Growing darker in his heart each day, Damien had almost succumbed to his cursed powers. He could use them at full capacity and was able to withstand an excruciating amount of pain, no matter how damaging it was to him.
Naya was put through the same treatment, and although she could not compare in strength, she could withstand a lot more punishment than Damien ever could.
But due to their interest in each other, their humanity still dwindled like a lone candle in the night. Demons felt no emotion except the burning rage and hatred, so for a demon to express anything apart from that was frowned upon, even more so towards each other. They were still human, even though they’d shredded most of their humanity, their growing affection for each other was the single thread still keeping them “alive”. As a result, they weren’t trusted fully by the rest of the cult, and were subjected to unnecessary amounts of “demon training”, which is a nice way of saying “more torture”.
Despite this, the cultists felt that they were to test their new demons. Damien and Naya also wishing to test out their newfound skills and prove that they are ready to help the cause, agreed to their first-ever assignment. Their task was to retrieve the ancient relic that lay in the centre of the Ethereum temple. Both had been assigned to sneak in there, past all the troops, and take it while they were waiting for a front door attack. This was a suicide mission. About 50 soldiers versus them, and if they made one move wrong, they were dead. That was just the kind of thrill Damien was seeking, and if it all went wrong, then 50 soldiers massacred inside the Ethereum temple should be a good message to the Golden Knights, even if he died in the process.
Both Damien and Naya were sent through a portal to a prayer room in the church, and made sure to stick to the shadows. It was a stealth mission, something that Damien was naturally unsuited to. Naya was better at this, as her slim and tiny frame almost rendered her invisible, yet she was muscular enough to throw herself across the room and pull herself up ledges with ease. Damien, on the other hand, stuck to moving around in the shadows less gracefully and more cautiously as his bigger and bulkier frame wouldn’t make him less capable of that, just a lot louder.
Reaching the centre of the temple, they found a fat teen monk reciting spells to the relic. With no one around to guard him, Naya sneaked up on him and killed him instantly. The chubby monk flopped to the floor, the glow emanating from his hands fading as his life drained away. It’s unusual that someone this age would be a monk, especially having the ability to preform what looked to be a powerful prayer. Nevertheless, he was dead, and no trouble to them now.
Both Damien and Naya were awed by the relic, shiny and made entirely out of glass, having a greenish aura around it. Lights floated around it like fireflies as they danced around the room. They danced closely around Naya and Damien and the deceased monk, gently touching the skin and bouncing back off. The warm glow of the lights was entrancing, and actually producing a tiny, comforting warmth. A momentary release from the world, their minds drifted, a daydream, their minds enchanted of a better world. Be it through the delusions the cultists had been feeding them, or from their ideals imagining something so vastly different from their shit lives, the illusion was almost worth not returning from. A vision of each other, suddenly filling the frame, popping their illusionary bubble and turning the focus to each other. It was the artefact, a tiny enchantment, realising the fact that they were still human and extremely attracted to each other. Their humanity blossoming for just a moment…
Suddenly, there was shouting, and their gaze spun from the relic to the door. The guards had spotted them and were sounding the alarm. The reality set back in, Naya went to snatch the relic, and just before she could, it gave off an explosion of light and dust that sent the lights flying away from them. The particles hitting the soldiers and sinking into their skin, they started transforming and mutating as the demon curse infected them at an enhanced rate. Ripping their humanity from them instead of the slow burn that Naya and Damien experience, forcing their bodies to morph, decomposing and recomposing on a cellular basis. This is what the cultists wanted them to become, mindless drones of rage and violence, controlled by the leader.
That brief moment they realised that they didn’t want this, but after months of brainwashing and training, it was hard not to succumb to emotion.
Damien took out his sword as the enraged, cursed soldiers swung their swords at them like raving lunatics. A crooked and wry grin grew on Damien’s face as he charged at the afflicted soldiers craving a path back to the portal, with Naya following close behind him near enough decapitating a few on her way.
Returning, the duo continued to report to the leader, although a little more unsure of their cause. After hearing the news of what happened with the relic, the Cultists Leader suggested that they stay within the cultist lair, as the raw power that was given off may be dangerous. They were to spend the rest of their time here until the Creator was reborn. To them, the relic didn’t seem to be dangerous, why were they being excluded? Naya, more insulted than Damien as she had spent a lot more time here, hushed by the leader as he ushered them to their dungeon-like rooms.
>>Dungeon Despair
Realms of Tanerila is a Choose Your Own Adventure story written 5 years ago by myself for my HNC Games Development course. I started well… then I wrote the rest in a couple of hours at 4am because the deadline was too long, and I forgot about it.
jinxlgamez
Doubtful Player 