The Demonblade Chronicles : Devil-Child

  Lupus began his training with magic aged eight, and mastered fire spells faster than even Alikira when she was in training, who was one of the county’s most powerful witches. After fire spells, there were shock spells, frost spells, and as he got older, some necromancy spells, which he greatly disliked.

  Although skill with a blade, looking at dead bodies was one of Lupus’s least enjoyable moment of the day. Alikira liked to end conflicts with her blood-stone blade and a little bit of magic. Often sneaking out at night to visit the local ruins to free trapped souls, Lupus was punished severely. Alikira wanted to stop him from freeing those souls; they were hers to be used for enchanting and extremely powerful spells. Her brother was becoming soft, so she would make him hard. She burned him, and engraved fire ruins into his back, so he couldn’t sleep for days without seriously hurting his back. It was horrid, she was horrid; but she didn’t care. All she cared about was making her father happy.

  By his twelfth birthday, Lupus could defeat Alikira in battle without the slightest effort. That got to her. I’m a witch, she thought. And he’s a pathetic boy; but I am the one to lose!

  As her father knew she would, Alikira trained Lupus to become one of the county’s strongest and swiftest warriors, and a very powerful mage. The devil’s only concern was his failure at necromancy; every time he cast the reanimate corpse spell, the corpse turned to ashes. Neither of them seemed to notice Lupus did this on purpose, to free the souls.

  Finally, on his fifteenth birthday, Lupus was brought to meet his father for the first time. According to the fiend, the best place to appear to them was in The Temple of Aerosus. As Alikira lead Lupus in, he knew that what she would be showing or telling him would be important. To go into The Temple of Aerosus, without permission, in the middle of the night; and on a full moon! He stood tall beside Alikira and the devil formed. “Ah, Alikira; my beloved daughter,” began the devil, looking at his daughter, smiling. In truth, Lupus wasn’t surprised that Alikira was the daughter of the devil. The devil had shifted into the form most described him as. Being twice the size of a human, with teeth sharper than Alikira’s blade; he was extremely scary, but his red horns topped it off. His eyes glowed yellow, and his skin had a faintest glow of red coming from it. From inside the fire, the devil looked like he could kill him in the flick of a finger. “I see you’ve brought my handsome young son.”

  That was when Lupus’s jaw dropped and a surge of anger filled him. He’d always hated the devil; a born hatred, somehow. Alikira was next on the list of people he despised, and she was his half sister? Worst of all, he knew that the devil was his father. He just knew it; deep down he knew it all along, but he didn’t care. He just hated him. As his anger increased with all the dark thoughts, like his father, he started to glow; but not red. The glow was green, and a bubble started to take shape around him, zapping green lightning at everything around him. Alikira knew well that she couldn’t stop that sort of power, but she tried; and suffered the consequences. She ran toward it, and it zapped her in the left eye, permanently blinding it. She stood there, hand over her eye, as the bubble exploded and sent her into the wall of the temple, smashing the bricks. The power sent the devil away again, and Alikira was unconscious. Lupus knew then and there was his only chance to escape, and he did. He went home, and packed all his things, including Alikira’s blood-stone sword and some spell books that he thought might prove useful. By the time Alikira woke up, a day had passed and Lupus was a long way away, on the opposite end of the county.

  Alikira was incredibly angry at her ex-apprentice. She and her father had had great plans for him. All ruined. She contacted her father using the power of the souls in the local ruins and she told him about the many ways he could die. Alikira was a force to be reckoned with, and, from what she believed, Lupus didn’t stand a chance.