Chapter 1 - Lupus the Wolf-Boy
Twenty-one years ago, when he freely roamed Earth, a dark idea appeared in the vast mind of the devil. He wanted a son. I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong; not a son to be loved, or cared for; that was the job of the petty humans he killed. No, he would make a warrior that would strike fear into the hearts of the whole county, and of course, beyond. He would make a demon more powerful that Aerosus himself, the daemon-god of the sky-realm. The demon would be mortal; that was necessary. A supporter of the fiend so powerful all would join him to avoid the suffering the demon would bring. It would take time, as all great things do, but the fiend does not feel time like us mortals do. No, the devil is immortal, the biggest threat to mankind, and never ages. A mere moment to him could be a whole century to us.
So he set to work, creating the egg where the daemon-baby would soon hatch, with all the dark magic necessary. The boy would be called Fierus, the daemon-warrior of Earth, servant of the devil. The fiend conquered all challenges, including making the cave he chose look, to the commoners, look haunted. The cave was halfway up Mount Daracanus, a ten minute walk away from the temple of Aerosus, so the fiend could travel to and fro The Dark as he pleased.
The word dark would usually be an adjective. In the context I imagine you should get acquainted with later in the story, The Dark is a place where all the witches, mages, werewolves, vampires and other dark entities went after death. As for the people of the light; I cannot tell you where they go, for I have not yet died.
The devil’s rein on Earth ended suddenly, when a fighter of the dark, an Earth mage named Parakunis sent him back to The Dark, hoping to stop him from returning permanently. That was not so; the devil did not easily give up. One thing, in fact, did worry him about being sent back to The Dark; his daemon-warrior. The longer he spent in The Dark, the more likely it was for a greedy witch or commoner to find the egg and use it to gain personal power. For once, in his long life, the fiend was actually worried.
Eleven long, dark years the egg was in that cave; the baby inside it slowly growing and forming into the creature the fiend once wanted to create. Yet, it somehow seemed too human to be from an egg. They were some of the last thoughts of a miner who had lifted the baby boy out of the egg, which cracked as he was mining ore in the cave, after a large stone fell from the roof. How he died, was quite horrible. A witch, not greedy, but who still wanted power, sensed a presence which she believed to be the fiend. When she saw the miner lift the daemon-baby out of the egg, she knew what the devil had done. As soon as she realised that the devil had given her a half-brother, she killed the man holding the baby, and brought it home with her.
She trained the boy, with help from her father, in every way she could. There was just something about her half brother she didn’t understand; his muttering. Whenever she mentioned his father, he muttered angrily under his breath, sometimes swearing in The Old Tongue. Many times they communicated from between worlds; every full moon, when Alikira’s power was at its maximum capacity.
Her name, daughter of the devil, one of England’s most powerful witches, like I’ve just mentioned, was Alikira. She, in her prime, served as a faithful assassin for her father, but later retired to focus on her necromancy. Deep inside she wanted to be the assassin again, but her father had another possible suitor for that path, and another for a person of her talents.
The boy began his life as a sad, disciplined child who lived in the small hamlet at the foot of mount Daracanus. After spending his younger years in the woods talking to wolves, he began to be known as Lupus; which meant wolf-boy. He liked that name... to him, Fierus was a horrid name, and, in truth, it was a name that would send a chill down your spine.
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.
“He will suffer; and then he will die,” she murmured before ending her and her father’s chat.
Chapter 2 - The Tall Tree
Lupus walked for what felt like an eternity, through the endless woods and plains. Eventually, he needed a rest. Near a large oak tree, he sat down and sighed. Within moments he was asleep, and local scouts reported a young boy of fifteen sleeping on their ancient oak.
Parakunis was sitting on his wooden chair, under his wooden table, while working on a new spell tome for his Earth mage apprentice, Kai. Kai didn’t want to be an Earth mage, but to be offered an apprenticeship with Parakunis, defeater of the devil, was considered a great honour.
Parakunis’s son, Zander, wanted to be an Earth mage just like his father. Sadly, he inherited his mother’s mastery of magic; none. Although hopeless in the arcane arts, he was skilled with a blade, and his punch could break noses. Being no more than fourteen, he didn’t have any hope of being a soldier for another four years, and unless he somehow inherited his magic powers at a certain age, being an Earth mage was not an option.
When he heard there was a boy sleeping on the ancient oak outside his home, the ash lands, he was very intrigued.
When Lupus awoke, there were a lot of children standing around him, observing his bright green eyes and long black hair. “Stand back, foul beasts!” he cried, unsheathing Alikira’s blade. On realising they were children, and were begging for mercy, he apologized greatly. When he was distracted Zander decided it would be a good time to catch the crook. So, Zander ran at Lupus and in the blink of an eye, Zander was in a headlock with a blade at his throat.
“Another one of the fiend’s filthy assassins then, huh?” asked Lupus, angrily. One of the children, a girl of no more than five with silvery blonde hair walked out of the crowd. “That’s Zander. He’s bad at everything,” she giggled and walked back again. Lupus, now releasing Zander, began laughing.
And then Zander punched.
Lupus’s nose was bleeding and he was rubbing away the blood. “I understand you are mad, but was that really necessary?” asked Lupus, both mad and happy at the same time, half laughing; half shouting.
“YES!” cried Zander. “This is the ancient oak! They say it’s thousands of years old and it was placed by the gods themselves, upon creating the world!” Lupus was unimpressed. “If the gods made this tree upon creating this world, why is it so small and puny?” he asked, menacingly. “Get ‘im, Gropes.” Upon saying that, a chubby boy appeared behind Zander and dragged Lupus through the ash lands and to the front of Parakunis’s tree.
Zander led Lupus up the vine elevator and into his father’s study. “This is the boy who-” Before he could finish, Parakunis interrupted. “Yes, I heard; the boy who slept on the sacred ancient oak. Why do you have to interrupt me for this nonsense, Zander?”
Zander hung his head in embarrassment and walked away, and departed down the vine elevator. “Uh sir...” began Lupus. “You were the one who sent the devil back to the dark, right?” Parakunis nodded and continued with his spell tome. “Well... I’m sort of, in a way, a project of the devil that was, I suppose, cancelled, because of your intervention.” Parakunis was on his feet upon hearing what Lupus had to say. “Son of the devil?” he asked, angrily. “We don’t choose who we are born to, do we? It’s our actions that make us who we are,” Lupus said, countering Parakunis’s question. He understood, and lowered his glowing hands.
“We need to stop the devil returning to Earth,” said Parakunis, looking at Lupus. That caught him completely off guard. “He’s coming back?” Parakunis almost laughed. “Of course he’s coming back, did you think a meagre man could stop the devil?” Lupus shook his head and walked to the exit of the tree. “Perhaps, with the help of others, we can defeat him once and for all.”
Alikira was walking down a run-down path toward an old farm, hundreds of miles away from the town where she and Lupus had once called home. Well, at least she did.
At the end of the path, she took out her dagger. She preferred to use her blood-stone blade for interrogations, but Lupus took it with him when he ran away. She didn’t waste time knocking; she kicked the door down without the slightest effort.
An old man was lying on the bed, and was woken by the noise of the door crashing to the ground. He was part-bald, had a big belly, and was almost always crouched. He was called Donnell, and was a very famous man in the country. As it happens, he was not famous for being good looking or growing good crops.
“Who do ye’ think ye’ are, burstin’ in here uninvited! And breaking my bliddy door, at that!”
Alikira didn’t like insults and, getting insults from Donnell Mc Manus could not do. She through one of her knives at his shoulder, and, a moment later, collapsed onto the bed. Taking out her dagger again, she walked up to Donnell. She pointed it at his neck. “The boy stayed with you recently?” she asked, threateningly. He looked incredibly scared, and was almost crying. “What boy?” he cried, feeling the blade pierce his flesh. “Okay, okay! He came here, sheltered from the rain for a few hours and was gone in the morning. I swear, Alikira that was it!” She smiled, grimly. “Where did he go?” she said, pushing the blade deeper. “I asked, and he told me that he was getting as far away from you as he could.”
“Thank you, Donnell. For that reason, I’ll kill you quickly.” The screams could be heard for miles, and it was not a pleasant sound.