Escape From Evil

Chapter Two

Author's Note: Dedication to ShinyVampiricArmor for being an amazing friend and for always supporting me in my writing.

XXXXXXXXX

Acheron walked slowly down the black stone streets of the capitol city of Dalkia. This was but one city in the huge Empire of Dalkia and there were hundreds of others, mostly smaller than the capitol. The city was filled with Demons of all Flights, the Dark Races - Orcs, Ogres, Goblins, Minotaurs, Gorgons, Nightflyers - and even Humans or Elves of different castes. However, the Humans and Elves were not like the rest of their brothers of blood. To survive in Dalkia, they had to be cut throat and expect a knife in the back from anyone, even the closest of friends. That was how they all survive because everyone schemed and everyone wanted to move up in the ranks.

He was huge, over seven foot tall, and heavily muscled with large arms and broad shoulders. He had long midnight black hair that fell to the small of his back in a single; thick braid and emerald green eyes set in a bronzed; roguishly handsome face. He wore a long sleeve black tunic with silver fastenings up the front and silver piping around the stiff collar and the sleeves, black linen trousers, knee high black leather boots, and a black leather belt with a huge broadsword sheathed at his left hip. He was a Chaos Demon which made him among one of the most powerful caste of Demons, but there were those that were more powerful, though not many.

The Chaos Demon was a well respected and feared individual in the Empire of Dalkia because of his rank as well as who he was related to. He was the Command Assassin of Dalkia which made him deadly and revered, but there were those who would see him dead. After all, the only way for one to become the Command Assassin was to kill the previous one and take his place. He was the first Command Assassin of Dalkia and he had no intention of giving up his rank any time soon. All that was well and good, but there was another thing that made him feared by the people. He was the younger brother of the Emperor himself.

Many people of course thought that Acheron was only the Command Assassin because of who his brother was. However, that was the furthest thing from the truth and most of them knew that. It was the young upstarts who had crawled out of the Abyss and hadn't been there when he had helped carved out the Empire with his own blade that thought that he was truly weak. When they graduated from talking behind his back and decided to take action, he showed them just how wrong they were.

The Chaos Demon was brought from his reverie when the sound of thunder boomed through the air and he looked up into the sky. The sky was blood red and every now and again there was black lightning that forked across the sky. There were no clouds in the sky, but the sky of Dalkia wasn't a natural occurrence. No, it had been magicked that way by Mages that they'd brought through after they'd come through and had decided to create their Empire here. They had created a huge force and a huge empire that spread across the eastern part of the Central Continent, creating an evil Empire that all feared.

Their natural enemy was Manathera, the Human Empire that was far to the west and they were a powerful force to put them off. The Command Assassin didn't mind the Humans and he really didn't have any kind of opinion of them. They were weak creatures, but he had seen over the years the traits that lead them to the power that they now were. At one time, the Humans had been ignorant beings hiding in their caves and doing their best to avoid the other; more developed races. However, they had bred into a huge number, and somehow, they had found a funnel of magic. With that, they became even smarter and more skilled with blades that they were able to move out of their caves to create true constructs of central power.

He shook himself from his reverie and he lowered his head to stare at the streets. There were few beings on the streets, but he knew that each of them were dangerous and could mean a knife in his back. He was a difficult being to defeat and there were few who had ever shed his blood. In fact, his brother Azrieal had been the only one who had ever been able to wound him during sparring matches. They were never serious battles, but when one brother had a sword and the other had strong magic at his fingertips, things tended to get heated.