Deviant: No Longer Human

"You're offering me money?"

"W-What else do you expect, creep? My tribe hires mages for small tasks like this" she paused. "Not that I care what you are. But… even someone like you probably does anything for coin, right?"

His lips curled.

"So now I'm 'someone like me'?"

"I didn't say that!"

"You did."

Aurora bit her lip, flustered. "Tch… Just take it and go do the job already."

She wanted him out of the way.

She wanted him out of her head.

He stared at her hands, not the gold, and slowly reached forward.

Without a word, his fingers wrapped around hers.

"Ah!"

She flinched as her entire palm was swallowed by his grip. She tried pulling back, but he held her there, gently, yet unyielding.

Then, with deliberate slowness, he ran his thumb along the soft lines of her palm.

Back and forth.

Up and down.

Tracing every inch like it was a scripture.

Her face flushed.

"W-What are you doing?!"

He ignored her words and leaned slightly closer.

"So warm," he muttered. "Have you ever worked a day in your life with hands like these?"

Her fingers twitched.

"L-Let go! I'll scream"

"You always scream," he said flatly. "But never loud enough for anyone to come."

That made her pause.

He smirked.

"How many times have you called for help, little girl? And they never found me. Do you still think I'm a dream?"

She stiffened. "You are a dream. A bad one."

His thumb pressed into her pulse.

"Then why do you come back?"

Aurora sucked a deep breath.

Her hand trembled, not from pain, but from the unfamiliar heat crawling up her skin.

He let go.

She stumbled back a step, eyes wide, cheeks scarlet.

"The payment is enough," he said simply, ignoring the gold entirely.

She stared at him, speechless.

He looked up toward the sky, then back to the portal beside them.

"So? What is it you want me to do?"

Aurora didn't answer right away.

She clenched her fists, the one he touched still tingled.

Finally, she turned away, muttering:

"…There's a cave. I need something from inside. But it's cursed."

She glanced back at him.

"I was going to go alone. But now that you're here… you owe me."

Wang Xiao smiled faintly.

"Owe you? After such generous payment?"

She glared. "Don't twist my words."

He stepped forward slowly, until his shadow fell over hers.

Aurora's heart pounded, but when he didn't touch her, only said:

"Take me there."

She exhaled softly, hiding her relief. Then turned and walked, leading the way through the open grasslands, past scattered stone markers, toward the entrance of a damp, unlit cave.

Wang Xiao followed, calm and silent.

Just before they reached the cave mouth, he spoke.

"Aren't you scared I'll expose you?"

Aurora stopped.

She turned, her voice defensive and sharp.

"Then I'll expose you back. You've been harassing me using your powers. In our tribe, people like you get hanged. Also…" she turned her head with a smirk, "aren't mages like you known for doing anything for gold?"

Wang Xiao laughed lightly.

"Mutual destruction, huh? How bold."

He studied her expression.

"You really think your tribe could trap me once they know what I am?"

Aurora's eyes flickered, she shook her head. "You don't understand us."

But she didn't elaborate.

She didn't need to.

Wang Xiao already knew.

Their tribe, known for healing and natural communion, was also steeped in shadow, their dead didn't return to earth… they were studied. Dissected and reused.

Their elders were strong. Wise, secretive, but still beneath him.

As they stepped into the cave, the walls turned wet and stale, reeking of decay and moss. Bioluminescent fungi covered the walls, casting a ghostly green glow.

Then he saw it.

A body.

Wounded, still breathing.

A fair-skinned boy lay slumped against the wall, head bleeding, a blackened wound gaping in his stomach. The edges of the flesh were rotting, spreading like mold.

He turned to her.

She looked away.

"Pick it up," she commanded coldly, masking the shake in her voice.

Wang Xiao didn't move.

"I don't do tasks like these."

Aurora stiffened. "You promised!"

"I said I'd help. But I don't help without knowing what I'm helping with." He glanced at the body in the cave, "You're going to throw him into the pit, aren't you?"

She froze.

Her eyes widened.

"…How do you know?"

The Death Pit. That's what her people called it, the portal to the Graveyard of Gods. A place where things disappeared forever.

Aurora didn't respond, she didn't need to.

Wang Xiao smiled slowly.

"So this is the real reason. You weren't here to test your powers. You were here to dispose of him."

He looked at the wound again, subtle, strange. A living infection. Like parasitic fungi… altering his organs from inside.

He narrowed his eyes. "You didn't fail to heal him. You tested something. And it went wrong."

Aurora looked away.

He could see it in her posture.

Guilt.

Fear.

Shame.

She had probably found the boy while wandering alone, a traveling nomad, easy to snatch.

And she'd used him.

In another version of the world, where Wang Xiao didn't exist, she would've dragged the body here by herself.

No one would've ever known.

But here?

Wang Xiao was watching.

Still, he didn't say a word.

Ten minutes later...

He raised his hand, and with a wave of invisible force, the boy's body lifted into the air.

"W-Wait—"

Too late.

He tossed it into the portal.

A single flash of light, then silence.

Gone.

Aurora let out a slow breath.

Tension drained from her shoulders.

Their tribe experimented, yes, but only on corpses. If she was caught using a living body…

She would be banished.

Wang Xiao looked at her, not with judgment, but with amusement.

"So you're the one who made Aegis."

Her eyes darted toward him in confusion. "What did you say?"

He didn't answer.

He simply stared at the spot where the portal shimmered, still humming faintly.

Of course. It made sense now.

This 'failed experiment', this boy she wanted to erase, would one day return.

Without memories.

Without mercy.

As Emperor Aegis.

The irony struck him like a bell.

She was the one who preserved Aegis body after his death.

She forcefully married him in the future, all in the name of political unification.

And when Aegis finally rose to terrifying heights…

She was probably the happiest when he died.

After all, who could sleep beside a god she once tortured…if he remembered?

Wang Xiao smirked.

What a crafty little girl.

Even now.