∼ A Red Beginning ∼

Chapter - 001

The malodor of the air, scented thick with the smell of brimstone and soot was just as ever-present within the Netherworld as the echoing cries of demonic beasts and nightmarish monsters scouring the broken wastelands below.

This infernal landscape, Domain of the Seven Lords, was an untamed and savage wilderness where demons of all kinds roamed about; seeking to find prey - or simply enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

This place, inhospitable to the weak, bred only the powerful.

To be weaker than the nearest other creature meant to be prey. Thus, one was either left to gain in power and survive... or become sustenance for the rise of another.

In this unforgiving world, one curious creature, a critter of the bottom of the food chain, waddled around the wastelands, skittering through the cracks and rifts that tore the land asunder.

Small and diminutive in stature, wearing an impressive shade of scarlet to paint its lesser frame, two budding nubs protruding from the bald skull of its head, and a pair of eyes whose irises were a deep abyss black, centered by a deep crimson even more vibrant than that of the creature's skin.

With its spindly legs and the testing tail swishing about behind it, the demon bounded to and fro within this infernal terrain. In search of prey even smaller and weaker than itself. From rock to rock, from ledge to ledge, and occasionally - out of the paths of a particularly large and hungry beast looking for a delicious morsel such as itself.

In a sudden lunge, the small demon pounced from atop a rock. Filling the air were intermixed squeals of delight and terror, split between the impling's gleeful cackling and the small furry critter cries as it squirmed panickedly in the demon's clawed grasp.

The sounds of desperation did not last long as they were abruptly cut off and exchanged by the sickening squelches of the impling gnawing off its head. Sinew stuck to its fanged teeth and blood spilled out around the corners of its mouth, attempting to match the color of its skin. The impling didn't mind the messy nature of its feast, simply enjoying the squishy feeling of chewing its prey's stringy flesh and the taste of its warm blood.

Lost in the throes of delight, the impling barely even noticed the much larger and very ferocious-looking nether beast crawling along the broken terrain only seconds before it was right on top of it. A massive maw clamped shut around the spot that had been once occupied by something red and rather delicious-looking.

Well... at least the impling believed itself to be rather 'delicious-looking' seeing as there were so many monsters and demons always out to try and eat it. But could it blame them though? When you were so red and shiny such as itself, it wasn't surprising that they would become jealous.

Delicious or not aside, the small impling remembered it had better things to worry about; something such as... avoid being eaten.

The headless critter still in hand, the impling scrambled to evade the massive beast that swiftly pursued it. All the while letting out a series of indignant, but mostly terrified, screams, as it ran for its merry life, now and then stopping its screams as it took another bite of the morsel in its hand.

The split attention of the greedy impling almost proved to be its downfall as it stumbled and fell over the protruding roots of a desiccated tree which it hadn't even noticed.

"NEAGH-!" It yelped in a high-pitched voice very befitting of its diminutive figure.

The terrifying nether beast, a four-legged demon with horns of a bull and the maw of a shark, was only a few paces away, so the impling went with the only last-ditch effort it had in its arsenal. It cursed indignantly, which was really just some intelligible sounds that the impling itself thought to be very rude and it threw its hard-earned morsel directly in the face of the nether beast.

Letting out an annoyed grunt as the headless critter hit in the eye, effectively blinding it as blood spilled across its face, the beast shook its head in a futile attempt to clear its left eye of the sanguine liquid painting its vision red from other than just its rage and hunger.

Proving to be in vain, the nether beast turned its furious attention back to the little impling, wanting nothing more than to make the little vermin suffer as it was chewed alive. However, as it redirected its attention back to where the impling was supposed to be, no small and red demon was to be found anywhere around.

Now very confused, it looked around in confusion, trying to spot the damned impling. Suddenly a few things struck its snout with light taps. Looking up to see what the disturbance was, it realized it was dry bark and branches hitting its snout from the impling trying to desperately scramble up the gaunt tree.

Letting out a furious roar that shook the impling to its core, the little demon let out an involuntary shriek of surprise, looking down to only see that beast trying its best to reach it as its massive maw opened and snapped closed rapidly right behind it.

Redoubling its effort with icy tendrils of fear creeping up its heart, the impling scurried up the tree, barely avoiding the huge maw that snapped less than a few inches from the impling's swinging tail.

As it reached the first thick branch, the already exhausted lesser demon gave a hurried glance towards the nether beast, making sure it wasn't right on its tail. To its gloating joy, the beast, as big and unwieldy its body was, was unable to climb the desiccated tree in pursuit of its snack.

However, having now turned into more than a mere snack to the nether beast, it held an obvious grudge, not stopping its attempts at scaling the tree to get revenge for daring to cross it and not letting itself be eating like the good little morsel it was.

Having caught its breath, the impling intermittently cackled at the dumb beast, relishing in the fact that it had outsmarted it. Still, that was no surprise as it was a matter of fact; that no stupid nether beast could ever match up to the cunning of its reddish self. But in that moment it did take a second to pride itself in that it was the smartest of implings - of course.

As time went on and on, the impling realized that the nether beast was not going to leave anytime soon. How dared it, a lowly and dumb nether beast? Wasting the precious time of an impling. An impling of such magnificence as itself. Forcing it to be imprisoned upon this less than modest branch.

The injustice of it all ticked the demon off.

Unbeknownst to the impling, a marking that ran across its eye began glowing with an almost imperceptible light that would've gone unnoticed by most without paying proper attention.

It was at that moment, the small impling suddenly felt enraged by the indignation of what the beast was doing. As if the mark had something to do with the sudden irrational air of haughtiness clouding its mind. However, despite its newfound courage and lack of fear at its current troublesome situation, it had no means to change it for the better. Instead... a rather brilliant idea wandered its way through the impling's thoughts.

With a cunning smirk that was downright malevolent, splitting the impling's face from ear to ear, revealing some of the razor-sharp teeth of its mouth, the impling reached down. It grabbed the flailing red member between its legs, and with a slight mental exertion, a contented sigh escaped its lips while a very pleased expression found its way onto its impish face - drawing delight in both the act of emptying its bladder and what was about to come.

Like small pellets of yellow rain that quickly turned into a steady stream, the golden shower from above inundated the nether beast with its radiant, flaxen splendor... and potent smell. It splashed the beast’s muzzle, eyes, and some even went into its open maw as it still tried to scale the tree, wholly unaware of what fate disgraceful it was befallen until it was too late.

The nether beast hadn’t managed to react in time with the first splashes, and with confusion briefly flashing onto its face that was almost instantly replaced with an expression of such pure and raw abhorrence that it seemed to threaten the beast's eyes to pop, it let rip a bellowing roar of rage.

Although nether beasts weren't the smartest of beings, they were a powerful race of creatures that came in all shapes and sizes. But for better or worse, depending on the situation, most of them bore enough intellect to both understand what was happening right now and the sheer humiliation of it. To an alpha monster such as itself, there was literally nothing worse that the impling could have done to anger it more.

Gloating with a pleased smirk, the impling just watched in glee as the beast thrashed away its display of furor far below and out of reach.

However, that smirk quickly found its way off the impling's face when the nether beast suddenly backed up, and without any regard for its own body or well-being, charged forward with reckless abandon, ramming its head into the tree and causing it to shake so much that the impling suddenly found itself without a withered branch underneath its feet.

Letting out an abrupt cry of surprise as the demon tumbled through the air, it was with a dull thump that the small impling plopped onto the ground - more than just disoriented and frazzled as its bearings was basically a foreign concept in that moment.

A small red screen popped into his mind's eye, but the impling was barely in any state to take notice of it, let alone understand the ramifications of what it was trying to convey. The only thing that the demon knew about it, was that whenever it got odd messages inside its head, granted that those hadn't been all that many times, it had almost always been when it had gotten itself hurt.

As such, to the impling's infantile mind; red notifications equaled bad.

Stirring from the throbbing pain racking its body, the small demon sobered up almost instantly upon hearing the guttural growl of a certain beast that was, now to its horrifying realization, all too close for its liking. Growing even more desperate, the impling scrambled to get away, throwing everything and anything at the nether beast stalking towards him that it could get its dainty little hands on, which was essentially little more than just soot-tainted dirt and sand.

Having had enough of the red critter, the beast lunged for the kill, no longer wanting to entertain the thrill of the hunt but rather to tear its impudent prey apart.

In a desperate attempt to evade, the impling kicked off with its feet and flailed at the air with its arms to get as much distance as possible from the nether beast just as it was about to spell the impling's doom. However, instead of tumbling across the ground in its desperate plight, the impling - for the second time today, found itself without the footing it had otherwise expected to be right underneath it. Before it knew it, the demon was tumbling down a crevice in the broken earth, bouncing between the walls and rolling down the ledges leading deep, deep underground.

The impling hit its head against the wall of brimstone and nether rock, and everything went black.