The Demon Mage Pt. 02

Suddenly I hear sobbing to my right. The voice was familiar.

I shoulder past a student to see a young girl curled fearfully on the ground, clutching her legs before her, leaning against the large wall of a building. It was Lisa.

Her eyes that had once bore anguish and hatred are now fearful, it was as if I were looking at a small child. She was talking to herself.

"I'm-I'm going to die today. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'll be with you soon, Lucy."

Tears roll down her round features. Suddenly, she notices me looking at her. Her eyes widened slightly.

"You're a demon, right?"

She said, and I felt my face numb. I step away from her in surprise of the words she spoke so casually and plainly.

"You can feel it too, can't you?"

The walls of the buildings around us explode, raining down brick and stone, glass shattering to the dirt streets. The shapes of demons spill out of the buildings, hurling themselves at the crowd of young mages.

The crowd erupts into a chaos of screams and moving bodies, attempting to flee from the threat surrounding them.

Bodies slam into mine, becoming obscure shapes in the screen of dust and grime that filled the city streets. I'm thrown to the dirt. I attempt to stand, or get to my knees, but the legs of the students slam into me. An unseen foot kicks me hard in the temple, and my vision blackens, and the world around devolves into an endless ringing in my ears. Screams of mages casting spells, and the screeches of demons fill the void as I'm trampled. I pull myself up by my hands, attempting to blink the darkness out of my vision, the color slowly returning to the world around me, crawling forward, steadily getting to my feet. I glare around at the evading students. Flashes of light ripple through the void of smoke and students, as I try to figure out where I was in the line.

I turn to see the wall that I had been standing next to.

The body of Lisa lays slightly jutting out from beneath a large mass of stone rubble that had fallen from the building.

I stumble away from the corpse, nearly falling to the ground to once again be trampled.

Panicked, I glare through the smoke, straining my eyes, praying for any glimpse of them.

"MORGANA! GREGOR!"

I scream into the smoke. More students slam into me, but I hold my ground. I push through the students, forcefully knocking their bodies out my way, screaming the names over and over again.

I felt my throat becoming raw. Panic was consuming me, taking hold and tearing me from concentration or rational thinking. I couldn't feel my body running, shoving men and women to the ground, scanning the crowds.

A black form leaps from the dust and slams into the body of a young girl in front of me. Her screams tear into my ears as the demon rips apart her body.

"Hastar, ext norime mustarcarus fiern!"

I shout, and the demon's body violently combusts, the black of demon blood raining through the smoke. I stumbled over to the girl, but there was nothing left to save.

Before I could move, I'm thrown off my feet. I hit the ground hard, a demon snapping its fangs at my throat. I hurl the demon away from my body. I attempted to stand but the monster recovered quickly and was hurtling towards me on all fours. I roll away from its lunge, and continue running.

"Ziero Encarsas Fiern!"

A bolt of electricity jolts with a bright flash of light before me, and a broad bull demon charging at a crowd of students falls heavily to the Earth.

I turn towards the source of the spell, to see Gregor, his form standing tall and his hand outstretched, yards away.

He sees me and his eyes light up.

"Laizen! You're o-"

He trails off, and his eyes suddenly widen.

"LAIZEN WATCH OUT!"

I whip around to feel something solid slam into my face. I don't feel my body hit the ground. The world swirls around me in a haze of grey and black, the fleeting forms of people dashing through the dust. Before me, stood the hulking figure of a demon wielding a large metal axe, his dark scaled arms were posed to bring the axe down, when a crackling bolt of light from behind me sears the demon's chest, sending the monster backwards.

I turn over onto my stomach, struggling to my feet, trying to ignore the sway of the world around me, and the blood that poured from my nose.

I look up to see Gregor moving to assist me, when two lanky demons are surrounding him, welding rusted broadswords. One of them takes a swing at him, and he quickly ducks away, casting a spell that pushes one of the demons into one of the buildings.

He raises his arm to push away the other, but not soon enough to stop the swing of its blade.

Gregor's severed arm hits the earth.

I couldn't hear his screams, nothing but his face contorted with fear and excruciating pain. I stumble away, turning my gaze as the demon skewers him through his stomach with the large blade.

I knock into running people, trying to calm my breathing, the trembling of my body, to stop everything.

Bodies of humans and demons fall around me.

Demons bound at me, scraping on all fours. I cast spells at random towards them. But there was too many of them. I attempt to duck out of their way, but their claws and fangs tear my skin.

I run from the demons, my footing unsteady, tripping over bodies.

I shout into the air swirling with grime and dust.

"Demon, please- help."

The demon inside of me now hovers at my side. He watches me as I run, a dark expression cast over his face.

"I need your strength."

The demon is visibly staggered, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

A crimson cloak flutters through the smoke.

I bound towards it, and standing amidst the rubble of a ruined stone wall was Morgana.

She sees me coming, and the fear in her eyes faded to something I couldn't recognize amidst the chaos.

Before I could think our bodies abandoned all restraint, and we were holding each other in a tight embrace.

I could feel her heartbeat pound against me, her face buried into my chest. She looks up to me, and her face becomes a shade of red. She steps abruptly backwards, as if realizing what she was doing.

"We have to get out of here Laizen, we need to find somewhere safe."

The dust was fading, revealing more of the battle around us. The light has almost faded from the day, leaving everything in sinister shadow, pouring over the bodies and struggles taking place around them. Nothing but the flashes of incantations break through the dark.

I nod to Morgana and turn to search for a safer place.

Yards away, I see a man fighting against a swarm of demons, bearing down on him.

A sweeping conjuration of fire skaters across the ground, to put distance between the demons that were surrounding him. Hellfire bursts from the palm of a rotting skeleton demon, but the man quickly puts up a translucent barrier. A demon to his right lunges with a sickle, forcing the man to hit the dirt road rolling. He ends the pursuing demon with a sharp spiral of red light. He casts spells desperately at the skeleton demon who sidestepped the incoming curses. The skeleton was inches away, and just as the skeleton landed a fist of hellfire, he used a rebound spell that sent the hellfire back into the Skeleton. A screech rings out into the night as the skeleton burns slowly in the black flame, falling to the earth.

The fire that was growing around him brought his features to light, and Reckner stood, his chest heaving, watching as the demon was consumed by its own hellfire.

Behind him, a demon appears, his black and lanky arms wielding a spear, aimed for the Captain's head.

Everything left my body. My fear, my pain.

I felt myself speaking out loud, my voice not of a scared student, but a deep growl of a demon.

"Give it to me."

The demon was standing at my side, his eyes sharp on Reckner and the demon swinging it's weapon to end him.

"Very well."

The demon said.

My legs were hurdling me over the dirt, my muscles strained, I didn't feel as my mage's cloak fell from my body.

I abandoned casting a spell and grabbed the feral and rotting face of the demon. I bring it violently down to the dirt road, its skull caving in with a vicious crack.

Motion returns to the world around me. I feel my lungs burn, and take deep, erratic breaths as I straighten myself. I turn to Reckner, who stood inches away, his metallic eyes not discomposed but saying something else entirely:

You saved my life.

A voice speaks behind us.

"A demon disguised as a student."

I turn to see a tall and aged man adorned with greying hair, navy robes draped over his body.

The head mage, Lucius Gorren, glares at me, his sharp green eyes darkened with disgust at what stood before him.

I look down at myself. My shirt was stained with black and red, my arms the familiar reddish tint of my demon form, sharp black claws pointed from my fingers.

The head mage raises his hand to me, the light of a spell castering over his palm and at the ready.

I take an involuntary step back, my heart pounding in my ears.

"Are you behind this attack? Why were these demons in the center of this city?"

I'm unable to speak, I attempt to raise my claws innocently but that only succeeded to raise Lucius' guard. The spell flared angrily in his hand.

"Well, are you! Speak, MONSTER."

I take another step back. The demons on the street had been for the most part fought off, mages who had survived now gathering closer to the scene before them.

Lucius' face was reddening and obstructed with rage.

Dust is swirling around the mage's feet. His aura pressed against mine, and it's raw weight nearly staggered me. Before me was a true mage.

I closed my eyes, awaiting the call to darkness, when I suddenly hear a movement, a crunch of glass and rubble underfoot.

I open my eyes, and Reckner stands before me, an arm outstretched and aimed at the head mage.

Lucius' eyes widened.

"Now isn't that quite a gesture."

I felt my blood turn cold at the sound of the voice. It was a deep, disgruntling sound that split through the street, and I turned to see a man, standing yards away.

All attention is turned to him. The courtyard lies in absolute silence.

The man was draped in a cloak that blended into the shadows of the night. The man would have looked human, if it weren't for the black wicked lines that are etched into his face and body like cracks on the surface of ice. He sported a smile that curved beneath the glow of two reddish-orange eyes that seemed to float in the darkness.

Whatever it was, it wasn't human, the sinister aura that flowed from his body like a murky fog could not have belonged to a human.

His eyes scan over the crowds of mages with a perked eyebrow of bizarre amusement.

"Ghouls,"

He said with a calmness that shook me.

"Get these pests out of my sight."

Coming from his flank, gusts of black smoke spill through the crowds, and within those shifting spirals, the absurd screams of demons.

The smoke knocks into me, and I fall heavily onto the dirt road.

I could hear Morgana scream amongst the black that was consuming us.

"Laizen!"

She breaks through the dark, and grabs me by the shoulders. The terror in her eyes was something I had never witnessed.

"We have to get out of here, that is-"

Suddenly the smoke, the screams dissipated in the quiet of the night. The mages were no longer around us.

A nauseating squelching noise broke the silence of the night.

Behind Morgana towered a demon with horns curving from its face, a blade piercing through her stomach, the blood soaked blade pointing at me from where I lay.

I could barely hear myself scream:

"Morgana!"

I stumbled over catch her as she fell to her knees, but I was too late, and her legs hit the dirt road.

"You treasonous bitch,"

I turn over to see the man with the cracked features looking at Morgana with distaste. Behind him, a squadron of ghouls, standing amidst their demonic smaug.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't find out that you killed a very valuable Sleeper Demon in my cause? Now step out of that damned human body."

I watched Morgana who looked up to the man, her cream eyes darkened, her hand clutching the wound gouged into her stomach, spilling blood over the dirt road littered with rubble and glass.

In a swirl of black and silver that laced the air, the woman before me collapses lifelessly to the earth. The soul of the woman who truly owned the body, was long dead. In the wake of the corpse, materializing before me in a shimmer of dark colors that brought shape to the real Morgana.

A tall, beautiful Succubus stands over the body of the woman. She was naked, her curved form bore lines that traced her limbs, black curls pouring over her shoulders, and wavering over a pair of silvery eyes. I see those same silvery eyes looking up to me with lust, in the moon lit darkness of my room.

"Morgana... You..."

I attempt to say, unable to speak evenly, lost for words, feeling heat in my face.

She was avoiding my gaze, her eyes strained and focused on the man before us.

He smiles lightly.

"Vorienem, take her."

The demon who had skewered the human body takes Morgana firmly by the arm, and leads her towards the stranger.

I manage to my feet, watching the demon drag her away.

Finally the man's eyes rested on me.

"I wouldn't resist if I were you."

I take a step back, looking over the line of demons behind him, the black tendrils of smoke slowly stretching through the street.

The man nods to one of the demons, a bulky minotaur-like creature wielding a grotesque axe. He breaks from the crowd of demons and walks over to me, taking me by the shoulder.

The man's eyes bore into mine, and they seemed to see into every part of me, every fiber of my being.

"We have much to discuss, Laizen Garrison."

The man smiles at me.

I lift my hand, my fingers hovering over the large demon's arm.

"Vexus Impule."

I mutter.

With a sickening crack that ricocheted the buildings, the demon's arm is sliced clean from his body, and hits the ground with a weighted thud.

The demon's blood-curdling roar shakes the ground around me.

I push him away, and step away from the crowd. The man was chuckling at the scene before him. I aim my hand at the stranger, but before I could cast anything, I am swarmed by the black of ghouls. All color is drained from the world.

Panicking, I thrash my limbs out against the swirling smaug, gasping for air, feeling the demons bearing down at me, their claws reaching from the dark tendrils like rigid blades.

I feel something collide with my head, and the world is gone. The peace of the void greets me.

...

I awaken to the pungent odor of mold.

Something cold lay beneath me, and I lifted myself shakily and with much effort to a sitting position.

My body was sore, my muscles raw and overextended. I squinted my eyes, and my acute sight quickly adjusted to the near perfect darkness.

I sit in a dank cell, nothing but a bucket and ruined tuffs of rags that lay in disarray over the slimy stone floor.

Wherever I am, I'm underground.

I look over my body.

My cloak was gone, leaving me sitting in my now tattered shirt and pants. My wounds were gone, nothing but a soreness buried in my limbs. I was once again in my human form.

I had been healed.

A steel bar wall and door reveals a tall figure standing outside of my cell in a torchlit hall, a sword holstered to their hip.

I stand up slowly, keeping my breath calm and quiet.

I raise my hand, muttering the incantation:

"Perilis nol fiern."

But nothing happened, all that greeted me was the silence of the cell.

The guard outside turns abruptly to my noise, revealing its face.

It was a tall wolf demon, it's dark haired body covered by black leather armor. Sickly blue eyes look to where I stood in the cell.

"You're awake."

He grumbled, his voice thin and hoarse.

His eyes trail over my outstretched hand, and he grunts with amusement.

"This entire prison is laced with magic repulsion runes, don't even try it, freak."

I drop my hand.

Desperate, I concentrate, staring into the wolf's eyes, attempting to summon what I had felt, what I had done, to Reckner in the bathroom.

To this, the wolf smiles. Suddenly his fists clash against the cell, causing me to step backwards. Seeing that he succeeded in scaring me, his smile widened, his fangs white against the dark cell.

"Your perverted Incubus magic won't work on other demons, idiot."

He gives the cell a knock with his claw, and turns his back to me.

After moments of silence, though, his ears are perking.

He speaks into the empty hall:

"Yes sir. He is awake sir. Right away."

The wolf turns back to me, grabbing a key chain from his belt, and unlocking the door.

I glare at him, as he gestures to me with a claw.

"The master will see you now."

He takes me by the arm and pulls me out of the cell.

I'm led to the narrow halls of the prison, the flickering torch light dimly illuminating the dank stone.

The wolf states, a couple steps ahead of me:

"Don't even try to escape. You're surrounded by demons, you wouldn't be able to even take a step outside before getting cut down."

I don't respond, watching the shadows on the wall, attempting to keep myself calm and collected.

I hear the Sleeper Demon, her sharp voice a distant nightmare:

You'll meet the master even if you're barely alive.

The stone walls steadily widen, doors beginning to line the walls along with wooden support beams placed here and there. We passed several demons who slunk down the hall, casting me vicious side-glances of disapproval in their wake.

We suddenly arrive at a pair of grand oakwood doors. Etched hastily into the doors were a vague demonic language and pentagrams.

The demon motions his head towards the doors.

"He is waiting."

The demon eyes me as I look over the doors, struggling to move.

I force myself, twisting one of the handles and pushing the heavy door open. As I entered the room, I thought I could hear something once again muttered under the wolf's breath:

"Freak."

The door slams behind me, leaving in a large room, fitted with a roaring fireplace at its end. What looked to be a long wooden conference table was in the room's center, its glossy tabletop reflective of the dancing flames.

At its end, the man sat before a plate filled to the brim with food, another plate and goblet of liquid placed in an empty chair nearby.

"Hello Laizen, please, take a seat and join me for dinner. I dare say a hybrid like you must be famished."

I don't respond. I walk towards the vacant seat, listening to the hollow echo my footsteps on the stone walls.

As I moved to take a seat, the man raised himself upwards, extending an arm for me to shake.

I lower myself onto the wooden chair, ignoring the outstretched hand.

The man smiles lightly, returning to his chair.

"I see that I may have not been a good first impression,"

He said, his deep voice calm, and collected.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Agnes. I am your father."

The room was cold suddenly. The heat the fire had been producing had completely dissipated, leaving me sitting in a numbing chill.

I glare speechless at the man.

The man motions a fork at the food in front of me, as if his words left no impression on me, a simple conversation free of any sort of hostility.

"I planned an entire invasion just to capture you and rattle that city up before my plans."

He said, shoveling some sort of meat that looked to be beef into his mouth. His tongue was dark, and the gums of his mouth were blackening.