BACKGROUND
Once upon a time, there was a small village isolated from the rest of the world. Located in such a remote place that contact with other communities was practically non-existent, the villagers could rely on nobody but themselves to get by. Consequentially, life was hard and scarcity was common.
Even still, the villagers lead a proud life while upholding the teachings of God.
In that village, a lovely young woman was born. Not only she was the bearer of a beauty and good health unknown to those parts, her character was also exemplary. More humble than anyone else, more kind-hearted than anyone else and more devoted to God than anyone else, she was the village’s pride and served as everyone’s guiding light with her irreproachable conduct.
Despite the hardships, life in the village was good and virtuous.
However, one day something changed.
It started with subtle things, such as the ambience being often cold and heavy and the local animals acting oddly. However, in time these strange happenings increased in intensity and incidence, and eventually even the people were affected – demonstrating a lunatic, even savage behavior. Little by little, the order of the community was crumbling apart.
Recognizing the threat, the village elders consulted a wise hermit about what was happening. To everyone’s surprise, the hermit pointed out the lovely young woman as the cause of the calamity. Not only that, he advised them to deal with her before the situation got even worse.
Although reluctant at first, the elders made a decision for the sake of the whole community. Regardless of how dear she was to them, the young woman had to be sacrificed so that the village could be saved. Thus, she was captured, taken to an isolated location far away and finally killed – her beheaded body abandoned in a shallow grave at that place.
But unknown to them, the young woman survived that predicament…
Symbiotic Existence
Demon. The Sixth Imaginary Element. A passive thing that is created and summoned by people’s wishes. A realized illusion that built its shape from the human concepts. To materialize, the “shape created by people” is necessary. Regardless of the results, as something that understands and attempts to remove the suffering of people, from a certain point of view they are allies of humans.
The source of that calamity was not actually the young woman, but the demon that had possessed her. After nesting itself on her body, the demon quickly began to develop and grow stronger. The strange happenings were nothing but a natural consequence of the demon’s powers spreading across the surroundings.
Still, the young woman herself was little affected by the demon’s growth. For better or for worse, she was born with a quality to resist – or rather, to accept the demon and its distortions. The more it developed, more the demon became an inherent part of the young woman. By the type the hermit identified her as the source of all evil, she and the demon were already a single existence, living in perfect symbiosis.
Since the way her body worked was completely overwritten by the demon, the young woman could keep on living even after her head and body were split apart. Thus, she revived sometime after being abandoned at that remote place.
Believing that she was wrongly accused, the young woman initially sought revenge against the villagers upon her resurrection. However, upon returning and seeing that life in the village went back to what it was before during her absence, she had no choice but to face the truth. However, doing so completely broke her psyche.
Afterwards, she attempted to protect the village using her newfound demon powers out of guilt. Still, because of her distorted worldview, her methods were no different than outright tormenting the villagers. It wasn’t long before she was praised in fear as Gan Ceann, the demoniac headless rider.
Ironically enough, her activities as Gan Ceann became an encouragement for the villagers to remain being virtuous. In the end, be as a human or as a demon, her role in life never changed. After everything that happened, her existence still served to support and save those around her.