The Grim Legion

by Kindred Ult

  "For some reason, I survived. I stumbled through the halls with the countless dead bodies that had not yet become werewolves lying around me. I could think of nothing except to be able to see my mother and father, who had taken to staying in their chambers for days at a time. My body had almost been shorn in two, but my spinal cord and lungs were still intact, so I was able to survive the climb up the stars to the room in which they lived. I had to hold my guts inside my body with my arms. Thinking back on it, I don't think it was humanly possible to do what I did, but I dunno'." He paused, obviously remembering the scene that greeted him in his parents' bedchamber with sadness.

  "When I got there, I found both of my parents dead. They had been one of the first ones to be slaughtered, and I began to truly cry when I saw their mangled corpses. My mother was barely recognizable. She was twisted" His hands rolled against each other as if to explain what he meant "around and around and left bloody and broken on the bed. My father, before he had died, had crawled using only his hands, since his lower body and legs were gone, toward a painting. It was like he was trying to reach it with all of his strength. His last act alive was to reach with his hand toward the painting, and when I went toward it, I found that a button was inlaid into the frame.

  "I don't know why I did not mourn my dead parents. I wish to god I had now, but something was pulling me toward that painting. Something I had no strength to deny. I pressed the button, and the entire wall behind it fell away. Behind it was a short corridor. Without even looking back at my parents, I dried my tears and walked down the secret hallway. It was very dark, and cold." He shivered involuntarily. "When it ended, I was in a room not unlike this one, but much smaller. There was also an altar there, but it was very crude. Even at that age, I was able to tell that the altar was covered in dried blood. As I got closer, I saw a tiny man sitting on the altar, swinging his legs back and forth.

  "I walked up to the little man and asked him what had happened. He said that my brother's experiment had gone wrong and that he had killed everyone in the castle, even me. I asked what he was doing here and he told me that he was doing 'clean up.' Said that some of the people here belonged to him and that he would not allow them to cheat death by becoming werewolves. I asked him who he was and he looked me straight in the eye before replying 'I am the source of Justice, and Power.' I realized then what I wanted.

  "I asked him that, if he could be so kind, I could please be allowed to live and be given the power to carry out justice against my brother and against the man who took my sister and caused this. He asked me what I would be willing to give in order to receive such a favor, and I told him I would give him my life, my soul, and all of my organs. I dug my hands inside my stomach cavity and pulled out my intestines, letting him see them and know that I was sincere. He tilted his head to the side before agreeing and leaping on me so hard I fell to the floor.

  "It must have taken him hours to completely devour all of my organs, including my lungs, heart, brain, and bladder. I cried like a whelp when he tore my skin from my muscles in patches and shoved it inside his mouth. He ate so much for such a little man. He ate everything, but for some reason I kept breathing after he tore out, bit through, and ate my lungs. I stayed alive, and very much in pain, when he ate my heart, and even though my vision split, I could still think when he tore my head in half to get at my brain. I screamed in agony until my voice gave out, and then I screamed even more. It was honestly the second worse pain I have ever felt I my life. When he was finally done, I looked like this, was declared Lucifer's new champion, and charged with destroying the vampires and werewolves at any cost no matter the time I took or the lengths I went to.

  "Since then I have spoken with Lucifer only twice. The first time was to request my medallion, and the second was to ask him why he was allowing me to destroy a race he himself created. After spending an entire year in torment for questioning him, I was told that he was allowing me to do it on a whim, and that he had not expected the vampires to live as long as they had. He was apparently running out of patience to collect on their debts, as he had with my parents. When I awoke from my torments I found that only a moment had passed. I never questioned Lucifer again." He stopped, and seemed caught between the emotions of his story and also where to continue from there.

  Demenn, Varus, and Niethel were all caught in the story, and even Brand seemed to have broken away from what he had been paying attention to in order to listen to the story. He was the first to speak in the silence.

  "So you were the third brother of Christine's that everyone assumed had died." In his mind, it seemed as if he was piecing the whole picture together.

  Lueke half-smiled. "Yep, we're quite a screwed up family. A vampire, a werewolf, a vampire slayer, and a werepyre. Sometimes I think it's ironic, and other times I wonder if Lucifer orchestrated it all."

  "You sold your soul to Lucifer for revenge?" Demenn could only wonder if he himself would have made that deal, given the circumstances. At first he thought that he had proved he would not, but then he remembered that he had turned Lucifer down after he had gotten his two most important targets, not before. It unsettled him slightly.

  "And my organs, yes. It was not for revenge, though, it was for justice. Whatever you want to call it, though, you all are seeking the same thing I was and still am. In fact, the desire for revenge, as you call it, is a necessary requirement to be a champion of Lucifer. That is why the three of you pose a problem for me. Demenn is seeking revenge against the werewolves and Lucifer for the deaths of his family, Varus is seeking vengeance for the death of his sister, and Brand is seeking justice for the death of his partner and also for E. What a strange circle the four of us form. Any of you could easily become the next champion, all you would have to do would be to defeat me and then call upon Lucifer for his power. Then and only then can justice, revenge, or whatever you want to call it, be possible for you."

  "So, all we would have to do is kill you, huh?" Varus now seemed slightly curious, in a detached kind of way.

  A slight hint of menace crept into Lueke's voice. "Yes, that's all. I should warn you, though, I'm a really good fighter. Even without my werepyre powers, I can definitely take the three of you on."

  "Well then it's a damn good thing there's four of us, isn't it, bastard?" Niethel was almost livid now. "I mean come on you son of a whore, you can't just stand there and ignore me."

  Lueke's face expressed his annoyance. "Actually, yes I can. As far as I am concerned, you do not exist."

  "Then how are we talking to each other?" Niethel was determined to gain some kind of recognition.

  Lueke sighed. "This conversation no longer holds any appeal to me. Demenn, you seem like a reasonably intelligent person. Are there any other questions you have for me?"

  Demenn nodded. "How were you able to take command of the werepyres, and why did you?"

  Lueke smiled excitedly once again. "Another good question. Well, after I gained my powers from Lucifer, I spent quite awhile just wandering through the forest and killing every creature I could find. For some reason, probably because I was still eleven years old, despite the fact that I looked just like I do now, I thought that eventually I would just be able to kill them all one by one. 'Course it didn't take long for me to despair of that. What it did help me do, however, was to discover that Galstryx and Lucifer were very close to having their huge battle. Once I heard about that, I readied myself and made sure to be there for it. I had expected to wait until the werwolves slaughtered the vampires, as it definitely seemed they would, and then kill Galstryx. Lucifer had told me that doing so would make the werewolves disperse in a confused frenzy, and so then I figured that I would hunt them down after they became packs once again and that way destroy them.

  "Unfortunately, near the end of the battle, it was looking like Lucifer and his minions would win. I was powerful then, even as a small child, but I was no match for the vampires who were left, so when Galstryx launched himself at Lucifer, I wrenched Lucif
er's sword from his hands and threw it to the side. As I had hoped, Galstryx killed him, but I had not counted on Christ—Ah," His voice caught for just a moment. "I mean Safiria killing Galstryx. When the werewolves scattered, there were still a relatively large number of very powerful vampires left alive. Too many. Actually," His head dropped a bit. "I probably could have killed them all, had I started with Safiria and continued on to all of the others, but in all honesty I couldn't bring myself to kill my sister then.

  His head was downcast, and his brow furrowed in painful memories. "I was still young, and she had been so good to me. She had always smiled at me and played with me when I had asked. I remember, when I would scream and cry at some stupid, childish thing, she would always just smile, put her hand on my head, and walk past me." His voice trailed off and he looked down and to his left. A trace of smile splayed across his face, but it was quickly gone when his head shot back up. His eyes were wide, like a child caught doing something forbidden, but soon his face was like it always was, and he resumed his story.

  "When it was all over, I was visited by Lucifer. I tried to explain to him my ideas and the logic that was behind me not attacking the vampires, but he would have none of it. He knew why I hadn't tried. He knew that I still loved my sister. Oh, god, the pain he put me through. It felt like an eternity of something that was so..." His muscles tensed and his fingers curled into themselves. Veins bulged and his body began shaking as he searched for a word to describe the pain. "horrible I can't even describe it to you. No torture or death I have seen, heard of, or caused could even be used as a crude example to compare to it. Ugh, it was agony so complete that I can't even remember when it ended or what happened before, during, or after for several weeks. All I remember was one day suddenly waking upon the middle of holding a mewling werewolf by the throat and smashing my hand into its face. When I finally found a calender, I found that it had been months since the fight.

  "Let me tell you Demenn, it's been almost ninety years since that day. I have matured. I'm what would naturally be an old man, and I would not think twice of murdering my sister." He looked Demenn in the eyes, and Demenn saw none of the weakness he had seen during the story there.

  Before he could continue, Varus spoke up. "I'm curious as to know how you were at the battle between the vampires and werewolves without having to fight and being able to escape so easily. Also, how does this concern your taking over the werepyres?"

  Lueke half-laughed to himself. "Ah, you're right, I did get a little side-tracked. But this is more of a prelude, to that, and it's coming up very quickly. Also, I was invisible during that battle, and the confusion was too great for any of them to suspect anything of the sort. It's a funny thing, invisibility, it works very well, but once someone begins to suspect that there is someone invisible, it begins to wear off, and once it is confirmed, whether consciously or unconsciously, I become visible. You'll notice that was how I was able to be here without any of you seeing me earlier, but once I spoke, all of you were able to see me. No one suspected it there, so I was able to move freely.

  "Anyway, After that battle, I went back to my old ways of killing werewolves and vampires as I found them, but as before I quickly saw the impossibilities in that. All of the powerful vampires were out of the forest or were huddled so tightly together a fly could fit between them, and the werewolves were as yet almost completely scattered through the forest, and it would have taken me countless years to get them all. Nor would I have been able to know if I ever was able to kill them all. The thought even crossed my mind to just tell Lucifer that I wasn't able to hold up my part of the deal, but I snuffed that as quickly as it came about. Still, I was completely stuck when it came to thinking of how to kill them all decisively.

  "That is, until I found the real Lueke and the small band of werepyres he had acquired in his short time alive. When I saw their strength, and how superior they were to the other races, I knew that I had found my answer. The first thing I did was follow them, listening to their conversations, learning about them, and paying very close attention to their leader, Lueke. Eventually, I had learned everything about him. I knew all of his mannerisms, how he would react to things, how he would talk and move. I devoted everything to the task of knowing him. It was only once I knew that I could be him that I contacted Lucifer and told him about my plan. He liked it so much he didn't even make me pay for the amulet that he said would make me not only look and sound like Lueke, but have his powers too. When I had it, I waited until I was able to catch Lueke alone, killed him, slipped on the amulet, and ever since that moment until just very recently I have been him."

  "You killed the original Lueke?" For some reason it comforted Brand to know that none of the three races still possessed their original leader.

  "Yes, he was no fighter. He wasn't a great leader or a revolutionary. He was just some kid born under the wrong circumstances and forced into this kind of life. He was running away from those who were trying to kill him, and those with him were people he had saved from death by changing them to being like him. They were tight-knit, like a family. I can tell you honestly that he would never have wanted his people to end up like they are now.

  "After I became him, I slowly began to change everything. It was actually rather masterful, my manipulation of them. I started slow, like I was finally realizing things. Like how we were so superior to them, and how we shouldn't have to hide for our entire lives. They ate it up, too. It was almost like they were just realizing it, too. Eventually, after years of slowly building my troops, training them, and making them more and more militant-minded, I had an army. I could have taken out either of the two races then, and then used their wounded to raise my army exponentially before moving onto the other race, but unfortunately, one of the stupider ones got his dumb ass caught.

  "They discovered our whereabouts from his mind, and the rest is history. They rallied together, destroyed us, and would have completely killed all of us were it not for our ability to evade the werewolf Queen's sensory abilities by morphing into either vampires or werewolves. We went black for the longest time, with every single one of us posing as one of them. We were on both sides, and for a time I thought that all was lost. Eventually, we were able to pick up communications and once the werewolf Queen was killed, we were able to assume our true forms and begin building our army up once again at our camp deep in the woods where no one had reason to come. I'm sure you can figure the whole thing out from there. So that's the answer to your question. I feel Lucifer coming on quickly, we should have time for one last question, if it's a quickly answered one..." It was clear he hoped that someone would ask one final question.

  "What's your real name." Brand looked like he was at that moment piecing together the entire history of Darkoven in his mind at that moment.

  Lueke let out a small chuckle. "See, that's the funny part. My real name is actually Luke."

  After a moment of silence Niethel broke in. "Wait, that's the same damn thing as the other guy's name."

  Luke raised a finger, his face wide with a smile. "Ah, but you see, my name is spelled L-U-K-E, while his was spelled L-U-E-K-E. There's a difference, trust me, but it did help me to blend into being him, having his name."

  Niethel threw his hands out wide. "Oh, well, silly me, and here I've been spelling your name wrong whenever I spoke it." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

  Whatever Luke might have said or not said was lost in a loud clap like thunder and by a bright white light that made the cavern clear as day, but that also did not cause any pain to the onlookers. When the light faded, there was a ridiculously tall and thin throne at the middle of one wall of the cavern. It was made from what looked like one single rock, and went up at least twenty or thirty feet. At the top of it sat Lucifer, in all of his normal finery and splendor. He smiled with perfectly-white teeth, and his luscious black hair seemed to shimmer even though there was insufficient light to make it do so. From his beautifully-sculptured face to his impeccably-aligned body, h
e radiated peace and and happiness as a matter of course. After a short moment of self-exultation, he lowered his gaze and swept it over the occupants of the cavern.

  "Welcome my champion-prospects." His voice was smooth as silk, as always. "I look forward to seeing all of you struggle and probably die in this fight. Of course, to whoever actually survives, I will give—" He stopped abruptly and shook his head, sighing. "Niethel, what are you doing here? I mean, seriously, did I not just tell you that you were completely worthless except for your body? How much negative reinforcement do you need before you give up?"

  Before Niethel could really get into his groove and send back his indignant response, Luke broke through the conversation. "My Lord, my army must be wondering where I am right now, and even though time goes slower in this place, I assume that I must be punished before I am allowed to go back to them with a new amulet. I think that a full half-minute has passed since I left them, and I would very much like to get this over with so that I can get back to them as soon as possible. So, if it pleases my Lord, could we please hurry this along?"