Sunsets over Red Skies

being a demon has its rewards

Sunsets over Red Skies 

 

     Honor is all I had left; it needed to be served. I thrust the razor-sharp short knife deep into my gut. The pain was excruciating as I ripped and tore my belly open.  My guts, bile, and other intestinal slop, flipped flopped out of its bodily sockets and dangled in mid-air. It was just a matter of seconds before my life blinked out into oblivion. But it was in those seconds as death was about to wrap me in its eternal embrace that an entity took hold of my spirit, holding me forever captive to its nefarious whims. It set my physical body aflame, turning it to ash and dust; thus, denying me a proper ritual and burial. I would never be able to join my ancestors, none would ever be able find me. I was thrown off the Wheel, my soul was imprisoned in spirit: leaving me bereft of ever again being a part of the cycle of life, death and rebirth.  I was forever doomed to be a wandering spirit in thrall to Fujin, the indomitable Wind Demon of the North.

 

     The Demon Lord grabbed my spirit-body and lifted me up to its eye level. It looked at me with a mixture of pity and contempt. The demon laughed as It threw me on the ground where I landed before its feet. Without preamble Fujin said, “You now belong to me to do with as I will. I will rip your spirit in pieces and throw you in the pits of fire to suffer unending pain and misery if you ever disobey me in mind or spirit. Kneel unto me and give your vow of absolute fealty.”

 

     I was terrified, disorientated and vigorously agitated. I was in a state of shock and disbelief. I was looking up at this giant demon I only read about in fairytales and saw in nightmares as a child. If I had a physical body I would have shat and peed myself. I thought of myself as a great warrior, afraid of no one or thing. I was wrong. My illusionary body trembled before this god thing and I meekly gave it my knee. I swore my eternal obedience, devotion and loyalty to the great God-Demon of the Northern Winds. Any warrior worth his salt knows when to surrender against insurmountable odds. Pride was for the living not the dead. I was now one of those pitiful vassals I used to scorn when I made them bow before me. Karmic justice can be a cruel mistress.

 

     The Great Lord was pleased at my immediate capitulation. The Wind Demon commanded me to rise, it said, “You’ll be one of my champions, a wind spirit of the demonic caste. You were a great lord in the physical realms, you’ll now be a great one in the spiritual. You’ll command my legions in the northern skies.”

 

     I was to command legions of elemental wind demons! I must have gone mad. That’s not quite right, I prayed that I had gone mad or that I was in the last agonizing seconds of my life where my last thoughts threw me in this nightmarish hell. This was too absurd to be real.  But I knew that it was not so. It was all too nauseatingly real. I was stone dead and this was my new domain where I was a servant to one of its grand minions. I needed to come to terms with my situation. To accept my lot and even embrace it. That’s what a warrior would do.  Only hours before when I watched my empire go up in flames, I had made the decision to take my life, hoping to give amends those who died in my name, to honor my ancestors, and hopefully find peace in oblivion. That was not to be. I must have seriously pissed off the fleeting whims of the gods. They were now my sworn enemies, fleckless gods, soldiers of light, and angelic stooges that deserved eradication.

 

     I joined my armies as it prepared for battle. They gave me a soaring welcome. I was informed that an armada of ships belonging to those who served the light were on its way to give succor to their allies.  It was our mission to completely destroy them.  I was given a crash course on what we were capable of. I was impressed. I ordered a few battalions to create thunderous wind-storms. As the storm was building its strength an angelic force of fire angels attacked the storm attempting to burn it out. I called on the demonic caste of water spirits to put out the fires. The northern skies were ablaze as wind and water demons overpowered the fire angels. Some fell out of the sky and landed by the ships putting those ablaze as well. What irony.

 

     I powered the rest of my winds directly on this Spanish Armada. The ships were breaking apart, some sinking deep into the sea. Thousands of living beings were drowning. I was surprised that I reveled in their deaths. I called on Fujin to finish it off.  The power of his winds tore apart all the ships and sank them into the sea. I ordered the storms to stop and bowed before my Lord. The Wind Demon was pleased with my performance. It said, “You’ve adapted quite well.”  We both laughed and admired the sunset as it shone its waning blaze over a red sky on an empty sea.

 

     I’ve now been a wind demon over hundreds of years and climbed up to the ranks as Fujin’s most trusted, vicious, and most loyal general.  I’ve followed the warriors code and kept what honor I had left intact. I barely remember my days as a human but I do remember how I was ripped off the wheel of life. I bided my time, and ripped off Fujin’s head as it slept beside me. Fujin forgot his own rule: never trust or love another demon…