Demon Legacy: The Curse of the Amulet

The Demon Story

The library was bigger than I imaged to be, the floor and wall were made of greyish blue concrete which is strange consider these material shouldn’t be available at the time. The shelves of the ancient library reached two floors up, with a narrow balcony halfway up and accessible by two narrow staircases and several sturdy ladders. I had been hoping that the diary would stand out as one of the few books to have been written by hand, but my spirits fell when I remembered that the castle had last been inhabited in the 1390s—half a century before the introduction of the printing press. There were thousands of hand-copied books on the shelves. Dust was everywhere, but the room at least felt safe and protected.

As we were looking around, I notice that Carl was surprisingly quiet as if he didn’t want to talk to me. I approached him asking him “Are you mad at me?” I said calmly. He stopped and turned around looking calm, but I can see in his eyes that he was angry “What give you that idea? The fact that you refuse our warning and used the amulet power when we said that it wasn’t good and look where it got you. You barely hanging on Derek, I’m worried that if use that power, I might lose my best friend.” He said with angry, but I can hear the concern in his voice. I approach him clapping my hand on his shoulder “I’m sorry that I worried you and the other however this curse amulet is bound to me until we can find a way to remove but I assure I will avoid using the amulet power until it the last resort. I will not let that monster win against, we are in this together you, me and other, we will be victories against this demon.” I said confidently, pride radiating out of me.

Carl just signs and clap his hand on my shoulder and with a sad smile he said, “It just not fair, you know, why did this happen in the first place?”

“To be honest, I don’t know, all I ever wanted was to know the circumstance behind my parent death, why did I survived and when I finally have clue, we get dragged into something that beyond our imagination.” I said confused myself, I just hope this dairy can give us some answer that we need.

“Just be careful with that thing, we don’t know what else it can do.” Carl said worried.

“I promise” I said firmly.

“Well that clear where should we start? there are thousands of books in this library,” said Carl. “It could take days to find a single diary…and time is running out!”

“I would think that the diary might be kept somewhere special, so no one would happen on it accidentally, what do you think?” I asked Carl.

“That makes sense,” he said said.

“Or it could be disguised as something else. And since this seems to be a place where we must accept that magic is real, let’s assume that to keep it away from the demon’s foul hand, a protection spell must have been cast on it,” I said calmly.

“We should split up and start with any shelves or books that look different from the others,” I suggested. It was then Finn joined us with Alex stating that he could move around but with help needed. I told them of my plan, stating where to look. Finn along with Alex started with a shelf labeled that contained only fat, oversized books. Carl chose a tall, narrow shelf in which all the books were exceedingly thin. I chose a shelf that was tucked away in a corner.

I found many books that I wished I had time to read. On the shelf I had chosen, I found a small label that said Demonology. The shelf contained dozens of carefully inked and illustrated manuscripts giving all kinds of information about demons: their habitat, elements, types, strengths, weaknesses, tricks, and other characteristics. (For example, glancing through one book, I learned that the red attackers outside the library were called imps.)

I leafed through all the books and found nothing promising. I hoped the others had better luck. I was about to search around for another shelf when I heard something fall to the floor behind me. From another shelf entirely, a book seemed to have fallen to the floor, though there was no one else nearby. I picked it up with a curious glance, and discovered that it was a journal. I was elated, thinking I had found the wizard’s diary, but it didn’t take long for me to see that the journal had been written not by a wizard but by a demon.

The leather cover was odd, with a picture of a knight surrounded by some sort of dark roots. There were rubies at each of the four corners of the cover, which was raven black, while the pages of the journal were blood red written in the Latin language. I had the strange sensation that the journal was looking at me, and then the amulet started to shimmer, and I could feel fire raging in my chest. The eyes of the knight on the cover glowed bright scarlet. I dropped the book in fright, and as it lay face up on the floor, the pages flipped opened by themselves, then stopped at the following entries. I picked up the journal with hesitation but with once I touched it, I was transported inside the book where I witness the event that occurred and like last time, I picked up the journal and soon I saw what really happened as I started reading:

               I can hardly believe what my demon brother has done, but the truth cannot be denied.   A year ago, we the demons, the most dominant, powerful, ruthless, trickiest and intelligent    creature were defeated by a most valiant, brave and clever human king. It’s hard to believe however it was our pride and stubbornness that lead to our downfall. For centuries, we terrorized the human world, hunting them for amusement, manipulating them against each other to entertainment ourselves. We loved to break them, slowly and painful. This is what we are, demons. We were at our peak and near in completely ruling this world and there was no one to stop, until he appeared.

We were fighting against the final rebellion army, who apparently had been using a secret weapon to defeat our weaker forces. The devil king decided to deal with this insurgence army with his own forces. I was there as their second in command along with my friend (name). Soon the battle took place, we thought that this was going to be an easy victory, but we were proven wrong. A human king had a strange artifact that gives him the ability to predict enemies’ movement and attacks. With that the table was turned against us and the human army began stronger. We had to do something, if the battle kept going on at that rate, we would completely wipe out.

So the demon king and the human king came together and made a peace treaty between the two realms. The devil king agreed that he would leave the human world, free humanity from our s*****y and return to our own realm. The human king agreed and asked us to close the realm between the human and the demonic world. With this treaty, we were saved, and every devil obeyed the treaty except one: my friend [And here there was something, probably a name, scribbled out].

We grew up together. We learned to fight together. We both became knights and generals of the Demon Army. We were very close, like brothers, but unfortunately everything changed once I discovered his horrifying secret. My friend wanted retribution against the human king for the humiliation and of defeat and grief that he felt while losing against humanity Worse still, he wanted to rule the human world. This desire of his might have caused our demise. Our forces were weak, and if provoked a full-scale war with the human, there would be nothing left of us.

I learned that he had been devouring hundreds of our fellow demons’ souls to build up his power along with killing the guardian of seal that protected the door between us and human world and I was last person he needs to break the seal, I was the only person who knew of this plan, the and thus the one who had to stop him.

I confronted him at the demon gate. He wasn’t the least surprise, yet he seemed overjoyed to see me. “Cyrus, just the person I need to help me get through! I need you to break the final seal so that we can rule the human world!”

“Why do you need me to destroy the seal? You know that you have kill the guardian to break the seal so why ask me to break the seal? I asked

 “I am powerful since devouring our fellow demon brother and the guardian power however if the guardian give up his seal willing then his/her life will be spared. O be honest, you are the only one that I don’t want to kill Cyrus.

“You do realize that I will never give the seal, it was responsibility given by our leader, why will you think that surrender? Just because you are friend that I have thought a brother, I will give up the seal to you? Then you are sadly mistaken. I asked firmly.

“Don’t be a fool like the other Cyrus join me and we can kill the Human king and rule both the realm, we will unstoppable.” he said happily.

“[name scribbled out], why will you think I will join you in this suicidal mission? We have had this treaty only for a year. If you break it right now, it will be the end of the demons!” I asked him (even though I knew the truth about his action).

“Not this time, we made a mistake and underestimated their power but this time I’m ready, I have the strength and knowledge to take away their own power, once that done, they will be no one stop us, even that weakling king fall on his knees and die.,” said [name scribbled out].

“If you only mean steal their powerful artifact and kill the King, one man, why did you kill all our demon brothers and absorb their powers? And once you were powerful enough to defeat the human king, why did you keep killing?” I asked.

There was silence, and then [name scribbled out] looked at me with his sad yellow eyes. “Cyrus, I think you know why I did it,” he said.

“I suspect, yes,” I said. I drew my sword, and within seconds, my blade had clashed with his. “You knew I would try to stop you.”

“Stop! Join me, Cyrus! Together we will be all-powerful! No human or demon can stop us! Together we can lead both the demonic and the human realms!” said [name scribbled out]. He held his sword at the ready.

“You are mad, beyond control! A crazed lunatic bent on destruction and obsessed with power!” I cried. “The need for revenge blinds you from the truth. You believe humans are nothing but slaves to do your bidding—nothing but puppets for demons to play with, but you’re wrong!” My sword burst into flames, and he jumped back. “They are creatures with honor, as most of us are! But now that you know there is a way for the humans to wipe us out, you want to destroy them. I can’t permit you that. If you want to destroy humanity, you’ll have to go through me first!” I pointed my blazing sword at him.

“So be it Cyrus. Before I can take control over both worlds, I will need to defeat any obstruction. Sadly, this seems to include you.”

With that, our fight began in earnest. The battle didn’t last long. [Name scribbled out] was immediately overwhelmed and defeated. Even with all that power, his pride was no match for my superior swordsmanship—or the Demon Dagger. I had perfect chance to finish him off, but I couldn’t do it. I could not kill my closet friend. I wanted to help him, so I spared him.

[Name scribbled out] was out on trial for his nefarious plans. I spoke on his behalf, and rather than being executed as many hoped and expected, he was exiled from the demonic realm for his treachery and sentenced to be imprisoned in the shadow realm. There his soul would remain for perpetuity, tormented and tortured. Before he was detained, he looked at me with hatred and repugnance. “Cyrus, I thought of you as my brother, my own blood, but it seems I was mistaken. You have tarnished my honor, and I swear to you, I will come back and annihilate every blood-related descendant of yours until there are none left and all traces of you cease to exist.” Then he was gone.

I was reward handsomely, the demon cheer me as their hero but I was left unsettled with his warning, so I must act before his word come true. When it was time for a new devil king and learning that the possibility if Dark Nephilim exist and his/her power came just a piece of gem could lead more catastrophic problem in the future with not our realm other places as well.  I needed to leave the demonic realm so when the crown was offered to me, I declined. I did not want to become a ruler. And I did not want to remain forever in the demonic realm, yet my leader wanted me to report back to them however I didn’t plan as I knew that I had much higher purpose to accomplish which might not be done during yet for my future descendent could do. However, my plan didn’t include fallen in love with a human, the daughter of a knight. We married, and though I loved her with all my heart, I could never bring myself to tell her or anyone else about my identity or my purpose. The only one who knows is the human wizard who lives now in the castle and lone man with strange abilities. I give the wizard the seal that kept shadow realm closed and he ensure me to that the door that leads to shadow realm remained shut. I hope that with the wizard keeping his eye on [name scribbled out], I can focus on my mission and live in peace with my family. But I fear that peace will end someday. As a precaution, I have given him an ancient spell that might come in handy if [name scribbled out] ever manages to escape the shadow realm. He has promised to pass on this spell to other trustworthy wizards for as long as it is needed. And so, I have begun my new life.