Chapter 2 - Flaming cage Bored, Satan's eyes wandered through the deep darkness of the heated hell. Even the daily tournaments in which he let his helldemons fight each other could not change anything. Only the strongest survived. But that bothered the prince of darkness not much. He could create new helldemons at any time. Day after day he watched these senseless tournaments and in the beginning he had been happy about the bloodthirstiness of his creatures. However, this no longer satisfied Satan in the way it had before. He wanted more. Much more! The world of the living offered so many possibilities: Torture, lies, deceit, murder, suffering... No sooner had this thought gripped him than it wouldn't let him go. He wanted the world of the living for himself. He wanted to take part in their sins, torture them and wallow in their suffering. „Come to me, you creatures of darkness. Bring me the demons from this world. I want them all, alive. Take them down to hell“, he commanded his helldemons and laughed darkly to himself. Under fire, sulfur and smoke, a gate of hell opened through which the helldemons marched directly into the world of the living. Satan himself was the last to pass through the gate of hell. He flew aloft, spinning in flight, then stretched his wings and hovered over his army of helldemons. The hellhound was probably the most impressive creature among them. He was gigantic, a full twenty meters. He had never lost a battle and always devoured the defeated helldemons immediately. His appetite was insatiable, so Satan suspected that he would also devour the demons if they could not stand up to him to some extent. But the few losses did not matter. The helldemons split up and soon they were all over the world capturing the demons of this world. One by one, they were shipped off to hell. Falx was on his way through the dusty wasteland. After Damon's failure resulted in the creation of the Prince of Light and the Prince of Darkness a few weeks ago, the group had spread out in all directions and gone their separate ways. Falx jolted around when he heard wing beats, „Who does think anyone can surprise me from above?“ Surprised, he realized that it was not a gargoyle : „I don't believe that now.“ The prince of darkness looked down at him arrogantly: „So surprised to see me?“ „Belua!“* Falx growled. Satan snorted angrily: „You're going to regret this.“ Falx prepared himself for battle. If he was lucky, the prince's power was not as great as he feared after all. Satan dropped to the ground and walked toward him: „Come and show me if you are even worthy of my attention.“ Satan's face reflected a viciousness that Falx could not interpret. But he would not let that scare him. Like crazy, he began to shoot black magic balls at the prince. They seemed to just fizzle out at him. Not a scratch could be seen. Falx produced a black magic whip and struck the prince, but aside from a little damage to the priestly robe Satan was wearing, nothing happened. The prince spread his arms questioningly: „Is that it? I really have to think about whether I want you at all. Best I just kill you.“ Falx growled: „You arrogant bastard!“ His eyes glowed, then his whole body began to change. He turned into a kind of muscular bull without horns, with the paws of a lion and a long lizard-like tail. His whole body was covered with black scales. The creature roared and sharp fangs were seen flashing. The devil laughed darkly: „Apparently you do want to work for me.“ Falx rushed at Satan with a loud roar, who let himself be thrown to the ground. Then he bit with his huge snout into the shoulder of the prince and tried to tear off his arm. With a powerful jerk, he had it. But it sounded more like just ripping cloth. The prince flung Falx from him with a black wave of magic that gripped him much like a raging energy field. He stood up and where once the arm was, one saw only like a kind of fog the darkness growing out, which formed a new arm and this then materialized. „Enough! You have proven yourself“, the prince said dryly and threw a black magic ball at Falx. He growled and hit the ball with his paw. As soon as he touched it, he disappeared and found himself in hell, where many other demons were already walking around or simply sitting there in despair. Falx transformed back: „Damn it! Where am I?“ In the meantime, Dimicatio sat in front of a gate with strong light coming from its crevices. The gate closed a cave entrance and seemed to have been made exactly for this purpose. It was located in the middle of the deepest jungle. Again and again strange noises came out of the gate, which sounded like voices. However, it was not possible to understand what they were saying or to determine whether they were words at all. Dimicatio did not move a bit. He just sat there, as if he had already frozen into a statue. A cracking branch made him look up. „Damon“ he said as indifferently as if the two were neither enemy nor friend. „Dimicatio, I need your help. Outside this jungle, all over the world, demons are disappearing through creatures I have never seen before. They don't stand a chance at all. I know this is probably my fault, but please help me. This has to stop.“ Dimicatio looked at Damon in silence for a while before answering: „Levius fit patientia, quidquid corrigere est nefus.“* „Does that mean you can't help me?“ Damon now wanted to know. Dimicatio sighed: „Crede mihi…* it looks bad. It's been almost two months Damon. Do you think I wouldn't have tried to undo it?“ Damon fell to his knees in despair: „So there is no rescue. It is off…“ The sight of despair in Damon's face, despite everything, stung Dimicatio and he stood up: „The two princes were created at exactly the same second. They must also cease to exist in one and the same second. That is not feasible.“ Damon pounded his fist on the floor and tears formed in his eyes: „Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.“* „We can only do one thing“, Dimicatio continued, „fight back. This world belongs to demons and mortals. Let us not allow the princes of light and darkness to take it over.“ He walked up to Damon and held out his hand: „Bonitas stultitiaque sodales sunt.“* Damon looked at Dimicatio, took his hand and stood up: „Qui audet adipiscitur.“* The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Dimicatio took the word: „I never thought we would really work together.“ Damon grinned a little: „Neither do I. Actually, I should have excluded you from my group right away. I don't know why I brought you along either.“ „Destiny“, Dimicatio replied, „Let's go.“ The two demons made their way through the jungle. There everything was peaceful, as always. One heard a few birds chirping, now and then a few wing beats, screeching monkeys and the cracking and breaking of wood under the feet of the two. The beating of Satan's wings announced his coming. Verentia looked toward the sun from which Satan's dark body was coming toward her. When he landed, Verentia looked at him silently for a moment. „Are you at a loss for words?“ Satan asked with an evil grin. „I was wondering if you were even worth talking to“, Verentia replied so coolly and condescendingly that one might think she saw him only as a tiny, insignificant flea. Satan threw a wave of black magic at her and laughed uproariously. She had no chance to avoid the attack, was caught and thrown back. However, she quickly picked herself up, crossed her arms in front of her, which were then on fire, and moved them apart again in one swift motion. Small piles of fire rained down everywhere, from which slim fire creatures formed. If you looked at them closely, despite the raging flames, you could see that all of these creatures were Verentia herself, only in fire form. Without any hesitation, they rushed at Satan, trying to burn him, throwing fireballs at him and beating him. Verentia herself did not take part in the fighting. She had one hand on her hips and watched with satisfaction as her fire copies wrestled Satan to the ground. Satan sank to his knees, shielded himself with his arms and bent down further and further. A loud, amused laugh escaped from his throat and grew louder. He straightened his upper body again and stretched out his arms as he continued to laugh unstoppably. Verentia's creatures did their best, but as Verentia was now finding out, each wound disappeared immediately after it was inflicted. There was no stopping him. The laughter stopped and Satan now straightened up to his full height. With his right claw, he made a curt movement that signified that the creatures should disappear. Instantly they disintegrated into nothing. Not even ashes remained. „You have proven yourself“, Satan announced cheerfully and sent Verentia down to hell in the same way as he had already done with Falx. Dimicatio and Damon had made their way to Nemorosus, the city of demons. Nemorosus was the only demon city that existed. Almost every demon was born and raised there. Within the city there was a strict rule against fighting. Thus, the demons made sure that their offspring did not get into unwanted fights and did not survive their first years of life. Until they were 20 years old, every young demon had a mentor who paid attention to them and trained them. The parents of a demon child usually had less to do with it. However, usually at least one parent watched over his offspring. Nevertheless, a demon was allowed to challenge another demon to an official demon fight at the age of 10 and thus determine his rank. Now, however, not much was left of the once peaceful demon city of Nemorosus. Only the ruins of the houses suggested what had happened here. Dead silence dominated and all life had disappeared. The two demons walked side by side on the former main street of Nemorosus, which led from the East Gate to the West Gate, across the large training ground in the center of the city. They seemed to be listening for any sound, no matter how small, in the hope of finding a demon among the ruins. Dimicatio bent down to a small phial. It contained a red liquid. Blooddemons always carried such phials with them. The liquid inside was the blood of a mortal, for blooddemons lived on it. They made up the majority of the folk. It was not surprising that Dimicatio found such a phial. It must have been lost in the moment of the battle. „The kids“, Damon now said almost absentmindedly, „all away. The continuation of our species... erased.“ All at once Dimicatio had grabbed him by the shoulders: „Damn it, Damon! Get a hold of yourself! If you lose your mind now, we won't be able to help anyone. Let's save the ones we can.“ Something was now moving under the ruins of one of the houses and the rocks were being pushed aside. „Metos!“ the two of them shouted in wonderment at the same time. „I don't believe it. Seeing you two together turns my whole worldview upside down. I thought you hated each other.“ Dimicatio cleared his throat: „There are more important things than that. What happened to the other demons?“ Metos picked himself up and patted the dust off himself: „I don't know exactly. There were these huge, foul creatures. I've never seen anything like it. It was scarier than the corporeus.* Whenever they touched someone with their paws, that person just disappeared without a trace. We tried to fight them, but it seemed hopeless. Only when we had completely destroyed one of these beasts, it stopped moving. But there were just too many. In the fight, I climbed onto one of these creatures, which rolled as a result. I must have crashed against some stone and lost consciousness. It looks like I'm the only one left.“ Damon clenched his fists and then roared loudly: „Satan!!! Come here if you dare! I'm waiting for you!“ Dimicatio and Metos had meanwhile covered their ears. A demon could produce an enormous volume. So loud that a mortal could burst his eardrums. Damon, Metos and Dimicatio had been on the way for days, gathering around them the last demons that were left. There were not many. They had found just nine more demons and there was no sign of Satan or his creatures. Was this the end? Were they the last 12 demons? Damon didn't want to believe that. They were so many. The world belonged to the demons and now they were a dying species? This couldn't be happening. He had to find out what had happened to the others. After all, it was possible that they were still alive. With which he was not wrong. In hell, the demons had collectively resisted becoming Satan's servants. From time to time, he had a few mortals brought to hell by the helldemons, who served as a meal source for the blooddemons, werewolves and ghouls. However, his plan went much further than just subjugating the demons. He wanted the entire world of the living. But for that, he needed a loyal following. He also knew that there were still Damon, Metos and Dimicatio whom he had not been able to locate up there, nor had his helldemons sent any of them down. However, he was already taking care of that. He had sent a small group of helldemons to find the three and send them down to hell. The three and their nine followers were walking along a canyon when they heard a loud roar. Metos shuddered, „It's them.“ Damon immediately ran off in the direction from which the roar had come. Then Dimicatio, Metos and the nine other demons also followed him. The ground dusted under their feet as they ran at over 120 h/km in the direction of the helldemons. As soon as they were in view, they fired fireballs at the helldemons and immediately attacked them physically. Damon tried to slash them and pull them apart. The others imitated him and did their best to defeat the helldemons. But they fought back strongly, snapping at them with their big mouths and hitting them with their claws. „Watch out for the paws!“ Metos roared. The first demon was already hit by one and disappeared as Metos had described. Dimicatio created balls of light to blind the helldemons, but this only worked to a certain extent. Some of them did not let themselves be restrained by it at all. Metos roared now, his fur grew in length, his snout, his torso, his legs and arms changed, grew and his muscle mass increased. He transformed into a werewolf. In this form he could no longer speak, only growl and howl, but that was not necessary in battle. The advantage was that he was much faster and stronger than before. As if possessed, he struck at the helldemons. However, they became fewer and fewer and had not yet brought down a helldemon. Finally, only Metos, Dimicatio and Damon were left. Damon roared angrily, while tears were already streaming down his cheeks: „Satan!!! Come here so I can rip you to pieces!“ Dimicatio withdrew: „We have to escape. We will not make it!“ Dimicatio ran to Damon and pulled him shortly. Then Damon followed him and they ran for their lives. Metos also followed them. However, the helldemons were also fast and chased them. Metos was hit by one of their paws and disappeared, like the demons before. Damon and Dimicatio dodged the attacks as best they could and headed for the canyon. When they reached it, they fell down it without giving it a second thought. The helldemons remained behind. „Damn it!“ Damon growled and panted angrily while Dimicatio supported him so that he could walk. He had broken his right leg when he fell into the canyon. Dimicatio had gotten off better. Apart from a few bruises, he had only a sprained hand. A mortal would definitely be dead from that height. „When I get my hands on Satan...“ Damon continued to rant. Dimicatio, however, interrupted him: „Take it easy, Damon. If you face Satan like this, you are doomed to die immediately.“ Another growl sounded from Damon's throat, but no more words followed. Limping and supported by Dimicatio, he made his way through the canyon, hoping for an imminent end. They were probably the last two demons. Damon wanted revenge for his folk and to pay his debt, yet he had no plan at all how to go about it now. There was no way that two of them could stand up to these helldemons, and what's more, neither of them knew how powerful Satan really was. Maybe he could just wipe them out with a snap of his fingers if he felt like it. After all, he was the prince of darkness, the darkness itself. So Dimicatio still had the best chance with his ability of light. But what could Damon do? Probably nothing at all. „I will destroy him“, Damon now announced again. Dimicatio smiled at this, however it was a bitter smile: „Ut desint vires tamen est laudanda voluntas!“* „Stop me with your wisdom“, Damon now also growled bitterly and then sighed, „That's the end, isn't it?“ Dimicatio shrugged his shoulders in response, which was quite difficult for him because he still had to support Damon. In hell, most of the demons were not doing well at all. A few days had passed and the blooddemons, werewolves and ghouls were slowly losing control as Satan brought less and less living food and finally turned to starving them. He was losing patience as the demons would not surrender to him. They needed their food or they would go after other demons and exterminate each other. Satan was literally waiting for this to happen. He believed that the demons would then finally submit to him. So far they had stubbornly refused, but they could not leave hell and were trapped here. Metos walked back and forth nervously and hungrily. Every demon that was near him seemed to be a source of food, but he held himself together with all his strength. Soon his instincts would take over and he would go after his own kind at random. Something had to be done and quickly. Satan appeared. He stood on the roof of his castle and looked down on the demons. After letting his eyes wander, he raised his voice: „Very soon you will be fighting each other. I am asking you this question again now before your numbers are decimated: Will you swear loyalty to me?“ Verentia was the first to speak up: „We'd rather die!“ The other demons quickly joined her and started throwing insults at Satan. Satan snorted angrily and then disappeared back into his throne room, as always leaving only a short moment of black feather behind. How did he get them to serve him? Did they really have to start killing each other first? He would find out tomorrow. Most would begin to lose control and the number of blooddemons, werewolves and ghouls made up a large portion of the demons. Dimicatio and Damon had been wandering aimlessly for the last few days. Just now they stopped in a forest. Silence between the two dominated. Damon rested his broken leg, which he supported with some sticks and a rope he had made from black magic. Dimicatio finally broke the silence: „I will go back to my gate. Maintaining the light balls at this distance is exhausting and not worth the effort right now. There is nothing we can do.“ Damon growled angrily: „That means you just give up.“ Dimicatio sighed: „Ita est!“* When no further response came from Damon, Dimicatio rose and looked again at Damon: „Vale.“* Even now Damon did not move, whether he was just too proud or too desperate, one could hardly say. In any case, Dimicatio did not know how to assess it and left Damon alone. As Satan expected, the demons attacked each other the next day. The blooddemons tried to bite hard and feed on each other's blood, while the werewolves transformed and tried to tear the other demons apart. The ghouls nibbled on any body part that got in their way in the fight. It was chaos in the fight for survival. Falx and Verentia tried to keep Metos down. In the process, they tried to calm him down. Verentia spoke to him in a soft voice: „It'll be all right, Metos. We'll think of something.“ There were many seriously wounded and even dead. Satan appeared again and felt superior: „I repeat my offer from yesterday. Serve me and live or die.“ The response of the demons remained the same and almost all of them shouted it at the same time: „We'd rather die!“ An angry snort followed from Satan before he roared loudly so that all of hell shook: „I will not take no for an answer!“ He mobilized all his forces to bind the demons to him. So he would always know where they were and none would escape him. In return, they received the ability to teleport, while Satan lost this ability for the forced pact and was doomed to remain in hell. Each of the demons seemed to shine black for a moment. Satan looked around angrily: „You are all mine now!“ To demonstrate his power, he pointed at a demon, who then held his head in pain before looking up and standing motionless. Satan grinned: „Bang your head against the castle wall.“ That is exactly what the demon did. „If you do not want to be servants without will, then do as I say.“ This time no responses came. He opened a portal: „You have one hour to feed, care for, or whatever. The portal remains open. Those who do not return will feel my power.“ Then he disappeared again. The demons, already hungry for food, were quick to disappear through the portal to satisfy their hunger. A short time later, more demons followed, who did not need food and simply wanted to escape the stuffy, dark hell for a moment. Metos, Falx and Verentia also took advantage of the opportunity. As soon as Metos had fed himself, so they thought, they would already be able to think about a plan in silence. „Ad rem!“* , Falx began, while Metos was still running through the forest to hunt his prey, a shy deer. It wouldn't stand a chance against a werewolf anyway, and Metos would feast on its flesh. „We cannot fight against Satan. He is in control of all of us, and simply refusing to do so only costs us our own will. So what should we do?“, Falx summarized shortly. Verentia had leaned against a tree and listened for Metos tearing his prey in the distance: „Dura patientia frango.* Let's just wait and see. The Prince of Darkness will also have a weakness and we will find it.“ „Eunt via sua fata“* , Falx agreed and looked in the direction Metos had left. A grin crossed his face: „And we have time to teach Latin to Metos.“ Even Verentia was able to elicit a slight laugh: „About time.“ Metos shot a stone across the ash-covered floor of hell and grumbled: „I wonder what he has to gain by keeping us prisoners here. He created these disgusting beasts, why doesn't he play with them?“ „It does not help to rack your brains about it“, Verentia reminded him, sitting on a rock and paying attention to his pointless walking back and forth. Most of the demons had already returned and apparently the last stragglers were arriving now. Leaning against the same rock on which Verentia was sitting, Falx had also sat down and looked up: „If you came up there and drilled a hole through the rock ceiling, where do you think you would get?“ Almost simultaneously, Verentia and Metos looked at him questioningly. Before either of them could comment further, Satan appeared in the midst of the many demons: „Long enough I have waited. Go and conquer the world of the living for me!“ Uncertainly the demons looked at each other. The highest-ranking among them, an airsaber , jumped onto one of the rocks to be seen well: „Let's do what he says. That should be easy for us. The ordinaries cannot take us on, and we have never been interested in them.“ Murmurs spread out. Furiously, Satan roared over them: „Shall I demonstrate my power to you first?“ They all remembered his last demonstration of power and definitely did not want to repeat it. So they made their way to the world of the living again, but this time to follow Satan's command. The ordinary mortals were not opponents for them. Fearful faces looked at them when Falx, Verentia and Metos entered a town with some other demons. The town was already one of the modern places of that time, with simple houses in gray or brown shades and roofs made of straw or wood. The walls were made of mud and stone and thus belonged to the more stable buildings. Nothing against the temples, but simple ones lived here. The mothers, frightened, pulled their children back into the house or into their arms, while the tension rose among everyone. Demons did not usually come to the city or village. At most blooddemons to feed and they were already extremely disliked among mortals. „Surrender at once, you are now the loyal followers of the prince of darkness, the new ruler of this world“, Falx announced so boredly that everyone looked at him uncertainly, waiting for him to add that everything was a joke. However, no further reaction followed from him and the other demons did nothing of the sort. One of the men grabbed a pitchfork and ran screaming at the demons. Verentia grabbed the pitchfork, snatched it from him with one jerk and broke it in two. Meanwhile, Metos grabbed the man, pulled him back, lifted him up as if he were just a child, and threw him a few feet. They could have killed him with ease, but this had absolutely nothing to do with pride anymore. What they did there was absolutely cowardly and dishonorable. Moreover, it seemed to leave a bitter taste. None of the group moved to help the poor man who was now lying on the ground. Fear-filled faces looked into the unfathomable red eyes of the demons. They all knew that they had no chance.