The fire demon in the sky launched a few fireballs down at me, and the other started to hit me with flames covering its body. The fireballs scatter more of me as the other fire imp jumps into the hole being made with me and tries to grab me. Its hands grab nothing but its flame wraps around me doing a better job to restrain me. Their flames sting but my mind is filled with their rage as I drain the power behind them. As the fire imp grabs me I reach into them probing their energy and mind. The imp stiffens but instead of pulling away pours even more power into its flames trying to push me out but only allowing me to spread myself into it. While its flame burns some parts of me away I leave a stain in its body that grows as it uses its power.
Outside of the liquid sand, the part of me starts to drain the heat from it, making it harden slowly. A hard crystal-like structure forms as I drain the fire and my parts break pieces off. Once I have a large enough piece I inject several parts of myself into it until it starts to radiate my power. I repeat that with several smaller crystals and have parts of me rise them into the air close to the fire imp in the sky. Once I’m halfway up to it I hear a loud screech out in the distance and the fire imp finally notices the floating crystals. Before it could react I tried my best to launch the crystals at it but only a few reached the imp as a ball of fire spread out from the imp, destroying most of the crystals. The larger of the crystals that I threw survive the flames but they start to melt leaving the imp untouched.
The larger parts of me that were separated from my main part moved in the direction of the screech. ‘Maybe an imp is keeping an eye out on the battlefield. If so I must remove it if I want a chance to kill these fire imps.’ I think as my separate part finally sees the source of the screech. It was no imp, imps were like humans but wilder. Sharp teeth, fingers that were sharp and curved, and hairless but mostly human. Instead, I saw a hunched-over human-like creature whose skin seemed to be several small overlapping plates and whose face was elongated. The fingers ended in sharp plates and along its back plates jetted out red with heat. Next to it was a clothed creature similar to the plated demon but instead of having plates it had hair all over its skin that was exposed. Its clothes had things hanging from strings. Small bones, crystals, and other things I didn’t recognize. From both heat flowed out far worse than what the fire imps had managed to create. Between me and them was a line of black powder that seemed to circle the entire area around me and the fire imps. The powder radiated power that felt familiar to me but somehow twisted. The clothed demon eyes that were on the side of its head snapped onto my separated part and its mouth curved upward showing several sharp teeth.
The clothed demon makes a noise and the plated demon eyes that were also on the side looked at the part of me. It raised a hand and I felt the heat in the air quickly rise and I rushed the piece away from the demons. The plated demon never attacked and the separate part of me followed the black powder avoiding touching it. There were no gaps and attempts to move the sand under the powder were pointless. No matter how much sand I moved the powder remained where it was. The twisted energy of the powder reached high into the air and down to the stone under the sand so I pushed a piece past the powder. At least I tried but as soon the piece touched the energy of the powder the piece became twisted and faded away quickly writhing in pain. ‘Trapped with 2 fire imps and even stronger demons outside a circle that was made to keep me trapped but if I can find a hole I should be able past it.’ I think as the main part of me continues to wrestle with the ground fire imp and the 2nd one continues to throw fireballs down at me throwing chunks of me out of the hole and burning me. ‘If I were fighting one of them I think I would win but against both, I’m too scattered to properly deal with them. Even if I could win I could see those demons coming in to destroy what remains of me. I need to find a way to escape.’
Stolen story; please report.
The separated parts of me grab the large crystal that I first made and try to raise the crystal into the air. Due to the size of the crystal, the imp in the air sees it rise off the ground and starts to fling fireballs down at it but I use the separated parts to interrupt the fireballs, burning me but not touching the crystal. Seeing as its fireballs are doing minimum damage it yells down at the other imp I’m wrestling with as the crystal reaches above the ground imp. The ground fire imp could barely react as it fought back my power as the separated parts of myself dropped the crystal onto its head. The flames of the imp melt the crystal but not fast enough as it crashes down stabbing into it. I seep into its wound as it melts the rest of the crystal releasing even more of my power into its already weakened body. In its weakened state I take some of its power and store it at the core of myself. The imp in the sky charges down pushing me away from the other imp by scattering me in all directions.
The ground imp lay down as it tried to fight against my power that seeped into its bones as the other imp launched even fireballs at clumps of myself that were scattered around. I dove under the sand having wasted too much power fighting so I tried my best to gather the majority of myself together as I charged the powder circle in the opposite direction of the demons. As I reached the edge of the circle I pulled out the energy I stole and covered myself in it. As I hit the twisted energy the imp’s power twisted and faded but made a gap large enough for me to flow out of. I continued to charge away having wasted too much energy and having no way to regain it. Thinking back to what I was told before I start to head toward the melted sand that the ground fire imp made before. It’ll waste more power but if I could make proper crystals from it I might have a new way to spread my power without putting myself at risk.
During my search, I see several lights gathered around each other, a group of wisps. I eat most of the wisps barely regaining any power so with the last wisp I bathe it in the bit of energy I had making its light dull. I left behind the light seeing if I could eat any imps to regain my power but I couldn’t find any. I avoid the area where I fought the fire imps as I find the remains of the large pile of bones I made before being summoned. Most were broken but some still had power so I consumed it but it wasn’t enough. At the edge of the pile of broken bones was the once-melted sand that had since cooled down. Now looking at it did look similar to the crystals that man had given me but they lacked the energy they had. Those crystals trapped power inside of it but this material instead allowed it to escape and radiate out. I leave it behind as I try to find imp to eat but find nothing. After spending so long to find nothing I hide in the sand under a few wisps and fill them with some of my power. My mind slows down as my hunger drains my will to continue to act. The wisps above me slowly float away from me failing as a lure for the imps but it doesn’t matter anymore as my mind slowed to a stop.
I remained like that for a time but I had no way to tell how long until I felt something shift under the sand. In my hunger, I pull the thing into me eating it whole. It barely sates my hunger as I look through the sand and above. The thing I ate was a small tendril of shadow and in the sand, I see a few others like it. The thing barely matched up to a small imp but the area was far too sparse to satisfy my hunger so I slowed my mind to a halt instinctively eating any of them that got close.
POV: NONE
Without the demon noticing its body released the power that passively warped wisps that got too close and any that survived for long changed into shades. Most shared the nature of the original burrowing into the sand fighting for space and feeding off the power being released. Some floated to the ceiling of the layer as shadows spread through the layer. Those close to the demon became stronger faster but they avoided getting too close or they would be consumed instead. Slowly the sand over the demon broke down revealing the sludge that was the demon.
A dark pool that released fumes that corrupted and drained all of those that did not share the same nature as itself. A growing area of corrosive shadow spread around the demon and any small imps that still explored the layer were soon either dragged down by several worm shades below the sand or were pulled up toward the ceiling by stalactite shades. Each type of shade fed off the other and they were all eventually fed into the sludge demon.