Note: *sigh* I apologize for neglecting this. I really hope I can pick up from where I've left off, and yes, I do have intentions of completing this.
Chapter 24 - A Demon's Hatred
He watched as the blade sank deeper into her pale flesh, blood rushing profusely from the wound as they seeped through her clothes, staining the midnight black of the fabric into a deep crimson. Keeping a firm grip on the hilt, DuMon watched as the whites of her eyes bulged in their sockets, face contorted with a mixed of immense pain and flushed anger. Between ragged breaths and the faint ba-dum of her ever slowing heartbeats, a fountain of blood would erupt from Sashima's mouth.
"Y-y-y...you will...r-regret this f-for..." Her voice gave out as the fist clenched tighter over the blade, giving it a nasty jerk upwards.
Her body twitched as she drew one last breath; slowly, her bloodstained hand dropped from the chair and hung limply at its side. Ba-dum...ba...dum...ba...
For a minute he did nothing but keep his eyes trained on Sashima's face, watching the blood run from her open mouth and onto the cold stone floor. At long last he straightened up, leaving the knife gauged deep into her heart at a ninety-degree angle. A slow smile began to tug at his thin lips.
"I don't think I will regret this at all, my dear."
Holding the beaker that contained the substance of Sashima's blood carefully in both hands, DuMon moved towards the back of the room, where a lone window provided a clear view of the storm which continued to increase in rage, sheets of rain almost translucent in the pitch black night. Below, the trees on the mountains whipped their branches to and fro, as if battling amongst themselves, as the water along the streams raged against its banks, spilling over. Even in the shelter of the in-cave laboratory, the howl of the wind still seemed to come in from all sides, engulfing the senses.
"With your blood, I can finally take control of the Red Ribbon Army. Then I can finally...after so many years of hard work and rebuilding...I can then finally take over the world! I will be the supreme ruler of Earth, and there will be no one strong enough to stop me!" He threw a sideways glance at Sashima's corpse, like a rag sodden with blood, still in the chair. "I owe you one, girl. You mutant..."
"She's no mutant," a cold, but curt voice issued from out of nowhere. The dim source of light in the room flickered once, twice, extinguishing itself with a hissing noise and plunging the room into darkness. Almost instantly, a chill draft blew in from the darkest corners, piercing body and soul, creating the unconscious fear felt when one is in the presence of a human.
"Who's there?!" Wheeling on his heels, DuMon reached out blindly towards the counter located at the other end of the chamber, sloshing some of Sashima's blood out of its container in the process. Hastily slamming the beaker aside, he reached down into a drawer and pulled out a handgun.
"Who's there?!" He repeated again, keeping his fingers firmly on the trigger. "Don't come near me--I'm armed!" His eyes narrowed, trying to squint through the room devoid of light. For a moment, the sound of his heart hammering in his chest was all that could be heard, until the cold voice burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
"What's so damn funny?" DuMon demanded, taking a cautious step forward, his weapon still held at arm's length directly in front of him. Even though he managed to keep his voice steady, enormous beads of sweat made their way down their face, his eyes darting at speeds so quick it made one dizzy to look at him. Trembling from head to toe, his body conveyed the unmistakable message that the scientist of the Red Ribbon Army was in considerable fear. Strangely enough, DuMon himself did not know the exact cause of this fear.
"Foolish human. Do you think a weapon such as yours will do me any harm? You humans are such great sources of entertainment and amusement..."
"You're another mutant, aren't you? I-if you aren't a coward, show yourself!"
"Hah! The amount of ignorance that you contain is incredible, indeed. I have yet to find someone who will exceed your level of stupidity. Very well, I will show myself..."
It was as if all the darkness in the room were being sucked toward the center, a great swirling mass of black, making the rest of the room seem to glow in a transparent gray. Gradually, from the center of the mass, a figure much like a normal human rose from the floor, clad in shades of black, silver, and blood red. Its face, though, was still carefully concealed in the shadows, yet one could tell the demon's hair was a foggy grayish-white. A powerful aura of almost pure evil radiated from his body, almost knocking DuMon off his feet.
"Surprised, aren't you?" He smirked, advancing forward. "Unlike the girl you just killed, we live off the despair, fear, and darkness emitted from human hearts. As more fear builds in you, the stronger I get--not that I need anymore strength than what I already have..."
"I-I'll kill you!" A series of shots rang out as DuMon fired round after round from his handgun, the bullets ricocheting harmlessly off the figure and logging themselves into the stone wall. When the gun had exhausted itself from all ammunition, a pale DuMon was left standing almost paralyzed to the cold floor.
"What did I tell you, human?" His voice drawled coolly as he continued to take further steps toward the rooted DuMon. "I'd have to say, though, I do owe you a thank you. I'd thought I would have to wait until she was taken perfectly off guard to infiltrate her system with the Black Lotus, and THEN watch the splendid results...but now with her perfectly dead, our plan will succeed faster and better than ever!"
"J-just what are you?" DuMon stammered, clutching the edge of the counter for support. His knees shook so violently, it was a wonder he managed to remain on his feet for so long.
He laughed, cold and devoid of emotion. "What am I, you ask? Demon, my friendly human, demon. Yes, we do exist. You ask why I'm here? I'll tell you a little story since we're here with plenty of time to spare. Many centuries ago, the angels of Heaven and the demons of Hell fought over a hybrid of our two kinds. A thousand years ago, an angel was banished from Heaven and sent down to live on Earth. She met a demon, and in their extraordinary case, love flourished between them and they had a child--a half angel, half demon hybrid, a daughter." He paused, letting his words hang in the air, then continued. "Of course, intimate contact between angel and demon was forbidden, and war was waged on both sides. For hundreds of years we fought, the bloodshed never-ending. The Earth suffered as well--during those hundreds of years, there were numerous natural disasters, famines, war, outbreaks of disease. Chaos ruled the world."
"Unfortunately for us, the losses on our side were just too great. When the last of our demon kings was slain by the gods, we had to surrender. Since then, the angels have looked down their noses at us, and they will stop at nothing to keep us in control. They fear an uprising, yes...an uprising." Tinges of color appeared on his pale cheeks, his eyes flashing dangerously as he seemed to relive those moments. It was like the calm right before a storm was going to hit. "You wonder, 'what will the angels have to fear, these bands of demons in Hell running around without any leadership?' I don't blame them for being worried. Over the years, we demons have regrouped; our strength has more than doubled since the wars! The angels can no longer control us...we are once again a race of our own, doing as we please, absorbing the energy from the negative emotions. But one thing has remained unchanged--our hatred of those angels and what they did to us during the war that lasted for so many centuries!"
He glanced at DuMon for a second, suddenly breaking out into a smile. "We have been plotting revenge for a long time now, and in this century, our greatest weapon is finally ready. The angel-demon who began the wars from the beginning has started to become highly unstable. Having lived through fifteen lives, and now in her sixteenth, she has finally showed signs of mentally breaking down. Yes...the angels have been in contact with her...they have been trying to get her to purify herself...only then can she ascend to Heaven and no longer be a threat to them. But no...her demon blood is strengthening, day by day, and anger, hate, and power only fuels her strength. Think! With her on our side, blood of BOTH kinds, we will truly succeed in our revenge!"Having spoken little over the course of the demon's account of their heinous plans, DuMon had been steadily inching closer to the steel door exiting the laboratory. Now only mere feet from possible safety, he realized his only possible chance was for the demon to continue talking.
"I-if what y-you say is true, and this...this angel-demon truly this powerful, how would you manage to get her to j-join your ranks?"
"Hah! Now that is a problem indeed. At this moment, her soul aches for Heaven, yet that does not mean she is qualified enough to enter. No, she must get rid of the demon within, though I do not know what kind of bullshit the angels are trying to pull here. As long as there is demon blood in her, she will NEVER be pure enough to enter Heaven. BUT, what the angels do not realize is even though there is no way to get her absolutely pure, there ARE ways to say...make the demon in her take over."
"And just w-where is this person...?" DuMon's voice quavered.
With this question, the demon smirked, showing perfectly white teeth. "Why, she's right here." He jerked a thin finger over his shoulder. "You've just killed her. Thanks to you, I will now be able to revive her and slip a dose of Black Lotus, a plant grown in the darkest and deepest regions of Hell, into her. Even in her sleep, attempting to give her any Black Lotus could prove fatal to an inexperienced demon. You've given us a perfect opportunity, and for that, I thank you."
By this time, DuMon had reached the doors, and his hand was poised on the handle, almost ready to turn. His body was poised as if in mid-run, and his breath came in heavy huffs, as if he had just run a marathon. The sweat continued to run from his forehead, soaking the front of his shirt and giving off a foul stench.
The gray-haired demon cackled viciously. "I have told you all too much tonight. It is now time for you to die."
DuMon had already pushed open the doors, but the demon was far quicker. Extending out a hand, he had DuMon confined in a purple sphere within mere seconds, the energy generating static throughout the room. Inside the transparent sphere, DuMon was writhing in agony as his life's energy was slowly drained from him.
"Good-bye, human." With a clench of his fist, the orb vanished, and a pile of smoldering ashes were all that remained of DuMon.
He turned his attention now to Sashima, drenched in her own blood from head to toe. Moving over to her, he placed both hands over the wound in her chest until a black glow surrounded the both of them, giving back her life with his own dark energy. Slowly, a dark flower formed between the palms of his hands, and this flower fell gracefully into the center of Sashima's chest.
As the last petals disappeared under the surface of her skin, her body seemed to appear lighter, until she was no longer glowing darkness. The demon stopped the energy connecting the two of them, and stepped back to survey his work.
"Now we will leave the rest to young--"
BLAM!
The door to the laboratory slammed open, falling off its hinges and scattering DuMon's ashes high into the air. An anxious and soaked Goku stood in the doorway, his eyes widening in utter shock as they traveled from Sashima, to the demon, and back again.
AN: Guh, remind me never to stop writing a story for more than two and a half months and then try to continue from where I had left off. Fricken' difficult when your chain of thoughts had been broken for so long. But then again, in the meantime, I've written some poems to make up for it...I guess. Eh well, nothing makes up for leaving the [few] readers of this in suspense and having them pick up three months later. But guess what? I've finally learned how to upload an HTML document onto FanFiction.net! Hooray for me! Before, I was using the full set-- etc. etc. etc. No wonder why it didn't work. I feel stupid now. But oh well. I have much, much, more work to do! Laterz.
