The Witching Hour - Demonic Haunted AU

Chapter 1 - No Place Like Not Home

    The demon growled with impatience as he stared longingly at the portal before him. It was almost ready, but the remaining runes on the dark stone still had to be drawn. He would draw them himself, but he had so little power within him at the moment, it rendered it a useless effort. "It's almost finished. Have patience." a fellow demon said, who marked the last of the runes in the stone with his sharp talon. "We're almost out, we just need to light the portal with demon's blood." The demon lifted his sleeve and drew his talon across the alarmingly pale skin. A black, gooey substance surfaced in the gash. The demon withdrew his talon and brushed his finger on the substance, drawing a small circle in front of the portal. He illustrated several symbols and an upside down pentagram. He rose to his feet and chanted in his ancient tongue. "Ier ro frei da kil devouns et hanoms, ro dreh da wyl ripro."

    A glowing red essence circled in the arch of the dark stone, filling the space within. The first demon smiled widely, turning back to the desolate land behind him. It was empty of most life, the grayness laid out over miles and miles deafening with a suffocating silence and a chilled breeze. The first demon returned to face the portal and stepped through, the world around him shifting. He felt his body whirl through the fabric of reality, all sense of direction thrown off for a few minutes until he found himself on the edge of a mountain.

    The demon spread his arms out wide, welcoming the soft glow of the moon to his mutated skin. His purple robes and maroon cloak blew around in the wind. His fellow demons followed out after him, one having the appearance of a normal human, save for eyes of the black sclera and glowing green iris. He had on a dark gray overcoat with a feathered collar and cuffs, dark gray pants, and a dark green vest decorated with buttons. His blond hair was flat but neat, his face sharp with simple features.

    The other demon strolled lazily out of the portal. His fluffy dark hair blew around in the breeze with his royal blue robes with gold lining. He had a scarf around his neck and one tied around his right arm. His light gray pants were torn and frayed towards his feet and he wore no shoes. His skin was normal on more parts of his body, except for his hands, feet, and a few stripes on each side of his face. One eye was exposed, a hypnotizing blue and the other covered by a golden mask that resembled a cat. He had two cat ears resting on his head, one ripped and bitten, the other adorned with four earrings. Two cat tails swished behind him, the ends holding little blue flames.

    "Graydroth," the first demon regarded the blond demon, "Armenadon," he regarded the other, cat-like demon. "Thank you for this."

    "Meh, not a problem," Armenadon said, shrugging his shoulders and facing the moon.

    "Any time, Drakamech," Graydroth replied.

    Drakamech, the tallest of the three, looked beyond the horizons of the human world. He did not associate himself with the species, nor did he intend to, but he was far from welcome down in the Demon Realm. And despite his reluctance to be among humans, he found their world to be much more... warm. Happy. Refreshing. The freedom pulsed through his veins and he found himself grinning joyously for the first time in centuries.

    "Are you alright, Drakamech?" Graydroth asked, his blank expression unchanging.

    "I'm the best I've ever felt in so long." Drakamech chuckled. Something in his left eye bugged him, but he didn't pay too much mind to it until Armenadon pointed it out.

    "Dude, are you crying?"

    "What? No... I'm not crying..." Drakamech replied.

    "Drakamech, you're crying." his raven demon friend said. He took a gloved hand and wiped a finger underneath his left eye, revealing to him the dampness left behind.

    The hybrid demon rolled his eyes. "Damn human emotions."

    "You're not getting soft, are you Drake?" Armenadon teased, poking the much taller demon in his side.

    "Drake? What kind of infernal name is that?" Drakamech asked, looking down at Armenadon. He felt this nickname was too disarming and made him feel weak. If there was anything the demon despised, it was feeling weak and helpless.

    Armenadon shrugged. "I dun know, just felt like giving you a nickname." He clasped his hands behind his head and walked closer to the edge of the mountain. Drakamech, annoyed by his nickname, grinned mischievously.

    "Alright, whatever you say, Armen..." Armenadon turned around and stuck his tongue out childishly. He grinned as he giggled, showing rows of sharp, deadly teeth.

    "Armenadon, enough. Stop acting like a child." Graydroth commented, sighing to himself.

    "Oh c'mon, Grayson, I'm just poking fun. Besides, he called me a name too!" Armen laughed as Graydroth shot him a dirty look, his fluorescent green eyes glaring daggers.

    "He's allowed to do that, you forget he was once your ruler. Know your place."

    Drakamech sighed. "Graydroth, it's fine. He doesn't need to treat me like a king. Not now, at least," he said and turned towards the vast lands again. "Now then..."

    "I'm assuming we need to find a place to stay? Us demons can't exactly live among humans with... him dwelling in this world." Graydroth spat the thought like poison in his mouth. They unanimously agreed finding someplace humans never go would be beneficial. Their kind wasn't welcomed at all in the world of mankind. They would be constantly hunted down by priests and exorcists if their presence was known.

    To their fortune, it seemed there was an unfinished temple waiting for them on the side of the very mountain they appeared on. It was rather small but spacious enough to house the three of them. There were still ramps and ladders leading to platforms stacked with tools and building materials, girders lining the ceilings of each room. The floors and walls were made with marble and rhyolite, symbols of a "holy deity" carved into the stone. The three demons knew who the so-called deity was, and Graydroth smashed and scratched the artwork to hell out of pure indignation of the person's face.

    As midnight turned into dawn, the three demons had to settle down for the day. Demons were much weaker in the daytime, the sun burning all of their energy away. They weren't sleeping, no, consider it more of meditation.

    Unfortunately for them, the very being they loathed so much stood outside their new home, having seen them crawl through the portal from the Demon Realm. His pure white robes with red hemming swayed in the wind, the early sunrays of dawn's light hitting his back as he glared into the darkest of the temple dedicated to him.

    Raising his hand in the air, he conjured not holy magic, but a vile essence that could have only belonged to a demon. With a blank expression, the vile essence darted into the temple and encased the demons like a python. That would keep the demons in their deep meditation state for much, much longer than they would like.

    Still standing outside the temple, the "holy deity" glanced up at the symbol carved in the pediment. It was supposed to be two stars and a humanoid shape with arms stretched out, people at his feet, reaching for the light. The two stars were meant to represent the eyes of the person, who people believed to be a holy gift due to their glowing white color.

    When he thought about it, the person chuckled. Stars were a befitting object of comparison to his eyes; beautiful and captivating, but capable of catastrophic destruction.

~~~

helllooooo! Decided it was time for another chapter. Things are already heating up a bit, eh? The chapters for this AU will be shorter and the story itself might be shorter than DiW too, but we'll see. I haven't fleshed out the plot that much yet... (I should probably do that soon)

Take care everyone~!