7/3
The cold night air was still. There wasn’t so much as a breeze blowing through the abandoned town. It was as if the wind was afraid to blow, out of fear of disturbing the powers that were about to clash. Even town itself gave an unnatural air. Alongside a wide stretch of road, were a few rundown buildings, and the remains of others that did gain Mother Nature’s favor. Standing tall at the end of the road was a stone church. While perhaps it was once the center of the town, it now served as more of a grave stone; marking the site where many unfortunate souls met their end.
While no one in their right mind would dare approach such a decrepit place, one person did. A man walked through the pure untouched snow that blanketed the road. Though the word man would be pushing it; he was barely out of his teens. He was a little over six feet tall, with messy spiky brown hair. And while a normal person would have to wear layers of thick clothing to tolerate the cold that called the land home, all he wore was black leather jacket over a white t-shirt, accented by his slightly tan skin, and blue jeans.
The crisp cold air completely enveloped him, yet he didn’t as much as shiver. All he did was keep walking. He didn’t look around at his surroundings, or seemed to be bothered by the aura of evil that surrounded the town. He had a certain presence about him, like a mix of calmness and indifference; something almost inhuman. Even his eyes were unnatural. Around the iris was solid black, but the color faded to white as it approached the pupil.
As he walked forward toward the church, the man’s head was pushed to side as loud bang shattered the silence of the town. A lone bullet bore its way into the man’s head, piercing his skull, tearing through his brain, before finally going out the other side. He didn’t so much as flinch the bullet exited his head. As blood dripped onto his shoulders, he slowly tilted his head and looked to where the bullet had come from.
A normal human would’ve been killed instantly, but he was not a normal human; or even human at all. The holes on the sides of his head quickly closed up with fresh layers of skin. And inside his head, bone, brain matter, and nerves were all restoring themselves. But how could this be? What kind of creature was the man?
He stared into the darkness of one the abandoned buildings, and sharpened his eyes. His keen vision allowed him to see who had attacked him. “Come out.” He said in dry tone.
Right as he spoke, a young man nervously rushed out of the building. He wore a long white rope, stained with dirt and grime. His appearance was reflected perfectly by his clothing. His face, as youthful as it was, was covered with scratches and dirt, and his dark blonde hair greasy and disheveled. And not only that, but dark circles around his eyes indicated that he hadn’t slept in days. He stood to the back of the person he attack, and saw the numbers 777, formed in a circle, tattooed on the back of his neck. He tossed his pistol to the ground and fell to his knees.
“Please forgive me my lord!” The boy pleaded as he bowed his head. He pushed up his right sleeve, and put his hand to his head. On his right hand was a tattoo of a pentagram, with an Ouroboros symbol in the center. “I thought you were someone from Eden.” He put his hand down, and put on an optimistic smile as he looked up. “You see, we were able to call it to our world, but no one could tame it. But now that-” Before the boy could finish, a bang echoed, and bullet ripped through his skull. He fell into the snow, and his blood began to stain the frozen water red. As the life drained from him, his smile was replaced with a look of shock and horror.
“Looks like he didn’t get the memo.” Walking to the boy’s corpse was tall man clad in a red jacket. He was six and a half feet tall, with pale skin, and piercing red eyes. He had medium length raven hair that was parted in the middle and swept back. Under his red jacket was a black under shirt, and strapped to the left side of his blue jeans was holster.
The red eyed man holstered his black pistol, and pulled out glass sphere that was held on black chain. A red light pulsed around the sphere, and ball of gray ball of light flew out of the corpse and into the glass sphere. The man tucked the sphere away, and looked at the man in black.
What the man used was known as a Soul Flux: An object that allows the user to extract the soul of fallen person, and claim it as their own.
“Why are you here, Atero?” He asked, with a look of confusion.
Atero looked out at the church. “The same reason you are, Rosoeus.”
“I told you, call me Roso.” He said with grin. “This branch must’ve been cut off for a while.” He said as he looked down at the lifeless body. “All the other sects of Ouroboros I’ve come across already know about us, so this one must’ve been off the grid for at least a month.”
Ouroboros: A group of lost souls, desperately trying to tame and gain demonic power. They had successfully recruited countless people to join them, and give up their souls in exchange for power. Both Atero and Roso had committed acts that had gained them the wrath of Ouroboros.
Suddenly, Atero and Roso heard a bellowing crash from inside the church. Roso looked at his right hand and noticed a red light pulsing off his 777 tattoo; the same one Atero had on the back of his neck. He then saw a white light pulsing off of Atero’s mark.
“Looks like he’s here too.” Atero knew what the glow meant. The three you bared the mark of 777 had been gathered.
“I’ve wanted to meet him for a while.” Roso said with a grin. He hadn’t yet met the third one who had the mark of 777.
Atero didn’t say a word, and walked toward the church along with Roso. As they neared the stone structure, the sound of fighting got louder and louder. The splintering of wood, the crushing of stone, and the clash of metal, all these sounds echoed throughout the silent land.
As the two neared the church, the large wooded double doors were blasted open; sending countless slivers of wood flying outward. Crashing through the doors was the body of another man; around the same age as a Roso and Atero. He had wavy short dirty blonde hair, and wore long sleeve blue shirt, with blue jeans. In his right hand was long rapier. The blade was dark blue, and longer and wider usual, and had two jagged edges. The guard was composed of a series of black spikes, and resting between the guard and the blade was a metal blooming blue rose.
Thinking quickly, a circled of red light appeared around Roso’s shoulder. Out of the ring came a large transparent red hand and it caught the man in blue; keeping him upright as he slid back. Roso called the arm back into the ring from which it was summoned, and all traces of it vanished.
All three of them looked as winged being soared out of the door, and flew to the top of the church. It rested its feet on the top of the steeple, and looked down at the three. While the being had the appearance of a human, it was anything but. What stood at the top of the church was a Devil, brought into the world at the cost of human souls.
The Devil was male in appearance, and all he wore was cloth wrapped around his waist. While the cloth was once white, it was charred black, and stained with blood. But that could be said for is entire body. His feet and hands were charred solid black, and appeared more like talons than actually human appendages. The rest of his body was covered in soot, and traces of dried blood. In his right hand was large battle axe, and he appeared of hold the massive weapon with ease. And of course, out of his back, were two large black wings.
The Devil looked down with arms folded with an expression of disgust. “Disgusting.” He said as he spat at the three. “Humans wielding the power of Devil’s is absolutely disgraceful. The true Kings of Darkness would be ashamed that their power was given to such lowly creatures.”
“That’s our target.” Roso said as he pointed his gun at the Devil. He fired a single shot at the target, but the Devil tilted his head and caused the bullet to miss. “Figured it wouldn’t be that easy.” He placed his hand over his black, and in flash of red flames, and large claymore appeared in his hand. The blade itself was long and crimson in color. The handle was black and at the top was the head of a dragon, with the beginnings of the blade in its mouth. And wrapped around the handle was a long red ribbon, around four feet in length.
Roso swung the blade down, creating a small gust of wind. “Let’s get this over with.” He said with an arrogant smile.
The Devil scoffed at Roso’s arrogance. “What chance do false kings have against a true devil?” He waved his hand, and sea of shadows appeared along the long road. Slowly, putrid and disgusting creatures began to rise out of the shadows. There had to be at least one hundred of the dark creatures come up from the shadows. “Face the forces of Hell!”
With those words, the Devil swooped down and swung his massive axe at Atero. In a flash of thick black energy, a long sheathed katana appeared in his left hand. With amazing speed, Atero held up his sword and intercepted the attack. While the force was strong enough to bend his body, and crush the ground beneath him, Atero didn’t seem at all effected by it.
He glanced back at the other two. “Roso, Azuleus, handle the demons and leave him to me.”
Azuleus, or Azul for short, glared at Atero. “Just make it quick. I don’t have time for this.” He had more pressing matters to deal with, and saw their assignment as wasting time.
Atero didn’t respond to Azul at all. He gathered his strength and pushed the devil back into the church. And in black flash, gave chase.
With Atero focused on the Devil, Azul and Roso focused on the demons. Azul charged forward and madly swung his blade, cutting any demon unlucky enough to be in his way; causing them disappear in a black mist. As he fought, a demon lunged at him with its black claw. Fast enough to respond, Azul held out his hand, it became covered in a layer of sparkling sapphires. He grabbed the demons claw, the armor like jewels keeping his hand safe, and swung it around in a circle; knocking the demons around him into the air.
Azul then placed his hand on the rose of his blade, and countless glowing blue petals scattered around him. The petals danced through the air and formed a shield around their master. The demons fell on the petals, and the petals shredded them to dust. Azul continued to fight, and when a demon stupidly tried to attack him, the petals would rush to intercept the attack. The combined strength of Azul’s sapphire armor and petals gave him an almost unbeatable defense.
Roso was fighting hard as well. Thought it wasn’t like he needed too. The demon hordes well easily to the power of his blade, and it took barely any effort for him to dispatch them. “Azul!” He shouted as looked to see his fellow king fighting.
“What!?” Azul yelled as he crushed the skull of a demon with his hand.
“But me some time okay! I’ll end this in one shot!” He said as quickly jumped back to the stone steps of the church.
If it meant ending the battle faster, Azul would do as he was told. He cut his way to in front of Roso and fended off any demons that came his way.
Roso gripped his sword with both hands and raised it above his head. A circle of red flames appeared as his feet and stream of fire lit up his blade. He poured his energy into his blade, and the flames grew larger and larger. When he was completely consumed by the red flames, a large transparent red circle appeared at the tip of his blade.
Given enough time to prepare his attack, Roso was ready to finish off the demon horde. “Devour! Crimson Dragon!” Roso swung his blade down, and a massive transparent red dragon erupted from the circle. The dragon was completely covered in red flames, and as it blazed forward, it incinerated everything in its path. It flew through town, and then up into the sky, before dissipating in a shower of fire.
When the attack was done, Roso fell right on his rear. He hadn’t expected it to be so taxing on his body, but he remembered something that could help him. He pulled the soul flux out of his pocket and held it to his chest. The gray light flew into his heart, and Roso felt his power start to return.
He stood up, and looked at the damage he had caused. The ruined buildings had all been reduced to ash by his fire, and all the snow had been melted away; revealing the scorched earth. The only thing that his fire spared was Azul.
The petals had shielded Azul from the wrath of Roso’s flames, but they themselves had taken some damage. Only a quarter of the original amount of petals remained, while the damaged ones returned to Azul’s sword. To offset the petals that were consumed, Azul covered himself in his sapphire armor.
Azul dispelled his armor, causing the crystals to slow disappear into a fine blue dust. He called his remaining petals back to his sword and the blue rose returned fully formed. “All that leaves is the Devil.” Anyone else would’ve been left in awe at Roso’s power, but Azul was more worried about the time wasted on their “assignment”.
“It’s up to him now.” Roso said as he glanced back at the church.
In the field behind the stone building, Atero and the Devil were having a fierce battle. Both had worn the other down quite considerably. Atero’s clothes had large tears in them been from the Devil’s axe; the only proof he had actually been hit. While the Devil’s body was covered in fine cuts.
“Disgraceful, that I cannot best a false king.” The Devil said through breaths. “However, I’ll wager my pride as Lucifer’s servant that I shall kill you!” He charged at Atero and swung his massive weapons with both hands. Atero side stepped the axe and dealt a quick slash to the Devil’s side; spraying blood on the snow. The slash was so fast it didn’t even appear that Atero unsheathed his sword.
The Devil let out a scream as pain as he clutched his side. While the wound quickly healed, even a Devil can’t heal themselves forever. He would eventually run out energy, and be unable to heal his wounds.
“Servant? Who do you think sent us here to kill you?” Atero said in monotone voice.
The Devil’s eyes widened in shock. He could not believe that Lucifer would order his death; especially after just getting out of Hell. “Lies….” He muttered under his breath. “LIES!” He grabbed his axe tightly and a stream of fire erupted around him.
“Believe me if you want to, that’s your choice.” Atero fully unsheathed his sword, revealing the glistening black blade. He threw the black scabbard to the side, and in disappeared into a black mist. “Sulobaid Omiex.” When Atero spoke the incantation, a blast of air radiated from his body. His sword slowly became covered in thick black flames, and the same black flames began to form two black wings on his back. And a black crown, covered in white flames formed above his head.
The Devil looked in horror upon seeing Atero release his full power. He came to the stunning realization that the person he mocked, thought of as less than him, was going to end his life. He couldn’t understand why Lucifer would allow such less being as humans to have that kind of power.
“Why…why…” The flames around the Devil grew higher, as did his confusion and anger. “Why would you be given that power!?” He swung his axe as hard as he could, and watched in shock as Atero cut his weapon in half.
Atero swung his sword and two blades of black energy flew off of it. The blades flew straight into the Devil, and cut his arms off. Bleeding heavily, all the Devil could do was scream in protest and shock. Atero disappeared in a black flash and a black blur surrounded the devil. The Devil’s body was quickly covered in cuts, and his blood splattered into the air. He couldn’t understand it, what was the point of giving humans the power of Devils? What was Lucifer thinking giving the creatures they despised so much their power?
Suddenly, the blur disappeared and Atero appeared behind the Devil. Atero summoned his scabbard, and sheathed his sword. His blade disappeared in a flash of black flames, and his crown and wings slowly did the same.
“It’s strange that you, a true Devil, don’t know why Lucifer allowed us to gain this power.” Atero said as he kept his back turned. “Just like you, we’re nothing but pawns to Lucifer. Something to be used until we’ve served our purpose.” The Devil didn’t say a word. His body was slowly consumed by flames, until he was reduced to nothing but ash.
While the battle was over, Atero didn’t come out of it unscathed. A sharp spread from his heart, and shot over his entire body. Atero hunched over and began to breathe heavily. The pain was so strong it would’ve killed a normal human. But the pain was the price he had to pay for using the Sulobaid Omiex. It allowed him to access his full power as a devil, but his human soul could only handle it for so long. That’s why he didn’t want to use it until he had too.
“Looks like our assignment’s over.” Roso said as he and Azul came walking up from around the church.
“Good.” Azul said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“Lucifer’s not done with you three just yet.” Said a man leaning against the church’s wall. He was a rather tall man, who wore a white dress shirt under a black sport coat with sleeves rolled up, and a pair of matching black slacks. Around his neck was necklace that a piece turquoise at the end that stood out from his bronze skin. His black hair was pulled back with a single bang falling down his face.
“Hey Aurus, how’ve you been?” Roso said with a smile.
“I’ve been good, going here and there.” Aurus replied.
Azul didn’t care for small talk. “Tell Lucifer I don’t have time to play the lapdog.” He said as he shot Aurus a glare. He knew the risks if he defied Lucifer, but he didn’t gain the power of a devil to be Lucifer’s servant.
As Azul began to walk away, Aurus raised his voice. “We’ve found her.”
Azul stopped dead in his tracks. “What?” He slowly turned his head and looked at his Aurus. His expression was like a child who found out Santa Claus wasn’t real; a mix of shock and disbelief.
Aurus gave him a strong nod. “Yeah, we know where she’s being kept.”
Azul ran up to Aurus and grabbed him by his collar. “Tell me where she is!” He yelled as he shook Aurus violently.
“Calm down.” Aurus grabbed Azul’s hands and held him back. While it took him a moment, Azul calmed down, or at least as close to calm as he was going to get. “You done?”
“Yeah.” Azul said as he threw his hands down.
“I’ll tell give you the details when we get there.” Aurus said as he looked at the three. He held out his hand and a purple light swirled around it. He slammed his fist to the side then it suddenly stopped, even though it hadn’t touched anything. A crack appeared in the open air, and slowly spread out into many more. Finally, the cracked space shattered like glass, and revealed large rift; filled with mix of swirling purple and black energy.
The three knew that the rift would not harm them. It was simply a means of teleportation, and Aurus had used it on all three of them at one point or another. They all walked through the rift, and it quickly closed behind them; leaving no sign it was ever there.
With all the devils gone, a strange type of peace covered the lone church. Even though it was stained with the blood of countless souls, it would stand as testament to them. It would serve as a gravestone, marking the place where so many met their unfortunate ends.
While the church would remain silent till the end of days, there was one who thought to pay his respects to the fallen. He sat in the only pew not destroyed by Atero’s battle, enclosed in shadow. He folded his hands and bowed his head. But would not pray for the past, or the present, all that mattered to him was the future.
“And the Kings of Darkness would gather for the first time. With the Shadow as their guide, they will march on those who claim to be born from paradise. When they return, only one shall still stand, while the other two wallow in their own darkness. Then the Kings will part ways once again, and only be reunited to save the soul of their natural enemy. They will part again, and the third time they come together, they shall witness the Fallen Angel rise.”
The clouds slowly parted, and moonlight shone in through the hole in the roof. While the man stayed in shadows, the light of the moon enveloped his right int. And though there was a scar, a series of numbers could be seen on the top of his right hand placed in a circle: The numbers 666.
*This is a story I've had in my head for a while. I hope to write more on when I have time. So, thoughts, suggestions, and all that jazz.*