(I am sorry for all plot addicted readers but this is only a reiteration, another POV of what had happened till Alexander lost to Hirahn's hands and then a bit plot related stuff in the end. But it is seriously not much :S I promise I will make it up tomorrow! :D )

With all my might I backtracked the snaking labyrinth of passages I passed through to end up on the outskirts of Ysolde's walls.

The first set of stairs was flown over with ease, my mind was still in turmoil, what abomination have I summoned into this world? All I wanted was to bring peace and rescue my father.

I remembered starring up into the sky, as the wind transitioned into storms and the rain was exchanged by fierce lightning. I saw him standing, floating, there, right beneath the dark blanket of adamant clouds that let no light through. A demon not out of the history books or from cultural lessons about our world, no, it was a demon more basilar, more ancient and more perditious than anything seen before. In seconds the peaceful night was transformed into a nightmare of hellish scale by this, this unspeakable terror, and it was MY fault!

Tripping over my own short gasps as I ran down the ridiculously long stairs I finally reached the conjunction of multiple town squares and hundreds of inns and other nightly shops offering their services. With disdain I glared at a broad man, luring customers into his brothel, whilst unbeknownst to him his King, my father, is fighting his demise. Such people are really not worth it to be protected.

I smacked my cheeks, the hot pain made me jump into action. 'Concentrate!', I let this mantra repeat itself. Yes, I needed concentration like never before, concentration and endurance. As a mage my physical abilities were rather unimpressive, my body was weak and those short sprints, the ups and downs of the stairs tore away at my energy, mentally and physically. Luckily I was one of the few that can raise their chest high and call themselves High Humans. An ancient race of humans that hailed directly from the God Sara'ahn's remains. I was not one to wag his title in other's people faces but right now it helped me in enduring this exhausting marathon of a run and I was thankful for it.

Having my mind preoccupied with worry I bumped into the passerbys repeatedly, for good measure I even toppled a small stand over. "Ex-excuse me!", I stammered while I tried to keep my breathing in check.

The old woman smiled warmly. "No worries princess.", she cawed and gave me a playful wink.

I could only return a smile of my own. Most people in Ysolde were accustomed to see their royality run unhindered through the city, my family was an eccentric one.

Fiddling a bit between my pockets I found the small leather pouch. With a light shove I pressed the pouch into the hands of the old lady. She tried to open her wrinkled mouth as her dark eyes blazoned with reverence, I stopped her before she could speak. "Excuse me but there are things I have to attend to.", I told the elderly woman and dissappeared into another alley, my red robe trailing behind me.

I ran and ran through the torch lit alleys until I collapsed. "Haaa Haaaa.", I pressed with my hands against my temples and leaned against the hard wall of solid rock. The cool stone calmed down my heated disposition. My hand felt over the uneven surface, so lovingly made, by human hands nonetheless, such a ginormous structure was erected in just decades. But now? Now those same walls faced their end, and everyone within did too. 'No, I won't let that happen', I smashed my fist against the wall. Languid I parted from the propping wall, my body was trying its best to keep up with my egoistical wishes.

Further sprinting through meandering alleys I was already moving for minutes through this behemoth of a stronghold and the gates had yet to come into sight. As I was getting desperate I could hear a baby's cry in the distance. Not around a corner but all the way at the horizon. It was a frightening and deviate cry that couldn't possibly be the spawn of humanity. The cry, laced with subterfuge and desire for carnage made my hairs stand on end. Wondering if I was the only one that heard this treacherous cry I peeked at the surrounding night owls and likewise they shared the same contorting expression of anxiousness.

My heart beat accelerated as I imagined what incubus was waiting at our doors. In my ears I heard the echo of my palpitating heart, like a countdown it ticked down and stressed what danger was lying ahead.

In the spur of the moment, as my pace finally found its rythm I bumped into a group of drunkards, their musty odor and grime-stained clothes hinted at a heavy drinking bout. A red nosed man with a dumb grin stepped forward. "Oy, 'lil missy, what cha doin' so late *hic*. There are baddies all around.", his yellow and rotten teeth fromed a 'charming' smile.

"Get out of my way, now!", Why did I have to keep still while those filthy drunkards, those degenerates kept me from saving their sorry asses. "My, my, my 'lil miss relax, ain't 'tis night beauti-*hic*-ful?", he placed one of his hands on my shoulder.

"Yes it certainly is a good night, but it's a bit cold if you ask me.", I said and combed a strand of hair out of my face.

*ZOOOOOOM CRRRRRRRRRCK*

Returning to my pace now would prove to be difficult, those imbeciles better pray I won't see them the next day. And just like that I left the frozen statue of four men babbling and drinking right there in the middle of the street, I had more important things to do.

Seconds later.*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

An explosion not to far from the city gates clang in my ears. The walls all around rumbled, debris came tumbling down, and the peacefully sleeping citizens gazed with worried eyes out of their porches.

'Oh no!', something big was happening and this had to be the final act.

Protuding over the towering walls was a firebal of red magnificience, stretched into the sky and enlightening the night as clear as day. "My God!", "What is happening?!", people stumbled out of their houses to view the spectacle that was unfolding. Soon red dots, sparkling stars littered the sky and came flying down as deadly projectiles. 'This can only be father's doing!'. I swiftly created a thin sheet of ice spanning several houses far. If it was my father that created this mess then I should be one to keep the destruction in check.

Seconds later the molten rock rained from above, pierced through my cover of ice with little to no effort. I clicked my tongue and created a multilayered baricade. Around me a large portion of the city was now coated in a light blue. 'This ought do it.', slightly proud of my work I ran further up ahead, to where the gate was standing with incorruptible durability.

Soldiers ran to and fro, panicking about the situation. What could I tell them? The princess arrived and everything is fine and dandy? No, I started this mess to begin with, I had no right to reassure them with my words if I didn't speak with actions.

"The princess commands you, open the gates!", I screamed the guard next to me in the face. The middle aged man was thrown aback by the sudden shout, so close to him all the more. His armor rattled as he stepped back.

Adjusting his helmet he eyed me as if I was crazy.

"HAAAH!", I exhaled excessively and showed him the imprint on my tunic as well as the pendant around my neck.

Carfully the guard scrutinized over the symbols and took out a printed replica on a linen cloth. His eyes shot open and his mouth slightly parted. "I-I am sorry princess!", he tried to bow but I waved him off. "Tell your supervisor to open the gates as fast as possible, now!". "Of course, princess.", the man bowed and disappeared through a door leading into the interior of the walls.

Seconds later a bear of a man came running out. He kneeled on the raw ground and gave me a apologetic gaze. "I am sorry princess but I, no, we cannot allow you to leave right now.". Confused I blinked once then twice. Anger started to boil inside of me. "What, why?". I asked with ire audible in my voice.

The guard captain shrunk back and seemed to age a few years. "T-there is a great cataclysm taking place outside, it is to dangerous for you princess.", he said and knocked his head on the ground.

"I decide that for myself, and now, OPEN the gates!", I shouted at him, dissheveling my hair even further.

"P-princess we can't do that. It- it is to dang-!", I waved him off, no need for him to repeat himself.

I harrumphed. "Ok then I will leave by myself.", I said to the surprise of the captain. His hands folded on the ground as he cowtowed even deeper, his face kissing the earth. "Princess I beg of you, I will pay with my head if anything were happen to you."

In the end he was just worried about me. The wratch was replaced by a warm feeling in my chest. I smiled at him. "Don't worry, if anything were to happen I will talk with my father. You are doing a great job and my father should now. Now, open the gates.", I told him in a reassuring and soft tone. "T-thank you princess, I won't forget it...", his voice trailed off as he ran back inside the walls.

Shortly after the gates split open and let a hot gust of air assault my face. All around me the guards went into cover as the heat turned unbearable. Projecting an ice spell to cover my body in a comfortable chill I plowed straight through the heat and ash that was flying happily in the air.

With terror in my eyes I stared at the corpses littering the ground like flowers on a willow. "What happened here?", I asked myself aloud. A field of corpses, dried, hacked or turned to ash filled my vision. Heaps of flesh and puddles of blood clustered about and sieved the fields in death and war. Each step I took was accompanied by the crunching of bones and the splashing of blood, a sickening stench pierced into my head.

I shortly glimpsed back at the walls. With such a thing keeping our eyes blindfold reality will inadvertently be abstracted. Those things blinded us from the harsh reality: war and destruction, shrouded us in an illusion of safety and warmth. Sharp gasps resounded behind me as the first guards followed my example and set foot out of the cursed stronghold. 'How long have we been closing our eyes and shuting our ears in fear of reality, of madness?', I gulped down as the full situation kicked in. Even our state's soldiers had barely any idea.

'Was this the reason that father had been so absentminded this past months?', I couldn't believe that my father kept such a secret to himself, suffered from the fate of our citizens, alone!

Speaking of the devil I saw him standing with blood dripping from all over his body. Just as I was about to stretch my hand out, call out to him, I saw him again. The fiend in the clouds.

The demon was here. In a split second he swooped from empty space, appeared in mid air, scowling down on my father. Unfolded wings, dark, purplish skin that moved bizzarely as if insects crawled beneath, claws as black as night itself, two horns that mirrored a crescent moon and fangs that composed an insidious grin.

I paled and my hand trembled. The demon's outline trembled.

*BAAAAM*

My father was sent flying over the ground, blood leaving a crimson trail behind him. I wanted to squeal in panic and step in between but before a second breath could leave my lungs my father was already pinned down by the devil's vile talons.

Mumbles to faint for me to hear were exchanged between my flat lying father and the domineering devil, a reality I didn't want to accept. As the Vilis my father was in the possession of power beyond imagination and yet he was beaten into submission, crawled on the ground like a child, by the demon that could only be birthed from chaos itself.

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The devil robbed my father of his sword, my eyes widened, my mind hindered myself to turn my gaze away, and then he impaled him with his own blade. 'No way....', I held trembling fingers against my lips. This can't be possible.

Furrowing my father from the ground like a vegetable the devil strangled my father's throat, plucked the sword out of my his stomach and heaved it into the air. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I won't allow this! Leave my father alone!', I heard my thoughts scream.

My hand rocketed forward and with what remained of my power I shot a frightening fast ice spell, a simple icicle more I wasn't capable off. I watched as the blue light clashed with the devil's demonish grin.

'I... I did it.', such a stupid thought burrowed itself in my mind. I was far from being as strong as my father, how could I even think about being able to harm, much less kill, this devil?!

"MORTAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!", a primal, gutural roar boomed from behind the cover of splittered ice and cold mist. With brutality of untold magnitude he smashed my father's limp body onto the ground.

'Oh no.', I wanted to step back but horror rooted me in place. All my will was now limited on keeping my bowels from releasing whatever nasty liquid they were about to spill.

The devil turned its visage into my direction, at that moment I could feel my spirit being broken like a twig. There was no hope, there was no felicity that could lit this situation up. My death was now gouged in stone and it made me shudder uncontrollably. As a sane human being I would naturally fear the premonition of death, how the father of all evil loomed over your small, trembling self and let his scythe eviscerate your whole being.

Frozen solid by angst I could only watch as his ground trembling steps crept closer to me. The evil aura around the devil rumbled in wrath and skewed into agony inflesh. Rotten faces and skeletal limbs reached out from his shadows, pointed their grizzled hands into my direction and wauled: 'This, this is the next one!', in a voice so hoarse that it could be the crunching of bones that was commanding its legions of death to reap my soul.

Petrified I watched out of the corner of my eyes the ever so slight movement of a sluggish, dead thought figure. His fingers scrapped on the devils legs before my father's two hands fully clutched around the dark flesh.

Noticing his foe still alive the devil roared an avalanching scream as he pointed his claws vice the sky. Words flowed from the devils mouth but they all drowned by his thunderous roar. Inbetween I heard my father talking, so close to the demon he could understand the words of the damned.

The ground trembled and the clouds crepitated, dust particles rose into the air and even small pebbles were picked up from the cursed earth. Space distorted and from one moment to the next the flying objects plummeted down at twice the speed as normal. The devil ripped with his hands towards the ground and everything surrounding him budged deeper down. Spacial static appeared all around the devil and showed him in a distorting picture of havoc.

My father spit blood and groaned as this phenomenon, defying nature itself, took place before my eyes. My knees quaked and tears edged my face.

"Demon! Leave my father alone!", I screamed and a strand of spittle came flying out, flanked by snot and tears.

The fiend gave me a wicked grin and the distortions in space were augmented further into ripples. I heard him speaking to me, threatening my intervention with the death of my father.

Faltering I took a step back, the smile on the devil grew wider.

My father mumbled my name, bid me to leave this dashed place, but I couldn't let him die here alone, could I?

As the last words of my father waned into silence I saw the devil stop in his overbearing steps. 'What happened?', praying for a wonder I thought the demon was wounded or something had stopped him but nothing of the like has occured.

The demon started to tremble, slight at first. Confused and afraid I watched the devil shudder in internal conflict or whatever was betiding.

And then I noticed the row of crystaline reflections on the devil's darkened face. As surprised as I the devil swiped the -undoubtely- tears away from his face. 'He, he is crying?', I began to wonder but my guard was still up. A trap nothing more, yes, that had to be it!

"Sara....", I heard him whisper my name. My father being in earshot heard it as well and had another fit of rage and began to bellow loudly. All the while I was stunned in place and could only watch with creasing eyebrows what was happening.

*WOOOSH*

The devil disappeared and my vision was turned black. Fear tightened around my heart as I felt a muscular body embracing me. I cried in shock and tried to stuggle, expecting the worst. I imagined myself being crushed into a cripple by the devil or torn apart by his claws but instead I was embraced. A bit tight but it was an embrace of warmth and familiarity.

I heard the devil sniff on my hair and nuzzle his body against mine. Still panic stricken I struggled before even the wildest attempts proved as useless. I could only wait.

Seconds and then minutes passed. The devil's warmth spread into my worn body; as much as I hate to admit it, it felt good. No longer struggling I simply stood frozen in this beast's embrace. Suddenly his body shifted, he grabbed me by my shoulders and gazed into my eyes. I only noticed it now, after being released from the tight hug against his chest, he was human. Not a single trace of a demon could be found in those red-golden eyes that showed only warm kindness. I locked my gaze, embarassed, with his. He was not so big, not so scary anymore. Instead the 'devil' looked harmless, kinda goofy now, a person one would want to be friends with. Also he was barely older than me it seemed, ranging only inbetween his early twenties.

For a moment I thought the devilish aura and appearance was just fake but then slight change happened in his eyes. They shrunk down, the hazy mist consisting of tears dried up, his face turned into a mask of anger and unbearable heat arose around us. I heard him mumble: 'Blue.... blue.... blue.', before he started to change into his demonic form once again.

The devil stepped back! "Imposter!", he roared in his mad voice before collapsing on the ground, his eyes dilating and shrinking as he mumbled incoherent sentences.

His torso stood tall against the heavens and the most sorrowful cry I heard in my entire lifetime afflicted my ears. Tears, more than ever, ran down the face of the presumed monster as he cursed the Gods in the highheavens.

*** <-remember, POV-change but not setting-change

I could only watch from the sidelines as the devil embraced my daughter with his filthy body. I imagined her being obliterated right before my eyes, the devil delighting in her corpse, but instead he silently wept. The situation escalated as the devil starred my daughter into the eyes before a major breakdown assaulted the fiend's mind.

He kneeled down on the dirtied ground and his maw gaped against the sky and created the most miserable cry I could bear witness to hear. Incredulous I starred at the demon, no, now human crouching on the ground as the moon lit his body in a circle of solitude. He looked so small and weak right now, as if my hands alone would be enough to strike him down, and he probably was at this moment.

Behind me I heard a faint explosion, a wet and nauseating sound. With an expecting smile I watched as the giant abomination, now towering many meters into the air, collapsed in on itself. 'Huh... I wonder hom much longer I could resist before I would end up like that.', I chuckled but instead of your typical chuckle I vomited blood.

"Father!", my daughter hurried past the desolate demon and supported my body with her frail arms. I wanted to speak but only fizzles of red dripped from my mouth.

"No father, don't speak!", my darling daughter shock her head and tears were sent flying into all directions. "Relax now, I will call the mages.", she said, turned around and tripped over her own feet. Only now did I notice her tatered clothing and exhausted complexion. 'You certainly had it hard...', I shock my head inside my mind.

Dusting of her clothes she ran past the devil. "Be care-!", 'Be careful' I wanted to throw at her but the devil already gripped her by the hem of her robe. I could only watch as she was pulled down onto the ground once again.

The devil stood up, the devil in human form. He locked his eyes with Sara and then pulled her by the wrist towards me.

He kneeled down, my daughter crying and punching with the last bits of strength. His gaze was a chilling smite that had no resemblance of the feral hate prior to this. This thing was now rational its seemed.

He parted his lips and Sara continued beating him. He clicked his tongue and threw her on top of my chest. The wind was pushed out of my lungs and my eyes buldged out. The devil grinned victoriously.

"So as the victor of our little, uhm... dispute, I decided to impart an offer onto you.", his arms crossed over his chest. All the pain and death he inflicted was just ingored by him. Instead there was a coldness behind those lightly spoken words that left no room for rejoinders.

I knew he could kill me, us and everyone in Ysolde if he wanted to, I could only nod in reluctance.

"What do you want demon, speak!", my harsh voice couldn't soften although I should submit to him.

"Nothing much, let me live with you for a while, I got no place to sleep.", he shrugged his shoulders, stating matter-of-factly, and I could only stare in utter, complete and absolute disbelief at what he had said. Answering my confusion was a broad grin of him, so false and artificial that it made me cringe in disgust.

The words set in. "W-what?, both me and my daughter voiced out in accord.

"You heard me right, or are you deaf? I. Will. From. Today. Onwards. Live. With. You.", he drew a crude house in the air with his fingers and gesticulated excessively. "Or do you want to pick up where we stopped?", he hampered anything I could have retorted while his hand transformed into the previous shadow cloaked claw. 'Inviting the devil into my house, HA!', I laughed about my incompentence.

"Alright....", I whispered between clenched teeth. "No, father don't do it.", I heard my daughter voice out but what else could I do? I had to choose between living with the devil or dying by his hand. Option one was way more appealing than option two.

Turning around in all his nude glory, which I only noticed now, the devil faced my fortress. "This will certainly be interesting.", he said and rubbed his hands.

'Oh you Gods, why do I deserve such punishment?', I questioned the highest entities in existence but how could I know that one such entity was now living with me under one roof?!

(So I corrected all the grave mistakes and added a few words at some places to make the flow more... fluid? Anyway, all those that hadn't read this chapter 'till now, have fun! ;) )