Chapter 12 - The Sealed Demon

Stone cracked and ruptured. Rubble sprayed out from behind him, and Lazar was flung forward by the impact of the force. He felt stray shards slice into his back, but the sensation was distant, dulled. All his focus as he scrambled back to his feet was on the center of the destruction.

The red glow of the walls flared, temporarily swallowing the cave in a blinding light before it faded back into the dim shadows. Clouds of loose dust cast the surroundings in a haze that slowly began to dissipate and clear.

Lazar raised his head, and his eyes widened.

Standing amidst the pile of broken stone and rubble where the structure once stood, half obscured by the dust, was another demon.

Long, wild hair was pulled back so messily that stray strands covered half her face. A single gleaming horn curled around the demon’s left ear, its ends decorated with two golden hoops that were the same shade as her only visible eye. Worn and tattered clothes stretched over toned muscles and rough skin covered with stray scars. She towered over both the soul eater and Lazar, and her broad shoulders combined with her musculature only made her all the more imposing.

She was, by all accounts, even more humanoid than the soul eater was. Save for the single asymmetrical horn, she had no especially demonic features. No wings, no tail, no claws. And yet, when Lazar looked at her, he felt a strange anxiety twist in his chest. There was an inherent wrongness to her presence, to the sharpness in her single visible eye, to the casual grin that felt perfectly empty. As if there was nothing behind it.

The new demon’s gaze roamed the cavern with a combination of laxness and keen perception. That unsettling golden gaze landed on him, and the demon’s smile widened.

“So that’s what you look like.” Her voice was low and rich, raspy like a crackling flame. “Thanks. I was getting kind of bored in there.” She stepped her foot down on a piece of the broken stone structure to emphasize her point, and it shattered with no effort.

Lazar just stared at the demon, not sure how to respond. His hand was no longer around his halberd, he realized. In his peripheral vision, he saw it lying a few feet away across the ground, the silver metal covered in broken rocks and dust. His eyes landed on the demon again, who hadn’t moved from her position, body language relaxed. She didn’t look like she was trying to be threatening, but the other demon hadn’t at first, either.

The seraph’s eyes widened, and his gaze flicked over to the first demon. He was still standing where he’d been, his wings extended to guard against the stones that had flown out from the explosion. He was now staring at the new demon, yellow eyes focused, and straightened. His wings lowered again, just enough to get a better view, but still high enough to raise and strike at any moment.

“Well that’s disappointing.” He brushed some stray dust off his clothes. His expression was blank. “I was wondering what sort of creature could be sealed there. To think it was just another flesh eater.”

Lazar’s eyes darted back over to the second demon, and he frowned. He hadn’t realized she was a flesh eater; he’d never seen one that looked so humanoid before. He knew they existed, but he hadn’t encountered one until now.

The flesh eater chuckled, low and rumbling. “Sorry to ruin your fun. If it makes you feel better, you can tell people you found some ancient, powerful being. Always good to have a few stories on hand.” She ran a hand through her hair, brushing it back and revealing the right half of her face.

Blinking golden eyes covered the flesh there, fanning out from her regular eye in a pattern that resembled strange, blooming petals. There was barely any skin visible around the mass of eyeballs.

The soul eater’s lips curled, but his gaze remained cold.

“Perhaps. I suppose that might be more palatable.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad. Flesh eaters get a bad rap.” She cocked her head. “You soul eaters attack each other just as much as we do, right? Not our fault we’re more honest about it.”

Carefully, Lazar inched closer to his fallen weapon, keeping his eyes on the two demons. The soul eater’s eyes had narrowed, and it seemed like the two were locked in a silent staredown. The seraph had to force himself to move slowly to avoid making sound as he crossed the rubble. He could feel a dull throb across his body from his wounds, and he suspected that once the adrenaline ran out he’d have trouble moving. He needed to get away from this place as fast as he could.

The soul eating demon’s eyes swept across the other’s, expression still stony and impassive.

“...You seem to have a fairly strong soul,” he remarked.

The flesh eater threw her head back and laughed. Her voice boomed and rang across the open space, the sound echoing off the walls.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The soul eating demon smiled thinly, and he took a step closer. The other demon didn’t react.

Lazar’s fingers finally wrapped around the shaft of his halberd. The flesh eater was standing in the center of the cavern, and the first demon approached her from the left. He frowned, eyes narrowing as he took in his options. There was more space to run on the right, behind the flesh eater, but that would put him in direct view of the soul eater. By comparison, running behind the soul eater would limit his space and be more risky, but it would keep him out of view of the demon for a little longer. His eyes landed again on the newly appeared demon, and he frowned. Would she attack if she saw him running?

“Never trust demons.” Lord Andire’s voice rang out in his mind, crisp in his memory. “Act and do not hesitate.”

Lazar’s eyes shifted back over to the right. He’d have to bet his chances on getting away fast enough, he decided, and the greater space would at least give him more room to dodge. He inhaled, tightening his hold on the halberd and rising to a crouch, muscles tensing as he waited for the perfect opportunity.

“An evolved flesh eater and a fallen seraph,” the soul eater was saying, lips pulled back in a sneer. “What a day this is.” His wings twitched, and one of them grew a little higher, one section pulsing outwards with a squelching sound as it began to take up more and more space. Those yellow eyes remained trained on the other demon.

“You know, this feels awfully personal.” She raised an eyebrow, her hair falling back across her face. “I get the seraph thing, but what, did a flesh eater eat one of your buddies or something?”

A vein popped. “You know nothing,” the soul eater hissed.

The other demon grinned. “Hey, I’m just trying to be helpful. I might even know who it was, if you know what I mean.”

The soul eater’s eyes narrowed into slits. He lowered his body, readying to attack.

Now.

Lazar sprang forward, putting all his strength into his feet as they pounded against the ground. He leapt behind the flesh eating demon, and the soul eater snarled. He heard the sound of rushing wind and ducked without looking, feeling the cavern shake as something smashed into the wall just where his head had been.

His eyes remained trained on the exit, the black flowers leading to a narrow passageway that curled around the corner. With a heave, Lazar dove through as another blow just barely grazed him. The seraph stumbled but managed to balance by leaning on his halberd, and he raced down the narrow passage. He could hear the sound of water, which meant this path likely led back to the more spacious parts of the cavern. If he went there, he’d have more space to run and lose the demons.

Sure enough, as the passage widened again, he could see water covering the ground up ahead, the cavern widening until the ceiling was nothing more than a distant, inky expanse. Lazar pushed himself to move faster, but just as his legs hit the water, something landed in front of him and he barely managed to hurl himself out of the way in time.

Lazar fell into the water with a splash, and he looked up to see the soul eater hovering just above him, his wings spread wide.

“Running again, seraph?” His wings pulsed again, and more branches grew out, twisting and coiling in jagged, crooked shapes that were nothing like the pristine feathers of the seraphs that Lazar was so used to.

His movements were even more sluggish in the water, and he just barely managed to pull himself behind a sharp stalagmite as one of those branching appendages extended and shot at him.

The stone shook, and Lazar blocked the next blow with his halberd and shoved it aside, forcing it to change directions.

Another one came at him, then another, and it was all Lazar could do to keep dodging and blocking, weaving around stalagmites and stones and any other potential obstacle that he could see. His body moved purely on instinct, the years of practice keeping his reflexes sharp, but even if his training hadn’t gone away, he no longer had the strength he used to. His limbs were much slower now, and he could feel exhaustion settling in and the wounds from before throbbing. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer.

He took a step back, and his leg lurched. Lazar felt himself begin to fall, but before he could crash into the water, a hand reached out and yanked him back, practically tossing him back to the center of the cavern.

It was the flesh eater. She was still grinning, body language lax as ever as she stood in the water and stared up at the flying soul eater, unfazed. The other demon looked at her disbelievingly.

“You’re helping a seraph?”

“A fallen, technically. Pretty big difference.”

On the back of her hand, resting casually at her side, the flesh twitched. Lazar’s eyes widened as a second mouth formed from the rippling skin, just out of view of the soul eater. It opened, dark and gaping, and spoke with the flesh eater’s low, rumbling voice.

“Can you still fight?”

Lazar’s eyes darted over to the soul eater, still preoccupied with the conversation, and answered in a quiet, but firm voice.

“Yes.” His fingers tightened around his weapon. The mouth grinned, and the flesh surrounding it jerked again, rising and swallowing it back down, leaving nothing but an ordinary hand behind. The flesh eater took a step back so that she was standing closer to him.

“Good to hear,” she said. “I’m a little out of practice, so this should be fun.”

Lazar rose, facing the soul eater looming above them. He didn’t look away, but he couldn’t resist asking even as he lowered himself into a ready stance.

“Why are you helping me?”

He could practically hear the smile in the demon’s voice.

“Call it a debt repaid.” She crouched down as well, the water beneath them splashing as they moved. “Besides, I think we might have similar goals.”

Lazar’s grey eyes briefly darted over to her, then back. He nodded slowly, intrigued, but he knew this would have to be a conversation for another time. Above them, the soul eater’s wings twitched again, new sections growing until they cloaked nearly all of the cavern ceiling.

The seraph’s eyes narrowed, and his muscles tensed as those wings came barreling at them.