Dormant

8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
-Revelations 1:8

8

Firelight danced across the walls in a silent fury. Limbs were flung about, jaws opened to reveal sharp fangs, wings flapped wildly, tails whipped, sounds that weren't natural barked, grunted, and screamed. The cave was full of a swarm of bodies and blazing red fire. Heat flashed in waves, coming from the fires and the movements of the bodies as they danced, fought, and just moved.

They were excited.

Demon after demon, every shape and form imaginable, flew, walked, crawled their way to the Demon Lord that had brought them this gift. They cowered before the Demon Lord as he sat on a throne centered in the room, bowing as low as they could before they offered their praise to the Lord that had brought them such a promising thing. Then they would merge once more into the scores of their brothers and sisters, squealing and yelling with excitement. They hadn't been brought an offering before. No one had ever bothered with the lowest ranking of the demon, leaving them all alone without leadership when Man's Kingdom was destroyed. So they had done what they were best at. Destroy, havoc, chaos. They had brought hell to life in every way that they could. But when the Demon Lord Alooc, the shape-shifting demon child of the High Demon Lord Rasha, brought them something as special as this, they were beyond happy. Finally, after centuries of nothing, they were given something that would easily change their fate.

Alooc watched with a criticizing eye, nose crinkling and his fangs bared just slightly. He hated these Demons. They served no purpose; they had no role for any plan in anything. They just did whatever their little minds could think of. And, as they danced in the firelight of the numerous of bonfires that the Demons had started, he watched them in disgust as he sat in the makeshift throne that was the leader of these Demons, who had joined its minions in celebrating. His large hands clutched at the weak bone arms of the chair as he watched their frantic movements, a voice nagging in the back of his mind, demanding why he was there. And he ignored it as he watched them.

There was a reason why he had agreed to follow the ash. Most of it had to do with pride. When the ash thing had told him that he feared, the Demon had been furious. He was the son of the High Demon Lord Rasha. There was nothing that he feared besides from his father and mother, Demon Queen Lilith, both of whom had the power to destroy him just as quickly as they had created him. Four Horsemen, four remains of a race that had been the strongest of the universe, did not strike fear into his heart. And right now...

He was bored. And beginning to become annoyed.

The voice nagging in the back of his mind, constantly whispering and shifting uncomfortably, didn't help. It was beginning to annoy him; eventually a Demon Lord could only withstand so much when something was demanding him what he was doing. Pausing long enough to swipe away a demon that had gotten too close for his liking, Alooc tried something.

Shut up, he bellowed mentally, wondering if it would work.

For a brief moment, it did. He was leaning back into the throne, relishing the peace in his head, when a spine-splintering pain shot up through his head, shooting down his back as well. It took all of his strength not to jerk from his seat in pain and instead his grip tightened on the arms of the throne, his eyes narrowing in challenge and his fangs baring instinctively. His right foot twitched before he could control it; a nearby demon went flying into its companions as Alooc's hoof connected with it.