Jin Wang quickly waved his hands, "No- I'm sorry it came out that way but…that's not what I meant. It wasn't a threat I-"
Instead of babbling on by himself he walked over to the patch of blood that was left behind from the demon and combed through it with his hands before pulling out a broken necklace made with pebbles.
There were three big pebbles each with some letters carved into them. He brought it back to the elder and handed it over. Elder Har accepted it and after a quick inspection she was left horror-stricken by the implication.
"Is this-?!" she looked up at Jin Wang for confirmation who nodded back, "Yes, it's exactly what you think."
"But then-"
"Yes, that's how it happens."
"By the gods…" she stumbled back requiring one of the other elders to step in for support. Being much more knowledgeable than the others she reached the conclusion much faster.
"What's going on??" Elder Achak inquired impatiently.
Elder Har's expression turned ugly as she threw him the necklace, "This is because of you! If only you hadn't talked us into blindly following your example…"
Still completely clueless as to what she was talking about Elder Achak looked at the necklace himself.
One of the pebbles had a name, the second a date, and third had two other names on it.
The first name was of the child it belonged, the date was the child's date of birth and the two names at the end were of its parents. Necklaces like these were pretty common within the lowly social class of the natives.
They were used as a way to identify the child if they were somehow lost and only used for children below the age of three. Judging by how fresh the engravings were it was probably made within the last six months.
"So? What does this have to do with anything? The demon probably took it from a victim-" Elder Achak concluded but before he could finish Jin Wang explained further.
"No, she didn't," he contested.
Jin Wang seemed a tad bit upset about the timing but now wasn't the time to be holding back and they needed to hear what was happening.
"The demonic creature you fought just now was an ordinary human female up until a few hours ago. A mother, in fact. She had come here like many of the others you just passed on your way over. She had a child, a baby girl if I am not wrong."
"The child had a mild fever and would have been perfectly fine with a warm place to rest and some medicine but no matter how many times she asked for help no one listened. In the end the child died, and the mother…well you saw what happened to her."
Jin Wang didn't usually take things to heart but even he couldn't but feel a little angry explaining how this had come to pass, and how easily it could have been avoided.
"The demons, you see, cannot step into our world unless a hell gate opens. So usually they possess people. Weak-willed individuals that are going through something particularly traumatic, that are in pain and have suffered a major loss. People who are not in the right state of mind."
"The demons reach out from beyond the veil with their incessant whispers, offering whatever the victim wants the most. Relief, joy, retaliation, whatever the situation calls for. I'm guessing the demon you fought just now had offered the mother revenge for the death of her child."
"If someone had only listened to her, lent her a helping hand when she needed it, none of this would have happened."
Elder Achak swallowed a mouthful of saliva to wet his parched throat. He could feel the piercing gazes of the other elders, of even his own guards.
"H-How preposterous! Are you saying we caused the demon to be born just because we didn't help? If that's the case every time we turned someone away they would have turned into a demon, wouldn't they? So why is this the first time I am hearing of it?"
"Because it's the first time this is happening and it doesn't happen every time someone feels wronged. Certain conditions have to be met beforehand but right now, none of that matters. There is a great devil walking among you, a very powerful demonic creature. It's causing all this. Hell's whispers are much stronger because of its power which is solely focused on your world now."
Jin Wang reached into his shirt pocket and took out several other random items like shirt buttons, a small sheath, a toddler's shoe etc. A total of eight items.
"Other than this lady there were eight other people on the verge of becoming demons within the crowd gathered outside the city. I was only looking for one but found that many and seeing as how unprepared you people were, I took care of them for you."
"But understand one thing, you all are in the same boat now. The 'invaders' are coming for your heads, and a devil is coming for your souls.. We will protect your heads as best as we can so the least you can do is safeguard the souls of your people so we don't have to deal with more demons than necessary."
