Flames scorched the earth as he made his way through the corpse filled village. His eyes burned with an energy that reflected the fire that surrounded him, licking at his body. A grin distorted an otherwise handsome face and his long brown hair was spiked outward like dagger points.
Off to one side, in a building where the roof had just collapsed to release a billow of black smoke, his pointed ears picked up the groans of pain and the agonal breath of someone near death.
The attacker’s body blurred as he moved to the source. It wasn’t like he had run faster than the eye, the motion was more that he disappeared from one spot and appeared in the other in a blink, but looked as though he hadn’t taken a step.
He looked down at the body laying at his feet. It was that of a young man, barely out of his teens and his white hair was plastered with red from a wound that was bleeding freely from his neck. The artery must have been severed although the windpipe was left intact.
The man smiled, this one could still talk. “Where is she?” he asked, his voice dead of emotion and as cutting as the blade of a sword.
The figure on the floor tried to laugh, but was sent into a coughing fit instead. “Gone, somewhere even you can’t reach her, demon.”
The grin returned to his face and the wounded villager rose from the ground under his gaze by some unseen force. His victim struggled in his invisible grip, writhing in pain as something wrapped around him and crushed.
Suddenly, something niggled at the edge of the attacker’s senses and he turned to look towards it, focusing on the source of the energy. “Ahh,” he said. “So that’s where you are.” He closed his hand and motioned as if throwing something away and his captive screamed momentarily before his body suddenly seemed to explode as limbs were wrenched in all directions.
The ‘Demon’ absently wiped the blood that had splattered onto his bare chest, smearing it across the markings that were in the form of a phoenix rising, wings outspread and looked burned into his flesh.
Next moment the scenery around him blurred and shimmered and suddenly he was in a wooded enclosure. Wind whipped around him with such force that it bent the trees away from a central point, however the demon stood there unperturbed as he watched a young girl step into the centre of a portal. To her waist was strapped his sword. “NO!” he roared and took a step.
The portal suddenly closed and the girl and his sword was gone. Only thing that remained was a figure standing before him, a woman that gave off contrasting auras. He presumed that she was the one that summoned the portal.
The woman looked over her shoulder, fear etched into her features and made to run away but stopped before her second step touched the ground. She, like the villager before her, rose into the air, she kicked against the unseen force to no avail as her feet left the floor, rendering her completely helpless.
She turned slowly and began to drift towards him, her eyes bulging as her hands clawed at whatever held her by the neck.
“I’d stop if I were you,” her attacker said, the smile that greeted her was cruel. “It’s pointless. Besides, you can’t get away and you won’t die until I say you can die…” he peered closer and seemed to be looking inside her more than at her. “But then, you already know about that… don’t you?”
His captive, kicked a few more times and then stopped panting. “You’ll get nothing from me, Jouveno” she said.
The Demon’s smile spread back into a grin. “Oh, but I will. So where has she gone Rinali? Tell me, and you’ll die… quickly. Force me to rip it from you… well.”
Rinali suddenly screamed as something burned within her and her form shifted to that of Seilin, who grimaced and buried the pain, her expression defiant. “You’ll never get to her.”
“Ah, but I will.” Jouveno laughed and focused his mind on the body he had in his grasp, forcing himself into her head, overpowering her will.
Seilin gasped and shuddered as she tried to repulse the intrusion.
“Change,” said Mai as she joined in Seilin’s defence. “Keep changing, don’t let him settle on one mind.”
Jouveno’s eyes widened as his assault was beaten back as the form in his clutches shimmered within his confines, alternating through the three personalities so quickly that he couldn’t lock onto any one mind. Each time he felt the strand of a thought, it slipped away again, frustrating him.
“Enough of this,” he said, and extended his other arm, hand outspread. Flames erupted at her feet and suddenly the figures stopped shifting and settled once more on Rinali who cried out in pain.
“Rinali, focus,” cried Seilin, but it was no use. The pain was too great and it overrode everything else. Jouveno laughed at her pain and bent the strength of his will upon her, focusing in on her memories and thoughts while dissecting and separating the other personalities away from her.
He saw her preparations, the creation of the portal. A shadowy figure that had accompanied the girl, a bodyguard of sorts. It mattered not to Jouveno and then the method of creating the portal filtered to the surface.
“Ah, clever girl,” he said patronisingly. “I never would have thought to do it like that… merging a Netherealm and Void portal. Interesting. I’m surprised that the Great One allowed it.”
He released his grip on Rinali’s mind who slumped, defeated and exhausted. The form then shimmered into Seilin who glared at Jouveno. “You won’t get away with this! He won’t let you near her!”
“What, that guardian?” Jouveno laughed. “He can’t stop me, no one can. Don’t you see, she’s the key to all of this.”
Seilin’s eyes widened.
“Her death, will begin everything.” Jouveno continued. “It will release him from his cage and allow him to begin anew and none of it would have been possible without your help, so thank you, really.” He laughed hard and Seilin’s expression paled. The laugh then abruptly stopped and the flames intensified and covered Seilin’s body who set her teeth and tried to resist, but it was no use.
The flames grew hotter and hotter, burning a fierce white and finally, the pain was too much and she screamed and the other spirits joined her as the fire claimed her body. Jouveno watched, fascinated as the woman slowly burned away before him, the screams becoming more and more hoarse until, finally, they fell silent and the fire burned itself out leaving nothing but ash that drifted to the grass.
“Interesting,” Jouveno muttered. “It’s not everyday that you get to kill someone twice.” He laughed and it reverberated off the trees and every creature that heard it shuddered in fear.
400 Words A Day 