Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Demoria ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Dark was the night, as was he, and as was the scenery surrounding him—the black marble looked like liquid shadow, the flickering shadows of the candlelight its servants waiting to do its bidding, and he was the patient Umbrena waiting in the back of the nook for some unsuspecting, pathetic human to come walking through and for him to pounce upon. Fortunately for any humans, and for him, there was no way they could reach this place. To do so would mean a suicidal act, most likely trying to do something daredevil or dangerous or otherwise stupid, and nowadays, as he'd noted in the human world, humans didn't much entertain the thought of death. Unless, of course, something was very wrong with them, but he hadn't seen too many necromaniacs or suicidal people up in the mundane realm.

 

Suddenly, as he sat there with his eyes closed, meditating, he heard a soft interruption of the silence of the darkness. The interruption broke the silence like a ripple breaks the smooth surface of water—small at first, and then it began to grow increasingly annoying. The sound was a voice coming from the next room, and from what he could tell, it was female, and the female didn't sound particularly happy. When the sound didn't go away, he opened his yellow eyes, sighed once in aggravation, and rubbed his temple as he got up to go into the next room.

 

When he reached the door, the next thing he heard shortly after the angered woman's voice was an equally angry roar of a familiar demon that was supposed to be keeping the prisoners in check by tormenting them in one way or another. The female, he knew, was supposed to be out scouting for any signs of unusual activity, especially activity of the rebels or anything else out of place, and for a moment, he had to wonder just what they were doing up here in his tower so late in the night. The answer became clear when he walked into the room as another angry roar sounded.

 

"Damnit, Lillith! Must you keep that piece of wretched technology on your person every damned place you go?!" The older demon snarled viciously as the young demoness glared at him from where she had retreated into the nearest corner, and she held what appeared to be some sort of electronic device in her petite "clawed" hands. She sniffed lightly at her superior's anger, the little bat wings adorning her arms fluttering slightly in agitation at the other demon's question.

 

"Yes, for your information, Asmodeus! I must indeed carry it around!" Lillith said angrily as the wings on her back fluttered and flared out, as though attempting to make her look larger to the much more vicious embodiment of wrath like animals in the wild do in defense. "I never know when Cal might call, or when I might need to call him!"

 

Asmodeus snarled in agitation. "Is that all your naïve mind ever thinks about? Calling your would-be boyfriend? If it weren't for his current position, I'd say a few choice words about him, but I don't think our king would be very appreciative of me picking on his 'precious little daughter.' But, if I may add, I think I recall a time when—"

 

Lillith was about to shriek something horrendously rude when there was a sudden shout of "ENOUGH!" to the side of both arguing demons. At once, they both hushed and snapped to attention, looking in the direction from which the voice had come from, and they both gasped as they looked saw the demon that they hadn't noticed come in earlier. Almost immediately, there was an array of stuttered apologies—one would start and then was quickly ended by an apathetic glare, then another would start and would quickly end the same way. The process repeated itself until both demons were left scrambling for words to try and ease the punishment they may receive from their elder brother.

 

When all was once again silent, and it had been that way for a few moments, the eldest of the three demons said in a calm, cool manner, "Now, Lillith, Asmodeus, do you mind explaining to me just what in the nine hells you are both doing up here in my quarters, of all places, arguing over a ridiculous cell phone issue?"

 

Now was the appropriate time to apologize. "Deepest apologies, Astaroth," Asmodeus said with a bow of his head. "We came up here to discuss matters of a certain interest with you, and well, ah, Lilith always insists on taking her cell phone everywhere. I noticed it when we got here, and it . . . agitated me a little."

 

Before Lilith could input any remark about Asmodeus' sugar-coating of the situation, Astaroth said, "So I noticed. With that question answered, may I inquire as to why you came up to my quarters at four in the morning just to discuss whatever this issue is with me?"

 

Silence. Awkward silence. Like that silence where you can hear the crickets chirping in the distance, only there weren't any crickets to chirp in this particular area of the realm. The eldest of the three sighed, rubbing his temple when he got no response from either of his subordinates, and he said with a touch of cool irritation in his voice, "So you mean to tell me that you have no reason for coming up here this late at night, when the three of us should be asleep?"

 

"Actually. . . ." Lillith began slowly. "We kind of do. I happened to still be up when I received a call from one of our spies up in the human realm through my cell phone. They think they might've found out something that could either spell our downfall or our victory, depending on if what they found is what they think it is."

 

The demon prince looked at her with almost what appeared to be a look of surprise at this information, but any outward signs of any emotion were gone just as quickly as they had been visible. "What is it that this spy found?" Astaroth said coolly.

 

Lillith was quiet for a moment, then she said in a soft voice, "They think they might've found the Portal."

 

Silence ensued for another moment, in which all three demons contemplated this information. The Portal—it was a link between their realm and the human realm that allowed living people and demons to transverse freely between both realms back when humans and demons got along. That was before a new belief—Christianity—was introduced, which then corrupted the minds of humans into thinking demons were evil, and essentially did make the demons evil, since creatures such as demons only take the form and personalities of what humans imagine them to be as. When the demons became evil (or most did; some didn't fall to the corruption of humans' imaginations), the emperor of the Ethereal Plane ordered the Portal be closed to lessen the risk to human lives. But even so, demons and their comrades have always found a way around such boundaries. But with the limits on their powers, opening the Portal was a near necessity for their purposes.

 

"He's certain he's found the Portal?" Astaroth said after a bit of contemplation, his yellow eyes looking directly into Lillith's own ruby ones.

 

"She's almost certain she's found it, but she can't be quite positive without the help of a higher-ranking demon," Lillith said, "which you know what will happen if one of us goes up there on any night other than All Hallow's Eve."

 

There was a nervous exchange of glances, and Asmodeus said with a shake of his head, "Just like King Lucifer. . . . We simply can't go up there. It's suicide until we open the Portal!"

 

"Right," the eldest demon said. "Now, you said that finding the Portal may or may not be helpful to us. Why would there be problems in utilizing it?"

 

"Because," Asmodeus began, "according to Lillith and her spy, someone's already gotten to the portal before us, and has started working it. We don't know who it is yet, but we figure it's the rebels going up to the human world to look for signs of the Sanctus. How they've managed to work the Portal, though, is completely beyond us. . . ."

 

"I see," the elder demon said, his brow creasing in worry and thought as he contemplated this new information. After another moment of silence, he said, "Personally, I don't see how the rebels could manage to open the Portal, but perhaps they are far more intelligent than we give them credit for. If that is the case, then they must be dealt with immediately. We cannot let them win this war!"

 

There were two nods of acknowledgement at Astaroth's words, and then, as everything fell silent again, both Lillith and Asmodeus bid their elder brother goodnight and departed from the tower. Once they were gone, Astaroth headed back into his room with the intention to begin meditating again, but now that he had all this information from his siblings, there was really too much on his mind to really try and meditate. So, instead he just sat there and brooded in the silent darkness of his room. There was just so much to think about, it really would've been easier for him to go to bed, but with all the information running around in his mind, he found it difficult to fall asleep in his favorite chair. The thing that bugged him most was what Lillith had told him about the rebels possibly utilizing the Portal—was it really possible? He knew them to be intelligent, yes, and their leader was a fabled fallen warmonger with quite an adept mind for solving puzzles. But opening the Portal was no child's task to do. Hell, even their King Lucifer had tried it once, and he had ended up getting blasted in the face with a bolt of holy magic as a result! Just something about the rebels opening the Portal didn't sound right. . . .

 

I guess I'll have to think about it more in the morning—it's about time I went to bed, Astaroth thought as he got up out of his chair to lay down in his bed instead. He pulled the soft covers up around him to his neck, laying his head against the feather-down pillows as he closed his eyes, but sleep still would not be granted so easily to him. There was one thought still running around in his mind, and that was the possibility that the Sanctus might have something to do with the Portal. . . .

 

He grit his teeth together. No, impossible. The Sanctus probably doesn't have any idea of the Portal's existence! Now go. To. Sleep.

 

After what seemed like hours, he finally fell asleep.