Retro Heliographs

Triskaideka Part 4 of 4

"Fly away?" A harsh grating voice mocked. "But I have a big surprise for the birthday boy." A creature leaped down through the hole in the ceiling. It was human once, but the body was so disfigured it resembled a gnarled tree. Possession did terrible things to the human body.

"You said the boy was mine, I can't wait to drink his sweet blood." A girl's voice sang out.

Then you'll die, Aureus mused. Angel's blood was poisonous to demons, it would be like drinking sunlight. Unless...

He flung his arm in front of Solar, blocking the arrow with his aura energy. Another poison arrow? Aureus thought as he incinerated it. The effort had cost Aureus a great deal of aura energy. If the arrow had hit Solar, it would have shattered the boy's aura, leaving him as vulnerable as a human before he died. Did these monsters really think Aureus would sit back and let them make a meal of his only grandson?

Why were dark forces so interested in Solar? First, something had attacked him and his mother. Then a blood drinker went after him when he was a toddler. Someone had shot one of those demon blood arrows at him barely a year before. Aureus didn't believe the rumors surrounding Solar. There was a legend that the first angel, the silver sovereign, would be reborn. Reborn in the fire to be exact. That was the only part of translated ancient texts anyone agreed on.

It was possible the gloaming believed Solar was a threat. Just as all angels were bound so were all creatures of darkness. Some angels believed the gloaming to be a sentient being residing in the dark dimension. Aureus saw some truth to that, all the parasite demons always worked to the same goal. Destroying light energy until they could summon an Umbra, an elder demon.

There had been one near incursion of an Umbra since the Obscura wars. It took dozens of high angels to put the beast down before it could fully awaken and release its poison. Even Umbras were vulnerable to sunlight and angel fire. There was a dark mist surrounding the creatures, which gave them some protection from the sun. Once the Umbra gained enough power the mist became clouds that covered the sky and blocked out the sun. Most angels would die within minutes of being under that cloud. Death was better than what the toxin did to humans and animals. Aureus had seen the images of 'survivors' of Umbra toxin. It made the two monsters in front of him seem charming in comparison.

These two were no Umbras, but parasite demons still had the same end goal. They would kill and kill until they had enough power to summon an Umbra. They would have to get through him first.

"Ew. I don't want to drink your blood old man!" The vampire girl screamed. She was only a few years older than Solar. He recognized her from the town around the castle. He had truly failed the humans under his care. He should have asked for help from other angels. Two possessions under his watch. He would die and be reborn with shame. But first, he would kill these monsters.

"Go now Solar!" He shouted at his grandson. Solar stood tall beside his grandfather. He wasn't going anywhere. Or so he thought. Before he could blink, he was pushed out of the dining hall. The doors slammed shut in front of him. Solar was about to blast the door open when he heard a scream.

"Get away from us you freaks!" A servant came running around the corner with a child on her back. What was chasing them?

There were flesh eaters here as well. Aureus thought in the back of his head. Three different classes of demons all in one place. Solar could handle the flesh-eaters (zombies were what humans called them). The blood drinker was a problem, but he was more concerned with the devourer.

They were the most dangerous outside of original demons. They could consume a human body and soul, thereby increasing their power. Theoretically, a devourer's power could increase endlessly as long as it could feed. This one had devoured at least a hundred humans. He could have killed it easily enough in his prime, but he was no longer in his prime.