"Come, Web. We must go." Kore's harsh voice tore through Web's momentary blankness. Web shook his head as if experimenting to see whether he was fully awake or dreaming. Casting his keen eyes over the area around him, all he could see was smoke, charred buildings and what had possibly previously been vehicles of some sort. Just within Web's line of vision there appeared to be a building that was still in flames, with bright orange and blood red emerging and spitting out of what he supposed had once been windows and a thin line of smoke seemed to be fighting to join the dense smog in the distance. “I must be dreaming,” Web muttered quietly in disbelief. He had no recollection of where he was or what he had been doing previously to being in this dreadful and decaying place.
‘This is what hell must be like, the smell, the taste. I am dreaming of hell,’ Web thought, trying to believe with everything in him that he was dreaming rather than the actuality of waking in hell. Nobody would ever want to be in such a dead place as this, with the only thing that seemed alive being the flames that would soon die once they ran out of feeding. Nobody could find comfort in such surroundings, even Web, who had seen true horrors; having grown up and lived his life in Malice.
Malice was the demon community of Mare, and as only demons claimed it as their home, the place seemed to have a constant shroud of evil hanging over it, bringing darkness or dull grey skies and rain that burned like acid. That is why Web longed for the peace and tranquillity of other towns. This was a thought he kept to himself as he was well aware what the other demons thought of the rest of Mare and those thoughts were not consistent with Web's. There was a growing part of him that was sick of the constant destruction and bitterness that was always part of life in Malice.
Then there was also the careless fighting that never seemed to cease, the demons bickering over everything and anything thinking this was the way to gain power. Of course it often worked, killing your opponent meant you had power over them, even if they only knew it for a few moments before death, you also got rid of the problem; and gained what it was that you were after.
Web found these arguments to be childish. It was much easier to stick to being in ones' own world and only annihilate those that happened to be in the way or cross your path when they shouldn't. Web knew he was different. He looked nothing like the other demons. Some of them looked like deformed and ugly humans and some had heads like animals. But it was he, Web, who was beautiful and this caused a lot of the demon community to start petty fights or fling insults at him; so Web had a lot of experience at getting rid of demons. It was then that Web remembered somebody had spoken to him and he spun around, searching for the owner of the voice; and finally set eyes on Kore.
Kore had a lazy smile on his sharp featured face. It was a face that Web had grown to despise, every part of it from his straw like hair to his almost pointed chin. It was a face of nightmares. Kore's thick, fawn coloured eyebrows were raised unnaturally and his head tilted upwards so his smoky grey eyes could be fixed on the face of the taller form of Web.
“No, Web. You are awake. Do you not remember your anger at the people of this town? How they looked down on us! How you wanted to make them all pay! Well, I must say — I never realized just how effective you would be young Web. You are, forgive me for being seemingly vain, but you really are quite the remarkable prodigy and of course you have taken after myself so exceptionally well. What you have done here, in just one afternoon none the less, it was really almost like pure art. You moved with such grace and elegance, a testament to your angel blood no doubt; and the weapons — well they really are a stroke of pure brilliance.” Kore explained and though he undoubtedly felt no real affection for Web, he wished to install a sense of raging fury and a determined belief in the young demons skills in to him.
Kore had great plans for Web and the most important part of those plans were making sure Web was strong and malicious with no regard to any feelings that would get in the way. It was Kore's belief that anger and hatred would suffice as Web's emotions. Perhaps it was because of this that Web had never been able to feel anything for the demon. As he had grown older, he had come to despise everything his father figure said and did.
