'a caelo usque ad centrum' (from the heavens to the center of the earth)

First chapter

It is important that you do not think of me as only a human, and as for her, well, she might not have been human at all. I don’t know if any of them were, to commit such crimes as they committed. The destruction of two souls, and of a love. Destroyed by the Gods Themselves.

When the Demons burst forth upon the land we had no defense, no safe-haven. They arrived with no prior warning, no signal. We were helpless, they were merciless. Our war was short lived. We were crushed and driven almost to the brink of destruction, and so we fled... in the beginning at least. They say the demon days lasted only thirteen in number, yet they so diminished my people, and the free people of my world, so that those of us who survived are a meager few hundred, where once we flourished at one thousand times greater that number.

The Demons came through a vast portal, ripped open is space-time by their shaemen. They flooded through the breach in a tide of death we humans could not suppress. No one knew where they had come from, or why the Demons had come to Nektar, where we humans had dwelt peacefully for eons. They began to kill us, one by one... like vermin... like parasites. Until we were almost exterminated, eradicated...

...But death isn't always a sure thing... life makes the rules, it contracts, it expands and it adapts. The huge death toll we suffered as a race is what triggered it. Deep within us, us last few survivors. It began. The Awakening. The inner ancestral eye of my people opened slightly, gazing around. It did not like what it saw. Our heritage, our spirit as a race began to respond, to fight back. And terrible anger was awakened. BLOODLUST, it sprang to our lips and into our eyes, painful fury and brutal wrath. This is what we sought... but as for what we became...

Near death, species extinction. This will change a race, that final charge before life blinks out. Its terrible final breath; our last stand, our kiss of death. Humankind disappeared. We began to evolve.

Titanaeux, the first. The bloodthirsty. The savior, soul-breaker. He was the first to change, our leader. Black flame lay within him, a red cloak draped across his back. More beast than man. He took the chance, when the enemy had all but smite us into dust, lingering in their overconfidence the demons were too slow in delivering the final blow. We fought back.

Led by Titanaeux we retaliated with talons and claws, shifting into ferocious creatures filled with shadow and tyrannical black rage. The bloodshed went on for days. To this day, one thousand years later, no plants or creatures live upon the Blood Plains, where my race left its mark, fought for its place.

Author's Note

Any criticism very welcome, even just to say you enjoyed it or didn't. Thanks