Artificial Demons
The walls were made of a strange material, similar to that of Diaboli horns, and along those walls were many large green tubes. On the right, there were comatose Diaboli floating in a strange liquid. The Diaboli looked familiar...they were all people that Nalkorash had slain in the past! She quickly looked to the left, and saw that there were parts of demons contained in the other tubes. They weren't in a liquid, but instead they had large wires circulating their blood into the Diaboli tubes via some sort of flexible tube attached to the ceiling of the strange room. She looked back at the Diaboli tubes, and quickly realized that the liquid they were floating in was demon blood.
She watched for a while, as the wounds that Nalkorash caused to their bodies were recovering rapidly, and their physical appearances were changing to that of her and Nalkorash. Deep black eyes, purple veins stretched across their skin, and other such features. They had been dead for some time, though...could they possibly come back to life? She wondered this, as she slowly turned her attention straight ahead and noticed a very large tube, where a strangely familiar man was being contained. All of the demon tubes were circulating blood to this one man's tube, while all of the rest of the Diaboli only had one demon circulating blood into them. She squinted, her eyesight being a little bad from the poor lighting in the room, and realized that this was the old man from before...this was the secret he was keeping!
She began to crawl back, and she had good timing, as the three men that dropped her into that room fell through the same tube she did. They came in an orderly fashion, and they all began to walk toward empty tubes along the right wall. They all opened a door next to the tube they were about to crawl inside, and a few seconds later, an opening slid from behind the tube, where the men walked inside. Upon sliding that door shut again, demon blood began to pump from the other side of the room into their tubes as they slipped into unconsciousness.
Eliura stood up straight now and looked around desperately for her sword. She walked a few steps forward, and looked up the tube she dropped down from, seeing that her sword was stuck in the wall of the tube, unable to fall all the way through. One of the men must have stuck it there upon coming down. She jumped up a few times but was unable to reach it. After seven tries, she managed to jump high enough to grab the handle, but instead of pulling it down, she hung there. The sword wouldn't budge from her putting her weight on it, so she pushed her back against one side of the tube, pressing her foot on the other side, and she managed to pull the sword out, falling flat on her bottom again once freeing it from the wall.
She stood up again and sighed, then looked around for some way to destroy this strange operation. She walked closer to the tube the old man was in, noticing that he wasn't so old anymore. The only familiar part about him was his beard. His skin lost its wrinkles, and he looked much younger now than before. The only problem was, that along with those features, he had so much of a mix of demon blood that he was losing his Diabolian appearance. She stepped closer to the glass cylinder, placing her palm on it, and she looked up at the man floating in the liquid. Immediately upon touching the glass, his eyes shot wide open, almost forming perfect circles. She jumped back scared, noticing that one of his eyes was black, and the other was red. His arm lifted up slowly, and in an instant he punched the glass with a force so great that the demon blood shot out of the tube along with most of the glass. He stepped foot onto the metallic flooring, his claw grabbing what was left of the tube to help stand up without falling over. He looked up at Eliura and laughed wickedly.
"This is it, dear," he said in a heavy voice that didn't sound anything like him, "this is how I gained my knowledge of demons..."
"You -" Eliura stuttered.
The demonic man put his other foot onto the ground and let go of the tube, now able to stand straight.
"Nalkorash has helped me so much...I can't think of a proper way to thank him," he said as a wicked grin sprouted across his face.
"You used him!" she screamed, holding her sword up, ready to fight.
"Yes...I suppose I did," he said more calmly now. "He was just so willing to do it for me. All I had to do was inform a few people that their enemy was here, and all of this started."
Eliura bursted into tears, "He's dead! That isn't any way to thank him, he -"
"Fool, he isn't going to die!" the man shouted. "He has demon blood...do you think he would die so easily? He's just passed out...don't underestimate him."
Eliura fell to the floor, relieved. She was still crying, but she was much calmer now, taking breaths to keep from getting overworked.
"Now, it's time to figure out what I'm going to do with you." he pondered.
Eliura looked up at him, getting a much clearer view now that the green tube isn't blocking her vision. His skin was a dark red color, and his horns were very large and black. There were spikes protruding from his arms and his back, seeming to be made of the same material as his horns. His body was much buffer than before, and he towered over his previous height now. He had large fangs, and had trouble keeping them hidden. He tried to remain calm, but would oftentimes burst into growls and vicious expressions. He was very unstable.
"Why are you doing all of this?" she asked.
The demonic man hesitated, apparently having trouble speaking in this form, "I reached the end of my life. I've lived long, and with so much knowledge, I couldn't let it go to waste. From seeing Nalkorash, I knew that my theories were correct about demons and Diaboli mixing their blood. I'd been researching for a while now...and I'm glad it only took me one try to perfect myself and this facility. He killed the Diaboli, you killed the demons...you both helped me make this wondrous dream a reality!"
"We wouldn't have done it if we'd known!" she screamed.
"I'm aware of that. That's why I didn't tell you," he said, baring his fangs in a wicked grin. "I can rule Yliakum now...challenge the Gods themselves! I have demonic minions and the blood of so many different kinds of demons flowing through me. The holiness of this place has no effect anymore. We've overpowered it and there's nothing that can stop us at this point. I have to thank Nalkorash for being merciless in his killings. Being dead already, their soul has left them, and I can control these people as I please. All it takes is this..."
The man walked back to the tube he emerged from, ripping it from the wall. From there, he stuck his claws in the wall, and ripped it apart, revealing something behind them that looked like a normal Diabolian man in a tube that had a soft gum-like substance holding him in place inside of it.
"This man has amazing empathy. He can communicate to demons without even talking to them. He uses his mind, which is a gift that came at birth, and he's the reason I know as much about demons as I do. Overpowering him and forcing him here was easy. He sees my thoughts and transmits them to the demon minions. If he doesn't, then I kill him. It's a pretty nice deal..."
"You're insane!" Eliura screamed again.
The man smiled, "I'd already had demon blood in my system when Nalkorash met me, I just hadn't had a chance to test it."
"What do you hope to accomplish by taking power from the Gods?"
"My curiosity of Yliakum has been at its pique for such a long time...this is my best chance to see what the life of a God is like. Even if I have to take it by force, the effort is worth it."
"I won't let you do this!" Eliura charged at the man, her sword raised, rushing to her death...
