My eyes don't deceive me, standing thirty feet away from the crowd is the dark figure that has been haunting my mind for the past week. At first glance the figure seems like a normal human. But as I gaze longer, that couldn't be further from the truth. What looked like a hooded sweater was really a purple cloak. The figure was wearing a dark lavender robe from head to toe with black obsidian like armor plating covering most of its body. It was also wearing gloves in similar color with metal sharp claws at the fingertips. Its face, while mostly covered with a mouthguard, reveals what appears to be a young human male. While he had a normal peach skin color and brown hair sticking out of the cloak, his eyes were pure black with violet irises and what appeared to be purple smoke leaking out of them. The figure was also covered from head to toe in a dark purple aura that somehow made the nearby hellish air somewhat cold.
I then noticed his eyes darting around frantically. I stopped gazing at him and looked around me to notice the crowd getting bigger and bigger, demons and imps were coming out of the nearby buildings to see the commotion, some even peeking from the windows above. I can hear whispers all around me. Some question who this person even is and where did he come from. Others theorize that he is a new overlord of hell. One thing is for certain and that no one seems to want to greet him with a warm welcome. Looking back at him and noticed that the hooded figure is in a defensive stance facing us. Realizing now that he doesn't want to greet us happily either.
"Oh shit" I whisper to myself. My instincts are telling me that no matter who is stronger, him or us, blood will be shed. I start to back away slowly, but before I gain any distance from him, I start feeling lightheaded, and I can't feel my legs. In realizing that I'm paralyzed from the waist down I start to panic. Suddenly I am engulfed in a new feeling. I start hearing a faint voice inside my head.
"Ok this looks really bad" the voice whispers somewhat calmly. "I'm sure I can take them all, they don't nearly look as strong as the other worlds' demons I've faced, but I can't really take the risk of causing a giant scene right now." The voice leaves me completely confused as to where it comes from. "Oh great, and of course the Dark Fragment had to be in this area, no doubt the demon who got it is here, I can feel its aura within the crowd." The voice echoes annoyingly. I start to connect the dots together. The voice is coming from the hooded figure, and judging by the tone of his voice, he doesn't want to fight us. I breathed a sigh of relief before I immediately panic again as I realize that I have what he calls the dark fragment inside my jacket. "Wait a minute, someone is inside my mind, it must be the one holding the fragment." The hooded figure thinks to himself. My mind starts racing and my heart starts pounding even faster. He undoubtedly wants this thing back. Maybe if I give this back to him nicely and quickly, he'll leave and there won't be any violence on the street. I pull out the fragment as I take a deep breath and force my feet to step forward towards him, only for someone to immediately grab my wrist, stopping me in my tracks.
I turn around and notice it's Vaggie. "What are you doing?!" she desperately whispers. "This is our chance, lets get the fuck out of here" she hisses as she points to Angel, who is peeking his head out of the corner behind the nearest building. He desperately gestures with his left hands for us to follow him while he bites lower jaw out of fear of the situation.
"This crowd is getting too big, looks like I don't really have a choice." I hear the figure thinks to himself. I turn my head back to the hooded figure and see that one of the palms of his hands is forming a small purple energy ball. Things are escalating fast, and I have to make a choice now.
"Sorry Vaggie" I tell her as I give her a kiss and pull my hand away from her grip to immediately sprint towards the hooded figure.
"Charlie don't!" Vaggie whisper-screams behind me. But I don't look back, I've made my choice and I must go through with it. I start to plow through the crowd, pushing and shoving every demon that's in my way.
"Wait!" I desperately yell as I make my way through the last bit of the crowd until I get a clear view of the figure, and him of me. We are about ten feet apart, but it feels like he is only two inches. The air surrounding me suddenly felt cold, nothing I've ever felt in hell. I noticed the ball shrink in size until it is gone, so that is a relief.
"Who is this demon girl? Huh, she's kind of cute." I hear the figure think to himself. The thought immediately makes me blush a bit as I try to smile with a bit of sweat coming down the side of my face. The figure squints his eyes, immediately taking notice of this. "Wait, so you're the one with the Darkshift fragment, aren't you?" he asks inside his head. My smile instantly disappears and is replaced with a look of fear. "Heh, that's what I thought, so what do you want?"
"Uhm hi, uhm I'm Charlie Magne, daughter of Lucifer, and I… wanted to give you this" I stutter as I hold out the fragment in front of him. "I think this belongs to you." The figure goes from his defensive stance to a normal posture and begins to slowly walk towards me. As each step he takes to get closer, I can feel the air getting colder. With only three feet between us, the figure closes his eyes, making the dark purple aura around his body dissipate. Upon opening his eyes i notice that they changed from the former black with violet irises to a more humanish white with brown irises. He then gently grabs the fragment from my hand. The figure begins to fiddle with it as looks up and down at the fragment and me. He then lets out a small chuckle.
"This isn't mine." He replies as he gently places it back in my hand. "And I did not come here for it."
"Wait what" I respond with absolute shock.
"Truthfully, why I came here is on a need-to-know basis, but what I can tell you is that the fragment wasn't sent here by accident." The figure says calmly. He then looks over my shoulder towards the crowd behind me. "Hey, you all can go home now, I'm not here to start shit so don't bother wasting your time!" he yells out into the crowd. Everyone strangely begins to disperse and head back inside the local buildings. Although some still peek through the windows expecting for something to happen. The only people left on the street are him, me, Vaggie, Angel, and some cars that are starting to drive by. Vaggie and Angel nervously walked towards us as well.
"So, you aren't going to kill us?" Vaggie asks him
"Not unless you provoke me, and even then, I might just threaten you while I psychologically mess with your mind instead." He jokingly responds nonchalantly. "Who even are you two?" he asks them
"She's Vaggie, my girlfriend. And Angel dust here is a coworker" I reply nervously.
"And who the fuck are you?" Vaggie asks him while crossing her arms and giving him a glaring stare. The figure looks back at her and snorts nonchalantly.
"I go by many titles, my favorites being the disciple of the dark, Nulltreader, sometimes it's just The Destroyer." The figure chuckles. "But you can call me Seth." The awkward silence fills the atmosphere. I look back at Vaggie and Angel. Both of them have completely blank faces from this information.
"Well, that was anti-climactic," Angel remarks. "So now what are you just going to wander off or something?" he asks Seth.
"I mean I could if I felt like it, but more curious as to how this variation of earth's hell works, it's more unique compared to other versions I've seen before." Seth replies as he looks around the buildings around us. "If it's cool, do you guys know a place to stay by any chance? I kind of want to stick around for a while." He asks nicely. My eyes light up with excitement as I look back at both Vaggie and Angel with A huge grin stretched across my face.
"Absolutely not" "he's a hunk looking fella, sure why not" both Vaggie and Angel reply over each other. The two stare at each other with venomous glares in both of each other's eyes. I roll my eyes and turn back to Seth.
"I know the perfect place" I respond.