The demon moved slowly, relishing Lokus’ terror with a sadistic glint in its orange eyes, displaying cruelty far above most animals. It knew exactly what it was doing, and it enjoyed it.

Lokus struggled and kicked, kneeing its stomach and tugging at his pinned arms, but to no avail. His enhanced strength was meaningless in the face of the demon’s power.

Memories of what happened mere hours ago flashed in his mind as saliva dripped from the demon’s mouth onto his bare neck, of being torn open and ripped apart like a full-course banquet.

A deep unwillingness warred against an even deeper fear within him, two emotions tugging him in different directions and threatening to pull him apart just as the demon was about to do.

The air around them grew colder and colder, and the demon’s hot breath spewed crystals of moisture onto his face as its jaw opened wide to sink its teeth into his neck.

Lokus’ hands balled into fists as sharp yellow teeth bit into his throat like a ripe tomato, spraying blood everywhere. The demon drank of the inky liquid greedily, its orange eyes glazing over in ecstasy as warmth spread through its limbs, counteracting Lokus’ Freezing Aura.

Lokus’ blood was like the finest of wines to the demon, muddling its mind and warming its extremities just like alcohol would.

A wave of lightheadedness assaulted Lokus as he lost liters of blood to the demon, and he could feel his vision steadily fading. In some ways, this was worse than being ripped to shreds, as the pain wasn’t nearly enough to distract him from the harrowing feeling of his life slowly but surely slipping away from him.

This was a different sort of helplessness, one that made his breath catch in his lungs and his heart skip beat after beat. The grim reaper beckoned Lokus to join its dreary cavalcade to the underworld, and he could only look sadly at that bony hand and accept.

Once again, his thoughts turned to the man who had banished him. Once again, he cursed that man with every fiber of his being, condemning his hubris and hypocrisy, disdaining his false sense of moral superiority.

Whatever that bastard thought, his hands were anything but clean.

The anger was so much that Lokus temporarily forgot his current situation. The hollow feeling of his bloodless limbs, the warm breath of the demon on his face, and the desperate beating of his heart became nothing more than a backdrop to a searing, fiery rage.

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Lokus panted, feeling like someone had pressed a heavy weight on his chest that drove his lungs to become smaller and smaller with every breath, until eventually, he couldn’t breathe at all.

A bellow left his lips, but the blood bubbling up in his throat constrained it to a gurgle.

The demon didn’t even notice, continuing to enjoy his warm blood like a drunkard given a keg of booze and a straw.

Lokus’ arms became as taught as stretched strings, his legs coming up and the soles of his bare feet pressing against the soft underbelly of the demon.

At this point, one might think that Lokus’ plan was to kick the demon off, but that wasn’t a smart idea for two reasons.

One, the demon was far too large, and far too heavy. Lokus’ legs would sooner snap than be able to lift such a monstrous creature.

Two, and this one was much more important, the demon’s teeth were still in his throat. Even if he could throw the beast off, he’d be losing most of his neck in the process as the two were forcefully and painfully separated.

So, then, what was Lokus going to do? It was simple.

He’d give the beast a taste of its own medicine.

Lokus’ toes curled against the beast’s belly as he stopped Freezing Aura, instead diverting all of his Majesty into his toenails in a spur-of-the-moment decision.

The keratin on his toes went from a pale pinkish-white to a deep, frosty blue as its temperature plummeted. His toenails seemed to grow an inch or two, but if one looked closely, one would notice that this extended part of the nail was actually ice.

His anger fueling the flames of his adrenaline, Lokus’ eyes flashed as his feet moved.

The extended nails cut through the demon’s stomach like butter, freezing its insides and causing its blood to literally run cold.

[New Mandate created! Please see “Mandates and Edicts” to give it a name.]

The demon’s gluttonous feasting paused, its big orange eyes blinking as it tried to comprehend what had just happened. Pulling its teeth out of its prey, it looked down at its belly, finding ten deep furrows that wafted freezing vapor like liquid nitrogen had been poured into its wounds.

The buzzing warmth shooting through its body from Lokus’ blood was quickly thawing this ice, but the sight of this injury left it infuriated.

Letting out a growl, it swung its gaze back to Lokus, as if demanding an explanation for his transgression.

“Ptu!”

Lokus spat some of the blood in his mouth into the demon’s eye, causing it to reel back and growl angrily.

Lokus snarled, taking advantage of the demon’s lapse to yank his fire poker free and bury it into the demon’s throat. Its growl trailed off into a gargling sound, its eyes widening in horror as it realized what had happened.

‘Now we’re even,’ he thought. But he wasn’t done yet.

Yanking the fire rod out, he gripped the blunt end with both hands and bared his teeth as he buried it in the beast’s eye.

The demon shuddered as its brain was pierced through, its luminous eyes dulling to darkness as flopped stomach-first onto Lokus, breaking some of his ribs and smothering him.

Lokus cursed inwardly, shimmying under the beast and clawing at the ground as he slowly pulled himself out from underneath its corpse.

When he finished, he leaned against its side and huffed to catch his breath, looking down at his stomach soberly. Why wasn’t his demon bloodline healing him?

Maybe he had been mistaken. Maybe it was never his demon bloodline that had saved him after the first demon attacked him, but rather…

His eyes darted to the grass underneath him.