Chapter One

Through the eyes of the evil one.

The mighty ruler of evil sits in his throne with an evil smile beaming from his face. He closes his eyes and the large doors of the room slam shut. “The time is almost among us.” he says in a deep, growling voice. The black walls of the room suddenly burst into a roaring fire and the pentagram in the center of the room glows a bright red. Sithior rises from his throne as it burns like the rest of the room. “I have waited too long for my change of glory.” Strange symbols form from the flames along the wall. Sithior chuckles “Only one more passing and then not even the Guardian can stop me reign. Oh, how I have waited and lost much for this one moment,” he laughs “but it means nothing to me so long as I get absolute power. Tis a shame father could not be here, but his use had faded after the last great shift. I don't need fools to drag me down. At least his power added nicely to my staph. I suppose that was all he was good for.”

A loud, harsh bang echoed the room. “Lord Sithior!” shouts a demonic voice. “Lord Sithior, I request your presence, it involves your siege!” Sithior turns toward the door and the flaming walls fade back to still black. The pentagram ceases glowing and the large doors open harshly. A large, bulky, and spiky demon stands before him. The demon kneels to one knee with his head on his knee, much like the old knights of England did.

            “My great lord Sithior, I bring a message from Xeus, your general. He requests your presence to discuss the final plans for your invasion.”

            Sithior glares at him “and it was this news you felt you had to so rudely interrupt me with?”

            The demon raises quickly “but my lord-” he starts before he is engulfed in a black flame and spewed across the walls. Thick, black ooze and gore spray the walls and drips from the ceiling making dark, chunky puddles on the floor. Sithior walks down the hallway to one of his palace soldiers. The solider tries to keep from shaking as Sithior approaches him.

            “Clean this mess up or you are next” Sithior grows at him as he walks past him.

            “Yes my lord.” The solider replies and hurries down the hall to get further away from Sithior. Sithior gives a sinister smile as the solider hurries to clean the gore. He is well aware he rules his kingdom with fear and loves to watch the servants and soldier’s franticly run around trying to please him. With Sithior being a perfectionist in detail, even the slightest mistake could mean a horrible death for that demon. Sometimes Sithior will kill a demon, even if he fulfilled his orders, just to prove a point to another or for fun.

            Sithior enters a large, rectangular room with a long conference table in the middle stacked with many different maps, diagrams, notes, scrolls, and books. The room is lit by six large glass windows looking out to the palace courtyard. On the wall opposite to the door, a large, projected image of different galaxies and planets shine on the flat, smoothed stones.

“Mighty Lord Sithior” growls one tall, spiky demon with a navy blue cape and a diamond crown as he knees to Sithior. The rest of the demons in the room follow.

“General Xeus” Sithior acknowledges him as the demons raise. “Why have you summoned me?”

“Your greatness, we wish to discuss a few changes in the final plan” General Xeus begins “Everything is set to your specifications; however, galactic alliances have started to form all over. Even enemy empires and forces have sided together. The only possible way they would do that is if they knew they were both targets of an even greater force, but they can’t possibly know of our coming.”

“Of course they can’t know of our invasion you fool!” Sithior growls “at least not by themselves. Mortals do not know what happens in the Realm of Death. However, you forget there is one being who knows of us and our plans.”

“Who my lord?” asks one of the new members of the Demonic Force Committee; which is the group that plans all actions of the demons in the Realm of the Living and Death.

“That damned Guardian!” roars Sithior. A quick flash engulfs the room and the new demon explodes, splattering the windows and walls with blood and flesh.

One demon picks a piece of gore off his shoulder and eats it. “Heh, new guys” he scoffs “they know nothing, but taste pretty damn good.”

“That damned Guardian knows he cannot directly interfere with me unless I directly cause damage” growls Sithior “but do not worry general. The Great Shift is upon us and not even the Guardian can stop it. Our army is well equipped to take on any force. These alliances only make things more fun for us.” Sithior laughs evil “I should give the troops a bit more motivation before we send them off though.”

“Oh Lord Sithior that would be most wonderful” praises General Xeus “the troops are extremely eager to hear the voice of their grand leader.”

Sithior exits the room and walks back down the hall. The solider assigned to clean the gore had finished and was waiting for inspection. Sithior stops in front of him but does not look around. “You missed a spot” smiles Sithior and continues walking. The solider gasps and tries to run but screams and explodes, covering the area with fresh gore. “Just kidding” laughs Sithior.

Sithior emerges from the thick, mahogany doors leading to the platform on the highest tower in the palace. The massive palace, roughly the size of Maine, looks small from on top of the enormous one million stories tall tower in the center of the palace. Surrounding the palace walls is a sea of beasts, demons, war machines, evil spirits, and siege weapons of all kinds. The army surrounds the palace from all sides and stretches out beyond the horizon. The palace in is in the middle of the largest natural amputheater anywhere; thousands of miles of flat lands allow sound to travel to the very edge of the army. Sithior smiles at the sight of the largest gathering of evil beings since the first Great Shift when his grandfather succeeded in conquering the Realm of the Living, but fell to the first Guardian and lost his family in the Divine Banishment.

“Grandfather would be proud” Sithior chuckles to himself. He raises his arms and four giant horns silence the demons and shake the grounds with a tremendous echo. “Soldiers of the mighty army of evil!” Sithior yells to reach the ears of the demons. “Our wait for chaos and destruction is over! The time for war is now!” The demons roar triumphantly at the excitement of war. “The spread of evil will blanket the entire Realm of the Living with the blood and gore of all foolish mortals who dare to stand against you! No walls or forces will keep you out, the power of Sithior runs in each and everyone of you. If you fight with hate and put fear in the mortals, you cannot lose! My only order to all of you in the Realm of the Living: DESTROY ALL!”

“DESTROY ALL!” reply the demons like a massive battle cry, raising their weapons in preparation.

“Go now my soldiers. Destroy all living!” Sithior roars as the massive horns dismiss the battle ready demons. The tower shakes from the movement of the demonic army.

A single applaud comes from behind. “A marvelous speech my lord” compliments General Xeus. “Simple yet elegant for blood thirsty beasts.”

“Yes well, simple things for simple minds” comments Sithior. He turns to Xeus with a sinister smile, “now let us prepare for what really matters.”

“Of course my king” General Xeus says kneeling before Sithior with an equally sinister smile. Both beings vanish in a spontaneous engulfment of black fire.

Both reappear in black flames upon a raised stage in a very large square room. Sithior sits on a throne chair resting between two lit caldrons in the center of the stage. A large pentagram fills the entire wall behind the throne and has strange symbols in each of the star’s openings, but in the center of the star is a large ‘S’ that is curved at the top and bottom, but a diagonal line connect the two curves at an acute angles. Two quotation mark-like dashes rest at the sides of the S, with one curved up and one curved down. This is the most famous and feared symbol to all demons, the Symbol of Sithior. The symbol appears all over the room; on the banners along the walls, the caldrons at the entrance and on stage, on the chandeliers lighting the room from above, on the doors leading to the throne room, and on the throne itself. Sithior has many small ‘throne’ rooms throughout the palace serving different purposes, but this room is the GRAND throne room where he conducts all formal activates and business. “Servant!” Sithior roars.

A small demon runs into the throne room and kneels before Sithior. “Yes my king?” he asks in a child voice. He is a new servant for Sithior.

Sithior gives an evil smile. “I demand a drink. The blood of a female virgin.”

“Yes my lord” says the demon as he rises to leave.

“Halt!” Sithior orders. “Bring it to me…fresh” he chuckles. This means to bring the victim to him alive and stab their heart without cutting completely through it, then tear the flesh and ribs so the blood can drain out of the body without touching anything, making it the ‘freshest’ blood. It is incredibly messy and painful for the victim as they literally pump out their blood.

“B-but sir” stammers the little demon “I-I have never killed someone before!” His face is pale and eyes are huge at the thought of such gore for the first time.

“Do you question my orders?” growls Sithior. Any other servant would have been killed on the spot for back talking him, but he loves to see the terror in the young demon. He gazes over at General Xeus. Xeus rises to his feet and pulls a long, thick, spiked whip from his belt in preparation. Sithior raises his hand to halt Xeus.

“N-N-NO MY LORD!” shouts the little demon in terror. He stands and tries to keep his body from shaking. “I-I-I will bring it to you…f-fresh.”

The young demon hurries out of the room. A moment later he returns with a metal bucket, a jagged knife, and a fancy silver grail. Behind him a palace solider plods in dragging the chains attached to a young Earth girl wearing only ragged clothing and looks beaten, burned, and filthy. Her arms have long gashes with yellow, fungi-like infections around them. This girl was an Atheist on Earth who committed suicide by slicing her arms in a bathtub. She is thrown onto her knees before Sithior and the young demon places the bucket under her chest. She looks up at Sithior in terror as his evil grin widens. The young demon trembles as he bring the knife closer to her chest. The girl begins to scream and tries to escape, but the palace guard won’t budge. The knife cuts into her left breast and slides in until it punchers the heart wall. Blood runs down the knife and into the bucket. The girl screams in pain and the young demon begins to sob as he puts his fingers in the stab wound, rips the skin off and breaks the rub cage to let the blood drain into the bucket. The girl vomits from the pain and splatters it over the little demon’s legs. Streams of tears are running down both the young demon’s and the girl’s face. Sithior is laughing from all the pain and sorrow he sees before him. The joy of it is too much for him to contain.

“Feast on the remains of her body.” Sithior orders the palace guard after the bucket is filled and Sithior has his grail filled with the fresh blood.

“With great pleasure my lord” growls the solider kneeling to Sithior and throws the body over his shoulder. As the solider leaves he tears the arm off the girl and eats it.

“Excellent work for a first time” applauds Sithior to the young demon.

“T-thank you my lord” sniffles the young demon. Tears keep falling from his face as he cleans the excess blood and vomit from the floor.

“Enough!” shouts Sithior, causing both Xeus and the young demon jump. “I have had enough of your pitiful crying! It was enjoyable at first but now I grow tired of it. General Xeus, give this boy a new emotion.”

“I have been waiting to my lord” Xeus replys proudly.

He walks to the young demon as he tries to flee but violently grabs his neck. “Not so fast you little s**t.” General Xeus throws the demon on the ground and strikes him with the whip. Sithior closes his eyes and enjoys the sounds of the whip striking and ripping the young demon’s flesh with the screams of terror and pain spewing from him.

“That will do General.” Sithior orders after ten minutes of whipping and screaming. “Now leave us boy before I choose to kill you.” The young demon half crawls, half limps out of the room dripping black blood.

“And stop bleeding!” roars Xeus giving the boy one last crack of the whip.

“Enough Xeus!” orders Sithior. The fire in the cauldrons grows from the outburst. “I have had my fun. Now let us do what we came here to do.”

“Of course my lord” replies Xeus kneeling.

Sithior throws a black fire ball from his hand to the floor and engulfs the walls of the room in flames. “It is time we plan” Sithior begins, rising from his throne. “To kill the Guardian of Living once and for all.”

Author's Note

This is my unedited first draft of the chapter, NOT the final print. I WILL be editing the mistakes once I recieve the story back from being reviewed. This will give you the sense of what the chapter is about though.

Reviews

[Rachel Elizabeth]

Very intense for a first chapter, of which I enjoyed. Sithior is portrayed much as you've explained him to me.

[lover of Sirius]

wow, I cant say I've ever been interested in these sorts of genres, but this one has blown me away ( in a good way) I can tell that Sithior is an arrogant git, but i suppose being a ruler does that to you. I hope this Guardian you mentioned stops him in his plans, he deserves a painful lesson to be taught.
It is dark enough to fit the description of ruler of the Realm of Death, somewhere I wouldn't want to be any time soon to be honest (:
You have portrayed every character brilliantly, letting the fear run through everyone as Sithior passes, or talks to them.
Overall greatly admired by me.
Keep up the great work