Hell

Nightmare

                       I wake up and turn to see Eryk sleeping with Aamon on his chest. I smile and pet Aamon's head. He wags his tail and opens his eyes. He licks my hand and smiles like always. I give Eryk a quick kiss and get dressed. I look at Eryk and see the part of his arm where I bit him was almost fully healed. Feeling a bit ashamed I start to go downstairs until I reach the 15th floor where Czarek joins me, still disguised as the cute red husky. We walk down ten more floors when we bump into Kalista and Hanna. "Hey Ashley. Cute puppy." Kalista says. Czarek smiles and she takes a step back. "Not another one..." "Really? You have the soul of a dragon in you. If what Eryk said is to be believed." Hanna says. I look to the top of the stairs I just walked down and saw the little version of Astarot sitting on top of the stairs. "If we do not have the souls of dragons then why is a small black one sitting at the top of the stairs?" I ask. The second that Hanna was in view Astarot jumped and with enough force to make her fall on her back. He stared into Hanna's eyes and then jumped onto my shoulder. Kalista laughs and I see her gray dragon sitting next to her. We walk into the kitchen and talk for a few minutes till a distracted Eryk walked in and went to sit in the living room. "Is something wrong?" Kalista asked him. "No just had a nightmare." He responds. "You don't have dreams. You have visions of the past and what happens to your students who fail." Malphas says from behind me. "Thanks Malph. You know just how to cheer a brother up." Eryk says. "Not part of my job description, complain to Grim if anyone." Malph responds and walks towards the basement. I walk to the living room and see Eryk with his head back trying to forget something. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Just a nightmare, don't worry yourself about it." He says. I see Aamon wonder in and lay on Eryk's lap. I go back into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. After I eat breakfast Eryk takes Kalista for training and Ryan goes in the "meditation pool' as he calls it with Matt to determine his specialty. "Where should I take Hanna to train, Lucifer? I was only here one day and it's not like we got much of a tour." I say. He laughs and points to Czarek saying, "He knows this house well. Eryk had a dojo built somewhere, but to be honest I was busy down in Hell trying to keep lower demons from revolting. Aamon, Eryk, and him are the ones with the knowledge of every room in the house right now." Lucifer says from his room. I look at Czarek and he begins to walk upstairs. We go up to the 6th floor and I realize that most of the floor is just empty with chests and mats. "He used an entire floor for a dojo..." Hanna says. Czarek walks to one of the chests and paws at it. I open the chest to find a note saying "Do not teach them to fly unless they have the dragon (means the two you don't have right now) or a demon that I will put into them on the first day of my class." I sigh because I was actually looking forward to throwing them off buildings and seeing the wings appear for the first time. I look to see what else was in the chest. There's a black and royal blue parcel with my name on it. A ripped open white parcel that I guess was Misty's. A black and red one for Grim. The same colors but the red was on the inside and not as a trim for Lucifer. A yellow and blue one for Tresa. Gray one for Kalista. A deep green one for Ryan. A royal blue one for Vero. A pink one for Hanna and a red one for Matt. A pitch black one for Eryk. A sky blue one for Arthur. Orange for Gawain. Deeper shade of Pink for Percival. A white and red one for Ken, colors swapped for Touka. A deep brown one for Tod. Light red for Elizabeth and a yellow one for Lili. A sapphire blue one for Azazel. Rose red for Malphas. A lavender one for Jasmine and a hideous shade of light pink for Jazmine. I pick up the red one and the pink one and close the chest. I hand Hanna the pink one. "What's this for?" She asked. "I have no idea. It has your name on it so I'll give it to you for now." I respond. "Should I open it?" Hanna asked. "I don't know. There was no note in there to say if we should give them out or not." I respond, but open mine. Inside I see a simple dagger in a black sheath with a royal blue rose on the sheath. I pull the dagger out of the sheath, but cut my finger on the blade while I do so. The dagger begins to glow a light shade of silver and grows into a 36 inch sword with a silver handle and a blue starry blade with a crescent moon on the blade by the handle and a blue moon stone on the hilt of the sword. The sheath grows to fit the blade and the rose design grows into a nice patter along the sheath "I take it that you had no idea that would happen?" Hanna asks as she takes off the wrapper of her own dagger, but there was a note with her dagger. 'The dagger will switch as you grow in power so at the beginning it will stay a dagger, but as you train it will grow and harmonize with your own interests.' Read the note. Hanna opened her dagger and cut her finger like I did and the dagger did get a faint pink glow, but nothing happened. Grim walked in and said, "Looks like I was too late to the surprise... Ah you win some and lose some I suppose. Those daggers possess the souls of warrior demons of high or, in a very rare case for us demons Silver, Eryk, and Ryan, are god ranked demons since we are the only ones that can control their power with success." He says and touches the blade of my sword. "This was a demon named Alette, the noble one." He walks over to Hanna and touches her dagger. "Randolph the shield wolf... Interesting choice for Hanna..." Grim mutters and goes grab his parcel. "I'm gonna slap him the next time I see him... Noctivagus the night walker, better known as a vampire..." Grim says as he cuts his finger on the blade. It grows into a 10 foot tall scythe that seemed to be made of shadows. The blade itself was a deep blue color with red on it. "Yeah, you keep complaining vampire. That blood makes a perfect edge and you know it." Grim says as he walks out of the dojo. After a moment he returns and opens a second chest and grabs a second parcel and walks out again. I go over to the chest to find parcels again. I once again hand Hanna her parcel. I open the parcel and a note followed by a nice red and black ring fell out. 'Adrienne the dark one' Is what the card read. Before I put the ring on Grim and Eryk walked in. "I would not do that out in the open... First time you use that ring something... peculiar happens." Eryk said and I noticed that Grim was wearing a hoodie that seemed to be made of shadows or attract shadows to him because he had a constant aura around him. I eye the ring closely and walk into one of the empty rooms on the sides. I slip the ring on and see that it has a little dent in it. I push the dent in and draw a bit of blood making the ring glow a deep shade of red. The ring started to melt and spread over my body. The red part of the ring hardened on my arm, right above the elbow, on my shoulders, on my chest, upper back, upper thighs, right below the knee and on my feet. The red part formed gauntlets with spikes towards the end, extending and guarding my elbows, the part of red right above the elbow hardened into a little bracelet like object that I thought was used to make sure I don't cut my upper arm with the blade. The part on my shoulders covered the entire shoulder, the upper tip of my arms and extended a spike like extension up to about the lower tip of my ear, protecting the neck from sideways attacks. The red over my chest and upper back hardened and made a plate like chest piece to protect my heart and lungs. The red on my thighs hardened and produced plates to cover all of the thigh while not restraining any movement. The red under my knees hardened and made a spike extend over the knee. The red on my feet hardened and made heels, and all the remaining red went right to the tip of my lower spine and formed a sort of skirt to cover the back of my legs. It moved freely like any other skirt, but when I felt it. It was as hard as the rest of the red armor. The black part of the ring went under the red armor and made a light cover over my stomach and covered both my legs like thigh high boots. It reminded me of leather, but when I felt it. It was just as hard as the red substance, but quite malleable like the half skirt of the red substance. The remaining of the black substance went to the shoulder blades and made a short cape to cover my entire spine and overlap the half skirt about an inch. Then the ring somehow produced a gold and silver mix. I assume that's what the ring was made from and that's why the process happened and added details to the armor. The silver went and made a design on the cape and trimmed the lower parts of the shoulder plates, the chest plate, and made a small cover for the back of the neck that was filled in by the red substance shortly afterwards. The golden part tipped the heel of my boots and made heel guards, went to the tips of the black substance on the thighs and made a little array of spikes along the tops of it. The remaining gold substance formed a belt around my waist. I walk back into the dojo and hear Hanna gasp. "Told you. You would wanna do it in a private place the first time." Eryk says as he gets the dagger from the first parcel. Instead of just opening it he whistled and said, "Grim since when is Draco out of the fight?" "Last I heard after he had the fantastic idea to bring you out of Tartarus... and you know how long ago that was." Grim responds. "Damn shame. He always managed to surprise the enemy." Eryk says and opens the dagger cutting his finger. The dagger grows into two long swords. "Grim..." Eryk says. "Yup those are definitely his swords. Deathbringer and Soultaker." Grim responds. When Eryk opened one of the swords a chilling mist was emitted from the sheath and the sword itself had an aura that chilled me to the very bone. "Yup... The sword that killed a thousand angels and ten thousand demons, Deathbringer." Eryk says and sheaths the blade causing heat to return to my body. "Should I even open the second one Grim? We both know what happened whenever he drew the sword." Eryk says eyeing the red sheath while putting the dark gray one aside. "Might as well show them." Grim says. Eryk draws the second sword and I see that the hilt is shaped like a dragon's mouth open at 180 degrees and the blade is black, radiating a red glow. "What was suppose to happen?" Hanna asks as the blade begins to glow even redder until it seems that the eyes that are on either end of the crossguard of the hilt are alive and moving. The blade then changes into a four foot blade that curves at the end and back into the normal longsword. "Yup he still has that dragon's soul trapped. Though I feel he bound his soul to Deathbringer as well." Eryk says. "Well Deathbringer was the sword he used to wound him... and he did use Soultaker to kill the dragon and without meaning to trap its soul in that blade." Grim says. "Gonna miss that bugger. He knew how to kill and kill well." Eryk says and sheaths the second sword and straps them to his back. He looks at the sword I'm holding and whistles. "Now there's a nice hollywood cliche if this was a movie. Alette, the nobel demon. Wife of Draco... Grim who chose who got the daggers again?" Eryk asks. "I think it was Azazel." Grim answered. "Remind me to slap him." Eryk says. "Why do you need to slap him?" Grim asks. "Like you can't tell who he put in my armor." Eryk says and tosses him the second parcel. "Maldrake? Yup. You have a great deal to slap him for on that one." Grim says and hands the parcel back. "Hervé the battle worthy... Good man." Eryk says and opens the second parcel which is just a gauntlet with a single spike on it. "You gonna awake him now?" Grim asks. "No, Maldrake is out of control right now. I'm sure you also feel his soul's anger at the world right now." Eryk says. "He was always angry." Grim says. "Still... gonna give him some time." Eryk says and walks out of the room and onto the balcony where he stops and grabs Kalista's parcels and jumps down to the ground floor. "Who was Maldrake?" I ask. "He was the evil dragon or serpent. The single greatest warrior second to Draco, but it's his other talent that got him the nickname Serpent. He was the single greatest spy and assassin. He could walk into Lucifer's palace and play chess with him with none of Lucifer's guards knowing until they wandered into the throne room. Evil dragon came from the fact that his armor had the souls of dead dragons living inside of it. Making it nearly impossible to destroy. When Lucifer found Eryk in Hell he sent Maldrake to retrieve him and protect him on the way to his palace, but right before Maldrake got to the safety of Lucifer's realm Tartarus struck him dead. Eryk got the mask right after that and carried Mandrake's body back to Lucifer's castle with Aamon to lead him." Grim says. "Why would that make him mad?" Hanna asks. "Tartarus is a plane of unimaginable torture and he spent 500 years in there when a savior shows up and befriends him and leads him to safety right before both of them are safe he is struck dead before his eyes and there is nothing he can do to save him." Grim says then exits the room. Hanna opens her second parcel and finds a pink ring. She puts it on, but does not push in the spike to draw the blood. We walk to the balcony to see Eryk enter the cave which houses the arena. "Wanna see what his training is like?" I ask. "Sure." Hanna says. I smile at a memory and grab both of her arms and jump down the six stories. "Are you insane!" Hanna screams as we land. "Yes." I say with a smile. We walk into the cave and sit at the top row of the arena. Kalista is having the same problems I was with boxing and trying to hurt him, but something was amiss Eryk was not blocking every hit. After a moment Kalista stops because he is getting very pale and he has a nose bleed. He summons Grim. "The fuck is wrong with you? You had blood to keep your berserker's rage away. You are still calm and Tartarus will not reform for another... give or take 50 years. Your sparring partner cannot hurt you without demonic or angelic weapons and you still have her dagger so she could not stab you. Lucifer, Malph and, Asmodeus are safe and Tresa is not in danger. Aamon and Czarek are patrolling the perimeter and making sure that the spell is not broken..." Grim says. Eryk grabs his shoulder and whispers something into his ear. "Shit forgot about that." Grim turns to me and Hanna. "Looks like we have a mission you three." He walks out of the cave with me, Kalista, and Hanna. He turns to Kalista and Hanna and puts one of his hands on each of their heads. Hanna's dagger grows into a one and a half foot long sword and a gauntlet and bunker appear on her left hand. He tosses Kalista her dagger and cuts her thumb with the sheath as she catches the dagger. On both of her hand gauntlets with spikes where the knuckles should be and spikes along the entire gauntlet appear. "Looks like we have to save Misty." Grim says. "Why do we have to save her and how do you know that we must save her?" Kalista asks. "It's a way that the four riders kept each other safe. Necromantica knows when Astarot is in danger, Astarot when Leilah, Leilah when Ragnarok, and Ragnarok when Necromantica." Grim says and summons his scythe from the shadows. "Man this scythe is useful now that it cannot break." We rush to the middle of the garden. "Anyone know where she is?" Grim asks. I whistle and Czarek comes quickly. "Lead us to Misty." I tell him in my mind. He sniffs the air and runs into the mansion. We follow him down into the basement, where the door that Eryk said to keep closed was wide open. We rushed inside to see another iron toddler dragging an unconscious Misty and Vero. "Eryk would love this... Too bad he won't get to see this one." Grim says and throws his scythe and decapitates the toddler. He walks over and picks up Misty and Vero. "Stab him once through the heart Silver. My scythe can steal souls, but it's the physical body that can be possessed... and that is what the moon blade was made for. If you stain the blade with blood glyphs appear on the blade and if you were to translate them to English they would say 'maim! Kill! Burn!' But that's not important." He says as he hands Vero to Kalista and walks back upstairs. I stab the iron menace through the heart and as Grim said, glyphs appeared. We walk back to the arena where Tresa was waiting with a no longer pale Eryk. "Good job. I see Grim has made it possible to use your weapons... I would not try your armor until later." Eryk says. "Why should I wait?" Hanna said and pressed in the dent. After a flash of light she was standing in nothing but heels and a bikini top and bottom. "That's why you should wait." Eryk says as Hanna blushes and runs back to the mansion. After that Eryk once again gets ready to block attacks, but Kalista expecting this tries to kick him. Eryk and Kalista spar for thirty minutes until Kalista kicks his arm with the gauntlet on it, into his other hand. Cutting his palm. "Well shit." He says. The bright light blinds us once again.