Secret Unveiled: An Angel

“Aren’t you afraid for the boy?” The demon grabbed Leontina by her head with his massive, left hand and forced her to look straight at him.
“No,” she answered confidently. There were things she hadn’t foreseen, but she knew she could trust Mozuta to do what should be done.
Now, she had to deal with the demon standing before her.
She began to whisper an incantation, but the demon merely sneered, and used his club in his right hand to smash into her head and tore it off.
“I don’t need the rest anymore. The rest can always be rebuilt,” he laughed as he picked up Leontina’s head from the ground and kicked the rest of her body. He fixed his ravenous gaze on her golden eyes and licked his lips.

“I wonder what an angel tastes like?”

A wide, sinister grin spread across his face as saliva dripped from his mouth.

Leontina felt the entire world begin to tremble before her eyes.

It was a secret that had been kept for centuries.
Something that a demon had no right to speak of.

 Just as Selew had its demon inhabitants, so did Weles.

 Just as demons had servants known as chorts, to whom they lent their power, so the beings of Weles had their own servants in the world of the living.

Yet these servants differed significantly from the chorts.

Chorts were fully human and were granted a fraction of the power of the demon with whom they had struck a pact.

Soul Guides, however, were individuals whose souls had merged with those of angels from Weles.
They were both one being and two beings at once.

And this explained the shift in their nature at night.
After dark, the angelic aspect of their being took greater control.

That's why the personality change was a secret.


She had never encountered a demon so voracious.
She knew that some of them preyed on the Light Spirits.
But she would never have imagined that one of them would break the rules and seek the forbidden fruit.

The soul of a Soul Guide.

What that demon had just said was the worst thing she could possibly have heard. Those words violated the rules that had been established between Weles and Selew billions of years ago regarding their relationship and human souls.
He was craving a soul closely related to the beings of Weles.
And it was most likely his own idea. Few demons would dare attempt such madness.

“Are you really that hungry?” Despite her head being in the demon’s grasp and her body thrashing wildly in search of it, she didn’t lose faith. She couldn’t afford to. “Well, the shipments of condemned souls to Selew have unfortunately dwindled quite a bit in recent years,” she retorted boldly.
The demon laughed. “I wonder how long you’ll be able to afford to make jokes like that?”
“Oh, really? Can you actually take me back to Selew with you?” she challenged him. Demons faced many restrictions regarding their activities on Earth. They could leave Selew and return, but lacked the power to take anything back with them. That was why chorts and their contracts came into existence. They served as a workaround for these limitations, enabling the harvesting of more souls by sharing power with humans.

“And how do you think I dragged you there the first time?” he snapped, right in her face.

Indeed. He couldn't take her down there alone. Nor could he take Jawozina back to the land of the living. He needed help. The first person who came to mind was Count von Firnau. Would an undead be able to do something like that? An ordinary undead creature has even less influence than a demon like that.

However, at the back of her mind, she had a hunch that it might be someone else entirely. 
Someone, she knew in person.

Amidst the swirling clouds of smoke, footsteps could be heard.
The demon smirked and lifted Leontina’s head in the direction of the sound.
Familiar, blazing red hair emerged from the dust.
Her eyes widened at the realization. Although she had a premonition that she would see that familiar face, she was still taken aback by the sight of him.
“How?” she asked herself. Yes, Dargorad was a chort, but he was still just an ordinary human. He had no right of entry to the realm reserved for the dead. Like Mozuta in the underground palace, his body would turn transparent and he would transform into a spirit, remaining trapped there for eternity. Mozuta had endured being in that castle for longer only because he was the child of Jawozina and the Count. He was a union of the living and the dead. Dargorad was not.

This left her with one option. The worst one imaginable.

The chort looked at her with pity. His gaze was solemn and devoid of any hint of a usual mischievous smile. He approached her body, steadying it with his flames and laying it motionless on the ground.
The demon watched proudly as his servant approached them and stood in front of Leontina’ head.
Dargorad looked straight into her honey-gold eyes.
She was not prepared for what he would say.
“My name…” he took a deep breath and then said it again. “My full name is Dargorad Spira. I’m the son of the head of Spira’s family soul guides.”