A Demon Born

Chapter 2

Solus barely grabbed hold of the offered hand when his soul was ripped from his body. He felt as if dragged through fire, ice and steel arrows. He imagined his skin flayed from his bones and then those very bones shattered into a million pieces. The pain was beyond enduring as he watched his own body disintegrate until the only thing left was a translucent cloud, vaguely human-shaped, floating above a mound of grey dust. He waited for even this ethereal form to be stripped from him, too.

Drawn toward the black-winged man’s open palm, Solus felt his form – his soul – compress with a feeling of tightness, like his breath was being squeezed from his body except he had no body with which to breathe. He did not have a chance to feel or think as his soul took the shape of a ball of light and he was thrown into the air. But rather than hang in the ash and smoke of his ruined city, he instead found himself in blackness. Even that was short lived, and the blackness exploded into a dark forest.

Solus stood next to an old ornate iron gate, his translucent form floated just above the mossy ground. He could hear murmuring in the darkness beyond the trees and searched for its source. It was difficult to make his way to the edge of the forest. The usual command his brain would give his body to “walk” did not seem to work in this new form since he had no real legs to walk on. After a few frustrating moments, he came to understand that if he just looked in the direction he wanted to go and thought about being there, he moved in that direction, and with quite a bit of speed.

Breaking from the trees, he discovered a large castle sitting atop a small bluff overlooking what appeared to be a mist-covered lake. He could see ghostly figures, like himself, mingling in an open courtyard near a high stone wall that stood at the edge of the bluff. At the center of this wall was a heavy wooden double gate that shimmered with a dim light of its own. A path led from the forest to the castle and Solus chose to follow it.

When he reached the courtyard, he stared out at the crowd of souls and nearly wept. He recognized some of them as people from his city. But when he rushed up to greet them, the gate doors swung open from the wall and an enormous snake emerged from it. He reeled back in horror as the snake, which turned out to be a tentacle of some nightmarish sea monster, wrapped itself around a soul and pulled it toward the wall. The soul wailed feebly until the doors slammed shut after it and could be heard no more.

“Welcome to Limbus,” the familiar voice said.

Solus spun wildly to face the being that had sent him to this place. “What is happening?”

“Beyond that wall is Minos, the gatekeeper of the Lower Realm. He judges the souls who enter and decides their fates.” The man’s eyes gazed over the mass of souls. “However, not all of them will be judged. Some of these souls were Taken not because they sinned, but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a pity for them.” He said the last part with a sigh.

“Am I to be judged, then?” Solus asked with a knot in his voice.

The man laughed. “No, of course not. You have greater things to accomplish, remember?” He stepped closer to Solus. “I can make you stronger, and isn’t that what you want? Strength to take back your wife?”

Solus grew suspicious. “Why would you do this for me?”

A glint appeared in the man’s eye as he spoke. “Ah, now see? I knew you would be the right choice. You are cunning, not at all naïve of the workings of the world. The power I can give you does have a price. Give up your soul and become a demon. And once you are Changed, you must swear loyalty to me and be my soldier. My goal is to destroy every single white-winged being, the Firsts called Guardians, and take back the realm that rightfully belongs to us. So my goal is your goal. Once the Guardians are no more, we may enter the Upper Realm and you will once more be reunited with your wife.”