The term ‘demon’ refers to the many different tribes of creatures that inhabit the dark continent, Asamando. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors and are hated by every other living thing in the world. The mere sight of demons brings about hatred and fear from the people they meet. This hate does not arise from the actions of the demons. Rather, it is brought about by the curse that afflicts them from their birth. That curse does three things to the demons. For one, it makes them feared and hated. Secondly, it makes it hard for them to feel any emotions apart from rage and lastly, it incites in them a strong desire to hurt and kill other creatures.
Some demons try their best to resist their urge to kill and this places them on a long and difficult path full of suffering. They go through their lives constantly worrying about hurting other people until it drives them to madness. Their deaths are rarely ever peaceful.
Others give in to their urges and spend their lives fighting and killing. These demons embrace themselves for who they truly are and take great pride in what they do. The more they fight and kill, the stronger they get and the more their urge to kill grows. Just like their peace-loving brethren, their deaths are rarely ever peaceful. Ultimately, no matter what path a demon chooses, a painful death awaits them. Demons from the moment of their birth are dealt an unfair hand by an unkind world. As awful as it is to say, it might be better for such pitiful creatures to never be born in the first place.
************************************************************************
Naamah, the de facto leader of the slums, was a demon. Anybody that saw her could tell she was a demon simply from her eyes. No matter how a demon looks, they will always have pitch black sclera and blood red pupils.
She had bright blue skin and large horns that closely resembled the horns of a bull. Her mouth was filled with sharp, black canines and a large snakelike tail extended from her lower body. She was rather short even by human standards but that didn’t make her any less intimidating. Although she was a gang leader, she wore rather plain clothes. She always wore a plain white cotton shirt with a brown vest on top and a pair of leather shorts. Naamah didn’t like wearing shoes as she personally felt they were too constricting. That was the same reason why she let her hair run wild. Naamah had a natural puffy afro. She hated cutting it and as a result, it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It got so big that it became a nesting place for birds and other small creatures.
A day after Solomon and the others had fought at the tavern, Naamah was facing a major problem in one of her many bases. This particular base was situated in Argentum’s old sewage system. The main city’s sewage system had received a major overhaul and was in pristine condition while the one in the slums had not seen any maintenance in over fifty years. The pipes that made up the slum sewers were either rusted or clogged with human waste. Sometimes even both.
The sewers were not a place anyone would willingly visit, which made it a perfect place for Naamah to keep one of her more dangerous pets. The pet in question was a ten meter long lizard covered in scales and feathers. It had six legs and it constantly spat acid from its mouth. Yes, this pet was none other than a basilisk. Naamah chose to name it Basil because she could not be bothered to come up with a better one. She also blinded it after realizing just how much of a pain undoing its petrification was.
The problem she was facing was caused by her own negligence. She had forgotten to feed Basil and now it was going on a rampage. “Would you cut that out already?! I’m sorry I forgot to feed you.”
“HISSSSS!!”
Her pitiful attempt at an apology was met with a loud hiss from Basil.
“Fine fine, I’ll get you some food…” Naamah turned her attention from Basil and looked up. “Hey you there, show yourself already.”
Naamah spoke as if addressing someone but no one responded to her. She sighed.
“That invisibility is doing you no favors, I can smell you quite clearly.”
Suddenly, a man appeared on a large pipe slightly above Naamah. The man was a chameleon beastfolk named Efunu. He was paid by Okusie to stalk Naamah and report any useful information back to Okusie. Efunu thought it would be an easy job because of his invisibility but he was wrong, Naamah had spotted him and quite easily at that.
‘When did she notice me? Just now or from the start? If she just noticed now, maybe I can still find a way out of this mess.’
“Um, sorry for following you. It’s just, um I was looking for a friend down here and I sort of got lost. I was hoping to follow you out of here.” Efunu tried his best to give his most convincing friendly smile.
“...”
“...”
They were both silent for a while. Then Naamah tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Do you think I’m stupid?” Efunu felt a chill spread across his body. He knew that he had to escape so he looked away from Naamah to see if there was a way for him out of there. When he looked back, Naamah was standing right in front of him. Her pitch-black eyes seemed to stare deep into his soul. They easily discerned everything about him and made it impossible for Efunu to hide anything from her. Efunu found it hard to breathe. He was sure that he would be sweating if it was physically possible for him to.
“I noticed you following me from the very beginning. I just couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it.” Naamah moved closer and placed her hand on Efunu’s chest. Her touch felt cold to his skin.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“I could kill you right now but that would be so boring. Don’t you think?”
The fear he felt prevented him from answering Naamah’s question and this infuriated her. She dug her fingers into his skin. “Well, aren’t you going to answer the question?”
“YES MA’AM! Killing me here would be very boring indeed!” Efunu nodded his head rapidly through his entire reply.
Naamah smiled. “Glad to see you agree. So let’s make your death more fun.”
“Huh?”
“All you have to do is escape from here while Basil tries to eat you. If you successfully escape, I won’t kill you and you can go back to whoever asked you to follow me. If you don’t….well I’m sure I don’t have to spell that out for you.”
Naamah jumped off the pipe and walked back to Basil. “I’m going to give you a five second head start, startinnnng now.”
Efunu swiftly began his escape. He easily climbed the large pipes around him because of the rough patches of skin on his hands and feet. While he was climbing, Naamah counted down by raising one finger at a time. Acidic drool spilled out from Basil’s mouth as she did so.
“One…two…three…four…five! Go Basil!”
Immediately, Basil chased after its prey. Despite its large size, Basil was still able to match pace with Efunu. It was rather clumsy in doing so however, with its large body bumping and slamming into the pipes and walls of the sewer. Seeing Basil chase after him, Efunu instinctively turned on his invisibility even though he was well aware Basil was blind.
Naamah yawned and stood up to follow them. When she did so, one of the birds in her hair popped out. She grabbed it and stuffed it in her mouth. “Yum!”
Basil was hot on Efunu’s tail. Basilisks are powerful monsters so it should have easily caught up with such a weak man but Basil’s blindness hindered its hunting capabilities, forcing it to rely purely on sound.
Basil opened its mouth wide to chomp down on Efunu when he dashed into a pathway to the side. Basil skidded past the corridor and slammed into the nearby wall. Basil’s tough skin prevented the loose bricks that fell from the wall from doing any damage.
“HISSSS!” Basil followed the sounds of Efunu and walked into the corridor but when it did, it stopped being able to hear the sounds of Efunu’s footsteps.
‘If I just stay still and hold my breath, it shouldn’t be able to find me. But what do I do now? The moment I move again, it’ll kill me.’
Basil, upset that it had lost its meal, slammed its head into the walls and pipes continuously. “Would you stop that already?! You’re going to bring this place down on us.”
Naamah had been watching them the entire time from a distance but she moved closer after Basil started slamming into the walls. “HISSS!”
“You want me to tell you where he is? No way, that wouldn’t be fair.”
“HISSSS!”
“I had to give him the head start otherwise it would have ended waaaaay too quickly.”
“HISSS!”
“You’re bringing up the whole blinding you thing now, seriously?! You know it was an accident.”
“HISSSSS!”
“Alright, I get it! I’ll help you out, just stick your tongue out.”
Just then, a bulb lit up in Basil’s head. The entire hunt for Efunu, Basil had been using sound to track him. It had completely forgotten about smelling him.
“Hiss.” Basil hissed at Naamah again. However, this time, it was much quieter and sounded more like a snicker. Almost like it was thanking her for her help.
Basil stuck its tongue out like a snake and was easily able to track down Efunu. He was just a few feet away and his back was up against the wall. Basil walked closer to him. Acidic drool spilled out of Basil’s mouth as it relished in the thought of eating him.
Efunu had heard their entire conversation but he didn’t move. He realized he would be damned if he moved and he would be damned if he didn’t. The last thing he ever saw was Basil opening its mouth wide. He saw the rows of sharp fangs and the pink insides of its mouth. Basil’s mouth clamped down and easily separated his torso from the rest of his body in just one bite. In his last moments, he cursed himself for taking the job from Okusie.
Basil took its time chewing Efunu. After all, Basil was a well-mannered basilisk and liked to savor its food. Blood leaked out of Basil’s mouth and the loud, uncomfortable sound of bones being crushed could be heard.
“Well, I can see that you’re busy so I’ll be heading out.”
Naamah waved goodbye to Basil and Basil nodded its head. Basil was easy to please and even though its master had forgotten to feed it for an entire week it forgot all about it the moment it received food.
Naamah walked away and sat down with her legs crossed. ‘That was fun but now I’m bored again. What to do?’ Naamah’s position and job as the slum gang leader was filled with much boredom as she regulated all the important work to her underlings. She mostly spent her time doing anything she found interesting as a way to ease her boredom.
‘I guess I could go check out Henry. I’ve heard so many interesting things after all.’
“Alright then, time to head out.” Naamah smiled and left the sewers.
************************************************************************
The sun had already set by the time she tracked down Henry. Naamah had gone to a place known as Mercy’s End. It was once a part of the slums but one day, a treant mysteriously showed up there and turned the surrounding area into a makeshift forest. The animals and people that ventured into that forest often turned into horrific monsters. It was a dangerous place that not many people would even think of going to but this was where Henry lived.
Naamah had traveled to Mercy’s End for the sole purpose of finding Henry but she would find something even more interesting. Standing before her in that forest were two peculiar beings next to the corpse of a large rodent. A knight clad in armor as dark as the night sky and a young boy with blood red eyes wearing a long red scarf.