The Tale of Daemonica

It was almost noon. The desert sun stood high in the sky, each beam burning invisible holes in everything it touched. Slowly, the omnipresent sand took on a striking red color as the sun began to dip toward the far West. Only the wind blowing from the nearby arid rocks occasionally lifted some sand, slowly but surely obscuring any sign of life, in patient gusts. Though you couldn’t find many signs of life here and if so, it would probably be the last thing you would see. Poisoned scorpions, disgusting hyenas, and packs of lions, exhausted by long starvation, devouring each other, waited day after day for those who had accidentally strayed here. Everything around here meant only the death. Another gust of wind lifted a piece of cloth lying fallow in the sand. No one could tell what part of the garment it used to be... The wind played with it for a while and then rolled it a little further, where it sat lightly on the body of a woman, lying on the ground at the foot of one of the rocks with an oddly flat top. Her long ashen hair was tousled around her, glued together with blood and dust. Her face was turned to the ground, her limbs lying unnaturally, the rest of her dress barely covering her previously pale skin, which was now dirty, bloodied, and sunburned. Daemonica was dying... slowly... quietly... in her sleep. Yet, for all that, it was a little surprising that she was still alive. Desert animals avoided her for some reason, and the rock partially protected her from the sun. But death was close, just minutes away. And against all the rules here in the middle of the wastelands, she wasn't the only one dying in the same place. Not far away, the body of a huge monster lay in the sand. The body was drenched with blood pouring out of it in tiny strands, quickly disappearing into the insatiable sand. The monster lay on its back, with only soft noises coming from deep inside of its wounded body. Every each of them grew quieter and quieter as the rest of its powers disappeared. The monster lay in a place unsaved from the sun, still holding its giant ax in its enormous hand, which could hardly be called a human one. Time was running out inexorably... But suddenly something happened... A cry broke the deep silence as Daemonica drew breath. At the same time the monster died with its last wild and terrible roar. A nearby group of hyenas began running frantically to nowhere. The monster was dead, and there was silence all around again. Daemonica woke up. Brought back to life, she began to feel the pain of her burnt skin and the many wounds she had suffered. And she was thirsty. Controlled by pain, back among the living, she knew she had to drink to survive. She raised her head carefully and opened her eyes drenched in blood and dirt. It was all a blur, black dots flashing before her eyes, and in her ears rang. After a while, she was able to at least distinguish her surroundings. Before long, she was caught by a scene that momentarily froze her in place. About two meters ahead, she saw the body of a huge dark monster in a pool of its own blood, still pouring out of its body in ever-thinner strands. Daemonica had to make an immediate decision. With the rest of her strength, she slowly crept up on the monster's body and began drinking its blood from the first wound she found. The blood tasted awful, and there was a burning pain in her mouth as she drank greedily. She didn't think about the taste or what she was drinking. She wanted to live, she had to live... She didn't stop drinking until the last drop of monster’s blood was gone. But then she found that the pain she felt as she drank was becoming more intense, spilling through all her veins, and would soon be beyond her strength. The surrounding world turned red. Daemonica was trembling in a trance and felt unimaginable pain, her hands clenched in fists, she was kneeling, unable to move. Time stood still for her. The sun was already setting when it was finally over and Daemonica hit the hot ground unconscious.