Ever since Mai turned 12, she had trouble sleeping. She’d spend nights, tumbling around in her room, fully awake. She felt like something was calling her, pulling her back into the waking world each time she was about to doze off. Not wanting to worry her grandma, her only caretaker, she tried taking sleeping pills and tried meditation and yoga but nothing worked. Now at 17 years old, she had developed a little hobby to deal with this insomnia. She would simply go out for walks. 

It was just another ordinary 3 A.M. walk for Mai. She would go to the city area, enjoy the empty streets, and feel the cold night breeze. But this time it was different. 

As she got to the city, she felt a pounding headache, not unlike the ones keeping her awake at night. There was an urge, like a voice calling out to her. She followed it, walking without knowing where it would take her.

Before she knew it, she was face to face with a giant head of a sheep. It was a surreal sight. The sheep’s head had 4 large twisting horns, covering part of its face, twisting around to create eye holes over its eyes. The sheep’s mouth was slightly ajar, revealing sharp, dagger-like teeth. Its eyes were large, peering into her soul. 

At last… I have found you. But to think that the Four Fiends Vessel was a puny human girl. No matter, you will form a binding contract with me and my brothers. We are being hunted, my body reduced to this pathetic form as a mere head. But you will save us, your body was made for this purpose. In exchange, we will grant you power as you’ve never seen before… Do you accept?

The voice was hypnotising, it was high-pitched and distorted, yet it reverberated and boomed in Mai’s mind clearly. 

This was the first time in years since Mai felt so calm and at peace.  The voice soothed her, it felt like she could finally sleep peacefully if she accepted what the voice was offering.  

“How did a civilian enter the Twilight Zone? Rohan, did you set the barrier up correctly?” Daiyu asked her partner, Rohan, a bald man flying in the air next to her. 

“There’s no way a normal civilian would be able to enter my barrier. This is bad news, we need to finish the exorcism now!” Rohan leaped forward, charging up his spiritual energy. 

Daiyu nodded and clicked her tongue, realising that if a civilian got involved, things would get a lot more complicated and inconvenient. 

“[Earthen Genesis]” Daiyu called out, a golem made of the asphalt road started to form and charge towards the Spirit. 

On a building nearby, Khan was preparing an attack before he too spotted a random girl appear in front of the spirit they were about to exorcise.

A civilian making it past Rohan’s barrier?

Khan immediately ran forward, disappearing from the building and reappearing behind the girl. 

He attempted to grab her away but it was too late.

“I accept.” Mai said without even thinking, lured into a contract without fully realising. The air around them glowed bright white and an invisible force blew Khan away.

In a flash, all that was left was Mai, lying on the road, her black hair now glowing silver. 

“Shit…” Rohan sighed as he stepped to observe the aftermath. 

“Did.. she just bind with the Spirit?” Daiyu asked as she called back her golem, dissolving it back into the ground. 

Daiyu and Rohan both cautiously approached the girl, who was now unconscious on the ground.

“Even if she did, this is one of the Fiends… The Fiend of Greed, mind you… There’s going to be a rebound.” Rohan said as he stepped closer, forming an invisible spear in his hand.

“Wait…Rohan…” Daiyu called out, holding his arm. 

“We need to end her Daiyu… we need to complete the exorcism…” Rohan insisted. 

“No, look. She’s stable…” Daiyu stated as she knelt down to investigate Mai. 

“Stable… for now… There hasn’t been a suitable Vessel for the Fiends in centuries. We have to exorcise her now while we can. We were so close… if he reincarnates in a new body, it’s over.” Rohan asserts. 

“Hey, what happened?” Khan got up, massaging the back of his head. 

“I think this girl just successfully bonded with the Fiend of Greed.” Daiyu says, standing up and dusting herself off. 

“One of the Four Fiends? Seriously?” Khan looks at Mai, scratching his head.

“Khan, you agree with me right? We need to exorcise her!” Rohan still insists. 

“Now hold on Rohan… Look… for someone who’s about to rebound… she’s definitely taking a long time…Her silver hair, that’s a mark, and it looks like a successful bind… I think we’ve found it…” Khan said as a grin spread across his face.

“A vessel for the Fiends? That’s exciting…” Daiyu smiled.

Rohan sighed as he let go of his invincible spear. “If anything happens, you guys take responsibility…” 

…

When Mai woke up in a hospital-like room, the first thing she saw was the face of a beautiful woman. Her eyes were green, contrasting with her pale skin. Her Raven black hair matched her black dress shirt. 

“Hello, my name is Daiyu. You might be wondering, why are you here? What just happened? Why is my hair silver?” 

Mai took a look at her hair and got a shock. “Holy cow…” 

“To put it simply, you made a contract with a malevolent spirit. More specifically, one of the Four Fiends… You might be asking, spirits? Contracts? Well, I’ll explain everything at a later date. But for now… Because of the nature of your contract and who you made the contract with… You have two choices.” Daiyu calmly explained.

Mai raised her eyebrows, still half dazed, not entirely understanding what was being said.

“You can either work for us, using your new abilities to help us, or you will be exorcised… in other words, executed.” Daiyu said with a smile.

Mai was fully awake now. 

What kind of choice is that?

… 

Over the course of the next few days, Mai learned about her supposed contract. 

“Tao Tie, or more commonly known as the Greed Fiend or Greed Demon, is one of the Four Fiends. A set of four malevolent spirits….

Tao Tie’s whole deal is Greed. It wants to devour. To consume everything. Pretty simple really.”

Khan explained as he reached for an apple from a basket of fruits lying on the desk in front of him.

“Now we understand you aren’t used to all this spirit stuff, more will be explained later, but we have a feeling that you have actually managed to form a successful contract with Tao Tie, making you a highly valuable asset.” Khan continued as he bit into the apple.

“Which is why we’ll be putting you to the test tomorrow.” Daiyu said as she stepped into the classroom. 

“Um… what?” Mai asked.

“Oh, it’s just a silly little test. To see what abilities you have. It’ll be easy.” Daiyu reassured her. 

“But I don’t even know how to use my abilities…” Mai stated.

“Well, I think you’ll have no problem. Even just sitting here, I can already tell your spiritual potential could almost match mine. If you do need a tip… just imagine something like this apple.” Khan said as he reached into the fruit basket and pulled out an apple. Most of the apple was a nice deep shade of red but several smaller strips and sections all over the apple were still bright green. 

“This apple represents your soul. The red parts represent your human soul. But you’ll notice, there are parts of unripe green that accompany every red piece of the apple. The green parts represent Tao Tie. Now, when you get to fighting and exorcising spirits, their main goal is to corrupt your soul. Imagine them trying to take a bite of the apple. With every red piece they taste, they’ll have to deal with the sour green bits. Tao Tie and you share a soul and a body. I doubt he wants any evil spirit taking a bite out of his soul. So, if push comes to shove, I bet you can call out to him to aid you when you’re in need. And well, to get him to listen is pretty easy, like all spirits, he feeds on emotion and thoughts… Lucky for you, most spirits you’ll be facing are built on various emotions and thoughts. You catch my drift?” Khan bit into the apple after his explanation, his face twisting as the sour parts of the apple kicked in.

“Damn, that is sour…” Khan complained as he stuck out his tongue. Daiyu rolled her eyes, smirking at the scene.

...

[DEVOUR]

Those words reverberated in Mai’s mind as her eyes and hair glowed white. Her hair lengthened and weaved itself around her body, forming a large sheep’s body. The creature that spawned had a bull’s hooves and legs, a sheep’s woolly body and head, The upper torso of the creature had two large muscular human-like arms. The head was fitted with four protruding horns and had a tiger’s mouth. 

“Finally, I get to devour once again…”

A high-pitched voice echoed in the room. The beast was massive, easily towering over Hannah and Vince, both of who were currently unconscious. 

The beast breathed in a large breath, sucking in all the air and black blood in the room. Like a vacuum, it cleared the entire room, leaving both Vince and Hannah lying on the floor and exposing the body of the cursed doll. The cursed doll’s now deformed body shrieked and yelled, as it began to grow in size. It was almost back to its original size but it was interrupted when a large horn impaled its chest. 

“You dare interrupt me? You dare try to consume my soul?”

Tao Tie began slamming and rubbing the spirit against the walls, he began to gallop, spreading the spirit’s body all over the walls of the room. 

The spirit shrieked and attempted to free herself from Tao Tie’s horns but it was futile. Tao Tie grabbed the spirit’s legs with his two hands and pulled them apart, ripping them out of her body. The force dislodged the spirit from his horns, leaving a deep slice in the spirit, from her chest to her shoulder. The spirit’s body collapsed to the white floor, black blood spraying everywhere. 

“MINE! Hehehehehe I’ll devour you, I’ll devour everything!” Tao Tie’s high pitched scream deafened the room as it opened its jaw and crunched on the spirit’s limbs as if they were delicious pieces of chicken wings. 

“AhhhhHHHH!!!” The cursed doll spirit kept screaming as if it was reacting to the pain of having lost both her legs. The spirit crawled on the floor away from the ferocious beast behind her, using her remaining four limbs, leaving a trail of black blood on the floor. 

“What the… What’s going on?” Vince sat up, he was slowly feeling the effects of the black blood fade away as his surroundings began to come into focus. He adjusted his glasses as he slowly regained his strength. He caught a glimpse of Hannah still lying motionless on the ground and scurried over to her. 

“Hey, Hannah, wake up… this is insane…” Vince lightly tapped Hannah on her shoulder.

Hannah was still breathing but not yet conscious. 

Vince picked her up and moved her further away from the bloody battle between Tao Tie and the cursed doll spirit. Though it was hardly a battle and more like a one-sided beating.

Tao Tie continued to stamp and rip up the spirit’s body with his hands and hooves, all while the spirit shrieked and screamed in pain.

“So this is the power of one of the Four Fiends… amazing…” Vince muttered as he watched the carnage unfold. 

“AEEIIIAAA! I JUST wAnTEd To SAve HER! I just WANTED TO HelLP!!!” The spirit screamed in agony, now reduced to only having her two upper limbs and her upper body remaining. 

“Delicious… who knew lesser spirit’s could taste sooo good…” Tao Tie licked his lips, his fangs stained black.

“Wanted to save her? I understand that… You wanted your vengeance, didn’t you little one? Yes… I understand that feeling all too well…” Tao Tie spoke as he continued to pin the spirit down under one of his hooves. 

“It HURTS! Mama it Hurts! ITS…Sooo… UNFAIR!!! It Hurts….” The spirit screamed as her voice started getting softer and less distorted, one could almost hear a human voice as the spirit spoke now. The spirit began to sob and cry in a human voice, black tears flowing down her face.

…

“The spirit spoke?” Daiyu asked out loud as she was watching the scene unfold. 

Mark was similarly stunned. He wasn’t sure what exactly happened either. He was still shocked by Mai’s transformation. 

“So she’s gained some form of pseudo-sentience…” Daiyu muttered.

“Sentience? Why does she sound human?” Mark asked, genuinely confused.

“Well, not exactly sentient. Unlike Ruby’s spirit, which was a part of an actual living person, this spirit was formed based on the negative emotions of the deceased Mayu Suzuki and perhaps others closely related to the incident. These negative energies congregated and manifested in the doll, causing it to become this cursed spirit. As a result, some of the human emotions can surface…” Daiyu explained. 

“But… this seems so brutal… is this what exorcisms are like?” Mark asked.

“Yes… and no… Granted this is one way to do it… but there’s a more complex way of going about it too. The only two ways you can exorcise a spirit is to destroy its spiritual manifestation, like what Tao Tie is doing… or by identifying the causes of the manifestation and resolving them. A much slower process… but I think it is more suitable for your case is it not? It would allow a much more peaceful way to move on to the afterlife…” Daiyu remarked, smiling at Mark. 

…

Hannah gradually opened her eyes, momentarily getting blinded by the whiteness of the room. 

“Oh… you’re finally awake… check out Mai’s ability!” Vince smirked as he nodded in Tao Tie’s direction. 

Hannah sat up and was taken aback by the visceral sight. The spirit’s body had been mangled and beaten, stains of back blood painted the walls and floor. Tao Tie was still standing above the spirit, seemingly gloating. 

“That’s Mai?” Hannah asked in disbelief. 

Vince nodded. “She’s a vessel for one of the Four Fiends… Khan wasn’t praising us back in the room, he was talking about Mai…” 

“Help MEE!!! SaveMEE!!!” The spirit desperately called for help, her human voice now more apparent, she sounded like a little child. 

“Look at you… wanting to save… wanting to be saved… which is it? You want both? I understand… Yes… I understand that feeling of greed! HEHEHEHE! BUT! Unfortunately you were created to be a mere reflection. A shallow mix of fear, anger and hatred. It is unfortunate you had to be created as such a shallow being… perhaps given more time… perhaps you could have truly saved your child, other children from meeting the same fate… but such a shame, you had to be placed here…with me…” Tao Tie grinned, baring his sharp teeth for all to see.

“It is best, then, that I finish this meal… and put these unfulfilled feelings to rest… But fear not… When I am done consuming the world…the universe… there will be no harm done to anyone, for there will be nothing at all…” Tao Tie clasped his hand together in a manner resembling a praying state.

“[Be released from the physical realm, return to dust from which you came, neither living, nor dead. Let go of your tether, and resolve yourself, for your end has come.]”

Tao Tie spoke and slammed his fist down into the spirit’s head, crushing it completely. 

The spirit’s manifested form then began fading away, like ashes in the wind, the remaining pieces of the spirit blew away into oblivion. All that was left was a simple doll, the way it was at the start. 

Then, a brief image of a small girl flashed in the minds of those nearby. An image of a small girl, bruised and beaten, picking up her doll, smiling as she mouthed the words: ‘Thank You’, before walking away into the light, hugging her beloved doll.

The doll on the floor then started to crumble to ashes, disappearing like the spirit.

“So… this was an exorcism?” Vince asked, his usual chirpy nature turned somewhat solemn. 

But this solemn mood was interrupted by Tao Tie himself.

“How did you like that, exorcists? I performed an exorcism like you would! Take this as a sign of my respect for being able to almost exorcise me before… But note that it will never happen again… I shall do you guys one more favour… There seems to be two useless ones in this room… I’m sure you won’t mind if I help myself? I’ll be sure to say my prayers then too…” Tao Tie licked his lips as he now set his eyes on Vince and Hannah.

…

“Hmmm, he said an exorcism prayer huh… I guess even spirits have respect for each other…” Daiyu said, rubbing her chin.

“Hey, what are you doing? Didn’t that beast just say he’d eat Vince and Hannah? Why isn’t anyone there to help? The test is over isn’t it?” Mark asked in a distressed tone.

“Oh, not really… in fact, the test has just begun.” Daiyu said, her eyes now more glued to the screen than before.