Private Tales Pact of Flame

[Azrakar]

Azrakar sat upon his throne. It was almost time.

He turned his head towards his servants. They were mostly dark orcs, the kind that lived beneath the ground. The scarlet flame that wreathed his black form occasionally formed a crown. Sometimes it was a cloak.

"They shall arrive soon."

The guards trickled out of the throne room. He could not clear the entire mountain, but if The Descendant couldn't deal with a few orcs then they were not worthy.

The Prophecy would not be stopped by a few guards.

His kingdom had been crumbling. Hundreds of years ago he had slaughtered an order of demon hunters.. It had been a true cocophany of chaos and despair.

They had used the sacrificial power of their deaths to curse him. Azrakar had paid in blood to hear the prophecy, but knowing had only made it harder to maintain his patience through the centuries that followed.

Now that the moment was here, it was difficult to contain his anticipation.

 

[Saeris]

Six was their number - the Veilguard, blades sworn and blessed, moving as one through the bowels of the mountain.

The tunnels stank of rot and damp. Mud and ichor clung to her boots, the splatter of black and red blood on her skin cooling against pale flesh. Every kill was quick, clean; the golden flare in Saeris’ eyes the only sign of the borrowed power running beneath her veins.

Orc. Goblin. Wretched hybrids of the two. None lasted long under their assault. Their bodies lay twisted in the gloom, their blood pooling in the dirt.

They pressed on, and soon the tunnel widened, air shifting with a faint tremor that Saeris felt in her ribs. She held a hand up for the others to halt.

Ahead, faint light, not the flicker of torchfire, but the unnatural, shifting glow of something far older, far hungrier.

She glanced to her second. “Stay sharp,” she murmured, though her voice was low enough to be meant more for herself than them.

Her fingers closed around the Shard of Kael’Syth, the silver filigree biting into her palm as the whisper came and the air chilled around her.

He's here.. Waiting..

 

[Azrakar]

"There you are."

His voice reverberated as if it came from every shadow in the hall. Azrakar looked up from his throne. He remained seated, one hand resting upon the pommel of a sword as tall as each of them.

"Did you truly have to make such a mess on the way?" he asked, not expecting an answer.

His lethargy seemed to fade as his raised his head. The flames brightened around his neck, flowing down his back.

"Which of you is the youngest?" he called out. "Where is my prohecy?"

 

[Saeris]

Saeris had seen demons before. Some twisted, some towering, some cunning, all terrifying in their own right. But none like the one that sat upon the black throne. He was taller than any she had ever seen, his sheer size making the cavernous room feel smaller around them.

She stepped forward along side the others, their weapons drawn, ready. The demon's voice skittered over rock and slithered over her skin, a shudder racing down her spine in its wake. A spike of cold shot through her gut fear, sharp and sudden. She locked her jaw against it, forcing her shoulders square, but the thrum in her chest refused to slow.

He asked his question, and the silence that followed was long enough to make the hair on her arms lift. She didn’t answer. None of them did. Whatever prophecy he spoke of, it was his madness, not theirs.
Her golden eyes locked on the Hollow King’s towering form, but her grip never wavered on her sword’s hilt.

Behind her, beside her, the Veilguard stood like shadows, their faces tight with grim determination. Yet, beneath the armour and whispered prayers, she caught the flicker of hesitation, a breath held too long, she felt their eyes shift to her in mute answer to the demon's question.

"We know not of your prophecy, Demon. We've just come for your head." Teren spoke beside her, stepping forward, his twin swords ready at his sides.

The Shard of Kael’Syth pulsed against her throat, once a steady heartbeat in the dark, now a jagged rhythm that felt almost alive. Saeris narrowed her eyes, sensing a shift in the whispering voice within. It was no longer a guiding light, but something darker, more demanding, its secrets curling like smoke in her mind.

I showed you the way.. it breathed, and she swore she could feel it's amusement. Because you are the key..

 

[Azrakar]

His eyes locked upon hers. Azrakar sighed in relief. The wait was over. He tilted his head to one side. Great horns leaned and his crown of flame flickered to life.

"At last," he said. He spoke directly to the last scion. His gaze looked her up and down. Azrakar could feel the presence of the demon in her hand.

He hadn't known how the prophecy would come to pass. It didn't feel right that the fragment of another demon was involved in the corruption. After all the waiting he would take whatever route brought him his freedom.

"You do not understand how glad I am to..."

One of the other humans shouted a challenge. In a warning, Azrakar lifted one hand. The ground trembled.

"Show some respect," he spat.

The last scion was here. Their futures wee entwined. She would rule beside him, once he had completed her corruption and broken the curse.

"We may as well get this over with," he said.

Azrakar finally stood up and lifted his sword.

"Who will be first?"

 

[Saeris]

Saeris' knuckles paled on the hilts of her shortswords as the demon rose to his feet, as his gaze settled on her in such a way that she hadn't expected. Her pulse pounded in her ears as her adrenaline surged through her, brow furrowing in confusion as the Shard against her throat burned, its thrum quickening in a rhythm that wasn’t her own. Something was wrong..

Key?..

'At last?..'

What the fuck was happening?

When he snapped his warning about 'respect', she almost laughed. A demon king demanding courtesy from the people he’d slaughtered generations for. Her lip curled into a sneer, sharp and cold. She walked forward, her blades glinting in the firelight as she twisted them in her palms. The runes etched along the steel held a faint glow, the same molten gold of her eyes as she looked up at him, defiant.

She wasn't alone for long. Two of her number were already chanting as they moved behind her, calling open the void that they intended to cast the demon back into. Another, armed with vials of liquid she'd seen burn demons through, and two more flanked her with weapons of their own.

"I agree.. Let's." she answered with more confidence than she felt right now.

Around her, the Veilguard tightened their formation, but Saeris didn’t take her eyes off him, not when every instinct screamed that the real danger wasn’t just the monster in front of her, but the thing burning into her skin at her throat.

Let me out, let me out, let me out...

 

[Azrakar]

"Do you have any idea how many of your kind I have dealt with?" he called out.

"Curse and betrayed and weakened and trapped. Yet even know that you would dare to send so few..."

Azrakar flinched. He felt the shift in magic as they started their chant. He took a step forwards. Darkness encroached. He spoke several words beneath his breath. A counter spell that twisted and writhed around their own magic.

The hunter at Saeris' left hissed. Her voice stopped and she started to make muffled, panicked sounds. She brought her hands to her mouth, unable to part her lips.

Obsidian night cut through the air like spears. A flashy show as a distraction. A few stray spikes of darkness glanced off armour. Azrakar raised his sword with his right hand and lifted his left.

The panicked hunter behind Saeris suddenly shot forwards out of the group, not on her feet but in the grasp of dark magic. She flew right onto the point of Azrakars's blade.

She looked down upon the great blade, right through her gut. She cried out once as Azrakar released his spell of silence.

Then he swung his blade back and forth. The first of their number almost seemed to simply fall to pieces around him.

"Next," he cried out, seemingly energised by the challenge.

 

[Saeris]

She was too distracted, and it was going to get her killed. The weight of Azrakar’s presence pressed on every sense she had, but it was Marcia’s scream that ripped through her focus like a blade.

It happened so fast. One moment the woman was chanting, the next she was writhing in the grip of some unseen force, straight onto the demon’s waiting blade.

Her golden eyes went wide. “No!” The cry tore itself from her before she could stop it.

The sound of steel shearing through flesh and bone jolted her into motion. She and Teren broke from the line in the same breath, boots pounding against stone as they closed the distance.

Saeris came in low, her blade a swift arc aimed for the hollow between his ribs while Teren struck high, his blade aimed to drive the demon king back. Behind them, one of the others still chanted, their voice rising in a desperate attempt to tear open the void and swallow him whole.

Yes… closer… The demon in her mind whispered.

She gritted her teeth and drove her strike home.

 

[Azrakar]

He felt alive. As the tug of the void grew more persistent he felt a flash of fear. All this time beneath the mountains and they finally sent a team to try and eradicate him. Azrakar even felt joy in knowing that he was finally in command of his destiny.

He could die today, or he could fulfill the prophecy.

His blade swung down. He didn't just block Saeris, he let her feel his strength. The weight of the blade would send a jolt of pain through her arm.

Azrakar seemed to melt into darkness as he backed away. They would gain some room to surround him, but the air in the room changed.

Above his head a sphere of dark liquid formed. A swirling vortex of shifting energy. It collapsed. Utter darkness turned to a pinpoint of brilliant white. They would have a moment to shield themselves before white streaks of light shot outwards. A hundred straight lines of light, as if the fabric of reality had cracked like glass.

"You should be please!" Azrakar called out to Saeris. "For it is our progeny that will inherit the world. Not me."

Behind her, one of the hunters coughed one and then collapsed into an expanding pool of their own blood.