Kassia cursed her parents for settling down in Harrowstead. She cursed her grandparents for growing up here, and she cursed her great-grandparents for moving here from fucking Tesoro Gardens. What if her ancestors had stayed there? She could’ve been relaxing in a taqueria eating good food and drinking tequila. Instead, she was trapped in bloody Harrowstead, home of the Red Rain Eclipse. They’d begun a few weeks ago, and they’d been a nightly occurrence ever since. As Kassia ran across a bridge above the Great Fairy River, she recalled the day the Red Rain Eclipses began.

She’d been out at a pub with a few coworkers relaxing over a game of football when it’d suddenly kicked off. They’d all assumed it was some sort of festival or the like – the city tended to get rowdy during football season –, but when instead of cheers from outside of the pub like she’d been expecting she heard screams, she’d turned to find a Demon straight out of the history books crawling through the street with two people trapped between its jaws. They were humanoid creatures with batlike ears and winged arms accompanied by gray, leathery skin and thin bodies. There were hundreds of them out here, flying around the city and killing everyone they made contact with. She’d watched as some of the Demons fought over the lives of cowering citizens while others openly feasted on them just across the street from them. Kassia had even watched as one of the Demons flew a man to the top of the vacant Mamoru Building, the rectangular skyscraper at the center of the downtown district, and dropped him from the rooftop for no discernible reason. The only reason she’d survived that day was because one of her coworkers, a man named Todd, was Contracted to a Bukimish Hellhound. She knew him as “the guy with the dog ears and the hairy arms”, symptoms of him being a Class C Myth User. As she watched Demons tear him apart and eat him alive, she’d wished she knew more about him than that.

As Fate would have it, Kassia would soon have her chance to learn more about him. She’d be able to ask him directly. The Demons across the bridge would make sure of that. Kassia hadn’t been sure where she was running. Her target had been the tall, brown rectangular building with the bright lights. It was an armory. Surely that was the safest place to be during a bloody Red Rain Eclipse? Too bad she’d never find out.

Sorry for being an idiot, Mom and Dad. I just wanted to make sure my friends were alright. Love you.

Kassia continued to backstep toward the armory behind her, but the four Demons across the bridge advanced much faster than she could retreat. She looked into their glowing red eyes, unsure what she’d find. Sympathy? Understanding? Some semblance of humanity?

“Please don’t eat me,” Kassia tried shakily. “I just wanna go home. There’s other things you could eat, you know?”

The Demons, obviously, didn’t respond. They continued their advance, increasing their speed to close the distance. Fear taking hold, Kassia decided to turn and run. She refused to die here. She wouldn’t let herself die here! Not in the middle of a bloody street to some ugly fucking bat-things!

Just as she resolved herself to run, a new, much bigger, much beefier “bat-thing” flew in front of her and roared so loud it threatened to burst her eardrums. This one was black and stood at a staggering three meters tall. It was muscled like a damn Berserker and had the horns to match. Unlike the gray Demons, this one had normal human-like arms but with two massive black wings on its back and a body covered in black fur. The gray Demons, who’d been much closer than she’d thought, stepped away from the newcomer with fear plain to see in their eyes. This wasn’t enough to stop the black Demon, though. It roared again, brought its right clawed hand back, and slammed it into the head of the closest Demon. The remaining three shrieked in fear, but the black Demon killed them with minimal effort. That quickly, Kassia was left to stand alone with this new, horrifyingly powerful Demon. To her surprise, though, it didn’t immediately try to kill her. Instead, it turned and walked closer. It had the face of a lion except its eyes were a dim red and it lacked a mane.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Are you… okay?” The black Demon suddenly asked. It spoke in a deep, monstrous voice like you’d hear in a Saturday morning cartoon.

“I-I… uh…”

“You!” A new voice sounded.

The Black Demon turned to face the bridge as a sea of people Kassia had never seen suddenly showed up. They were dressed in black cloaks with red accents and some runes she couldn’t understand written at the center.

A bloody fucking cult?! Are you fucking kidding me?!

That explained it. That explained everything. Wasn’t Burnchester supposed to be safer than Bukimiburgh? As much as Kassia wanted to be angry, fear was still the strongest emotion in her body. She wanted to run, but she wasn’t sure what effect her sudden movements would have. Instead, she chose to slowly inch back as the cult traded words with the black Demon.

“You ugly, disgusting, malformed beast!” One of the cultists shouted. “We have watched you convene with the Church of Typhon, and we know what your aim is! You are not your idol! You will never be your idol! Take this hideous facsimile of the Heretic off and face us as the coward you are!”

So these blokes all worship Typhon and the Demogorgon I take it?

Suddenly, the cultists launched themselves at the black Demon. They revealed spears and knives from their robes and stabbed the black Demon without warning. To Kassia’s surprise, the black Demon didn’t try to dodge or evade. Instead, she just… let the cultists attack them over and over again.

It’s blood is red…

Kassia wasn’t sure why that felt important to her. She stared at it for a long while as she continued to back toward the armory.

“You are not Typhon! You will never be Typhon! Typhon is a monster who pursues her goals single-mindedly, uncaring of the lives it costs to achieve them. Typhon is the strongest Myth in the history of Minashire, a title earned in blood and war! Typhon is the ultimate enemy of the Demogorgon, the true titan of Minashire. You are a failure! A weakling created to give hope to your Church of fools! You are nothing! You have always been nothing! Your… life… is… nothing!”

They continued to stab into the black Demon, so much so that its blood began to pool beneath it. The entire time, the black Demon didn’t move an inch. It didn’t kill them, though Kassia imagined it could, nor did it refute anything the cultists had said to it. It’d only done one thing – turn and stare into Kassia’s eyes. When their eyes met, the Demon spoke.

“The door is open. Run.”

“Wha–?”

Thankfully, Kassia’s brain moved faster than her mouth. When she turned, she found the door to the armory wide open, held by an older man dressed holding an assault rifle in his hands. He took aim while another woman deeper in the armory called out.

“Hey, lady! Get your ass in here!” The lady called.

“And get out the way!” The old man called. “I need a clean–”

“Thank you!” Kassia called, both to the people in the armory, and to the black Demon.

The black Demon didn’t answer. It just turned away and faced the cultists attacking and berating it. As Kassia ran into the armory, she refused to get out of the way of the man aiming at the black Demon. It was the most she could do for her savior. The man made sure to yell at her for that, but Kassia didn’t mind. As she fell to her knees, relief washing over her, one thought persisted in Kassia’s mind.

That Demon’s blood was red…