A Terrible Villain And Their Destiny

As the demon found themselves grappled and tumbling down into the basement by this massive walking automaton they tried their best to break free. Slamming their sword down across the back of the heavily armoured back proved fruitless. Flying was impossible with their wings wrapped in a bundle by the thing.

“Let go!” The demon screamed and then much to their surprise, it did.

It let him go by throwing him into the basement wall. The wall shook as he left an indent in the concrete from impact. The demon glared at the suit of armour with literal fire coming out of its eyes as they stepped out of the wall.

“Oh, goodie. A silly human toy to break.” He hissed.

“Who sent you?” A metallic throaty voice came from the armour.

“What? This toy can talk?” The demon sneered, before a chill ran down their spine. The Omen’s presence suddenly changed and the demon sensed it. The presence of divinity.

It wasn’t quite like the divine beings they were accustomed, it was different. Something more, something stronger. The demon suddenly took a step back and felt themselves going back up against the wall they pulled themselves out from.

“Who sent you?” The Omen, nay, Crux repeated as it was suddenly in front of the demon. With one quick motion it wrapped a gauntlet around the neck of the demon and squeezed. Bringing the demonic creature down to their knees. The demon saw fire being thrown down the hole they fell from.

“Nnrraarrghh!” The demon grunted as he wildly swung his sword at the armour.

More harmless clanging was all that resulted from the strike. As fire began to spread around and fill the room the demon realized just how wrong this was. The blade could carve through steel like air. Yet as hard as the demon swung the magical blade left no mark on the armour. This wasn’t just because of the enchantments on the suit of armour, this was because of whatever was living inside it.

“Answer.” Crux demanded as the grip tightened. The power of divinity was abundantly clear now and the demon feared for its existence now kneeling before this thing. The demon's sword turned to dust and all the demon could do was nod. Immediately after agreeing to talk Crux let the demon go, it dropped to the floor panting clutching at their throat.

“Talk.” Crux ordered, his presence striking fear down to the very core of the demon.

“I was ordered by King Szargosh.” The demon said quickly, shrinking back from the thing standing before them.

“Why? Why here, why now? That bowl is useless.” Crux growled out.

“They wanted me to test the mortals! See what the new generation have to offer!” The demon cried out quickly.

“Why test them?”

“I don’t know! The king just said that we needed to be careful of the heroes!” The demon said as they began trying to come up with an escape. The fire at this point was spreading, it completely covered the floor and was rising up to the walls. Neither of them were bothered by the heat, but maybe the smoke and flames could provide some type of distraction.

Crux knew enough about what was happening in this world that the comment made should make no sense. Bryson Coldwater was no hero, at least that’s not the intention of those in charge, though then again Sable Coldwater and Florence Marsh were supposed to be allies of the heroes.

Crux stopped his train of thought. Thinking of theories was useless, it wouldn’t get the job done. What was more important was dealing with what was in front of it. The disgusting hellspawn that was cowering for its life.

“What was your plan here with them? What else did you do?” Crux asked as the ceiling now began to start collapsing.

“To spread the word of demon lords and to fight and injure the kids. I was never going to kill them.” The demon said as they prepared their escape, “That’s it, that’s all I was told.”

Crux paused and pondered for a quick moment. The demon lords? Crux did not know enough of this world’s religions and pantheons to know what the demon meant exactly by that. Crux did encounter those demons when confronting Hallow and the king. They were likely those demon lords mentioned.

A wave of anger then washed over Crux. Those demons should have been dealt with when he first met them. As Crux was busy fuming with rage the ceiling broke apart atop them and a fiery chunk fell on the helmet of the armour. Using this moment the demon took their chance to try and escape.

A portal of fire and brimstone appeared behind them as they leapt back into it, back to the safety of the nether realms, where this monster wouldn’t be able to catch him.

His hopes of escape didn’t last long however as much to the demon’s horror Crux immediately grabbed the demon by the head. That was fine, the portal was going to close and separate the two and cut the stupid metal things arm in the process. Only it didn’t close. It didn’t close because Crux didn’t want it to.

Dragging the demon back out of hell, the portal closed behind, erasing the demon’s only method of escape. Crux ignored the plea of sparing the inferno creatures life and simply channeled magic through the thing. In just two seconds the creature turned into a gray powdering husk of what it once was before the fire in the room consumed that too.

Once the demon was thoroughly smited Crux heard the call of Sable Coldwater. Annoyed at being unable to pursue the matter further, Crux begrudgingly rose through the flames and out to meet the children. As Crux hid back into the recesses of the armour he made sure to keep an eye over these two over the next few months.

***

When Bryson and company returned back home with the bowl in hand, they were greeted normally and the mission was considered a success. It was a bit of a shame that the bowl was useless, but still there was some good to come from it.

After some studying, the bowl was to be thousands of years old. Likely used by ancient civilizations, archeology-wise, this was an impressive find. What’s more was that it indeed was a magical artifact used by demons.

Though the magical properties were rather mundane. It was just to keep things cold, but the magical inscriptions were that of a language thousands of years ago, it proved to be a valuable piece of knowledge.

As important as history and discovery the ancient past was however, the more impressive matter that was quickly bragged about during their thirteenth birthday was the demon. Tales were spun of their bravery in battling through the ancient city ruins and facing off against a mighty demon.

The story was greatly exaggerated and was a bit embarrassing to hear in all honesty. Still, Duchess Coldwater lauded them for their exploits and a very enjoyable thirteenth birthday party was had for Bryson and Sable.

But while they enjoyed their birthday and the weeks turned into months, there were others that began to move along the story that had been set. As before the first chapter could be written, the heroes needed to familiarize themselves with the world and the demon king needed to spread his influence.

Rumours spread however and the especially nosy will catch wind of secrets that come to pass. Those nosey annoyances will often then tell others what they found and request them to join on a wild new adventure. Unfortunately for Bryson, Lottie Frost was easily the most annoying and curious person he knew and even worse usually had good cause for adventure. But Bryson was not going to deal with this nonsense alone at least.