Monarchs

Nightmare

"Do you really think you can defeat the gods?"

"Little boy, so far from home, against the world, all alone."

"He doesn't look small, but inside, inside he's absolutely tiny."

"What can you do, little boy? What can you do?"

"When we're finished with you, we'll take your whole village. "

The whispers filled his ears, his head. They took hold of his mind and twisted his dreams, filled his thoughts with images of death and despair, of melancholy and murder. Zachariah slept fitfully, nightmares gripping his consciousness.

He woke up clawing at his face, and screaming. He had been dreaming that his face was covered in worms, worms that were burrowing into his flesh. Zachariah shook his head. He was scared, scared that he would not be strong enough. He knew he needed to be more powerful. He thought of a spell that he had seen in a book. 

It was sorcery- or suicide, but he felt that it was necessary. He went forward, further up the mountain, until he found a clearing. Here is where he would perform the ritual.

He cast a circle, cutting his palm and spilling his blood, not as an offering, but as bait.

He began summoning a demon- inviting the foul creature to enter the land of the living and take his body.

He waited.

A fire began in Zachariah's bones, ripping through his nerves. It had begun. Now was the difficult part. He had to trap the demon he had invited in. "Demon Icheyore, Etherbrand, Corrupter of Spirits, Slaver Dreadborne, I command that you bend to my will."

Ice rushed though Zachariah's veins, and he fell to his knees. He felt as if a tide were washing over him, as if he were drowning. "Demon Icheyore, Etherbrand, Corrupter of Spirits, Slaver Dreadborne, I command you to my will!

"Foolish boy. Trying to use a demon's powers to kill gods. You never had a chance." The demon growled. The demon pulled himself from his own plane into Zachariah, beginning to overpower him.

"Demon, demon Icheyore, Etherbrand, Corruptor of Spirits, Slaver Dreadborne, I command you to my will." Zachariah rasped, desperate.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air. "Demon Icheyore, go back to where you came from!

The demon took full control of Zachariah's mind and body. "No."