What Demons Feed On
"So you actually came."
Ryeonhwa, leaning against a streetlight with her eyes glued to her phone, looked up as I approached and broke into a smile.
The lamplight pouring down through the night caught her outfit—an oversized hoodie, a cap, and sporty leggings. With her ponytail tucked through the back of the cap and dressed that light, she looked like she was about to go for a jog.
Just as her text had said, I had read the message on the phone she'd given me at school earlier that day and come straight to this deserted underpass.
There were several reasons why.
To seize a weakness I could hold over Seohyun.
To clear myself of any suspicion of being connected to demons.
And… to confirm with my own eyes what a demon actually was.
If I'd asked one of the demons back at home, they might have answered every question I had.
But I still didn't trust the demons.
Their claim that they liked me hadn't seemed like a lie, exactly—but I wasn't naive enough to believe that "liking" someone was always something pure and good.
A possessive obsession with no regard for the other person—some people call that love, too.
There are those who label even the contradictory push and pull of loving and hating at the same time as love.
The demon seemed to know exactly what I was thinking, while I could never once read what went on in its head.
I couldn't bring myself to take at face value that what it wanted was my love.
The excuse it had tacked on—love at first sight—was equally hard to swallow.
No matter how I turned it over, the math never came out right. A being I'd never exchanged a single word with, whose face I'd never even seen, falls for me at a glance and showers me in boundless favor?
A demon, at that?
Demons never extend unconditional favor—Ryeonhwa's words surfaced in my mind again.
And so, to grasp what a demon truly was, to see it for myself, I had snuck out of the house and come here.
"Before we go after her, let me make one thing clear. If things get dangerous, I'm running."
"Please do. …There she is. We can talk while we move."
Ryeonhwa tipped her chin toward Seohyun, hurrying down the empty street, oblivious to the two of us. She was trotting along with a giddy expression, headed somewhere with clear purpose.
"First—take this."
Tak.
She tossed something at me. When I caught the bracelet and shot her a questioning look, she brushed past me and kept walking, her voice dropping low.
"You didn't think I'd drag a civilian into this without a plan, did you? As long as you're wearing that, anything up to a low-tier demon won't be able to touch you. But don't you dare try to fight back while you've got it on. That bracelet works like a barrier—but the moment you attack a demon yourself, it stops working. Remember this: if a demon comes at you, do not fight. Just stand still. That's all you need to do. Not that it'll ever come to that—I'll handle everything before it does."
Heh.
With a smile brimming with confidence, Ryeonhwa pulled her cap down lower and began tailing Seohyun in earnest. I slipped the bracelet on and followed carefully behind her.
"Are you on your own?"
"Why?"
She shot back without turning around.
"I keep saying it—I still don't trust this demon business. But… if it's all real, is it safe to be doing something this dangerous alone? Don't you have comrades?"
According to the demon, there was an organization that opposed demons, and humans with the power to fight them were called Knights.
Measured against that, Ryeonhwa would be a Knight. And if there was an organization, that meant she had allies.
"…That's none of your business."
My question must have struck a nerve, because she bit the words out, cold and sharp.
"Then answer this one. No—not an answer. The truth."
There was something I couldn't back down from here, and I put weight behind every word. The rhythm of Ryeonhwa's footsteps, still tracking Seohyun, slowed just a little.
"When this is all over… what are you going to do with me?"
The question carried more meanings than one.
The existence of demons was still a closely guarded secret, unknown to the world. I couldn't imagine anyone simply leaving loose a person who knew about it—not even if no one would believe the truth if it got out.
"Sharper than I expected…"
Ryeonhwa turned her head to look at me.
"You're clever, aren't you?"
She gave a short laugh, then fell back into step, keeping her fixed distance from Seohyun.
"Honestly? You're… too calm. Calm isn't quite the word—brave, maybe. And that's exactly why you're suspicious, I suppose. If you've got anything to do with demons, you're someone I genuinely need to watch. And if you don't… if you don't… never mind. Either way—if we follow that girl, kill the demon, and your name gets completely cleared, you go back to your quiet little life. I promise you that. On my name."
I wondered what exactly her idea of "going back to a quiet life" involved, but I had a strong premonition that asking would get me nothing, so I let it go.
For a long while, neither of us spoke. We simply trailed Seohyun in silence as she drifted deeper into dark, empty backstreets.
Shadowing someone had been thrilling at first, then frightening, but everything was going so smoothly that I was starting to get bored—when Ryeonhwa finally broke the silence, her back still to me.
"Most demons live on one of two things: human flesh, or human emotion."
"The low-grade trash mostly feeds on flesh. But once a demon gets anywhere close to mid-tier, it prefers emotion. Negative emotions, all of them—envy, rage, inferiority, despair… The demon attached to that girl feeds on those too. But rather than hunt for itself, it does exactly what you're seeing: it charms a human, then siphons its sustenance through that charmed human. Indirectly. All those feelings Seohyun wrung out of you—that's the meal."
"It absorbs the emotions she takes from me… and feeds them back to the demon?"
I already knew part of this from the demon itself, but I played ignorant and asked.
"From the demon's perspective, it's probably not the tastiest meal. But it's a safer one than hunting in person. There's just one thing the demon overlooked… that Seohyun girl turned out to be even dumber than it expected?"
Her meaning clicked instantly. When Seohyun had humiliated me, muttering that word—that—under her breath, she'd already betrayed how careless she was. The ease with which Ryeonhwa tracked her demon now was proof of the same.
"Sniff, sniff…"
Ryeonhwa suddenly flared her nostrils at the air, then raised a palm to me, telling me to stop. Pressing herself against a wall, she craned her neck and scanned an unfinished building whose hollow interior was laid bare to the night.
I shifted my gaze after hers—and in the murky dark, I saw it. A man, gripping Seohyun's head in both hands.
"Eheheh!! Th-that's it, that feels good♥"
Hisss…
Seohyun stood rooted to the spot, a broken smile plastered across her face, drool trailing from her slack mouth. A faint, shadowy afterimage was seeping out of her body, the way a soul might slip free, and flowing steadily into the man.
Watching him drink it in with a look of utter satisfaction, the demon's words flickered through my mind.
Demons are a harm to humanity. Demons devour and torment humans to survive. And the end of that is death.
Now that I had witnessed with my own eyes the harm a demon inflicted on a person, the terror of it finally became real to me. I was almost grateful that the Demon of Existence had done me no harm so far.
"Just as predicted. Though it seems it's draining her life force along with her emotions…"
"Wait—should we really just be standing here?"
Ryeonhwa only watched the emergency unfolding before us, as if observing a specimen, and my voice came out urgent. Whatever bad feelings I had toward Seohyun, I didn't hate her enough to want her dead.
"Relax. She won't die from just this. We strike while the demon is enjoying its meal—while it's completely off its guard."
"Are you serious—"
At some point she'd drawn a dagger from her waistband—a kukri etched with an unfamiliar sigil—and was watching for her opening, grinning. Looking at her laughing in a situation like this, an absurd thought crossed my mind: maybe she was moving for her own gain, not anyone's safety.
"Haah… what a foolish human you were, Seohyun. Spouting all that garbage to him, and for nothing…"
The man's face—no, the demon's—changed in an instant. Irritation and fury flooded it.
"Grraaaah―!! Greh! Ghek! Grraaaghh―!!"
Hiiisss!
Seohyun's face went a ghastly shade of blue, and the shadowy afterimage being siphoned from her accelerated, streaming faster and faster into the demon. Anyone could see that if this went on, she was going to die—and just as the thought struck me—
Pat.
Shk!
"Kuh!"
In the blink of an eye, Ryeonhwa exploded from her position and severed the arm the demon had clamped on Seohyun's head.
It was an attack so fast it could only be called instantaneous—yet, astonishingly, the demon had partially evaded it. Instead of the two hands Ryeonhwa had aimed for, only one was severed. Dripping blood, the demon leapt backward, putting distance between them.
"…So you're not a Knight. If you were, that ambush would have killed you already."
Smiling with leisure rather than screaming over a lost arm—there was no denying it anymore. This thing was not human.
The demon eyed Ryeonhwa, who stood in a combat stance with her blade raised, then swept its gaze quickly around the surroundings. Fortunately, I was outside its line of sight. My presence had gone undetected.
The two of them skipped any formalities—as if each already knew exactly what the other was.
"All alone? Truly?"
The demon asked with something like contempt, and Ryeonhwa snorted.
"A demon like you? I'm more than enough on my own. A low-tier scrap that hasn't even reached mid-rank, with no abilities worth the name."
"Is that so?"
The demon kept its easy smile and lunged.
Clang!
Steel met demon flesh with a shriek no one should ever have to hear, sparks scattering through the murky dark. The two of them traded blows that belonged in a movie—inhuman, impossible, superhuman.
But unlike a movie, what was unfolding in front of me was reality, plain and simple. Every dull, meaty impact drew pained grunts and showers of blood. When I clearly imagined how it would end—one of them dead—my whole body snapped alert.
This wasn't the time to stand here.
And yet… what exactly could I do?
Stepping into a battle that defied all common sense to "help" Ryeonhwa would only get in her way.
I'd confirmed a demon existed, so should I just run? Call the police? Or…
At the dead end of my tangled thoughts, the face of the demon waiting at home rose in my mind.
"Gghaa―!! Ghuuuh―!! Ggheehuhh!!"
The sound of agony yanked my attention back to reality, and I turned toward it. There was Seohyun, collapsed on the ground, convulsing, foam spilling from her mouth.
Her body twisted, her eyes rolling back—she looked like she could die at any moment. This was life-or-death, and everyone could see it.
I wanted to tell Ryeonhwa, but the fight was so precarious that the instant she showed an opening, the demon would take her. I couldn't.
Which left exactly one person who could save Seohyun right now.
Damn it…!
Pat.
After a moment of paralysing indecision, I had no choice. I kicked off from my hiding spot, rushed to Seohyun, hauled her onto my back, and broke into a desperate sprint to get away.
"Ah… so you're the man the god prophesied in the dream."
I thought I heard the demon murmur something as it spotted me, but with a human life slung over my back, I had no room left for deeper thoughts.
"That man… so he really was the irregular. What is that man…"
Tap, tap…
On a rooftop, a girl watched the man sprinting below with a body slung over his back, tapping her finger against her temple.
Her face was drawn and bleary, dark circles carved deep beneath her eyes like someone who hadn't slept in days, and she stared after him unblinking.
"Hello? I'm the Demon of Dreams of this generation."
She hadn't sensed a single sign of approach. The voice from behind her startled her so badly her whole body flinched, and she whirled around.
"…You."
Krrzzt.
The presence that had crept up behind her wore the shape of a human being—but like corrupted static, its form refused to resolve into anything she could see.
From the aura rolling off it, she could tell it was kin. A fellow demon. But that was all she could tell.
"What do you want?"
How had that demon grasped her title in a single glance? How had it appeared behind her without so much as a footstep? What was its purpose?
And this aura rolling off it… this skin-crawling, heart-stopping, overwhelming dread—what was it…
Only then did the girl realize that cold sweat was running down her face.
"I am the demon of ■■."
The formless being introduced itself in a voice thick with laughter, yet somehow, part of it didn't reach her ears at all.
"…What?"
"I'll say it again. I am the demon of ■■."
Still, the girl could not make out what stood before her. But that wasn't what mattered.
This was no time to be trying to analyze an opponent.
She must not become entangled with this being. She must not fight it.
Every cell in her body, every instinct she owned, was screaming at her.
That thing was an Archdemon—
"Rawr."
KWA-BOOM.
The formless being playfully spread both hands wide, then clapped them shut—and from the ground where the girl had stood, the head of a black beast burst up and swallowed her whole in a single bite.
Nothing remained where the beast had swallowed her, but the formless being didn't seem to care.
"Just an illusion after all. The Demons of Dreams always were. Still, having her presence torn away like that will hurt quite a bit."
It turned its attention from the empty spot where she'd vanished and looked up at the moonlit sky.
"What will my children get up to this generation? I'm already looking forward to it."
Across the faceless being, the shape of a smile surfaced—and faded.
Then it looked down at the man below, running for his life, and its voice brimmed over with joy.
"My love… even the way you run is beautiful. Don't worry—I'm always right beside you. There is nothing in this world that could put you in even the slightest danger. Not even… a god."
The formless being—the demon—poured every ounce of heat it had into its voice, and confessed.
"I love you."
And to the man, its love would never change.