Mannar’s stretched hand touched a golden hair that was crossing the cold shape of the cell in which he was imprisoned, deeply hidden in the heart of the woods.

  „Ah,” he eventually hissed through his teeth when he felt a sharp pain on the top of his finger as if the knife's blade cut it to the bone. „It bits as the dog who created it,” and he threw a wave of black magic against the walls of the cell, but he couldn’t break through it.

  A sudden slog made the cell resound and a crack was heard somewhere near as if something broke, and, from the hideous devil, with black skin, horns, and tails in flames, Mannar took his earthly shape back.

  He was a man about 30, with olive, dark skin, 1.85 meters in height, and an athletic body. If not taking into account his devilish nature, Mannar could be considered as being a handsome man, who could have the heart of any innocent lady. Even so, something in his shape was telling the world to stay away from him and it was the scary, black diamond that was seen shining on the middle of his forehead.

  When and how Mannar got that diamond, he didn't remember, but something deep inside him told him that he was born having a human face and body, but, somehow, he transformed into the demon he was at that moment. And, to be honest, Mannar liked more that shape because, only looking like a demon, he could feel the sweet taste of power each time he was forcing someone to kneel in front of him.

  Actually, he still remembered the first time when he felt the taste of the power. It happened a long time ago when he took a deer's life with his empty hands and when the blood, that was flowing on the skin of his palms, was warming him in a strange way.

  Even so, he liked that feeling. That's why he started to kill more and more, till all the forest around him didn't completely die, till his hot breath didn't burn the wooden shape of the trees, transforming them into ghosts of ashes, leaving them lifeless. Even though, part of those trees still looked as if still had some life in them, even if they were having a coal body. Thus, killing everything around him, Mannar managed to be the only alive person in that part of Rophion Forest.

  But Mannar didn’t bother at all that he has been left alone in that Glade, which he named his kingdom later, his home, and he was so happy, ruling over the surroundings. However, his kingship ended the day he killed Samandra. And, since that day, he didn't remember anything about his life before being transformed into a demon, as if his former life has been erased by someone with an eraser, leaving his mind looking like a huge black sheet.

  Nonetheless, even if the diamond was controlling his mind and wasn't giving him the opportunity to remember who he was, Mannar still had something from his former life: the human feelings, that never died inside him. That's why he was trying so hard to remember who he was, each time he had free time. But if the power of the diamond was off, he couldn't remember anything. Even so, he kept trying this, to remember, for years and years, but everything turned out to be in vain.

  And the fact that he kept trying to remember, but with no result, could be considered his punishment for killing Samandra, for he killed her by attacking her one day while she was washing the laundry at the river.

  At first, when Mannar appeared on the river shore, Samandra didn't notice him, for being focused on what she was doing and being immersed in the magic of the love song she was singing. But, in the end, she felt that something evil was approaching her. And, when she turned her head and looked back, she saw the devil with a human face coming toward her. This made her freeze and feel the fear crossing throughout her body, this made her heart madly beat in her chest, and, eventually, she managed to put her hand to her chest and feel that scared bird inside her.   

  And it was impossible not to feel fear, seeing Mannar’s burning eyes looking like lit embers and a kind of black aura floating around him and bringing death for everything it was touching.

  Frightened, Samandra stepped back till her left heel didn’t touch the cold water. Then, she stopped and looked around, searching for a gate of salvation. But there wasn’t anything or anybody who could help her there. And she froze again, yelling Dike’s name in her mind, asking him for help, but she didn’t know that Dike wasn’t listening to her cry then, because, at that moment, Eris’s power was blocking the currents of air from that place where Samandra was kept a captive as if she was surrounded by the void only.

  Suddenly, Mannar grabbed her by the throat, with his right hand, and, squeezing it, he managed to raise her from the ground. Then he kept squeezing it, more and more as if something deep inside him was demanding him all the time to do this as if someone was controlling his will, and this drove him completely crazy. And, when he was totally out of reality, Samandra could finally see what was controlling Mannar.

  Thus she saw, while staring at the black diamond, on its shape, Eris's grinning smile. Then, seconds only after the woman saw that reflection, Samandra could also hear Eris's voice, talking to her: „I have nothing against you, woman. But yet, I hate you, with all my heart, and you must die because your death will bring sufferance in someone’s heart, and his defeat will make me happy.”

  Namely, that madness, told in words by Eris, made Samandra savagely yell. Then, bitter tears have been shed from her eyes, and when one tear touched the back of Mannar's hand, it made him shudder from top to toe, for that tear was hurting his burning skin as if water was boiling on the back of his hand. And, to protect himself when he felt that he couldn't bear it anymore, he threw Samandra to the ground.

  Touching the ground, Samandra rolled a few meters. Then, when she finally stopped rolling, she felt pain all over. Also, a deaf crack has been heard as if all her bones have been broken when she hit the ground. Even so, Samandra wasn't ready to give up. Not without fighting for her life at least. More, knowing that there wasn't anybody to help her, just as there wasn't anybody to hear the pain in her voice.

  That's why Samandra decided to stand up. And she did it, seeing the image of her children in front of her eyes while they were sweetly sleeping in their wooden bed. Namely, that image gave her a shot in her arm and she grabbed the dagger's handle, that she had on her girdle. And, in her hand, the dagger started to brightly shine as if being controlled by an unseen power. Also, the light of the dagger made the hatred seen in her eyes savagely sparkle, and that hatred appeared in her heart because of her love for her children: she knew, deep inside her, that if she fails in that fight with the devil, the next to be attacked will be her children, and she wasn't ready to allow this. For that, to know them safe, she decided to fight to the end, to kneel that devil down, if possible, or kill him, there, on the river shore.

  And the battle for life and death started: face to face, a human heart and a devilish glance were preparing for the attack. But each of them was doing this in his way.

  The first one to finish that spying on the mouse game has been Mannar, and, when he took a step in front, a tail made from fire showed up behind him. Then, a second step has been taken, and a second tail appeared. And he kept walking till behind him hadn't been seen 7 burning tails. And, with each advanced millimeter, everything behind him was scorched to the ground: the grass, the wildflowers, even the soil was turned into ashes, making the ground sigh, asking for mercy.

  Getting only a few steps from Samandra, Mannar said, with the voice of Eris: „Do you think that you can kill me by using a simple dagger?” And, these words made the diamond brightly shine, and, in a blink of an eye, he became even more hideous than before when his horns started to burn as if those horns had been anointed with tar.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Samandra, however, didn't get her tail down. Staring at him, she confidently said: „Not the dagger will kill you, devil. It’ll be the heart of a mother which will defeat you, and, thus, you won’t have ever what you want.”

  Mannar grinned: „You so fool, human being. If you think that I can’t get to your children, taking back what is mine, this way, you are so wrong. There’s nothing and nobody in this world that can make me shudder or give up. Sooner or later, I’ll control everything, and, then, you all will be my slaves.”

  „Dreaming isn’t a sin, but your limitless pride is. Even if I die today, I’ll have my pride and my honor with me, that will hunt you all over this world and even in Cosmos, if necessary, but I assure you that I’ll manage, in the end, to root out your evil from everything, no matter the costs,” and Samandra attacked Mannar.

  Even if she was just a woman, she was taught to fight because there were many wars on Earth in those times and her tribe had also been forced to fight, many times, to protect their lands.

  She knew how to move, how to use a dagger or a sword, and how to kill a human, but nobody ever told her or taught her how to kill a demon. Samandra, however, didn’t care about this at that moment. That's why, after she had jumped on his back, she stubbed the dagger on Mannar’s forehead, next to the diamond, intending to take it off, because she felt that namely in that diamond the Seeds of Evil were hidden, and she saw this reflected on its shape and she was convinced to exterminate them.

  But suddenly a painful sigh came out of Samandra’s mouth when the top of a tail entered her back and exited through her chest. This made her freeze, staring at the sky with an empty glance. Then, the dagger slipped from her hand when her fingers started to lose strength and, with each past second, the light in Samandra's eyes became paler and paler. And, when that light was almost gone, she laid on her back and slowly fell off Mannar's shoulders.

  While falling, Samandra’s body was surrounded by a current of blue magic, making it float. But that magical air couldn’t help her avoid the bitter kiss of death because her wound was badly bleeding and the thread of her life was coming out through it, forming a white star above her, a star that was reflecting a frightened soul in its shape - Samandra’s soul, that was looking to kill the devil, not understanding that she wasn’t alive anymore.

  Suddenly, someone whispered in Samandra’s ear: „rest in peace,” and she fell asleep forever. But something magical happened when the top of the star touched Gaea’s hand, who was closing the woman’s eyes at that moment - it colored yellow and started to shine. And, the image of the star, touching the saint hand of Gaea, could be easily considered the kiss of a mother on her baby’s forehead - so gentle, so maternal, and so full of love.

  Then, Gaea’s fingers slowly touched the star, and a slow current of warm, blue air came out from the Titanide’s mouth, air that raised the star in the air, up-up, till it got in the sky, forming Ursa Minoris Constellation during the day… an amalgam of white, shinning stars, led by a yellow one, which had the golden breathing of Mother Earth in it.

  And, from above, in the form of the star that was illuminating the void, Samandra saw how the devil, that killed her, was slowly approaching Gaea, from behind. That's why Samandra started to yell, but no sound was heard coming out of her chest because the stars have no voice and they can't also talk. They can only illuminate the surroundings, enjoying or singing about sorrow that they saw on Earth.

  However, even if Samandra had no voice to tell the Titanide about the approaching danger, Gaea felt it, as though she felt Eris's hot breath, blowing down her neck. And, slowly moving her hand, she raised the dagger from below without touching it, and she turned then toward Mannar, looking into his eyes. And she saw how Mannar’s body was changing repeatedly his form from human to devil and back as Eris and Mannar's voices were heard at the same time, talking to the Titanide:

  „Mother Earth, Mother Earth,” they reproachfully said, „I see that you are still pocking your nose into others’affairs. Ahh! I feel how the madness is flowing through my veins when I understand that it was me who created you. But you've betrayed me, in the end, and turned your back on me, joining Chaos and trying to dethrone me,” Eris yelled, with all her force.

  Gaea just smiled, hearing that raving, and her smile was so kind and so full of love. „I was made from light and not by you, Eris. I was made from Chaos’s breath and not because you wished that. I’m his seed, thrown on the Earth's fertile soils, and, from my body, nature was made. Because of this, the humans are calling me Mother Earth: because I’m life and fertility, I’m rain and breathing of everything that surrounds us. But… even if I’m an alive being, I have no mother, Eris. I have only a father and his name is Chaos.

   Also, I’ve been made from the serum that flows through Yggdrasil’s branches and also its leaves covered my body for the first time. But, even if he made my body this way, I was blessed with breathing by Chaos, who’s the only one who has this power and he made from me this being that you see now, considered to be the first Titanide who ever stepped on Earth and who gave birth to everything alive that surrounds us.”

  „Sweet are your words, Gaea, but their meaning isn’t something that I want to know. And… do you know why?”

  „No, and I don’t want to find out this, Eris. So, stop talking, and let’s finish this stupid game of power you’ve started because you took the life of a child of mine and you must be punished for this.”

  And Gaea’s hatred was thrown on Earth in the form of heavy rains whose drops were cooling Mannar’s body of fire, taking power from him, making him weak, and slowly forcing him to kneel down.

  But Mannar still had enough power to fight. Thus, he threw his hand toward Gaea, changing its form and stretching it as far as he could. But still, he couldn’t reach the Titanide, who suddenly vanished in the air and, right away, she showed up behind him, powerfully hitting him with a blowing of cold air from behind.

  This made the devil’s madness be revealed in its full glory: he threw flames all over, trying to hurt her, to kill her, but he couldn't even touch her with one finger because Gaea was the only Titanide who could appear and disappear at her will without losing power.

  And, suddenly, from nowhere, the bodies of dead stars had been thrown over Gaea. She tried to protect herself with the hood that was unbreakable. But, even so, the sharp edge of a star could scratch the soft skin of her face, and a thin strand of blood had trickled down her cheek.

  This drove Gaea crazy: her eyes started to burn, the raindrops from all over started to shake in the air as if they were beans, thrown on a dancefloor, moved by the deafening sound of the music while the drums were hit and the top of her dagger touched the blood and it colored the metal in black while Gaea’s lips were madly whispering unknown words, and the red of the blood, still seen on her face, became suddenly livid as the color of the blade, as if it had been poisoned and, later, Gaea threw it toward Mannar, with a strange force that moved the dagger with such a speed that even the wind wouldn’t have been capable of spotting it. And the dagger deeply entered Mannar’s chest and vanished into his body, making him scream, kneel down, and feel himself defeated.

  However, even if Mannar kneeled down, Eris wasn't ready to give up. Using her power, from her far away dungeon, she ordered him to raise his glance and furiously look at the Titanide, hissing the words through his teeth: „You don’t even know what mistake you’ve done, Titanide. This won’t help you to succeed. Ever,” Eris and Mannar yelled at the same time. But, so soon, their body vanished in the air, like a thick, black fog and he had been sent back to his Glade, where wasn’t any life there and which was known as the Glade of Mannar.

  And only when Gaea calmed down, did the nature around calm down too. She kneeled and started to move her palm above Samandra’s body, trying to heal her wound. But she didn’t make it because she heard, not that far from them, Dike’s voice, calling his wife’s name.

  Seeing him in the distance, Gaea vanished in the air and hid, allowing Dike to find his wife thus, on the river shore, with a knife wound on her stomach because the Titanide preferred to keep secret from Dike who killed his wife in fact.

  And he believed that it was fate that took Samandra from him and that his wife had been killed by a thief. And he cried a lot, with the dead body of his wife into his arms, but his holy breath couldn't bring her back to life and, in the end, he decided to take her away from there and, carrying her into his arms, he moved toward the Rophions’den.

  Gaea saw everything from the edge of the forest, hidden in the shadows. Yet, only when he was already far away and he couldn’t hear her anymore, did she exit her den and, looking behind him, she whispered: „he will find out about this one day, but it will be only if the evil will sneak around, lurking and waiting for an opportunity to start a new war.”

  Then, she entered deep into the heart of the forest and headed straight to Mannar’s den, in the Glade with the same name, and she found him kneeling, licking his wounds, ashamed for being defeated. But Gaea preferred not to allow him to see her and start a new battle. So, she blew her magic air over him, leaving him dormant and, so, she cursed him to sleep for a long time from that moment.