Demon of the Diaboli

[Suno_Regin]

Part One

Retribution

A dark figure leaped from the mountainside, landing further down the base and continuing to run down after hitting ground. His scythe gleamed from the small light given off from the lava flowing down the mountain beside him. His long black hair streamed gracefully in the air as he ran, and his legs kept their pace for as long as he remained on the mountainside. Leaping one final time, he raised his scythe and slashed into the crowd at the base of the mountain, instantly slaying one of them, knocking others on the ground with the shaft. Quickly, the Diaboli on the ground backed away, and looked in terror at the dark figure that had just appeared after gaining distance. Their friend lie dead, and this mysterious figure stood over the corpse, looking down at it as his scythe was held high in the air with both hands. His pure black eyes then glanced at everyone in the area, the purple markings on his flesh pulsating like a bloodstream, and his dark armor shined as the lava finally reached the base of the mountain.

No movements were made, only observations and cowering...when suddenly, the dark figure stabbed the scythe's shaft into the ground, and his arm began to light the area with dark electricity. It circulated for a few seconds, then he dashed at the nearest person, holding his normal arm in front as the one filled with the electrical current flew behind his back as he ran. The man he was after tried to stand up and run, but the dark figure grabbed him by the horn, and as he thrusted back to look at his death, before even a second passed, the creature held his face in his palm. The electricity circulated faster, and suddenly an explosion knocked the man's body back a few yards as it was ignited with a black flame, blood gushing from the hole in his neck.

The dark figure looked at his hand, a grin coming across his face...then he looked back at everyone else. A few of them began to scream, others tightened the grip on their blades and charged at him. The creature jumped back and grabbed his scythe from the ground, and charged at them as well. Before clashing, he hit the ground with the tip of the scythe's shaft, launching himself in the air above the crowd. They looked back at him when he landed, but were not fast enough to react as he sweeped them down with the scythe. Three of them were beheaded, the fourth lie on the ground cowering...she tripped and fell before being hit. She rolled around and looked up at the dark figure, seeing that he was now looking down into her eyes. She realized that he didn't look like a native demon...but instead more like a Diaboli upon closer inspection. He had horns and a tail like the rest of them, his skin was the same color as theirs, the only difference being his unusual eyes and the markings across his body. She looked at the scythe as it was slowly rising over her body, and she screamed as the scythe began to come down upon her with great force. The last thing she saw before her death was the purple spiral drawn on the scythe pulsating like the markings on the flesh of the Diaboli.

He turned around and realized that everyone else had abandoned their friends, and noticed that the lava was slowly catching up with him. He quickly ran from it, and after a few steps reached a river that had a strong current of blood flowing downstream...without hesitation, he jumped into it and disappeared...

[Suno_Regin]

Life Changing Experience

In the wasteland of the Diaboli homeworld, there was a promise made to the inhabitants that they would find a peaceful land where they could live happily, far away from where they are now. Vodùl said that he would made a portal to a place called Yliakum, dubbed the 'promised land'. At that time, Nalkorash, an ordinary Diabolo, was happy that he and his family could go somewhere away from all of the demons and thieves roaming around the land.

"What are we going to do once we get there?" Nalkorash asked his elderly mother.

"Hm...well I suppose if we're being offered this chance to move away, they'll show us how to adapt once we get there. I'm sure we'll know once that time comes."

They walked down the path, smoke clouding the sky from a volcano that had just erupted a few kilometers away from where they were. They were carrying a wagon full of supplies. Nalkorash's little brother and his mother were riding in the wagon, while he and his father helped pull it to the location of where the portal was going to open.

"Where are we going Nal?" his little brother asked him.

"To a place...where we can be happy," he replied with a smile on his face.

They setup a fire after they started to get weary, and fell asleep next to it. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Nalkorash heard a scream. He woke up and saw that his mother had been slain...and thieves were raiding their camp. Nalkorash watched, taking deep breaths trying to figure out what he was seeing. A man saw him staring, and walked up to him, grabbing his chin and looking into his eyes.

"Where's the food, huh?" he asked, his breath smelling like rotten fish. He was unable to reply, just staring into the eyes of the thief and trying to keep from making too much sound with his breaths. The thief spit in his face and pulled out a dagger, stabbing him in the arm. He let out a shriek from the pain, and fell to his side grabbing his arm where he'd been stabbed. It throbbed heavily, and he couldn't stop the bleeding.

He looked over to see that his little brother and his father were already slain as well, and the thieves were walking off with their cargo toward the portal...the man who'd stabbed him turned back around and looked at him, wondering if he was going to die or not. Not waiting too long to find out, he stabbed Nalkorash in the chest with the same dagger, and picked him up as he was unconscious from losing so much blood. He threw him into a nearby river filled with blood, and ran to catch up with his gang.

[Suno_Regin]

Contamination

Nalkorash blinked, and suddenly thrusted his head in all directions, looking around trying to figure out where he was. He felt something pushing against his legs, and he realized that he was waist-deep in the river of blood. He quickly pushed himself out and ran a few steps backwards, tripping and falling on his back. He layed there and tried to recall what had just happened to him, images of his slain family, and the thieves coming to mind...he started to cry heavily, tears pouring from his eyes, and his breathing was so distorted from the pain of loss that he made loud yelps trying to regain himself.

Just then, his head began to throb heavily, and he shook rapidly with pain. His eyes lost their color, and faded into black. He held his head in his hands and screamed as something began to penetrate through his skin from the inside. The feeling stopped once whatever was inside of him reached the surface. It appeared to be a full-body tattoo that had a rough feel to it, and crawled on his skin like a parasite. It started to grow up from his arms and legs. Once the parasite reached his chest via the legs, it began to crawl into some sort of symmetrical shape. They shot downward in opposite directions upon reaching his breasts, and when reaching the side of his torso, they circled off and came to a stop. At the point where they curved on his breast, they rose up to his neck, another parasitic marking growing down from where it started to continue up his neck and forming a V-shape in the middle of his chest. Right before crawling on his face, they parted and went around his neck, then stopped...then it continued up to his face and on his cheeks, and began to spiral around his horns, stopping at the very tip of them. The parasite's markings on his arms cut off when forming a circle on the back of his hands, and when reaching the neck, they connected with the parasitic marking that was already formed there. Suddenly, it began to sink into his flesh, losing its rough feel, but keeping the markings on his body.

He could do nothing but make sounds of terror, his skin was itching and burning from what had just happened...he opened his eyes and noticed that everything looked different to him now...everything was black, and hard to make out. He looked back into the river of blood and noticed that it was also black...when looking at his own hands, the only thing that had color to him were the markings that had appeared on his flesh. As he began to examine his body, he noticed that the markings sort of...pulsated. The feeling had disappeared now, but he saw something flow through them...it looked like blood, but of a different color. Suddenly he screamed again, and fell back down to the ground trying to figure out what happened to him...was something in that river? He wasn't sure, but after about an hour he stood and blinked a few times to try and fix his vision, but to no avail.

He started to walk alongside the river, remembering that he'd heard tales of slain demons being tossed into these rivers...that's probably why it was filled with blood. And with the open cuts that were on his body, that blood got inside of him and...a realization came over him just then. His wounds were completely healed...and that demon blood was now inside of his body...he closed his eyes and could do nothing but shake with terror, not believing all that happened in such a short time...was he now a demon...?

In a few seconds, his thoughts slowly died, and his body moved itself back down along the river, looking around for something. He was no longer himself...

[Suno_Regin]

Recovery

His feet were dragging across the ground as he walked. He was completely lifeless, the darkness in his eyes being a void. All he could hear was the sound of the ground shaking from another volcano getting ready to erupt, and the sound of the blood from the river smacking against rocks along the riverside. While walking, Nalkorash heard strange noises coming from his own body. He looked down and realized that there was electricity circulating all over him...however, he could feel nothing from it, and continued to walk. He didn't really care, either...he had no more feelings of fear or anguish, as the demon inside of him was mostly in control now. He'd lost so much blood from being stabbed, that the demon blood took place of all the blood he'd lost, and filled his veins, giving him new life...that may be the reason why he wasn't dead.

Demons were hard to kill, as their wounds healed quickly. The only real way to kill them that the Diaboli knew of, was chopping off their limbs and drowning them in the rivers. This was not easy, but some warriors were able to do it. Some demons were intelligent, and the Diaboli were able to speak with them, but most were barbaric...Nalkorash had been given a mix of different bloods. The "parasite" that was in his skin, was really the demon blood clashing, and trying to find the proper veins to flow through in his body...with them not being provided, they created their own veins, and sunk back into his flesh to meld with the others once that was completed. Some of the more intelligent demons carried magical aptitude, and it was apperant that Nalkorash had more blood from intelligent demons than barbaric ones from the lightning circulating around his body...

The portals were beginning to close, as those who wished to go to Yliakum were already there. It would be a few days yet before they were sealed off completely, though. Nalkorash completely forgot about them, and continued to walk down the riverbank, making a moaning noise while doing so. His nervous system was much more complicated now that the demon blood was inside of him...this made it hard to use his brain correctly. He found a home built near the river, and walked right through the door, finding an aged Diaboli sitting in a chair looking in the direction of the portal...the old man looked up at him, his eyes widening.

"You...are you a demon?" he asked curiously. Nalkorash could not answer, only make a louder moan, "I see...hold on, I'll be right back, let me get something."

The old man returned shortly after, carrying a knife. Nalkorash stood there and watched him as he raised the knife to the markings on his body, and poked at them. Suddenly, he slit them in certain areas, purple blood gushing out. The electricity that had been circulating his body died down, and his thoughts started to return to him...he blinked, and looked at the old man, standing there trying to figure out what was going on. He slit another vein, and Nalkorash winced, now feeling slight pain, but let him continue. The veins suddenly shot back up from his flesh as they did when they first appeared, and began to refill the areas that were bleeding. The old man kept cutting down at them, and he lost much of the demon blood that was contaminating his body...

"That should do it...can you talk?" he asked.

"Ugh...what? What'd you just do...?" Nalkorash squinted to look at the old man, his vision no longer blackened, but it was still a little blurry.

"I don't know what happened to you, but it seems your veins were pumping demon blood. That's dangerous, you know? With that much demon blood contaminating your veins, you could have really become a demon," the old man laughed, knowing that wasn't true.

"What are you talking about...?"

"Seems you don't have your memory back yet. Rest here for a while, let me take care of you..."

[Suno_Regin]

Preparation

Nalkorash opened his eyes and saw the old man hovering over him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better...do you have anything to eat?"

"Oh, yes, hold on," the old man said, and walked into another room to go get some meat.

Nalkorash rested his head back against the floor and looked up at the ceiling, recalling what happened to his family once more. However, he couldn't cry, and he didn't even feel bad...it was strange to him. After a few minutes, the old man returned.

"Here, try this," the old man said, handing him meat that was stretched out and wrapped around some sort of stick. He took a bite and smiled.

"I love it!" Nalkorash said, feasting on it like an animal...or rather, a demon. "Do you have anymore?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes, yes...hold on," the old man said with a smile, walking back into the other room, returning a few seconds later carrying a makeshift plate with much more meat arranged on it. Without hesitation, Nalkorash grabbed all he could fit in his arms and wolfed it all down hastily. When finishing, he tossed the leftover sticks and even part of the plate back...on the plate. He didn't realize that he accidentally ate part of the plate, too. The old man laughed as he sat there with his hand on his stomach.

"I guess you have a big appetite with that blood inside of you. I'm surprised you're adapting to it so well."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but that was delicious," Nalkorash said. The old man laughed once more.

"You know, the portals are closing soon...you'd better hurry if you wish to go to Yliakum. I'm sure you won't want to stay here."

"What do you mean?" Nalkorash asked. Suddenly, he remembered that when this all started, his family was ready to go through the portals and live peacefully in Yliakum, "Oh...I still have something to do here..." Nalkorash said uncertainly.

"Oh? And what might that be?" the old man asked.

"I need to get back at the people who did this to me...do you know how?"

"There's something you should know about demons," the old man said. "Do you know where their weapons come from?"

"I've never seen a demon up close...so no, I don't."

"Their weapons are created from their essence. Depending on the strength of the demon, they could make nasty weapons of war...of course, only intelligent ones knew to do that. I'm curious now, since you're in control...do you think you can do that?"

"How.?" Nalkorash asked again.

"Do you remember the electricity that was circulating your body earlier?"

"I think so...why?"

"Try to summon it again. Just remember the feeling of it."

"Alright, I'll try." Nalkorash raised his arm in the air. In no time at all, it grew stiff, and the lightning circulated wildly around his arm.

"Good, good! Now, take it and try to focus it into your palm," the old man said, impressed.

Nalkorash did pretty much the opposite of that. He closed his fist, leaving a medium-sized hole between his fingers and his palm, and the electricity somehow magnetized the flesh on his arm, dragging it slowly toward the hole in his fist.. Along the way, it picked up bone marrow as well. Nalkorash couldn't move his arm at all, and as the flesh and bone crawled inside of the hole in his hand, it began to form itself into a large weapon; a scythe. The blade was dark, like his skin, and had markings like the demon blood veins that were on his arm. Quickly, his arm began to regenerate the flesh and bone marrow he lost to make the weapon, and the electricity stopped circulating.

"Amazing!" the old man said in awe.

Nalkorash took many deep breaths to regain himself, then stared at the blade.

"Did I...make this?" he asked.

"Yes, yes, you did! That was exciting to watch. You didn't look like you'd live through that!" the old man laughed.

"You just let me risk my life to do that...?" Nalkorash said as he glared at the old man, annoyed.

"Well, you said you wanted to get revenge...that's risking your life too, isn't it?"

"I suppose..." Nalkorash said, looking back at the blade.

"Now, I'm going to give you something to help you out. Wait here." The old man said, running up the stairs and into a room that was cold from the holes in the tethering composing the ceiling of the house. Nalkorash stared at the spiral stairway, then all at once a huge trunk began to tumble down from the second floor, sounding like it would make a hole in the floor any with each thump. Nalkorash lifted himself up and pushed on the trunk before it could hit the bottom of the stairway, lowering it slowly until it was safe where it sat. The old man walked down and looked at him with a dumb grin on his face.

"Oops...dropped it," he said with a chuckle.

"You idiot...this is your house, you know?"

The old man looked down at the chest, "Open it...you might like what you find."

Nalkorash shrugged, and without much hesitation opened the chest, finding that there was dark plate mail armor inside of it, along with worn robes that the sleeves had been torn off of, "I can have these?" he looked up at the old man and asked.

"Of course, you have more use for it than I do."

"Thanks..." he said, a smile finally creeping upon his face as well.

"With your amount of strength, you should climb up the mountain over there," the old man said, pointing at a mountain from the doorway. "You'll get a good view of whatever you're looking for from up there."

Nalkorash looked outside, then looked back at the old man.

"Guess this is goodbye then..." Nalkorash said, already putting on the armor and stuffing the robe inside.

"Oh, before you go, take this..." the old man said, handing him a vial of purple liquid.

"What's this?" Nalkorash asked.

"It's your blood. It was quite overpowering not being fully focused, but if you drink it like it is now, it should give you back some of the power you lost from when I slit your veins."

"So...you want me to drink blood?" Nalkorash said to him questionably.

"Yes, trust me...you won't regret it."

"Alright..." Nalkorash said with a shrug, drinking the blood in the vial.

"There, feel better?" the old man asked.

"I don't know...am I supposed to?" Nalkorash said after finishing.

"You will with time, I suppose. You'd better get going, the people you're after might have gone through the portal already."

"Alright...I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me. Take care of yourself..." Nalkorash said, racing out of the house after putting on the rest of the armor.

He stared up at the peak of the mountain, realizing that it was actually a volcano. He sighed, knowing he'd probably regret climbing. He shrugged off the feeling of nervousness, and began his ascent. Halfway up the mountain, he began to feel strange. Even though the mountain wasn't steep at all, he felt dizzy like he'd fall. But he regained himself and continued, and eventually a strange craving overcame him. He wasn't sure what it was, though. The electricity began to shock more rapidly, but he shook it off, trying to focus only on reaching the top. He was glad the volcano wasn't very tall or steep, as he wasn't used to this feeling he was having, and he was afraid of falling. The electricity died down when he reached the top, and he looked around for the bandits that killed his family. Almost instantly, he spotted the wagon and grinned wickedly. As the blood he drank began to take its full effect, he returned to an emotionless state like before, but he could still think clearly. He ignored the volcano's rumbling, which was a sign it was about to erupt. His only focus was retribution...

[Suno_Regin]

Avenged

Nalkorash crawled out of the river after hitting a rock while being washed downstream, growling. He got on both feet, slouching down with his scythe held in both hands, looking around fiercely for those who escaped. The people he killed, he did not even remember seeing the day he was thrown in the river...but in his new emotionless state after drinking from the vial, he was determined to kill everyone who was near his family's murderers, regardless of who they might be. However, after an hour of searching, he still could not find the wagon. He could vaguely remember the old Diaboli he met earlier telling him about the portals closing soon...but he could not find the urge to rush to them...he was having so much fun. He grinned wickedly, and kept on searching, realizing that they might have left the wagon behind when he ambushed them. He began searching out individuals, finding it hard to do so as the area was nearly abandoned...he began to think that everyone might have gone to the portals to get away from this place. He couldn't let that happen...he searched out the volcano that he climbed earlier. He ran opposite the direction the river he crawled out of was flowing, eventually finding it. From there, he saw the old man's hut, and remembered that from the holes in the tethered walls, he was watching the portals. Simply gazing in that direction, he could see many people still walking down the roads in that direction...seeing one group traveling with his family's wagon.

He grinned as his blood boiled with excitement, sprinting in the direction of the wagon, dying to kill the remainder of the thieves. Reaching them in a matter of minutes, he leaped in the air and landed on top of the wagon, the ones carrying it looking up at him with a terrified expression on their faces. He grinned down at them, and leaped from the wagon to the ground in front of them, sweeping them with his scythe and killing them in one slash. From the light shriek they made, the man who Nalkorash remembered had stabbed him and thrown him in the river emerged from the wagon. He stepped onto the dirt and looked him over, laughing as he unsheathed the scimitar that was hanging on his belt. Nalkorash widened his eyes, and sprinted at the man with great force, swinging his scythe uncontrollably. The man tried to parry him, but he was completely overpowered and sent flying in the direction the scythe was being swung in, dropping his blade and crashing against a tall rock. One of his horns got stuck, and as he tried to pull himself out, Nalkorash was already a few feet in the air, scythe raised, ready to end his life. The man thrusted his head to the side, his horn being ripped out of his head, still stuck in the rock. Nalkorash's scythe missed, and instead cut the rock halfway down the middle, and he turned fiercely to the man running backwards in another direction trying to reorient himself. He completely ignored the pain of losing his horn, and he pulled out two daggers that were hanging on each side of his belt, one being next to where the scimitar used to be.

The man dashed at him as fast as he could, daggers flying behind his back, in a few seconds being raised in front of his body to stab Nalkorash. He simply stood and let the daggers hit, one in his back, the other in his side. He looked down at the wounds for a few seconds, then grinned and looked into the eyes of the thief. Nalkorash took his right hand off of his scythe, and it began to emit electricity. The man quickly backed off, and Nalkorash's wounds boiled back to normal.

"What the hell are you...?" the man asked with a scared look on his face upon seeing the wounds recovering.

"You bastards ruined my life. Now you'll pay by offering me a little...fun." Nalkorash said with laughter in his voice.

The man started to run away, but upon turning around, Nalkorash was standing behind him, his scythe gone and both arms now emitting electricity. He grabbed both of the man's arms, and in an instant they exploded, the man shrieking with pain and being blasted to the ground, his shoulders and soon the rest of his body igniting with a dark flame. Nalkorash returned to the rock and grabbed his scythe, then walked to the man's smoldering body, which was still screaming. He lowered his scythe to the man's neck, and with the word, "goodbye," ended the man's life by impaling the scythe in the side of his neck.

Looking back to the wagon, Nalkorash began to walk slowly over to it, the grin still plastered on his face. With one swipe he ripped the wagon's tethering, two people cuddling with each other while asleep sat inside of it. They did not wake up upon his arrival, and he crouched down to them both, breathing heavily and laughing with anticipation. The woman woke up and looked at him, screaming, waking the other person up and having him fall over on top of Nalkorash's scythe which was held with the blade pointing up at him.

The woman screamed louder as the man was now dead after falling onto the scythe, tears pouring from her eyes. Nalkorash recognized her as the woman who was standing next to his mother's corpse when she'd been slain, and moved himself closer to her, his face being but an inch away from hers. He raised the scythe and it was snugly wrapped around her neck, the blade being dangerously close to her as the shaft was on the opposite side keeping her from escaping. Her screaming stopped, and she made light moans of fear as her tears still had not stopped flowing. Nalkorash laughed with a high-pitched tone, thrusting the scythe to the side, ripping her head clean off her neck...

[Suno_Regin]

Corruption

This was it. He killed those who'd slaughtered his family, but...now what? Nalkorash wondered this upon walking out of the wagon after slaying the girl. He wasn't satisfied; he had a craving to kill...not because he wanted to, but because it just gave him a nice feeling.

He walked in the direction the wagon was originally going, seeing more people walking along the way. He looked them over, his scythe still in his hand, and found it hard to resist the urge to leap at them and cut them. A few people looked in his direction. Children hid behind their parents, some who were carrying luggage hid behind or inside of it as it was being moved, and others were giving him angry looks, reaching for their weapons, thinking he was a demon. Actually, they weren't far off, since with Nalkorash's emotionless state and strange powers, along with his craving to kill, he closely resembled a demon. Nalkorash looked amusedly at those who were reaching for their weapons, and changed directions to walk directly at them, walking faster with each step, soon running, then sprinting.

He reached back with his scythe, and began to swing, but all he did was destroy their caravan...these were no ordinary people. They jumped over the scythe before impact, and all three of them surrounded him, their scimitars and rapiers drawn. Nalkorash looked around at each one of them. After swinging, his stance was standing on both legs with his hand to the ground, scythe raised in the air diagonally.

They charged at him, but before making a move, Nalkorash thought about what might happen when fighting warriors of their skill. If he tried to swing at all three of them at once, they might jump again when he's vulnerable and try to slay him. He couldn't run, as they were covering most of his possible choices of directions thoroughly. His only choice was to dodge, and that's what he did. Before impact, he jumped out of the way, and landed behind one of them, their backs face to face. Nalkorash didn't have time to turn his scythe around, so he jabbed the man in the back with the tip of the scythe's shaft, disorienting him as the other two charged at him once more, yelling, "die, demon!" and other such phrases.

They were no longer surrounding him, and this gave Nalkorash more choices of action. He could charge at them and do what he did back at the volcano, or simply sweep them down. However, he was getting ahead of himself, and ran out of time to think as they drew closer. He rolled out of the way, then lunged at one of them with his scythe, barely making contact, but ripping his jacket slightly, and leaving a small cut in his side. He easily shook it off like nothing happened, and Nalkorash drew back his scythe, jumping out of the way of the third man who just regained his balance that was charging at him.

Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, he relied solely on his instincts now, and made a high-pitched laugh as sprinted at the man who he'd just avoided, his scythe held with both hands behind his body to his right, and with one sweep before the man could turn around, nearly impaled him in the side, but before that could happen, one of the men jumped in front of the scythe and parried it by the shaft, the blade held close to his left side. The man grabbed the shaft, and they began to play a dangerous tug-of-war with each other. Either the man loses his grip and gets cut, or Nalkorash loses his weapon.

As they were pulling, the other man began to rush at Nalkorash from behind, and glancing to his back, Nalkorash slid to the ground and kicked the man's legs, tripping him and having him hit his head on the shaft of the scythe while they were still pulling. The man gained a little distance with the scythe, but Nalkorash decided to end it, and he swung the scythe to the side, taking the man up with it, and launched him with great force into the smashed caravan, making him lose grip on the scythe, but Nalkorash losing his chance to slay him then and there, instead only knocking him out.

The man on the ground that'd just been tripped was regaining his balance, but could not get up in time to avoid the scythe already being forced down upon him. In an instant, the man laid dead, and the only one who remained standing was the one who just regained himself after his friend parried the blow for him. It was he and Nalkorash now, standing parallel to each other, looking each other in the eye as they walked sideways in opposite directions in a circular motion. Nalkorash held his scythe out with one arm running against it, the other hand holding the tip of the scythe's shaft. The other man was slightly crouched down, his scimitar held out with one hand, the other making the same motion but without a weapon.

Finally, they charged at each other, Nalkorash now having his scythe drawn back, the man holding his scimitar with both hands now, similar to Nalkorash's position with his scythe, as he ran. They both swung at each other once they got close, but Nalkorash had the obvious distance advantage, and impaled the man in the side, lifting him up with his scythe as the weapon dropped out of his hands, and flung his corpse toward the wrecked caravan, his body landing near the man who was just now waking up from being knocked out earlier. He shook his head, and looked up at Nalkorash who was now standing over him. He got a good look at Nalkorash, and realized that he wasn't a demon, but instead Diaboli...

"Why are you doing this!?" the man asked. "Our kind don't do this to each other! We're getting ready to enter the new world, why would you start all of this now?"

"Maybe I like it here...maybe this is how I choose to live my life," Nalkorash implied, raising his scythe over the man's body, ready to kill him.

"Well, I guess this is it then...I hope the new Gods rid the life from your body," the man said, going into a laugh as a tear ran down his cheek, releasing his last breaths. Nalkorash hesitated no longer, and ended the man's life, looking around at the other bodies, and then looked up at the wrecked caravan, excitement returning to his face...

[Suno_Regin]

Part Two

Justice

A demon's blood spilled onto the ground, the corpse falling soon after. The figure of a woman stood valiantly behind where the demon once stood, returning her blade to the loose fitting on her back, and picking up the demon's remains before they could heal themselves, tossing them into the nearest river she could find. Wiping her hands clean with a piece of cloth from her sack, she followed the river's stream, looking around for other signs of demons. Her long hair swayed from side to side as she walked, her body making a slightly similar motion. Her skin had strange purple markings streaking across it, but her eyes, though pitch black with no pupil or iris, had much kindness showing in them. She put the cloth away, and reached for the handle of her blade as two demons began to approach her from the opposite side of the river, snarling at her fiercely. She drew her blade and leaped across the river at the demon on the left, her blade held with both hands around the right side of her body, getting ready to slit the demon's neck. Before impact, the second demon sharply smacked her body away with its hand, disorienting her slightly, but she stayed on her feet upon landing a few seconds later.

She took a calming breath, and put her sword back into the fitting, her arms giving off a strange glow. Rune-like markings began to spin around her elbow and wrist, and the palms of her hands began to emit a light that stretched out into what looked like a hexagon. She wrapped her hands into fists, and charged at the demons, with no weapon held in her hands at all. The demons made a strange high-pitched shriek, and began to charge at her as well. The arms of the demon on the left emitted another strange light, its arms having electricity circulate around them instead of runes, and at a rapid rate to where the demon beside it had to turn its head away slightly. The right demon held a small cleaver in the opposite hand at which it smacked the woman away, using that same hand to help move itself along with its legs as it held the cleaver high in the air. The woman swayed her body in a circular motion gracefully as she jumped high in the air before the demons made impact with her. The demon with the electrically-charged arms missed as it tried to throw a punch, the electricity circulating slower now, as the demon with the cleaver slid across the ground and tried to turn itself around, being slightly disoriented. The woman turned around after landing behind the magic-using demon, and opened her hand to smack the demon on the back with her palm, the rune that was once on her hand being branded on the demon and soon growing around the demon's body, emitting another kind of electricity that paralyzed and soon killed the demon.

As its corpse lie on the ground, the other demon was now charging back at the woman, stepping on the corpse violently to reach her. As it tried to smash its cleaver down upon her, she made a thrust to the side to avoid it, then used her other hand that still had a rune shining on it to smack the demon in the side. The rune once again grew around the demon's body as it did before and paralyzed it, then killed it with an electrical charge.

She took another breath and stretched out her body a little, then proceeded to carry the demons to the river. She held them both by the arms firmly and dragged them across the ground with much ease, throwing them in the river once reaching it. She pulled the hair out of her eyes and looked around once more for more signs of demons...

[Suno_Regin]

New Friend?

Eliura walked down the dirt roads of a village, seeing houses burnt to the ground and ripped clothing lying everywhere. She sighed with disgust, and looked around for signs of life. She tightened her grip on the dagger she had in her hand as she heard growling from behind a crumbled wall. She hid her fear and kicked down the wall, the crash causing the demon to startle and look over its shoulder at Eliura, blood dripping from its maw. She took a gulp and charged at the demon, her free hand holding the fist that the dagger was clenched in, hoping to lunge the demon in the forehead and end its life. She didn't know if it would work or not, but she had to try something. The demon stood up and raised its hand to block Eliura's path, the dagger sticking in its palm. Eliura jerked furiously to remove the dagger, but the demon simply lifted its arm and threw her to the side, pulling the dagger out and tossing it in the opposite direction. She fell to the ground, and lifted her head to look at the demon slowly walking up to her. She couldn't hold it in any longer, and screamed with panic, scared that the demon was going to kill her. She looked over at the ground behind the demon from between its legs as it stood over top of her, seeing that it had been feasting on another demon, not an inhabitant of the village. She squinted confusedly, and then looked up at the demon, which had already bared its fangs and began its decent to Eliura's leg.

She screamed once more, but before it could bite, a strange sound made the demon look up in a random direction, focusing its attention on something Eliura couldn't see. It let out a shriek and ran in the opposite direction of where it was looking, Eliura once again left puzzled at what was going on. She shook her head and tried to stand, just now noticing that she'd landed on a torn wooden plank, splinters stuck in her leg. She let out a moan of pain, but didn't pay much attention to it, brushing her leg and tearing a little skin. She walked over to her dagger, and after picking it up, turned her attention to the corpse lying on the ground. She kneeled down beside it, her knee falling in a small puddle of blood. She slowly started to raise her hand to touch the demon, unsure what might happen if she did so.

At once, the demon's blood boiled and splashed all over her, and it began to move its arms and one leg furiously, letting out a loud growl. The missing limb slowly began to materialize, and the demon widened its eyes at Eliura, who had thrusted backwards on the ground with fear after the sudden stirring. It could do nothing much but sit there, as it could not yet walk with its leg healing itself. The demon tried to pick itself up with its arms, and try to walk with just one leg, but fell back down, looking back up at Eliura, who was slowly regaining herself after being so startled. She looked down at the demon after standing, but not with a terrified expression. Instead, she had a look of pity on her face.

She kneeled down beside it once again, trying to hide her fear again, holding her hand beside the demon's head. It squinted at her, the growling lowered, as she slowly brushed her hand along the side of its face. She reached into a sack that she had slung around her back, pulling out some sort of potion. The demon sniffed it and began to growl loudly, not liking what it was smelling. She quickly thrusted the potion right in front of the demon's face with the open lid pointed toward it, the liquid spilling out of the vial into the demon's open mouth at a slightly great speed. The demon began to shake out of control on the ground, rolling around as its leg began throbbed with pain. The skin and muscle around the bone began to heal much quicker, almost shooting down its leg.

The demon closed its eyes after the pain went away, moving its leg up and down, trying to figure out what happened. Eliura smiled, and walked into the demon's view once it opened its eyes to look at the newly-recovered leg. She lightly threw the vial to a random spot over her shoulder and leaned over right next to the demon's face. She gazed at it for a while, while the demon tried to avoid her gaze and turn its head to a random direction, unsure what she was doing. She giggled, and straightened herself to walk back outside. Upon doing so, the demon picked itself up and started to follow her. She smiled at it as it looked down at her while breathing heavily. Its leg was fully recovered, and it almost seemed like the demon had never been attacked in the first place. They walked down the dirt road together now. The demon was showing no more hostility toward her.

[Raa]

Pfft, that was pathetic of her to go from some demonslaying gender-confused Chuck Norris to a damsel in distress. Ruined my respect, Sumo.

Good writing so far. 

But that blue text is murdering my eyeballs.

[Suno_Regin]

Early Goodbye

The demon winced as a strange light protruded from a point on its body for a few seconds. Eliura was standing on the opposite side, and tried to lean over to see behind the demon's body, but it turned around to hide the light, trying to keep her from seeing. She sighed with disappointment, and the light disappeared. They continued walking. Eliura knew that the demon wouldn't be able to understand her, so she couldn't just ask what that was. She thought for a while how she could get the demon to do it again as they left the village from which Eliura met it. She decided to give up on the idea, but in the process she came up with a name for the demon.

"Fang!" she blurted out with delight, looking up at the demon with a grin smeared across her face. The demon squinted at her, unsure what she just said, and why she said it. She giggled, and they kept walking as she sang the name aloud.

From the distance, Fang could see a demon charging toward their location. No, not a demon...two of them. Eliura looked at Fang, wondering why it stopped walking. Fang looked down at her, giving her a strange nod, and began to run toward the demons that were coming toward their location.

"Wait!" Eliura yelled, trying to chase after Fang. She couldn't keep up, however, and lost sight of it as it was already far away in the distance. She sighed sadly, and turned to a walking pace, tired from all the running.

A few hours later, she found Fang, along with two other demons, fighting brutishly. Fang had many holes in its flesh, bone showing through its left arm. The other two demons had blood all over their faces, along with weapons held in their hands. One demon had a crude axe the same color as its skin in its right hand, the other demon had a large four-bladed weapon in its left hand, which had a long slanted shaft with spikes protruding from the bottom of it. Fang had no weapon but its claws, and was holding its own against these two demons. The demon with the axe lifted its arm high in the air and charged at Fang with a savage look on its face, getting ready to impale the weapon into Fang's shoulder.

At the same time, the demon with the strange weapon leaped high in the air, holding the weapon so that the blades pointed toward the ground as it fell down to Fang's location. Fang rolled away from the axe, tripping the demon as the other impacted with the ground, its weapon getting stuck far underground. As it jerked ferociously to get the weapon out, Fang slashed the demon's eyes with its claws, while the demon with the axe got up and hurled its weapon at Fang. Fang was completely distracted with trying to kill the other demon, and the axe stuck in its neck, making it let out a shriek of pain. The other demon fell to the ground, while the one that hurled the axe was charging to Fang to retrieve its weapon and end Fang's pain...by killing it.

Eliura screamed, and ran to help Fang, but got in the other demon's way, and it smacked her with great force back where she was running from, its claws piercing her flesh and nearly killing her. She layed there on the ground in pain, not able to do anything but try and breathe, hoping now that she wouldn't be killed, completely forgetting about Fang...meanwhile, the demon jerked its axe from Fang's neck, and held it with both hands as it impaled the gash that was left from before, cutting the demon's head clear off its neck...

[Suno_Regin]

Demonification

The demon that had its eyes slashed tried to pick itself back up, still unable to see, and fell forward onto its weapon, the spikes sticking through its chest and out its back. The other demon walked to Eliura, who was unconscious from being slashed, and shrieked as it smelled something on her. Instead of eating her, it picked her up by her torn shirt, her torso barely being held inside of it, and threw her into a river of blood, her sack loosening and spilling out various potions she was keeping. Her body washed downstream, as the demon returned to Fang's corpse, getting ready to devour it.

Eliura tried to breathe, but inhaled a strange liquid, and tried to look around, but found that her eyes were sealed shut from something. Her body felt strange, and she then realized that she was floating in a river. She couldn't scream, but not because of being in the river of blood, but simply because she couldn't; she didn't know why.

She tried to swim above surface, barely being able to fight the current pushing her down, and hit her head on a rock that was about to be washed away from the ground it was sitting on. She did a flip in the blood, but immediately grabbed onto the rock, ignoring the pain she felt in her head, and pulled her head above the stream, finally able to open her eyes and breathe again. She looked around, not seeing much except the river she came from, and small hills blocking her from seeing further.

She pulled herself out of the river, the rock she was hanging onto washing away right after she let go. She wearily crawled up a little further from the river and fell to the ground, putting her hand on her head. When she did so, she felt something protruding from her flesh, but then suddenly sinking back inside...she ran her hand along the rest of her body, feeling similar things sticking out then sinking back into her flesh. Just exiting the blood river, she was now feeling her skin itching and burning, along with her eyesight being a little cloudy...

She shook her head and blinked, but couldn't restore it. Just then, she took a quick breath and lifted the remainder of her shirt, remembering that she'd nearly been killed, seeing that blood from the river was spilling through the gashes left by the demon right before they boiled themselves back to normal, similar to how Fang's leg recovered. She blinked again, and her eyesight seemed to be a little better after the blood spilled. She observed the gashes, then suddenly felt another burning sensation in her skin where the gashes had just disappeared, purple markings protruding from her skin and seeming to crawl across her chest to connect with the other purple markings she had just now noticed on the rest of her body. She still couldn't scream, though, being more confused than scared at the moment. When she thought of Fang, she couldn't produce tears, even though she knew that the demon was now dead, and when she thought of other things that had happened in her life that terrified her, she didn't get the same feeling she used to...

Eliura decided to think no more, and picked herself up after the burning stopped and the strange markings sank back into her flesh, wanting to get revenge for what the demons did to Fang. She walked up one of the hills next to the river, and looked downstream from where she was tossed in the river, being able to see Fang and another demon's corpse clearer than she could see when she was looking at her own body. She sprinted in that direction, and after about an hour reached the location she saw earlier, everything looking the same as it did from when she looked at the place from the river.

She instantly ran up to Fang, and kneeled down by its corpse, noticing that most of its flesh was gone now, and it was mostly skeleton sitting in a puddle of its own blood. She couldn't cry, and when she went to touch Fang's skeleton, the blood around it began to draw to one of the markings on her flesh, the marking protruding through her flesh once more and almost opening up, taking in the blood, while another color of blood escaped from a hole close to the one that was just made. She jerked back her hand, and the blood that was being drawn to her fell to the ground. She could see a little more clearly as the other blood left her body, and she hesitated to put her hand back on the skeleton.

After a few minutes, she gave in and did it again, the blood once again being drawn into her hand, and pushing itself through her veins as the blood that she now knew was from the river poured out of her. The markings were actually veins, she found out, and they appeared to draw in blood. But why not her blood? Is her normal blood still flowing through their respective veins, or are they too inside of these strange purple veins created on her body? She didn't know, but a smile creeped on her face as she felt she was closer to Fang now with its blood coursing through her new veins, instead of that from the river.

After the blood around Fang's skeleton was drawn in, and the blood from the river dripped down her arm, strange rune appeared around her elbow and wrist, and began to spark with electricity. She winced and grabbed her arm, unsure what was going on, and her flesh and bone began to draw toward her fist. Finally she was able to scream, as she was scared what might happen to her from drawing in the blood. As they crawled through the cracks in her fist, and forced a hole between her fingers and her thumb, they formed into a strange weapon...Eliura stopped screaming, and looked at the new sword created from her own arm, which was now recovering after just losing so much flesh and bone, and let out an awe.

"...Fang?" she asked, gazing up and down the blade. She began to think that this was a gift for her from Fang, the demon's way of saying thanks for what she did for it.

She pulled the sack from her back, and noticed that most of her potions were gone, but that was not what she was looking for. She pulled out cloth tethers, and began to patch them into her ripped clothing. She also wrapped them around her back in a way so that they could hold her sword, and she put the sword inside of the holes left in the cloth, noticing that she didn't quite size it correctly. She adjusted them, and put the sword back in, it now fitting snuggly inside of the cloth as she lifted herself from Fang's skeleton. She closed her eyes and nodded, thanking Fang for the gift, and went to search for the demon that killed her best friend...

[Suno_Regin]

Potential Discovered

She searched for days in this seemingly empty wasteland, finding no signs of the demon that killed Fang. Even though she hadn't known Fang for long, she grew attached to it, as it was the only friend she had in this world since her family had been killed. She found she couldn't cry because demons didn't have very strong feelings. Fang was different though, and at least had some feelings, so Eliura could feel sadness, but nothing more.

She heard a strange noise, similar to the one Fang made when it rushed off to fight those two demons, and looked around at her surroundings to see a demon charging at her. The demon looked very familiar, and Eliura quickly deduced that this was the one that killed Fang. It was holding an axe as a weapon, and ran in the same way the other did when it was charging at Fang. She let out an angry snarl and drew her sword from the cloth tethering, then charging at the demon with her sword held out with both hands behind her back. The demon lifted its axe and tried to force it down on Eliura, but she rolled out of the way and cut the demon's arm off completely, its hand dropping the axe as its arm landed on the ground.

The demon shrieked with pain, but jumped out of the way of Eliura's second slash, not wanting to feel pain like that again. As its arm slowly recovered, it charged at her holding its free arm back, trying to punch her. She held her sword in front of her and waited for the demon to come close, and parried the demon's fist, knocking it away and disorienting the demon as she kicked it back and jumped at it with her sword held high, wanting to end its life quickly. The demon jumped to the side, but couldn't land on its arm as it was still rebuilding itself, and fell to the ground in a roll.

Eliura picked herself up after landing on the ground and sprinted at the demon as it stopped rolling and began to lift itself back on its feet. She raised her sword once more, wanting to smash the demon with it, but it knocked her sword away with its fist once she got close, and kicked her away, making her drop the blade. She moaned with anger, and tried to remember what happened earlier. She tried to recreate the feeling she got when she created her sword, and the runes once again appeared on her arm, but this time they didn't create a weapon, instead they began to spin and create a similar rune in her palm. She wondered what it could be, but couldn't stare at it long enough, as the demon was but meters away from her. The demon was about ready to punch her, and she sloppily moved out of the way and slapped the demon, not sure what else she could do.

The rune from her hand disappeared and marked itself on the demon's flesh, and it started to grow and wrap itself around the demon, paralyzing it with an electrical shock. The demon had a strong will, and fought free of the paralyzation, but couldn't do it fast enough as Eliura had already recovered her sword and slashed the demon right down the middle...

[Suno_Regin]

Strange Demon

Eliura kept walking down the river, hoping to find more demons. Not only was this slightly exciting for her, but she realized that Fang despised other demons, and justified herself in doing all of this that it was for Fang.

There were screams coming from Diaboli in the distance, and Eliura raced in the direction they were coming from, thinking that there may be more demons around the area. She saw many common Diaboli walking down the roads, carrying wagons and other such supplies, also looking in the direction of the screams, but in too much of a hurry to see what was going on. Eliura wondered what everyone was in a hurry to do, but shook the thought off as she wanted to focus more on finding out what caused the screaming.

She found a wagon with many corpses around it, more inside, one of them being headless. She looked at them disgustedly, almost not wanting to find out what caused all of this. It didn't seem to be the work of a demon, else it would've just ripped through the wagon's tethering instead of enter through the normal way. Also, it would've left a longer trail of destruction, and more people would have noticed it.

Eliura thought about it for a few minutes, but decided it'd be better off to find out where whatever caused this went to. Walking in the direction everyone else was heading to, she found that off to the side of the road was a crowd gathered, and behind that crowd were four people fighting each other...no, three people ganging up on a demon.

Meanwhile, back at the wagon, shady figures were collecting the corpses Nalkorash had left in his wake. They proceeded in the direction of the old man's hut with many corpses slung over their shoulders. What business do these men have with dead bodies? Is the old man dead as well?

Eliura watched the figure closely. It didn't look much like a demon or a Diaboli from the back. The figure killed off all three of them with its quite unusual weapon. She deduced that this really was a demon, just smaller than normal ones, since it had a weapon the same color as its skin, pitch black eyes, and a bloodthirsty nature. She approached it, drawing her blade and going from a slow walk to a quick dash...this demon was no different from the rest. If it would willfully make people suffer, she will end its life like she did the rest...

[Suno_Regin]

Part Three

Destiny

Nalkorash lifted his scythe from the corpse, noticing that the blood was being drawn to his scythe. He let it sit there and absorb the blood, not sure what it was doing. Just then, he heard something move behind him, and he jumped out of the way of a sword that was being forced down on him. He pulled back his scythe and looked at Eliura, who'd almost accidentally slashed the corpse of the man who Nalkorash had just killed. He looked at her interestedly, as he'd never seen a demon up close before, not knowing that Eliura was actually just like him. They were both confused, thinking each other were both demons. They both stood still looking at each other, Eliura debating whether Nalkorash was demon or Diaboli, and Nalkorash gazing upon what he thought was a demon and smiling, knowing he was in for a good fight.

Without further hesitation, Nalkorash lifted his scythe behind him and sprinted at Eliura, hoping she'd block him and give him a greater challenge than the men he'd just slain. Eliura was unsure how to fight against a weapon of that magnitude, and held her sword up to try and block the attack. Nalkorash impaled her in the side, and sent her flying back toward the wrecked caravan, but she recovered, and her wound healed itself quickly.

"Ah...you truly are a demon," Nalkorash said, a laugh following soon after. "This should be an interesting fight...I hope I don't kill you too soon."

"You can talk!?" Eliura asked with a surprised tone, ignoring the pain she felt as her wound was boiling shut.

"Hey...it talks," Nalkorash muttered to himself, "now I'm certain this'll be fun." He raised his voice, "Get ready, demon! I'm coming at you with all I've got!"

Nalkorash sprinted at Eliura again, holding back no longer, getting ready to kill her this time. Eliura was still trying to figure out how to parry the scythe, and decided it'd be best to try and jump toward Nalkorash, not away, so that only the shaft hits her and not the blade, then she'd have her opening. Nalkorash did not follow suite, and instead of hitting her the same way he did before, he hit the scythe's shaft into the ground and held onto the middle of the shaft as he was sent in the air, getting ready to kick Eliura in the face.

Eliura shook her head to remove the thoughts, and quickly ducked as Nalkorash spun around and missed her, then removed the scythe from the ground while she was crouched and proceeded to smack her with the shaft. She lifted her sword and parried the shaft, but then she saw the blade coming at her with great speed, and she could think of no other way to avoid it than jumping in the air, which she did. She flipped backwards to try and propel herself away from Nalkorash a little ways so she wouldn't be landing on the blade when she descended, and reoriented herself upon hitting the ground, thinking that she now has Nalkorash's pattern.

"Nice moves," Nalkorash said with a grin. "How long can you keep it up, I wonder?"

"Your tricks won't work, demon! Your head is mine now. All of your kind shall die!"

Eliura charged at Nalkorash this time, now thinking she knew his attack pattern, and wanted to see how he defends himself. Nalkorash didn't even bother to protect himself from the sword. He instead focused only on harming Eliura, lifting his scythe high in the air to smash down upon her. Eliura was astonished, and rolled out of the way of the scythe, her sleeve being ripped by the sharp edge of the blade. Nalkorash kicked her before she could recover, and sent her sliding across the ground, his face now showing boredom.

"Come on now...is that the best a demon can do?" He asked, disappointedly.

"I'm...not...a demon," she said, lifting herself back on two feet.

"Then what are you?"

"A Diaboli who's seen enough suffering caused by your kind. I'll be the one to rid this world of all of you!"

"You look like a demon to me," Nalkorash said with a laugh.

"As do you...tell me, how does a demon like yourself learn to talk?" Eliura asked.

"Known how to most of my life," Nalkorash replied, accepting that she called him a demon, thinking it had a nice ring to it.

"Are certain demons born with the ability to talk?"

"I don't know, but I do know that if you talk anymore, the first thing I'll do when we're done is cut off that annoying tongue of yours," Nalkorash said impatiently, already charging at Eliura once more.

Eliura leaped out of the way as Nalkorash tried to sweep her down with his scythe, and did a forward flip in the air before landing on the ground behind Nalkorash, turning around upon landing and trying to cut him from behind by thrusting her sword backwards to the side with one hand. Nalkorash spun around quickly and grabbed the blade with his hand, holding it there with an equal power she was trying to hit him with. At the same time, he thrusted his scythe behind Eliura's head, and drew the blade closer to her neck as he pulled her toward him with the shaft. She looked in his deep, dark eyes with a sorrowful expression, while Nalkorash discarded his excitement and grew a serious look on his face, studying Eliura. He kept the blade wrapped around her neck, but loosened his grip on the shaft as they started at each other, unsure what was going on.

"You're not a demon," She finally said, "you're...just like me."

"No, I AM a demon," Nalkorash exclaimed angrily.

"You must have suffered as well," Eliura said with a pitiful smile as a tear ran down her cheek. Nalkorash remained silent, not sure what to say to her comment and her expression. "Why are you doing all of this?" she then asked.

"I told you before...I'm a demon, and this is how I choose to live."

"Doesn't it hurt, though?"

"You must have noticed it, too. My feelings don't matter anymore, I can do whatever I please and not get hurt or anything from it."

"You're wrong! I knew a demon that had feelings, you just have to create them...don't live like the other demons you claim to be, live as a pure-hearted demon...like Fang." She said, more tears dripping down her cheeks now. Nalkorash didn't bother asking about Fang, and drew the scythe closer to her neck.

"What's the point? Do you really want to suffer more than you have already? Discard the feelings, and live as I do. You'll never suffer again."

"I bet you're feeling bad right now, and you simply choose to ignore it. You have to feel something from all of this killing..."

"The only thing I feel is excitement! This is fun for me, and I'm sure you enjoy it too, it's -"

"I've NEVER killed an innocent person in my life! How do you think I can enjoy doing something like that!? I've only killed demons, and that's all! If you really feel that way, then maybe you're a demon after all." Eliura yelled angrily, interrupting Nalkorash.

"That's what I've been trying to say. You're one too, you know? Realize that soon, you can't change it..."