Hello everybody, Corrupt TE here.
And today we have the next instalment of FntS: Rise of the Daemon.
Quick warning vefore we begin, there's plenty of blood and gore in this chapter,
no likely, no ready.
Ok, lets get on with this!
Exaro Nex.
The warriors of the Forlorn had spread themselves out in pairs, eyes watching the sky, weapons held tightly and their breath, shallow and controlled, misting in the air. Behind them, the Acolytes were busy preparing the ritual which would give them the only weapon capable of disrupting the Daemon's powers, giving a warrior time enough to land the killing blow.
Standing at the furthest point away from the Acolytes, two Forlorn observed the mass exodus of nearly two hundred of their people. They both wore thick fur cloaks to protect them from the worst of the howling wind and both were prepared to lay down their lives at a moments call.
"You ever wonder what things would've been like? You know, if we weren't Forlorn?" Asked the shorter of the two. She carried a thick shield of hardened wood strapped to her left forearm and a short sword sheathed against her thigh. Like the rest of her clan, her fur was blue in colour, although hers shifted towards the lighter side of the spectrum. Her hazel eyes looked up at the Forlorn next to her, who was staring into the distance. "Garth? Anybody home?"
She waved her free hand in front of his face causing him to snap back into focus.
"Kalieen!" He glared down at her. His fur was a much deeper blue than his fellow Forlorn, and he had let his long, dreadlock like quills grow to lie just below his shoulder line. Attached to his forearms was a set of silvery metal vambraces, the metal matching that of the shovel claws he wore as his primary weapon.
"What? I just asked you a question and you were off in lala land, what was I meant to do?" He rolled his eyes and went back to scanning the horizon.
"You drive me crazy sometimes."
"But you wouldn't have me any other way, would ya?" She playfully nudged him in the rips, although his solid footing prevented him from being moved.
"No I wouldn't." Kalieen smiled and laid her head against his shoulder. They stood this way for several moments, staring out into the darkness and watching the flickering torches of the villagers as they scurried about.
"To answer your question Kalieen, I have been thinking about how things would've been different." She looked up into his face. His green eyes still looking out into the darkness. "I've gone through nineteen winters, you seventeen. Others our age aren't exactly worried about death."
"I know what you mean." She said with a grin. "They're more worried about-"
A high pitched screaming snapped them both back into focus and they spun towards the direction it had come from, readying their weapons.
"By the Ancestors…" Whispered Kalieen fearfully. Standing at the edge of the firelight, resting her foot on the still form of a Forlorn and holding the bloodied and torn body of the other in her claws, was the Daemon.
Her fur was black and red; two large black leathery feathered wings were folded behind her back and a long sinuous lizard-like tail flicked through the snow. She wore some sort of skin-tight black, sleeveless bodysuit which almost hid her completely in the darkness. But it was her eyes that unnerved the two warriors the most. They were blood red and seemed to glow with malice. The grin on her face was evident as she tossed aside the lifeless warrior like he weighed nothing at all.
She had been drawn to the growing power of the ritual, which even at this moment was slowly nearing completion.
"We must protect the Acolytes at all costs!" Boomed the voice of the Rukrh. "Forlorn! Exaro Nex!"
The Forlorn echoed his battle cry and charged, spears, swords and shovel-claws glinting in the firelight as they leapt to their duty. Six, including Garth and Kalieen stopped between the Daemon and the Acolytes; they would be the last line of defence for the vulnerable shaman and his followers. The Daemon laughed as the others got nearer, walking slowly towards them, her wings spread wide and her long claws flexing in anticipation.
A warrior lunged forward, intending to skewer the creature on the end of his spear. The Daemon casually deflected the weapon with the back of her hand and plunged her claws into the warriors' skull, with a twist and a sickening snap of bone and cartilage; she ripped his head from his shoulders and hurled it at the second Forlorn, who barely managed to deflect the improvised projectile with her shield.
In a blur, she was amongst them. The lucky warrior had her chest torn open by the Daemon's claws; Rukrh was sliced in half at the waist by the creatures' razor sharp, bone like blades on the fore-edge of her wings, leaving the last standing to be run through by the point of her tail. She turned to the remaining six warriors, amusement glinting in her blood red eyes.
"Is that really the best you can do?" She asked mockingly. She bent down and picked up the top half of Rukrh and stared at his scarred, lifeless face for a moment. "I thought I killed him last time… Oh well."
She unceremoniously let him drop with a shrug. "Guess it doesn't really matter anymore."
With a cry of rage, Garth charged forward with two other Forlorn by his side. The Daemon spun into a crouch and leapt towards them, her claws extended. Garth dropped to his knees and slid in the snow, dodging her lunge.
Things seemed to move in slow-motion as the creature sailed over him. He whipped his head around just in time to see her land and race towards Kalieen and the others. He scrambled to his feet, slipping in the snow and the blood. One of the Forlorn who had charged forward with him was already after the winged creature, the other lying motionless on the ground with the top half of her head missing.
Kalieen brought her shield to bear and met the Daemon's charge head on, only for the creatures' long claws to pierce through the heavy wood and into the flesh of her arm. The Daemon spun her like a ragdoll before throwing her into the group of black cloaked Acolytes.
The other two barely had time to raise their weapons when the creature simultaneously tore out their throats in an explosion of blood, before leaping on the nearest black caped echidna and proceeding to tear him into shreds. Garth finally got a good footing and charged, barely a few seconds behind the other Forlorn. The Daemon had killed two more Acolytes by the time they managed to get to her.
The two Forlorn remaining standing attacked at the same time. The Daemon managed to dodge the sword thrust, but one of the points on Garth's own shovel claws bit home.
She shrieked and in a single beat of her wings leapt more than two dozen paces away, her hand pressed against her left eye as thick blood ran through her fingers. She stared first at her blood covered hand, and then Garth, rage contorting her face as blood trickled from a deep gouge in her left eyebrow.
"You got lucky Echidna!" She spread her wings wide. "But let's see what your petty little villagers think!"
The echidna's stared in horror as she took off and flew in the direction of the mass exodus of unarmed and intensely vulnerable villagers.
"Garth, what do we do?" He looked over and saw that Kalieen was back on her feet and nursing a bleeding shield arm. The other Forlorn, who Garth recognised as Tenri had the same expression of panic and desperation on his face.
"You two!" Garth shouted, pointing at the last remaining Acolytes. "Finish the ritual and prepare the amulet."
He turned towards Tenri. "We'll go after that Daemon! It's our duty to destroy her and save as many villagers as we can!"
Tenri nodded, his face pale and sweaty as he clenched his twin short-swords tightly.
"What about me?" Asked Kalieen, her voice trembling. Garth looked at her sadly.
"Bring us the amulet once the Acolytes complete the ritual." He gestured to Tenri and he set off towards the bouncing torches of the villagers.
"How will I find you?" Kalieen asked, tears glistening in her eyes.
"Just follow the screams!" Garth replied darkly.
Kalieen suddenly stepped up and kissed him full on the lips, a kiss he returned. They parted a moment later, and with determination in his eyes, Garth turned and chased after Tenri and the Daemon.
The two warriors charged through the snow. Already screams of terror flitted through the air and fire leapt up from the outlining houses sending thick plumes of smoke into the sky. They ran past the bloodied remains of warriors who had tried to stand their ground, and the unmistakable bodies of the helpless villagers who had been caught up in the creatures rage.
Nearing the source of the screams, the two Forlorn readied for battle. Sprinting around a wooden shack their eyes fell upon their enemy. The Daemon held a warrior by the throat, slowly crushing the life from his body as other echidnas fled before they became the next victim.
Her eyes caught sight of the two Forlorn and with a snarl and an amazing show of strength; she threw the now lifeless echidna towards them. Both Garth and Tenri dove to the sides as the corpse sailed through the air. Rolling back to their feet, they charged, bellowing war cries as they went. The Daemon hissed and met their charge head on. She twisted past their attacks, kicking Tenri in the chest and driving her tail towards Garth.
Garth dodged as quickly as he could, but the tip of the Daemon's tailed pierced deeply into his right shoulder. She whipped her tail and he was sent flying through the air, slamming into a nearby wooden shack. He looked up groggily and looked back at the Daemon.
The creature picked a stricken Tenri up from the ground, kicking his blades away from his reaching fingers.
"Who do you echidna's think you are!" She demanded with pure venom injected into every word. "I am Silhouette! I am your worst nightmare! I am your Grim Reaper!"
She drew back her hand and plunged her clawed fingers into Tenri's chest. Snarling she ripped her hand from his chest and held something in her palm. She tossed Tenri aside before turning back on Garth, who had just managed to pull himself to his feet.
She walked towards him, the very fires of hell burning in her eyes. Garth's own green eyes widened when he saw what she casually tossed up and down in her hand, Tenri's still warm and bleeding heart.
"You creatures sicken me, running around on your short, pointless lives." She crushed Tenri's heart and threw it to the snow. "You do not know what powers you are messing with!"
"I know that thirty-five years ago, you slaughtered your way through dozens of warriors, destroyed the lives of countless, and almost exterminated our way of life!" Garth clenched his fists and glared at the winged beast. "I may not have been alive back then, but I have dedicated my life to training for this very day!"
With a loud cry, he surged forward, striking out at the Daemon with all of his ferocity and strength. The Daemon Silhouette lithely avoided his clumsy assault and swept her clawed fingers towards his face.
Garth somehow managed to twist himself and avoid the worst of her counterattack, however one of her claws sliced through his flesh over his right eye, before she kicked him hard in the chest, sending him sprawling back into the snow. Blood pumped from the cut across his eye and everything he saw through that eye was blurry and red.
He kept his injured eye clenched shut, and he looked up as Silhouette stalked towards him.
Suddenly, Kalieen leapt out and landed on the Daemon's back. She pressed something to the creatures face as she held onto the struggling Daemon with all her might.
"Redimio is Everto! Signum suus vo-" With a cry of rage, Silhouette threw the echidna from her back. The sacred clan amulet landed with a soft thud just in front of Garth.
"You foul little speck of filth!" He looked up from his prone position just in time to witness the Daemon lifting Kalieen into the air by her throat, and driving a fist into the helpless echidna's stomach. Blood spurted from her mouth and around the Daemon's wrist. With a snarl and a twist, Silhouette snapped Kalieen's spine and let her slide out of her grasp.
Memories flashed through Garth's mind. When he first met Kalieen and their first training session together, the conversations they shared and the lingering gazes they sent each other, the first time they kissed and that night they had shared together. Everything flooded back, and was swept away in one single moment.
Rage coursing through him, he snatched up the amulet and leapt towards the creature; grabbing its left arm he forced the Daemon to its knees, pressed the amulet against its skin and began to recite the words that all Forlorn had been taught from the moment of their initiation.
"Redimio is Everto! Signum suus vox! Per vorago quod ultra, permissum is exsisto!" His voice echoed across the blood soaked tundra, over the crackling of his burning village, over the continuing cries of the fearful and the dying.
As soon as the last syllable left his mouth, the Daemon screamed an otherworldly scream, one that seemed to pierce through to his very soul. He was flung back, landing in the snow next to the rapidly cooling body of his friend, partner and lover, Kalieen.
The Daemon writhed in agony, trying to claw the glowing amulet from its left shoulder to no avail. Its shrieking reached fever pitched and Garth was forced to cover his ears against the sound, and yet even then it was almost unbearable. His eyes clenched shut in pain, hot blood running down his face. He curled up into the foetal position, unable to witness the Daemon as she rose, shrieking into the air.
A great flash of light lit the sky like a second sun, burning brightly even from behind his eyelids. All too suddenly it was over, and there was silence.
He laid there for a moment, before uncurling and rising shakily to his knees. He opened his eye and looked over to where the Daemon had been. There was a dark shape lying on the ground, silhouetted by the flickering flames.
Grunting, the echidna clambered to his feet. His left hand pressed to his right shoulder, wet blood slowly seeping through his fingers as he trudged slowly towards the shape. As he neared, his eyes widened.
What lay in the snow wasn't the draconic Daemon that had slaughtered its way through a score of warriors and laid waste to his village. Instead there was a young red furred wolf with four tails and black streaks running through her fur. She was wearing the same sleeveless black outfit, and there were two large holes in the back where the Daemon's wings would have been, but there was little else to show that she was the creature that had caused so much death and destruction.
He looked down into her face, taking in her features. The long red and black hair that flowed down her back, the near peaceful look on her unconscious face, and the bloody gouge he had taken out of her left eyebrow.
Snarling he raise his fist, preparing to deliver the final blow. The orange light of the flames flickered off the silvery metal of his shovel claws and vambraces. The girl groaned and rolled onto her side.
Something inside forestalled him. Into the flesh of her left shoulder blade was seared the exact shape of the sacred amulet, which lay blackened and twisted a few feet away.
He looked around at the bloody carnage that had been wrought, the pillar of smoke that climbed into the sky, and the distant torch light of the escaped survivors still flickering on the horizon. Turning his eyes to the heavens, he watched as the river of life danced through the sky. He closed his eye and stood like this for several minutes.
Finally nodding to himself, he bent down and lifted the unconscious wolf into his arms. Step by step he walked away from the carnage, away from the acrid smoke of his burning home and away from his clan, preying all the way that his choice wouldn't be a mistake.
Translations: Exaro Nex! - Till Death!
Redimio is Everto! Signum suus vox! Per vorago quod ultra, permissum is exsisto!
Bind this Demon! Seal its power! By the abyss and beyond, let it be!
Oh! And the River of life is the Mobius version of the Aurora Borealis.
Woo! Long and violent chapter!
Really wanted to do a chapter like this for ages so hope it came out alright.
Anyway: not much more to say except stay tuned for the final chapter of FntS: Rise of the Daemon!
-Corrupt TE-