Demon Lord VI - Son of Chaos

Demon Lord
VI

Son of
Chaos

T C
Southwell

Published by T
C Southwell at Smashwords

Copyright ©
2010 T C Southwell

Smashwords
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Table of
Contents

Chapter
One
– Light God

Chapter
Two
– Intervention

Chapter
Three
– Healer

Chapter
Four
– Demon Hound

Chapter
Five
– Wraiths

Chapter
Six
– The Battle

Chapter
Seven
– Aftermath

Chapter
Eight
– Grey God

Chapter
Nine
– Unbelievers

Chapter
Ten
– Vengeance

Chapter
Eleven
– Tarnished
Light

Chapter
Twelve
– Child
Goddess

Chapter
Thirteen
– Realm Gate

Prologue

A Grey God’s
impregnable shield sphere is his last defence against the darkness,
but a domain key might unravel it and force Kayos to flee into the
unknown, for to Move in the God Realm is to be lost… Bound, blind
and powerless, the unbelievers who have captured the Demon Lord
will kill him unless a light god comes to his aid, and without
healing he can no longer wield the shadows. Kayos constantly
changes the patterns of his shield sphere while he waits for his
dark son to free him, and his time is running out…

Chapter One

Light God

Tryne roused
from his pleasant reverie, tilting his head as he listened to the
faint call. One plea was all he needed to know who had summoned him
and whence it came. Such calls were so rare that most angels never
received one. Lightness invaded his heart, filling it with purpose,
and several hitherto unknown instincts kicked in. He rose from his
seat at the foot of a waterfall and stepped into a Channel.

The call
lingered like a beacon, luring him powerfully, undeniable and
uplifting. He walked along the Channel until he found another that
existed next to the domain’s Realm Gate, then followed it through
the mighty Gate, the wards’ frisson tickling his skin.

In the God
Realm, his true home, he soon found a Channel that existed close to
the beacon and stepped across. He gazed out at a strange metal
room, his eyes drawn to the man imprisoned upon the table. Making
himself invisible, he stepped from the Channel and stood beside the
man, studying him. Laying his hand lightly on the prisoner’s chest,
he absorbed all that he needed to know about him.

Bane drifted
up through the dark veils of unconsciousness, his head pounding as
if it would burst. Pain rushed from his broken arm, and he opened
his eyes in the oft-repeated, but again forlorn hope that his sight
had returned. Closing them, he became aware of the light being who
stood beside him and turned his head in that direction.

“
Angel.”

“
I am here.”

“
These people mean to kill me. Tell them what I am. Tell them
to release me.”

The angel
moved away, and Bane gritted his teeth against the pain. Soon it
would end. He had not wanted to call upon an angel, but he had no
choice. The favour would undoubtedly be large.

Senior
Confinement Technician Enyo leapt up from his console with a
strangled yell as a glowing being stepped from the air beside him.
Huge, snowy wings framed the slender form of a man whose hair
drifted about his head in skeins of spun gold and whose clear grey
eyes glowed in an inhumanly refined face. A strip of gossamer
fabric that looked like it was made from silver cobwebs clung to
his narrow hips, and his feet seemed to barely touch the floor.

The apparition
raised his arms, and looked as if he was about to deliver a speech,
then the roar of automatic gunfire ripped the air, and Enyo dived
behind a console. The two soldiers who stood at the shredder room
door sprayed the apparition with bullets, their faces twisted. The
being staggered, lowering his arms as bluish blood oozed from
wounds in his chest and belly, then he turned and vanished.

Enyo emerged
from behind the console, glancing around.

The guards
lowered their weapons, and one said, “It’s gone, sir.”

“
What the hell was it?”

“
Unknown sir.”

“
But you killed it anyway.”

“
It was an intruder sir, possibly hostile.”

Enyo nodded.
“Shoot first, then ask the corpse questions.”

“
There is no corpse sir.”

“
Even better.” Enyo looked through the window at the dra’voren.
“It was probably a damned illusion.”

“
No sir, we hit it.”

Enyo consulted
the bioscanner screen, which showed the dra’voren to be awake, as
he had noticed only a few moments before the apparition had
appeared. Had it been another dra’voren? If so, it was a strange
looking one, and his presence within the ship, undetected, boded
ill for all of them. The scanners that detected the dark power were
not installed inside the ship except for in the shredder room. How
had a dra’voren found the ship while it was in stealth mode? The
only possible explanation was that the captive had summoned him. He
touched a key on the console, activating a communications link to
Commander Nikira’s office.

Tryne walked
along the Channel a little way and sank down, clasping the wounds
in his chest. Gossamer threads appeared under his palms, formed
from the air, covered the injuries and stopped the bleeding. He
gasped as a dull burning filled him, his first experience of pain,
and wondered what he should do next. The mortal tar’merin was in
dire peril, as his own injuries testified, but it seemed that the
men who had imprisoned him were not inclined to listen to an angel,
and perhaps did not even know what he was.

How was he to
order them to release the tar’merin, in that case? If he could not
aid the mortal god, he must find someone who could. Casting about,
he located the nearest light god and walked along the Channel until
he found one close to him, then stepped across. Strangely, he did
not pass through a realm gate, but stepped straight into the
blinding brilliance of a birthing chamber.

Tryne paused,
considering. If the god was not yet born, he was not going to be of
any help. He cast about for the next closest light god, and once
again walked along the Channel, then stepped across to one that
existed close to him. This time he passed through a realm gate, the
wards touching him with a familiar shiver of power.

Tryne gazed
out at a gazebo in a brilliant cloud garden, where a light god lay
upon his couch, staring into an Eye. Tryne tore a door in the
Channel and stepped out. The god looked up, his brown eyes narrowed
and his blond brows drew together. Ash blond hair framed a finely
formed, jovial face, and his powerful frame was clad in a light
god’s customary silver-grey garb. Tryne bowed with the traditional
flourish of his kind.

“
I am Tryne.”

“
Greetings, Tryne, I am Drevarin. What do you want?”

“
Your help, regrettably.”

Drevarin
chuckled. “That makes a change. You are injured. If I heal you, I
get a favour.”

“
The god who called upon me for aid will owe the
favour.”

Drevarin waved
the Eye out of existence and sat up, frowning. “A god is in
danger?”

“
Indeed. When I answered his call and did as he asked, I was
wounded by the people who have imprisoned him, and mean to kill
him.”

Drevarin’s
expression became grim. “So, a lesser mortal god. Unfortunate, but
I do not see how this concerns me, and if he is dead he cannot pay
his debt.”

“
He is not a lesser god, Lord.”

“
Tell me.”

Tryne
recounted the tale, and at the end of it Drevarin’s eyes sparkled
with excitement. “A mortal tar’merin? How amazing! Where?”

“
The God Realm.”

Drevarin’s
face fell. “You know perfectly well that I cannot find him
there.”

“
Have you explored beyond your domain, Lord?”

“
A little. It is not a fun place.”

“
Indeed. The tar’merin is close to a domain where a god lies
unborn, but fully formed.”

“
Ah. I know it.” Drevarin pondered. “Those people are powerful,
and ignorant. They have been too long without a god to guide them.
They have become irreverent and arrogant. If this tar’merin is at
their mercy, he can expect none.”

“
Will you help, Lord?”

“
Earn the favour of a tar’merin?” Drevarin smiled. “I would be
a fool not to. Come here.”

Tryne knelt
before him, and Drevarin laid his hands upon the angel’s hair,
healing him in a flash of golden light. Drevarin rose as Tryne
stepped back, glancing around at the light realm with a slight
frown.

“
I dislike leaving my domain, but the place you speak of is not
far. All I have to do is heal this tar’merin and proclaim his
goodness to those horrible people?”

“
He only asked me to tell them what he is and order them to
release him. His healing is your choice.”

Drevarin
beamed and wagged a finger. “A small deed for a greater favour. I
have never encountered a dark god. He will be my first. It will be
a grand adventure.”

Tryne looked
at him askance, amazed that he would refer to travelling through
the God Realm as an adventure. Drevarin struck him as a young god,
and, judging by the confident swagger with which he strode to his
Realm Gate, he had seen little of the horrors of the darkness, or
the God Realm. Most light gods ventured outside their domains at
some time to explore, and, since they had often seeded their
domains, they had travelled through it in search of a realm seed
before that. Drevarin, however, appeared to have been born in this
domain, and his parent had left him to go out and seed another.

“
What favour will you ask of him, Lord?” Tryne asked as they
arrived before the Realm Gate.

Drevarin drew
a shining key from his tunic and pressed it to the Gate. “At the
moment, I have no need of his aid, but dark gods are always a
threat. Should I ever need him, I have then only to summon an angel
and send him to find this tar’merin. What is his name?”

“
Bane, the Demon Lord.”

The Realm Gate
glowed and chimed. “I hope he is powerful.”

“
I could not tell. He has been stripped of his power, otherwise
he would not be in the predicament that he is.”

“
Indeed.” Drevarin stepped back as the Gate’s giant locks
disengaged with a soft grating of stone. “Those people have learnt
how to vanquish dark gods, but unfortunately they do not destroy
them. Their silly attempt to rid the God Realm of dark gods is
futile, and now they have captured a tar’merin. Do you know how
rare tar’merin are, Tryne?”

“
I have only heard legends, Lord.”

The Gate swung
open with ponderous majesty, revealing the shivering darkness
beyond. Drevarin walked through it, Tryne at his heels. “So have
I,” the light god said, “from my mother. I will wager you never
thought to meet one. I certainly did not.”

“
I was surprised.”

Drevarin bent
to study the ground, rubbing his chin. The Gate swung closed with a
soft boom, the locks engaging again. “Now, which one of these leads
to that accursed domain?”