The underworld was without a king for the first time in memory. The demons who had not been able to reach the material world had to make decision. Whom would be the next king?
The bigger demons decided that they should run things and decided that the smaller demons could get behind them, or be eaten. The clash of arms filled the air as the forces of darkness ripped each other apart in the sky and along the cones that stabbed the air until you reached the bottom of the world.
The demon known as Pajanray was not built for fighting. He was small, only had one natural weapon, and got around the world by flapping tiny wings that only supported him because of his nature. Ambition burned in him. This could be his only chance to make his mark on demon kind.
He certainly wasn't going to do that with Grolus sitting on the throne.
Pajanray decided that he needed to avoid the fighting for as long as he could. Then when things had settled into who were the top candidates for the throne, he could figure out some way to kill them and take their power for his own.
He knew that whatever happened, once he was king he would have to defend his claim until he had enough personal power that no one dared challenge him.
He decided the best place to wait the storm out was the throne room. He didn't think anyone had gone down there. It might make a good place to plan his next moves.
Maybe Grolus had left something he could use to be the next king. Any kind of weapon or spell ability would be helpful. His natural weapon was not something that would hurt the bigger demons when they were in their frenzies.
And he didn't want to feed them. He wanted to be the one to gorge. He could see banquets of demons when he was king. He would be the most dangerous being in the underworld. Nothing would stop him.
Pajanray descended to the bottom of the spikes and walked to the entrance of the cave system that housed the things the demons brought back from the material world. The throne room was among the vaults and exercise fields for the residents to practice their skills.
He had heard two humans had descended into the maze and killed Grolus. He couldn't believe that. No human could stand up to the king of demons.
Yet the king was dead and no had claimed his title. What kind of human could do that?
He decided he didn't want to find out the hard way by trying to get revenge for something that could make him the king. If they had killed Grolus, there was no telling what they would do to him.
He was smart enough to know that revenge was for those that didn't have anything to lose. It was better to go about your business and pay back your enemy when he couldn't do anything to stop you.
Then you could sit back and laugh as he twisted on the hook you put him on before he was quartered for the feast.
Pajanray hopped along the corridors. He had never had the courage to come down to talk to the king. It had seemed like a bad idea at the time. Grolus was known for his personal power and intolerance for things he saw in other demons. They obeyed any command he might issue, but most didn't like it.
He had known two demons who had petitioned the king over issues they thought were important. One had his petition answered, and his rival was destroyed. The other had been paraded around the underworld on a hook.
Both petitions had seemed the same to him, but Grolus evidently had not thought they were in the way he solved them.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Pajanray reached the throne room and paused at the broken doors. That told him that a battle had been fought on the ground. He should turn around and go back up and find some demon to feed with his body.
He looked inside the throne room. The place had been ripped by the forces unleashed inside the walls. Chasing after any human who could do this was a bad idea with the confirmation sitting in front of him.
Whichever demon who won the crown and wanted to get revenge for this would be leading his people to a hard fought battle with a force as strong as anything that had ever worked in the underworld.
Pajanray would not be among the forces commanded to attack. His observation told him his meager resources would just lead to his unmaking that much sooner. He wanted to grow fat and powerful without any risk he didn't have to take.
Let stupider demons take that risk and wind up needing to be replaced because they had ran after something capable of wrecking the throne room and the king too.
He entered the throne room and looked around. The walls were cracked and showed where magic and some inhuman strength had been used. Broken spikes on the floor showed where something had been impaled and broken free.
Any demon caught in this would have been taken apart before they could do anything useful. The king might have killed his own by accident from the way things looked.
The throne looked intact. It had been knocked from its place and came to rest against the wall. He walked over and righted it with a shrug of his shoulders and a grunt of effort. He sat down on it. He smiled a sharky smile as he enjoyed the feeling the throne gave him.
He could enjoy sitting there forever.
His rivals would think the same thing when they finally decided to descend to the throne room and lay claim to the seat. He needed some idea he could use to boost himself so he could be ready for any demon that showed up to take the throne from him.
Maybe he could ambush some of them and take their flesh. His natural weapon was not much, but he could kill others with it if he could set it in the right place and activate it.
It was not much against bigger demons' natural weapons.
And it was only deadly if he had surprise to plant it. He would lose a straight fight with any other demon.
Pajanray noticed meat on the other side of the room. He smiled again. It must be what was left of the king. He could eat that and gain a little more power. That would help him in the long run.
The more he gathered for himself, the better it would be when he had to stand up to any challenger. Maybe he could turn his weapon into a real threat. He would love to see a bruiser cower before him.
It would feed into his superiority and making the demon fear for his life would make things that much better.
Of course, any of his subjects brought before him would never be allowed to live. They would want to take revenge on him. He had to be preemptive and get rid of them before they tried to pay him back.
Get your retaliation in first is something he had always been told to do.
Pajanray devoured all of the demon pieces he could find. He felt tiny surges of power as he shoved each of the pieces in his maw. Then he found the almost intact body of Grolus. He danced around in glee. This was exactly what he needed.
He didn't bother to wonder what had happened to the king's head. A part of his brain not happy beyond belief about the feast told him something had dropped a hammer on target hard enough to splatter the skull against the floor. That didn't matter to him.
He didn't see a weapon like that lying around, so the killer had taken the weapon with him. And he was alone, so the killer was nothing to worry about now.
Pajanray pulled pieces of the body from the main mass and dropped them in his maw. He worked his way along the torso before trying the limbs. He felt himself changing with the additional mass. If he had more flesh to devour, he could grab a smaller demon and dine again.
He rested on his haunches after his meal. His body still shifted as his skin tried to accommodate the extra mass. He felt like he could eat someone else.
His single eye fell on a leg he hadn't eaten yet. Maybe there was another body he could add to himself. He walked over to inspect his find.
Pajanray smiled. He had found one of the humans that had been seen looking for the king. Humans were known for the way they tasted. He could add this corpse to his body and become a little more powerful.
He turned the corpse over, thinking of where he could start. Maybe one of the limbs would be the best place to start chewing.
The corpse split open. Tentacles reached for Pajanray. He tried to escape with a flap of his wings. The limbs wrapped around him and squeezed him to death. He vanished inside the growing demon hidden in the human body.
Grolus smiled. There was more than one way to regenerate.