11 years ago
“Aggggggghhhh!!” The blood in Carris’s eyes was..red? The angels’ blood had been silver- demon blood was a silvery tinged red. This was a different color of red. The entire tune of his environment was changing as well. One moment, Carris was on the calm, red rolling hills of Hell with demons watching him curiously- and then somewhere else. Somewhere he had never seen before.
Doors swung open behind him. Hundreds of demons, most of what remained, stepped quietly towards him. For being aware that he was their Death as well, the surviving demons had been surprisingly rational about it, even when they faced significant loss from the angel Siasma first. The demons watched with uncertainty and concern as Carris phased in and out of visibility, full and then shadow. The Empire on X was clearly gone, Cyber was engulfed in Hell light, and Carris was glitching violently before them.
The Hell light, being native to their planet, took far longer to kill a demon than its rapid takedown of the angels.
It was a poison to both, but demons at least had some immunity to it unless they were forced into extended exposure. It is this very fact that had empowered Ijin to conjure and gather masses of it to destroy Cyber.
Though Carris’s design as Death could be taken down by nothing, the Hell light was what trapped, and tortured Carris’s angel genetics whilst his demon side was unable to wrangle free until.. This glitch.
Carris touched his face, feeling the new red hue of blood on the tips of his fingers. The immeasurable, indescribable pain had abruptly stopped, but his environment kept splitting. He was in a quiet yard with dome homes going down the street. This was not Hell, X, or Cyber. He had been roaring his lungs out, and his vocal cords were exhausted. He closed his eyes, unsure of why his surroundings kept switching. He had to focus, try to calm down and hone in his energy so he could see if he could manage which one he was in. It worked, as he took deep breaths. The image of his current surroundings visualized in his mind, and he was able to stabilize his presence by the dome homes. Carris then visualized the landscapes of Hell, closed his eyes again, and opened them to see the demons standing there around him, still watching. He tried to visualize Cyber, wanting nothing more than to never feel what he had felt again, but desperately trying to figure out what was going on. Nothing. There was no life on Cyber now. Carris was still in the rolling desert landscape of Hell.
Carris did not want to visualize X, even if it did take him there. Somehow the wounds of being despised by his creators still competed with the harshest of deaths he had lived over and over. Something told him he would be back there on X, in some way, eventually..there were still some demons on X. Carris was beginning to piece it together. These places he was able to appear to were where life would end, and where his presence was required as life ended. Constituents of his domain.
The element that was not adding up, was this dome home neighborhood that clearly had no place in his galaxy. He could see or hear no one- only the atmosphere itself. It was empty, unlit and extraordinarily organized. It was warm and safe.
Staying awake was becoming overwhelming. Carris closed his eyes again, and envisioned Hell, where the demons stood around him. He laid back on the ground, sprawled across the sand, on the verge of passing out. “Demon Prince,” one of the demons said, stepping forward. Carris tried to look over, but his own consciousness was starting to succumb to the suffering that had been forced upon him. “A few days ago, a small vessel made it out of planet Cyber and beyond the Hell light. When you appeared before us, young Prince, we had just received word that it exited the galaxy.”
Carris inhaled. Then the angels that had survived, were they in the neighborhood he had been glitching in and out of? There was no one there though. He was certain every dome home was empty. He could feel no life, only the new and almost unnatural emotion of extreme peace. Was this their destination? How many had made it out?
If this was their destination, he accessed it weeks before their arrival. He could be accessing it months before they arrived.. or even years.
Carris wanted to say something, but he had no words. He had no words for who or what he was, or for what he had seen. Death was not welcomed by anybody. He could feel that now far too deeply in his soul. However, the demons who had updated him were lifting his body, showing a hesitant compassion that outweighed the fear they should feel. “The Empire is gone..” Carris coughed, “You are absolved of any duty to me.”
“You are still a child. Every child deserves protection,” one of the demons carrying him said solemnly. “Even if we could not control the outcome of so much, it is always a responsibility to manage what we do have control of.”
Expansive fans rotated above their heads, as they laid the boy on a small cot in a shoddily made room. “You’ll find us all one day,” another demon said, “We are well aware of what you have been through. Just like us, you never asked for any of this to be placed upon your shoulders either, young Carris.” Carris blinked at those surrounding him. He was trying so hard to comprehend everything he was supposed to do to fix this, and yet his very design was the opposite of fixing anything. His eyes fell shut, and the boy finally gave in to his body’s desperate plea for sleep.