„Damon!“* – The silence of the previous night was broken by a single shout. He sat in the sand of the desert, which had become very cold now. The milky-white sand dust was distinguished by his black leather boots and formed a strong contrast to its appearance despite the darkness of the night. Again and again he returned back here, in the Suburra desert, his home. With a deep breath, he rose up with the innate predatory elegance, his black fur seeming to fuse with the darkness. His red eyes break through the night, just like the eyes of a demon, which was approaching him. „It’s done“, announced the advancing demon, „The demons have gathered.“ Damon let him stood uncommented and went off in smooth, steady movements. The last grains of sand rattled down from his black trousers to lose themselves in the sea of sand. At this moment he had been waiting. At last he had enough demons, who would seek with him the origin of the light. How much he longed for the eternal night. "Praeter speciem stultus est”* , said the off-seated jackal to himself. With his dark brown fur and white belly fur he stood out from the most demons. In the course of the evolution, the fur had adapted more and more to the night, so the most of the demons had the typical black fur, which was known from this period. His black clothes consisted of only a short trouser, gloves and leather shoes, which hid him only slightly in the darkness. " Hopefully my strength will be enough to keep the light up. Without this, the world will fall into the horror ", he sank again in his thoughts. Like many other demons, he had come from far away to join Damon. He promised the eternal darkness, and the destruction of light. He had no idea what he could do with it. There was so much worse than a few fights between demons or the ordinaries with their superstitions. Now, however, the old abandoned village of the mortals came to them and Damon used it as his meeting place in the great Suburra desert. The outlines of the former houses disappear slowly in the sand and crumbled with the time. More than hollow remains of the wooden buildings had not been left. The night was still young. Nevertheless, he had the feeling to be already too late. Perhaps he should have done something long before. Last happenings before the search for the origin of the light started. „Fata viam invenient“ – The Destiny finds its way. And it will be unstoppable.

For months they've been on the road and had the various desert areas searched. They had found nothing. If the origin of the light was not found in the desert, where should it be found? Nowhere in the world there was usually so much light. „Damon!“, shouted one of the demons to him. „What‘s?“, he growled. „What is now? How do we destroy the light? Do you think we have all followed you monthly through the desert to get here now to sit around and do nothing?“, complained the demon. Damon laughed amused: „You are all nothing without me.“ The demon turned away and left Damon alone. Damon grinned thoughtfully. He had known that he would not dare to attack him. They were really nothing without him. What would they do if he were not? They would fight, only fight. A fight that has been raging for thousands of years and no demon has ever been the winner. Their ardent temperament and the combative vein are derived from the boiling blood in their body. Food became ashes as soon as it flowed down the throat. Their immortality, as well as the natural superiority in force, speed, and all their senses towards the ordinaries, made them to a fearful opponent. Almost all the demons moved their power out of the darkness. They called it the dark magic. Only very few demons have light magic or even nature magic. One of Damon’s main reasons, why he wanted to destroy the light. He wanted power. A power, which gave him only the darkness, this would strengthen him and all the other demons. The day would no longer weaken their powers. In addition, Damon was the only demon without special ability. Each demon possessed this, although the multitude was one of the blood demons, followed by werewolves, the golems, the shapeshifters, and some more. First, Damon had believed that he simply had a unique ability, but now he was already 2.501 years old and no longer believes in it. There was no ability for him, and no one would ever know this. Damon rose up from the stone on which he had sat and looked into the round. It was not the heat that caused the demons, but the lack of success. They were in the midst of sand and rock, where at most the rattlesnakes showed here and there. Damon's deep black fur was interrupted only by the dark gray ear tips and the dark gray tail in the typical fox fur drawing. More than 50 demons had joined him, some of them were very well known and feared. The most notable were Metos* - the scars face, Verentia* – the awesome, Falx* – the heartless and Dimicatio* – the shadow gatekeeper. Scars face was called Metos mainly because his face, as well as most of his body was littered with scars. In contrast to the most demons was his fur not black, but it had only a very dark gray tone. Despite his scars, he was a very well-trained and respectable coyote. Verentia, on the other hand, was one of the few female demons that took part in the fighting. A female demon was too precious that they should put themselves in danger, but nobody could her forbidden this. The title "the awesome" owed her to the respect of the other female demons, but also her ruthless way to assert herself against the other demons. Had she wanted to have a companion, countless demons would tear around her. With her black fur, elegance and power, she was a coveted wolf. A black wolf, too, was the heartless. Falx found this title rather amusing. Only an incident had given him this, which was in his transformed form, he had devoured a different demon who had profoundly offended him. He had let himself be carried away by his anger. The dark brown jackal Dimicatio was the shadow gatekeeper. Nobody knew exactly what he actually guarded there, but there was really no one interested in this. Dimicatio himself called it the shadow gate. Damon, however, did not trust Dimicatio because he interfered always and everywhere and spoke of the balance of the world. What a nonsense that was. He would determine the balance of the world himself. Who needs the light? Dimicatio was therefore one of the candidates before whom Damon was constantly on guard. Damon cleared his throat to get the attention of those present. Everyone looked at him. Grinning, he announced: „We will visit the place where light has always been hard to contend with.“ The demons looked at each other questioningly. Damon had guessed that they would not understand that. They were so stupid, so he began to explain: „Ever since plants and animals have thrived in the dark. Where hardly penetrates a light beam passes. But the ordinary mortals love the light and they have built temples to honor this. Many of these temples stand there and in one of them the secret of light could be hidden. Don‘t you still understand it?“ He laughed loudly: „I'm talking about the jungle, you idiots!“ There was a small turmoil. The demons were not sure if they should believe Damon. Would they really find something there or would it be just a waste of time. Was it really possible to destroy the light? For three minutes, Damon watched the ramble, and then he took the word again: „ Decide now. Go or follow me! I do not want to wait a second! If you're not sure, stay back!“ With these words he turned his back on them and step forward through the desert. He did not turn around to see if and how many followed him. He did not care. Nothing in the world would keep him from his intention, not even the lack of loyalty of his followers. The first to follow Damon were Falx and Dimicatio, shortly thereafter Metos and some other demons. Verentia hesitated. She looked at the group of demons who had taken the opposite path. „Damon“, she cried to him. Damon went on, but responded: „What‘s?“ She raised her voice threateningly: „ If we find nothing there, I will kill you!“ He began to laugh amused. Verentia followed the troops. Damon included, they were only 15 demons that continued the way. The others had remained undecided or gone. For several weeks they were on the road before they reached the jungle. The old trees had grown to full size over the centuries. Younger plants are struggling for every ray of light that came through the dense canopy of leaves and stood so close together that a penetration was almost impossible. In addition, countless vine plants blocked the possible paths through the jungle. No mortal had ever been here for ages. Damon went ahead and took no notice of what blocked the way. He trampled down bushes, pushed whole trees with his strength, every branch of the dare to cross his way was cut short. The first temple, for they reached, was totally overgrown. Only the stone slabs here and there and its ornaments betrayed that somewhere underneath a larger building was to be found. „Damn green stuff!“, cursed Damon and tore it piece by piece into two. Falx groaned annoyed: „Why not burn it down easy?“ „ Do you want to risk a forest fire, you fool?“ hissed Verentia to him. The other demons helped to free the temple. „Here! Here is the entrance!“ cried Metos, who had just freed the door. Immediately they all broke off their work and hurried to Metos. Damon looked at the gate and tried to decipher the inscriptions. „Ave! Introite, nam et hic dii sunt“, he said loudly, and began to laugh. Because of Metos had not learned any Latin, he inquired about the meaning: „ What is written there?“ Dimicatio now spoke for the first time: „Greetings! Come in, for there are also gods here.“ Now Metos understood the laughter of Damon. Also the other grin. The mortals had always preferred to give each and every one a God. The sun had a god, the moon, even the sea and some animals. Demons, it was inexplicable how stupid you had to be to make up such nonsense. Damon hit the stone door with his fist. To his astonishment, they did not move. He growled annoyed as he heard Falx suppressed laughter. „Certainly there is a mechanism to open it“, said Metos, „Mortals do not have so much power.“ Damon turned around to the others, leaned against the locked door, and crossed his arms: „So, you smart ass, then tell me, how this mechanism works.“ He shrugged: „I have no idea. That's a guess.“ Verentia went to the stone door and pushed Damon aside. Damon growled again and made room for her. She began to scan the door, every corner and also the inscription. Nothing happened. „Ultra posse nemo obligatur“, said Dimicatio casually. Damon went to the ceiling: „You fucking hypocrite! I know exactly why you are here! You want to keep us from our plans! That's why you follow me, but you've cut yourself! I've already recognized your wrong game!“ Metos looked totally confused: „What did he say?“ Falx was confused, although he understood the sentence. To the explanation, he said it quietly before him, so that Metos could still hear him: „No one is obliged to do impossible.“ Dimicatio raised his hands innocently, shaking his head: „ I'm sorry, my friend. “ „Do not call me friend“, hissed Damon, „I do not have any friends and you do not even count!“ Verentia interrupted the two with a joyous cry: „I have!“ At the same moment the door opened by being pushed aside. Damon turned away from Dimicatio and walked in, slightly snarling. Immediately after him Verentia passed through: „It was a very small switch.“ Metos patted her shoulder while he followed the two: „Well done!“ Dimicatio and Falx also followed, and behind them the remaining ten demons. It was gloomy and darker, the deeper they entered. But it did not matter to them. They could all see in the dark. Every demon has this ability. On the walls were numerous decorations, drawings and inscriptions, but they all thrown in passing a look. The walk was narrow and so they had to go individually one behind the other. Damon stopped abruptly after a while. „What's happening?“, Metos wanted to know. He could not see anything from his position or the demons behind him either. Verentia, however, still saw enough: „A canyon. The bridge is torn.“ A growl came from Damon: „We climb down and walk over, then go up again.“ "What if we do not find anything there?" Falx wanted to know, „the effort might not be worthwhile.“ A new growling came from Damon: „Look over there: Lux aeterna.“ Before Metos could ask Dimicatio already translated: „Eternal light.“ „Oh!“ came from Metos, as an expression of knowledge. Damon began to climb down. Verentia glanced over the canyon and into the depths: „Who knows, where the end is? We could climb forever.“ She pointed to the ceiling: „Up there are hooks to which the bridge was attached.“ Damon tried to catch a glimpse of the hooks on the wall of the canyon: „So what? They are far too high for us to use them.“ Verentia rolled her eyes: „Asinus!“ Falx laughed loudly and Metos fell again ignored: „So when we've done all this, I will learn Latin.“ Dimicatio laughed: „She called him a fool.“ Metos grinned now wide, but tried not to laugh. Damon growled to himself, but said nothing. Instead, he waited for what Verentia wanted to do. She let a whip of dark magic appear, jumping up to the hooks and swinging them so that she wrapped around the first hook. Then she swung over, and appeared the second dark magic whip. This whip was wrapped around the next hook, too. The old whip was dropped, and at once these disappeared. So she continued, until she was on the other side. With a big set she landed on safe ground as well as on her feet. You could hear a laugh from her, as she turned around and held her hands in her hips: „ So you cowards. Whoever comes across or should I go alone?“ Metos wanted to get started, but then Damon came up in this moment again and pushed him back: „Me first!“ Just like Verentia, he jumps up and then swung himself over with the help of his dark magic whips. He also landed on his feet. „Aha!“ he spoke arrogantly to Verentia, as if she was the last piece of dirt. Verentia held briefly her stomach and leaned slightly forward, as they would become sick of the sight of him. Metos laughed softly and then he also released. Bit by bit, they come one after the other to the other side. The eleventh, however, did not jump high enough and fell screaming into the depths. After this misfortune, the other four do not trust in this method and stayed behind. „You cowards!“ shouted Falx, „Then stay here!“ They went on and left the four back. The course on this side was much wider, so four people could have walked side by side. Damon went ahead, as was to be expected. As the way split in two, Damon chose one without thinking big about it. Dimicatio called after him: „Quo vadis?“ Damon gave something growled back, which no one understood, because he said it quietly. Verentia began to read the inscriptions. Metos saw Damon still behind: „ Where is he going? He do not even know whether the path is correct.“ Dimicatio shrugged: „I do not know, I asked him.“ Falx looked at the many inscriptions as well: „ Is there anything useful?“ Verentia pointed to an inscription Per crucem ad lucem: „Through the cross to the light.“ „What a cross?“ was Metos first thought. They began to search the walls for a cross, but nowhere was one to be found. Verentia thoughtfully walked back and forth. The other demons had let themselves sink already on the ground and waited, what would happen. Only the four did not give up. While Verentia continued to think, Dimicatio, Falx, and Metos scanned the walls. But before they came to a decision, they heard steps. Damon came back: „There is a door with a stupid cross on it. We cannot get any further.“ He growled angrily and wanted to choose the other way, but Verentia was already calling: „ It must be! “ In her enthusiasm she grabbed Damon's head and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then she hurried in the corridor. The other three followed her as well as the demons, which had preferred the lazy, then got up and went after the four. Damon looked disgusted at them, then he decided to follow. They arrived at a wooden door with a silver cross. Falx laughed: „And you did not get any further there? The door is only made of wood.“ He banged momentum and strength against the door. A bright light seized him and threw him back, so he slammed against Metos and both fell to the ground. Metos pushed Falx away and stood up: „ Is that happening Damon?“ Damon grinned broadly: „No, nothing has happened to me. The door could not be destroyed.“ Falx also stood up again and rubbed his arms: „ It's like a lightning hit me.“ Verentia shacked her head and touched the door handle: „If a lightning hit you, you would be dead.“ They turned the doorknob and pressed against the door. When nothing happened, she tried to pull it over. „Um“, did she. „What um?“ hissed Damon, „It's not working. We must look for another way.“ „Nolens volens - willy-nilly“, Dimicatio agreed. Metos was pleased, that Dimicatio had translated this time, what he gave of himself. Damon growled, however, and changed immediately his mind: „There must be a way through this door.“ Dimicatio tried not to smile, but he couldn’t. Damon and Verentia began to read the inscriptions on the walls. While Falx gently touched the door: „How can a door repel you?“ Metos stood behind him and shrugged: „Do not say anything bad about the door. I do not want to catch you again.“ Dimicatio sat down to the lazy gang demons, which did not stir a finger: „Non possumus.“ „Vero?“ answered one of the demons. „Certum“, spoke Dimicatio back. The demons looked at each other in astonishment. „Are you really sure?“ asked one of the demons again. Dimicatio grinned: „I said that already. It's impossible and I'm sure.“ One of the demons stood up: „Than I go. It’s only a waste of time.“ The other demons nodded and followed his example. Dimicatio also stood up, but returned to the four others: „ The five are now also gone. So we are only among ourselves.“ Falx laughed: „They were no help anyway, more of a burden.“ Damon growled: „We could still use them. We do not know how strong the origin of the light is. Their forces could have supported us.“ „Now it is anyway not to change“, remarked Verentia while further she read the inscriptions. „Fiat lux“, read Falx loud, who had just discovered these words under the doorknob. As soon as he had said it, the door opened like magic. Damon rolled his eyes: „Let there be light? That should have been clear to us.“ As they enter the room behind it, this was brightly lit by torches. The room was round on the outside and on the edge stood columns decorated everywhere. In the center of the room was a fountain with splashing water. The whole room seemed to be built of white marble. Damon walked up to the fountain. The other four still looked around the room. His gaze fell upon the inscription of the fountain Lux aeterna. With one hand he stroked the writing: „Eternal light…“ He climbed into the fountain, so he stood with his feet in the water. He stretched out his hand to the splashing water, when he touched them, all the water shone; it flew up and built a luminous sphere. Dimicatio leaped at Damon and threw him down: „ Do not touch them! You do not know what you're doing!“ Damon laughed: „I knew you were a traitor!“ They rolled around in the fountain, at the same time they struck each other with their fists. Falx and Metos ran toward them. They packed Dimicatio and pulled him away from Damon. Damon grinned: „Ha! Now you can watch, how I will destroy the light!“ Dimicatio once closed his eyes painfully before he opened them again: „Dum spiro spero.“* Damon began to collect all his power, the deepest darkness he conjured up He sent these demonic power to the light ball. The darkness circled only the ball, and then it penetrated into the light. There was a loud bang. All five demons were thrown against the wall by the explosion. When the smoke cleared, there stood two bats where the fountain stood and only remnants of stone remembered about the status before. One of the bats was black as night with a few blood-red spots on ears and head. The other was white as snow with golden points, just like the other bat. The black bat adorned an antler, while the white bat had at same place two tiny white wings. The five stared in bewilderment at the two bats. Damon stood up and growled: „Who are you?“ „I‘m Gabriel* “, answered the white bat. Shortly after, the black bat continued: „ And I’m the prince of darkness, Satan* .“ Metos shuddered at Satan: „If you are the prince of darkness, then that is…“ Gabriel nick: „The prince of light.“ Damon immediately attacked Gabriel, who was evading him. „Why so hostile, Damon?“, asked Gabriel, „You finally created us. Before, we were only a part of the light and the darkness. Two brothers, which created by the world's balance.“ Horror began to spread on Damon's face: „ I? I created you?“ Satan laughed darkly: „That's the way it is. Unfortunately, we are tied to you, but as I can see, you can’t die.“ Now Damon was even more confused: „I cannot die?“ The other demons repeated it almost at the same time and as stunned: „He cannot die?“ Satan turned away. He had no interest in such a conversation: „I disappear!“ With these words he dissolved into black feathers and nothing, only a smoky smell reminding, that he was once been there. Gabriel, however, showed himself more patiently: „You have a special ability, Damon. If you are dying, you won’t be able to get in the hereafter like other souls it do. Your soul will wander over the world and finally reborn. So that your rebirth doesn‘t tear us to death, I will already determine now, which special ability you will get.“ Damon growled: „What? You do not have the right to do that at all!“ But before he could give any further words, Gabriel stretched out his hand and a light appeared around Damon for a moment. Damon looked down, confused: „What for …?“ But when he looked to Gabriel again, he was already disappeared and only one last white feather dissolves in nothingness, while it smelled fresh in the room like a spring morning. Satan and Gabriel had both set out to create their empires. They split up the hereafter. Satan founded the hell into which all evil souls would return after their death. It was an infinitely wide cave, with lava flows, which could be crossed by small circular bridges. There was a lot of ash and dust that either collected on the ground or polluted the air. A lava drench surrounded a dark castle, and you could be only crossed the lava drench over two bridges. Above the castle circled the bats and stone creatures decorated it. There Satan would live in his throne room, half so dark that even demons did not have enough eyesight to recognize something. Gabriel created the heaven. The whole floor was covered with the most beautiful flowers, which all were constantly blossoming. In the middle of the flowers stood a white castle, adorned with white crow statues. Even Gabriel created for himself a throne room, but this was brightly lit, so much so that it hurts everyone else in the eyes to look into it. But both of them were lonely and so they created their own creatures. Satan called them the hell demons. They were inspired on ordinary animals, but much larger. In addition, they have neither fur nor an intact body. In many points of their body you could see muscles or tendons, or even the skeleton of the hell demon. It almost seems as if they are rotting. Gabriel, on the other hand, created creatures from pure light. He baptized them angels and himself he appointed to Archangel Gabriel. You could see through the angel, they had bodies and wings of l i g h t , her arms could be seen as well as her hands, but they did not seem to have legs. They sang wonderful songs and formed choirs. Soon the already existing souls from the hereafter were divided. Satan locked her up in the most remote corner of hell. But Gabriel let his souls free to wander in heaven. Many also sang with the angels. Gabriel and Satan, however, spent most of their time in their throne rooms.