Heroes can fall in more ways than one.
Demigod Xaray is sent on a quest to kill after he massacred a whole town. Weakened by the strain, he falls prey to a haughty vampire and is cared for by a fellow prisoner, the nagi Vasa. Torn between his orders...
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Today was the kind of day that Zaheria hated. Being assigned to Dudros duty was bad enough, but of course it had to be one of those days that the nightmare spirits had schemed a great escape from the Underworld. She huffed in frustration when one of the little devils flew towards her as fast as its leathery wings could carry it. As the grey form flew past her, her hand closed around its claw, yanking it back.
It screeched in indignation as she threw it to the ground, pinning the spirit under her metal boot to keep it from escaping. She glared at it, her dark gaze boring into its bright yellow eyes. "No. You're not getting away and you know it."
"You can tell them that all you want, but the little bastards are never going to listen." Keswar wiped the sweat that had appeared on his brow despite the cold that always seemed to cling to the Fields of Jucros. Zaheria was getting warmer than she'd like from swatting the critters out of the sky as well.
Zaheria grabbed the spirit from under her foot, her thick gloves keeping its claws from digging into her skin. She threw it back into the cave where it came from, adding some magical force behind her throw to make it fly a lot farther than it liked. Her black wings shifted in agitation as she watched it go. "Maybe if their father was awake, he could get some sense into them."
A loud snore rumbled out of the cave, and Keswar scoffed at the sound. "The world will have to end before that guy wakes up. Dudros might even be lazier than Bleadal." He grunted as he swatted another escaping little nightmare out of the sky and threw it back into the Cave of Dreams.
"No kidding... I'll be so glad when today is over. Gem duty in the Crystalline Forest is much better. By Ablait's fangs, I'd even take collecting lost souls over this." Zaheria paused to stare down another spirit that was crawling along the cave ceiling, trying to blend in with the stone. It noticed her and bared its sharp fangs, charging forward.
She took off her glove and raised her hand towards it, letting energy flow through her arm. Paralyzing magic burst from her palm. When it hit the spirit's grey hide, it went limp, falling to the floor. It tried to fight the magic, but all it managed to do was twitch. Zaheria shook her head at it, gaze already on the next spirit.
Her eyes closed on their own accord as a wave energy raced through her, making her take a step back. Where normally it was only a few dozen souls per second, hundreds of souls were now passing on to the Realm of Spirits, the force making her tremble. She could feel each one breach the barrier between realms, the sensation overwhelming her.
Mentally, she tried to keep count of the number of souls. The number quickly went into the thousands. By the time the surge stopped, she was breathing hard, kneeling on the ground. The sound of Keswar's equally hard breathing mixed with that of the quick wingbeats of the nightmare spirits.
"Brother, what... What was that?" Zaheria asked, struggling to catch her breath.
"Natural disaster? A god going too far?" He shrugged before trying to get back to his feet. The last escaping spirits screeched overhead, their laughter filling Zaheria's ears as they flew by the two demigods. She ignored them, more worried about what the cause of the influx of souls was than some mortals having a few bad nights.
