“Hello, old friend.”
The disguised man looked at me, unkempt black hair hiding his eyes that undoubtedly stared into mine. I sighed as I took off my hat and wiped away the sweat that had gathered on my forehead.
“What do you want, hero?” I asked the man across the wooden fence, the underlying hostility of my words was surely caught by the grizzled man before me. If he did not take notice, then it is of no matter. While grudges and past resentment clouded my view of the hero, I could not deny being curious about the reasons for his unexpected visit.
“I need to talk to you, demon king Satania” he answered with a calm tone. I raised an eyebrow at the lack of hostility his tone and presence gave away.
His posture was relaxed yet tired, like a sleepy lion staring down a barking puppy. He exuded confidence. ‘Misplaced confidence’ I had silently thought. It was no secret that I had fallen to the hero and his party. An entire army of both knights and demons alike had watched our long dance. I could still remember it as clear as day. The bloodied hero standing in front of his beloved archpriest, pointing his sword at me in defiance of his would be demise.
I do not know the reason for why I had faltered back then. Yet, all it took was one second of my indecision for him to run a sword through my chest.
I subconsciously clutched my chest through my overalls. An action that did not go unnoticed as he too ran his finger through a scar on his right cheek. As I gazed at the now empty farmland before me, satisfaction and content filled my heart at the sight of the harvest I had gotten. A feeling that I would’ve cherished should I have been in the presence of better companions.
“We have nothing to discuss here, hero.” I told him, turning to look at him in his tattered and bloodstained coat. I placed the hat on its rightful seat above my head and heaved the sack of potatoes onto my shoulder. “I am naught but a simple farmer. Nothing less, nothing more.”
I started walking towards my home, a decently sized cabin at the edge of the nearby forest. It was isolated well enough from humanity that I never needed to doubt my safety. As I walked past the man, I took advantage of a passing wind to glance at his eyes.
At the height of our battle, I noticed his wonderful emerald eyes. Eyes full of innocence, naivety, and hope. Eyes that I secretly wished I could have. What I saw had surprised me and pained me in a minute way. His once bright eyes were now dull and bloodshot; hatred and distrust clouded his soul. Faded signs of tears marked his face alongside dried blood.
He had noticed my interest and stared back, gazing into my crimson eyes as he showed an emotion I so deeply resented: empathy.
“I have kept to our accord as faithful as a nun to god, hero.” I seethed to him, crimson eyes glaring at his emerald ones. “If that was the purpose of your visit then begone from my sight.”
I snapped my fingers and summoned forth a weave of retribution. The hero stared at me nonchalantly as golden threads formed incandescent swords in the air, all aimed at the offending presence before me. With my other hand, I laid low the sack of potatoes on my shoulder, ready to use it as a makeshift weapon against the hero should he try to resist or attack.
As we stood against one another, I continued to inspect his form and appearance: a tattered and bloodstained longcoat hid his body but I could still see inklings of wounds and fresh blood. I shifted my gaze onto his bloody gloved hands. A faint sign of surprise formed across my face as I looked up to the hero’s face. While I was assessing his form, he had taken the liberty to summon a small wind spirit to blow his hair back, allowing me to see his face in its entirety.
As evil as I was made out to be, I could not find it within myself to strike down someone who I begrudgingly respected whilst they were physically injured and emotionally broken.
I sighed and waved my hand, dismissing the golden swords from reality. I lifted the sack back onto my shoulders and made to walk towards my home, ignoring the silent hero that was following me with a downcast expression.
“Your presence is most uncomfortable to me, hero.” I told him as we trekked down the path towards my cabin. “I still do not know of the intentions behind your visit.”
The hero sighed and grabbed a flask of what I could only assume as alcohol.
“Call me Adam, Satania.” he said as he took a sip, wincing at the burn of the alcohol in his throat. “We may have been enemies once but now we are at peace.”
“A tense peace only held together by our deal.” I replied as much as the memory of the deal irritated me. “So tell me, Adam, what is the purpose of your visit to this lowly farmer?”
Adam loudly laughed but soon choked and spat out blood. I watched him warily in the corner of my eyes. While I am no longer a lord, I am still well-versed in the throes of politics. This had led me to always be wary of anyone outside my closest confidants. While an injured hero would stand no chance against my might, mellowed out and rusty as I am, I still had safeguards present in case of his betrayal. Should my heart stop beating in the area around my farm, multiple spears of light shall impale those who had attacked me. A simple failsafe but reliable nonetheless.
The hero wiped the blood off his mouth and smiled coldly.
“I know you have noticed the blood on my coat, Satania.”
“Mm.” I hummed in agreement. “So I did. Is it not yours?”
“Some of it.” Adam shrugged nonchalantly. “Some are from bandits I’ve stumbled across on the way here.”
“Bandits?” I questioned as I turned my head to look at him. “There are no bandits around or nearby my land.”
“Do you question my honesty?”
“I question your respect for my power, hero.”
Adam chuckled and limped ahead. The cabin was already in sight from the road. A small wooden cabin sheltered by the forest behind it. Besides the cabin lay a small barn where I had kept my few livestock. It was small, ill-fit for the destined lord of demons. Yet, I could not deny my… love for this small shelter of mine.
I adjusted the weight of the potatoes on my shoulder and walked briskly. The day was short and I had a curiosity to study.
----------------------------------------
We had arrived when I noticed the hero’s breathing getting short and ragged. I, being the benevolent host, quickly rushed to grab a chair and medical supplies for him. My compatriots would’ve wondered why I had chosen to help the hero. I admit that I do not know. Perhaps it was the look in his eyes? Perhaps it was the remaining vestiges of benevolence from my past. Nonetheless, with the sack of potatoes now inside, we sat out on the porch together.
Adam sat shirtless on the foot of the stairs leading to the porch, tending to his wounds as he replaced old bandages with new ones using the emergency kit I had packed in case I needed to flee the farm. His black hair now swept to the side in some effort of tidying himself up. The bloodstains on his face now gone after the man had taken a quick visit to the well to wash his face. Were I a painter, I would’ve found the picturesque scene rather worthy of being painted onto a canvas. A ragged hero dressing his wounds as the sun set behind him.
I shook the bottle of alcohol I had in my hand and took a sip, cherishing the strange taste that lingered in my mouth.
“You’ve come far from the Garden of God, Adam.” I chuckled musingly. My farm was located far from the Human mainland, past the Sea of Faces, and into the land of giants. “Were you not betrothed to…”
Adam tensed as I left the sentence hanging. After a few seconds of silence, he sighed and spoke.
“Eve. Her name… was Eve.”
“She was the Archpriestess in your party, if I am correct?”
“You are.” the hero said blankly, wrapping a piece of cloth over a wound on his shoulder. “Lilith was the Archmage. Cain and Abel the knights charged with protecting me.”
I hummed nonchalantly and took another sip. Those who did not know me well would assume I care about the lives of the hero and his compatriots. Those who did, however, know that I am merely speaking out of both boredom and curiosity.
“Why is she not with you, hero?”
“She’s dead.”
I smiled as I was taking another sip. I may be kind enough to aid an injured enemy and shelter him within my house but never would I ever stoop so low as to empathize with a potential threat.
I coughed into my fist to hide the small grin that had taken over my lips.
“I presume that is the reason you are here.”
“No.” Adam muttered as he gritted his teeth, his hands clenching into tight fists as he stared at the road we had walked on. “I came for something else.”
“Pray tell, hero.”
“Your help.”
I choked on my drink and spat it out onto the dirt. I turned to see Adam raising an eyebrow at me, his green eyes vaguely amused but still dull and empty. Realizing the embarrassment I had shown him, I placed down my drink and coughed into my fist. I looked at him and stared back into his emerald eyes, challenging him to even comment on what had just happened.
“And why…” I drawled cautiously, thinking through the words I would say in order to avoid the hero’s ire. “...would the esteemed hero of humanity come to me, the rightful lord of demons, for help?”
“Give me a drink please.” Adam grunted as he stood and stretched his body around.
I reached down to the bucket of bottles by my side and tossed him one, uncaring if it missed or hit. Adam, as expected of a hero, catched it flawlessly and popped open the cork with the palm of his hand. He took a big gulp and downed the entire bottle in one go before placing it down onto the floor. The hero sighed and stepped forward, bathing in the light of the setting sun, before turning around to look at me with an unidentifiable look in his eyes.
“Well?” I questioned, it was almost time to start getting ready for supper. More friendlier guests would be present in my abode and I needed time to prepare the food.
“Help me save my daughter.”
It was then I realized the look in his eyes: desperation. Adam had lost the image of what a hero was supposed to be; his face and tone had conveyed it all, a loving husband who had lost his wife and a desperate father with no more child to care for.
I stepped off the porch and onto the grass, ignoring the expectant look the hero gave me, and basked in the light of the setting sun alongside him. My white shirt fluttered against the wind as it picked up around us.
“Why should I help the one who ruined everything I had fought for, hero?” I muttered, knowing that he could hear me over the sound of the wind. “Centuries of my plans and actions were all undone by your hand.”
I clenched my hand into tight fists as I recalled the memories I had shut away from before the war, from before I fell to the man beside me. He had taken notice of this and positioned himself to be able to summon his sword, Judicator, should I initiate hostilities.
Gazing at the sun reminded me of my past and my actions; when I had betrayed the arrogant God and raised my sword in defiance of all he had stood for. As I escaped, I had lost the ability of flight, my ivory wings turning black as they lost the blessings of God. Oh how I yearned to fly once more, to soar above the clouds and glide alongside the flocks of birds.
I turned to him, hands still clenched, and glared, crimson eyes burning with fury.
“Humanity deserved what I had done to them.” I roared, making the hero wince as he backed away. “I had fought for demonkind as their savior! Their shining beacon of light in the darkness! I was the dawn in their eternal night! I had fought for their freedom, their children, and their right to live peacefully on this accursed land. You had fought for tyranny, to enslave the demons once more and place them beneath mankind as their slaves.”
“The demons had burned our cities! Raped and murdered our women and children! You have no right to say you were righteous in your actions, Satania!” Adam shouted back, emerald eyes pointed in a show of defiance against me.
In my moment of anger, I had subconsciously undone the magic binding that I had set upon myself: a spell of cloaking to hide my inhuman origins.
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Black angel wings shimmered to reality as they stretched and unfurled for the first time in years. Curved black horns materialized on the space above my ears, a symbol of my allegiance to the demons.
“Right? RIGHT?!” I yelled back, anger slowly clouding my mind more and more as years of frustration and despair were let loose in a single moment. “I have watched as humans beat down a demon child for being unable to work without food.”
With every word I shouted, I took a step closer to the hero, my blood burning with the desire to harm him in any way possible.
“Pregnant demon women forced to have miscarriages as their captors fed them food meant for the pigs!”
The hero started backing away, his eyes unafraid but wary of any actions I might do in my angered state.
“Entire generations dying in the mines, never able to see the sun as they wasted their life away mining for the sake of humanity.”
The hero took a step back only to be pressed against the wall of the barn. I grabbed his shoulder and threw him roughly onto the ground. He coughed and groaned as his wounds were aggravated by the rough impact. I looked down at him, pitying his current state and wondered how I lost to the pitiful sight before me.
The winds died down as I calmed down from my tirade. Hints of irritation still appeared on my face but the urge to harm the hero had gone, replaced by a sense of regret that I had helped him patch his wounds.
“Never tell me my cause wasn’t righteous.” I told him. “I am far older than you, hero. I have seen and brought low countless kingdoms. You may think me brash to challenge humanity and its god but you know nothing of the truth.”
“Then enlighten me.”
I guffawed at his words. Adam made an indignant expression as I laughed loudly at him. As I had my time, he recovered and stood back up, hands covering his irritated wounds.
“I see my mistakes clearly now, Satania.”
“Do you, hero?” I said, crossing my arms as I grinned arrogantly. Humans had a penchant for assuming they knew more than they actually did. “What mistakes do you talk about, hero? The mistake of fighting for humanity or the mistake of going here alone?”
“The mistake of trusting humanity.”
My mind froze at his words. The hero I had fought was naive and innocent; uninitiated in the darker side of humanity. During our fight, he had gone on a tirade about the ‘combined hopes and dreams’ of mankind. Curiosity stroked my attention and made me ask: “What happened, Adam?”
“My daughter.” Adam laughed hollowly. He looked away to avoid me seeing his face. “King Osmund had ‘asked’ for her hand in marriage. Eve and I were furious at the thought of an old man marrying our princess.”
“And so you ran away?”
“I wish. Foolishly, we had stayed. Eve reassured me the church would protect us from any malicious actions from Osmund.” the hero explained as he gritted his teeth. “We were naive and carefree. I had thought my status as a hero would protect us. All that got me was a kidnapped daughter and a wife without a head.”
I grunted in acknowledgement. Human politics were always rather shady and filled with assassinations and bribery.
“And you?” I asked
“They are the reason for my bandages. I had tried to rescue her from the executioner by rallying the people to my cause.” Adam rasped as he silently shed tears that would have gone unnoticed lest for his cracking voice. “I had watched as the people stoned her, called her a witch, and celebrated as she was beheaded. I had tried to fight to free her but I couldn’t bring myself to hurt the people we had used to protect.”
I stayed silent as the man mourned. I had taken to awkwardly stretching my wings as he stood there silently, staring at the sun as tears fell off his hidden face. While I had hated humanity, my silence was a sign of respect to the man who had fought against me. Our bonds might not be as intimate as friendship, but there exists a rather strange feeling of understanding for someone who I had fought to the death with.
“She saw me and smiled. She smiled.” the hero sobbed, his hands going up to clutch his head. “...I was spotted soon after. The people stoned me and called for my death as I ran from the guards. I ran as arrows grazed my skin. I ran as rocks hit my head and made my vision darken. With luck, I rode on a ship that would pass by the land of giants. The captain was a good man and sympathized with me. I made my way here, knowing that you would still be here all this time.”
Adam looked at me, his emerald eyes now bloodshot as fresh tears ran down his cheeks. His dry lips quivering as he let out a dam of emotions that had been building up since his wife’s death.
“A part of me had wanted to die alongside her.” he snivelled. “Why? Why would they do this?! We had fought for them! We had bled for them! What was the point?! How could they?!”
I watched as the hero let out his frustrations by punching the wall of my cabin. While I trusted my skill in craftsmanship, I secretly moved my fingers to weave a spell of resilience; the wooden wall would now feel like stone and thus be able to endure the hero’s barrage. Of course, this would mean that his fists would hurt even more but I do not feel like it is of my concern that he was aggravating his wounds.
A minute passed by filled with the sounds of the hero’s wails and punches. I stood there, pondering everything he had told me so far. After a few seconds, he stopped, his bandages now loose as he started bleeding slowly again. He had knelt on the ground with his head pressed against the wall as he let out the last of his cries.
“Adam.”
“What?” He replied, sniffing as snot clogged his nose.
“What aid would you want me to provide?”
His head snapped up to look at me as he stared in surprise at my offer.
“Fight by my side as we go to save my daughter, Satania.” he said with all the hope a voice could possibly have. “With your might, we can easily save her, bring down the corrupt nobles, and save the people and the kingdom!”
“No.” I answered, his hopeful expression cracking like a child who was denied their reward. “You are naive, hero.”
“I know! But I believe they will-”
“Do not push your beliefs on me, Adam.”
His eyes dulled as he bit his lip in frustration. He turned around and sat with his back against the wall, staring once more at the setting sun.
“Then what, Satania?” he questioned. “If you will not fight beside me, then what?”
I sighed and moved to stand before him, casting my shadow over him as my wings unfurled to block the setting sun. He looked up at my crimson eyes, questioning my intentions as a small light of hope reignited within his emerald ones.
“I offer you an accord.”
With a quick hand motion, lines of bright runes made of light flowed around me. Lines from a legend of benevolent kings and faithful knights danced. I could decipher the names written in ancient script that was floating in the air. The hero sat stunned as he gazed at the beauty of the magic ritual I was about to begin.
“Have you heard the tale of Lucifer, hero?” I asked nonchalantly. Most of my focus was on reading the words around me. As proficient as magic as I was, ancient runic magic was never my forte. Yes, I could weave magics that would give death to entire armies but I had never utilized those that relied on multiple users.
Especially one that influenced the soul.
“Eve had told me stories about him.” he answered as he basked in the glow of the runes, the light reflecting beautifully in his astonished eyes. “The forgotten knight of God, right?”
“Not forgotten.” I corrected him. “He was cast down.”
“An angel banished?” he chuckled at the thought. “You make me laugh, Satania.”
“I laugh at your understanding of the world around us.”
I clapped, startling the hero, as I finished reading the runes floating in the air. I waved my hands as I rearranged and directed the runes into a star around us.
“Worry not, hero.” I reassured him with a voice as gentle as I could muster. “This is my aid to you.”
And with that, I began chanting. I read and relived the life of a benevolent king who had fought against invaders. He had chosen 12 knights, each as faithful and loyal as the other, to undertake a ritual with him, intertwining their souls with one another. With them by his side, he had pushed back the enemy. Battle after battle, city after city, village after village, he had liberated the land the invaders had taken and set peace throughout the kingdom. It was a beautiful story that I had the displeasure of personally being a part of long ago. As an age of prosperity set in, one of his chosen knights had fallen to greed and lust. The knight plotted against the king and moved to assassinate him.
As the treacherous knight stabbed the king, he had felt his soul lose power and diminish like a flickering flame in the wind. All bound knights died as the king drew his final breath.
I shuddered at the thought. This was the ritual we were about to undergo, one that would bind our souls together and multiply our power exponentially. This would also mean that should one die, then the other will go with him.
I was placing my life in the hands of my greatest enemy, the hero.
The pros and cons of the situation dashed through my mind. I had thought this through earlier as he wailed against the wall of my cabin. I was a weakening angel; It had taken so much of my energy to defy and rebel against God for centuries. This would be my last chance in fulfilling my goal.
My last chance at redemption.
“Adam.”
“Yes?”
“With this, our souls will be bound together for eternity.” I warned him, a part of me hoping he will decline and return home to chase his mission alone. “Our powers will be strengthened by one another. I will have access to yours as you will mine.”
“I’m sensing a but here.”
“Indeed, there is a but.” I chuckled at the childish joke. “Should one of us die, the other will shortly follow.”
The hero’s visage grew grim and thoughtful as he pondered his decision. I took this chance to ponder mine as well. Should I accompany the former hero to his task, I will have to leave the farm and my cabin. It embarrasses me to say that I had grown attached to this place. Each plank of wood I had chopped down from a tree by my lonesome. Each head of cattle in the barn I had found and raised. I would miss this life.
But my fate was destined for something bigger.
“I accept.” Adam spoke up, his face filled with determination and an acceptance of the situation at hand.
I smiled. A genuine smile I should say. I had fought for centuries against the influence and authority of my former master. With this new change, I feel like I would be able to finish my task once and for all.
“And so do I.”
The glowing runes ran onto my hand, forming a bright circle on my palm. Inside the circle held a window to my very soul: a bloody soul that had grown tired and jaded of the world at large. I offered it to him, holding out my palm for him to see.
He stared at it, assessing the soul shining within. He reached out his hand towards mine as the golden runes formed a rope between us, tying my soul to his.
“Don’t make me regret this, Satania.” the hero said as I pulled him up, glowing runes now vanishing as a mark was branded around our pinky fingers.
“Please.” I replied, smirking as golden light wrapped around my wings and revealed its true brilliance. Soot and ash fell off as white feathers shone in the sunlight. “Call me Lucifer.”