The Demon's Chosen.

White Bone Well.

Dominic thought to himself: 'So she has only reached the level of a wandering spirit or a ghost, not yet a crying ghost capable of speech. The singing earlier must have been formed by the resentful thoughts at the time of her death.' 

Thinking this, he probed further: "Were you a famous singer when you were alive?”

The girl nodded.

He continued: "You haven't reached the level of a vengeful spirit, so you can't speak yet, but the fact that you can sing so loudly, echoing far, shows that your resentment at death was strong. Such strong resentment, yet still not enough to accumulate the power to reach the spirit level, means you must have died not too long ago."

The girl nodded in agreement.

He guessed: "Are you singing to call others here because you have an unfulfilled wish?"

The girl didn't nod or shake her head this time but turned her face down towards the well. It looked like she was looking, but actually, only her bright red lips were directed towards the bottom of the well.

Seeing this, Dominic moved closer and also peered into the well.

It was just a dry well, not deep and without water. But what made his skin crawl was a pile of dry bones scattered at the bottom.

He exhaled sharply: "Did you kill all of them?"

After asking, he turned to look at the girl but widened his eyes in horror as her mouth had now opened wide like a sack, ready to engulf his head.

Dominic quickly kicked against the well's edge and leaped away, avoiding the bite from the mouth now as wide as the well itself, large enough to swallow an adult whole.

The inside of the mouth was lined with uneven, razor-sharp teeth, dripping with saliva.

Thinking he was safe at a distance, he was shocked to see the mouth stretch and chase after him. The scene resembled a large rubber hose with one end attached to the girl's face where her mouth was. The other end, flexible and expanding, formed into gigantic red lips as wide as a wagon wheel.

The mouth opened wide for a second attack.

He felt a twinge of frustration, thinking: "How can such a graceful girl with a gentle voice turn into something so grotesque? Even as a ghost, isn't it possible to remain beautiful? Is there no more pleasant form to manifest?"

With his frustration mounting, Dominic raised the long object in his hand and struck down hard on the approaching mouth.

"Thud."

The sound of thick fabric hitting flesh was dull and heavy. The mouth, initially round, now had its edges stuck together after the direct hit, forming a 'U' shape, flattening against the ground. In pain, the mouth hissed and spat a mix of saliva and bloody pus.

Dominic jumped aside, grimacing: "That's utterly disgusting." then raised his hand again, striking two more times on the sides of the 'U' to flatten it further. The mouth now resembled a wriggling worm, half like a giant elephant's trunk, attached to the blank face and the body sitting by the well.

Suddenly, the girl arched her back, swaying as if about to vomit.

 Her stomach abruptly ballooned, and the large mass slowly moved up her face, sliding into the flesh tube. Straining, she bent forward sharply, pushing the round mass swiftly forward.

Dominic's eyes widened: "What's this? Ate too much dinner and feeling bloated?"

The wheel-like lips parted, spewing a dark red liquid, like blood, straight at him. Unsure of the substance's danger, but repulsed, he quickly ducked and leaped up, grabbing a branch overhead.

Just when he thought he was safe, Dominic felt the branch weaken, bending gradually. Thinking it was breaking, he looked up to find it intact, turning in surprise to the tree trunk for an explanation.

Turns out, the dark red liquid that missed him hit the tree, corroding it. The impacted part emitted white smoke, hissing, rapidly deteriorating, and then collapsed.

From the girl's belly, another swell rose, repeating the earlier action, hurling a second liquid sphere at the hovering Dominic. He let go, falling to the ground to dodge this second spray, leaving a cluster of eroded, smoking branches, now reduced to ash.

The girl continued, firing third, fourth, fifth blood-like spheres. Dominic had to jump from side to side to avoid them, shouting: "Hey, are you playing a shooting game or what?"

Seeing her attacks ineffective, from the enormous mouth emerged a blood-red tongue, studded with sharp barbs, lashing out at Dominic.

This attack was heavy, denting the ground, releasing a foul stench. He covered his nose and complained: "Don't you brush your teeth?"

The tongue rose again, twisting like a snake, dripping slime onto the ground.

The full power and demonic energy of Demon’s Fang lay in that tongue, and he knew the demon had unleashed its final deadly move.

It was time to end the battle.

He spoke softly: "I hope in your next life you'll find a better fate, but this life, there's no turning back."

As Dominic spoke, he unwrapped the cloth around the long object in his hand, drawing a blood-red sword, glowing with a crimson aura, its murderous intent creating an oppressive atmosphere, flattening the grass around.

With a swift sword stroke, he severed the barbed tongue.

The tongue, containing all the demonic power, cut off, the man-eating demon suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon, retracting its mouth.

The end had come.

Dominic tiptoed, leaped into the air, and charged forward, his sword streaking a red lightning bolt across the dark sky. The sword's energy exploded, cleaving from the tongue, through the wheel-like lips, to the entire body. Flesh and blood splattered, falling to the ground, turning into dark red pools, then all gradually turning to black smoke.

Amongst the rising smoke, seven flickering white spots drifted away in the wind, fading.

He stood, gazing at the fading remnants of the demon, yawned widely, and whispered to himself: "Time to go to sleep."

After Dominic left, a wild dog, following the scent of blood, discovered the severed tongue of the demon, flung into a patch of grass.

It grabbed the tongue and ran off.

...

Dominic slept soundly until the sun was high in the sky. Peering out of his window towards the female homeowner's house, he only heard the sound of hoeing soil from behind the house.

He clumsily got up and went towards the source of the noise, finding Aurora busy gardening. The sight of the pretty country girl engrossed in her work intrigued him, and he approached to ask: "Are you planting vegetables?”

Instead of answering, Aurora asked back: "Where did you go last night?”

The rusty door hinge always creaked loudly, making it hard not to wake others. Perhaps that’s how she knew he had gone out. Dominic saw no reason to hide, nor could he, and replied: "I went up the slope last night to enjoy the view.”

“How was the night scene there?”

“Well, it’s hard to describe. It had a certain charm but also an eerie feel. But… do you know about the well on the other side of the slope?”

Aurora continued to till the soil, her back to him as they talked: “That’s called White Bone Well, actually just a dry well. About two years ago, villagers and passersby started disappearing without reason, and later human bones were found piled up in the well. Since then, locals avoid that area, only strangers who don’t know go near that well. It’s strange you went there last night and came back.”

Dominic scratched his chin: “Maybe I don’t taste good enough for the well to bother.”

Aurora glanced at him and said: "That well doesn’t pick and choose at night. It doesn’t refuse anyone unless the meat it wants to swallow doesn’t go down easily.”

“You think the well actually eats people?”

“If it doesn’t eat, where do all those white bones in the well come from?”

“Why don’t you think someone else ate and then threw the bones down there?”

Aurora, now sowing seeds and covering them with soil, continued: "Whether White Bone Well eats or not, I don’t know, but there’s another place with white bones where we know who dropped them.”

Dominic, curious, asked: "Where is that?”

“If you want to know, help me out here.” She tossed him the hoe and pointed: "Go over there and dig up the soil, pull out all that grass.”

Though he was physically strong, Dominic was not accustomed to farming, so it took him until the evening to finish. Aurora inspected the vast cleared land he had worked on and nodded: "Alright, take a break. I’ll bring dinner later and tell you about it.”