Devil in Shepherd's Robes

Ch 24: The Devil's Eyes

The heavy trudge of footsteps squished the mud beneath their feet. As Ephram hung his head down to his chest, trying to catch his breath, he heard their arrival far too late. Dozens of grotesque demonic monsters had heard the brawl unfolding in the graveyard and had gathered towards it. Upon seeing the remnants of the fight, however, they were all sorely disappointed for being left out of the fun.

As Ephram's chest slowly rose and fell, he looked up weakly to the now surrounding force of demons. There was no possible way he could beat them all by himself, it had taken every inch of his strength to beat the two now lying dead upon the ground. All hope had been lost, and Ephram knew that his time had finally come. It was a good run, and he could at least take pride in knowing he had died fighting.

"Just... finish it..." He spluttered angrily, waiting for one of the demons to step forward and end his suffering.

He felt ashamed of himself for giving up at the sight of this overwhelming force but knew that there was no other option. Both Silvia and May were on the brink of death, and he knew he was running on fumes himself. Even those fumes had begun to dissipate, leaving Ephram completely helpless as he felt his body go cold.

As he watched three of the demons approach him, he noticed their eyes were the same orange hue as the other four eyed demons. These three, however, had only two eyes peering down at him. The dozens of demons surrounding him were similar to each other, but each were just as grotesque as the last in their own unique way. One in particular caught Ephram's attention as he stared at it angrily. One demon in particular had golden eyes as bright as the sun and was obviously under the influence of Aberlain.

It's jagged tooth grin instilled a terror inside of him that he thought he had vanquished long ago, the fear he suppressed for so long had finally come unbottled at the sight of the monsters around him. Ephram didn't want to die, he wanted to keep living with Silvia and May and the others by his side. It was cruel to have been stomped into submission like this as soon as he finally saw the light at the end of his journey, but somewhere deep within his mind, he knew. The world is a cruel and unforgiving place, always looking for an opportunity to shove others down to raise itself up. Reality was nothing more than a bully, picking on its inhabitants as if it were better than them in every way.

He watched as the demon with yellow eyes bent over to inspect the two dead demons, poking and prodding at the jaw lodged through the skull of the demon with knife-like claws. There was nothing Ephram could do now but watch helplessly from the gravestone he had propped himself upon. As he looked over his shoulder to inspect the stone, however, he began to chuckle hoarsely.

The demons all turned to face him curiously, wondering why he seemed to be laughing in the face of misfortune. Ephram didn't care what happened to him anymore and had found it absolutely hilarious knowing he was about to die in this exact spot. The gravestone holding him up now was none other than his own, with both his name and Silvia's etched into the stone like a cruel reminder. He was supposed to be dead long ago, but Ephram had defied his own death by turning himself into a demon. It was as if reality had forced him back to his grave, the place he should have been all along.

"I hope... you all rot..." He said to the demons, his raspy voice filling with tiredness as his shoulders started to slump forward with his head.

Once he had finished speaking, the yellow eyed demon angrily approached him, grabbing his shoulders with its claws and bending down to snarl in Ephram's face. Its scalding hot breath reeked of decaying flesh and sulfur, as if its jaws were the last thing hundreds of humans had seen since arriving upon Earth. As the creature sunk its teeth into Ephram's left arm, it began violently shaking its head back and forth like a dog ripping an animal to shreds. Crying out in agony, Ephram tried desperately to get away from the jaws of the creature but could do nothing as it ripped his left arm clean off his shoulder, hurling the arm away into the dark fog upon the ground.