When the team finally got out of the daimon king's palace and were all together again, they were faced with another problem. The leader of their team disappeared as if swallowed by the earth. In the gate, where he was last seen, there was only silence. After their first despair, or rather when the demon guard standing there was satisfied that they were still there, the otherworldly creature informed them that 'Your little friend has gone to see the market.' and even nodded in the right direction.
That was why the boys and Etele set off in the direction of that particular market. However, the atmosphere was quite tense between them, none of them were happy that they had lost their leader, in such a place, where who knows what kind of daimons the hegins might run into. They all felt that it would be better to disappear from this place as soon as possible, but without their leader, neither forward nor backward. It didn't even make sense for them to decide whether to check out that daimon fair or not.
Rahul was walking at the end of the group and was not really paying attention to where he was going, just looking here and there. Until he felt something twist his nose and he sneezed a big one. That wouldn't have been a problem, but when he opened his eyes, he wasn't on the road, but in a meadow full of white flowers.
"What the hell?" He blinked around when he saw a very familiar figure. "Did you bring me here? What do you want from me?!" The boy's hands clenched into fists before the daimon king raised his head.
"I didn't bring you here. You wanted to come here." He announced, then turned away from Rahul. The boy then noticed what the daemon was doing. He was petting an animal, not just any animal, Rahul knew this creature well.
"Griffin! What did you do with my griffin?" He started with hard steps towards the daimon.
"He's my griffin. That he obeys your orders is own will." When the daimon king said this, Rahul's feet rooted to the ground.
"I don't order him." He mumbled.
"You just think so." The daimon king shook his head, then whistled before the griffin rose and flew away.
"Of course. Because you know everything, oh mighty daimon king. You must think you're so smart, but I wouldn't be so proud of making a throne out of the corpses of murdered creatures." Rahul folded his arms in front of him and even grimaced.
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Came the voice of the daimon king, as if he had just spoken to a small child.
"Really? Then enlighten me!" The traveler snorted, while the daimon king stroked a flower with one hand.
"Do you know what these are?" He asked.
"Flowers." Rahul rolled his eyes, but the daimon just smiled.
"They look like that, but they are souls." He explained, stroking another one. "Souls of danovuses." He said, then lowered his voice. "This is where I became a daimon." Rahul blinked widely at the daimon king who was deep in thought. "You said I built a throne out of corpses. You're partly right, but I didn't kill those who became my power. Do you know why daimons look down on me?"
"No." Rahul prodded, but he had to bite his tongue not to say something inappropriate.
"Because I'm a transparent." The daimon king declared, before Rahul's mouth literally fell open. "I was the first transparent to become a daimon, since then I only know of Hideki who was able to do this too, thanks to that poor little girl." He shook his head sadly. "When I woke up, the world was still empty. Only we transparents were in it." He looked off into the distance. "Then people and different creatures appeared. We transparents usually avoided them, we helped wandering souls reach the source of rebirth. I traveled a lot at that time." The daimon smiled under the black mask. "Then I met a strange species whose dead could not be reborn. With the danovuses. When a danovus died, its soul simply became a wandering spirit and constantly searched for the source, which it could not reach."
"And what does that have to do with you?" Rahul asked.
"I was the one who watched them the most. I felt sorry for these souls who tried to be reborn but had no chance. This was the place where those souls gathered. Thousands of years have passed, such a long time that you humans cannot even fathom. Every flower you see here means a danovus. It was a bright day, when I ventured the closest to the clearing. We are transparents are bridges between the living and the dead. The others were afraid of the souls of the danovuses, they believed that they were evil and therefore could not be reborn. I wanted to help them. I decided that day." Here he giggled. "I knew I was breaking the rules, I knew what I was doing was dangerous, but I wanted to give them a chance for a new life. When a transparent dies, it releases enormous energies that can only be rivaled by the source of rebirth."
"So you wanted to kill yourself to free the danovuses." It wasn't a question, but the daimon took it as such.
"Yes. I just didn't expect that the souls of danovuses were like humans. They thought and decided. Transparents can also evolve, but since we are not a violent species, no transparent will evolve further. I clearly remember the feeling when I took on a body, everything hurt and I was overwhelmed with sadness, I cried, and sobbed. I wanted to help the souls to be reborn, but they..." Here the man's voice stopped. "Danovuses are strange creatures. I wanted to sacrifice myself for them, but they preceded me. A demon evolves by absorbing souls. In this clearing, all the danovuses souls sacrificed themselves to a transparent. This was so much energy that my original form could not handle it. That's when I was born." The man looked down at his hand. "I didn't manage to get them to be reborn, but I was able to give them a chance to help their brothers. Those danovuses who sacrificed themselves for me turned into such flowers by themselves, thus they got a new life. Since then, my transparent brothers bring the souls of all dead danovuses to my palace, where they too become flowers. I don't need power anymore, I don't absorb their energy, but this way, as a flower, danovuses can also experience rebirth and be together with their families. I became daimon king to bring peace and to give meaning to the sacrifice of the danovuses."
"Yeah." Rahul nodded, but the daimon king only looked at him expectantly for long minutes. "Should I have changed my mind now or something?" He raised his eyebrows.
"I didn't expect you to change your mind. By the way..." The daimon king stood up suddenly and after a moment he was in front of Rahul, the young man's hands were clenched into fists, he didn't want to give the daimon king the pleasure of seeing him scared. "You are interesting." The daimon king continued.
In the next moment, however, he took Rahul's face between his hands and before the boy could react, he connected their lips. The chüvigh boy's eyes widened and he was so surprised that he suddenly took a breath, which resulted in him opening his mouth, allowing the daimon king to deepen his kiss. And Rahul swung his fisted wrist forward and hit the daimon hard in the groin, causing the daimon to let go of him and start laughing painfully.
"Burn to dust in the fires of hell, for fucks sake!" Rahul cursed, wiping his mouth.
"Same situation. You couldn't deny it." The daimon said with a smile, barely audible. "Your kiss is sweet, miracle boy." He raised his voice, but this only made Rahul's hands clench into fists again. The chüvigh boy looked at the daimon with an icy gaze. Black smoke began to leak from his fingers and the whole boy was surrounded by a murderous aura.
"That's enough of you." Rahul hissed, before the daimon nodded his head to the side.
"Interesting." He said and snapped his fingers and Rahul got dizzy and had to close his eyes, when his eyes opened he was standing again on the same street from where he started. "See you later, miracle boy." He heard the daimon king's chuckling voice.
"Rahul! There you are! We thought you too..." Rahul immediately turned to the shouting Citar, who was at the head of the Athamanas approaching him, though Razvan was still missing from the group.
"Rahul?" Teveli asked, but like him, the whole team stopped in one place and stared at the chüvigh boy with open mouths.
"What are you looking at now?" Here Rahul raised his hand to his head. "Is there something on my face?"