The village was silent and unusually desolate. A faint scent of blood could be smelt from miles away. The sounds of wolves were heard far from the village.
In a relatively small cottage, a girl wearing a red hood and had red hairs and eyes was impaled by a large halberd, the halberd was pierced into her heart and was embedded onto the wall through her back.
Her eyes were lifeless, and on her tight hand, she held a brown picnic basket filled with what seemed to be her own blood.
The girl had obviously met a terrifying demise, but that could be changed….
The dead girls eyes suddenly lit up and she began to cough, the basket in her hand trembled for a moment before countless red tentacles flowed towards the edge and pulled out the halberd and dragged it within the basket.
The dead girls destroyed heart turned to ashes, and a red crystal began to form from the blood in her body, and her wound began to close as her once dead eyes regained a bit of life.
The girl weakly clutched her head in pain. she didn't know what happened, but she did remember making a deal with something to save her.
As she was in a state of confusion, a tentacle from the basket slowly slid across her cheek and comforted her slightly.
Ruby froze for a moment before looking at the basket. strangely, she did not feel disgusted by the tentacle touching her face. It just felt weird and ticklish.
Ruby unknowingly let out a sigh of relief and weakly stood up, her long red hair was messily spread on her back, and her now pale skin was now covered with some blood stains.
All in all today was a bad and horrifying day for Ruby, she had to hide while she heard the screams of all her village friends and family get slaughtered by a monster and she was impaled by halberd by someone who she assumed was the master if that monster.
Then she had overwhelming determination not to die and unknowingly made a deal with an entity, which she was sure it was this basket.
She slowly brought the basket to her face. She then peeked into it and saw countless crimson eyes staring deep into hers among the tentacles.
Ruby quickly looked away and almost threw the basket away. "What are you?!"
The moment she asked that question, Ruby heard countless whispers that said two words. "Equivalent Exchange."
As soon as she heard that, the basket with tentacles spat out a long object from its other end into the wooden floor, it was a halberd that had a long and wide blade with a red crystal embedded on the middle of the blade.
It looked vastly different from the one that impaled her. "Equivalent exchange, trade something of value to get something useful to you, did you eat the previous halberd and exchange it with this one...also did you eat my heart..."
Ruby's voice trailed off at the end, her face pale and uncertain as she took a hesitant step away from the basket. The halberd on the floor shimmered slightly, its crimson crystal pulsing like a heartbeat — her heartbeat.
"…Did you eat my heart?" she repeated in a whisper, this time more to herself than to the creature.
The basket didn't answer in words, but one of its tentacles gently brushed her leg, as if apologizing or perhaps reassuring. Another whisper echoed in her head, this one softer, more intimate — "Life for power. Pain for purpose. Heart for weapon."
Ruby clenched her jaw and looked at the weapon. It pulsed again, and for a brief moment, she felt it — her presence inside it, like a phantom echo. It was warm and familiar, like a part of her soul had been forged into steel.
"I don't know what you are," she muttered, picking the halberd up with trembling hands. It was heavy, but it responded to her grip as if moulded to it. The weight didn't feel foreign — it felt right.
"…But I guess I don't have much choice."
She glanced around the ruined cottage. The floorboards were soaked with blood, claw marks were etched into the walls, and the door had been torn off its hinges. Outside, the howling of wolves had stopped — replaced by silence far too oppressive to be natural.
Ruby's breath hitched. That silence meant only one thing.
"They're still here…" she whispered, her eyes narrowing.
Suddenly, the basket stirred again. A small scroll, wrapped in a blood-red ribbon, rose from its mouth and floated toward her. Ruby caught it, her fingers hesitant, and unfurled it slowly. The parchment was written in a strange language, but she understood it instinctively — as though the knowledge had been embedded in her mind.
---
Blood Contract: Pact of the Abyss
> Bearer: Ruby of the Red Hood
Entity: ??? (The Crimson Maw)
Terms of Exchange:
One human heart willingly surrendered — fulfilled
Binding: Eternal until equivalent reversal — sealed
Ability:
Equivalent Exchange:Give the basket any valuable item and get something more valuable and useful to you.
Ruby's hands trembled as she finished reading the scroll. The parchment dissolved into red mist, seeping into her skin like ink into paper. She gasped, clutching her chest — not in pain but in sudden awareness.
The heart beating within her… wasn't quite human anymore.
Her senses sharpened. The wind brushing past the cottage carried more than cold — it whispered secrets. She could feel faint vibrations through the ground, footsteps moving nearby. Something — someone — was searching.
Ruby crouched low, her halberd glowing faintly in the dim light. She stared at the basket, now motionless, save for a soft breathing-like rise and fall, as though it was sleeping. Or waiting.
"Eternal until equivalent reversal," she repeated the contract's words.
That meant there was no undoing it. Unless…
Unless she gave something even greater than her everything.
Rubies arm tightened on the halberd as she came to that realization. She sighed and realized there was nothing she could do about that, but now she has other things to worry about than being terrified she formed a contract with something unknown.
Ruby slightly opened the door, and the beam of moonlight spilt into the small house, Ruby took a deep breath and immediately walked outside the small house.
The moon was crescent and was high above the sky as it illuminated the village and revealed within what hid in the darkness. Ruby could see pieces of flesh and pools of blood all over the village.
A scent of blood so unbearable that it almost made Ruby throw up when it came to her nose. The bloodshed and carnage were traumatising to look at, but Ruby had to continue looking so she would be aware of any movement in the darkness.
She stepped out of the house and into the village, the basket lifted itself off the ground and floated beside Ruby.
Ruby slowly walked with the halberd in her arms to the entrance of the village. On her way, she saw broken bodies of some villagers. She shuddered and walked quickly when she saw their mangled and bloodied bodies. It was horrowing, but strangely, Ruby did not feel that much connection to any of them.
It's not that she's heartless. These people were her family and took care of her since she was the only orphan in the village, but that's all there is to it, they may seem nice to her outwardly but she has heard their 'whispers' about trying to get her to like the village chiefs sun and get married to him and she also occasionally heard them calling her The Crimson devil some time or Little Red Riding Hood, the first nickname was because of her red eyes and hair and the other was because she always wore a hooded dresses she stitches herself.
She is sad by the terrifying departure of the village folks, but a part of her doesn't care. It may seem ungrateful, but that's how Ruby feels, If you're helping someone using other intentions, there is no need to be thankful to the helper.
That is why she is not thankful for the Crimson Maw. She gave her everything to form a pact with it, but it didn't have any good intentions, so she doesn't need to be thankful to an entity like that.
Ruby stopped her trains of thought and paused as she heard a rustle coming from the trees near the path that was trailing to the village.
"AWOOOOO?!."
With a loud crash, the visage of a large black wolf with purple eyes destroyed the trees and appeared before Ruby.
The wolf stood tall—at least three meters at the shoulder—and its fur was matted with dried blood and strange black ichor that shimmered under the moonlight. Its eyes glowed with malevolence, two violet suns locked onto Ruby with a predator's gaze.
The beast sniffed the air. It paused. Then, its lips curled into a snarl that revealed long jagged fangs.
Ruby instinctively stepped back, the halberd tightening in her grip. Her 'heart' pulsed, and the gem on the halberd glowed. She gritted her teeth and pointed it at the large beast.
Thr wolf growled and then started walking around her like a hunter cornering it's prey, without a moment of hesitation, the wolf lunged at Ruby with its claws outstretched.
Ruby swiftly used the handle of the halberd as a shield, saving her from a grevious injury. Seeing this, the wolf growled and exerted strength to its claws with the intentions of breaking the pointy stick.
The weapon did not get damaged, but the pressure did make Ruby be pushed back.
The wolf growled at its failed action. It let out a howl and opened its large jaws to chomp down on Ruby's head, but was staggered when the flat end of the halberd suddenly contacted with its face.
Ruby was terrified at the moment, hitting the large wolf was out of instinct, and she realized she could have used the sharp side of the weapon to attack, so in the wolf's moment of confusion, Ruby used the halberd and swiped at the limbs of the wolf.
As the halberd was about to hit, the red gem on the blade glowed and enhanced the sharpness and strength of the attack, making the blade cut through the thick flesh of the wolf and damaged it's bone.
It took a single second for the wolf to register the pain before it howled and immediately used its paw to pin down Ruby.
Ruby's heart was pulsing in her chest, and she immediately pulled back the halberd and moved back a meter, dodging the deadly swipe of the wolf.
The wolf, now enraged, looked at Ruby with its Violet eyes, and once again, it howled. This time, it's howl contained a mystical and enchanting ring to it.
The wolf's shadow expanded, and from it, two smaller entities made from shadows resembling the giant wolf stood in both its sides. The shadow wolves didn't wait to receive an order and immediately went on to attack Ruby.
Ruby has become such more terrified than before, and she could have sworne the wolf looked st her with a smug expression as if saying. 'What are you going to do now, little girl.'
Either way, she had to steel herself and fight if she wanted to survive this encounter. She steadied her breath and calmed down. How she was using the halberd was quite inefficient. Usually, a halberd is used in a wide area to both defend and attack at the same time. It is both supposed to work as an impenetrable territory and a one that can fight back.
At this moment, she could only attack, and she had limited options. She took on a calm posture, her halberd slightly pointed, and her left leg at the back while her right in the front, the red gem glowing slightly, giving a red sheen on the blade.