Wicked Warlock

The Demon That Torments Me

Aras’s mind wandered as he sat staring into the floating lifelike images of the holo. The news broadcast he was watching began to shift into twisted images of the gray woman who had become his soul’s captor. She was smiling at him, laughing as she began drowning him in pain, pleasure, grief, and work, oh so much work. He shuddered, dreading her next arrival, yet his body grew excited at the prospect of future torment. He had become demented, a freak who deep down enjoyed the game of cat and mouse he and the demon now played.

The rugged young man shifted in his chair, unable to control the vivid images of her soft blue lips, supple skin, and silky hair running through his mind. He could picture her cold eyes staring into him, igniting the flames of passion and fear that welled deep within his heart.

“Stars, I’m lost,” Aras groaned, squirming in his chair. His body began to burn with the heat that would take him when he began to have thoughts of her, an effect from the brand she had placed on his chest. He huffed and moaned at the dirty feeling of his mind being molested by the demon. Her presence within him writhed and wriggled like a serpent, coiling around him, suffocating his thoughts.

How long will this last, he thought. Two years of brutal torment, and after bending to her, she still tortures me!

Finally, the depraved urges left his mind and were replaced instead by white hot rage. Then, the dirty feeling of lukewarm shame. He shifted in his chair again and nearly sobbed thinking about the hopelessness of his predicament. He slowly drifted into a restless sleep, the beautiful face of the ashen demon dominating his dreams.

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“Come, pet, I have a job for you,” said the saccharine tone of the tall grey statue of a woman, Morana.

Aras’s eyes fluttered open, he scratched his chest and yawned.

“I think I’ve become more than just a pet at this point, hell, I’m more of a demon than you,” responded Aras. He was still in his reclining chair, his crystal ball still scrolling the line.

“Perhaps if you won your little gambit that could be true, but you didn’t and here we are.” The blue woman’s lips curled into a triumphant smile. “Now get up and do as I tell you.”

Aras grumbled and got up from his chair then stood ready to take Morana’s orders. Her smokey image stood before him in the dark abandoned apartment he was taking refuge in. He had cleared all of the dirt and grime from the walls, but the room still seemed dirty, weathered. He was left with a beige colored living room, a single chair and a power station to place a projector in. He was a Warlock, so such things weren’t necessary, crystal balls didn’t need power. The little circular slot in the center of the living room floor laid empty.

“You’re wish, my displeasure,” he said sarcastically with a salute. She stared at him, unamused.

“I need you to spirit another monster into a noble’s residence. Her name is Yisi Lin-,”

“It’d be Lin Yisi actually,” interrupted Aras. Morana scowled at him, yet his composure held.

“Her name is Lin Yisi, and she is a part of the delegation of families in favor of maintaining neutrality,” said Morana sharply. “But after you’re through with her, she won’t be supporting anything but a monster’s digestive system. I’m sending you the details now.”

Aras’s chest burned from where Morana had branded his soul, and information suddenly began to filter into his mind, retroactively adding to his memory. If he searched, he could find addresses, names, dates, and times associated with Yisi’s schedule and daily routines. It was as if he had known this information all his life.

“Wonderful,” said Aras through clenched teeth. Another murder, and a gruesome one at that.

“Alright my dear, be off.” She waved her hand and Aras found himself compelled to leave the dingy lair of a room he had been staying in. His feet carried him out into the old eroding streets below his dwelling. The dark eyed man now stood alone on his porch. Like an abandoned statue come to life.

“Stars, this sucks,” he grumbled before heading off into the ruins to find a suitable monster to unleash upon the poor Lin girl.

He marched through the abandoned ruins of a thousand-year-old city that was, for its age, in wonderful shape. Some overgrowth plagued a few of the broken buildings, as well as debris and litter from more recent inhabitants. But beyond that many of the buildings still stood as proud as they did all those centuries ago, with technical infrastructure still intact. It was how Aras managed to connect to the net, and how people were able to settle in the city so easily. The biggest threat lurking in the old concrete jungles were monsters.

But I am a warlock, and I can control such beasts thought Aras. All I need is a creature of suitable intelligence to coerce. He sighed at the wicked thought.

He headed toward an overgrown park in the abandoned city where the more intelligent monsters made their homes. In the trees they could find plenty of food from the regular animals as well as enough cover to avoid hunters with. It’s where he had found an arachnid and thrasher to send after another target Morana had given him. Both were slain, and Aras had paid for their failures. He could remember the excruciating pain of the demon pulling apart his soul even now. It made him shudder.

I won’t fail this time. His pride as a warlock and Morana’s pretty little claws wouldn’t allow it.

He travelled down block after block of abandoned concrete. The old grey city seemed to watch him as he made his way, anxiously waiting for him to walk into the wrong building and find some powerful creature lurking. But he was too smart and wise to be taken by a roaming beast, too familiar with the game of chase they played. Years of magic study, a well of latent potential, and a tragic union with a demon made him far too dangerous to be a meal of any monster.

He finally found his destination, a section of the city dedicated to nature now completely overrun with green. Trees burst through the concrete of sidewalks and roads, standing as tall as five story buildings, branches twisting and turning outwards in a maze of twig and leaf. They shaded the ground beneath, obscuring the moss and grass of the forest floor. Looking into the darkness, it seemed like the forest went on forever. He could smell an earthy fragrance as he approached the entrance, and the sounds of birds and other beats filled his ears like screams and howls.

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Aras stopped at an old entrance, its metal fence bent forwards and backwards from constant passage. The stones that previously marked the borders to the old park still stood, but nature had long since melded into the pavement of the abandoned city. The fact it hadn’t completely enveloped the city was a testament to how well engineered the infrastructure was. It made reclaiming such places a simple affair. For the educated at least.

This place is full of monsters thought Aras. Too far out of reach for both Hunters and the city’s soldiers. Though, it was only an hour from the city limits. Thirty minutes from the slum the warlock was hiding out in.

He crossed the threshold of concrete and overgrowth and treaded into the darkness, nothing in his hands but his magic and his mind. He was in search of creatures with enough intelligence to follow orders, but simple enough that he could control groups of them at a time. He had tried to control an arachnid previously, but the beast wrested control of its mind when it became threatened and decided to run off before its job was complete. Morana had laughed at Aras for such a failure, then clawed his mind apart for hours on end. He wanted to avoid making such a mistake again.

Thrashers and Ghouls this time.

Thrashers, fleshy creatures that travel on four claw like appendages. They had wide torsos and eyes hidden behind the skin on their faces, which were all a part of an ovular body the size of a man. Standing, they were usually two meters tall and wide. They resembled crabs but weren’t as wide bodied and lacked armor. Their spit was acidic, and they could pierce through thin steel with their legs. The creatures were not very smart however, which made them perfect for Aras’s fiendish goals. Ghouls were similarly simple, mutant humans that ambled about devoid of any real form of consciousness. Their bodies were corrupted by the warp energy that was released a thousand years ago during the catastrophe and their minds slowly faded away in their now immortal bodies. Not very strong or fast, but they would be a good distraction, nice and durable. They stunk however, corrupted blood and bile would seep out of their pores and spill out of their bodies constantly. The fluid wasn’t lethal, but it would cause someone to get deathly sick if they were exposed to it for too long. It also made Aras wretch whenever he had to work with them. But this time it couldn’t be helped, he needed them to draw fire for the thrashers to get in close.

He wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, searching for the two species of creature he needed for his mission. Luckily for the cursed warlock, they normally travelled in packs, so he’d only need to stumble upon each of them once. He continued to creep through the forest, climbing over massive, exposed roots and trudging through shallow puddles left by the rain from the previous night. He saw a few monkeys and foxes, but no monsters. He continued, the forest growing darker and life sparse, a sure sign that beasts were lurking about. The calls of the more mundane creatures began to fade, and the sunlight began to disappear as he moved into thicker foliage.

Won’t be long Aras thought.

The warlock found himself at the edge of a large open area within the forest. He had escaped the confines of the original park and hid crouched behind a hill overlooking an old industrial sector. The clearing wasn’t as overrun with massive trees as the rest of the forest, three factory buildings sat beside each other in a large square with tall, isolated trees dotted randomly around them. Old carcasses of ruined cars sat in now green parking lots in front of fenced perimeters. Each of the buildings had their own entrances in the fence lines more prominent than any of the holes made from the wear and tear of time. Inside the fences, his quarries were present around the old crumbling structures. The thrashers skittering about the building closest to Aras and the ghouls ambling about in front of the other two. He rose to his feet and confidently strode toward the infested buildings. Controlling the minds of beasts was a simple task before he became a fiend. With his newfound mental power, he could easily assail all of the creatures around the complexes at once.

He approached the center building, opening his mind and allowing his power, his aura of consciousness to envelop his surroundings. When he was a normal human, the process felt like casting a series of lines to reach individual living creatures, but now that he was touched by a demon the process was very different. It was like his mind was a tidal wave, a powerful force that could sweep over both the living and the inanimate. He felt his consciousness wash over each of the creatures in the industrial square, their simple minds like quiet screams in the maelstrom of his own powerful consciousness. The ghouls’ minds spoke out, but their voices were small and unintelligible. Buried beneath both the warlocks’ own indominable aura and the erosion of a trapped mind. Any resistance their imprisoned minds instinctively offered was quickly consumed by the powerful stream created by Aras’s consciousness. The thrashers fared no better, their animal minds having no hope in overcoming the unrelenting storm the warlock unleashed upon them.

All of the ghouls groaned, the thrashers shrieked, and for a moment it was as if the square they were in would break apart. The energy released from so many minds coming together could be felt even by the plants and trees that surrounded them. They too cried out in anguish as Aras’s mind began to dominate all of the creatures within the crumbling compounds. Then it was finished, and nature seemed to release a sigh as dozens of monsters began to do as Aras willed, assorting themselves before him as they awaited his command. His mind sifted through the information Morana had given him and he quickly formulated a plan of attack.

His consciousness suddenly detached from his body for a moment, leaving him in a dream-like state. He felt his eyes strain as his mind went soaring through the forest and back out of the entrance where he came from. It then flew through empty, crumbling streets until it suddenly stopped in a lightly populated slum. His consciousness then quickly burst into a sewer manhole beneath itself and went rushing through the dark tunnels, twisting, and turning. It finally surfaced into another abandoned block and cruised through multiple streets. His mind’s eye recognized the area as the outskirts of northern Haino city. He suddenly went rushing down now populated streets filled with people walking by on sidewalks and driving down streets in cars and carriages, coming to a grinding halt in front of a large building. It was white, three stories high with columns out front and windowed walls. It looked like a bank. He instantly recognized it as where Lin would be and then suddenly, he was back in his own body. He blinked a few times to ensure he was truly in control again then shuddered from the feeling. His heart was pumping quickly, and his breathing was quick.

“Don’t fail me.” Morana’s voice sang in his head, its sweetness hiding the demon’s cruelty.

“I won’t.” Aras whimpered; eyes closed. “I won’t.”

He regained his composure and willed the creatures to follow him back through the forest and through the path Morana had shown him. It was time for the Lin girl to die, he simply could not take another round of torture from his wicked captor.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered. But the words weren’t as honest as they once were.

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Aras’s world shifted; he felt his body melt as he slowly lost consciousness from the wounds the hunter had given him. The exhaustion of a day’s worth of mental and physical exertion all caught up to him, he was slipping away. He slumped against the pillar he was hiding behind, gripping his wounded arm.

“Almost Time!” called the hunter in a sinister tone. His voice was a brutish yell, filled with disdain and amusement. He had been taunting the warlock during the entire chase, Aras felt a pang of annoyance at the thought of him gloating over his corpse.

But that moment never came, before he even realized it, he was out of the parking garage, trapped in an ethereal state and wandering through shadows.

“Almost lost you there, pet.” It was Morana, her voice as sweet and condescending as ever.

Suddenly she appeared before him, parting through the dark tendrils of this strange plane as if they were the falling droplets of a waterfall. She was smiling at him, a happy genuine smile, yet still sinister. The golden circles of her irises shining in the darkness of her sclera. Aras tried to speak, tried to move but couldn’t. His body was under the demon’s control. She waded close to him, reaching her hands out to his shoulders and grasping them. Her face grew close, she placed her lips to his right ear.

“That was wonderous work you did today,” she whispered in a sultry tone. “I think after you’ve recovered you deserve a reward.”

His consciousness faded again; his head filled with the demon's soft melodic laughter as he drifted away.