A loud thud from a door; standing in the doorway is Celia, hands on her hips, looking with a furious stare. I’m in for it now.
“What in all levels of hell!” She was clearly upset.
“I won.” I simply replied.
“You-I-Whatever. Just get in here so I can fix your arm. And THEN I will scold you properly!” Celia storms back into the living room. I follow behind her with Mei, who has been silent and avoids discussion.
Sitting at the table, Celia grips my wrist tightly and removes the makeshift bandage. There is a nasty wound from both ends that is still bleeding. Celia sighs briefly, just accepting what happened. I noticed a look of displeasure before she closed her eyes, a warm sensation that quickly turned hot as she recited some unknown words. Speaking in her native tongue, Celia casts a spell; the words flutter out, and a single dark blue flame bursts from her hand, rapidly reaching out and wrapping around the wound. The pain was uncomfortable, but it carefully burned the wound to close.
“How’s that feel?” Celia speaks softly.
“It hurt, but I have taken worse before. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I am, by normal standards, a pretty young Demon. For how long we can live, magic has been a staple of our society. Ambition and our curse drove our standing in magic and power.”
“Curse? Are you talking about the Blood Rite?”
“Yes…” Her voice trails off. The very mention of it caused agonizing memories to flood into her mind. “My father, a general in the Demon Army, disowned me for my distaste for the Blood Rite. Can’t say I blame him; I know its power and how much it grants a Demon-kin, almost enough to rival a lord if the consumption is vast.”
“I’ve read about it. Eating the flesh of creatures, mainly elves and humans, grants you impeccable strength and magic. It also allows for your life to last longer, another reason the Blood Rite was renowned in the Demon realm. It’s intoxicating.”
“That’s just another word for the curse. The Blood Rite isn’t the consumption of creatures. It’s the consumption and devouring of your blood.”
“W-What?”
“When the first Demon King died, his children and their children moved to the continent that is now the home of the Demon-kin, settled on a land that had barely any life. It didn’t take long before they soon became feral and attacked each other. It didn’t take much for a single Demon to sink its teeth into the flesh of another Demon, consuming its blood and flesh. Once they swallowed, they began to change into something much different—monstrous strength and power are untold in the history books. Cannibalism became ingrained in Demon-kind culture for years. Until the rise of the second Demon King.”
“Demon King Raiden.”
“Precisely. His thunderous announcement on his evolution to his status made him turn the feasting of flesh to be called the Blood Rite. But the population was dwindling as the years had the population killing themselves for power. His solution was to appease the people but also keep the curse alive by turning their teeth and claws on the creatures that pushed them to this edge.”
“The Second Demon War, Blood Rain.”
“The skies were red; the Demons would bathe and drink from the blood-filled sky every day, granting them their strength. However, their overindulgence blinded them to the fact that the power gained from other creatures was minimal compared to their own kind. This fatal flaw in the curse caused the end of Raiden when he attempted to reach a new level of magic.”
“The Crimson Flash, the cursed magic. It consumed his body when he attempted to use it.”
“What you don’t know is that it worked.”
“It did?”
“Yes, it did; however, since they had stopped devouring themselves, his body wasn’t nearly strong enough to resist the blowback of using magic, especially one as powerful as the Crimson Flash. It is said that he turned to ashes just after, but I was told through my father that he killed an ancient Dragon with one use of that magic. It tore through its scales and obliterated the creature. The humans used the Dragon in the war to help aid in their efforts. Raiden soon turned to burnt ash at the same time he killed the Dragon. With the King dead, the Demons and the lords who were left alive retreated to the continent where the next wars years to come led us to here.”
“And you distaste the Blood Rite?”
“I disagreed with the reliance on such a curse to keep us immortal and powerful. If you only live to consume, you will doom yourself to gluttony. It makes us no better than wild monsters and creatures. I still managed to become a captain in the Army. But it wasn’t long until the current Demon King, Dragor the Obsidian, fell by the Knights of Heistorm under the command of the royal Queen and King of that time. His death gave birth to the rank and order of those Knights to become Obsidian Knights. Of the close to a thousand who went into that suicide charge, only a small group of six who survived that battle and killed the Demon King were granted that title. I watched them kill the King, and soon after I was discovered, wounded and unable to fight, I…” Her voice trails off like a powerful sting has stopped her from speaking.
“It’s quite alright; you don’t need to say more, Celia.”
“Sorry, I was supposed to take care of you.” She begins to apply the ointment and soon properly bandages the wound. “My husband saved me that day…”
“You had a husband?” I was shocked.
“Demons believed in giving offspring, but pairings were more for reproducing than bonding. However, my husband was a tall and strong human; his demon blood was truly worthy of being a warrior. I fell in love with him before the war got bad for us…”
