Secret Unveiled: A Demon

Long, long ago, before any kingdoms had formed on Earth.
Before the boundary between the world of the living and the dead had solidified, two twin realms, Weles and Selew, existed side by side.
They were so close that conflicts frequently erupted between them over the living beings who wandered the earth.

The inhabitants of Weles required energy derived from human goodness to survive.

The inhabitants of Selew required energy derived from suffering.

The former offered eternal joy to those who came to dwell with them.
The latter offered eternal suffering.

Naturally, humans preferred the former.

Why would anyone choose to suffer?

The inhabitants of Selew began to disappear due to a lack of nourishment.
Their numbers dwindled.
As a last resort, they attacked Weles.

This sparked a battle that changed the shape of the world.

Rokita was one of the demons fighting most fiercely in this battle.

He was hungry.
Terribly hungry.

In an attempt to forget his hunger, he forged swords and axes from his own fire, using them to pierce the bodies and crush the skulls of his adversaries.
He sowed terror among both his enemies and the people suffering because of the conflict.
Yet at a certain point, the hunger became unbearable.
He spotted a young girl fleeing through the forest. Her soul was extraordinarily pure.
He could not restrain himself.
He shattered her bones with his axe and, before her soul could reach Weles, he seized it and devoured it.
But then an angel in black armour with flaming hair found him.
He wielded a black spear entwined with chains.
The only bright thing about him were his wings.

That damned angel's spear pierced Rokita through his heart.
He even dared to wear that disgusting, wide grin on his face while he did that.

It burned.

It burned. It burned.

It burned. It burned.It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned. It burned.

IT BURNED!

Rokita writhed like a worm. That pain was too much even for him.

Then, suddenly, the sky flared with light.

The two most powerful beings from those worlds declared a truce before the angel could finish off Rokita.
He was left alive.

Having witnessed the destruction this war had wrought, the denizens of Weles proposed a pact.
From then on, the worlds of the dead would be separated from the world of the living.
Souls would be sorted based on their colour.
All that was good would go to Weles.
All that was evil would go to Selew.
The rulers of both worlds agreed to this.

The angels of Weles selected human representatives to judge the spirits of the dead remaining on Earth and send them to the appropriate realm.

However, the demons of Selew did not fully trust the angels. They recruited humans to their side, bestowing upon them the title of chort. In exchange for power, these individuals delivered more souls trapped by contracts.

Neither side was permitted to interfere with the other.

Rokita was not pleased.
That burning pain.
He hadn't forgotten it.
He had been humiliated by that damned angel.

He roamed the lands, gathering chorts and snatching up souls along the way.

He looked upon every Soul Guide with loathing.
They shared something with those disgusting angels.


One day, he was in a village, trying to persuade one of the locals to become a chort. He failed, however, when some fool came running with good news.
“Lord Spira has a son! A son has been born! They say he’ll make a powerful Soul Guide!” the man shouted, grinning insufferably.

Rokita thought, “Why not?”

He would see the little one and perhaps strangle him for fun.

Early one morning, with the help of one of the chort spies he had planted in every major Soul Guide family, he snuck into the Spira's castle.
He was led to the room where the child was sleeping.
Gazing at the redheaded infant sleeping peacefully in the cradle, he reached out towards the child's throat.
Suddenly, a scale appeared and black chains shot out from it to bind his hands.

At the last moment, he broke free.
He recognized those damn black chains and that flaming hair. He gritted his teeth, seething with anger.
He knew what that human soul had merged with.
The very thing he loathed the most. The thing that once dared to hurt him.

He had to find help to revenge on it.

Then he came across a walking corpse.
“I don't want to die! All my work will go to waste. Everything I’ve gathered will be lost,” the corpse lamented.
“I don't want to die,” it repeated in a trembling voice.

Rokita offered to help it attain true immortality on the condition that it would eliminate some of those who had caused him pain in the past.
At least those that came to Earth and mixed with humans.

It turned out that the living corpse was a count who had been struggling to hold onto his lands for centuries.
Contact with a vampire had turned him into an undead creature that required blood to survive.
He sought out various victims, from innocent children to cruel villains and friendly foreigners.
Nothing worked.
Then Rokita suggested that he should father a child on the threshold between life and death.
The count followed the advice.
He allowed himself to be seduced by his maid, who bore him a son.
However, the child appeared normal.

“Relax,” the demon soothed him. “Let the child grow up. Trust me. In the meantime, I’ll suggest a few other methods, like a mass sacrifice.”
A sinister smile spread across Rokita’s face.

They conspired during the day to avoid the watchful eyes of the moon.

He was waiting for the day when the greatest number of soul guides would gather in one place.

The Count would use their lives to prolong his own.
Meanwhile, he would watch that pup, who was carrying a piece of that stinking cattle inside him, witness the death of every single member of his dear family.

The Count assembled an army of mercenaries to attack first the Ostrogski Palace and then the Spira estate. The more soul guides they killed the better.

Rokita spotted the accursed child trying to escape with a girl. He alerted one of the mercenaries, who speared the girl.

But the boy managed to escape.

Rokita tried to take revenge on the girl who had helped his prey, but when he saw that she, like the boy, was part-angel, he decided to feed on her instead. He gouged out her eyes, but something stopped him from consuming the soul of this half-human, half-angel being.
He decided to keep her for later and go after the boy instead.
He found him.
The little one was trembling.
Initially, he wanted to kill him, but then he decided that it would be more entertaining to have the boy serve him.

Perhaps if his soul became rotten, he would be able to eat and finally triumph over that wretched angel.

He exploited the boy's wish.

Right before the boy's eyes, he unleashed his demonic power, setting fire to the Spira’s castle and trapping the souls of its inhabitants within its walls for eternity.
The castle was dragged down into the underworld of Selew.
He was happy to obliterate the memories of everyone in the vicinity with his dark flames, so that no one would recall who had once resided there.
He watched with a broad grin as the boy carried the person he had sacrificed his freedom for, now resting in a coffin, into the palace to be imprisoned there.

If he wanted to blame anyone, he could only blame the angel who had chosen to merge with his soul.

…

Ten years later, the wretched corpse returned to him, weeping because the energy gathered during the previous attack had depleted.
The blood collected by his mistress wasn't enough either, despite her having signed a contract with Rokita to gain spirit powers and lure unsuspecting fools in at night.
Then, intriguing news arrived. The prophesized dragon slayer had supposedly appeared.
Rokita hit upon an idea.
"Hey, how about noble blood? When the dragon wakes up, no one will notice if a few of them drop dead from blood loss."
So they decided to give it a try.

………

It turned out that the doll had escaped from her coffin.
Enraged, he took out his anger on the chained-up spirit.

Though he ultimately set that corpse's lover free, thinking she might come in handy later.

He tried to use the spirit of some mercenary to catch that stupid doll with black hair and drag her back, but it didn't work.

Then, he was delighted to see that the stupid kid had run into her. Maybe he’d get a good show out of this after all.

He'll make that boy turn against her.

…………….

Dargorad’s eyes glowed bright blue as he went through the demon’s memories. When he had finished, he began to laugh maniacally.
“It’s good to know you hate me as much as I hate you!” he shouted.

Rokita spat in Dargorad’s face.
Without taking his icy gaze off the demon, theredhead wiped his cheek.
“Shut up,” roared the demon, his flames scorching everything around him. Where the pavement, trees and entrance to the residence had once been, there was now nothing but parched earth.
“Come on now, try to control your temper a bit. You broke the rules yourself, so now you’re facing the consequences,” said Dargorad, brushing a small flame off his shoulder.
“You bastard,” Rokita snarled.
“You’re the bastard here, you little glutton,” said the red-haired Soul Guide, grinning. He hopped over cheerfully and stood before the demon, who was shackled and trapped on the scales' tray. “As you well know, once a Soul Guide sees through a demon, that demon is sent to the Ruler of Selew, who then punishes them for their transgressions,” he recited, mimicking the voice of a child learning a poem at school. A moment later, he shifted to a mocking tone and added, “I wonder how Boruta will react to the insubordination of one of his subordinates.”

He extended his left hand and touched his thumb with his index finger.

A trapdoor opened up beneath Rokita. It was beautifully adorned with skeletal arms and flames devouring them.

It was the entrance to Selew.

“And as a parting gift,” Dargorad punched the demon with all his might, knocking him into the abyss.

The demon laughed after the blow, and only warned Dargorad coldly, his gaze icy as he fell.

“Sleep soundly while you can.”

“I’m not the only one who holds a grudge.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Dar waved his hand dismissively and pressed his little finger against his thumb to seal the entrance to Selew.
“Woo-hoo!” He bounced with joy like a small child. He had finally freed himself from that contract. All because he had met Leontina again and discovered that the demon had deceived him.
“Oh, right!” He stopped in his tracks.
“I wonder how missy is doing?”