Blood Stained Snow

Ch 3 Live Through

I am brought to a dimly lit room, solid stone on all surfaces. This room existed deep beneath the castle, a hollow void within darkness. Akio stood waiting for me, arms folded across his chest, his silver hair falling over a black dress shirt. His smile gleamed with sharp fangs.
"You've kept me waiting, Kira," his voice was nearly a whisper echoing off the walls.
"I'm here. Now tell me what it is you needed from me." I walked toward him, passing over the threshold and heading toward the center of the room when the entryway sealed behind me. I ignore it and stare at Akio.
He smiles a devious grin, "you have managed well with your control of darkness thus far, now we must fine tune it and show you what it means to truly be a demon born from humans."
"A demon born from humans is different than a demon from hell?"
"Indeed. Demons from the hell dimension are monsters, massive beings of darkness with various shapes, or sometimes no shape to their bodies. While humans turned into demon usually keep their human shape, as we do. Though there are rare situations where human turned demons become more, and change shape. But once you lose sight of your human shape, you lose yourself to the darkness."
"I see."
"Well then. Let us begin." Akio could barely contain his devious grin. The room was dimly lit, but his fangs seemed to gleam brighter than the light.
"What is it we are beginning?" I ask him.
"Training, of course; you are hardly in any condition to be fighting under my command. Your potential is great, now it is time to hone that potential and make you into the demon I wish you to be."
"Fine then, how shall we begin?"
He smirks at me, "patience is a virtue, Kira. Now I would like you to try controlling the darkness within you. To do this, you must be aware of how it dwells within your being." He pulls up his sleeve and summons a knife; ever so slowly, he drags the blade down his forearm, opening up a bloody gash. Blood trickles down his arm to his wrist and over his fingers.
I watch in a trance, unable to look away, "the darkness flows through our veins, which is how we are able to use it to enhance our physical body, though darkness is more of a spiritual being; yet we are capable to bring it into physical being as well." The blood falls from his arm but stops midair. He grins mischievously as the blood rises and turns black before transforming into a black flame.
"This is also how we are able to heal ourselves without thought, the darkness is already in our blood, thus when we are wounded it is released and takes over the healing process. This also is an easier method of bringing it into physical being, it bypasses our control and takes on a physical form to heal us; we could also, if we so choose to, channel this energy to an attack, or even turn it into a weapon. It is also able to become an embodiment of energy, as I have made it into hell fire. Do you understand what I am saying, Kira?"
"For the most part, yes; though you have failed to explain how I do these things."
Akio laughs at this, "isn't it obvious? With your mind of course, or even your will. Though this isn't the case for many demons, but for those of us, who have the ability of thought still, we manipulate the darkness, the darkness does not control us, and we control it. Remember the difference, Kira."
Akio dismisses the black flame and heals his wound. Next he summons a jagged dagger. "Easy enough, think it, imagine it, and create it. The more control you have the more intricate you can make these weapons. Find the design you like and improve it, make it yours; once you've achieved this, that weapon will bond with you and become a legendary blade." Akio dismisses the dagger in a cloud of darkness that reforms into a long broad sword with a flat tip and jagged teeth projecting about half a foot from the sharp edge of the blade. It balanced silver and black in an intricate design.
"This is Discord, my personal weapon; bonding with him has created various abilities. Many of which you will experience as we fight alongside one another." Akio dismisses Discord, "Now then, one more lesson and then we shall begin; yet this one is a very important one." He straightens his arms, rolling his shoulders back and rolling his neck back and forth as his body begins to pulsate; darkness starts to cloud around his body. His veins appear, spider webbing throughout his limbs and face. His eyes turn solid black, finally his body changes as claws form from his fingertips, he snarls as fangs protrude from his jaw. Horns grow from his silvery hair as his muscles grow into extreme portions. Until black wings, like those of a bat, erupt from his back. He is truly a monstrous form now, nearly twice my size.
"This," he bellows in a thunderous voice, "is another benefit we now possess. The darkness can enhance our physical bodies to a near infinite possibility. Though at a cost, this is truly a double-edged sword. The fact is the more we use the darkness to change our bodies," Akio returns to his original form, "the more we lose of our soul and body. That is why lower class demons look the way they do, total mindless monsters. The darkness rules them. But we perform a balancing act, using as much darkness as we can without losing our souls or our bodies."
I consider this for a moment before asking, "So when I became a demon, there was a chance I could have become a monster?"
"Correct, but you remained focus, conscious, and somehow fought to the state of being you are at now. You are not the only one, but there are far more monsters."
"Understood."
"Good, now for the actual training; knowledge is indeed power, but so is instinct. You won't learn till you actually begin fighting."
"Am I fighting you?" I ask him.
Akio laughs at this, "No, no you are not nearly ready to fight with me. Let's start you off against low class demons." He raises his hand toward the wall to my right, a portal opens releasing a blank faced demon that stood about twenty feet tall, its arms dragging against the ground next to its short legs. Fangs protruded from its bottom jaw and a mass of black hair formed a mane around its massive head. "A golem type demon, they're as stupid as they appear, but strong; and once they are on a rampage they very rarely can be stopped and are rather fast at that. Good luck, Kira."
The golem's eyes spark as if it had just gained awareness; the giant staged toward me swinging its massive forearm in a motion to backhand me. I attempt to block it but am blown back by the force of impact. I back away and upon further inspection of my arm I discover it to be broken. The pain is dull and distant; but ends as the darkness mends the bone back into place. I glance back at the golem to see it swinging at me with its other hand; this time I choose to jump back to avoid the force of this monster.
This continues as the golem continues attacking; slowly I notice as its speed increases as it moves to keep up with me. I focus to send darkness through my body and deflect its attack; this time my arm holds strong. Grinning, I grab hold of the demon and throw it into the wall; this creates a giant crater in the stone wall.
The golem recovers quickly and this time makes to grab me; I leap over its hand and summon a simple black katana and slice open its arm. Blood sprays from the beats wound splattering the walls and me as well. I stand before the golem staring up into its eyes while within arm's reach.
Darkness floods from its arm like smoke rising from a flame; it slithers up like a tamed snake. The golem launches itself at me once more; but much faster this time. Its huge fist meets my midsection as I am knocked backward and pinned to the wall. I choke as blood gushes from my mouth; several organs have ruptured this time. But they are useless to me as I am; darkness swims through my veins and I am awake once more.
I harness that very darkness and explode from his massive hand; I glance down and witness my claws grow and my muscles contract and strengthen. Horns erupt from my skull and black feathered wings ignite from my back; just like before, on the very night I became this thing.
I attack once more, my sword in hand I strike at its neck bringing more blood streaming from the golem. The sword's blade pulsates; almost like a heartbeat. The sword becomes more, the blade becoming more intricate and the hilt becoming more. My weapon was evolving as I adapted to me strength; as if the demons blood was causing it to change.
The golem recovered, more alive and swarming with darkness it leapt at me knocking me aside as I attempted to dodge. I recovered and landed on my feet just in time to see the golem launch itself off the wall to lunge at me once more. I hold my stance as I am tackled by the golem; yet I hold my ground this time and find that my sword has pierced the golem through the chest. It follows my gaze and stares at my sword resting in its chest; it's not dead yet.
I hear a voice that tells me the words that will allow the sword to act. I push the blade in further, all the way to its hilt; the golem tries to stop it, its hands fumbling to pry me away, but once the swords hilt meets it fur ridden chest, "Impact," I whisper. I push the blade even further, as if to pierce through its chest completely, this time I said, "Push through!" My blade explodes with darkness that tears the golem apart; a giant hole that split the beast in two.
The golem fell in two great lumps of flesh on the stone floor. The body deteriorated as darkness consumed it and vanished like smoke. I fell to my knees allowing the darkness to be released and my body to return to its usual state of being.
"Congratulations," Akio mused, "You're first victory; and not too shabby either. Not to worry though," He laughed. "There's plenty more for you to fight."
"What?" I whispered.
"We're not done yet." He said as he opened another hidden door and summoned another demon. "We keep going till you've mastered killing demons and are able to control darkness fully." Akio laughed as the demon struck me.
The next few years consisted of this; diving into darkness, day after day. I found myself reaching out for more power each time, somehow becoming more in control as the power grows. My body remained as it was; its physical appearance irrelevant to the spiritual aspect as the darkness devoured my mind and soul.
Akio soon had his kingdom, with many demons serving him and even more willing to let this being control them. But he kept three of us as his personal commanders. Vincent, Dorian, and I were the three most powerful beneath Akio himself.
We were the ones assigned tasks to complete for Akio, including missions from recruiting powerful demons to obtaining more power for Akio. With each one we ourselves become stronger.

"Kira," Akio turned to look at me, "I am building an empire of demons. My goal is to kill God; I want to kill the heavenly father. Have you any objections with this?"
Akio had constructed a castle from darkness. The silver haired demon's power was so great; it caused me to almost fear him. Akio called this castle their "new home", but all I saw was a prison.
Akio stood there, waiting for my answer. But I only had eyes for her. My focal point, obsession, desire, reason and even drug; she was my everything, even in death; her skin pale a ghastly white.
"Kira," Akio pleaded for my attention.
Finally I turned to look at him, "I'll do as you wish, as long as the final result is her, alive."
"I promised her to you, did I not?"
I look back at her, "Yes, you did."

Screams echoed through the castle. I watched as Akio tortured another demon to death.
"Will you not join me?" Akio asked the demon as hellfire burned the beings limbs.
"I refuse."
Akio grabbed the demon by his head, "Then perish," veins appeared upon the demon's head as Akio pushed darkness into his skull. The demons head collapses under Akio's claws. Brain and skull fragments scatter everywhere.
His frown slowly disappeared, replaced by a menacing grin as he looked down upon what remained of the demon, "Too much of a good thing," he laughed.
"What was his crime?" I ask, as one of the demons eye balls rolls to stare at me from my feet.
Akio looked at me, "What do you mean?"
"Why was it necessary to kill him?"
Akio grinned like an ill-behaved child, "He defied me. Chose to fight me rather than join me."

"And if I defy you?" Kira asked.
Akio paused, smile gone from his face.
"You would never defy me, would you, Kira?"
I peer at him through an emotionless mask, my eyes darken. "If ever came the time where your interests did not benefit me; I would choose myself over you, Akio."
Akio's silver hair fell over his eyes, his hands shaking. Akio turned, extinguishing his fury, "you are dismissed for now, Kira."
I took my leave.