Being of Fire, Chapter 6

(Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5)

You can't even begin to imagine how boring it is to rule the whole world. I mean, after I burnt everything to a crisp, there was nothing else to do. Nothing else to burn, everything was alread ash, either that or covered in it. I decided to build myself a castle from the bricks that remained. I fould a whole lot of bricks, built them into a castle and collected all of the metal that i could find. I covered the castle in the metal and melted it to fit. I gatherd coal and put it into the melted metal as it solidified. It was a genius idea really. I held my sword in both hands, one hand on the handle, the other on the blade. My Masamune is completely indestrucable and blocks any sort of magic, so when I tried to unleash all of my power through it, it simply held it back and built up pressure inside of me. I reached a point where the pressure was almost unbearable and then, all at once, I unleashed all the heat and pressure upon my castle of coal. I had instinctively closed my eyes and when I opened them, my once black castle was a blazing red. The red slowly faded to reveal a castle of diamonds that sparkled in the flickering light of fire like stars in the darkest sky. I did this again to the other side of the castle and waited for it to cool. 

That was months ago now and I've been living in my diamond castle in the middle of the Lut Desert ever since, only venturing outside to visit my little farm of humans that I've kept alive purely to feed on. So that's what I was doing one day. I had my fangs out, sword strapped to my back when I heard a smooth voice calling from behind me. "Lucifer." I raised my head towards the sky and turned to face the man who so rudely interupted my delicious meal. My eyes were pitch black and stod out against the blood that coverd and dripped from my mouth against my large fangs. I hissed. "Oh please be civilised."  The man wore an expensive looking blue suite that was covered in golden lace and jewels. 

"What." I said. He was a vampire, I could smell it.

"Giovanni demands an audience with you." Giovanni! Oh God, I had completely forgotten about Italy! It was the only country that I hadn't completely destroyed. Despite my complete shock at the realisation that I had forgotten my whole purpose in this world, I played it cool.

"'Kay. Now tell me, Who are you?"

"My name is Lucien, I am Giovanni's personal assistant, if you will." It was a demeaning job for a vampire, but he seemed to carry it as a noble title. Now I'm not one for ancient vampire laws or anything, but that pissed me off a little.

"Poor you, being stuck in such a demeaning job, one fit for a human more than a vampire."

"Oh, I don't see it that way, in fact, I think it's an excellent job. Giovanni and I are more friends actually, brothers even."

"Ha! I doubt that. Now go away and let me finish eating."

"Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said, Giovanni demands an audience with you. Right now."

"Well perhaps you didn't hear me. I said, go away and let me finish eating!" Lucien barked a word of magic and I fell to my knees in pain. My head was pulsing as my hands reached up to stop it from exploding. Anger rose within me as I looked into his eyes and charged at him as I tried to engulf him in flames, but a wall of water stood in my way. I stopped inches away from it and watched as it fell to the ground again. Lucien was standing there with a book in his hand, wait, did he have that book before? I stood up straight and held my palm out towards him, he did the same to me. This move was one of my personal favourites, and one that I had thought of and taught myself almost as soon as I gained my powers. I sent as much power as I could to my hand and held it there, prevednting it from escaping. I was staring straight into Lucien's eyes but I could still see my hand glowing a deep blue. Lucien, on the other hand, still held his palm towards me while reading from the book in his other hand. Azure rings began to appear around his feet and the wrist of the hand that was pointed towards me. Runes from a time long past hung shimmering in the air around the rings, buzzing with power. I held back my power for a few more seconds before unleashing millions upon millions of tounges of blue flame from my hand and watched as they all shot towards him but stopped just before they hit their target. Why? Well, it was only as I'd expected. You see, Lucien, before he became a vampire, was a powerful sorcerere. which explains the book that appeared out of nowhere and his whole wall of water, but this, I'd never seen before. As my flames stopped infront of him, a great hand emerged from his, but it was not his own. The hand reached out and dug it's claws into the ground, tearing at the Earth to pull itself forward. While my flames vanished from the air, I held my sword on my side with both hands and fed all my power into it. When the hand was half way towards me, I slashed upwards towards Lucien and released all of the pressure that had built up. A wave of white hot flames was sent out, cutting deep into the Earth. They flew straight through that hand and straight through Lucien too. He stood there, motionless, all the magic around him was gone now. He just stood there, book in hand, hand out-stretched, pointed towards me. I saw the smile creep across his face and watched the small trickle of blood flow from his mouth. His upper body slid off of his lower body and landed on the ground with a moist thump while his lower body stood there swaying, and eventually, it too fell to the ground. I walked towards the man whose body had been completely cut in half. I picked up his book and tried to read it only to find that it was in an old language that I couldn't understand. Before I could even begin to try and understand the first sentence, the book burst into flames.

Italy was always a nice place, actually, it was my most favourite place in the world, but now that it's my world, it's almost like an alien planet. They even organised a welcome party for me! A whole army of humans that have been blooded. They're only half-vampires, but I'm sure that they'll be easier to kill than humans. I stood on what used to be the Austrian-Italian border a few feet from Italy, watching the army that had gathered on the other side of the border. I lifted up my arms in a way that looked like I wanted to give them a hug, but none of them wanted to give me one; it was almost like they couldn't cross the border. I clapped my hands and sent a vertical wave of fire flying towards them. It reached the border and exploded, sending embers in every direction except for over the border. A barrier. I look up and saw a white line across the sky that curved to coverthe whole border, I could easily jump it if i tried. I bent my legs and sprang up, propelling myself forward using flames. I went over the border and began falling back down to Earth, only to stop in mid-air. The barrier, as it turns out, was in the shape of a dome over the whole of Italy, but what was worse was that the whole country had gathered to occupy one area, and that area was wherever I was. They could look straight up and see me, and I could look down to see them. I rushed forward and sure enough, the crowd moved so that the exact centre was directly below me. At least they couldn't get me. Giovanni would be in the Vatican, so that's where I was headed.

I must have lost the crowd somewhere along the way because when I reached the Vatican there wasn't a single sign of human (or magical) life anywhere. Now, how to breach the shield. It was magic, and my masamune nullified magic, so if I... I thrust my sword into the barrier and the whole thing shattered into tiny shards of magic and scattered and sparkled like diamonds in the sky. I landed infront of the obelisk in St. Peter's Square and looked up to see a woman standing on top of it. She was wearing a black, long-sleeve dress, her hair blowing in the wind. She vanished in a puff of smoke which rushed at me. She reappeared from the smoke and looked me right in the eye. "Hey Angel" I said while she wrapped her arms around me.

"Lucifer! I haven't seen you in years! How was life in jail? Was it fun? Did you get plenty to drink?" She asked, overly-excited to see me. She was always like a sister to me, and she's still one of my best friends.

"It was fun, don't worry about me," I laughed. "Do you know where Giovanni is?"

"Yes, he's at the Colosseum. Why?"

"I need to do something, I'll be back though, I promise."

"Ok, I trust you, just don't do anything stupid, like burn the world to ash."

"A bit too late for that," I replied, laughing.

"What do you mean?" But it was too late, I was already gone and on my way to the Colosseum.

When I got to the Colosseum, there was a massive crowd surrounding it, all talking. As soon as the crowd saw me, a chilling silence filled the air and they parted for me, leading me towards the door. I walked through the Colosseum and reached the arena to see Giovanni standing there. The silence that had met me outside had followed me in, as if it were the silence of death. Giovanni looked different from what I remembered. He was wearing a tight, sleeveless black top and matching pants. He was barefoot and his long, black hair was streaked with silver and slicked back. His skin was smooth and flawless, contrasting with his piercing amber eyes. In his right hand he carried his very own Masamune. "Lucifer. It's been a while, old friend." He spoke in a cold, smooth voice.

"It has, hasn't it. Too long."

"Indeed, but it seems that today you'll die. That's a bit sad, don't you think?"

"Actually, I believe it's you that's going to die, but either way, it'll be fun."

"Oh come now, do you really think that you're a match for me? The great Giovanni da Verrazzano?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Do you think you're a match for me? The great Lucifer?"

"Great?"

"Well if you're great then I'm great." I said as I brought out my sword and slashed at the air between us, sending a wave of fire towards my target. The wave split in two as Giovanni slashed at it with his Masamune. 

"Now now, that won't do. You know that Masamunes nullify magic," he said smugly. He rushed forward and slashed at me. I ducked under him and sent a fist full of fire into his gut. He flew into the air, spinning as he went. As he fell back down to earth, he shifted his weight and landed on his feet. "Let's be real men here and fight hand-to-hand. No swords." He put his sword back into it's sheath and threw it to the other side of the arena. I did the same. I pushed at the air, sending fire towards him and illuminating the whole Colosseum in a blaze of orange and yellow. When the flames clear, Giovanni's gone. I look around for him, but he's nowhere to be found. "You're not the only one with powers, Lucifer," his voice whispered in my ear. I punched at the air where the sound had come from, only to find my fist pressing againt his. With a twist of my wrist I grabbed his arm and fed heat into him as he held onto my own arm. As I filled him with heat, I felt something cold being pushed into me. It wasn't the kind of cold that you get with ice, where it gets so cold it burns; it was a cold that felt empty and hollow, almost like death. "I have power of darkness Lucifer, you can't win." We let go of eachothers arms. His arm was glowing a bright red, while my arm had turned pure white. I threw a fireball at him, but he blocked every shot with a walls of shadow. I ran to get my sword only to be tripped up by a ring of shadows. I felt a sudden flash of pain as a blade made of shadows dug itself into my leg. I screamed as it travelled up my leg, slowly cutting it in two. I unleashed intense blasts of fire to send myself hutrling towards my sword. I grabbed it and cut at the darkness that was still inside my leg, instantly destroying it. My leg was completely cut in half. I burnt the wound closed, but I couldn't stop the pain. Giovanni sent a wave of darkness towards me. I raised my sword and cut the wave in half, but the jagged edges of darkness that were left cut into my arms. I was leaning against the wall of the arena, crimson rivers streaming down my arms, mixing with the pool that formed from the damage to my leg. It was time to end this. I reached deep inside and took all my pain, all my suffering, all the hate, sorrow, even what little fear I had ( which wasn't much), and concentrated it all towards Giovanni, who was walking towards me. As I was about to burn him to the ground, a dart of black shot from the sky. A blur of black feathers and blood unfolded before me as I remembered that I had once befriended a crow. When the crow had gone, Giovanni's face was covered in blood and scratches and his eyes were gone. I made my fingers into the shape of a gun and aimed it at Giovanni's head. I fired a thin, white beam of fire straight through his head and watched as the thin bean grew into a roaring inferno. 

The Colosseum had been full while Giovanni and I had fought, but they had always been silent. They were gone now. They left as soon as they knew Giovanni was dead. My inferno did leave some of them burnt and others dead though. I would have fed on them, but I couldn't move, I was in too much pain. I could feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness from the feeling of a leg that had been cut in half and countless cuts on my arms that reached down to the bone. I looked up at the sky, it was beautiful. Giovanni's dead body had collapsed a few feet away from me, a hole burnt through his head. I looked down at him just as his body vanished behind a veil of smoke.

"I knew an angel would come for me sooner or later," I laughed half-heartedly.

"Lucifer, you promised me you'd ome back. I waited a whole day and you never came back, so I came to find you," she said as she began to fix me and patch up my wounds properly.

"Thank you, Angel." I said. I drifted off to sleep while I watched a crow land on her shoulder.

Ruins

You return to this place every year for reasons that you can't explain. All that's left of the old city is an echo of it's former glory, far from the memories of your childhood. The once busy streets and market place are now empty. You shiver as you get further into the city, almost like the ghosts of all who died here are begging you to free them from these unforgiving desert ruins. You flinch as a small green lizard swiftly skitters across your foot and continues towards the other end of the street. On either side of the wide, sand and gravel path there are old, broken down houses with doors made of sand and decaying wood. An empty shell of a castle sits at the end of the street. Countless spires are still standing as they reach for the sky, longing to grab hold of what they lost of themselves. The doors of the great structure no longer stand where they once were, instead resting with the statues of different Gods that line the foyers walls. It's not the first time you've entered the hollow castle, but it's still as breath-taking as it is every time you visit.  You walk through the room towards the heavy wooden doors on the opposite side. Though the wood is rotting away, you still struggle to open them on your own. You manage to get them open and continue into the vast palace courtyard. The steps are made of bricks and as you climb down them you see that there's no shortage of grass growing between the square lumps or stone. In the middle of the yard is a well that's grown green with moss. The entire courtyard is filled with fauna. The ground is covered in grass, trees are growing in random places, some bear exotic fruit while some don't, and there's an abundance of flowers that seem to grow in beautiful every time you visit. The courtyard is the only place that wasn't hit by the disaster that happened here and has always been your favourite place in the town. You reach the well and as you touch it, all of the memories that you've hidden inside you come back out.

It happened when you were only a child. You were with your friends on the main street, back when there was life everywhere. The hot air was filled with the sound of music and the smell of food. You remember that you had just stolen some fresh bread from one of the market stalls and were running home when it happened. The sky went dark and everything stopped. Monsters emerged from the shadows, the likes of which haunt your nightmares to this very day. Their bodies were like deformed human skeletons covered with a thin layer of skin which looked exactly like paper. They rushed at you and everyone else around you, their sharp claws ripping through flesh. Everything sprang to life in an instant. People were running and screaming, pushing and shoving, crying and dying. You could only stand there as the horror unfolded before your eyes. The once yellow sand turned red with the blood of the people within the city. The beasts were attacking everything, not just people. One of the grotesque beings stopped in front of you, snarling. It's sharp claws dug into your arm, releasing you from your fear induced paralysis. That's when you ran towards the castle, it's spires untouched by time at that point. You ran through the open doors and squeezed through a small gap in the doors to the courtyard before turning to close the doors fully. You waited until the sky had cleared before you went back outside. You were greeted by a wave of death. Bodies lay everywhere along the streets, some half buried in sand. and so you ran, and you didn't stop until you came to the next town.

It's only now that you remember seeing skeletons on your way to the well. There was something odd about them though. You ask yourself what was wrong with the skeletons, but you can't place your finger on it. You try so hard to remember what was wrong with them, and that's when you realise. The skeletons were standing. Rows of human skeletons were standing along the sides of the street. Standing in front of the broken down houses whose doors were made of sand and bone, not wood. There were no statues in the foyer of the castle, only skeletons. Now you can see them. They're surrounding you, and you can see what they're thinking. You look into their empty eye sockets and you can hear the voices of a million souls speaking as one, repeating the same question over and over. "Why do you get to live?"  You flinch as you feel something brush against your hand. You turn to see the well and nothing else. You look inside it and see yourself as a child. Your heart drops as you finally realise what's happening, but it's too late. You look scared. Your eyes are wide and your heart's beating so fast and so hard that you can hear it, even though the well must be far too deep for you to be able to hear anything that's on the bottom. This isn't happening, you know that much. You turn around as you steep away from the well, only to find yourself face to face with a grotesque being. It's body was like a deformed human skeleton covered with a thin layer of skin which looks exactly like paper. It's hands, if you could call them that, end in sharp claws and you can feel the scars on your arm burn in the presence of what created them. It's skin is darker than the night sky, and it's eyes brighter than the sun and moon combined. You feel it's claws dig into your arm as a cool darkness engulfs you.

But you cannot die.

You can see it now, the ancient city. You return to this place every year for reasons that you can't explain. You always return, and yet, you know, deep down inside, that you can never leave this cycle of constant death. However, you cannot die. You refuse to die.