In the Land of Gods & Monsters: Ch. 2

Chapter 2

“He’ll be here soon! Quick, bring it!”

“No, let’s kill him. He’s only one; we are many!”

The chaotic village was a chorus of gasps as a large whoosh of air was heard overhead. A small blonde haired girl of fourteen looked up at the sky as a sharp gust of air blew through her wispy bangs. She smiled as she caught sight of a black shadow flying quickly past the moon. She wasn’t sure if it was the cool night air or the sight of their impending visitor that made her skin prickle, but she knew which was causing her heart skip a beat. She giggled to herself and turned her attention back to the activity on the ground, grabbing a large wheel of cheese before running toward the center of the commotion.

In the pitch-black cover of night lit only by the sliver of moon overhead, dozens of humans were scrambling to set up a long, crudely-made wooden dining table in the middle of their village square. “Just… just do it. Don’t anger him.”

With the placement of one candle, a variety of wines, meats and cheeses and large tree stumps as seating, the scene was set. “We’ve been doing this for the past thirteen nights. I just don’t understand. And I also don’t get why she’s always so damn excited for this…” mumbled one villager as he disappeared back into the shadows.

The little blonde girl was the only occupant at the table that could have sat twenty people or more. Sitting in the first seat in the far corner she bounced up and down and hummed happily to herself. As strong wind blew past she began clumsily pouring a glass of red apple wine for her guest.

When she looked up and slid the glass across the unfinished wooden surface, she was welcomed to the sight of a gargantuan horned creature sitting in the seat across from her. Long, pointed black claws reached out and briefly made contact with the young girl’s tiny fingers before touching the base of the glass and sliding it the rest of the way toward himself. Seated in the only proper seat with armrests at their modest setup, Zagan leaned his head casually on his free hand and watched his wine slosh from side to side as he swirled it.

With a heavy sigh the demon’s long, narrow, flame-red eyes darted up to regard his dinner companion. “Clara Hilyard. Why is it always you? I ask for a cute, amusing girl and I get you…”

Clara simply laughed and reached for the cheese wheel she’d brought to the table, cutting a section out for each of them and serving it. Zagan had already begun tearing into his steak with his claws and looked at the yellow block of dairy that had just landed on his plate with disdain. He hated cheese; he only demanded it because this girl seemed to love it so.

The Demon Knight watched Clara eat the wretched food product with mild curiosity. He noticed she’d dressed up that evening; her white spaghetti-strap dress was cinched at the waist and peppered with fine white and gray pearl embellishments that made her practically glow in the moonlight. Blonde locks with loose curls spilled down her shoulders and back, ending just before her elbows. Everything about her, from her skin to her bright eyes, was heavenly… and yet here she was, thrilled to be in the company of the black-winged hell-creature. Zagan smirked before draining his glass of wine and sliding it back to Clara for her to happily pour another.

Frenzied whispers carries along the wind as Zagan spied two weapon-wielding villagers coming up behind him in the reflection of his empty glass. Damn it all. A detrimental mistake. He would have scented them in a couple of steps even if he hadn’t been watching them approach, but this gave him an extra half a second to close his eyes and take a deep breath. They chose pitchforks. How clever. The larger of the two men raised his tool to strike, then gasped out in pain as he shakily looked down to see a large, barbed tail pierce his heart and hover him a few inches off the ground. The other man seemed frozen in place, staring wide-eyed and gaping at the sight. Red eyes settled back on the girl, angled downward and filled with disappointment. “Oh, Clara… I guess this village has to go, too.”

Zagan roared out into the night and attacked. In minutes and with barely a scratch on him, the Demon Knight slayed every screaming man, woman and child in the village and piled them on top of the long table… spare his little dinner partner.

He stood atop the pile of lifeless bodies with Clara, wings flared and studying her sad, angelic face. He wondered what she looked so upset about; that he’d just slaughtered everyone in her village, or that these were their last moments together? Somehow, he assumed it was the latter. Strange girl...

“I’m sorry, demon,” the slight, young creature whispered, her voice almost inaudible as she hung her head in shame. “They weren’t ready. I accept the punishment.”

Zagan’s long black claws wrapped around Clara’s waist and palmed the small of her back to pull her close. He dipped her slightly, committing the girl’s soft features and unwavering gaze to memory before his sharp tail quickly came up and punctured her through the chest. With the demon’s eyes still trained on her face, Clara let out a small squeak. Her eyelashes practically fused together as tears welled up in her eyes just before he saw the life leave her. He held onto her like that for a moment more before straightening up and letting out another loud, booming roar toward the Heavens.

As if that was the cue for a challenge, a golden, burning stream of light burst from the sky and hurdled toward the ground, briefly blinding the demon from atop his throne of carnage as the angelic asteroid hit the earth quick and hard, yet gracefully. The light faded to reveal a small, golden-winged angel, kneeling on the ground just a short distance away from the bloodied table with her eyes closed as if preparing herself. Coriel’s auburn hair fell over her shoulders as the Erelim, no taller than the dead girl Zagan now held, stood and regarded the scene with a neutral expression.

Oh, this will be fun, the demon thought. It was the perfect way to distract him from the uncharacteristic and rather frustrating sense of mourning for his weak little human. “My, my, Erelim,” he said dryly. “Haven’t the Heavens run out of your pathetic kind yet?” They must have, he thought. Where are the rest of her little honeybees?

Coriel was wondering the same thing as her eyes scanned down his body, the blonde in his arms, and the mound of corpses beneath him before traveling back up again. Zagan looked even more menacing than she’d heard. The Demon Knight was huge; nearly twice as wide as she was and nearly double her height; even taller counting the two enormous horns protruding from his jet-black hair. Two more horns about half the size of those grew out just above his long, pointed ears, so conspicuous that they almost looked like a third set of horns themselves. His lips were pulled into a tight, thin smirk on his long face. He wore a simple black loincloth and dark wraps that went halfway down his thighs, leaving none of his delicious form to the imagination: strong, broad shoulders with black, swirling markings. Pure, devilish muscle; every dip and groove in his body was purposeful and showed off his hard, toned, almost Godly form. His bare upper arms gave way to black fur beginning halfway down his forearms and exposed long, pointed black claws. Just below the knees bare skin transitioned to more black fur, and instead of feet he had enormous hooves. His dark wings, larger than Coriel’s, were leathery like a bat’s and decorated with four pointy spikes at their arches. They looked like they were made of bone. Perhaps they were.

While she waited for her squad to fall in around her, she stalled. “The Council informed me that Dellview has been your favorite town,” Coriel said matter-of-factly. Without showing it, Zagan was surprised that such a mousey-looking angel carried herself and spoke with such confidence. Her gaze traveled to Clara again. “And she… something of a pet to you. Yet you killed her using your own poison…” Her voice was sad, as if explaining to a young boy that taking his pet fish out of the water was the reason why it suffocated. She sighed, reaching behind her back to unsheathe her invisible blade— that wasn’t there. An expression of shock crossed the angel’s face for a fraction of a second as she cursed herself for her own stupidity. She’d never been without her blade since her creation, but she should have remembered that Pahaliah had confiscated it. Weaponless and without my fighters… She fought back the panic growing in her chest and kept her stance and expression as even as she could. Where are all of you?!

Knowing something was amiss with the angel, Zagan smirked in amusement as his tail whipped from side to side and slapped against the bodies beneath him. From atop his corporeal mountain with his wings spread he appeared impossibly large and deadly. Humans, demons and angels alike feared this creature and he would show the little angel his power. He would crush her just as he’d crushed countless other Erelim… but maybe after having a little fun with her first.

As Coriel’s eyes furiously scanned the area for a weapon, Zagan’s eyes scanned her. He drank in her delicate curves, full breasts, pink lips and shining wings. Yes, a little fun first. “Clara was my pet, yes, though too young for my taste. I would have liked to let her age before taking her as my own.” He hesitated for just a moment before dropkicking the body of the deceased blonde and sending her rolling down his mountain. “You, however, are just right.” He kept his eyes trained on the Erelim before him, refusing to watch the body fall.

Too focused on the careless disposal of the girl, Coriel didn’t hear his last words. She couldn’t suppress the gasp that escaped her as she took a step back and covered her mouth with her hand. She watched Clara’s body spiral carelessly downward to join the others that had fallen off the table and hung at odd angles over the stumps on the ground. The small angel had the most beautiful surprised look of sheer horror that Zagan had ever seen… and oh, how he wanted to bring out more of those expressions from her. Before she was able to collect herself, Zagan jumped from his perch and landed a few feet before her. He smirked. Horror look number two.

Laughing maniacally, the demon took a swipe at her with his massive claws. She jumped back, flaring her wings and kicking off the ground to zoom toward the pile of bodies, picking up a pitchfork she’d been eyeing in the pile as she and Zagan had spoken. She blinked away the tears in her eyes; hot, stinging tears that refused to relent as her heart broke for poor little Clara. All at once she understood why Pahaliah was so focused on the preservation of the humans from these wretched beings.

And then it hit her: suddenly, she knew why no other angels came to join her in this fight. She would be getting no assistance... Paha was teaching her a lesson. The Archangel must have waited until the demon slaughtered every villager in Dellview before sending the dispatch instructions to Coriel, and only Coriel, filling her in through the bond in their chest on Zagan’s affections toward Clara and his habits in the village for the past couple of weeks. Pahaliah must have expected he would kill his pet and dispose of her, showing Coriel that these beasts weren’t just fun to hack apart, but were completely incapable of love or any of the other seven heavenly virtues. Even though Zagan seemed to love Clara in his own demonic way, that’s all it was: the feeble demon equivalent of their temporary affection. No demon can ever feel love or compassion. They will always be around to angels to destroy, but they can never be virtuous. No matter how much evil has crept into their hearts, humans can always be taught kindness, humility… Virtues she also needed to work on.

Words had always been ineffective on Coriel; that much she could see and admit to herself, and she understood why her superior put her in this predicament. Pahaliah needed the Erelim to experience this important revelation first-hand and carry it forward when she was reborn. She would no longer be the rebellious angel who only cared about the number of demons she’d killed in a personal quest for glory. If she was chosen to reincarnate as an angel again, she would be a fierce warrior hyper-focused on protecting the Supreme God’s creations. Maybe then I’ll become Archangel…

Coriel knew what she had to do. With no sword or backup, death was imminent... but damned if she didn’t leave the filthy demon with at least one fewer horn or three before she left her angelic body. Gripping the rusty pitchfork as tightly as she could, she dug her golden boots into a soft corpse on the table and launched herself upward. With a high-pitched yell she spun and swooped, wings tucked tightly as she jabbed the farm tool toward Zagan’s face.

“Feisty little one, aren’t you?!” the demon shouted with glee before wrapping his tail around the handle and wrenching it from the angel’s grasp. The momentum of the tug sent her flying toward the ground and Zagan took another swipe at her, causing her to yelp as she felt her skin tear open. She hit the dirt and went rolling with her arms wrapped around her abdomen, stopping with a thunk against one of the dead humans.

“Why?!” she cried, holding her fresh wound with one arm as she scrambled to her feet with the other, using the table for support. She slipped on a leg of one of the bodies and almost fell forward again, but caught herself. The potent poison of the Demon Knight burned worse than if she’d tossed herself onto a mound of angry fire ants and Coriel grit her teeth in agony. She had to ask while she still had the chance. “Why did you kill Clara?!”

Zagan regarded the struggling angel through narrow eyes for a moment before looking away. To her absolute astonishment, she saw the demon’s gaze fall on the blonde’s rumpled body and… she could have sworn she heard him whimper. Zagan, evil personified, the creature that left beings across the three realms screaming with nightmares… whimpered.

Surely the poison is making me hear things.

“…Her village failed. She accepted the punishment. It had to be done,” the Demon Knight said finally, his voice low, gruff and laced with sadness. His claws balled into fists at his sides and his gaze, colder than ever, turned to look back at Coriel. It took everything in his power not to tear the angel apart on the spot for making him say the words aloud, but there was one thing he needed her to do before he ended her. “Erelim. Bury her for me.”

Through her fading vision, Coriel managed to stare up at the massive demon incredulously. He wanted her to… what? But demons don’t believe in burying the dead… Yet, she felt like she owed it to this innocent little girl to give her safe passage to the Lake of Souls. When a heavenly body buried a human, they were guaranteed a better life than the one they’d previously had. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the blood loss or the taint, but her breath was more labored and her head grew more hazy with each passing moment.

Clara’s lifeless blue eyes stared up at the angel as Coriel staggered a few steps toward her and fell to her knees again. She had to blink and squint to be able to focus on pulling the girl forward to lay her flat on her back and close her eyes. She placed one of the girl’s cold hands between her own in prayer and began murmuring words in a language Zagan couldn’t understand.

Zagan stood behind Coriel with his wings folded tightly around him like a large black cloak, remaining quiet as the angel spoke her incantation and felt a strange sense of relief as Clara’s body began to glow. When her work was complete, the demon tilted his head to the side and took in the blonde’s peaceful features. This look would be what Zagan would return to the Underworld with instead of the contorted, lifeless expression she’d had while strewn among the rest of the dead. She’s so beautiful like this.

The large demon turned, ready to walk away before looking back over his shoulder at Coriel. “You have my gratitude, Erelim. For this, I shall spare your life.”

Coriel was shocked. She knew ‘spared’ was indeed the correct word and not just typical demon arrogance. They both knew he could have torn her to shreds and drank her angel blood; a hot commodity among the demon world. He only claims to spare me because I’m good as dead anyway. Watching him take step after step away from her, she blinked the haze from her eyes again and took a deep, purposeful breath. “Wait…!” she forced herself to say, though her chest felt like it was on fire and she wanted the demon gone so she could die in peace. “We need to… complete the burial…”

“...We…” Zagan growled deep in his throat and spun. As he looked down at the pathetic battle angel, he supposed she was right; there was no way she would have been able to dig the grave on her own. He would have to finish what she started; leaving a blessed human corpse unburied would make it rise into a creature neither angel nor demon wanted to deal with. He watched Coriel trying to focus on his face through her half-closed eyes. Every breath hitched in her chest. Her hair clung to her, drenched on her sweaty skin.

Dirt flew everywhere as the demon tore his large claws into the earth a short distance from where Clara and Coriel lay, completing the deep grave in a matter of minutes. Fading in and out of consciousness, she watched Zagan pick up the small blonde girl, take her to the hole, kneel, and speak a few words Coriel was too tired to hear before lowering her into the ground. She half expected Zagan to turn around and throw her in there with Clara, but she watched him fill the hole and take off into the sky, leaving the dying angel without another word.

Now completely alone, Coriel rolled onto her back and winced as she looked up into the heavens. So… this is how it ends. Her meeting with Zagan had gone much differently than she’d ever thought it would. She and Diniel talked about how fun it was going to be to hack the demon up limb by limb, watch him scream and beg for mercy… but she hadn’t so much as scratched him.

Instead, she’d heard him whimper for a human girl and buried her at his request. Zagan has quite the soft spot for his pets. Too bad no one else will ever know. Chest heaving, Coriel tilted her head all the way back, arched her spine, and groaned. I’m sorry, Diniel. She coughed and closed her eyes as her whole body convulsed, tasting her own blood in her mouth before she let a peaceful darkness overtake her.

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Coriel wasn’t sure how much time had passed from when she accepted her death to when a low, commanding voice jolted her weak body awake and forced her to snap back into whatever remaining consciousness she had left.

“I told you I would spare your life. Now drink.”

Opening her eyes just enough to peek through her lashes, Coriel found herself propped up with Zagan’s smirking face above her. She realized he had one arm cradling her back and the other hovering just below her nose. The angel caught the smell of salty sage and oil and her stomach turned. She’d been warned about the power a Demon Knight’s possessed when consumed. “No. I’m… not an idiot, you filthy horner…” she insisted weakly. Still, the sweet scent of his blood filled her nostrils and it took all of her remaining strength to turn away from it, though she couldn't muster the strength to hide the temptation on her face. As she turned away, she tried focusing on the tombstone that had appeared over Clara’s grave with a demonic symbol she didn’t recognize in an attempt to distract herself from the smell.

Zagan looked amused as he watched the tiny angel try to hide her desire to drink. So delicate and oh, so stubborn. They both knew she would die without swallowing the liquid and he knew she wasn’t going to obey him… for now. The demon brought the slit he'd made in his arm up to his own mouth and sucked on it before lifting her in his hold and planting a kiss on her parted lips. He found her weak struggle almost comical as his tongue lazily brushed over hers, coating it in the thick, spicy, metallic blood and kept his mouth on hers until he felt her swallow. He laughed softly against her lips, pleased, and lowered her to the ground once he was certain she’d ingested enough. “Good girl. Now return to the Heavens. Heal, then find me.” He stood and spread his leathery black wings wide before smirking down at her, reiterating his command just as he took off into the air: “Find me, my pet.”