Blasphemy: Saga of the Blackgoat Prince

FROM TERRIFYING TO CUTE! THE TRANSFORMED BGP

“Mama is great, y’kno?” the demon said wagging his tail joyfully. “She even let me stay here!”

“If by great, you mean the most terrifying being in the universe… probably, then sure.” Akane said collapsing to her knees as sweat rained off of her brow. 

“Right?” the demon cavorted around Akane looking very much like a puppy, or a kid, or both. 

It seemed he tuckered himself out with all his excitement, or more likely all the demonic energy he had spent terrifying Akane, and summoning his mother. He shook himself and sat on his haunches.

“I require rest, yo.” he said scratching behind his ear with a back leg. “But first we gotta do somthin’ ‘bout those rags ya wearing, y’kno? You must be real embarrassed.”

“They have gotten pretty dingy, huh?” Akane said looking at what remained of the pillow sack of a dress she had been given by the guards. 

“Yea, but I was talking about the smell of pee, yo.” 

“Wh-whose fault do you think that is?!”

Akane’s face could have started a fire she was that embarrassed as she swatted at her weary offender. “Anyway I don’t have anything to change into so there’s nothing I can do.”

“Faithless wench!” the demon prince said, lashing his tail back and forth before the many strands encompassing his grand floof began to weave together until forming the cord and spearhead of his normal whip like tail. “You’re making light of my power, yo! Be still, then be amazed!”

His tail cracked in the air above his head and Akane’s rough burlap rags were burned away by a black fire that was chilly instead of hot, briefly exposing her abundant curves. Before She could conquer her shock and throw her arms over her exposed parts the flames returned and this time they didn't come to devour they came to weave. 

A black body suit clung to Akane’s skin as provocative in the places it covered as where it left her skin to the air; the word Cursed was written across the chest. As Akane spread her arms to better admire her new threads a bomber jacket with the logo ‘The Goats’ written across it formed over them. 

“So cool!” Akane said leaping to her feet, and jumping around.

“Stop moving around ya i***t!” the demon said watching Akane’s thighs jiggle as she pranced around. “I am not finished, yo!”

“Oh!” Akane said flushed more from exertion and joy than from embarrassment. “It's just nice to have something besides burlap to wear. This even seems like something that people in my homeworld might wear.”

“I do not care!” the demon stood on his hind legs and lashed out with his front legs. “Be still!”

“Right!” Akane said giving him a big grin, that broke into giggles as warm flames nibbled her legs as they formed joggers that hugged her low on her hips leaving a hand sized gap of exposed skin between it and the body suit. 

“Now to make this outfit fire.” the demon said doing a puppy’s play bow as he began to get into the design. “The kicks and the lid ta set it off, y’kno?”

High topped sneakers were a perfect fit for Akane’s tiny feet even unlaced as they were, and she trembled as something unseen gathered her hair into a ponytail and threaded it through a black ball cap with a goat skull logo printed on it. 

Akane spun around on one foot to admire her new look.

"Thank you soo much, Mr. Demon." Akane said scooping him up into her arms and giving him a less so, but still quite, smothering embrace like his mother had before.

"Hey! Release me, bosom beast!" 

"Huh?" Akane straightened her arms to stare at the demon. "But you let your mother do it and she can even defeat me in the chest area."

"Mama is Mama." The demon said then looked away his body trembling as he stared into the distance. "Besides maybe that is the source of my boob trauma…. Yo, so much smothering, y'kno?"

Both of their eyes grew hazy as they thought back on the voluptuous goddess's curves. 

"I see what you mean…" Akane said, as she kneeled down and released the demon.

"Your appreciation is understandable, yo." The demon said yawning as he spun around three times before curling up on Akane's lap. "Mmm, comfy. Mother was right your defenselessness is a liability, yo. So the great me has provided you with protection. I crafted it with my power, y'kno? It is really strong. Combined with Mama's blessing you will no longer die from the assault of strong wind."

"I did feel like something changed." Akane said as she combed through the demon's fur. It was quite luxurious, she could see herself becoming addicted to this. "Like I had grown somehow."

"The title she gave ya power'd ya up." The demon rolled onto his back so Akane could rub his tummy. "Ooo. That's nice, yo."

"Title? That goddess, the… Black Goat? Mentioned it too. I wonder what that is?"

"Check ya stats, yo." 

"Stats?"

"Hah?!" The demon glared at her from between the lids of one cracked eye. "Oi! You don't even know about that, boob witch? Was the god who brought ya here some kind've i***t?"

Akane's face flushed after being forced to confront the debacle leading up to her transference to Alothas. "There were, um, complications… And stop calling me boob witch! That is not my name!"

"Oi! Careful with the merchandise!" The demon said showing Akane his very sharp teeth after she got a bit too emotional while gripping his fur. "Whatever! There are more important things to be concerned with. It seems I must teach ya everything. Concentrate! Focus on the word status. Let's see what gifts Mama has given you."

Akane did as she was bidden creasing her brows into furrows with the strain of concentration, until… Pop! A green window not unlike something on a computer screen appeared before her face. And a great ringing like old church bell's nearly deafened her.

Announcement!: Level Up

Level Up

Level Up

Akane shielded her ears to no avail as the ringing accompanying a deep voice repeatedly informed her she had leveled up.

"What is that?"

"Ah! You must mean the announcer. Never mind him. Now, let's check these stats." The demon's head blocked her sight as he began reading over her status. "Name A-cane? A ridiculous name! Kuhahaha!"

"That's no-"

The demon kept on talking like he hadn't noticed her open her mouth. "Level 30 you must have siphoned some of my experience points when I killed that shitty doofus earlier. You're less pathetic. Congrats! Now titles… titles… ah! Here we are… wait… pfft! Kuhahaha!"

“What? What’s so funny?” Akane said, but the demon just laughed and rolled around on her lap. 

Somehow through his fits of hysterics the demon managed to point a hoof at the status window and wheeze, “Boob Witch! Boob Witch!”

With a sinking heart, Akane turned towards her status window and groaned. 

(Insert Status Window)

“But hers are bigger than mine!” Akane said, tears welling up in her eyes. 

“The humiliation is worth it, yo. That title granted ya a .9% stat boost to everything.” The demon said when he finally conquered his laughter, and curled himself on Akane’s lap again. “Now resume the scratching.”

Akane resignedly ran her fingers through the fluff around his ears causing him to close his eyes in bliss.

“Ya sick with the scratching, yo.” leaning into her petting like a cat. “Hmm. Your title was too hilarious, it fiendishly distracted me. Clearly you ain’t been here long, so you ain’t gonna have skills, but ya gotta be able to defend yourself, y’kno? The better ya are at protecting yourself, the less I got to, y’dig? So before ya came ta this world what’cha was good at, yo? Brawling? Ya don’t seem like a swordswoman. Did they have firearms in your world?”

“We had guns but I only saw them in movies, and I’ve never even been in a fight before.” Akane said. 

“Movie? Wha- never mind.” the demon said between yawns. “This is difficult, yo. It wouldn’t be hard for you to gain a skill here… necessarily, but I ain’t no teacher. Hmm. Is there anything ya good at?”

“Poetry…” Akane said going crimson at her audacity. She had never even let another person glimpse a poem of hers. She hadn’t even told her closest friends she wrote poems. Who was she to judge if she was good or not… and what did that have to do with being able to defend herself.

“Really?!” the demon gave her a sharp look like she had said something profound. 

“Is that… good?” 

“I don’t know what poetry is in the world ya came from, but in Alothas and Apocalypze it is a skill ya gotta master before ya can start doing serious magic.”

“W-wow… th-that’s incredible!” Akane said lifting the demon into the air right when he had just closed his eyes and began to doze. 

“I was almost asleep, yo!” the demon said lashing his tail back in forth in anger. 

“Can you teach me? Teach me magic?” Akane’s eyes were alight in sparkles as her mind danced with the thought of magic. 

The demon's long ears laid back against his head and he avoided Akane's eyes. "I… cannot do magic… anymore. I… perhaps can guide you… maybe, yo."

"Why can't you do magic?" Akane said tilting her head. "What about all that stuff you can do?"

"That ain't really magic. Tch." The demon waved his paw/hooves feebly at Akane. "I am too tired to go into this but I ain't gotta choice I guess. Set me down"

"Human… uh, humanoids, y'kno?" The Prince said sitting on his haunches and tapping his chin with a paw. "Like ya shitty humans, or, uh, shitty surface elf breeds, and pretty much all creatures that live up here in Alothas… minus a few exceptions use ether, y'kno, some people call it mana- magical energy, pretty much."

"Mana, right!" Akane said, familiar with the subject from books and games. 

"Us demons-real demons, not the mixed breed, part humans called demonkin- can devour ether but we can't use it, yo." The demon scratched out a rough drawing of a horned monster consuming wavy energy with his paw. "Instead we convert it inta demonic energy which is what our bodies are made up of. So what you're seeing isn't magic it's us manipulating our energy to do magic-like stuff, you see."

Akane's shoulders sank beneath the weight of his answer. "I see…"

"Normally I would rejoice at your despair, but lift your chin, boob witch!" The demon bucked once. "I still remember enough to be of some use. As long as ya ain't as big a i***t as ya seem, I can educate ya a bit to get'cha started."

"Eeee!" Akane said clapping her hands excitedly, as the demon limp with weariness climbed back on her lap. 

"But I gotta rest for now." The demon's forked tongue tasted the air when he yawned. "There isn't enough ether in this room to restore my power since I pretty much created a pocket dimension to hide in."

His eyelids grew heavy with the weight of exhaustion and drooped. "When I recover a bit we'll leave and then your lessons will start."

Akane stroked the Prince's fuzzy neck and listened to the gentle rumble of his snores, his little legs kicking like he was a dreaming puppy. Smiling she closed her eyes and fell deep into her own dreams of wizardry and magic spells.

"Nnn… spiders crawlin' on the flesh of a deer's corpse… nuh… delicious." It was hard not to see the demon muttering deep in the confines of his dreams and not think of him as adorable…that is until you actually thought about exactly what it was that he said. "A hand… it flops lika fish… it has no bones… mm… does it taste… like jelly?"

"Urgh… mmm…" Akane looked down at a hazy eyed demon who had just woken up. "What's this odd warmth? This softness? Where am I..? What the?! Where do you think you're stashing me?"

"Fufufu. You keep calling me boob witch sooo." Akane said looking at the Prince's head poking out from between the deep crevice of her bosom. 

"Hmph! Lucky for ya it's comfy here." The demon said. He head swiveled around so he could glare at their surroundings. 

"Ah! Don't move around so suddenly!"

"Silence!" The demon's eyes were a picture of cruel satisfaction as he shimmied himself around. "Ya stuck me in here, deal with it, yo!"

While the demon had been sleeping, Akane had been busy stealing glimpses of the world beyond the room. Ever since their escape to this demon's sanctuary, the chaotic puzzle-like metamorphosis of Chastening had become sluggish. It still shifted, but no longer with the frantic desperation it moved when trying to trap them. 

Now the prison city moved with laborious shifts in its passages. A gate would slide here, stairs would form there, making changes only just noticeable-and only if someone was paying close attention.

"Its gone back to maze of torment for the prisoners, yo." The Prince said, his eyes narrowed to glowing slits. 

"You're acting like its alive." Akane said. 

"It kinda is, y'kno?" The demon turned his eyes up at her as he explained. "This shitty city is like that bastard's heart. Its even got sumthin of'a conscience, or maybe a will is more like it. See prisoners can get outta their cages easy, yo. It's part of the torture making them think they can escape this labyrinth hell."

Akane swallowed nervously. "No one has escaped? Can we never leave?"

The demon shrugged. "Don'kno if anyone ever escaped before. But I can get us out any time I want to, y'kno? Shadows are doors ta high level demons like me."

Akane gasped at the feeling of the demon squirming around in her bosom as he pointed a paw with the wrath of a condemning judge's finger towards the ceiling.

"I can leave, but I won't. For I gotta purpose here. And I ain't going nowhere 'til I do some killing."

Akane shivered as the demon's hatred washed over her. She wondered at its intensity; what had happened to invoke such hostility? 

Akane didn't think she would ever really understand the demon. Not really. But she thought she had some basic understanding of this wild mad monster. 

Evil? Maybe, but she didn't think so. Selfish certainly. Cruel absolutely. He was as over-the-top insidious as a b-movie villain. He was but… 

She had only seen him killing only after they tried to kill him first. Even when he tried killing her, it was she who struck first by bonding him against his will. 

And… He was at least capable of love; his eyes were full of it when he gazed upon his mother anyway. 

It had also become clear to Akane that, at the very least, not all the gods of Alothas were good. For certain not the ruler of Chastening [Punishment]. The knights that served him hadn’t seemed so terrible, but the bishop on the other hand...  

Most of all it was this place, Chastening. The prison city was a nightmare, even the worst facilities on earth were like daycare centers in comparison. There was no equity of punishment to crime; if someone was sent here for petty theft they were sent to the same hell as murderers, rapists and the worst miscreants to be found on Alothas. 

And [Punishment] created it for this purpose. Misery. What kind’ve god would create something so terrible?

"Ok. Time to move, yo." The demon said pointing his paw to their left as regally as the prince he was. "That way!"

"Ok…" Akane said.

"..."

"..."

"Why ain't cha moving, yo?!" The demon roared.

"Aren’t you going to get out?!” Akane screamed back. 

“No! It is comfy here, yo!” the demon said lounging back on Akane’s ample cushions. “Besides I will recover faster if I ain’t moving, y’kno?” 

With a long suffering sigh Akane began to walk towards a destination the demon had in mind. One he seemed to feel no need to share with her. 

“If I don't think about it too much,” Akane said more to break up the monotony of her echoing footsteps in the baren corridor they traversed, than make conversation. “this city is kind’ve pretty.”

It was in a way. If she looked past the dried bloodstains, waste, and organic materiel of a more sinister nature, the architecture of Chastening was incredible. At some points it was neither city or prison, but pure laberynth. 

“If ya seen one dungeon, ya seen ‘em all.” 

The demon was less impressed; even as they reached the end of the corridor, that’s passing gave birth to a vast chamber with a ceiling beyond sight, swallowed away by mists thick as clouds above their heads.

Akane had enjoyed staring into the apparent fathomless vastness of the room, which swarmed with growing greenery that was not, well, green. Pretty as the chamber was though, she was certain they would have to retreat back the corridor to find another avenue to the Prince’s destination. 

Jumping off the end of the corridor was impossible without the demon’s wings, and he didn't seem about to change back to his normal form any time soon. But, grumbling every moment he was forced into action, the demon slithered his way free of Akane’s chest changed his tail into its spear tipped whip form and drove it into the flesh of the wall.

From their it was a simple matter to lower them to the ground by extending his tail until they sunk beneath the strange plants of inner Chastening.

Gurgle…

Akane clutched her stomach as her face went red.

“Hungry, yo?” the demon said glancing up at her from his resumed spot in her cleavage. 

“E-eh? What makes you say that?” Akane said refusing to meet his eye. 

The demon rolled his eyes, while Akane focused on pushing the grey colored limbs of the plants blocking their paths. It was good the demon had created these clothes for her. Not only were they fashionable, they were also sturdier than they looked. Akane thought the demon was exaggerating when he called it armor, but the sleeves of her bomber jacket might as well have been leather gauntlets the way they deflected the keen edges of the thorns the plants wielded. 

“Well… there is prey here, y’kno?” the demon said while his nostrils flared and his ears perked up. He seemed much like a hound picking up on a game beast’s trail. 

“I don't want to eat any people!” Akane said covering her mouth and retching a little at the thought. 

“Tch!” the demon leapt from her bosom and took off ahead of her, his four legs which utilized the best features of both a goat and a canine easily pulling him away from her even as tiny as they were. “Ya i***t! I know most humans don't eat what I do! Do ya think I’m as stupid as you, yo?”

“Wait!” Akane said struggling to keep up as the demon, ignoring the barbs of plants as they tried and failed to pierce his thick fur. “Don't leave meeee!”

But soon his black fur was lost to the grey plumage of the strange forest. Suddenly aware of every groan, creak, and rustling around her, Akane wondered why she hadn't noticed how loud the forest was before. 

“Mr. Demon?” Akane said spinning to face every sound, their unknown source filling her imagination with the thought of terrible monsters prowling in her shadow. 

She had just worked up the courage to chase after him in the direction he had been dashing off to when a big glob of something wet splattered on her shoulder. She paled as she turned towards whatever was oozing on her shoulder, hissing and spitting like an enraged cat. 

Her eyes began to swim as noxious fumes stung them, green-grey vapors curled around her shoulder as something attempted to eat through the magical materiel of her bomber. Before she got a chance to properly panic, a rustling from above her head drew her eyes above them.

Akane had seen pictures of venus flytraps in books, and if she was forced to compare the nightmarish horror that’s sight dropped her on her butt to any plant, it would be that one. She didn't think that their heads tended to breathe or move their stems like necks or crawl upon their roots like legs either. Whatever this thing was could though, and it seemed intent on making a meal of Akane. 

“Ah!” Akane managed to choke out as one of the heads on the monster stretched out towards her opening its jaws to expose long white teeth that no plant should possess.

“It seems I can’t get more than four meters away from ya in any direction, yo.” The demon’s voice pulled her from her stupor just as she closed her eyes and resigned herself to being plant food. “An improvement but still, there’s much ta go! Ah! Looks like you found our dinner!”

Sensing a threat all of the creatures heads turned towards the tiny monster daring to intrude upon its meal. It let out a hairraising screech that died halfway through. Most monsters had an innate survival instinct, much like animals of earth. One that tended to dictate the predator prey relationship between carnivores on different links in the foodchain. 

In a moment the plant monster knew that it was nothing more than a side dish on a serving tray. It didn't see an adorable creature that fell somewhere between a kid and a puppy. What loomed before it was a creature wreathed in shadows whose very breath was all consuming flames of Apocalypze. 

The monster wasn’t a beast with intelligence, but before the wicked edge of the Prince’s tail carved it into salad, it learned for the first time in its long life what it meant to be prey. 

"I hate veggies but it beats starving, y'kno?" The Prince said prancing up to the shredded heads of the monster looking like a puppy who stumbled upon a bone.

"If I don't go with the flow, I'll go insane…" Akane said as she gathered up armfuls of the creature with a numb smile.

"How were you still able to defeat that monster in your weakened form?" Akane asked the demon as they sat in front of a roaring fire.

"Another portion!" The demon said standing on his back legs, the fire he had created by breathing black flame now burned gold and warm enough that Akane had to shed her jacket. "Ya can't expect veggies to pose a threat to me, yo. If ya want to give me a challenge, call a god or summon a higher being from Apocalypze. Mmm. Delicious! You have some talent, woman!"

"Hmm." Akane said, smiling a little at the compliment. The demon had been hoarding knick knacks and treasure… body parts, but among the gore in his pocket dimension they had found something like a skillet. 

The demon had become an instant fan of Akane's cooking, scarfing down everything she cooked up without even pausing to chew. 

"I wonder how strong Mr. Demon is?" Akane said absent-mindedly chewing on a bit of monster.

She flinched at the taste. "Sigh… It would be so much better with at least a bit of salt."

The demon looked at her, flabbergasted. "Food can taste better than this?"

"Much better." Akane said leaning back on her hands, staring wistfully off into the distance into daydreams of all the delicious food she left behind in Japan. 

"Hmm the world is much vaster than I thought." The demon said curling up on her lap, which was his favorite spot after her cleavage. 

He opened one eye to stare up at her. "Would you like to see?"

"Hmm?" Akane said absently scratching behind his ears as they basked in the light mist washing over them.

The Prince had found a perfect spot, one that Akane couldn't believe was inside of a dungeon. She was beginning to understand that dungeons were worlds of their own, like the demon's pocket dimension, where every day rules might not always apply. 

That was how a waterfall could feed a lake, roaring as its water fell from a vortex with the mouth of a hurricane. The demon had smelled the water in the air and took off towards it dragging his trophies, the heads of the monster, behind him like a puppy with a blanket. 

"Do you wanna see my power, mortal?" The demon answered her with the haughtiness of a noble. "I'll show you how terrible I am."

He called his status window, making it visible for Akane. 

(Demons status window)

"Wow…" Akane said holding her own window up next to his. Even though she had grown ten more levels after the demon killed the monster, there was still a huge gap between them. Something was strange though… "Why does it say 'negative' next to your level and your status numbers?"

"Nn. Because I am a demon, yo." He said. "My body is formed from demonic energy. We're something like super condensed spirits. We consume Alothas ether to function. Therefore negative. It is both good and bad, y'ko? Means we cannot generate our own ether, but our strength is equal to 3 times what it's positive opposite would be."

"So that means your level -999 is equal to someone at level…"

"2997." The demon puffed out his chest while he sat on his haunches. "Unfortunately, in another level I will have reached the level cap for my class."

"Class?" Akane looked at her own status window, but beside hers there wasn't anything filled in. "Demon noble? I thought you were a prince?"

The demon nodded on her lap while munching on monster scraps he scavenged. "Prince is one of my titles. Blackgoat Prince to be exact. But my class's Demon Noble it's the fourth highest ranking of Apocalypze, y'ko? And it's time for me ta rank up."

"What does exp in escrow mean?"

"Mm. I have enough nega-exp to level down already. But I'm saving it for a surprise, yo."

"I see… Is… is there anyway to change your title?" Akane tried to be nonchalant, but figured she failed by the demon's sly answering smile.

"Don't wanna be Boob Witch anymore, yo?" He chuckled. "Ain't gonna change unless another being of equal power removes it, but I ain't even heard'a anything as powerful as Mama. Better idea is ta gain so many titles for yourself ya bury it by sheer volume. Like me! I've got so many titles you'd spend hours counting them all out! Bwahahaha!"

Would she be cursed by being boob witch forever? Akane cringed at the prospect. She vowed at that moment she'd find a way to crush that wretched title forever.

"How do you get titles, anyway?" Akane said as she resumed grooming the area around the demon's ears. 

"As ya saw from Mama, a being of substantial power can grant one," the demon said. "Also if 'nough people call ya something, for example like Hope Eater or Abomination of Cruelty, ya can get one that way too. Also achieving something great, good or bad, might getcha a title granted by the world'ja in. Their mad useful. All titles give boosts to ya stats."

Hope Eater? Abomination of Cruelty? Akane stole a glance at the demon's status window to try and determine if those awful sounding titles were something the demon made up, or if he had somehow earned them. She suspected the latter. She never found out for sure; the demon hadn't overstated the amount of titles he had, which made searching like looking for a needle in a haystack. Based on the ones she did see, however, she was certain they didn't just come from a random act of inspiration.

"So… where are we going next?" Akane asked, enjoying the luxury of the Prince's fur between her fingers almost as much as he was. 

"Hmm?" He said from his back. He looked at her with heavy lidded eyes. "Ah! Right I smell a large number of humans a few levels below us, y'kno? Ya wouldn't believe the stench, yo! Might be a town down there, or sumthin'."

"A town in this place?" Akane said as she tapped her chin with a finger. "H-"

Her question was dropped as the demon stiffened his floofy tail disappearing as it wound itself into whip cord. A low growl began bubbling in his throat. If Akane didn't know how dangerous he actually was, he would have seemed like nothing more than an overprotective lapdog.

Akane searched off in the direction his long ears were perked up towards and saw twitching bushes she would have overlooked otherwise.

The demon's throaty growl intensified to a vicious rumble. He had lifted himself to his feet unsheathing his teeth from behind his lips as his fur bristled.

The source of his agitation trudged out dragging a rough hewed club that hardly looked more than an uprooted tree. The titan was shark skinned, pale as a corpse, with lipless jaws and the blocky oversized teeth of a hippo. It was crowned with a single curved horn that stabbed above him high enough to reach above some of the tree tops around it.

It hitched its loincloth up over its bulbous belly with one hand while its boulder sized muscles strained with the effort of dragging a great chain soldered to cages filled with weeping prisoners in prison rags. 

Nipping at the cages with yipping barks that sounded a lot like mocking laughter, were creatures that looked like the result of a forced mating between a leggy hound and a great white shark. 

The monsters quenched their evident thirst, the hound beasts dunking their heads below the lakes surface, while the titan scooped great swaths up to his mouth in shovel like hands. Their slurping was loud enough to drown out the rest of the dungeon, but it wasn't enough to overawe the demon's palpable hostility. 

All of the creatures were sightless, creases in place of ocular organs. But even without obvious visual sensors the creatures stared towards the demon their bellicosity apparent even before the titan shook the ground with its challenging roar.

"That shitty bastard! He's still messing around with these disgusting things." The Prince said. "He was always garbage, yo. Even when we were nothin more than rampaging spirits with only a bit sentience."

"I have a lot of questions about what you just said, but there's something that I'm a little more concerned about." Akane said as the titan slammed his club to the earth creating showers of destroyed ground. "Like what exactly are those things."

"Remember when I said to give me a challenge you'd have'ta summon a higher demon from Apocalypze, yo?" He said, not moving his eyes away from the creatures as he spoke. "Well I meant something like this. That thing over there is a Privateer. The sixth ranking from the top of the demon hierarchy."

"What rank were you again?" Akane asked as the demon stepped off her lap to stand in front of her like a Chihuahua turned guard dog. 

"I'm fourth rank with the abilities of a third because of my titles… normally." The demon said. "Now I'm bottom feeding at sixth. At best the worst of rank six and the best of rank seven."

"I… don't suppose that this is guy's a rank six bum?"

"Nope. He'd be annoying at my full power even if he hadn't gathered a pack of mockhounds." 

"How annoying?" Akane said kneeling behind the Prince and stroking his bristling fur. 

That monster was terrifying, sure. But she knew a monster even worse.

The demon gave her a lupine grin as he answered. "Annoying as a fly."

Akane met his grin with one of her own. "Then I know someone even more terrifying."

"Damn right, yo." The demon said. His grin answering grin was savage as he siphoned power. Plants dried, crumbled and turned to ash as their life force was devoured; the demon turned the stolen energy into his own, swelling into something monstrous. 

He was no longer a kid or a puppy; he was a beast. Though he couldn't consume enough ether to revert to his normal form without risking the attention of [Punishment], the Prince's form became more than a little imposing. 

"RAAAAAAAA!!" the demon's voice split the air and forced the hairs on the back of Akane's neck to stand up. His hoof dug up ground as he pawed it, his head lowered, brandishing his horns in challenge at the Privateer demon. "Ya gonna make a fine feast for me, fat boy! Come and be devoured. It's a great honor an all, becoming a meal for a son of the Black Goat, y'kno?"

"Hurk?!" The massive demon flinched at the demon's words, driven a step back by the intensity of this new threat. "You're Seed of the Goat?"

The demon trampled the air, snarling and ravaging the air as he snapped his wicked teeth. "Speak of Mama with respect you insect. A Mere privateer referring to Mama as Goat? Ya just lost the mercy of dying quick, snack! I'll keep ya alive for weeks as I consume you."

"Let's flee!" One of the hounds hissed. His voice was like the rumble of a thousand bees. "We cannot face a child of Shub Niggurath!"

"He lies!" Another of the hounds answered. "Why would a child of the Black Goat leave Apocalypze? All of them spend their eternity rampaging in the Below, aiming for kingship and godhood."

"This one may have gotten chased out he is young. Too young to contest the others" another of the hounds said.

"All the more reason to consume him!" The second one argued. "Think of the power he holds"

"If we cannot defeat him what's the point?" The first one said. "Young or no, seed of Shub Niggurath are fearsome! We must flee!"

"Quibbling ants," the demon's cackle was cold enough to chill all who heard it. "After your insults to Mama, ya really think I'ma let ya leave intact and undevoured? Nah! I'll feast on ya bones instead! Become the meal of the Blackgoat Prince, beloved son of Shub Niggurath, Cimeries!"

"He is the named one!" The pack of hounds shrieked as one retreating as the gravity of their offense took root. "The beloved Son! The Dragon Eater! Voracious Berserker!"

"T-take pity on us, Lord." The titan said as he sunk to a knee in submission. "We didn't know."

"Hm? Do I seem like the merciful type, yo?" The demon began to walk towards the titan each step ponderous and full of menace. "Didn't think the tales about me were ones of forgiveness y'kno?"

His lips peeled from his teeth, exposing their needle points in a smile lacking humor but filled with despotism. "My legend is usually filled with slaughter, spite, and chaos, yo. Be a shame to start changin' s**t now."

His paws didn't even cause a ripple on the lake's surface when he stepped on it like it was solid ground. 

"There is no choice now but to kill him!" The antagonistic hound said. "If we can devour a Seed then even Vandal rank wont be beyond us!"

"..." The titan watched the Prince's approach weighing his odds against the malicious energy building around the threat. 

"Ok…" he grunted as he hefted his massive club.

"Yessss. No-blreg!" The hound's words were crushed into bloody pulp as the club smote him.

"Hope this'll be good enough, Prince." The titan said grunting as he tossed the ruined carcass at the Prince.

"A barghest with brains, amusing!" The Prince said spearing the meat on his horns. Then he grinned his eyes narrowed in mocking malice. "But I hope ya don't think my mercy is bought so cheap."

The barghest roared loudly enough to make Akane cower. She thought he would attack at the demon's provocation, but with a wet ripping sound the demon tore his arm from his shoulder and tossed it to at the Prince. 

"Anymore than that and I'll be baring my teeth at you, Prince." He said his voice clear like he hadn't just pulled his arm off. 

The Prince shrugged after catching the arm in his jaws. "The mood for slaughter has passed, yo. Begone barghest."

He turned his back on the titan in dismissal, cracking his tail like a whip behind him. Akane held her breath as the barghest’s eyeless gaze burned upon the sauntering back of the Prince. His exposed blocky teeth gnashed in equal measure hate and fear. Akane wasn't able to let the air in her lungs free until the titan and his pack stormed away dragging the massive chain and the weeping prisoners it held captive back into the brush. 

She kept a firm grip on a tight fist, however, until the shadow of the Prince shaded her. Even as safe as she felt by his side, she didn't fail to notice the vigilance way he tracked the barghest’s retreat, until long after the demons were too far away for her eyes to follow. 

“Whew!” the demon reverted into his tiny form in a burst of dark grey smoke. “My bluff worked, yo!” 

He trotted over to where he deposited his plundered flesh, planted his front paws on the meat and began to worry the flesh of the arm with the belligerence of an aggressive puppy. 

“And that… thing, the… barghest? Was a high level demon, like you?” Akane said squeezing her clenched hands to her chest. 

“Mmm.” the demon said his words a little muffled since his cheeks were packed with meat. “All a matter ‘o where ya stand. It’s a pretty impressive pedigree for even powerful spell casters on Alothas ta summon even a drone, the most pathetic demons in Apocalypze. By that standard a barghest is almost godlike. But to me and those that stand above me, they are smallfry.” 

He gulped down more demon, then belched in a fashion not suitable for polite company. “Still what a bargain, yo! The arm of a barghest, and one of his hounds! I feel power fillin’ me again!”

“What kind of demon was the hound?” Akane said. “Are they high ranked too?”

“Tis’ all one creature, y’kno?” The demon said snarfing and chomping, and filling the surrounding air with the sound of gruesome eating. “The hounds, the titan, all one demon.”

“But they were arguing with each other.” Akane’s arms were folded as she tried to fathom what the Prince meant. 

“More like ‘e was talking ta himself.” the demon had somehow munched through the arm already and was starting on the hound’s corpse. “He was arguing with himself ‘bout whether’ not ta try us. Part that was feeling a bit too adventurous lost, yo. Kuhahaha! Ya gotta stop thinking ‘bout demons like ya would something born an breed here on Alothas, or ya gonna lose your s**t when we travel to Apocalypze. Now enough bugging me ‘bout the conquered! After I eat, we start your lessons in magic!”

Akane had deep reservations about the demon’s plans for their future destinations, but the promise of magic lessons blew those concerns away. Though she had began by averting her eyes as the demon ate his way through whole pieces of his vanquished enemy, after hearing she would soon learn spells she watched him finish his meal… not eagerly, but at least with a building of anticipation and excitement.