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NatanielD
Dead Account Holder
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07-09-2012, 09:41 AM
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He isn't sure at what point the hatred towards his people began. All he knows is that it started long ago and stuck in his heart. It courses through his veins and fills his body with thick, dark loathing. It weighs him down, makes his feet drag, his shoulders heavy. Each step takes more and more energy to complete. He can feel it slowly, surely, dragging him into the ground.
Saugus hates his home. He hates his job, his house, his friends. He hates the stale air, stained with ash and soot. He hates the way all light is made of fires. He hates how his steps sound the same no matter where he walks, because all the roads are made of solid stone. He hates being hundreds of years old.
Worst of all, he hates the devil.
There are no men down beneath the crust. Only creatures, strong, weak, small, feeble roam the enclosed darkness. The devil, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, whatever one might want to call him--is no man. He is evil. He is greed, lust, rage, hatred, gluttony, envy. He is nothing more than a figure who sits on a throne and waits until the time is right.
For what, you might ask? For the barrier to shatter.
Between the surface where Humans wander in their daily lives and the pit Saugus and many other demons call their pathetic residence, sits a shield. A barrier the Holy One placed in order to keep the devil and his followers at proper bay. It is only enough to hold back their physical presence. Spiritually the demons can rise as much as they want, pushing fear and anguish onto those above. For many centuries this has been good enough.
Except now. They want more.
The barrier must go. When the devil decided this he began hacking away with his power at the mighty lining holding him back. All he managed to do was create a small crack, not enough to pierce, but shards fell. Those shards, parts of the barrier, were forged into a single entity able to bring down the barrier if powerful enough.
This creation sits in a temple, or tomb, whichever sounds less disgusting. The building is small, just enough to hold the tool and hardly more. Five demons sit around the single entrance, hissing and clicking to each other in low tones. Between them they all pass around a stone pipe and take long drags of what Saugus assumes is the local hobby for most. A crushed mineral powder able to give one a high so strong it would kill a human within moments.
He's crouched along the edge of a jutted cliff overlooking the left of the building. Although his bulk is large, the shadows make it easy to blend in. As the demons give another loud wave of cackling laughter, Saugus brings his hand to his hip and wraps his fingers around the hilt of a slender sword.
With a single jump he takes to the air and lands silently within the darkness. Step by step, toes first and padded shoes hardly creating any noise, he creeps forwards. Each moment closer to the guards makes their raunchy jokes and stench clearer. Saugus feels his temper rising, his disgust slowly begins to bubble and curl over the edge of the pot. These idiots... these revolting creatures... they are the reason the demons are weak. They are nothing more than a waste of precious, low oxygen. They reek, they shatter joy, they fill a void of uselessness... and for what? What does the land gain from having these pathetic things alive?
Nothing.
The first strike is easy. Saugus merely steps out from behind the edge of the temple and brings his blade over the neck of the closest demon. The guard gives a garbled groan of surprise, to which his co-worker glances over. There's hardly a moment where his red eyes lift and Saugus sees the fear in them when his sword comes down, creating a quick, clean slice through the chest. Blood spills out rapidly. The guard howls and cries. Saugus can feel his shoes, simple fabrics, beginning to soak up the crimson liquid as it pools around him.
The other three are still sitting when their comrades are taken down. Saugus lifts his left arm and the third guard yelps when he's thrown off to the side, smashing into an exposed stone hard enough to split his head open. The crack of his bones breaking is heard through the swearing and yells of the remaining demons. While one backs up a step, the other runs forwards in a blind rage. Saugus jabs his sword towards the guard and, stupidly enough, the moron runs himself through the blade, unable to register the lifting of the weapon in time to stop himself.
With a wet sound the body slides, lifeless, from the sword and onto the ground. Saugus looks up to the final guard. The demon is younger. Skinny and shaking with a uniform one size too big. The thin fabrics rustle with every whimper the guard releases.
Saugus stares the demon down until the other simply crumbles to his knees. With slow strides, the sandy haired assassin makes his way over. His sword reflects crimson in the light of the torches.
"N-no, please..." the young guard wriggles backwards, face a single emotion. Terror.
Saugus shakes his head. "You shouldn't have put yourself in a uniform if you weren't ready to die wearing it." He raises his arm. The blade comes down. A brief scream of "No!" echoes around the cavern. Then the final guard slumps over, dead.
Saugus turns to the temple entrance.
He can feel an energy rising. Power is beginning to grow within the stone building. 'The tool?' he wonders. No, how could it be living? Something else was in there. Someone. The demon grips the hilt of his sword tighter in his gloved hand.
The door to the temple is thick and heavy. Stone, of course, because isn't everything made of the same material in this lifeless place? Saugus raises his left hand again and the entrance shudders momentarily before the stone shifts and tumbles back.
Within the open archway he can see down a set of stairs a flickering glow of firelight. Weapon ready, he follows the handful of steps down.
And he stops at the bottom. His jaw loosens. A look of 'oh no' smooths his rough features.
In the darkness of the temple, a single candle creates a gentle hue of red to cast over not a tool sitting on a pedestal... but a child laying atop a stone slab.
"Oh, joy."
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