Page 91 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

“Well, well, well.” Eligos’ valiant arrogance clawed at the shadows, casting ripples in every direction. “Don’t you have some mortal afterlife you should be wandering toward? How did you land in the serene embrace of oblivion? This comfort is reserved for Diabolics.”

I whirled around until a shimmer of golden eyes stared back.

Again, I tried to call out. Curse him. Shout. Anything to express the disdain, the disgust I held for the dead demon knight.

“You worthless little thing.” He chuckled. “Dying with so much essence in your body clearly dragged your mortal soul into the Diabolic afterlife, a place your feeble simplicity can’t comprehend. Such inferiority, you can’t even manifest a form to explore where you’ve stumbled.”

Eligos stepped from the shadows, revealing a body of armor that tore through the darkness, brightening it with the silver suit.

So, this was where Diabolics went. But it was only the two of us. Shouldn’t there be others?

“They’re resting,” Eligos answered. Could he hear me? Was I speaking without words? “Your thoughts stir loudly, silence them or I will silence them and you. I won’t allow you to disturb the slumber of your betters.”

I ground my teeth. The actual sensation of my locked jaw hit and while I couldn’t see anything else from my body, I’d gotten one step closer to navigating this abyss. Not that I wanted to.

“Our eternal resting place is merely a quiet oblivion, a waiting room so to speak. If our devil so desires, they can pull us back from this infinite ocean,” Eligos explained, a wicked grin echoed from his words. I couldn’t see his expression beneath the helmet, but I felt it shifting in the shadows. “Something tells me Beelzebub, the real one, won’t be resurrecting my lost essence. For the best. I think I’ll enjoy the silence. A just reward, a calm slumber.”

“It won’t be all that calm or silent.” A feminine voice slithered behind me. “Especially, not with what we have in store for you, Eligos.”

Something sprang from the shadows, snapping off a piece of Eligos’ armor. “What’s the meaning of this?”

The metal sparked in the darkness as something shredded it like running a power saw through a pipe. That strike was merely the first of hundreds, each lashing out, taking a tiny piece of Eligos, illuminating the shadows with fireworks of electricity, devouring and destroying his precious armor. With his suit stripped and a blaze of rainbow lights in the darkness, all that remained of the demon knight was contorted limbs in the shape of his lost suit.

The array of lights faded, lost to the shadows once more, and Eligos went to unravel one of his limbs, pulling an arm from the bundled center of his form. But the darkness struck faster than the demon knight, ripping his limb off and dragging it behind the veil of shadows. This continued, something sprang from oblivion and snatched away a part of Eligos, then vanished to nothingness with the prized piece of the knight’s body, his essence. Whoever, whatever did this moved so quickly I felt the breeze against my cheeks.

“Why?” Eligos cried out.

“You tortured us first. We thought it best to return the favor,” the voice said behind me, but I was too enamored by what happened to Eligos to turn and face the speaker. And too frightened. Would I be next?

“No. You don’t understand. I did all this for our demon brethren. I had a plan. I was going to release every demon from the devils. I was going to give us a choice. Something we haven’t had in eons.” Eligos fought back, a futile effort as the shadows beneath him opened and beings snatched away the many limbs bunched together creating his legs. “I only wanted Diabolics to be seen for our glory, our potential, our valiance.”

“And where were we meant to be during this grand plan for all demon kind?” A woman’s shape stepped from the darkness, the form merely a silhouette against the shadows with a purple aura lining the demon’s representation. “You locked us inthose orbs until our minds rotted away, trapped alive by your contraptions, unable to think or feel or rest. You sought to steal the slumber of oblivion from us, so now we’ll ensure you find no peace here, Eligos.”

The demon knight shrieked. Claws tore chunks out of him again and again until all that remained were golden eyes shimmering in the blackness of this void of death. The silhouetted demon plucked the eyes from the shadows and crushed them.

“I’d like to thank you, Walter,” the demon said. “You released me, released so many of us.”

I shivered as the silhouette approached. This demon along with all the others that leapt from the darkness—they were all from the pieces of Diabolic essence I consumed, the dozens of demons whose power I’d ingested to defeat Eligos. The power that ended this fight, ended me. But it saved Bez and… I choked back a sob. Dwelling on it hurt, thinking about it hurt, realizing I had nothing but haunting darkness in my future hurt.

“It’s been far too long since I remembered myself, remembered who I was. It’s a liberating, exhilarating sensation. I’ve missed myself so much.”

“And who were you?” I asked, eyes widening at the sound of my own voice resonating in oblivion.

“I was called Agares.”

Was.Because this demon had died. I had died. My eyes welled up.

“I’d like to thank you too, Agares.” I forced a smile, realizing I needed to make the best of my new forever, and show gratitude for small kindnesses. “This wasn’t how I expected spending my death. Not that I spent a lot of time planning for the afterlife. Still, pretty sure Eligos was going to make my death or my being dead gruesome.”

I cringed at the silence that rippled beneath my feet, containing all traces of the demon knight consumed and destroyed and left in the clutches of those he’d trapped in orbs. There was no sensation, no sound, no anything, but I knew—knew—he was locked below me enduring unspeakable horrors.

“Not sure you’ll be enjoying the freedom of death for long.” Agares raised a silhouetted hand, caressing my face.

Admittedly, the act was gentle, kind, but the words were ominous, and I worried as a mortal soul I might find oblivion to be the most frightening place to end up trapped within.

“W-w-what do you mean?” I crept back, watchful of other demons that might lunge from the shadows and snatch me away. Not that I could stop them. I couldn’t do anything here.

“Looks like there is still a spark of life in you,” Agares said, purple irises shimmering as the darkness became replaced by white.

---