As he walked, striding deeper and deeper into the caves, into the darkness, as less torchlight reached him, suddenly a reddish figure swooped in on him from above, and he fell onto his back, the spear falling from his hands.
A feminine, seductive, and deceptively human voice called from above him.
"Won't you join us, girl? We could teach you such delights!" The succubuss asked HER, and at the last word, He felt a small hand grabbing at his crotch. The unmistakable feel of claws hinting at a potential danger, as if the other hand, keeping him from rising by holding his neck, with claws ready to tear it at a moment's notice.
"Will you Join us?" the demonic temptress asked again.
Only it was no longer the girl, almost woman Leah. A Demon out of nightmares took her place. The very same form he first beheld in that accursed manor, where a family was sacrificed by cultists, and his turn was coming, only for the demon to whom he was to be sacrificed, to turn on its cult instead.
Unsettling red light shined from its eyes, as the horrible visage answers, its tone still recognizable as feminine, even similar to the voice of the girl that stood in its place. A form from the darkest pits of hell and contrasting the innocent look of the previous shape the creature took.
"Join you? You-who would dare insult me thus? Who will lay hands on that which is mine! Moments away from taking the boy I own! His soul is belongs to ME and I will NOT share!
To even think someone as inferior as you could suggest it makes the insult grave one. For this insolence you will know Pain and Terror, you will feel true Anguish before release of death! And not even then will there be a respite for you!"
"Who are you? What are you? How are you so strong? This is the might of a greater demon!" another succubus asked, surprised reverie in her now hollow voice.
"Running won't save any of you!" the Demon that was Leah called loudly and angrily, before slaughtering the demoness that held him captive beneath her in a single mighty slash, cleaving the creature horizontally at the stomach and drenching the boy beneath it in blood, and proceeding to decimate the whole lot of the demons, either with her claws and tail, or with hellfires that sprang from within her body as well as without. As she tore limbs and commanded bony spikes to grow from the ground like stalagmites, piercing the demons they ran through and blocking their path.
None of the succubi seemed capable of teleporting away, none of the attacks-theirs or of other demons, did anything to slow down the fearsome feminine form that fought them, aiming for cuts that will bleed much, and rend flesh painfully, even the big, burly demons were swiftly dispatched, left maimed and bleeding from torn hearts and intestines pulled from their stomachs with but a single hand.
Tymeon knew not if the Beast that called herself Leah was deliberately ignoring him, or merely more preoccupied with the abundant victims already at hand. A scythe of death that even its fellow demons were hopeless against. He received an answer soon however, as she grabbed him with one clawed hand, and lifting him to her own height, unburdened by his weight, called, with some undecipherable urgency.
"You are MINE, and will never leave me!"
He saw the fires of Hell itself in her eyes. For a moment he thought the tortured soul of the man who was sacrificed there, minutes before him, screamed for him from that fiery gaze.
He would never admit just how relieved he was, when a burly Horned Demon rammed into the demoness holding him, causing her to drop him on the hard floor, and thankfully, breaking that unholy gaze he found himself trapped in, unable to look away.
Said demon paid dearly for its interruption, however, as the very horn it used as a weapon was forcibly torn from its bleeding forehead, and was stabbed into its eye, and then the other eye, making it below a hair raising, anguished cry, before a third stab with the horn, this time into its neck, silenced the bellow.
Tymeon took it as his chance to hide, and didn't look back.
When he next saw his demonic companion, the infernal red light was gone from its, (her?) eyes.
Still, Tymeon knew now, no longer doubting it, that he was bound to the Demon that called herself Leah. That his fate was now tied to hers, his soul not spared, but merely used differently by his demonic master, rather than consumed. His Damnation was delayed, not avoided.
And he knew, the wherever she may call, he will follow.
"Tymeon!"
The youth turned from his remembrance of the past to the woman he was now following.
"IS something wrong? You were lost in thoughts ever since we left the mine, hardly paying attention to anything."
"N-no, it's nothing. "
"About, what happened in that room, with these demons… I'm sorry for what happened. As long as you are with me, I won't leave you in harm's way. "
She smiled in a way that might've meant to be reassuring, but Tymeon couldn't help but turn to darker thoughts.
'And what will happen once you withdraw your protection from me, and I am no longer with you?'
"I wanted to tell you that we will have to make camp here, some of us wounded or tired too much for making the journey back to town, and it is late now. We will rest here for the night."
As Tymeon went to help some greying, bearded man, not one he was familiar with (but then again, he was unfamiliar with nearly everyone here, when they left the town) interrupted.
"Not you, lad. You and the girl got the brunt of the demons, and barely survived, you two go rest a bit, we will take care of the camp. You especially look like you need it. We had it easy and only got the smaller imps while your group got massacred, fighting the main demon force and it was even easier after we found the missing people and the two of you. We will handle setting camp and watch without you, don't worry."
Something about the pitying, fatherly patronizing look in the man's eye annoyed the boy.
"I can do my share!"
"Ya already did, in the fighting-"
"I hardly fought, the demons got the best of me, I would've died if not for..."
"It doesn't matter, a boy that young , you should have been in town, safe, with one of the many adult cowards that didn't dare come with us in your place. And you didn't. Die, that is-think on that."
Left to his thoughts, Tymeon soon found himself remembering the events of the battle, when…he was subdued by the succubus as men died around them… when 'Leah' changed into a demon, and about what she did, what she said, back then.
When he dreamt that night, it was of Leah, wondering without stopping, always to the east. And he followed. Through desert, jungle and hell itself, he followed.
Such was the way of things.
Author Notes: Sorry, for the delay, again. The first part of the chapter, the paragraphs in italics was a flashback to Leah's transformation, from Tymeon's view. I decided to cut the chapter here, for better consistency, so the 'friend' will appear in the next chapter, which will focus on the happenings back in town (and things DID happen there).
Review, and comment. also thanks to all my readers and reviewers for the support. It's very appreciated. And don't forget to review!