CHAPTER 12

Damon

I left the human girl and went into the streets of her little city, her words consistently ringing in my head,

".....you would know that if you had someone to protect."

Who did she think she was to think that she knew that I had no one to protect? If my parents weren't murdered, I would have had them to protect.

Even now, I had the entire hell to protect, I had our existence to keep from the knowledge of humans, I still had those ungrateful humans to protect.

Thinking about this, I only realized that I had her to protect too. Whether I liked it or not, I had dragged her into my journey on earth and the fact that she had a part of the time piece only made it compulsory that I kept her close by, alive.

I couldn't afford to have her dead, definitely not now when my presence here had only stirred something interesting.

Whatever that thing was from last night, it was definitely not a redrex. After our battle here on earth against the redrexes, we the elites had successfully shut the gate of hades so they were never able to leave Hell for earth.

Redrexes could imitate humans and even take their form or anything at all that it got to get in contact with. This was one reason I was absolutely sure that thing was not a redrex.

The last fight which put an end to the redrex roaming earth was half a century ago. But this thing......it somehow got to imitate my mother's looks, voice and even part of her memory.

And the beast that it morphed into after our fight? It looked like a redrex but only a little bigger.

What was more questioning was that I had passed out after the fight. I wouldn't have believed what that human girl had said but I didn't wake up in the field which meant that I definitely went unconscious after the fight.

And the place where it had inserted one of it's claws still ached. I had completely healed already; I made sure to check that after I regained consciousness but I still felt immensely weak around my arm.

If it were a junior hade, or anyone from the hade council that complained of pains like this, I would have understood. But I was much more stronger than them all. I was the next King of Hell but how would I rule over hell if I got easily harmed by something so basic.

The screeching sounds it made and how it disappeared just didn't feel right. It was very intelligent but from our fight it was obvious that it didn't have a mind of its own.

Its movement was too skilled, like it had rehearsed every step it took. This only meant that someone was controlling it and there was only a slight, really slight chance that it was a human controlling whatever that thing was.

Was I really going to regret coming to earth?

I know the Demon Assembly had never really supported my decision as they always found it unruly but they were specially against my decision to come to earth.

Had they possibly known what I was going to encounter when I eventually came to earth but then kept it away from me? Had this thing possibly been the real reason why my parents even visited earth in the first place?

Now this was only a much bigger reason for me to investigate what was going on in this little town and possibly other parts of earth too. Whatever it was, I would definitely find out where it came from and who was possibly controlling it.

And Theia's father having a part of the time piece was still something I couldn't comprehend. We had it destroyed so long ago. It served a good purpose to the citizens of Hell but somehow, redrexes got hold of it and so we had it destroyed.

Why would.....?

I walked around mindlessly through the little town but still managed to take note of everything around me while still pondering over the multiple issues that had developed over the night.

Just then, an ugly scent filled the air, polluting it. I looked around, holding my breath for a second as even my lungs could not take in the contaminated air anymore.

But when I looked around, the humans were walking around like nothing had hurt them. There was absolutely no way they were immune to such toxic scent and also absolutely no way they were responsible for it.

I squinted my eyes, searching through everyone that passed by on the street and even those within the walls of buildings of different sizes.

I looked through over and over again but I couldn't see anyone emitting the smell nor anyone getting affected by it as well. I then decided to trace the owner of the scent.

I breathed in the toxic smell and let it lead me to whoever was the reason for its existence. My suspicions increased when it led me to the same field from last night.

I looked around but there was nothing or anyone emitting the smell. It just lingered in the air like it belonged there.

I took a walk around the vicinity and the entire school had been clouded in the toxic scent already. I walked through the classes too and the smell had engulfed the whole school like a thick cloud.

When I got to a certain room, the smell had gotten more intense there and I knew for sure that this was the source of the smell.

A stout looking man walked into the room, carrying the scent around him like a heavy cloak and I knew that he was the reason for the pollution in the air which for some reason best known to him, did not seem to affect humans.

He must have masked it from them but not expecting any demon, let alone the devil around, he didn't mask his horrible scent from unearthly creatures.

Still keeping my presence unknown, I moved closer to him, observing as he moved so perfectly. It was like his movements were well rehearsed.

He rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and I saw what looked like the symbol of Demon Academy but not quite.

What the hell was this?!

I teleported back to Theia's room immediately, startling her.

"Why do you keep making such horrible entries?! What is wrong with you?!" She yelled as usual.

"You need to come with me to the school right now." I urged her and the angry expression on her face vanished immediately to be replaced with concern.

"Did you see that thing from the Underworld again?" She asked, coming closer to me.

"Worse." I was away from the polluted air but I could still feel it around, it was like it had filled my lungs and now, it just went all the way from my lungs to my nostrils once again.

"I have to tell my mother I'm ready for College but there's no assurance that she would let me leave today." She panicked, pacing the room.

"Whatever it is that you have to do, you must do so, Theia. If you must protect your mother, we just get to school." I knew her mother was her priority, she wouldn't want her to get hurt for any reason.

"And this?" She asked, raising the part of the time piece to my eye level.

When she did, I remembered what happened last night. The thing that came to me in the form of my mother, it had come straight at Theia.

What I saw today didn't look like it was interested in hurting humans or that might be what its creator wanted it to do; act like a human until it was ready to strike.

But the thing from last night might have been interested in the part of time piece that she had. Bringing that along would be a good way to get it just where we want it to be.

"We're taking that with us, it would be of much more help than you could possibly imagine."