Chapter 34: From The Abyss
Alice went rigid as she felt the large sword slice the divide through her flesh even wider, the crunch her ribs made as the blade cleaved them from her spine was almost worse than what was undeniably the cat’s dying, sputtering breath as Aster watched on in shock. As the entire arena watched on in shock.
The demon withdrew his blade, catching the cat by the nape of her neck. Her body was entirely limp now. The monster raised his sword high into the air, and Aster braced for impact as the demon sliced open another large scar upon the very earth below itself.
Within the scar was some terrible type of void or abyss, with writhing figures barely in view, begging to be freed. There was no mistaking that gut feeling, this was something truly, terrifyingly evil at work. The demon raised the defeated cat above the scar, and dropped her body inside, commanding the hidden creatures in a hollow, raspy voice that carried far further than it should have as he disposed of the most powerful mage in Alora within seconds.
"Feast on flesh. Sate your hate and hunger with the breaking of bones. Consume this kingdom." With a horrible screech, fiends began emerging from within the scar, charging whatever living thing that fell in it’s sights. Chaos truly erupted then, and Aster found his own mind on overdrive as two of the beasts plummeted towards him.
Fiends, as they are called in Alora, are creatures born of hate, disaster, and tragedy. They can bear many forms, but all seemed to consist of mouths full of sharp teeth, and claws and appendages combined seemingly at random. It is said after every great trial faced by the living, the number of fiends nearly doubles.
Constantly fending off those fiends often falls to the military of Alora, with the Elite King’s Guard often lending soldiers to assist. However, on rare occurrence, a tragedy so powerful can take place, that the immeasurable amounts of negative energy and emotions of the dead that lingers in the wake of such destruction and loss forms into an especially powerful fiend known as a demon.
Demons could have many powers, and were almost always behind the greatest losses suffered in Alora’s battles. Many have been dispatched over the years, but many have eluded defeat. In this case, the one before the kingdom of beasts was an unknown demon, but still a demon that had come knocking on their front door.
Aster lunged forward at the first fiend to arrive, piercing through what he assumed was the creature’s head and dropping it instantly. With practiced precision. He pulled it free and swatted the next one away that was already lunging towards him.
He didn’t have long, but he was able to get a small peak at what was in his field of view then. The crowd was panicking, badly. Beastmen were pushing, trampling, and climbing over each other desperately trying to make it to the exits that were quickly clogging up.