Chapter 17 - Fallen's First

The horde had forced Neyu up onto the platform in the village’s core by the time Saer and Kalia caught up with them. Thunder swelled while rain fell in a heavy mess. Each demon’s skin steamed with the water’s contact and, Saer noticed as his eyes drew to the platform…so did Ahraan’s.

Standing on the raised wood planks, a handful of villagers finished binding a seething Neyu with sinew to a post.

Ahraan stood next to her, a knife in his hand.

Leaving Kalia behind, Saer shoved the villagers standing between him and the stage out of his way, pulling himself up onto the waist-high platform.

Neyu stood bound to the post at the waist, thighs, and ankles. Her captors tugged her elbows behind her lower back and tied them as well. She’d ceased her struggles, but the unease and umbrage in her deep blue eyes pierced with quiet strength.

Saer’s eyes flicked to the blade in Ahraan’s hand before raising to the man’s face. He spoke low despite the hammering of his heart between his ears. “Her fate is decided then?”

Rather than answering, Ahraan raised the cruel blade high in the air—a curved thing with a bone handle, the metal part glinting with intermittent flashes of lightning. The villagers met his gesture with a resounding cheer. Ahraan lowered his arm and addressed Saer. “I believe they’ve made their desires abundantly clear.”

His lip curled. “Is this part of the Grandfather’s love you preach so often?”

Ahraan shook his head as he stepped before Neyu’s bound body. “This is part of justice—and my mission to eradicate your evil.”

Saer lunged as the gold-eyed man spun.

Neyu’s high-pitched cry cut off at its apex as a metallic flash crossed her throat while Saer’s sharp scream of denial buried itself in the sound. The heavy fall of rain and burning thunder cradled their despair.

“What have you done?” Saer howled, the dismayed shock in his voice rising on the last word.

Blood dripped off the silver edge of Ahraan’s knife, echoing the rain’s cadence.

Saer’s hand curled under Neyu’s lolling head, fingers supporting her jawline. He hadn’t been prepared to witness her pain, her blood, her limp body.

She’s okay. Neyu is okay. She’ll be fine.

Blood ran thick and free down her front as well as Saer’s fingers and forearms while his mouth ran dry. The wound poured like lava, scarlet and steaming. Neyu’s body spasmed against her bonds, though she made no sound while the crowd watched on, aghast and hushed.

Hold on, Dearest.

Saer lowered Neyu’s chin to her motionless chest. She was acting, wasn’t she?

Hold on...

“This world is full of consequences, cousin.” Ahraan’s voice pushed through another thunderclap.

Saer’s voice rumbled between gritted teeth, anxiety melting into ire. “Don’t call me that.”

A sad, resigned smile pulled on Ahraan’s mouth.

Susurrations rose from the crowd.

Neyu’s body hung limp. The flow of her blood slowed, rain washing it down her body in sickening, crimson trails. She didn’t breathe.

She’ll be fine.

Saer swallowed hard. “How dare you?” Pride growled, then raised his infuriated voice to be heard by the mob. “How dare all of you!”

“Cousin—”

Saer whirled on Ahraan. “We are not family. You say there are consequences in this world? Of that I’ve little doubt.” He stepped against Neyu and held her head high by the chin so the slice in her throat would be openly displayed. His own hands and lower arms remained stained with her blood. “As consequences exist, I demand payment for this.”

Saer pointed his free hand at Ahraan. “From you.” He swept his hand towards the crowd. “From everyone!”

The mob shifted as Saer lowered Neyu’s head with care. Curling some of her ebony hair behind her ear, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against its auricle, whispering, “Soon, Dearest.”

The demoness’s body didn’t stir. A steady wash of rainwater poured off her frame, thin streams dripping off the ends of her black hair.

Taking a step back, Saer shut his eyes and stretched a single hand into the thunderous atmosphere.

Lightning struck adjacent to the platform. The crowd gasped and screamed.

Calling upon the phenomenal heat of the bolt, Saer pulled.

The next thunderclap struck Saer’s outstretched hand, drawn to his instinctual tug, its crack deafening. The overpowering heat froze Pride as he absorbed it, screaming behind clenched teeth, vitality thrumming under his skin.

Cries and gasps rose from the spectators, but Saer’s growling voice overpowered them. “Now, Neyu.”

Neyu’s body stiffened, and her head snapped up, drawing gasps and shrieks from the crowd. Her neck seeped blood, her lips blue with cold. Lightning bolts from the sky reflected in her eyes, swallowed in dilated pupils. Rain extinguished the last of the torches, blanketing her sinuous body in an atmosphere as black as pitch.

Pandemonium ensued.

Men and women screamed. Neyu opened her dusky lips and wheezed, the sound gurgling from her mouth and the open flay of her throat. Taking the heat he’d stolen from the lightning, Saer pointed his hand palm-first towards her and channeled it in a fiery blaze. Neyu’s head snapped back further, and the clean slice of her neck knit shut as if it never existed. The metallic tresses framing her face lengthened and solidified in a sweep above her head.

The fire from Saer’s palm extinguished and he collapsed on his hands and knees, all the heat he’d gained from the lightning expelled to revitalize his love. Even weakened by the loss, he regretted none of it. But without the blaze…

Darkness.

Neyu’s hiss filled the void as it slid into an impossible, guttural sound. Wood splintered. Flashes of lightning highlighted her writhing form as it growled, shattering the pillar to which she’d been bound. Wind blew, but her hair didn’t flail as the locks had been replaced by sinister horns. Her ivory skin darkened between one flare of light and the next.

The night painted her, making her its own.

Saer spoke over the rain and thunder. “Strike them down, Neyu.”

Men and women at the edges of the crowd took their first steps to flee before hearing the great ebony creature make an unmistakably dissenting sound. She turned her head towards Saer, the cords of her neck stretching, and made grating noises in a language none of the humans understood. In the flashes of lightning, Lust was sublime.

“They haven’t earned a second chance,” Saer spat out, scowling as he stumbled to his feet.

Neyu spoke again. Her monstrous form stood over five feet taller than her beloved.

A few in the mob whispered nervously to one another. One touched Kalia’s arm. “What is she saying?”

“She...she is willing to forgive you all…” More in the crowd turned towards Kalia, encouraging her to speak louder. “If you all promise your paths and spirits to our ways, to follow us at the passing of your human lives in order to become gods.”

Good, Kaliaspher.

“Kalia, hush.” Saer snarled and turned to her. “They aren’t worthy!”

“They didn’t know, Saer!” Kalia protested. “They were blinded.”

There came a hushed pause before Sloth continued, more to herself than anyone else, “…where is Ahraan?”

Rain fell.

Thunder echoed.

An explosion of splintering wood sent Saer flying away in a graceless tumble as an immense, golden maw snapped shut on Neyu’s lower leg and part of her left wing. She howled into the blackness between lightning strikes. Screams rose. The crowd fought to disperse.

Kalia raised her arms and poured fiery energy into the splintered planks, exactly as Saer had done earlier for Neyu, then fell to a knee. The conflagration held strong enough through the relentless downpour so all could see what happened, even Saer who landed at the edge of the stage in a heap.

A golden, scaled beast faced Neyu, twice her height with gouged, bleeding claw marks across its reptilian face. Ebony slits contracted in the center of its saffron-gilded irises, flashing with murderous intent. Elegant bone-colored horns matched the lines of its majestic face, curling back from its forehead. Only the beast’s forelimbs and head with a long, spiked neck were illuminated by the blaze, the rest of it a mystery.

Saer gave his head a hard shake. He blinked once. Twice.

He’d had them.

…What in all the Hells was Ahraan?

Neyu favored one hoof, her same-sided wing tattered and partially limp. Her right hand’s silver nails were covered in blood, and she roared at the beast.

The villagers would only understand one part of the shout. “—Ahraan!”

Half had already run to find cover. Others cowered and clung to one another, shielding as best as they could.

The towering golden beast replied in the same rich language, only the demons able to comprehend. “You’ve stolen your last soul.”

Neyu’s bark of laughter made their spectators shudder. “This is the Grandfather’s champion? Ahraan,” Neyu announced his name again, as clear as possible so the humans would hear and understand. “You’re no match for me.”

Saer’s heart swelled with admiration for his love, her ferocity, and cunning.

Kalia recovered enough to lift herself, shouting in a voice which trembled with weariness, “He means to kill you all! He says he meant it from the start.” Gasps and angry cries rose from all around. “She swears to him she’ll fight to protect you all until she can no longer breathe!”

It was more cleverness than Saer would have given Kalia credit for a day prior.

Ahraan’s head snapped towards Kalia, but Neyu’s good wing jerked down and thrust him away with its clawed end, leaving another shallow gash on his forehead. “Did you ever suspect it would be as such, Ahraan? You the monster, and we the saviors?”

The crowd cheered to the confidence in Neyu’s voice. Some picked up broken bits of wood and stones to throw at the golden creature.

“They’ll know the truth once you are dead,” Ahraan growled.

“Then destroy me as you’ve sworn to do!”

Neyu...

Ahraan moved swifter than Saer anticipated for a creature so large. The beast feinted with another bite, then swiped with his enormous, clawed foreleg, slashing Neyu away from the flames she drew strength from. As the creature moved, more of its body became visible—broad wings upon his back and a tail decorated with wicked ivory spikes all the way to its tip.

Ahraan roared to match the thunder. Neyu snarled in return, and claws and teeth met with a brutality only the black of night could mask. The immolated stage blinded, the combatants darting amidst glares and shadows of flame and lightning. In one burst, Neyu clung to Ahraan’s winged back, clawing and ripping with nails and talons. In another, she lay crushed under his hindleg as his long neck swooped around to bite.

No!

Saer stumbled towards the remaining fire, calling Kalia’s name. Taking her hand, he dragged her into the blaze. Their soaked clothing steamed and hissed in the conflagration.

The tendrils of flame poured into the demons as if their skin drank it, until all light disappeared, save that from the storm. Saer called upon his given form, flesh ripping as wings burst from his back and bloodlust coated his tongue. Kalia followed suit.

Their roars joined the battle.

In his given form, Saer stood twice the height and bulk of the average man, but no contest in weight against the golden beast. Saer’s wings took him to nose-height with Ahraan. When the golden head swung around, Saer’s arm hooked between the beast’s horns, locking himself in position to kick at its nostrils and eyes. His body was as large as the monster’s head.

Neyu’s damaged wing forced her to stay low, making the occasional attempted rip across Ahraan’s belly with her nails and teeth, though the powerful armored scales kept her from dealing any significant damage.

One of Ahraan’s heavy wings caught Neyu under it. Kalia’s claws ripped along the thick, leather membrane of the appendage, drawing fresh blood. Ahraan bellowed and swiped his head at the smallest demoness, catching her arm in his fangs, then jerked his head in the opposite direction.

As Saer’s silver hoof kicked his eyelid, Ahraan flapped his wings and jerked with a snarl, releasing Kalia from his mouth. Ahraan whipped his tail around and slashed the pointed spikes across Saer’s lower back.

Neyu dug her nails into Ahraan’s side and climbed upward, along the golden beast’s ribcage as Saer’s howl of rage and pain reverberated through the atmosphere. Kalia clung to the edge of Ahraan’s wing and tore into the vulnerable membrane with her claws and maw, even as Ahraan slammed her over and over into the ground, covering her in dust and blood. Sloth screeched, and with an outward thrust of Ahraan’s wing, she was thrown off. She tumbled and fell in a broken mass a few yards away, bleeding, crushed, and still.

Saer planted his hooves at the widest points on Ahraan’s nose and gripped the monster’s gleaming horns with his claws. Desperate to find another way to fight the towering monstrosity, he reached metaphysically, hunting for a thread of Ahraan’s own pride to push or pull against, something to control which wasn’t sheer size or raw muscle.

The sin emanated in wisps and flashes, elusive and immune to his innate power, exactly as Neyu had told him.

Roaring his frustration in Ahraan’s face, the beast answered with a cry of his own. Ahraan shook his head side to side.

Saer held on, and through the third jerk of Ahraan’s head, he leapt and pulled down with all his might, using the monster’s momentum and size against him. Ahraan’s skull crashed into the wet ground, splashing rainwater, mud, and blood.

Saer and Neyu struck—Neyu for Ahraan’s throat, and Saer for his eye.

Neyu plunged her nails where the beast’s scales changed from fewer, wide, and flat on the back to more numerous and rounder at his belly. Raking her razor-tipped digits through the weakened ridge, she flayed the side of the monster’s neck open, exposing pink flesh and tissue.

In the same moment, Saer’s clawed hand dove into Ahraan’s left eye. Wrist deep, he pulled his fist out, clenched around a mess of blood and gelatinous fluid.

Ahraan howled. He slammed his tail into the back of Saer’s legs then thrust his fore claw onto Saer’s upper right shoulder and arm, missing his chest. Saer’s collar bone, first ribs, and upper arm crunched under the weight. He screamed behind a clenched jaw, then openly when Ahraan’s teeth snapped into his opposite hip and stomach.

The pressure stopped as soon as it had begun. Ahraan choked then gasped, pulling his head back.

Saer caught glimpses of Neyu, her arm buried deep in Ahraan’s throat, wrenching with all her weight against the solid column of the beast’s windpipe. She forced her arm deeper and heaved again, screaming in blood rage, her onyx skin bathed in wet crimson.

Ahraan whipped his tail, flapped his wings, and shook his head as he tried to dislodge Neyu. She fell loose when he managed to take clumsily to the sky with one tattered wing. Flying low and deeper into the storm, the beast collapsed outside the platform.

The massive golden body illuminated between flashes of lightning as Ahraan struggled to stand. His head and neck shook and bent in panicked flails, blood pouring from his wounds. He rolled to his side in a blind mania, slamming and rubbing his head against the ground. The motions became more frantic before they slowed, and between several bursts of lightning, Ahraan’s body slumped.

It burst into spontaneous flames.

Ahraan’s body burnt to nothing well before Saer moved his head to locate Lust and Sloth.

The motionless demonesses lay not far away, sprawled without grace across the unyielding ground. Neyu’s arm lay pinned under her body at an unnatural angle, Kalia in a curled heap on her side. Saer extended his heat sense towards the two of them.

Warmth.

Not enough, but better than cold.

The traumatized crowd stirred as rain and thunder ebbed. Cautious footsteps approached the Daemoenica in the wet dark. Saer forced his crippled body into his pale, human form. Exhausted and near delirium, he moved his hand to touch the edge of one of the humans’ feet as they drew closer.

“Fire.” It was all Saer could bring himself to say before weariness took him into its patient arms.