Prologue
The air was thick with smoke and the stench of blood and fire hung heavy like a lead blanket across the court yard. The cries of pain and suffering combined with the viscous, victorious calls of victory as they began to torture the survivors to create a bone chilling chorus of choas and mayhem.
I had seen this come to pass a hundred times in my visions and had hoped to never see it come to life, but I wasn't prepared for the onslaught, I had not even thought to imagine that the source of power Locien would stoop to use to have been the overwhelming strength of the demonic masses. I had thought that viler men than him had existed, and none of them had dared damn their soul to the fate that would await them for using the strength of those wretched creatures. But I had been wrong, there had never been a man more vile on earth or in hell, no matter how far into its depths you managed to search. Locien was a man without mercy, not even for himself it would seem.
I listened as my people suffered, as my people burned. Their screams peircing me to my core, my soul growing emptier as my coven was erraticated.
"Any last words, witch?" I looked up into the face of the man who, if he hadn't already been without a soul, would be soon. Calling upon the demons came with a price, one that would always be paid. It was a debt that never went forgotten or uncollected.
"You have not won, Locien."
"Not won? Your palace is nothing more than a pile of rubble, Your coven shall burn in the hell fire that should never have created you. Any other witch will be powerless against the demon hoard and the werewolves will be more focused on protecting themselves than trying to stop it. How could you look at this caranage and think I have not won?" he asked, gesturing to the feild of blood and death as if it were nothing more than a grand game to him. His smile radient in the evil light of the burning fires,
"You have not won, not really. The one who will lose the most from this shall be you. The rest of these men with you may be damned for what they have done, but the suffering you have ensured yourself is beyond anything that could ever be conveyed to you with words." His expression became one of gloating superiority as he leaned towards me.
"That is where you are wrong, Nagga, I will not be subject to the eternal suffering you predict. For I have made a deal with the demons."
"What deal could you possibly make that would spare you from paying the price required to summon them?" his smile grew with vindictful pleasure.
"In exchange for my summoning them they were bound to my spirit. They will only be returned to their realm when I die. So I just had to make a small concession, it's nothing really in the face of all I stand to gain." he straightened to look down at me where I was bound. "I simply made an additional exchange, they embued me with their imortality. In return, they are free roam the earth as they see fit." I couldn't control the disbelief of my expression, and then I fell into a fit of laughter. After all this man's planning and conning, I had not taken him for a fool.
"You have been played, Locien." I looked up at him, my smile spread wide across my face. "There is no power in heaven or hell that can grant you true immortality. You may no longer age, but nothing can truly live forever, not even you with all the demon power you could ever pocess. You have not been spared paying the price you owe them, they're simply content to await their payment, your soul is still destined for an eternity of damnation in the most acute sense. Everyday that you live, every day that they roam and ravage this earth is just borrowed time that they've agreed to extend. One day, they will collect, and everything you've built will be turned to ash." His face soured into an expression of pure unadultered rage.
"You know nothing of which you speak." he spat out.
"You would like to believe so, but there is one thing I do know without a single shadow of doubt." I felt what was left of my magic pool around me. The wind whirled, sending the smoke spiraling in all direction and the screams of my people ceased as my power commanded the attention of every being present. "You will not gain my powers upon my death. One day, my power will be reborn, a mortal child will inherit all of my magic and within her it will strengthen, multiply a hundred times over. With her rise, your armies will fall, your castles will crumble to dust and your reign will end. She will restore the balance of this world and with that balance will come an era of prosperity that even which the likes of you could not tear apart. No matter what you do, no matter how many people you kill, no matter how depraved this world becomes in your hands, she will come and she will bring your rule to it's knees before snuffing it out and your long extended debt to the creatures you think you control, will be paid." As the last of the prophecy left my lips, I felt every last remenent of my power leave my body, and I had the satisfaction of watching the anger of Lociens face before I surrendered to the blackness of my death. My only regret, knowing the suffering that awaited this world in the absense of my magic.
