Exodius Demon

Alucard

I sat up in bed suddenly, covered in a cold sweat and feeling a most unmanly urge to cry. I was having trouble keeping myself together; I sniffled uncontrollably and whimpered to myself. I was in a human city, staying in the back room of a tavern that was often rented out to anyone willing to pay for it. I hadn’t wanted to go to a regular inn on the chance that I might be spotted by a mage hunter and recognized. I had come full circle and was back in the city in which I’d started out, though that wasn’t my original intention. The most I planned to do was resupply and then leave as quickly as possible. The thought of visiting my mother while I was here had crossed my mind, but I didn’t even know if she was still here. The longer I stayed, the more risk I ran of being caught and returned to the castle, there to face not only imprisonment once again, but no doubt some awful punishment for my part in the ritual and Merrick’s death.

The room I was in was small and had hardly any room to move; it contained a bed with a chair right next to it, and a small shelf was attached to the wall to act as a table. It was the cheapest thing I could find, and somewhere I felt my presence would be the least obvious. I hadn’t forgotten about Argus or his mage hunters, and now that I was back where they had found me to begin with, I needed to be extra careful. I stopped only to sleep a little, intending to travel some distance further that night in hopes of getting ahead of Leliana before I had to stop again. I squeaked with my pathetic effort to keep from crying, my heart aching at the thought of her.

She was the second person who had become dear to me and who I had successfully gotten killed. From now on I intended to avoid such entanglements altogether. It seemed like no matter what I did, I was doomed to kill or hurt the people who came to mean something to me. First Merrick, now Leliana—and to make matters worse, Leliana had loved me despite what I’d done to her, even after how I had betrayed her trust by leaving her.

“Typical human worm, always feeling sorry for yourself.” I heard the demon’s voice next to me. I turned my head quickly and saw what appeared to be me, sitting in the chair next to the bed.

“How—who are you?” I was confused. He looked just like me—but I was sitting in the bed, wasn’t I?

“XXXXX , you idiot. The demon. Have you forgotten about me so easily? I’ll have to fix that!” he snarled. He turned his head and I saw that he had glowing blood-red eyes. He reached over and slapped a hand roughly over my eyes. When he removed it, we had gone from the small room with wooden walls to a large, indeterminate area of intense heat with bubbling pits of what could only be described as liquid fire. The ground that surrounded us was all ashes, and there were no signs of life besides him and me.

“What the hell is this?” I jumped out of the bed and instantly the ground burned my feet, as though I had stepped onto hot sand.

“Pay close attention to this, human. If you don’t, this will be your world in the next few months.” He stood up casually. “As hard as it may be for you to believe, I don’t want this. I prefer to devour my prey from the inside out, and this—” he indicated our surroundings with a sweeping gesture— “is not the way to accomplish that.”

“Wh-what?” I tried to ignore the burning as he aimed a cold, steely glare at me. His eyes showed absolutely no emotion, while I was panicking about where I was and what I was seeing.

“Now that the damned elf-woman is out of the way, you are alone in being able to prevent this. Personally, I’d have it no other way. But this is the fault of your dear friend Merrick, and you’re the one who gave him the power to do it,” he snarled angrily, his eyes glowing a deeper red.

“What are you talking about? What happened here?” I demanded His words made no sense to me, and my confusion seemed to irritate him even more.

“Let me spell it out for you!” Again he slapped a hand over my eyes and removed it.

I now found myself standing down the road from where I’d met Leliana in the mountains. I could see the two guards standing at the entrance and archers along the walls, as before. It was snowing lightly, and my feet immediately went from burning to freezing.

“Pay attention to everything that happens here.” The demon pointed down the road behind me.

I turned just in time to see a huge horde of Drow running up the road, right at us. I reached for my dagger only to find that it wasn’t on me. I had set it on the shelf when I went to bed, and the demon had brought me here without it. I watched in despair as the Drow ran up to us, roaring and growling—and then ran right past us, as if they didn’t see us.

“What are they doing?” I turned around and watched them go up the road and attack the guards at the gate and the archers on the wall. Some Drow climbed up the stone wall, faster than I would have thought they could, while others began to ram the large wooden gate. Alarms were going off in the city and I began to hear people’s screams mixed in with the screeches and roaring of the Drow.

“Look down the road, you fool! This event has passed—you can’t be part of it twice! And the attack was no coincidence, contrary to what you’ve believed all this time!” The demon jerked me around roughly until I was once more facing down the road, away from the city.

A figure with snow-white hair and glowing red eyes was walking up the road toward us. He wore black leather armor that looked as though it was made out of charred human skins, and the studs in it were made from what appeared to be bones. He wore a hooded cloak, as black as my dagger’s blade. As the figure drew closer I could clearly see who it was. I was looking at Merrick.

“Impossible,” I whispered to myself.

“Understand now?” My demon still sounded irritated.

“How? How is this possible? He died during the ritual,” I said in amazement. Everything in me told me not to believe this was real, and yet here I was looking directly at him. I began to wonder if this was some kind of trick my demon was playing on me; after all, I had seen Merrick’s lifeless body years ago. I’d buried him myself, with my own hands, so he wouldn’t be left to rot on top of a pile of bones.

Merrick stopped right in front of us and looked straight at me with impossible accuracy. It appeared he, at least, could see me just fine. “I’m coming for you, Alucard. No matter where you go or where you try to hide, I will find you,” he said coldly. He walked past me as I stood there trembling, with my mouth agape.

“This is not a trick, Alucard!” my demon said viciously. “Unlike you, Merrick embraced the demon within himself. He didn’t really die, he merely merged with his demon in the spirit realm. You refused me, so you remain half-human, but make no mistake: I will take you someday!” He scowled after Merrick. “Something needs to be done about him. He has gained the powers of a demon; I resent humans commanding power that isn’t theirs!”

“What is it you think I can do?” I watched as Merrick observed the horde of Drow assaulting the city. I didn’t see him later that day, nor could I find any trace of him having ever been there; but if what I was seeing now was true, I knew why that was. Somehow he had gathered all these Drow under his leadership and brought them here to attack the city. He wanted to see if they could do it, and he got his answer; they did a huge amount of damage throughout the place, killing many of the people within. The only reason some people made it safely to the shelter was because I had stood outside it and stopped the Drow from entering.

“Demons can sense each other no matter where they are in the world. The only reason you haven’t seen him yet is that he is biding his time and building a mass of Drow so large that they will destroy anything in their path. He is trying to learn how to control a power that only be destroyed by what we demons call the dark fire. No creature of our world or yours has been able to control it for centuries.” He grabbed me roughly and jerked me around to look him in the eyes. “You’ll have to decide what to do about him, but I tell you now, fool, you’ll have to choose. Either you give up your humanity completely and become a demon—give me control—or resist me and see your world destroyed.”

“I’ll never give you any kind of control.” I glared at him, pushing my forehead against his. “You’ve already taken too much from me. You won’t get anything else!”

My demon growled at me as if he wanted to take a bite out of my face, as he stood there pressing his head back against mine. “Then he will become the first to control the dark flame, and he will scorch the lands, as you saw before!”

Before I could say anything else a fist abruptly slammed into my face! Everything got fuzzy and began to spin, and I felt myself falling. Just as I was about to hit the ground, I suddenly found myself back in bed, face-down. My head hurt like never before, and for the first time in a long time I was scared about what might happen next. My life seemed to be one tragedy after another—first Merrick’s death, then that of Leliana. Who was next—the entire world? Great, I thought to myself as I sat on the edge of the bed and touched my feet to the hard wooden floor. More shit I didn’t want.

What could I do but try? I had no more idea if my demon was just messing with me now than I had at any other time. He had never shown me anything quite like this before, though, and he’d never bothered to manifest himself physically, either. He must have been desperate indeed to get his message across if he was willing to appear before me like that. Now I just had to decide if I wanted to do what he asked, or continue on my own path. I had intended to go so far as to cross the sea to make sure Leliana wouldn’t find me, but that was no longer a problem.

I started to think about what had happened with Leliana in the spirit realm, and my heart ached as a fresh wave of sorrow came over me. I had let her down just like I had Merrick; she was dead because of me, and the Dryad had probably been killed, too. While I wasn’t so worried about Melic, it didn’t help to know my recent actions had caused so much harm. Whatever had killed Leli, I knew I could have made a huge difference in the outcome if I’d just been there. And I could really have used her support; if only I hadn’t left her, she would be here with me right now.

A warm tear rolled down my cheek. I tried to control myself, but this time I was unable to stop. I fell off the bed onto my hands and knees and cried like a child over the loss of Leliana, sobbing my heart out in that small, crowded room. I pressed my forehead against the wall and tried to calm myself, but the pain of what I had lost was too great to bear. I was no longer even sure why I’d left her. I had intended to protect her, I thought, but how had I accomplished that if she’d died?

You’re getting on my last nerve, human! my demon shouted from within my head. All you do is sob “Poor Merrick, poor Leliana,” as if that stupid girl or fool boy were worth anything to begin with. Apparently he was back to being his usual cruel self; it certainly hadn’t taken him long.

“You know I love Leli. Just because she died doesn’t change the way I feel, you bastard.” I was choking on my own tears as I cursed.

You poor baby, you. What do you want, sympathy? That stupid girl was a distraction to you anyway, nothing more than a weakness, he snarled.

“It’s none of your business who I care for. You’re only interested in yourself!” I shouted at him, slowly regaining control of myself and growing angry with him. His cruelty often made me so furious that if he’d been standing in front of me I could happily have choked the life out of him. Unfortunately, he’d only ever appeared to me once in all the time he’d been within me, and I hadn’t thought of it then. Not that it would have been a good idea to attempt it, in any case. He was a monster, and I was still only human.

My demon began to laugh insanely at the thought of me still being human; the sound of it in my head made cold shivers run down my spine. You’re not listening. You’ll have to give up that humanity you cling to so tightly or you will die, along with the rest of your pathetic race.

“Shut up, monster! More can come from humanity than you know. Your remorseless attitude hasn’t done you any good that I can see.” I was growing increasingly irritated with him. I began to wonder if that was what he wanted from me, to get angry enough that he could attempt to take control again.

What if I told you I would give you control of my power without reservation? Was he still taunting me? What if I gave you my powers and surrendered control solely to you?

“Why would you do that? Why should I trust anything you say?” I stood up, no longer gripped in despair but in anger. I knew my demon was trying to influence my feelings, and I couldn’t help hating him; he made it so easy.

What if I told you I would leave you alone forever, make you a true and pure demon with all of my powers?

“That’s rot. You’d never do that without some kind of unbelievable price that only an idiot would consider paying,” I snapped.

All it would cost is your emotion. I’d want you to be as heartless as I am, so you could use the power I give you effectively in whatever path you might walk. I’d enjoy the show. He was still taunting me.

“Go kiss a Drow. Leave me alone!” I clenched my fists tightly. He wanted me to ask for it, to beg for his power, and I knew it; yet I found myself strangely drawn to the idea. What would it be like—to feel nothing ever again, sorrow and despair gone forever? I would no longer need to regret what had happened to Merrick or Leliana, or anyone else I met.

My reply was pure bravado, but I tried hard to sound like I meant it. “You’re so full of yourself, I’m surprised I haven’t burst yet from that ego of yours.”

I’ll give you until the end of today to decide what you want, human—to be pathetic until you die, or to be worth something and live forever. Don’t forget what I told you about Merrick. Then he went silent.

I took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out slowly. I reached for my dagger and strapped it onto my waist, the way I always did, as I pondered what the demon had said. I walked over to the door and placed my hand on it, then hesitated. If I was going to do as he asked, I would have to find a way to track Merrick if he really was alive. I had no idea how to do that, although my demon had said something about other demons being able to sense each other. But that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. Then it came to me: I could try to find a mage hunter someplace; maybe one of them could track Merrick, since he was using magic.

Wrong answer, human. They only track human energy, they can’t sense demons—and your dear friend is a full-blooded demon now. He grumbled in my head as though he was annoyed that I wasn’t going for the idea of becoming a demon. I knew he would push hard for it, if it was something he truly wanted.

I needed to get out of that stifling room and decide what I was going to do—even get out of the city, perhaps. Maybe I could remember how to get to the castle of the magi. It wasn’t a place I ever wanted to return to, but perhaps I would be able to obtain some assistance there. Although if Argus was still there, chances were I wouldn’t get any help voluntarily. I would need to be prepared for anything that could possibly go wrong.

I turned the doorknob and went out so quickly that I bumped into a beautiful young woman carrying a tray of empty mugs. She crashed to the floor amid a scattering of broken crockery. I helped her up and handed her the tray, quickly picking up the broken pieces of mug for her.

“Sorry, miss,” I apologized, and I headed out of the small tavern.

Outside the street was crowded, as you would expect of a city market, but the crowds made it easy for me to move around unnoticed. People hustled along the streets past carts and stands with vendors standing behind them hawking goods, everything from food to fine jewelry. Guards suited in chainmail armor walked by occasionally, taking anything they desired, and the poor vendors stood by helplessly and allowed their pilfering. This sort of behavior was just one of many things I hated about cities, especially human cities. The rich and the nobles cared only for themselves, not the people in their care, and the poor were left to starve. The guards who were meant to keep order and protect the townsfolk took advantage of whomever they wanted, stealing from people who were trying to make a living.

I walked quietly into the crowd and headed towards the city entrance as quickly as I could. I wasn’t sure exactly how to find the mage castle again; for now, I just wanted out of the city. This place made me want to do the most horrible things. People were being hanged in the town square for stealing bread to feed their families; the guards even announced their “crimes” that way. Somebody had a hand cut off for having been caught stealing from a cart. The city had more barbarism in it than a herd of Drow tormenting their prey before they killed it to eat it.

In the midst of the chaos I noticed somebody walking carefully among the milling crowd. She looked familiar, in a way, yet I didn’t think I knew her. The woman wore low-cut pants of sorts, deep purple, that stopped at her knees. The strange thing about them was that in the back, longer pieces of cloth extended downward, ending at her ankles. These were slightly wider than her legs and had light blue ivy vines running up the middle. It looked almost like something of elven make, and I found myself even more certain of this when I saw the shirt; it was a little on the short side, revealing her bellybutton. It had no sleeves and was closely fitted around her breasts, with more ivy vines outlining them perfectly. I half expected her to walk up and swat me across the face for noticing, if not outright staring.

Her hair was long, a golden blonde, and her skin was similar in shade to mine, which made me even more curious about her—until my demon chimed in.

What are you doing, you idiot? She’s probably dressed like that deliberately, to draw the attention of fools like you! For all you know she’s a harpy of some kind, a siren set to knife you in a back alley!

“The only one who’d do that to me is you,” I retorted, and he screeched angrily in my head, the noise distracting me from the woman altogether. He kept it up, as loudly as he could, in an effort to deter me from looking at her again, amost as if he knew something I didn’t. I hadn’t even seen her face yet, but the effort he was putting into turning me away told me he was hiding something.

The woman turned to me suddenly and I knew right away why the demon was making such a fuss about me looking at her. When I saw her face I was stunned. The demon stopped his screeching and resorted to cursing angrily.

“Melic,” I mumbled. I watched her from a distance. She hadn’t seen me yet, and as I stared at her a faint hope gripped my heart. I didn’t see anyone with her. Was Leli here too?

Why is Melic here? I wondered. Of all the people I could have run into in a place like this, she was the last one I would have expected. As far as I knew, she loved the forest and the wilderness; why on earth would she come here to the city—to buy clothes? I ran my eyes over what she was wearing once more, taking particular note of the vines running along the garment at her breasts.

What are you doing? Snap out of it, you idiot! I berated myself for staring, although it was hard not to; she looked much better cleaned up and in what she wore now than in her original rags or the clothes Leli and I had given her. Then I shook myself. Melic was not Leli. If my love had meant something to Leliana when she was alive, then it was wrong, in so many ways, to look with lustful eyes at the last person she would have wanted me to be interested in.

Once I was thinking properly again, it seemed Melic still hadn’t noticed me over here. Before she did, I needed to and leave the city. The only other way out that I could think of was via the docks. It would be such a nuisance to have to swim around the wall, but Melic stood between me and the city’s only gate. Of course, I could always try going through the alleys between houses to get around her, or I could climb up the side of a house and travel by rooftop. But if I did that, I would run the risk of being seen by a guard, and if they saw me traveling in such an unorthodox manner they would be justified in assuming I was a burglar.

I began to walk down the street in the opposite direction from Melic, hoping she wouldn’t see me, trying to think of a way around her.

Sneak up behind her and slit her throat, if she bothers you so much, my demon growled.

“Not with this many witnesses,” I hissed at him. “Besides, being a bitch isn’t a crime worth killing her for.”

It seemed a little ridiculous to be avoiding her like this, performing such childish antics as finding an alternate route around her. However, Melic was likely to blurt out something about my demon, and in a crowded place such as the market district, that was one of the worst things that could happen. It would draw everyone’s attention, and in a very negative way. Even though chances were I could fight my way out, I ran a huge risk of being lost to the demon if I did, and I’d end up killing innocent people.

I like that idea. You could even grab a few to eat later.

“Shut up, you sick bastard.” But then I stopped—something had just occurred to me. My demon was making a huge fuss over me looking at the woman, but he had to have known I would avoid her when I realized it was Melic.

“You didn’t think it was Melic, did you?” I asked him quietly as people passed me in the street without even looking up to see me apparently talking to myself. “You thought it was somebody else, somebody who would keep me from accepting your little proposal.” I clenched my fists angrily. I wondered if Leliana was really dead or if the demon just wanted me to believe she was so I wouldn’t consider looking for her—or rejoining her, if she’d let me. I doubted that she would easily forget that I’d walked out on her, and my good intentions wouldn’t change the fact that I’d hurt her.

I turned around and started down the street towards where I’d seen Melic, in hopes of finding her again before she disappeared in the hustle and bustle of the market. My demon remained silent, which for him meant he was hiding something. Chances were he knew something I didn’t and was hoping I wouldn’t find Melic again, or that I would give up trying. Unfortunately for him, she was still looking around among the carts, seemingly fascinated by all the jewelry on display.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I watched her for a moment before approaching her. Her head followed the man at the cart, turning this way and that as he moved the gems to show her how they caught the light. I considered purchasing one just so I could wave it in front of her face to shut her up the next time she started complaining about something. As I drew closer, her attention wandered from the gems and she turned her head slightly in my direction.

“Melic!” I called out to her in as friendly a manner as I could, considering I didn’t really like her much. As soon as I called her name she took off running down the street, swerving gracefully between people.

I chased after her as quickly as I could, but I wasn’t able to avoid people half as easily as Melic managed for somebody who, as far as I knew, had never been in a city before. I kept running into people even as I tried to avoid them, dodging one and bumping into another. She was getting further and further ahead of me; clearly I was getting nowhere.

Try these on for size, human—just one of the benefits of being a demon. My demon cackled as a pair of wings burst out of my back, much like when Leliana made her appear.

“What the hell?” I shouted. I looked over the long black feathers on the seemingly too-short wings he had given me. I realized this was his way of tempting me still more to accept his offer, but even so, the wings were amazing. I could understand why Leliana enjoyed hers so much, and I hadn’t even flown yet.

Of course, now that I had everyone’s attention and they were screaming and diving out of my way, I might want to take off before one of the guards got hold of me.

“How do I take off?” I shouted, panicking a little.

“Halt, monster! You’re under arrest!” several guards shouted.

I needed to get off the ground before the nearest of them delayed me long enough for the others to catch up. I highly doubted I would be given anything more than a swift execution, and I was rapidly getting over the thrill of having wings.

Flap them, you idiot! Focus—when you’re flapping hard enough, you’ll lift off! the demon snarled.

If only it was that easy. I concentrated on trying to flap my wings, and they gave a weak little flutter. I cheered loudly, and they began to flap harder and harder until my feet were actually lifting up off the ground. As I slowly began to climb, no longer using anything but the wings to move, I couldn’t help enjoying the sensation. I felt like a bird soaring through the air as the people below stared in amazement. I wasn’t even bothered, at the moment, that I’d lost sight of Melic. For once I was just enjoying myself, not worrying about anything above or below me.

Think of that enjoyment when you consider my offer later, human! My demon was laughing at me again, but I was too busy enjoying myself to care.

I went up over the city wall and headed out into the open grassland, circling around and rising higher. Then I leaned forward and went into a dive, pulling up suddenly to halt my downward progress at tree-top level. I was getting the hang of flying, learning to change directions, and having a lot of fun doing it. It was an amazing feeling to fly through the air so freely; I felt like I’d left all my burdens on the ground.

Then I heard another set of wings behind me, flapping out of synch with mine. I turned my head to look back and accidentally turned at too sharp an angle, causing myself to fly around in a circle. Luckily it worked out, and now I was behind the other person. Their wings were long and beautiful and looked rather familiar; the clothes matched what Melic was wearing, only these were dark blue with teal vines. The pants had full leggings, too, that went all the way to the ankles and weren’t as form-fitting on this person. The top had no sleeves and the flyer’s arms were a grayish shade, similar to someone I had seen before.

“Alucard, since when do you have wings?” a woman’s voice called. The flyer hung back until she was gliding right next to me as we both slowly sank downward.

“LELIANA!” I shouted. I was so happy that she was all right, and that she had the dagger I’d left for her and the sheath I’d given her in the spirit realm. She was here now, flying with me, alive.

“Alucard, look out!” Leli pulled up sharply and pointed anxiously in front of me, and I gazed at her in bemusement, not really paying attention to what she said.

What is she so upset about all of a sudden? Am I sprouting horns or something? I thought in giddy amusement. I continued to glide forward, patting my head in a cursory check for anything odd. Nothing there—what is she so worried about? Are my eyes turning colors again?

“Alucard! TREE!” she shouted. I looked ahead of me only to see full, leafy branches—just before I flew into them and blacked out.