Chapter 1
Escape From Hell

I was slowly coming to, I didn’t know what happened, all I knew is that it was very hot and there was a low rumbling.
My vision was slowly coming back; there were a lot of fiery orange blurs and a large black blur.
I could finally see straight after a minute or two. The orange blurs were
apparently molten lava, and the black, a cloaked figure, eyes glowing red inside its hood and a large scythe in hand.
“You have finally awoken, Darian,” said the figure, “I thought you’d never wake up.”
“What...? Who...? Where...?” I said, my head throbbing, barely noticing that I wasn’t completing my sentences.
“I suppose you mean to say,” said the cloaked figure, “‘What happened? Who are you? Where am I?’ Correct?”
“Yeah,” I said, still a little dazed.
“To put it as simply as I can,” Replied the figure, “You were assassinated, I am Death, and you are in hell.”
“Wha- What?” I yelled, “Assassinated? But, by who?”
“Delacroix, your half demon adviser, and also my son,” Answered Death, “Now, I am guessing that you don’t expect a second chance, seeing as you’re going to use it to seek revenge upon your assassin. Well you’re wrong; I despise my son, despite our blood relation. He has cheated me for years, and it’s not wise to cheat Death.”
I remembered something from the Book of Hell, which I spent much time reading when I was king, some people got second, even third chances from death. Second if Death had an interest in them, third if they had some kind of bond with him. I suppose I should have felt honored, death having an interest in me, but he could have also been using me as a pawn, to kill his son who should have died long ago.
“What’s the catch?” I asked, “Why are you letting me go? Do you have interest in me or do you plan on using me?”
“Ah,” said Death, slight surprise in his voice,” so you’ve read my book I see, well, I do plan on using you, but I also have interest in you. As for the catch, well I cannot return you straight to your body. I can only release your soul, getting to your body will be your own problem.”
I expected something like this, it did not surprise me that he would take such precautions, it was against the Laws of the Underworld to release someone from hell, but souls were classified as things, therefore if they were released, there would be no penalty.
“Oh, and one more thing,” He added, “you will not be completely human once your soul leaves Hell, you will be a Deimos Child.”
“Deimos Child... Isn’t that a human made demon?” I asked.
“Yes, you would take the form of a wolf, your demon will come out at times of great physical or emotional pressure, though the most that will change is your ears, eyes, finger and toe nails, and you will grow a tail. Are you ready to leave?”
I nodded. “Very well,” he said, raised his hands, and in seconds I was gone from the camber I was in, and on a walkway surrounded my lava.
I walked down the walkway, which twisted and turned, went up and down stairs, bones and rotting corpses hanging from chains and ropes and floating in lava. I came across an enormous lizard-like skeleton; the first thing that ran across my mind was “I’d hate to meet that thing when it was alive... Or what killed it... No! Now’s not the time to terrify myself...” As I thought that I ran my hand through my scruffy purple hair, trying not to think about dragons.
I soon came to a large platform littered in skeletal remains and the first living things I came across down here, Imps. They were small, blue, winged, horned demons that mostly traveled in packs, the leader being larger, red, and fiercer. The leaders were called Hellfire Imps, named for their consistency to use their Imp Hellfire spell.
I took one step onto the bone-littered platform and every single imp, including the leader, stared at me. For several tense minutes, they stared at me, their yellow, glowing eyes fixed on my red eyes, then they attacked, swooping in on me, attempting to scratch, bite, and burn me, but they never got a chance. “Dark Vortex!” I yelled, and a black, swirling hole opened in front of me and sucked in most of the imps. I closed the vortex once all that weren’t resisting were inside. All that was left was four or five and the leader. They all used Imp Hellfire on me, creating an enormous wall of fire, which I blocked, by pulling my staff, which was compacted, out of my bag, pressing a button on it, causing it to extend to full length, and twirling it.
I charged in, smacking the first two imps and making them fly into the burning lava. A third imp bit my arm, and I ripped him off and tossed him at a fourth imp, knocking them out. The fifth imp got scared and knocked itself out by continually smacking its head against the ground, all that was left was the Hellfire Imp.
It blew fire at me, which I dodge and countered by smacking it, making it fly across the lava, but it recovered from the blow and regained flight before it could burn. It flew at me at supersonic speeds and head butted me in the stomach, knocking the air out of me. It continued by scratching me and biting me up and down my arms and legs, then catching me before I hit the ground, flying about twenty in the air, and pile driving me into the ground. My head was pounding and I was sick of the little vermin.
“Dark Fire!” I shouted, and I could feel a strange force traveling up, through my lungs and out my mouth in the form of purple flames, which knocked the imp out of the air and into the lava, melting it within seconds.
I stumbled down another pathway and up a steep flight of stairs, out an archway, and into the real world. I thought it was all over, but I was wrong, everything was going purple, I could feel my ears disappearing from the sides of my head and growing out the top, my nails growing, whiskers growing from my cheeks, and a tail sprouting out of my hind end. I let out a fierce howl and started to sprint though the field, destroying everything in my path. After several minutes of this uncontrollable rampage, I changed back and passed out.

Chapter 2
Razor

I was slowly waking up, everything was blurred and I heard voices. I didn’t recognize the voices but I could tell that they belonged to two women, one about my age the other elderly.
As my vision once more cleared everything came into focus. The ceiling and floors were wooden; I was sleeping in a small wooden bed. The room was small, a picture of a meadow hung on the wall and a door on the other side of the room.
I sat up and got out of the bed. My bag and robe were no where to be seen. I stood there in my black cloth pants and leather tunic. My shoes were against the wall by the door; I walked over, put them on, and went out the door.
I stood in a large living room, a pink couch stood in the middle in front of a fireplace. Another door stood on the same wall as the one I just exited, a door across from me leading outside, judging by the window next to it, sunlight pouring through it. Another doorway stood diagonal from me, which by what I could see led to the kitchen.
The young woman who as I guessed before was my age walked in. She had somewhat scruffy black hair with, oddly enough, orange ears sticking out of it. I guessed she was part demon or something along those lines, she also had a bushy fox’s tail. She wasn’t wearing much, a black furry top with reddish trim and a matching skirt; she also had a thorn covered belt. Besides the fact she was different, she was absolutely stunning.
“Oh! You’re up! I didn’t expect you to awake so early!” she exclaimed. “I’m Razor, I found you passed out in the fields near the forbidden cave, you know it’s dangerous to be around there.”
I was nearly speechless, but to keep from looking like an idiot, I quickly found my words, “Oh, yeah, guess I just wasn’t thinking. I’m Darian, umm... where exactly am I?
“Well, you’re in my house, well my grandmother’s house,” she replied, “It’s on the edge of the Arcane Forest. Hold on, Grandma! He’s up! Make some tea!”
“Okay, dear.” I heard from the kitchen.
“So,” Razor continued, “why are you out here? It’s not like the towns people to come out here.”
“Well, it’s a long story and it’s kind of hard to believe-“I said.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” she interrupted, “I know that if anyone was near that cave then they must have a ridiculous sounding story.”
“Well,” I continued, “Okay.”
I started to tell her the whole story, about how I was assassinated, how I escaped from Hell, how I turned into a demon, everything. I expected her to think I was insane, but as I continued, she got more and more interested. Once I finished, she looked like she just had the most exciting adventure of her life.
“Wow,” She said, “I never thought that the Forbidden Cave was a gateway to hell...”
At that moment, Razor’s grandmother walked in, carrying a tray with a teapot and three cups on it.
“Here’s your tea dear,” She said, “So, who’s your friend?”
“This is Darian, he is actually a ghost-“
“Uh,” I interrupted, “I’m a spirit dweller it’s like a ghost only I can touch things just like a living person.”
“Ah,” said Razor’s grandmother, “and I’m guessing you are also a Deimos Child?”
“Uh, yes,” I answered, surprised, “How did you know?”
“I found that book in your bag, I read a couple random pages and found out about quite a few things. Oh, by the way, here are your things.”
She handed me my bag and robe, I took them, put on my robe, and slipped my bag around my shoulder.
“Well, I should go, I have a long journey ahead of me and I’d rather get it over with as quickly as possible.”
“Oh, wait!” said Razor, “Please! Take me with you! I’ve always dreamed of seeing the world! Please!”
“Uh...” I said kind of nervously, “I don’t know...”
“Oh please! I won’t be a burden! I can take care of myself!
“It’s a dangerous world out there, you could get hurt, or worse.”
“What? You don’t think I can protect myself? I’ll show you! Come on, let’s take this outside!”
“Uh-,” I stammered, but I couldn’t say anything, she gripped me by the front of my tunic and dragged me outside.
“Very well,” I said, “I don’t want to hurt a lovely young lady like yourself, but I guess I have not choice.”
I pulled out my staff and extended it, then threw my bag aside and got into a battle stance.
Razor, who was standing about ten yards away from me, pulled a scythe from a sheathe on her back and spun it around her a little, then got into a battle stance herself.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Ready,” I replied.
“GO!” She yelled, and charged at me.
I stood there, waiting for her to get the right distance, when she was, I held out my hand, palm facing her, and let out a purple lightning bolt, which she dodged with inhuman speed. She slashed at me feet, and I jumped, and smacked her over the head with my staff, and flipped over her. I jumped back a few feet and waited for her to get back up, but she didn’t.
“Razor,” I asked, “Are you okay?”
No answer.
“Oh no!” I yelled, “Razor!”
I rushed to her side and rolled her over on her back. In her hand was a fireball.
“Shit!” I yelled, and she hurled the ball at me.
I flew back a few yards and she jumped to her feet. “I’m no pushover little girl you know!” she said, “I can kick your ass any day!”
I groaned, “I believe that... Okay, you win.”
She helped me to my feet, I walked over to my bag and swung it around my shoulders, then told her, “Okay, go and get everything you’ll need for the journey, and only pack the essentials, you’re carrying your own luggage.”
“Yeah yeah,” she replied lazily, “I’m not planning on bringing much.”
Once she had everything, we set off through the Arcane Forest.

Chapter 3
Meridian

The first few minutes of walking through the forest were boring and uneventful. A few critters scurried under bushes and in trees as we came near, the wind blew, and if I was thinking about the wind blowing in a list of events, then it’s quite obvious that it’s been boring.
Though eventually we came across a large, wooden, rather badly built tower with a rope ladder coming down on one side. It didn’t really look like it would hold up any weight at all; it was surprising it was still standing. We walked past the tower and soon found ourselves in a little trouble.
A small orc horde was camped nearby, and they didn’t look friendly. I wanted to sneak past them but Razor insisted on kicking their asses so hard they’d kiss the moon, so she did, or at least she tried, they soon overwhelmed her. I had to go in, kick their asses, cut Razor free, and tried telling her that she can’t kill everyone she comes across, but she didn’t listen.
As we continued through the forest I wondered whether Razor wanted to see the world or just wanted to kick a little ass before she got tired and went home, but it soon left my mind as we came across a clearing, in which was a man who was having his own fun. He had orange spiky hair and a collage of different armors, he wielded a broadsword and was hacking his way through a small group of imps.
Once he finally realized we were there, he yelled, “Hey! Who’re you? Ah, never mind, think you could give me a hand here?”
So, we did. We spent about three minutes hacking, burning, and knocking out imps. It was surprisingly dull, though once we were finished we finally got to introduce ourselves.
“My name is Dart,” said the spiky haired man, “thanks for helping me back there.”
“No problem,” I said, “I’m Darian and this is Razor.”
“Nice to meet you,” added Razor.
“So what brings you two out here?” Dart asked.
“Uh... it’s kind of a long story...” I started.
“I don’t mind,” said Dart, “I didn’t have anything to do today anyways.”
So, I told him my story up to now, with some added commentary from Razor, and once I was finished, he looked bewildered.
“Hell, eh?” Dart said when I finished, “Always wanted to go there, see how many demons I could kill before they finally killed me... Hey, how’s about I help you on your journey? It’s the least I can do after you helped me.”
“Well,” I said.
“We’d love you to come along!” said Razor before I could say anything.
“Awesome,” said Dart, “We’ll head into town and stock up on supplies, then leave.”
We went the rest of the way through the forest without any hitches, same as before only 1 more person and sore feet from kicking so much ass.
When we got out of the forest, we could see the outline of a town against the sunset.
“That,” Dart said, “is Meridian, the town I was born and raised in. It has everything we need to get ready!”
“Nice,” commented Razor, “Does it have a blacksmith? My scythe is getting dull.”
“Of course,” answered Dart, “how else could I get this sword, and keep it sharp?”
“Oh, right.” said Razor.
While Razor and Dart went to get new weapons and armor, I explored town. The blacksmith was the first building we saw, then next to it were the General Store and Inn, and in back of those were the houses and an alchemy shop; I decided to go there first.
When I entered, the strong scent of herbs and burned tea leaves quickly greeted me. The shop looked more like a living room. There was a couch in front of the fireplace, a few pictures hung on the walls and a table with a crystal ball sat in the middle of the room. Behind the table was an elderly woman wearing a shawl over a purple dress.
“Come in, come in,” she said, “I’ve been expecting you, Darian.”
“How did you-“I tried to ask.
“The inner eye sees all,” she interrupted, “Now, I have a feeling that these will aid you on your journey.”
She handed me a pestle, mortar, and a box full of herbs and bottles.
“This is a standard alchemy kit,” she explained, “use it to make potions, inside the box somewhere is a paper with potion recipes on it, make good use of this.”
I exited the shop and went to the blacksmith; Razor was there, probably waiting while her scythe was sharpened.
“Hey, Darian,” she greeted, “what’s that?”
“An alchemy kit, the woman at the shop gave me it for free. She said I should make good use of it.”
“Wow! Lucky! It’s costing me fifty gold coins just to sharpen my scythe!” she said.
“I’d be happy to pay for it,” I offered, “I have plenty of money.”
“Okay,” she said, “I mean... if you really want to...”
“Are you kidding? I’d be honored.” I said.
“Thanks,” she said, blushing slightly, “I’d be broke if you hadn’t come along.”
“It’s no problem, really.” I insisted.
After Razor’s scythe was sharp enough to split a hair down the middle, we went into town to find Dart. At first there was no sight of him, then after a few minutes of searching we saw him running down the street toward us.
“Hey guys, come on, we’re sleeping at my house.” He said.
“You have a house?” I asked “Where did you get that kind of money?”
“I’m kind of a mercenary... I guess I forgot to tell you guys that.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to pay for our rest,” Said Razor.
“Yeah,” I said, “and I won’t be passed out for once.”
This made us all laugh, after which, we headed down the street to Dart’s house, which was surprisingly large, not the largest house in the town but still pretty big.
“Unfortunately, I only have one extra bedroom,” said Dart, “one of you will have to sleep on the couch.”
“I will,” I said, “I’m used to uncomfortable sleeping spots by now.”
“Okay,” Dart said, “Everyone get a good night’s sleep, and we’re leaving first thing in the morning.”
As I tried to go to sleep, I got more restless, I couldn’t tell what it was. Could it be the thought of getting revenge on Delacroix, or something else?
About midnight I heard the door open behind me, Razor came out of her room.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t wake you, did I?” she asked.
“No, besides even if you did, I wouldn’t mind,” I said
“Mind if I sit with you?” she asked.
“No, not at all,” I answered.
She sat next to me on the couch and stared into the fire, like I was. She was wearing a black silk night gown; I had only removed my robe and bag.
“So, you couldn’t sleep either?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m still a little anxious about getting away from home,” she answered.
“You know” I said, “this is kind of romantic.”
She blushed harder than before.
“What is?” she asked.
“This, sitting alone, by the fire, in the dark,” I said.
“Yeah.” She said, blushing harder.
We turned to each other and got closer; we leaned in to each other. Our faces were only inches apart now. I put my hand on her waist, we were so close I could see the whites of my eyes in hers. We leaned in a little closer, and our lips met...

Chapter 4
Journey Through the Mountain

I woke up on the couch lying next to Razor, it was earlier than Dart wanted us to wake up but hell, it was worth it. I didn’t want Dart to see us like this, so I was going to wake Razor, just after I got to admire her at peace for a few seconds.
“Razor,” I whispered and shook her lightly, “Razor, wake up.”
Her ear twitched.
“Hmm? Oh, hey, why wake up so early?” she asked drowsily.
“Remember?” I asked, “Dart wanted to set off early, and I don’t want him to see us like this.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“He might get the wrong idea, now go get dressed and I’ll wake Dart.” I told her.
“Okay,” she said, and with a quick kiss on the cheek she went off to the guest room.
I quickly got on my robe and bag, and was going to wake Dart when he came out of his room.
“Ah, so you got the right idea of getting up early,” he said, “Okay, now let’s go wake Razor and we’ll be off.”
“Oh, she’s already awake,” I told him, “she’s getting ready.”
“Okay, once she is, we’ll head off.”
I nodded and went over to the fire, while I was waiting, I thought, I’d might as well see if this alchemy works. I pulled out the pestle, mortar, and box and found the recipes, and looked at the simplest one, Healing Potion. Seemed pretty simple, I pulled out two of the herbs and started grinding them down to a fine powder, then I took a pot I had in my bag, filled it with water, and started mixing the powder in. Once that was done I put it over the fire to boil.
By the time Razor was done I had put five bottles of potion in my bag.
“Alright, you two ready?” Dart asked.
“Yes.” Razor said in a rather dreamy voice.
“Uh-huh” I mumbled while putting the alchemy kit away.
Razor came over and kneelt down beside me.
“So did that alchemy kit thingamajig work?” she asked.
“Well, we’ll have to wait until someone’s hurt to use the potions but they should work, or else I got five bottles of crap in my bag.” I answered.
She giggled at that which made me feel good. Dart took no notice, for he was getting ready to head off.

About an hour later we were heading down a path away from Meridian, and away from the site of mine and Razor’s first kiss. Dart almost never looked back at us or fell behind which were the marks of an excellent leader, when I get back to being king the first thing I’m going to do is appoint him head of the military, I thought.
“So,” I said to dart, “where exactly are we going?”
“There’s a cave in those mountains on the horizon, through there we can get to a tunnel that leads to the castle, then we can kill Delacroix,” he answered
“Okay, then let’s get through this as quickly as possible, I want to unleash my demon’s wrath upon him,” I said.
“That’s the spirit!” Razor said encouragingly.
We continued down the path, not a thing in sight but a forest and the mountain lining. We soon came across the beginning of the mountains; it was a large valley which, according to Dart, had the cave somewhere in it.
I expected some kind of ambush by some orcs or something, but no, no ambushes, a small rock slide, but no ambushes, which relieved me because I didn’t want to see how the kiss may effect mine and or Razor’s fighting potential.
We finally made it to the cave; inside I could hear random buzzing, scratching, and skittering. My mind was set on small animals, rats, hornets, other various insects. I was ready for taking care of some random critters.
There were a lot of rodents and insects in the cave, some much larger than they should have been, but we took care of them easily. We came across several chambers with the monster’s nests in them. We had a hell of a time with all of the queens and protectors, but we got through it, amazingly unpoisoned and without a life threatening injury.
We soon came into a large chamber that had an enormous fire in the middle, as we approached it, is started to slowly turn, then we realized that there was a demon inside the flames. Its skin was red and covered in blisters, its eyes were green and it had long fangs. It wore a turban and floated in the flames cross-legged.
“I am Ifrit,” it said, slowly as if to ensure we understood it, “why have you disturbed my sleep?”
Before Dart or I could react, Razor jumped forward and yelled, “We’re here to kick some ass and take some names!”
“You know that’s how you got your ass kicked last time, right?” I said, surprised that she would be that foolish again.
“Hey! They caught me off guard! Besides, my scythe was dull, remember? I’ll do better this time!” she retorted.
We all rushed Ifrit, I used my Shadow bolt, Razor used a move called Pyro Dragon, which bound and burned the target and Dart hacked away at it. My Shadow Bolt knocked it back, Dart’s sword dazed it, and Razor’s Pyro Dragon bound him, but the fire did nothing.
“Uh... I think you’d better just use your scythe,” I told her.
“Yeah, I think your right,” she said. She winked at me then slashed at Ifrit.
For a few minutes it went on in a continuous loop, Dart and Razor slashed at him, I smacked him around and used my spells. It all went well until Ifrit had had enough.
“I will not be defeated by such pathetic humans!” it yelled, “I would rather kill us all than be killed by you!”
It slammed its fist on the ground and the chamber started to shake, large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, the chamber was caving in.
“We have to get out of here!” I yelled over the loud rumbling, “I think I see an exit over there!”
And sure enough, there was a tunnel with a small light shining in it. We started to run towards it, but Ifrit blocked the way.
“Oh no you-“it yelled, but it was interrupted by a large boulder that fell on top of it. We ran through the tunnel, which was also collapsing. We just barely got out before the entire thing collapsed.

Chapter 5
Carthasis

After another hour of walking it started to get dark, we hadn’t brought any tents so we would either have to find a town fast or sleep on the clod, hard, ground all night. We quickened our pace to a jog to try and get further before dark, that jog turned into a run, and that run into a sprint across the seemingly endless cold. The sun had almost completely hidden behind the horizon, before Dart asked, “Is it just me or is that a town over there?”
I stared over to where to was pointing and I saw a shadow of what looked like a large group of buildings a while away, I thought I saw smoke coming from it.
“I think you’re right!” said Razor, sounding relieved, her ears perked up and her tail twitched as she said this.
“Race you!” shouted Dart as he started sprinting toward the shadow.
Razor sprinted after him on all fours, and I followed. I could feel some uncontrollable urge to mimic Razor and sprint on all fours too; I decided not to fight this urge. As I got down on all fours, u could feel ears sprouting from the top of my head and a tail, claws grew on my hand and feet and I started running faster and faster. I soon passed Razor and was catching up to Dart, the more I ran the faster I could feel myself going, the strangest thing happened though, I wasn’t in the blind rage I was in my previous transformation, I could stop myself anytime I wanted, maybe I was finally gaining control of this power...
I heard a sharp whistle as I sped past Dart, I looked back, he was quickly fading into the distance, I could barely see Razor but I know she was catching up to Dart. After a few minutes I reached the town; it was Karskin, a small farming and mining village near my old castle. I waited a little; Razor was the next to show up, and after her Dart.
“I didn’t know you could control your demon! You should have told me!” said Razor.
“I honestly didn’t know either,” I told her, “I didn’t even realize I could control what I was doing until I passed you.”
“When you ran past me I thought it was an arrow!” yelled Dart
“Oh, sorry if I scared you,” I apologized. I could feel my skin turning a little red and any trace of my demon disappearing.
“Ah, it’s okay, you being able to control that demon is good news! We can kick more asses harder now!” he said.
“Heh, I guess, but as for right now let’s look for the inn,” I said.
So we spent the next five or ten minutes trying to find the inn, once we did find it we had to scrounge up enough gold to pay for the expenses.
“’Night,” said Dart as we retired to our rooms. To cut the price down we only paid for two rooms, Razor was going to sleep in my room tonight, I was worried Dart would get suspicious but he asked no questions.
Before I went to bed I fooled around with my alchemy kit a little. I still needed to test the healing potion.
“Can I use your scythe for a moment?” I asked Razor.
“Sure,” she replied. She brought it over to me and kissed me on the cheek before getting ready for bed.
I cut my arm; I flinched slightly from the pain. As blood ran down my arm I reached inside my bag and pulled out the potion. I pulled the cork out with my teeth and poured some on the wound. It burned a little and bubbled; when it cleared away the cut was gone. I felt a sense of accomplishment as I wiped the blood off of my arm. There aren’t many alchemists in the world, most died when a potion backfired and either poisoned them or blew up in their face.
I mixed up a few more healing potions and a few revival potions. I planned to test those on monsters tomorrow.
Once that was done I put the kit away, took off my cloak and bag on the table near the door, and climbed into bed next to Razor.

* * *

Delacroix stared into the swirling potion showing Darian and Razor in the inn bed, soundly sleeping.
“Damn,” Delacroix muttered, “I can’t stand to see him sleep so soundly as I stand by idly, unable to do anything. Though maybe...”
He held his hand in front of him and held up his middle and index fingers, and made a circular motion in the air. As he did this black energy started surrounding his hand and tracing the circle he drew in front of him. He stopped, thrust his palm at the circle and it widened, then he drew a star pattern in the air and thrust his palm at it, so to create a pentagram. He then drew a skull and thrust his palm at that, when he did it grew, and the pentagram glowed.
The skull and star outlines widened and filled out the circle making a portal, and through this portal cam half a dozen hooded figures, each wearing tattered robes and floating weightlessly above the ground.
“Now,” said Delacroix, “I want you to go to Karskin, and kill Darian.”
“Yes master...” said one of the wraiths in a raspy voice, and without a sound they floated through the portal.

* * *

I awoke in the middle of the night next to Razor, she was fast asleep. I could feel her tail on my leg, it was like having a kitten sleeping next to me. For a moment I thought about how lucky I was to have met her. I ran my hand through her hair and her ear twitched.
I was about to go back to sleep when I saw a light outside the window, I got up and looked outside; there was an enormous fire raging throughout the town. In the midst of the flame I saw a tall hooded figure floating above the ground. It turned around to face me. Its face was hidden behind its hood.
It looked up at the window I was staring out at let out a spine shilling shriek. It held its gnarled ash colored hands in front of it and a dark swirling orb appeared in front of it, it thrust its palm into the orb and it flew at me.
I jumped to the bed, grabbed Razor, immediately waking her, and dragged her to the floor.
She began to scream “What the,” but was interrupted when the orb blew up the wall. Rubble flew past us and the bed burst into purple flames. I got up, ran over to my bag, and got my staff, and got ready to fight the ghostly figure.
It floated into what was left of the room just as dart burst in with his sword in hand.
I finally recognized this as one of Delacroix’s wraiths. We often used them when defending the castle and in wars when they were needed. They were stealers of souls; they were often also used as assassins. There wasn’t much that could hurt them, they were unaffected by all physical damage and they could resist most magic. There were rumors that they were easily killed by demons but we never got the chance to test this.
“What the hell is that!?” cried Razor and Dart in unison.
“They’re Wraiths,” I told them.
It looked at me and held out its gnarled ash colored hand out and pointed its finger at me.
“You’re Darian?” it asked.
I nodded, still ready to fight it, even though I couldn’t do anything in my current form.
“Master Delacroix ordered us to come here and kill you,” it informed me.
“Is that so?” I asked, “And is he watching us right now?”
“Yes,” it replied.
“Okay, Delacroix!” I yelled, “Get ready! Because once I kick these wraith’s asses, I’m going to kick yours!”
I felt my ears and tail grow, I threw my staff over to where my stuff was as my nails and teeth grew.
“Hmm... Master Delacroix did not inform us you were a demon, this will be troublesome,” said the wraith in its cold dead voice.
I jumped at it, kicked it in the chest sending it flying into the ground, in reached inside its hood. It felt cold but I found what I was looking for, I ripped out a blue, wriggling spirit.
“Let me go!” it demanded in a breathy echoing voice.
“Not a chance,” I said.
I punched the soul and it disappeared, the once full robe seemed to instantly deflate as ash blew out from inside.
More wraiths started to appear from allies and dark ruins of what were abodes mere hours before. They seemed to ooze from the shadows as the floated toward me.
“We will devour your soul. You cannot escape. You will die,” seemingly endless chants of these words were emitting from under the specter’s hoods.
I growled softly, I could tell my demon was starting to take over. Without any sign of it, I jumped at a wraith. It tried to dodge but I was too quick, I ripped the soul out of its hood and smashed it, like the other ash flew from its robe. I did this one after the other, pounce, rip, smash, over and over, until they were all dead for good.
“Ha! Is this all you’ve got Delacroix?” I yelled into the sky, I sounded like I was going crazy, “You’ve gotten soft!”
Just them I heard a maniacal laughter from the clouds; I knew Delacroix was talking back.
“You’re right, Darian, so I’ll just make it a bit harder!” he yelled.
At that moment the ground started to rumble, at first softly but it got stronger and stronger. When it was at its strongest the cause of it came plowing through the burning buildings around me, several trolls, as large as the houses they pushed aside, came lumbering into the small square. They must have been Delacroix’s.
They were green, each wearing nothing but a loincloth. They all had large uprooted trees which I guessed were their clubs. Fortunately for me trolls were slow and very, very simple minded.
They all stared at me, as if trying to determine whether I was friend or foe, after a moment they all started to lumber in, I remained still.
When they we all a few feet away from me, they raised their clubs and I jumped the moment before they smashed the ground, shattering the spot I had been seconds before.
I ran up one of their arms, onto its shoulder, grabbed its head and snapped its neck. A sickening crack rang through the square.
It fell to its knees and toppled into another troll, whose neck I had just sliced up with my claw.
The others looked terrified and started to lumber away as quickly as they could. As they retreated I decided to turn their weapons against them. I picked up one of the fallen troll’s clubs, which was light due to my demon strength, and ran over to them. One by one I started smacking them upside the head with the whole tree, each either falling unconscious or dieing due to their skull caving in. When only a single one was left, I decided to finish it the old fashion way, I blew a hole in its stomach with my Dark Lightning spell.
At that moment I remembered Dart and razor were in the nearby destroyed inn room watching the whole thing. I jumped up into the room and saw their shocked faces.
“Wow,” Dart said moments later, finally finding his voice, “you just took down half a dozen trolls. I wish I were a demon.”
“Darian,” Razor said, “what if all this fighting as your demon is taking a toll on you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked
“Well, look at yourself!” she replied, “You weren’t like this when I met you.”
She was right, I was sitting on the floor like a wolf or dog would, spattered in blood and feeling proud of myself. I had never been like this before.
“Oh,” I said, “I see what you mean now that you mention it. I guess the thought of Delacroix trying to kill me again drove me a little insane.”
“That was the point,” Delacroix’s voice echoed from the clouds, “You have proven yourself, I think you deserve this.”
At that moment a body dropped in front of me. It was a man, purple scraggly hair, average height, black leather tunic and pants and black boots. There was a stab mark in his back. He also wore a cloak and a bag, both much like the ones I had. I realized immediately that this was my body.
I felt a strong pull towards it, I laid my hand on my forehead and was immediately pulled into myself.
I wound up laying on the hardwood floor, blood and demonic marks gone, a sharp pain in my back.
I grunted loudly, “Dart, get one of those healing potions from my bag, they’re the red ones,” I told him.
He reached into my bag, which was now on my side, and pulled out a potion.
“Okay, can you pour it on my wound?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I rolled over and he poured the potion on the dagger hole in my back, in burned for a second, then all the pain just disappeared.
“Thanks,” I said, “I really needed that.
I took the potion from him and put it back in my bag. I sat up and looked around, then looked at my hands, nothing was different, if you don’t include the missing blood from my battle before.
I was just about to get to my feet when I heard clapping. I looked outside to where it was coming from, sitting cross legged on top of the ruins of a burning building, was a man, tall, long white hair, black armor and red eyes.
“Bravo,” he said a deep voice, “you kicked more ass than any army I’ve seen or heard of, and got your body back.”
“Who’re you?” I demanded.
“My name is Carthasis. I lived here before the wraiths attacked. I’ve heard of you from a friend in Meridian. He was right, you’re quite strong,” he said.
“Well, Carthasis,” I said, “What exactly do you want?”
“I want what you want,” he replied, “I want to take the throne.”
I could hardly believe this, I thought about what I should do. Should I let him take it? Should I kill him? I couldn’t decide. I looked at Dart, he shrugged. I turned to Razor, she had the look of ‘Do what you think is right’ in her eyes.
“Let’s strike a deal,” I said, “you help me kill Delacroix, and you can have the throne.”
“Done.” He answered almost immediately.
He jumped from his rooftop perch into our destroyed room.
“When shall we go?” he asked.
I looked at Dart, “Anytime you’re ready,” he said. I looked at Razor, “Same here,” she said.
“Alright, we can leave right now.” I told him.
“Excellent,” he said, “though shouldn’t we let your lady friend get dressed though?” he asked.
I looked at Razor. She was still only wearing her black silk nightgown.
“Yeah, Razor you go ahead and get dressed, we can wait,” I told her.
“Okay, thanks,” she said.
She walked out of the room, and Carthasis jumped to the rooftop again.
“I’ll be waiting at the village gate,” he said. And with that he dashed across the charred roofs to the gate.
“So, I was wondering,” Dart said, “I was expecting one of you, I mean you and Razor, to sleep on the floor, but I see no sleeping bag or anything.”
“Oh, uh,” I stuttered, “we’ve kind of been keeping a secret from you. Razor and I are... uh, in love.”
“Lucky,” he said.
I looked at him, confused.
“Well, Razor’s a really nice woman, smart, caring, beautiful, you’re really lucky,” he answered to my look.
“Heh uh thanks, I guess,” I replied.
Once Razor was ready, we set off, Carthasis was at the gates as he said, it wasn’t a long journey from Karskin to my old castle, there was about an hour or two of walking ahead of us.
Carthasis barely talked along the way, I decided to ask him about his life.
“So,” I started, “you said you lived in Karskin?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “I grew up in the company of a great mage, he taught me a lot of his spells and I’ve even made my own.”
“Wow, can I see a few?” I asked.
“Sure,” he answered. He pointed ahead of him, and drew a pentagram, then inside the pentagram he drew a sword, he was using a white energy to draw in midair, this was an ancient and very powerful form of summoning.
He thrust he palm through it and immediately clenched his fist, as if he was holding a weapon. A moment later he was holding a glowing white sword. By the looks of it, it was made completely of his white energy.
“Amazing,” I muttered, “absolutely fascinating.”
“Thanks,” he said, “I can also summon bows, demons, animals, and other assortments of creatures.”
So, as we went on we showed him our magic, though I kept one spell away from him, the Soul Ripper. It completely obliterates the target’s soul causing them to die. I told him about it and he suggested that I use it against Delacroix, but it doesn’t work on anyone with demon blood in them.
We made it about half way through the trip when I started feeling strange. My head was pounding like crazy, and I was starting to feel dizzy.
I collapsed in the middle of the road. I heard the voices of my friends, though I could not hear what they said. I was feeling even worse. I held onto consciousness for a few more seconds, and then I passed out.

I woke to a similar rumbling that I did after I died. I was having an easier time getting focused. I got up, still a little dizzy, and looked around. I was back in hell. I front of my I could see Death, waiting on his throne like before.
“What the?” I said, still slightly dazed, “Am I dead again?”
“No,” replied Death, “I just brought you here for a moment.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish, “well why did you bring me here?”
“I wanted to tell you something. First of all congrats on getting your body back.” He said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“Now, one bad thing, you cannot turn into a demon,”
“What!?” I yelled.
“Let me finish,” he said, “You cannot turn into a demon anymore, easily. There is a way but it requires the right circumstances.”
“What are they?” I demanded.
“I cannot tell you,” he answered, “you will have to find out on your own.”
“But,” I started to argue.
“Farewell, Darian,” he said.
Next thing I knew I woke up in the middle of the road, my friends all around me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You passed out,” Carthasis said.
“Oh, okay,” I said calmly, coming up into a sitting position.
“Okay?” Razor said in a surprised tone, “You passed out! You could have something seriously wrong with you.”
“Relax, Death just wanted to tell me a few things,” I told her, “It’s nothing to worry about. Let’s just continue on our journey.”
“But,” she started.
“Don’t worry,” I told her again. And with a kiss on the cheek, I got up and started walking again. They stood there for a second, I could feel them staring at me as if to say ‘What the hell just happened?’, then I turned around and asked, “Well? Are you coming or not?”
They gave me a vacant look, then snapped back to reality and started walking to.
As I walked I though about what Death said. Could it be true? Is my demon really gone? No, not gone, just dormant. As Death said, there is a way to revive it.
We soon came to a mountain path which I remembered lead to my old castle; my journey would soon reach its end.
It started to get dark, and I had no intentions on facing Delacroix tired, we decided to camp at the end of the path. Dart went out to gather firewood and Carthasis and I were practicing magic. It turns out he hadn’t learned many of the spells I knew. He taught me some new dark magic which I mastered quite quickly. It took him less time to master my spells though his strongest dark spell was harder than mine.
Once Dart brought back some wood Razor set a fire and we sat around it for a while. Razor fell asleep on my lap a while later. Carthasis started reading a book of summoning and Dart and I discussed tactics for our fight. Much of it involved my demon; I hadn’t told him that I couldn’t access it easily anymore.
Around midnight Dart and Carthasis went to sleep. I stayed up staring into the fire and stroking Razor’s hair. Her ear twitch once, I thought I had woken her, but she just mumbled something and slept on.
It was well, past midnight when I finally laid back and tried to sleep. I stared at the stars for a while. They were all so beautiful. I started to feel drowsy, just as I started to close my eyes I felt Razor’s head leave my lap. I sat up and looked at her, she was wide away now.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her. She had a terrified look on her face.
“Huh? Oh I just had a bad dream,” she told me, “nothing to worry about.”
“You want to tell me about it?” I asked.
“Well... I know it probably won’t happen, but I dreamed that Delacroix killed me,” she told me, “he said ‘I won’t allow you to kill me, Darian, if I can’t destroy your body, I’ll destroy your heart,’” she paused for a second. A tear slid down her cheek, “You don’t think that could happen, do you?” she asked, she looked at me, waiting for an answer.
I put a comforting arm around her shoulder and said, “As long as I’m around, Delacroix won’t be able to lay a finger on you, I promise.”
She smiled and hugged me. She was still crying but I couldn’t tell whether they were tears of joy or sorrow.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she said, “I want Delacroix to pay for what he did.”
“Thank you, Razor,” I said, “thank you for everything you’ve done.”
She wept a bit longer, I stayed right there, comforting her. Afterwords we kissed and laid down together, we fell asleep in each others arms.

Chapter 6
A Promise Broken

I woke later that morning, Razor was gone and the sun was shining. I sat up, the fire had burnt out. Dart and Carthasis were sitting opposite me, Dart cleaning his sword, Carthasis reading his book.
“Where’s Razor?” I asked. The two looked up; they hadn’t noticed I was awake.
“She went into the woods to train,” Dart said, pointing a nearby gathering of trees.
“Okay, thanks.” I said, and took off into the forest.
I walked on a little and then found Razor in a large clearing, she was slicing away at trees with her scythe, cutting down each with a single swing. I admired her for a moment, she was an amazing woman. Strong, caring, and beautiful, as Dart said in Karskin.
“Having fun?” I called. She jumped, not knowing I was there.
“Oh, you’re awake!” she said, putting down her scythe and running over to me. She flung her arms around me and kissed me. “I didn’t expect you to be up yet.” She told me.
“Well, I see some one’s awfully enthusiastic about today,” I said, “any particular reason?”
“Well, today's the day we finally get revenge on Delacroix,” she told me, “why not be happy?”
“I guess you’re right,” I said, “Hey, while you’re training, mind if I try a new spell Carthasis taught me?”
“Sure!” she replied, “How can I help?”
“Okay, all you need to do is swing you’re scythe at me,” I told her, “and don’t worry, if it doesn’t work, then I have my potions right here.” I set my bag on the ground.
“Okay,” she said, looking a little uneasy. She ran over to her scythe and then came back. “Ready?” she asked me.
I nodded. She swung her scythe at me, I held up my hand in the way of the blade.
“Shield!” I shouted, and a shield formed over my hand, stopping the blade instantly. Razor looked bewildered for a second, then pulled back her scythe and swung again. I held up my other hand and a shield appeared over it. She started swinging wildly at me, I kept blocking her attacks.
She tried to get me overhead, a shield appeared above me and stopped the attack. Before she could pull back her scythe, I said “Parry,” and the scythe flew out of her hands.
“Wow,” she said, “that’s some powerful magic. What else did he teach you?”
“How ‘bout I show you?” I asked. Before she could answer, I held out my index finger and drew a symbol similar to the one Carthasis used to summon a sword, the only difference was mine had a staff on it. When I finished drawing it I thrust my palm through it and a black rod of energy appeared in my hand.
I twirled it for a second, and then started drawing another pentagram. This one had an imp’s head in it. When I thrust my palm through it an imp appeared. I started battling with it; it dodged my first attack, and just barely avoided the next. Then I used another new move Carthasis taught me. I twirled the energy staff, looked straight up at it, and blew my purple fire breath at it, instead of spreading out and burning the staff, it went inside, and started coming out both ends, the twirling made it spread out and spin around, like a burning purple cloud, hovering a few feet above my head, there was little space above the imp, so what to do next was simple. I swung my staff at the imp’s feet. It Flew up stupidly into the flames, and burned to a crisp.
Razor stared in amazement, “You’ve gotten to be a strong mage,” she said, “Mind if I fight a few imps?”
“Of course not,” I told her, “If things get too much for you I’ll desummon them, okay?”
“What? You think I can’t handle a few imps?” she asked, she looked a little angry.
“Oh no, it’s just that, well you get carried away some times, you know?” I told her.
“Oh is that so? Well, why don’t you just name one time I got carried away.” She said, looking angrier.
“The orcs,” I said, “I’m sure you remember.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, looking a little embarrassed, “thanks.”
“For what?” I asked her.
“Well, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ever gotten out of there. You’ve been really nice to me ever since we met,” she told me, “you helped pay for getting my scythe sharpened, you keep me warm every night, you comforted me last night, you’re even helping me with this training. I guess sometimes I think of you as my guardian angel or something. Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it?”
“Not at all,” I told her, “I enjoy helping you, and, don’t forget, you helped me.”
“How?” she asked.
“Well, you brought me in when I was unconscious, you also kept me warm at night, and you taught me that there are more important things than revenge.” I told her.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Like love,” I told her. We smiled at each other, held one another, and kissed. We would’ve stayed there all day, though I knew Dart and Carthasis would be waiting, so we got our stuff, and went back to our campsite.
“Ready to leave?” I asked them as Razor and I emerged from the forest.
“Yeah,” Dart said, sheathing his sword, “You ready, Carthasis?”
“Yes,” he said, closing his book, “Let’s go.”
For the rest of the day we traveled up the mountain path. Carthasis read his book along the way, aware of every obstacle in his way, Dart Stayed ahead to deal with any danger, and Razor and I walked hand in hand. For the most part the trip was peaceful. I kept my guard up in case Delacroix sent more of his creatures to attack, though he didn’t. We got to my old castle without a hitch.
The front doors towered above us. They were made of large planks of wood and trimmed with iron. I wanted to be polite so I knocked, hard. I blasted the door with dark lightning and they fell immediately, causing a large crack and wood to splinter everywhere.
Delacroix was standing there, in the large entrance hall. His skin was pale, his hair long and white like Carthasis’s, enormous red horns sprouting from his head. He was wearing a suit of dark gray armor and a red flowing cloak. The second I saw him my heart filled with malice.
He just stood there, smirking at me. He probably thought he would win.
“Wipe that smile of your god damned face,” I told him. He started to chuckle, “Fine,” I continued, “then I’ll do it for you!”
I held my hand out and a purple lightning bolt flew out. Delacroix jumped to the side and started to levitate.
“Do you really think that will work?” he called from across the room.
“No,” I answered, “but this will.” I thrust my fists at my feet and black smoke emitted from them.
At the literal speed of light I ran over, jumped on his shoulders, and blew purple fire in his face. The recoil from the fire knocked me off his shoulders and caused him to spin back and smack into the wall.
I landed a few feet away and immediately went back at him. I poured my energy into my fist and it emitted black smoke like my feet. I sucker-punched Delacroix in his stomach, he flew through the wall into the next room. I jumped through the hole in the wall and summoned an energy staff again. I started smacking away at him, I though I might beat him easily, but he caught my fifth or sixth strike, and redirected the staff into my face, causing me to fly back through the hole. He quickly flew through and tried to punch me, but Dart stepped in and swung his sword at him, he dodged and flew to the top of the room.
“Take this! Niger Incendia!” Delacroix shouted. Black orbs of fire started falling from the ceiling, burning everything. We would’ve been incinerated if Carthasis hadn’t put us all under a shield. Delacroix looked faint. He fell limp and dropped from his high resting place. He must have been worn out by the spell; this was our chance to strike.
Carthasis summoned his sword and we all went in for an attack. Dart Swung his sword at him, knocking a few feet away. Razor intercepted his flying path and did an uppercut to his limp body, knocking him into the air. I jumped and smacked him into the ground and Carthasis finished by impaling him on his sword, and throwing him into the wall.
“That’s enough, Darian!” Delacroix shouted, “This battle will be between you and me! Niger Redimio!”
Black energy flew from his outstretched hand and bound Dart Carthasis and Razor. I ran over to Razor and tried to unbind her. None of my spells worked on the dark binds.
“It’s no use. You’ll never get them free.” Delacroix told me.
He wasted no time for me to get ready, he pulled a large obsidian broadsword from a rack on the wall. The black blade shimmered in the sunlight coming from the large archway which previously housed the front doors. He flew at me and thrust the sword, it missed by mere inches. I jumped to the side and summoned my staff. He flew at me again slashing wildly. I blocked every one and struck back with the trick I had dubbed Firestorm. The purple swirling clouds of flame were covering all the room that was about seven or eight feet above the ground in seconds. Delacroix had flown above these clouds which is what I had hoped for. Now he could not see me, so I could prepare my next move.
I had read that summoned Hellfire Imps were immune to spells of their summoner. So I summoned a flock of them and sent them all through the cloud of flames.
I heard angry shrieks of imps, frustrated grunts of Delacroix, and few blasts of fire, and then silence. I waited a few seconds, before a black bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of me. I knew Delacroix wouldn’t miss twice if I stayed still, so I ran.
Shortly after fireballs were added to the lightning bolts. Delacroix had created a hellfire storm. I had to end this quickly. I raised my hand and started to pull the fire in. It gathered in a large burning orb of energy. Once all of the fire was retracted, I hurled it at Delacroix. Its immense size made in move slowly and he easily dodged it.
I went a short while of dodging fireballs and lightning bolts before realizing that I no longer had the Demonic Step spell activated. I thrust my hands at my feet again and started to sprint around the room.
“You can’t run forever, Darian!” Delacroix shouted, “You’ll have to stop sooner or later!”
I kept running, dodging all of his attacks. The fireballs stopped a few minutes later, and so did Delacroix’s lightning bolts. He took to a new strategy. He started summoning large metallic suits of armor, which were often used as palace guards when needed. They were slow, but I knew one good hit from them would kill me.
I was weaving in and out of them as Delacroix summoned them. I was about to get close enough to him to attack, but he summoned one right in front of me. I dodged its slow attack and vaulted over it. I covered my fist in energy once again as I flew at Delacroix. Once in range I attacked, and caught him right in the stomach. He fell slightly limp and I took this chance to get in a few more attacks. I hit him with a rising knee to the face, a kick to the groin, and finished by chucking him into a suit of armor.
He got up and looked at me menacingly. His stare was filled with pure malice.
“If I cannot break your body,” he said, “then I’ll break your heart.”
I immediately recognized this phrase, it’s the one Razor heard in her dream. It wasn’t just a dream, it was a vision.
Delacroix dashed over to Razor, sword in hand, raised it above her, and thrust down. Blood spattered over Delacroix’s face and flowed on the floor. I stood there, terror in my eyes, I could not believe this happened. The terror in my eyes soon turned to pure hatred. Delacroix had pissed me off by killing me, but this was just too much.
“Delacroix,” I said, “You just made a big mistake.”
My nail grew into large claws. My ears shrank into my head and furry canine ears sprouted from my hair. A tail grew from my lower back. My eyes turned red as Razor’s spilled blood. My demon had been awoken.
Pure terror quickly filled Delacroix’s eyes. He let his sword fall and clatter on the ground and started to stumble backwards.
I dashed over at inhuman speeds and kicked him in the chest. He flew backwards and smashed into the wall. I quickly dashed over and picked him up by his collar.
“No, please, have mercy.” He begged.
“Mercy stopped for you, a long time ago.” I said in a growling voice.
I threw him into the middle of the room and dashed towards him. I stopped a few feet away from him, stopped my foot, and bared my fangs. Instantly mirror images of my started to appear around him, surrounding him. The images started dashing at him, and dashed past him, clawing him up as they passed. They turned, slid, and went back for another slash when they dashed past him. Meanwhile the real me had stayed back a few yards, watching them claw at him with every passing second.
Finally, I got ready to dash. “It’s time to finish this,” I yelled, “Die Delacroix!”
I dashed, pouring every inch of energy into my claws. When I was a few feet away, I dove at him, clawed straight through his chest, and ripped out his heart. It continued to beat as I held it in my hand, my clones disappeared and Delacroix sat there, paralyzed from the pain, scratches all over himself, and a gaping hole in his chest.
“Say hello to your father for me,” I said before crushing his heart.
His body fell over, he was dead.
I savored the moment before running over to Razor. When Delacroix died the binds had vanished. Dart and Carthasis joined me next to her. I reached inside my bag and took out two potions, a red potion of healing and a purple potion of revival. I poured the red potion on her wound and it closed instantly. I uncorked the purple potion, but Carthasis stopped me.
“We need to sacrifice a soul for that potion to work. Delacroix’s has already left, so we can’t use it.” He told me.
“Well then, I’ll give her my soul,” I said.
“No, she would not have the will to live if you died,” Carthasis told me, “I’ll do it.”
“But,” I started.
“No,” he interrupted, “I’ll go to hell and banish Delacroix’s soul from eternity for you. Besides, I’ve always wanted to meet Death.”
I paused for a moment, thinking about Carthasis’s great sacrifice.
“Okay,” I told him.
He summoned a dagger and directed it at his heart.
“The moment I stab myself,” he instructed me, “give her the potion.”
“Okay,” I said.
A few seconds passed, but it seemed like hours. Carthasis thrust the dagger into his heart, at the same time I started pouring the potion into Razor’s mouth. A blue, mist like orb flew from Carthasis’s mouth, into Razor’s.
Carthasis slumped to the ground, and razor opened her eyes.
“Darian,” she said, “is that you?”
I smiled at her and said, “Yes, it’s me.”
She sprang up and hugged me tightly.
“Did you do it? Did you kill Delacroix?” she asked.
“Yes I did, but...” I replied, shifting my glance at Carthasis’s body.
Razor looked over at him too. “Oh, you had to use a revival potion on me.” She said.
“Yes, I did.” I told her.

Chapter 7
Afterwords

Dart left a few days later to find an alchemist who could revive Carthasis without the need of a sacrifice. Razor and I watched as the ship he was on as it sailed away.
Shortly after Razor and I got married and bought a home in Meridian. We lived a simple life, I made a living by healing the sick and wounded as the town’s apothecary.
When I came back into this world, I was hoping to have revenge on Delacroix, but what I found was better, friends, happiness, and the love of my life. These days Razor and I still reminisce on our journey, remembering the good times and the bad. We still visit Carthasis’s grave in Meridian’s cemetery, and we pray for Dart’s safety out at sea.
Sometimes I still wish I could go back in time and make things different, but I know I can’t, so I suppose this truly is...

The End

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.03.2011

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