Chapter 37
"Who are you?" Ashiro asked.
Gazel tensed.
Who is this guy?
He didn't feel the usual dark malice demons carried around like a curse. No rot. No hunger. No madness pressing down on the air. So if he wasn't a demon, then what was he?
Gazel swallowed and forced his nerves down.
"I'm just a boy passing through," he said. "I heard the sound of chaos and came to check. I found this place like this. Same as you."
He tried to sound normal. Casual. Forgettable.
Ashiro was not buying it.
No sane person wandered into something like this by accident. And lies always meant one thing.
Something to hide.
Ashiro pressed the tip of the blade closer to Gazel's neck. Blood trickled down.
"Truth might be your ticket to living," he said calmly. "Lying will be your ticket to death."
Gazel's mind raced.
Think.
Then his eyes glinted.
He twisted his neck free and leapt upward at full speed.
Run.
Use the ruins. Disappear. Lose this freak.
