Shades

Shades

Nolestia looked silently out the window in her bedchamber, her extravagant black silken nightgown hanging delicately from her pale shoulders.  Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the barren stretch of wasteland between her kingdom and the bordering one.  Harsh thunder rattled the windows, causing the sorceress to sigh heavily.  Things had grown too quiet since her return home.  The neighbouring kingdoms seemed almost reluctant to so much as set a toe in her lands.  She was grateful for that fact.  The winds, however, carried with them and air of unrest, an air of something that had been building and would soon arrive.

There was an echoing thump against her chamber door, followed by a second one.  "Enter," she called, lightly pulling her nightgown shut.  The heavy wooden door soundlessly swung inward and a goblin carrying a roll of parchment in his filthy hands entered the chamber.  He looked around, eyeing the various trophies the sorceress had gathered over the years.  "What is it?"  the sorceress snapped, startling the goblin.
"King of east territory wants meeting, told me "deliver this," the goblin responded, handing the parchment to his queen.  The chaos chaser snatched it from him, glaring at him with glowing ruby orbs.
"Leave," she hissed, watching the goblin dart off.  Her bed chamber door slammed heavily behind him, the hardware rattling against its mountings.  Nolestia broke the wax seal and began reading.  The letter was written in a tongue she could only assume belonged to some kind of lizardfolk.  She'd never travelled to the east as she'd never had reason to, however, now it seemed that she would indeed need to in order to attend the meeting its leader was proposing.

She wadded up the parchment then set flame to it before discarding it on the stone floor of her bed chamber.  It burned to ash, smouldering on the dark gray stone, soon turning to a char mark.  The sorceress stepped into her closet, which appeared to contain a portal to another realm entirely.  Stepping through the portal wearing her nightgown and bedclothes, she emerged from the portal wearing the extravagant black gown she normally wore.  It was closed over her chest, shielding it from unwanted views and it was darker than shadow itself, making her pale skin and lightly glowing ruby orbs stand out.

Soundlessly, she walked from her bedchamber and into the throne room.  It was empty except for a single orange fireball hovering in the middle of room.  A scowl formed on Nolestia's flawless lips.  "Who are you…?"  she hissed acidly, feeling the dark aura radiating from it.  The flame slowly took the shape of a man.  Soon, the blaze died, revealing a demon with skin grey as slate and spines the colour of obsidian jutting from its back and shoulders.  His bright orange-red eyes glowed fiercely in the dim light of the throne room, making no effort to hide malevolence behind them.  The chaos chaser recoiled immediately, throwing up a powerful barrier spell.  "Get out!"  she screeched, watching a shark-toothed smile cross the demon's face.

"And if I refuse?"  he asked, his mouth not moving.  Nolestia shuddered, she had known for many years this day would come, but had not anticipated it so soon.  A circle of power formed at the woman's feet, radiating outward, taking on a deep onyx colour; almost disappearing into the flagstones of the throne room's floor.  "Your magic doesn't work on me... remember?"  The colour drained from Nolestia's face and she instead took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before opening her mouth.

"HOLLOW!!!"  the sorceress shrieked, watching a smile cross the demon's as his gaze slid around the throne room.  "You will soon pay… grimore…"  The demon laughed and folded his arms across his wide chest.  The muscles looked as though they'd been chiseled from stone and didn't move when his forearms came into contact with them.
"You honestly think The Soul has any power over me?"  he asked, his spines quivering when an intensely dark aura began to near him, growing darker and more powerful as it approached.

The sorceress smiled darkly and increased the power of her barrier.  A dark shape soon filled the window and what at first appeared to be a giant bat carrying a scythe crashed through the window, showering Nolestia and the grimore with broken glass.  It screeched like a giant bat and bared its fangs.  Hollow was holding her scythe so tightly her knuckles turned white.  Her blood red armour glinted deep violet in the dim sapphire torchlight of the throne room, appearing to be living as the light played across its worn surface.

"Mother, what's wrong!?"  Hollow asked, looking from the sorceress, who was cowering behind a powerful barrier to the slate-coloured demon standing in the middle of the room.  She folded her wings and stood up straight carefully brushing her long, snowy hair out of her face, her blood red eyes narrowing as she watched the demon.
"Mother?  So then…"  The grimore began laughing, causing both mother and daughter to stare at him.  There was a long pause before anyone spoke.  The savage winds of the Realm of Nothing inundated the throne room, causing the heavy burgundy drapery to flutter slightly, breaking the silence.
"Who the hell are you!?"  the half-demon snarled, her voice powerful and commanding.  The demon looked at her up and down before giving her a shark-toothed grin.
"Your father," the demon responded, causing Hollow's eyes to grow wide and her wings to splay widely.

"You filthy bastard!!!"  she screeched, baring her fangs and drawing her scythe back before springing forward.  She swung hard with her heavy scythe, the large weapon clove through the air, ringing against the grimore's spines, the blade notching instantly.  The slate-coloured demon swung with his tail, the heavy appendage catching the half-demon in her stomach, shattering her breast plate, scattering fragments of blood-red metal all over the floor.  Hollow held her stomach with her right hand, her left gripping the shaft of her scythe, trying desperately to support her winded body.
"You couldn't possibly be my daughter… you're too weak…" the demon growled, swatting the half-demon aside as he advanced on Nolestia.  Hollow tumbled sideways, her limp body crumpling into a heap against the wall.  Bolts of darkness sailed out from behind the sorceress's shield, striking the demon's chest and stomach, deflecting uselessly every time.

Nolestia had never spoken of Hollow's father other than a brief mention of him every now and then, explaining what a horrible demon he was.  He'd raped Nolestia and left her with Hollow.  Despite the girl's origins, the sorceress loved her daughter dearly enough to attempt to defend her as best she could.  Grimores were what some would call the ultimate demon.  They were immune to most forms of magic and this skin was like armour of the hardest alloy, very few weapons were capable of actually penetrating it.  However, as powerful as grimores were, they had one fatal weakness, a weakness that was exploited every time someone wished to hunt them.

Hollow sat up slowly, her battered body aching in every way she could conceive of, and a few that she couldn't fathom no matter how hard she tried.  The half-demon growled feebly as she forced herself to stand.  She had several broken rips and both her lungs were bruised.  She drew her scythe back and threw it, the heavy weapon sailing through the air and colliding with the grimore's back in a flash of sparks before clattering away uselessly.  The demon looked over his shoulder at her and laughed softly before returning his attention to the sorceress who was cowering on the floor.

"You'll never get away with this!"  she screamed, watching her daughter trying to get to her feet.  Nolestia knew her daughter would need to recover for at least a day to be fully active again.  That was far too much time they simply didn't have.  She threw one last spell, forcing herself to her feet before dodging away from the demon as he made a lunge, colliding with the wall, causing the brickwork to crack.  It would need to be replaced at a later date, but right now wasn't the time to think of such things.

"RUN!"  Nolestia yelled, dashing out onto the balcony through which her daughter had entered.  Bringing her fingers to her mouth, she whistled sharply, causing a high-pitched and shrill sound to echo across the courtyard.  Hollow dragged herself across the floor, her virtually ruined upper body hindering her movement greatly.  She'd been forced back to her human form because her demon form was simply too much burden on her.  The now frail, blond-haired girl knelt at her mother's side, tears caused by the pain in her chest slowly making their way down her face.

Down in the aerie, a black shadow creature struggled against its handlers as they tried to keep it contained within its pen.  Finally tired of its goblinoid handlers, it leaned forward and snapped one of them up, devouring it in several quick snaps of its powerful jaws.  The other goblins moved away, fearing the same fate.  The creature took off at a run, spreading its large, webbed wings as it made a swan-dive off the end of the aerie's runway, roaring loudly.  It pulled up and flew toward the direction the shrill whistle had come from.

The demon laughed darkly and stalked toward the sorceress and their injured daughter.  "Whatever trick you're trying to pull won't work on me… no matter what…" he growled, watching the pair cower away from him.  The demon laughed softly but his red-orange eyes grew wide when the shadow creature approached, slamming into the balcony then kicking off the building, taking his two passengers with him.

The demon gave chase, making a running dive off the edge of the balcony before transforming into a flying beast of sorts with spines jutting from all the wrong places and webbed wings too large to simply be used for flight.  He continued after them, Nolestia trying desperately to heal what injuries on her daughter she could.  "Do not worry, daughter… we will escape this…" she murmured, watching her large pet make a turn and fly out over the open wasteland surrounding her castle.  "If only Rhyas were here…" she muttered, looking back at the large beast approaching quickly from behind.

"Shoujin!  Faster!"  she ordered, feeling her pet flap his wings harder and faster in response.  The beast was still out-pacing them, however.  He was simply too powerful, too swift on Nothing's raging winds.  "Shoujin!"  Nolestia cried, feeling the demon collide with them.  The shadow creature bellowed in pain, his entire right wing had been severed and he spiraled out of control down to the ground.  The half-demon girl was launched from her mother's grip, landing amongst a stand of dead trees.

Shoujin's crash-landing threw Nolestia far away from her pet, causing her to flip, tumble, and roll to a stop against a large rock, blood slowly dripping down her face, making her hair into long, sticky, raven-black spikes.  She rose slowly to her feet, feeling a gash in her side send intense pain through her body.  Dropping to all-fours, she coughed blood, watching it drip from her mouth and pool on the ground under her.  Gravel crunched nearby and she looked up slowly, her vision still blurry.

"H… Hollow?"  she asked before a foot collided with her injured side, throwing her sideways.
"It would have been easier if you'd just submitted back at the castle…" the demon said.

As Nolestia's vision cleared, she saw Shoujin laying still on the ground, a large pool of blood near him from his severed wing.  Several broken branches had punctured his body in various places, tearing the webbing of his remaining wing and disabling him further.  She knew he wasn't dead, just hurt badly.  That, however, was unacceptable for the sorceress.

Slowly, she rose to her feet, wavering unsteadily before feeling darkness consume her.  "You still have fight in you?"  the demon asked with a smirk.  A new circle of power, one black as obsidian, radiated outward a few feet from her before a column of blackness, arcs of onyx lightning crackling and arcing around it, shot skyward.  The demon's orange-red eyes grew wide.

Her power intensified, growing strong enough to rival that of the demon himself.  When the column disappeared finally, Nolestia stood defiant before him, large demonic wings folded against her back.  Her beautiful raven-black hair had turned silver and her finger nails had grown into razor sharp claws.  Her eyes opened to reveal they too were consumed with darkness, her ruby orbs glowing intensely on a black background.  She pressed her palms together and pulled them apart slowly, a blade of jagged, razor-sharp ruby-toned crystal was drawn out between them.  She gripped it with her right hand and turned a rather empty-looking gaze upon the demon.

"You will die…" she said calmly, causing the demon to laugh.  Her wings spread and she shot forward with blinding speed on a single flap, ramming the crystalline sword into his chest, through his black heart, and out his back.  Black lightning encircled the two as they struggled.  The demon attempted to claw the chaos chaser's back apart, but she twisted her sword, making him cry out in pain using his vocal chords.
"You filthy…" he never finished his words, his black soul finally dissolving after it was overwhelmed with magic from within.  She forced his heavy corpse away, withdrawing her sword and decapitating his corpse with it.

A pillar of fire erupted from the ground not far away, causing the sorceress to whirl around; facing what she thought was a new threat.  An angel with a faceless helmet and chains of fire wrapping his heavy tower shield stood not far away.  Wings of fire jutted from his back and a large broadsword that seemed to glow with fire was gripped in his right hand.  His silver and crimson armour glinted slightly in the light cast by Nolestia's sword.  The Soul, Nothing's equivalent of The Reaper, a being of both holiness and darkness at the same time.

"Why did you come sooner!?"  she yelled at The Soul, watching him approach wordlessly.  "Answer me!"  she screeched.
"Only you were capable of killing him."  The Soul continued on his path, inverting his sword and ramming the tip into the demon's body, absorbing what remained of his soul before the flames from his blade incinerated the corpse.  "Your daughter and your pet still live.  Return to your sanctuary, chaos chaser."
"Wait!"  Nolestia screamed, watching The Soul disappear in a pillar of flame before turning first to Shoujin, her beloved pet.  She'd raised him from an egg, and now he was mortally wounded.  She wondered if he would ever fly again.  Hollow, her dear daughter, lay unconscious under the branches of a stand of dead trees.  As far as the sorceress knew, her daughter was immortal.  She smiled and allowed the intense power she'd summoned to kill the demon to surge away, leaving her as she normally was, a slightly frail spell-caster with the ability to crush to anyone with a simple pulse of magic.

Her daughter would take months to recover from her injuries… and Shoujin… she did not know… she certainly hoped he wouldn't die and even more so that he would be able to fly in the future.  "Shoujin… please survive…" she whispered, cradling his head in her arms.