discriminate because of age, sorry.” The Machine Lord laughed merrily before he answered.

 

David realized that the arm controlling the box was no longer under his control, and he could feel his mana rapidly draining, at the same time he could feel the demon being violently ripped out of him. This was like the difference between it coming out in spurts, and it coming out in giant pieces. This caused a deep fear to penetrate him, he suddenly wondered if he was somehow being possessed by the Machine Lord.

 

He tried to scream but couldn’t, and he felt his vision narrowing down towards the box in front of him, he wasn’t sure if this was a product of the exorcism or the Machine Lord’s doing. He was gripped by fear, as he felt like he was drowning inside of the horrible killing intent that was enough to kill weak creatures through sheer fear. Suddenly he could feel a presence behind him, and he saw a frail arm reach past his towards the box.

 

“Demons are disgustingly weak creatures if you understand more about infernal runes than they do.” The Machine Lord said from behind him. “Without their connection to the Blood Sea, they become terrified of death, it’s quite funny! Giant cowards when they are reduced to the same level as us mortals! Hahahaha!”

 

David watched as that frail hand reached the chain and tapped it a few times through the thin black plastic, his arms encased in a white material that resembled cotton with a cuff on it. 

 

“Refine him slowly.” The Machine Lord told the box.

 

Fear suddenly gripped him as he saw the metal doors begin to start sliding closed on the box, inside of the mirror on the back wall of the small box the image of the demon could be seen. It had a look of stark terror on its face as its long bony hands were fading into a black light before its eyes. David realized at some point the demon had been ripped completely out of him and imprisoned inside of the box.

 

“There you go David, are you planning on becoming a demon? Maybe a Demon Lord? That could be fun! Hahaha,” The voice seemed to say in his ear.

 

The panic and fear were crushing him, he couldn’t move. Suddenly as he felt like he was about to drown in it a hand began to shake his shoulder roughly. David suddenly jerked towards it thinking it was the Machine Lord, but he saw that Lean had come beside him.

 

David looked around and realized that there was nothing but a wall behind him and he could no longer hear the Machine Lord’s voice. The children in the room were all crying, several of them were hiding behind Susie and the two older women who were in the laundry room. Bella’s corpse no longer looked like something left by a human, her veins were all bulged out and dark like a plague victim.

 

When the sound of the music box cut off the door behind David opened, pushing him forward several steps. From the corner of his vision, he could see his parents holding firearms, as well as his aunt, his uncle, and Sarah. David’s knees buckled and he soon found himself on his knees with his palms on the ground.

 

Sarah rushed over to the body of her little sister, the hair had fully whitened and the eyes had sunken in and blackened, this was also the case with the gums. The skin was fully plaid and the veins were raised, these were all signs of demonic corruption and her blood would have a smell to it. Most of a demon’s value was usually in its corpse, but these weren’t treasures for the living.

 

“Bella?! What happened to her?! How did she die?!” Sarah was screaming out hysterically.

 

David reached down and began to wrap the chain around the box tightly, it had a loop welded to the back for this very purpose. When the chain was wrapped around the box tightly and all of the tags were in place, he used a small lock to keep it closed. This one had followed him from the prison, and it was also a cursed item. 

 

“She has been dead for a long time, a Souldrinker Demon only postpones the decay, it doesn’t stop it. The moment it devours your soul you die, and that is what is left of you.” David said with a pale expression.

 

“No, you are lying! You killed her just like you did my uncle!” She said with hatred and tears on her face, the corpse of her sister was still on the ground.

 

“You can’t move her body, can you?” David said. “ You tried to cradle her to your chest but you weren’t able to bend her upper body or her arms. She is also much heavier than you were expecting, wasn’t she?”

 

David was just stating facts, a demon’s corpse, like Bella’s, was a treasure to the undead with bones that were harder than metal and incredibly powerful muscles. This happened as a result of a demon slowly refining a body into a better vessel for themselves, this effect would be modified since so much infernal energy was left in her corpse when the demon had evacuated to escape the box’s pull.

 

“Son, what happened?” His father asked.

 

“Bella has had a demon following her for a long time, I bet it has been doing it since your mother died,” David said. “They are nothing like the bible or popular culture describes them. They are terrible things that only see us as food, they love hiding among humans and turning them against each other. Jeff said that he had been having issues controlling his feelings around you girls, he said it got worse the older you two got. He claimed this is what led him to attack the women at his work when Marco gave him the chance.”

 

These sentences caused silence to fill the laundry room, and both Dane and his Aunt went pale at David’s words. 

 

“They love creating cracks inside of the bonds that people share, they do this to make more food for themselves,” David said. “A mind that is falling apart is much eas-”

 

“Shut up! You murdered her!” Sarah said as she turned on David with anger on her face. 

 

Sarah took a few steps forward and began to reach for a knife at her waist before her hand could touch it though an open hand crashed into the side of her face. This caused a resounding sound to fill the air, as she was sent several steps back onto the ground. David was shocked until he saw the blonde woman stand in front of him with her deadpan expression, but the vibe from her was as cold as ice.

 

Lena said nothing as she stood in front of David, he could see her hand twitching like it wanted to reach for the handle of her blade and draw it. David looked up and noticed a frightening chill that seemed to come from her eyes, they were like two voids as she stared down at his cousin. Before it could escalate though his mother and aunt both moved forward between the two ladies.

 

“That’s enough!” The two women said as they both grabbed one of the young women.

 

Seeing his mother lightly pull Lena away and his aunt starts wrestling to hold Sarah back, David’s father also stepped forward to pull David away, and he could see Dane going over to question Susie in the laundry room. David and Lena were soon led through the Kitchen towards the master bedroom. This was the first time that David had seen it in this new house.

 

Sitting down on a metal chair, David could see several folding chairs in the corner of the room. There was also a whiteboard and various notebooks on the furniture, David could see that his parents and Dane’s family had been planning together. A second chair was placed next to his that Lena sat in, and his parents sat down on the bed.

 

“Things aren’t going well here currently.” His father said.

 

“You are almost out of food, ammunition, and fuel. Everything is falling apart and you are at the end of your ropes.” David said. “When you drove the tank through the walls to fight the bear, you were doing it because it was the only thing left. I doubt that you have enough ammo to deal with even regular monsters, do you?”

 

“We have enough for a few more days, one of the goals of us going to try to get you from the military base was to get help, or at least get more supplies.” His father admitted. “When we saw the two of you coming from the mountainside it delayed our trip. We have had it bad these last few months.”

 

His father began explaining how they were often attacked by monsters and this forced them to use a lot of ammo. The neighbors began to show up one by one with more supplies but little food and water, the issue was all of the monsters that the military wasn’t able to deal with. 

 

“They would run from Denver and push them outside of the city, this happened until Marco made it into the city. I suspect they were driving them away from the city and that caused them to attack us instead.” His father concluded.