Chapter 18: Judgement

 

 

 

"Ohoho... Sorry sweetie... But that ain't gonna happen..." Natalia said with a grin. It mentally caught Sairek off guard. But what really caught him off guard was the pressure that suddenly coiled around his throat. He let out a choking sound as her tail ensnared around it tightly; her tail strong enough to pull him off of her and lift him up into the air. Sairek dropped his staff as his arms desperately clawed at his neck to remove her tail. She hummed a low laugh watching the prince struggle for air.

 

Nayleen herself was not in a much better position. She too, had a tail ensnared around her throat, struggling for air just like Sairek was. However, she still had her enemy on the ground, but as it were, Nayleen was struggling to slit Triss's throat, as Triss's hands held both of Nayleen's wrists to keep her daggers away.

 

Cyial was the only one not having nearly as much trouble. With his paralysis spell, the only thing his enemy had a hold of was one of Cyial's wrists, but Cyial himself had grabbed the end of the tail before the tip with the same wrist, so it was incapable of doing any damage. He had his enemy pinned down on the ground still, but was too preoccupied to help the other two.

 

Saireks' eyes squeezed shut as he clenched his teeth, prying at her tail with all of his strength he had in reserve inside of his body from what happened to him, but he soon found it too difficult just to keep his arms up. Sairek's prying weakened and eventually his arms slowly dropped. This brought fourth another laugh from Natalia as she was literally squeezing the life out of him.

 

"Nice try Prince... but you really should have just ran away... You should know that Succubus's just love strangling the life out of kids like you..."

 

Sairek forced his eyes open, craning his head downwards to stare at Natalia in anger. "E...Enough...!" Sairek grunted out. The jewel on his hood soon began to glow a bright white, which made Natalia raise a curious eyebrow before she screeched out in pain, instantly letting go of Sairek and jumping away from him. There was a light bubble around Sairek that was nearly invisible, but there was a slight sparkle around his form in that could be seen as well; as the bubble being a very faded tinge of light brown, but it only lasted a few seconds before it dissipated. Sairek coughed a bit, rubbing his throat as he reached over for his staff and pushed himself up onto his feet, nearly having trouble just doing that, but he did his best not to let it show..

 

"An Ethereal barrier...?!" Natalia shrieked out in sheer surprise. "Almost all barriers are ridiculously difficult spells to cast let alone maintain! How is it possible that a brat like you - Prince or not - possibly cast that?!"

 

"It wasn't me..." Sairek muttered in anger. "It was my mother's jewel..."

 

"Your mother?! Your dead mother!?"

 

"Oh yes, she was very good at magic, even better than my father was..." Sairek said through panting breaths. "The thing she left behind for me sure can cast emergency spells on a whim when I need it most." Sairek said heatedly to her.

 

Natalia's left eye twitched in anger. She grinned soon though. Her tailed slapped into the wooden floor, the tip splitting and chipping a chunk of wood from it making impact.

 

"No matter. You are already doomed, child. I don't need to try hard to subdue you... I'm not going to lose to a mere boy, even if they stripped most of my power by banishing me here!"

"If that is truly your belief, then come at me, wench." Sairek taunted with a motion of his hand.

 

Natalia growled angrily at the Prince. She once more, slapped her tail onto the floor. She soon let out a low chuckle as he hands rose up, crossing over each other as she gripped her own shoulders.

 

With a sickening sound, she dug her claws into her shoulders, causing blood to begin trickling down her shoulders and painting her claws. Sairek stepped back in surprise, his eyes tensed in alert as he watched Natalia. He gripped the staff with both hands tightly as he prepared himself.

 

Natalia soon suddenly lashed out her hands away from her shoulders, letting out a hiss of anger, as whips of blood attached to her finger tips lashed out at Sairek; the blood on her tips connecting these 'whips', a total of ten; one for each finger and thumb. Sairek quickly ducked his staff down, and rose it up, yelling out "Ethirul!" As out of the ground, breaking away from the wooden floor, a wall of caked dirt rose up to block the whips.

 

Sairek yelled out when the magic simply shot through the hard crusted dirt he had created as a shield. He tried to maneuver out of the way but each whip, five for each side, quickly entangled themselves around both of Sairek's arms. The boy grunted out as they both pulled, spreading his arms out at shoulder length; his staff still being held with his right hand. Natalia pulled Sairek forward with enough strength that he lost grip with his feet on the floor, his body was moving forwards towards the mound of dirt, and he quickly dispelled the magic holding the earth up, as the dirt fell away. He continued being pulled forwards before he breathlessly cried out as Natalia had held up her knee and pulled Sairek's stomach straight into it.

 

"Bl...Blood... magic...?" Sairek weakly gulped out as he struggled to breathe.

"Oh yes. You see, blood magic exists between both of our worlds. So even though I can't cast any magic owned in the demon world, I can still use at least that. And trust me boy, I am very good at it..."

 

The struggle between Nayleen and Triss was coming to a close and not in Nayleen's favor. She still had the tail wrapped around her throat and by now she was slowly losing the battle and she knew it.

 

Triss believed she was winning as well and soon began to over power Nayleen, pushing against her so she would no longer be pinned. Nayleen willingly let go with her unarmed hand, and reached to her waist to pull out her second dagger from its sheath on her left side. As she pulled it out, she maneuvered her body quickly to the right, which stretched Triss's tail along since Nayleen's throat was farther away. The tail was primed for the blind swing Nayleen threw behind her with her left handed dagger.

 

Triss screeched in horror as Nayleen felt the pressure release off of her throat. She quickly yanked the remains that was once Triss's tail off of her before Triss squirmed so much, it threw Nayleen off of her onto the floor. The succubus hissed loudly, grabbing the end of her tail which was bleeding, although not at a rapid pace due to how thin it was.

 

Busy with her pain and distracted, Nayleen slowly stepped closer so she wouldn't attract attention. It was only a little bit before she rushed as fast as she could at Triss. The succubus looked up and quickly stepped back just as Nayleen had swung both of her daggers across. Nayleen kept up the assault, as she lunged forward in a thrust, forcing Triss to side step, which Nayleen followed up with a spin, as she suddenly threw one of her daggers at her.

 

Triss's eyes widened as she side stepped, but her reaction time too slow as the dagger imbedded itself into her left shoulder. She didn't even get time to scream, as Nayleen continued the assault, jumping up into the air and flipping herself around as her heel dropped on top of Triss's head, the succubus cried out as she crashed into the ground. Nayleen landed on a crouch as she rolled herself over, pinning the succubus down as she grabbed her thrown dagger out from Triss's shoulder; letting the blade rip through her shoulder like a knife through hot better; forcing the succubus to cry out in pain once again.

 

Cyial grunted out as he was still fighting against the incubus; who too was also grunting out in effort trying to fight both Cyial and a paralyzing spell.

 

"This is... ridiculous... I Palid will not be beaten by a mere child in terms of strength!"

 

The incubus bit his own tongue, drawing blood out. Cyial didn't think it would be blood magic that was to be used. Palid opened his mouth and Cyial cried out in pain as a stream of blood; like a type of beam shot out of his mouth and hit Cyial in the right shoulder. It burned like hot acid and the demon boy lost his concentration as he gripped his shoulder. Palid's blood covered the wound, but there wasn't any of his own. It was the only good news he had thought as Palid soon overpowered Cyial, lifting the child up into the air as he was thrown off onto his back and crashed into the wooden floor on his back.

 

Palid stood on his two feet and opened his mouth yet again. Cyial quickly rolled once around out of the way as the beam of blood splat on the ground. Cyial held his book up as Palid began to launch another shot. The Acolyte chanted out "Ralopa!" as a dim green bubble formed in front of his book. The beam hit the bubble and bounced off to the side, which hit Natalia square in the back. The succubus let out a gasp of pain, as her head shot towards Palid with an angry glare.

 

"You IDIOT!" She hissed. "Watch where you are aiming!"

Sairek quickly wiggled and struggled as best as he could as she was distracted and reeled his feet back, before launching them both out in front of him into a powerful kick at Natalia's side. She grunted out as she lost her balance and was thrown back a small distance from the force of the kick as she crashed into the wooden floor. With the concentration on her magic broken. Sairek to his relief was released and dropped back on to the floor where he stumbled and nearly fell over himself, but managed just in time to catch himself by planting his staff down and leaning some of his weight on it.

Natalia turned back around to face Sairek, but he was already on the offensive by the time she did. Sairek, having recovered somewhat, launched his staff out into a swing; the weapon's head slamming into her face, rearing her head back to her right side. Sairek flipped the staff around, the end of it bunting her jaw, jerking her head upwards. Sairek then brought his staff back, quickly charging up energy for a spell before she could counter back in any way.

"Vulkenhei!" Sairek shouted, swinging his staff so it hit her square in the stomach, her eyes widened as she was thrown harder into the floor, splintering it underneath her. With the wood under her broken, Sairek quickly raised his staff as he soon shouted "Ethirul!"

From the floor, another patch of dirt rose in a wall-like shape easily giving away from under her, but Sairek shifted the dirt further. The flat wall expanded, as a tip rose out of the wall. It wasn't necessarily a spike for it wasn't a sharp tip; but it was the same shape. With further shifting of the dirt, the dirt grabbed Natalia from pushing her up into pushing her sideways into the flat tip. Natalia crashed into it; crying out in pain, as she fell to the floor. Her spine had been paralyzed from the damage. Sairek released Ethirul as his hands dropped to his knees and he panted in exhaustion. His left arm rose up, wiping light sweat that was forming on his forehead.

"Ugh... This combat is too taxing on my body without Ethereal to sustain it... I can't keep up like this... I feel like I'm slowly suffocating for air the more I move... But it looks like we won..."

Sairek glanced towards Nayleen, as Triss was still pinned down; she was bleeding quite badly everywhere by now; as despite her position, she tried to fight Nayleen, who had no choice but to inflict more wounds into her with her daggers to keep her still. She too, was out of the combat as long as Nayleen kept her pinned to make sure she didn't try anything.

The only ones left was Cyial and Palid. Palid seemed to have given up on shooting beams of blood at the Acolyte and instead rushed towards the boy who got up on his knees. Palid threw a punch down towards Cyial, who once again shouted out "Ralopa!" as he held out his book to block the attack. Palid's fist hit the book, and he nearly tripped as his hand was shot hard to the side, nearly knocking him off balance. Cyial planted his hands on the ground while still holding the book, as the Acolyte spun himself around; his own tail lashing out as it wrapped around Palid's left leg; the tip stabbing through his pant leg. Cyial then pulled as hard as he could with his tail, sending him on the ground on to his back.

 

Palid was about to retaliate, but a staff was soon thrust right in front of his face, stopping him. Palid’s eyes moved up to look over at Sairek who was standing there with the staff held in a threatening position.

 

“Sairek…” Cyial panted out as he still held Palid’s leg tightly with his tail.

 

Sairek’s head looked up around the room, looking at Natalia, who was struggling to lift herself up; Triss who was slowly bleeding out and then back to Palid on the floor.

 

“You fought my judgement and failed…” Sairek hissed out in a whisper. “Prepare to face the consequences for such foolish actions… You shall all be damned to oblivion; This world does not need such fools who think they have as such prestige to challenge me just because I am a child!”

 

“We… We’re sor--" Palid began.

 

Sairek let out a growl of anger as his foot rose up, stomping on top of Palid’s chest as hard as he could. The grown incubus cried out in pain as Sairek bent down to one knee to look at Palid’s eyes with his own heated ones, while making sure he put all his weight forward on the foot that was on top of the man’s chest. “Sorry? Is that all you have to say?” Sairek let out as if surprised rather than angry. “You all planned an assassination against me if anything! You all poisoned me you all tortured me, you all locked me in a closet and had left me to hang and suffocate! you have resisted my judgement and you say sorry?! Don’t make me laugh! What an epic sham you lot are! Aside from that, those are only just the crimes you three have done against me! The fact that at least you were wearing robes from the Monastery means you either stole them, or hurt someone else to retrieve those clothes! You will be sent back to the underworld into the place where even demons such as yourselves fear; you have proven that even in both realms your existences are nothing but worthless and are not worth sustaining!"

 

Sairek stared at Paldin in silence for a few more seconds before the Prince spat on his face in disgust. Sairek gave the incubus one last heated glare before he pushed himself up on to his own two feet. The Prince looked at Cyial, who still had his tail imbedded and wrapped around his leg.

 

“Release him now, Cyial. There’s no reason to stain yourself with such blood.” Sairek ordered calmly. Cyial slowly nodded, slowly the tip of the tail slid itself out, bringing out a groan of discomfort from Palid. Cyial’s tail tip was drenched in dark red from the man’s blood. The Acolyte also released the coil of his tail as he slowly pushed himself up on two his two feet; his eyes looking back at his tail, his hand still gripped over the blood splattered spot on his robe. Sairek stepped in front of Cyial, staring at the spot.

 

“Are you alright?” Sairek asked with a hint of worry in his voice. Cyial slowly nodded his head and then grinned slightly.

“All of this blood is his blood; none of it is mine.” Cyial answered. "It stings but I will be fine before the end of the day."

 

Sairek let out a light chuckle as he soon walked over towards Nayleen and Triss. Nayleen too was drenched in quite a bit of blood due to Triss still slowly bleeding out, which had made a small pool on the floor. Sairek’s eyes looked at Nayleen. “I suppose the same goes for you as well?” The child asked. Nayleen nodded in response and Sairek bent down to Triss, who by now had gone unconscious. The Prince lifted his head to look at Nayleen. “Do you know how to dress her wounds?”

 

Nayleen’s face scrunched up a bit at the question. “Why would I want to give medical attention to someone who tried to hurt you, let alone you're going to be banishing anyways?”

 

“It’s not that I want her to survive and be alright,” Sairek commented. “It’s that I don’t want her to die before I banish their souls. If she dies before then, her soul is going to escape. Aside from that, we will have to lug them back to the Monastery. I prefer to not have the streets or the Monastery be soiled because she was bleeding… If somebody spots the blood on the streets, it will raise questions. No, these three are simply going to vanish from this realm.”

 

“I guess that’s a good enough reason… I can probably do it from the sheets in this room. It will take a while though.”

 

“How long?”

 

“Fifteen minutes average.”

 

“Alright,” Sairek said, as he turned himself around once again, finally walking over to Natalia. Once again the Prince bent down to be more leveled with her.

 

“I want no damn lecture…” The succubus spat in anger.

 

“And you’re not getting one." Sairek said flatly. "I have no need to waste my breath or time to those who are soon going to be damned. You will learn your lesson there... sooner or later. You will have all of eternity to think about your actions."

 

"Say what you want, boy. I don't really care." She shot back.

"Then you die with the absence of any dignity." Sairek responded with a shrug. "That is your problem, not mine."

"Dignity?!" Natalia spat angrily. "What dignity does this world or the underworld possibly have? You can try to deny it all you want, Prince, but we demons are just the same as humans. Selfish; arrogant and ignorant... Evil. All of us. Yet you humans look down on all of us just because we are something different?"

"If we are the same, then I don't see why you believe you are quibbling and trying to rationalize your own actions. Do you believe two wrongs make a right? Believe what you want; however just because I am a human does not mean you can stereotype who I am for what I am. I didn't do the same for Cyial and I don't plan to do that with anyone. You trio have already proven that you are the disgusting maggots of what my race stereotypes you to be. You have done nothing but strengthen the belief of what other people think of your race with your actions. If you want humans to believe that demons or monsters of any kind are good, then you have brought nothing but distasteful dishonor to that cause. I didn't come attack you, you came and attacked me. Your actions were not out of any sort of self-righteousness. It was out of greed and evil. Stop wasting my time with ostentatious nonsense. You must still think of me as a fool to listen to the empty ramblings of a jealous individual."

"Jealous?" Natalia sneered. "Wasn't it you who was the jealous one?"

Sairek stayed silent as he continued to looked at her, his expression didn't even shift as he allowed her to continue.

"Always jealous about the 'freedom' other people had, right?"

Sairek's expression still didn't change, but he didn't remain silent this time.

"I don't know what you know about that, but I do not recall ever saying that I was perfect. I know I have flaws. I acknowledged some of them just last night. Perfection is nothing but artificial. We, as living creatures are not artificial and therefore we cannot possibly be perfect; it does not exist for any living creature on who walks on earthen soil or swims in any kind of liquid, yet we try to define the 'perfect person'. What may be the perfect wife for one man, could be something the other man finds flawed. Perfection is not a set fact, it is but a differing opinion. There will always be an idea that not every single person could possibly agree on. I don't know what point you are trying to make about who I am as a person, but it is nothing but moot."

 

It looked like Natalia was trying to think of something to say but no words came out. Seeing that she wasn't going to respond, or couldn't think of anything to respond with, Sairek soon turned around and leaned against the wall. He felt like he needed to or he would fall over. He closed his eyes, simply trying to relax as much as he could while he waited for Nayleen to finish.

"Sairek, I'm done." He soon heard Nayleen say.

The Prince pushed his back from the wall and walked past Natalia as he looked at Nayleen. "Alright," he acknowledged. He began to walk off, but he soon couldn't move his leg. He looked behind him, seeing that Natalia had grabbed onto his left ankle.

"Let me go, now." Sairek threatened through clenched teeth.

"Or what? Natalia sneered angrily. "What else worse can you possibly due to me Prince? As far as I see it, you can't give me any more consequence. Why should I let you go, huh?"

"You really don't want to be damned that badly, don't you?" Sairek muttered quietly. "You are trying to provoke me to kill you here and now so you can avoid oblivion..."

"If you don't kill me now, then I will kill you!" She growled angrily, soon trying to sink her claws through his pant leg. The cloth was too padded with leather underneath for the claws however to even begin piercing through it though.

Seeing her nails didn't seem to cause any harm at all as she looked up into the boy's face and only saw a dull look at the attempt, she lowered her hand down and tried to dig her claws into Sairek's boot instead. The leather was thick enough to stop her sharp claws from doing any harm or even sinking in at all. Sairek only watched her struggle to hurt him in some way.

"If you feared the judgement, why did you take the risks?" Sairek spoke as he stared down at her. Your greed has doomed you all. Believe me when I say this is not a choice I'd like to make. Rather, it was you who made the choice. I am a sympathetic person, Natalia... but I am not stupid. I admit, had you not attacked us the second time and sincerely apologized when we all had you pinned, I may have actually let the three of you go and forgotten the entire thing, other than making sure guards were watching you at least until we left the city. You have shown me that there is no hope for you to be rehabiliated in this world, just as there was no hope for you in the underworld. I didn't make the choice to banish you. The three of you did, together." Sairek shifted a little, although he kept the boot she had a hold of planted on the ground in place still.

"Well... in the end, I did say I would have you begging me for death, didn't I? You should have taken my word." Sairek then rose his staff up into the air, the bottom tip of it slamming down on the back of Natalia's head. She fell limp after the contact and her grip on his leg let go nearly instantly. The Prince had knocked her out cold.

Walking away from Natalia as her hand slid off of his ankle, Sairek walked back towards Nayleen as he looked at Triss; her wounds wrapped with several ripped pieces of sheets to stop her wounds from bleeding. He was about to speak when he soon heard more footsteps outside approaching. Sairek turned to the opening of the house, going into his formal stance seconds before soldiers arrived at the door. Five of them in total entered inside the room.

"We heard commotion!"

"What's going on in here?!"

Sairek resisted the urge to bury his face in his left hand."Sweet lands... This city and its security is absolute crap... How long did it take for the sentries to respond to all of that? We must have been here for at least half an hour now!" Sairek thought to himself.

 

"That is not normally you greet your superior..." Sairek decided to say. The soldiers soon released it was Sairek, the Prince and all instantly saluted.

 

"Yes, Master Apprentice!"

 

"We are sorry Master Apprentice! It will not happen again sir!"

 

Sairek rolled his eyes before pointing at the unconcious Natlia, then the now unconscious Triss, and then Palid who just lay there, seemingly accepting his fate. "See these three here?" Sairek said, "These three have ambushed me. They have committed treason along with various other crimeful acts. I have dealt with them myself and have decided their punishment. The judgement is banishment to Nifelheim via ritual at the Monastery. Take them there. Make sure all three of them are awake and alive before the ritual begins. If they die before the banishment they will not be able to be banished and will escape their crimes."

"Yes Prince..." One of the soldiers said, saluting to Sairek. The other four soldiers followed the salute. Three of the soldiers went over to the three demons, picking them up; one of them confining Palid as he was the only one who was still conscious.

Sairek lead everyone out of the building, leading them back to the Monastery, although eventually Sairek fell behind as the soldiers took the lead. Nayleen and Cyial stayed with Sairek. Eventually Sairek slowed to a complete stop, holding his staff with two hands as he stared at his feet.

"Are you okay?" Cyial questioned Sairek. He sluggishly shrugged in response.

"Yes... physically, I suppose... I'm not sure on the inside though... I don't know if I am making the right decision... Is it impossible for people, demon or human to redeem themselves despite the crime...? Should I be giving them a chance still...? This... this isn't just punishment... like sending someone to a dungeon to pay via time... This is an execution.
"...I'm too young to be deciding an execution, aren't I...? I don't want to have that control over lives..."

Sairek clenched his teeth as he clutched his staff with both hands tighter. "Do I really have the power to end lives just because I said so...? Do I have the right to do that...?"

"As far as I can see, they deserve it, Sairek. They wouldn't have shown you any mercy, why should you show them it instead?" Nayleen mumbled.

"It's like I just said to that one succubus though, her name is Natlia... 'Two wrongs do not make a right'..." The boy muttered as he let out a sigh.

Cyial stepped up as he glanced at Sairek and quietly spoke. "I don't think anyone is beyond redemption... but you should choose what you believe in."

Sairek let out a groan in frustration. "I'm not sure what I believe in anymore...! I'm... I'm sorry... I need time to think..."

"Sairek?" Nayleen let out worriedly as the boy quickly spun around from the two and soon began to walk away from them. Neither of the two attempted to chase after Sairek though as he disappeared around a corner. Cyial only let out long sigh.

"...It's too much for him to handle... He's trying to be an adult when he is still a kid..." Nayleen muttered quietly.

"You think so too?" Cyial spoke softly in response. Nayleen slowly nodded her head. "I think Sairek knows it too..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Hmm, glad to see you're beginning to finally awake. Now the ritual can finally begin..."

"Wh...What...? What do you mean?!"

"Yeah, what the hell, old man! You are supposed to be on our side!"

 

"Do not call me old man. I called my father that. You three failed. You lost to mere children. Even if one is supposed to be special while he holds that gem, I can't risk weak fools to endanger my plan. After all, that gem is merely a magical rock that sparkles."

 

"One of those "children" were yours! Why didn't you advise him not to go?!"

"It was you who made him stronger in the first place too! You didn't have to give him power like that! The ritual could have simply failed!"

"Oh, but it was a very valuable success for my purposes. At that, you had a chance to finish him and you were too caught up with you sexual desires to do so. It was me who freed you in the first place; it was me who saved you from damnation and yet you dare jeopardize my plan to fill your needs?!"

"No, that wasn't... please...!"

"I must say... I'm glad he ordered there to be a ritual to get rid of you three... I could have gotten rid of you anyways without one, but now I get to be rid of trash while keeping everything hidden."

"Please, don't do this!"

"Stop! Give us one more chance, please forgive us!"

"AHHHHHHH!!"

Author's Note

Chapter last updated on: January 31st, 2013

- Plenty more typo fixes

- Lots of description changes (because a lot kind of didn't make sense)

Changelog [Febuary 17th, 2012:

- A few typo fixes,

- Some descriptions changed to be a bit clearer (not very many) as well as some descriptions that were technically impossible (I.E. fixing Sairek having his hands run through his hair in frustration when his staff was behind held with both hands)

- Increased the length of conversation between Natalia and Sairek

- Minor changes in other bits in dialogue