I am humanity’s last hope.

And I’m about to die.

Bael, demon king, conqueror of Earth and all its people looked down at me from his throne, his fiery head resting on his hand. All around me lay his fallen comrades and henchmen, some dead, some worse. Only the two of us remained, inside his throne room of bloody red and burnt black.

“You’ve fought well,” the demon said, standing up, “but your quest ends here, hero.”

He struck an imposing figure, eight feet tall, dressed in plate no human blacksmith ever touched with his gigantic hammer laying by his side. The only visible parts of his body were his skeletal hands, and the face which could pass as a human’s if you were to ignore the horns, and the fact that it was covered in hellfire.

“That it does,” I agreed, smiling with mirth I didn’t feel, “just not in the way you think.”

I held Bael’s own daggers in my hands, the weapons largely responsible for my success so far. I had been a thief once, before the sky had been torn open, before three billion people had been wiped out, before the land of my birth became a hellscape of red skies and torment. Those skills had served me well, and after sneaking inside Bael’s vault and stealing his daggers I had become something else: A fighter, a savior, a leader.

A hero.

In my left I held the blood dagger, of red and straight blade, while in my right I had the shadow dagger, black and curved. Each had special abilities of their own, but wielding both at the same time gave me strength and endurance beyond what a mere mortal like me could hope. It gave me an edge against regular demons, equal grounds against higher ones. Against Bael? It gave me a chance.

I needed little else.

The Demon King raised his hammer, pulsing red with power and blood of fallen foes, and struck against the ground. Tiles and rock shot forward, each big enough to tear me apart, I moved away with superhuman speed, cutting one of the fallen demons with the blood dagger in the process and hurling a ball of pure energy at Bael. He simply covered himself with the hammer and advanced towards me, the ground shaking with his every step.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“You cannot beat me,” Bael said, his hammer pulsing red again, “you cannot even harm me, this is pointless.”

“Then why are you blocking my attacks?” I shot back, another energy ball flapping harmlessly against his hammer.

Bael shook his head at me, like a parent disappointed at his unruly child, then he blurred and was suddenly before me.

“Pitiful,” he said, and raised his hammer over his head.

I activated the shadow dagger’s ability and the world silenced itself. I merged into shadows, avoiding Bael’s attack and the rubble that shot all around as I moved invisible and unmaterial through the room. I couldn’t attack him in this form, and for some reason my hearing was shut down, but I couldn’t be seen or harmed in return. I moved towards Bael’s back, ready to abandon the shadow veil and stab the demon with his own weapon. He raised his palm.

Exactly in my direction.

His energy blasted me, purple power sizzling and destroying the veil to then settle over me. The daggers protected me to a point, but it still felt like touching a hot oven with the entirety of my skin. The purple energy stuck against me like a particularly viscous fluid and I had to fight to tear it off before it ate me alive. Finally free, I fell on all fours, shaking all around. The daggers fell alongside me, destroyed by Bael’s power, I felt the energy and stamina they had granted me disappear from me forever. Damn, I had been close.

“It’s my power you wield,” Bael said, I was finding the demon too chatty for my tastes, “how could you expect it would affect me? This match was over before it began.”

“Okay, okay,” I wheezed, it hurt to talk, “you win the first round.”

“First round?” I could only look up his knees, but the raised brow could be heard. “You die here and now, hero, I am immortal, powerful beyond your wildest dream. You never stood a chance.”

“Ha! Tell another joke mate,” I smiled and looked up at Bael, he seemed puzzled, “it’s you who don’t stand a chance.”

“Pitiful.” Bael simply said, raising his hammer for the last time.

“No, absolute and hard truth,” I told him, stopping him cold, “you think you’ve won? Because you beat little old me? You signed your death warrant when you attacked Earth. Because me? I’m just the first one. You sucker punched us hard enough it took some time, but folk don’t take domination as easily as you seem to believe. You won against me, true, but will you win against the next one? And the next? And the one after that? Because mate, to keep this going you’ll to have to win every time, forever and ever.”

I spat blood, and gave the demon a red grin to match his own.

“Humanity? We only need to win the once.”

Bael’s eyes widened, it was for an instant, but I know what I saw. For a moment, the demon that could only think in terms of fire and blood looked at his future, and felt fear. Then it was gone, he shrugged, held his hammer with both hands above his head and looked at me with those hateful eyes. As the hammer fell, I saw another thing, one of his alarms had gone off, signaling an incursion to his vault, where hundreds upon hundreds of his weapons, just as powerful as the daggers, lay.

I smiled; the hammer fell.

And my quest ended.