Senice City

[CloudyBlueDay]

Earth is no more.


We were attacked, by creatures we believed were myths. Demons. They were supposed to be mythical. Only in fairy tales.


We were wrong.


We've taken refuge on a planet in space. Small, very small, but it's just big enough for those who remain. It reminds me of Venice, back on Earth. Except the canals are big, gaping voids that lead to who knows where. I call it Senice City.


If mythical demons exist, why not Arkeonen? The mythical being that is said to live in space. A timeless being, capable of most anything. He claims the title, Ruler Of The World.


If he exists, of course.


Maybe he could help us.




This is a private 1x1 between myself and @Nijoloblob and it is closed to the public. Please do not post if you are me are him. Thank you

 

[Nijoloblob]

Mikal slipped on the blood and fell heavily to the floor again. He knew that if he glanced behind him, he would see the shredded carcasses of the other members of his Order - of which he was now the last - covered in the same claw marks that now covered him. He retched a little, pulling himself slowly but surely up the short flight of stairs leading away from this gruesome basement and back up to the surface.


Light. Need to get light. Not that artificial stuff, Myrone said that doesn't affect them. Need true light.





Mikal pulled again, staring through bloodshot eyes towards the doorway just out of his reach. A growl sounded behind him in a throaty heh, heh, heh, causing his heart to beat faster even as he pretended his ears hadn't heard it. Just a little further, and he wouldn't die here. Concrete rubbed against torn linen and shredded flesh as he heaved himself up again, and he knew that if he reached out his fingertips would manage to brush against the rough wood of the door.


Even as the thought escaped his mind and he prepared himself for another agonising heave, he felt a tickle down by his ankle as something gently dragged it's too-long and impossibly pointed fingertips up his leg, a thin trail of blood seeping out behind each claw as the skin was broken.


"Why resist, little boy?" the demon asked. Mikal stared straight ahead. It couldn't know he was a Templar, a demon wouldn't take the risk of letting one live any longer then he had to. Something nuzzled the back of his neck as a lover might caress their partner, and rotten flesh hovered in the edge of his vision. Mikal pulled again, gritting his teeth in agony as the sharpened fingertips instantly found their grip and sunk into his leg. Sunlight, true sunlight shimmered through the crack underneath the doorway with the occasional pedestrian outside breaking the golden beams as they walked past. The creature nuzzled his neck again as it rested some of it's weight atop Mikal, pinning him down just enough to slow but not stop him. Slowly the creature slipped into his vision again, this time on the other side of Mikal's head. He couldn't stop himself this time, and glanced towards it before he could stop himself.


He was surprised to see that the rotten flesh and hungry red eyes were there no longer; instead deep blue eyes and long, curling golden hair met his own eyes. Mikal stared for a moment at the beautiful vision lying beside him before his brain muttered succubus and he jerked his vision away. Back to the door.


"Oh come on now" the creature pouted, the deep growl now replaced with a silky, feminine voice. "Don't be like that. Not like the others. Not like them"


"Kill me or leave me, beast, but do not waste my time with idle taunts" Mikal responded in a deadpan voice. He heaved again and was surprised when the creature lifted it's body to allow him to slide forward. Mikal pulled himself up into a sitting position, breathing heavily. The creature, a shapely young woman draped in a dress that most would call skimpy sat opposite him, staring unblinkingly through half-lidded eyes. Mikal reached up towards the panel above his head

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

"Get away!" Lane cried, her throat scratchy and dry. She waved her dagger in front of her clumsily. Lane barely knew how to use the damned thing. The demon towered over her as she tried to scooch away from it. Slowly she worked towards the door. The demon hissed in her face, it's beady red eyes chilling her to the bone. "G-get... get away!" She shouted again, but her voice cracked mid-way and she broke into a coughing fit. Using the arm holding the dagger to cover her mouth out of habit, the demon took it's chance to pounce on her. The dagger clattered to the floor as it pinned her to the ground. It dragged it's claws down her arms and Lane cried out in pain.


"You are mine now, girl." It purred. Lane struggled to free herself from it's grip. It left her arms to drag it's razor sharp claws down her stomach and she took the chance to grab the dagger. Before the creature could even react, Lane had plunged the knife into the demon's shoulder, making it hiss in pain and recoil. Lane scrambled to her feet, leaning against the wall and holding the dagger in front of her, which dripped black blood. "I said.. get.. away." She said slowly as she limped towards the door.


Kevin had said light was their weakness. It only came to her now, but she knew. As fast as she could, bearing through all the pain, she ran to the door. Pushing it open with her side, she collapsed on the ground, the sun shining down on her. Lane groaned.

 

[Nijoloblob]

Mikal's fingers paused a millimeter from touching the button. He frowned at the creature across from him, a thoughtful glare that was met by her cool, unblinking stare.


"You'll burn" he told her, and instantly regretted it. He had shown his mind, shown that his curiousity of why hasn't she slaughtered me yet? was worth the immense risk to his life. Its eyes glinted, just a hint of maleviolent red flittering in the depths of those entrancing eyes.


"I need you to kill someone for me" she said in a careful, measured tone. Mikal raised an eyebrow.


"Well, not that you'll be wielding the knife. But human consciences are tricky things, and...well, if you hand him over then you know what happens next. Hell doesn't exactly do prisoners, oddly enough."


The demon paused, waving her long slender fingertips through one of the shafts of light pushing through the door. Black and orange flame sizzled into life, and the smell of rotten flesh began to penetrate the air. She pursed her lips and blew gently on the dancing light, watching white skin blister and shrink. She looked back to Mikal.


"So? What do you say? Will you catch Arkeonen for us?"

_*-*-*_

​

Fifteen minutes later, Mikal shut and locked the Templar's door behind him before turning to face the street. His body was wrapped in bandages, although only a few strips of white fabric wrapped around his hand were visible under the change of clothes he had acquired. He straightened his blood red tie to ensure the roaring lion was visible, and tapped a code into the panel next to the door. A faint hissclick could be heard, and although the only hint towards what happened next was a slight acrid smell of smoke, Mikal knew that the contents of that apartment would be incinerated over the next few minutes. Even as he kept a stoic expression, he struggled to repress the burning in his own eyes as he left behind good memories and bad, and the closest things to friends he had ever had in his life.

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

The demon did not dare follow her outside. Instead, it's huge red eyes stared at her from the darkness of the house, one claw creeping out into the sun and quickly transforming into a man's hand, but then it began to sizzle and burn, and the creature began to wail as it pulled the hand back into the darkness. Lane gasped and panted as she pushed herself farther away from her home.


"Do not worry, child," It hissed, slowly backing farther into the house, but the huge, beady eyes were as big as ever. Lane shivered. "You will be mine soon." And then it disappeared.


Lane was left staring at the remains of her house from the cold pavement, wondering if she went back inside the demon would be waiting to snatch her away. She needed to bandage her wounds quickly, and she would probably need herbs as well, to stop them from getting infected. But there was no way she was going inside.


Ripping off the bottom of her shirt, she began to wrap up her left arm tightly. Once that was done she ripped off more of her shirt and did the same to her right arm. Being ambidextrous was helpful sometimes.


Slowly she got to her feet and looked at the house one last time before making her way down the street. There might be someone that could help her, a survivor. Lane could only hope.

 

[Nijoloblob]

Mikal strode down the street, head down and unaware of the people that he brushed past. Images of the friends and memories he had likely transformed into a traceless burnt shell of a house swam before his eyes, and he scrunched up his eyes for a second in the hopes that he could dismiss them via pure willpower. Focus, he thought. What's the plan. But there was his limit. He had never been off Senice, never wandered the stars and planets surrounding them. The demons had given his Templars enough trouble for one floating city big enough to be a moon; they could hardly afford to look after another.


THUNK. Mikal's eyes flew open as someone bounced off his chest, and he looked down to see an indignant human wrapped head-to-toe in strips upon strips of black cloth wound around his – or her – body.


"My deepest apologies, si-...mada-..." Mikal paused, unsure of how to address the being. "My friend" he smiled diplomatically and offered a hand to help the creature up. There was no response, only what could be assumed to be a haughty glare from underneath the wrappings where eyes should be. Mikal stood aside as the...thing stepped past and disappeared into the flow of pedestrians. A feeling of overwhelming familiarity came over him, and he raised his arm to hail the creature before his words choked in his mouth. It was gone, anyway, and Mikal ducked into a small side alley to clear him mind before noticing a girl almost the same height as him looking at him with bright blue eyes.


"Can I help..." Mikal's voice trailed off as he recognised the claw marks and scratches of a demon. The slight friendly demeanor that he portrayed disappeared quickly as his eyes narrowed, searching doorways and rooftops for any beings that could be a demon in another form.


"What happened, miss?" he snapped at Lane.

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

Lane slowly looked up at the young man who stood before her. Clutching one of her two bleeding arms, she nodded. "That would be much obliged." She mumbled. But almost immediately his helpful attitude melted away and he snapped at her, making Lane flinch. "I was attacked," She said quickly, for fear that he might pounce on her. "By a demon. It killed my family." Lane let go of her arm and moved her blood stained hand to her dagger, which rested on her belt.


Lane looked around them. No one else in sight, just her and this demon.. ahem. Man. It would be a perfect time to pounce on Lane, while she was weak and bleeding, and this alleyway was dark enough for a demon to last at least a few minutes without being burnt to a crisp.


With her fingers closed around the hilt of her dagger, she thrust it forward, pointing it at the stranger's neck. "I swear on Arekeonen, if you're a demon, so help me I will slash your throat to bits!" Lane shouted, waving the dagger around clumsily.

 

[Nijoloblob]

Mikal slapped away the dagger with the back of his hand. Even as it skittered across the dirty grey stones under their feet he had clapped a hand over her mouth and pushed her roughly against the wall. He glanced back to the street, checking that nobody had seen the two.


"How did you survive? How are you still alive? Where did you come from? Where is the demon now?" he demanded, staring intently into her eyes for so much as a flicker that might betray her as to being non-human. Demons enjoyed beautiful things, becoming something that they never could be were they back in their own dimension. She was certainly attractive enough, but Mikal's mind had been hardened against the more...human thoughts by Templar training and previous experiences with the enemy.


Although...she lacked that certain something. That vicious hatred of humans, hidden within the flesh and only sometimes hinting at it's existence. He searched her eyes again, staring at one blue orb then the other. But then, for the first time since he had left his home he realised how tired he was. He was seeing demons in every stranger that so much as glanced his way, and seeing a young girl claim that she had the one thing in common with him that nobody (well, nobody sane) else outside his order would believe had been too much.


Mikal let go of her slowly, muttering an apology as he stepped back until he slumped against the opposite alley wall. He breathed out, trying to clear his mind from the maelstrom of thoughts racing furiously around the arena of his mind.

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

Lane's eyes widened as the young man slapped away the dagger with a quick flick of his hand and pushed her up against the wall, covering her mouth. "Nnn! NNNN!" She cried through his hand, trying to answer his questions, but that wasn't exactly possible at the moment. Was he a demon? No.. then by now, he would have already returned to his preferred form, and she would probably be dead, and not be asked these questions.


Noticing all the bandages wrapped around this man, that were truly stained with red, not the awful black blood of a demon. That was one thing that they could not disguise - the true color inside of themselves. They may change their appearance or their voice, but they could not change the blackness inside of them. This young man must have been in the same predicament as herself not too long ago. That was most likely why he was so antsy and worried.


As the man stumbled back and apologized, she first put a hand over her own mouth to calm herself down, then moved it through her short red hair, and then touched the back of her neck as she watched him slump against the alley wall opposite from herself.


"I had my dagger. I stabbed it. I come from here, if you mean. Or earth, if you still remember that. And it's probably still inside of my house. I think. Maybe." Lane said, answering all of his questions as she absentmindedly touched her badly bandaged arm. "Are you okay?" She inched towards him, but did not lean forward or help him up or touch him. As if he was a cute puppy with a disease. Lane wanted to help but was not sure if she was allowed.

 

[Nijoloblob]

"Earth?" Mikal asked, puzzled. He was alive for the evacuation of their homeworld, he was sure of it. But although he knew what life there was like, it was as if he had only ever gained his memories from watching a film or staring at a postcard.


Odd, he thought to himself, but the thought was swept away almost instantly beneath another wave of exhaustion. She had mentioned a dagger though, and as he glanced down at the blade smeared with watery black slime he knew already that the beast was still alive. To kill a demon with a blade that minuscule would require an amount of skill - and luck - that not even the higher members of Mikal's section had acquired. He closed his eyes again, breathing deep and calming his heartbeat, and when he opened them again he saw her fear had left her, at least a little.


"I'll be fine" he answered her, brushing aside her slight attention. He stood off the wall and stared down the alleyway away from her. A wave of nausea rose up from within him before subsiding.


"There's this being. Arkeonen. It gets passed around as a myth, but I...have it from a reliable source that he exists" Mikal told her, carefully avoiding the fact that his 'reliable source' was likely leading them into a trap. He turned to face her, and stared her in the eyes with an intensity of a doomed man.


"We need to find him. Or her. Or it. And I'm gonna need your help to do it."

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

"Yeah, earth. You seem old enough to know what it is.. right?" Lane tilted her head. This man seemed to be the same age as her, why would he not know it? Maybe he just looked older. Or maybe a demon had brainwashed him! Wait.. could demons even do that? Earth had been so much better than this awful place.. why did the demons have to take it away? And then once we all fled, they came here to haunt us as well. What did the human race ever do to them except tell stories about them, talk about how awful they were.. oh.


"Okay.. If you're sure." Lane was considering reminding him that she needed help as well, but apparently, talking to a bleeding woman rather than helping her was how he was going to go. Okay, well fine. She gently wiped her blood-stained hand on her blood-stained jeans, so it made no difference. Then she looked up at him and gaped.


"Of course I know Arkeonen! I just swore on him!" She cried. How did he miss that?! "But there's no way you'll be able to find him.. myth or not, he's supposed to be very, very heavily guarded. And don't you think it's stupid to ask a random stranger you found on the street to help you catch a mythical creature that might not exist?" She looked into his eyes, overlooking the intensity and smiling at him with sparkling blue eyes. Stupid, yes, it would be stupid, but it did sound fun.


"I don't know, you're going to have to do a better job of convincing me." Maybe this man was loony. Reliable source. Arkeonen. Ha!