Once Raziel had left behind Freya and Ifera with Zaceus, the smile he had been keeping took on a hard edge, seemingly losing all warmth. The magic circle had teleported him into a dark dungeon, deep beneath the ancient castle. Raziel also was careful to appear right in front of the large rusted iron door so that his footsteps would echo as he walked to his prisoners. After all, presentation and appearance were key in these sorts of situations.

Casting a magic circle on himself, Raziel’s felt his ruby eyes become slitted like a cat, granting him the ability to see in the darkness of this secret prison. Making his entrance, Raziel was pleased to see that despite what had occurred earlier, he had not lost his touch. On that note he turned to face his would-be assassins, even though he knew that they could not see him.

 When he had told Freya that a mage from the Empire had tried to assassinate him and that he had eaten him, Raziel wasn’t lying. That said what he did not tell the blue haired young woman was that the mage had not acted alone.

In this large, dank, and dirty room were two other occupants. One human, but the other was demon. Both of them were tied, bound and gagged to iron chairs. All their earlier struggle against the chains and cloth tying them down had seemingly left them. Carved on their foreheads were magic circles of Raziel’s own design burned into their skin, blocking them from the ability to cast any spells or magic circles.

In a tone as bright as the sun, Raziel greeted, “Good afternoon to you both. I trust your stay here has been enjoyable. After all, I would hate for people to start accusing me of being an ungracious host.”

Hearing the pair’s muffled words and struggling squirming against their chairs, Raziel said, “Oh, you must forgive me for I had forgotten you couldn’t speak and it would be terribly rude of me to not offer you both the chance to answer me.”

With that Raziel snapped his fingers not because he needed to, but because of the echoing effect the sound had as it reverberated against the walls of the cell. As soon as the action was finished two tiny magic circles appeared over their gags, freeing the mounds of cloth which had previously been blocking any form of real language to be heard.

No sooner had the pair been released then the one on the right, a male demon with shoulder length silver hair began taking deep breathes as the human, a male about ten years Raziel’s senior with dark hair cropped short began a tirade of sorts.

The human yelled, “You are a curse among this world and even if we are to die, the gods will not forgive you for all the crimes which you have committed! There will come a day where you will burn in the netherworld for all the lives you have taken!”

At his boring response, Raziel sighed. Internally he thought, Right, I had spent the past few hours with a blue eccentric that I had almost forgotten that this was what was normal. He had to remind himself with people like this that young women yelling Quantum Magical theories and accusing him of being a failure to his generation in the face of death was not the norm, even if the world would be a little more interesting if that was the case. At this thought, Raziel mentally shook his head, unable to believe that he thought of that perverted eccentric as being interesting.

To remind himself of why he came here, Raziel cast a magic circle on both would-be assassins, making them believe they were burning alive. In their eyes, the stench of rotting flesh and burning flames permeated all their senses. Their flesh, once the color of the earth, had now changed into a molten charred color, unfit to be called either demon or human. The pain was so intense that Raziel supposed they could only scream until they had no voice left. Although, both parties were fine, their minds believed that they were burning from the inside out, each molecule of their bodies coming together in a symphony of agony. As Raziel looked on, he waited in boredom for the begging to begin. He gave it a minute.

Really, if they had just acted with basic politeness and etiquette, Raziel would have been a little more merciful. Glancing at the slow ticking of the watch on his wrist, Raziel watched and waited, neither amused nor remorseful at the cries in front of him. Tick, tock went his watch until thirty seconds had passed and the demon managed to let out one last anguished cry yelling, “Make it stop! We’ll do anything!”

Smiling in satisfaction and the thought that he might be able to finish this early and have some time to relax, Raziel snapped his fingers, simultaneously causing both magic circles to dissipate. Strangely enough, Raziel didn’t feel the usual bile and pain which normally accompanied big displays of magic. On this thought, Raziel mentally decided that keeping the strange blue creature around was a good idea after all.

Looking back into the situation on hand, Raziel saw that both the demon and the human were panting quickly, trying to regain themselves. That said, the look of hate and murder in the human’s eyes was one he was already too used to. In response, he gave them a courtly smile and declared, “Gentlemen, I trust that now we may speak to each other with a bit more civility.”

“I’ll kill you,” the dark-haired human nearly spit out.

“Now, I very much doubt that,” Raziel responded before looking both of them directly with his now cat-like crimson eyes, his glowing eyes being the only source of light in the darkness. Then he continued, “Gentlemen, you never answered my question. What will it be? Can I trust you both to act like the civilized men you claim to be?”

At this, the demon pushed his chair forward in his first display of rash violent intent.

“I could always return you both to the flames, if that is what you wish. I am, after all, a generous host,” Raziel remarked, lazily checking his watch again.

Sparing the pair a glance, Raziel noticed the look of abject terror coating their faces, their eyes diluting and skin paling at returning to even a second more of being entwined in flames. At their response, Raziel allowed himself a satisfied smile in a job well done.

Keeping that smile Raziel asked, “Well gentlemen, what will it be?”

Although they could not possibly see each other in this darkness, Raziel felt that he two were trying to share a look in decision of how to reply to him.

Glancing at his watch, Raziel said, “As much as I do enjoy this moment, I’m a very busy man with a kingdom to manage. I would suggest either of you answer quickly before I lose my patience.”

Just as the righteous human was about to open his mouth, the demon yelled, “We’ll talk, but could you at least untie us and let us see before then?”

“Oh, how bold that you would dare to request something of me, but I am in a rather good mood today. Very well, I can offer you both at least that much.” In the next moment Raziel clapped his hands while mentally casting three different magic circles. The first returned his eyes to normal, the second cast light onto the large cell, and the third untied the two prisoners.

Walking slowly so that he was only a few feet from them, Raziel asked, “Now, why did you try to kill me?”

As soon as the human opened his mouth, Raziel interrupted, “And please try not to bore me with your talk of how I am evil. It really is quite boring and illogical. Gentlemen, do I need remind you that we are all living in the modern age?”

The older man clamped his mouth shut while the demon looked at Raziel with familiar golden eyes and was about to open his mouth when the human took off running for the door. In response, the demon’s eyes diluted in fear and he jumped to try to tackle Raziel to the ground. If he had hadn’t been weakened through torture or if he had attacked any demon other than Raziel, perhaps he would have succeeded, but neither was the case.

Dodging the silver haired demon, Raziel cast a magic circle in the air. Immediately, slashes of wind cut through the air, flying fast and unseen. Before the human could make it even halfway to the door, the slashes cut his right arm clean off like a butcher slicing up meat to sell for a day’s work. As his blood began splattering, the human let out a scream of pain. Raziel barely glanced at the limb lying lamely next to the man as he walked up to him.

What a coward, Raziel thought in disdain before he cast a magic circle over his right hand turning his fingernails into dark sharp talons like the long extinct dragons of history. Without a second thought, and while ignoring the putrid scent of piss, dirt, and blood, Raziel plunged his hand into the mage’s chest, his claws breaking through layers of bone and flesh until he ripped the man’s still beating heart from his chest.

Fingers drenched in blood, Raziel plunged his teeth into the raw heart, feeling the mage’s magic become one with his. Unlike the rumors of demon magic circulating in human kingdoms, demons only needed to eat the heart of a mage to absorb their magic. The feeling of bleeding hearts entering his digestive system gave Raziel a high like no other no matter how repulsive the owner of the aforementioned heart was.

Once he had finished his meal, Raziel turned and lazily walked back to the demon who could only stare in shock and anger as blood dripped from Raziel’s mouth.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” the demon said, fists clenched in fury.

“He tried first. Now, Kazaroth, why did you betray me?” Raziel finally replied with a shrug.

“Isn’t betrayal an unforgivable offense in your eyes,” was Kazaroth’s response.

“I was given some interesting advice today and besides, it would be a shame to lose such a valuable asset to this country. That said, depending on your response, I could always eat your heart out too.”

“Very well, I’ll speak, but I don’t know if you’ll like it,” Kazaroth finally relented after a lengthy pause.