Devoid

Hagen part 2

Meliodas stretched, then activated Ghostasu and Shadow Stepped to the cell. He materialized inside. The prisoner looked up carefully, trying not to aggravate his injuries. "You're back," he noted, a bit redundantly. No shit, he came back. Meliodas had to get this information, no matter how many times he had to torture the bastard. "I told you already, I have nothing to say." Meliodas grinned, the same one that made the guard almost piss his pants. Even as beat up as he was, the prisoner still paled. It was the type of grin a cat gave when it caught a canary and was thinking of all the ways to play with it before it devoured the helpless bird. "Oh, I think you'll have plenty to say after this," Meliodas said softly.

Suddenly, a scream sounded through the prison. "Let go of me, you bastard!!" What perfect timing, Meliodas thought, amused at both the timing of the scream and how the prisoner paled even farther, becoming impossibly white. Meliodas looked over his shoulder as the cell door was kicked open and Salem walked in, holding a struggling female Demon. "Ava!" The traitor gasped. The female Demon started, snapping her head over to see the manacled man. "Hagen!" She cried. "Brother, what's going on?!" She lunged forward, only to be snatched back by Salem. "Don't move," he warned, his tone dark and apathetic in the face of the siblings' worry for each other. "You're in the presence of the Lord High Prince."

Ava stopped struggling suddenly and looked over, her eyes widening and her face going pale at the sight of the Heir standing beside her bloody and beaten brother. "Wha'...why...?" She breathed, her dark green hair falling into her face. Meliodas ignored her shock and caught Salem's gaze and nodded. In a split second, the head guard held the woman close, a knife glinting at her neck. She sucked a breath in sharply, her eyes flashing from the knife, to her brother. "Hagen...what did you do?" She asked softly. Hagen looked away, unable to look his sister in the eyes. Instead, he turned to Meliodas. "Leave her out of this! This has nothing to do with her!" Meliodas looked at him, unfazed by his pleading. "I'd say she has everything to do with this...if this will make you talk."

"Talk about what?!" Ava cried. "What's going on here, Hagen?!" Meliodas twitched and sighed irritatedly. "Salem, if you would." Without a word, Salem gagged her with his own darkness. Hagen looked on, his eyes showing pain far beyond what Meliodas had caused torturing him. I should've done this sooner, Meliodas thought, irritated at the lost time. "Now, tell. Me. Everything," he hissed right in Hagen's face, crouching down. Hagen bit his lip, hard enough that blood started trickling down. " I have nothing to say." Meliodas sighed and motioned to Salem. There was a muffled scream as he drew the gag tighter, starting to choke his captive. Of course, her own darkness would kick in and heal that, but it'd still hurt like hell.

Hagen flinched. "Take care; the next lie will cause something that won't be as easily healable," Meliodas said. He remained silent. Another signal, another strangled scream. This time, the warden had drawn his knife vertically up Ava's face. Hagen gave a brief sob. "Stop! I hadn't lied, you bastard!" Behind Meliodas, Salem growled and the next minute, there was a sickening crack. Hagen gasped and Meliodas snapped his head to the side to look over his shoulder. "Salem!" He snapped. Salem looked at him, anger burning in his eyes as he let go of the girl's now broken arm. "He insulted you, my lord." Meliodas rolled his eyes. "Like I care what he thinks. He can curse me to Purgatory if he likes, as long as he knows to fear me. Don't hurt the captive any more than you have to. If she passes out, the torture won't have as much of an effect." Salem hesitated, but bowed his head. "As you wish."

Ava looked up, breathing hard. She's already about to pass out from the pain, Meliodas noted callously. What weakness. "How can you be so cruel?" She asked. Meliodas looked her in the eyes. She pulled back against Salem, shrinking away from the dead look in his eyes. "I'm the Prince of the Demon Clan," he said. "No strength can be gained from foolish pity." Seeing that he had scared her speechless, he turned back to the prisoner in disgust, wondering how such a weak Demon existed. "Since he's already demonstrated how willing he is to hurt your sister, it won't get you anywhere to keep up this charade." He squatted down before him. "Now, tell me everything you know." The former guard's eyes flashed from him, to his sister, back to him, and then rested on his sister. Multiple emotions flew across his face. Panic, anger, grief, guilt, and then finally acceptance.

"We call ourselves Abaddon's Avengers." Meliodas narrowed his eyes. In the history of the Demon Clan, Abaddon was a foolish Commander of the Demonic Army during the early days of his father's reign, who dared to try and overthrow the Royal Family. Of course, he was killed by the King, but not before he killed several high ranked Demons and made the King look like a fool. It was the most humiliating moment of the King's history. For this group to call themselves his avengers... "You must be insane to use that name," Meliodas stated lightly. Hagen didn't respond. "Now what else do you know?" Meliodas, knowing there was more to his knowledge. When he didn't speak, Meliodas lifted his hand. "There's a meeting," Hagen blurted, seeing he was going to give Salem another order to hurt Ava. "In two months. The leader will be there!"

Excellent, Meliodas thought, pleased with the information he just found. "Where?" He pressed. Hagen gritted his teeth. "Akragas*." Meliodas hissed. That was that bitch Amaris's city. While he had trouble seeing Abraxas betraying his father, if any of the Councilors were to do so, it would be that power-hungry sunēku*. "Who is the leader?" Meliodas growled. "I don't know." "Liar!" Meliodas snarled. "YOU HAVE MY SISTER!" Hagen screamed. "You have my sister," he repeated, quieter, subdued. "I couldn't lie, even if I wanted to." Meliodas stared at him, looking into his defeated eyes. Then, he nodded. "One last thing, then. I know there's someone from your 'Abaddon's Avengers' that has the ability to come into the Prison. Who is it?"

He felt Salem stiffen behind him, no doubt shocked that someone under him could be a traitor to the Demon King. The prince smirked, enjoying the thoughts of what the irate Demon would do after the traitor was found. The warden could give Meliodas a run for his money in interrogation techniques. "I don't know his name," Hagen said. "Truthfully!" He said hurriedly, before Salem could harm Ava again. "All I know is that he serves here in the Prison and has a high rank and that he has a humanoid form! That's all I know!"

Meliodas straightened from his crouch. If that's all, we're done here." He heard Ava breath a relieved sigh behind him, but that hopeful sound didn't stop his next move. In one smooth, quick movement, Meliodas ripped Hagen's head clean off. There were a few heartbeats of silence, the only sound the blood dripping from his hands. Then, Ava screamed.

Meliodas flinched, the sound one he knew all too well. It was one of heartbreak, lost hope, and unrivaled grief. "HAGEN!!!!!" She wailed. Meliodas turned around and with a swift motion, yanked her soul from her body and then burned the useless shell. Salem stepped back quickly. "My lord..." he started, after the body had already turned to ash. But he didn't finish, leaving his unspoken question hanging in the air, known despite it had never been given voice. "That's all, Salem," Meliodas said tonelessly. "Return to your station." Salem nodded and bowed to him. "As you wish." He left, leaving the young prince with the soul and the echo of that scream.

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First of all, stuff in the chapter.

1. Akragas was an Ancient Greek city (thought I might as well keep going with the Greek theme here for my cities) that is now called Agrigento and is on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. It is also now the capital of a province of the same name.

2. Sunēku. Okay, so from what we've seen of the language that Meliodas has used in the latest chapter of Taizai, I think that just plain old Japanese is being used as the Demon Language. We'll see, but I think that's what's going on. Don't know why we suddenly went from squiggly lines to Japanese, but I'll roll with it. So, Sunēku means "snake" (I know "Hebi" is more well known, but I didn't want to use that).