One; Outward Appearances

Where I come from, blood falls as often as rain. Fires rage on, unyielding and as undying as any tale ever told of hell and the underworld. But how is it? That a two hundred year old demi-god demonic child could ever come to raise his hand against those who made him… To over throw the demon who gave birth to him, or the demi god who created him? The truth behind the legends that arose from their demise are exaggerated; They 'quote' history and claim fact, that I arose from the ashes of their love and dawned their end. But in reality it was quite different. I was as ruthless as they, storming the face of the mortal planet, enjoying my freedom, killing, maiming and slaughtering without passion, ever seeking that which held me to the earth.

After all of this killing however, something changed…

The midnight light gave the view a healthy glow, down, through the ravine and into the quiet oriental villages, sleeping, expecting to wake pleasantly and begin their days work again in the morrow. Little did they know that a demi-god demon spawn lay in wait, ready to pounce upon the innocent souls that reside within the small fishing village. Yet just before I could begin with my pass time, destiny had to rear her ugly head, and cast her die upon me, like a net upon a school. I sensed that something was wrong even before I arrived, but combined with my reckless abandon and my lust for excitement, I entered the boundaries regardless, not thinking that my unearthly heritage could be challenged by any mortal force. I was very wrong.

I stood to rise from my crouched position upon the ridge line, surrounded by the cover of the shrub and brush gathered along the peak. But as I arose, I caught the sent of tobacco on the wind, heard the rustle of footsteps across the canyon, and prepared to launch my self to the other side- "Not so fast!" There, right behind me, stood a man. Slightly grizzled, a cigar in his mouth, a torn and fairly worn beret on his head, his brown hair shaggy and unwashed.

In his hand he held a .357 magnum, ebony plating with the words, Dominus Vita Aut Mors etched in gold italics along the barrel. Faster than any ordinary mortal eye could follow, I threw my fist at him, putting all of the rage at not noticing him into my jab.

But like his sneaking, he showed un mortal reflexes and sidestepped my fist gracefully. The weight of my punch not making contact threw me off balance, and that was all he needed. Pain exploded in my stomach, the like I had felt a lot back home, as he brought his steel coated knee straight to my gut. Blood, warm and thick, ran down the back of my neck, long before the pain of the gun butt reached my head, blurring my vision, a bile of blood welling up in my throat.

Fire burned my soul, my demonic pride not allowing me to surrender to the cold embrace of defeat, and so I stayed standing, my rage overtaking my control, burning, twisting, pulsating. Before I knew it, I had begun strike, quicker than any earthly power, striking my assailant over and over again, his blood speckling the grass around us.

Again he stood up, and again I beat him into the ground, willing his life force to perish. But it was not to be, he would not die. Anger turned to irritancy, then to frustration, then to boredom and finally, exhaustion. "W- who the hell are you," I managed to spit, blood hitting the floor in gallons from my mouth. The mysterious assassin retched a little before heaving his body up from his kneeling state. "W-we-"

He began to retch again, "I ain't never met one like you before," He seemed to say to himself, "What are you?" At this, I felt my blood flash fire again for an instant, and hoisted him up off the ground by his throat, squeezing slowly. "Listen Mortal, I. Demand. To. Know. Why. You. Are. Here!" The voice that protruded from my vocal chords was not my own, it was fuelled by the thousands of souls that had befallen my boredom.

"How rude of me, I- I'm Quint" I loosened my grasp to allow him to speak.

"And in case you hadn't you hadn't guessed it, I'm not any old mortal…"

Quint blinked blood from his eyes, that was pouring over his face from the wounds on his forehead. " I was sent on the behalf of the Gods to destroy the abomination." He hit the floor and would usually have recovered easily but being as badly beaten as he was, he just fell to his knees, before leaning back and sitting on the floor. "It's forbidden for a Demi-God to mate with a Demon, especially one as evil and ruthless as Kiaru," He said while lifting a new cigar to his lips, "Now, I had no idea that you would be so… so…"

"Powerful," I said,

"Yeah…" He seemed pained to admit, "Anyway, I was mortal like anyone else when I begun to hunt demons and abominations trespassing in this realm, if you manage to get the attention of a particular god by, for instance killing the spawn of a Demon king that they don't particularly like, then they may take you in, and offer you immortality on behalf of your services."

By now, I had also taken a seat, intrigued by the news from the other worlds.

"So hear I am, and now I have failed my master, who sent me to kill you, because he hates your mother and your father, his own son, for mating and 'loving' the Demon Lady of Vengeance…"

After learning all that I could from the grizzled ANGEL, as he liked to be called, I decided, for the first time since my birth, to let someone live.

Following my strange behaviour came more unusualness, I went back home, back into the real more vengeance, where all of the damned who lived there lives addicted to revenge where purged and punished for their sins during life. If you ever see my mother, then you would not guess that she was the Demon Lady Kiaru, in fact you might even mistake her for a God, which of course is a great insult; But legends tell that she was once a Goddess, the goddess of beauty no doubt, constantly fighting for the High King's hand in marriage, but when the High King chose her sister Aerieth instead, that awakened the dormant passion of revenge buried deep within her soul.

And so, The High King and Aerieth where doomed never to be able to rear young, if they tried, then an agent of Vengeance, often me over the past two hundred years, would be dispatched to end the youngling.

It may seem cruel, pitting a newborn against the likes of me, but when two Gods get it on, their young can pack a punch. But anyway, each time I enter the sanitary gardens, strung with the tortured souls of the recently departed, more than a few here by my doing, she arises from her demonic throne and shifts into the most caring and beautiful woman imaginable, cloaked in misty silk, allowing her blonde hair to fall amongst her shoulder and stroll towards me, stroking the flames as if leaves from an evergreen. And each time she embraces me and plants a soft kiss on my forehead, before whispering, "My son, welcome home…" And this time was no different; she would then listen attentively and await my greeting before returning to her other worldly deeds. Whatever she appeared as to me must have been different to the harboured souls here, as there screams brutally intensify whenever she enters the plane that they are being kept. My mother often spoiled me as a child, succumbing to my every wish, bringing any mortal I desired to my lair to be killed or commended…

After my meeting with Quint, a lot seemed to have changed, I grew a head for knowledge, indulging my self in legends and stories of the GODS and of the DEMON KINGS. There are even legends about my own mother, and how she swore the sin of vengeance upon the HIGH KING and his family, and I was in there too, occasionally as the harbinger of death to one of Aerieth's children… But torn up in my searching, the next time I returned to the mortal world was five years later…

After all of this time, I had no idea if Quint was even still alive, I guessed that the only way to find out would be to slaughter. I got through about three people before I realised that I was bored! Had I, the demon spawn demi god, grown tired of killing after these few years? I'm afraid it was the truth, my knowledge search had lead to a dormancy the likes of which I had never met before. Whilst doing research, I uncovered many strange things, both fun and horrific. There had been other people like me before, not nearly as powerful, but the same non the less. And because of their heritage, their moods could change dramatically over small spaces of time, and right now, my stomach twisted whenever I saw a woman.

I had never experienced such an anomaly before, I knew exactly what to do if necessary, but in the past the though never even arose my attention, now I could not keep it out of there.

But aside from the new found lust, I had to keep a straight head, and so begun my search for Quint…

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