Pardominion

Gup

"Holy, holy, holy!"

The angelic host roared. Gup felt the noise vibrating his molecules.

"Holy, holy, holy, is the lord god almighty!"

He trembled in fear upon seeing the entirety of Lucifer's army assembled. They populated the air, the ground, the heavens above, and the spirit of the moment. Gup witnessed. He remembered this planet. It was the final point before Gehenna. And this was where a large portion of the old, fake and now dead Lucifer's demon host remained. Well, it was where they remained. It was a victory chant. Ash and waste remained.

"The one who is and is to come!"

His eyes darted independently, scanning the remnants. A large scar cut a canyon far into the horizon. Lucifer was scary. He sniffed at the ash grass, catching the scent of several demons. He wagged his scaly tail, eager to meet new friends. A large hand gripped his tail, pulling him back. A large fist then bonked him on the head, filling his vision with stars and pain.

"Don't wander off, Gup!" the angel barked, “Azazel said we should help Lucifer and get some more demons!

His master, Amy, was very particular. He had to be wary of annoying her or receive more head bonks, which hurt. He rubbed his round scaled skull, whining in discomfort. She had big hands which meant big bonks and big head ouchies.

"They'll slay you, too! You big idiot!" Amy shouted. He could hear the worry in her voice.

"Uh. Yes! I will not get lost," Gup replied. She rolled her glowing white eyes at him, declaring her full confidence in his ability. She did that a lot. Or bonk his head. It was a toss up.

She stood at a stoop of four feet, sporting rich azure robes that were far too large, trailing behind as a train. She clasped her large black gauntleted hands together in thought, her eyes peeking from under her cowl.

"Now, Gup, let's see how you grew from this!"

She placed her large palm atop his head, engulfing it. The raging battle fueled all demon kind, the miasmatic aura of violence soaked into him, making him stronger.

"What!? None of it towards intelligence!? It all went into navigation and hiding… You b-big idiot! You're not even smart enough to focus your own growth!

Another bonk sent him to the ground, seeing stars. Amy used big words sometimes, he didn't understand what she meant. He shook his head with a whine, blinking away the pain. He looked up at her, giving her the old sad-eyed look.

"You! Oh… Nyeh! don't give me that look!"

Amy relented with a sigh.

"We'll figure that out later. Not sure why all of that power went into trash stats, you should've become a full fledged demon by now- or a greater demon!"

She used those big words again. Her tone of voice sounded positive, he wagged his tail in response.

The ash coated battlefield was dotted with strange stone cubes as tall as buildings. He could tell there were other demons, hiding amongst the clusters. He sensed one approaching, his tail pointing straight up. Amy caught on, turning at a waddle to see the newcomer. It was a mass of squirming black rats, each awkwardly scurrying to and fro, held in place by their tangled mass of tails in the center.

"Oh! It's a Rat King- look Gup- so cool! The rats are actually its limbs, the demon is in the center. The more rats, the more powerful it is!"

Amy squinted, pointing to each limb as she counted, "Four, five- nine, ten- fifteen rats! He is pretty big!"

The demon halted, each of the rats turned to stare at Amy. Gup could tell it was confused and afraid from the battle, having probably just grown from the slaughter.

"I think it's a greater demon class. Twenty or more and it becomes an elder. They get you through miasmatic disease. As far as demons go, they're pretty weak, even the strongest of their kind. They need to hide in wait- an ambush predator!"

Gup heard a lot of words and that was it. He wagged his tail at her excitement. The Rat King advanced, see Amy as a potential meal.

" Ah ah- no you don't you big idiot! You're wasting your time and only going to draw other Angels here. I'm the best thing you've met, which makes you the luckiest demon alive!"

She pointed a digit to the mass and it paused, confusion etched on the rat's faces.

"Supremacy!"

The demon spasmed, the mass of rats going still. It snapped to suddenly as the mass began to scurry by her side.

"Kehehehe! I'm the best! Say I'm the best, Gup!

The demon blinked in confusion, looking to the Rat King for sympathy, finding none.

" Uh. Yes. I'm the best!-"

Pain and stars filled his vision as he received another bonk.

"Not you, you big idiot! Me! I'm the best!"

He whined as he rubbed his poor assaulted skull, the pain fading away. She held out a hand as glowing blue light announced an item being drawn from her inventory. It was a rugged sack. She tapped the Rat King and it shrunk to a tiny figurine. Amy tossed the sack at him and he caught it clumsily.

"Your name is Henry! Okay Gup, we're going demon hunting!"

The lizard demon stared at her, blinking vacantly. There was no order, so he did his favorite thing; nothing. Amy's face went deadpan.

"You put the demon idol in the bag."

Gup blinked again.

She took the statue and threw it at him. More pain and stars as he flew head over heels backward, crashing to the earth. He rose quickly, fumbling the idol into the bag as he stood on two legs. Amy shook her head, palms out exasperatingly at him.

"What am I going to do with you, Gup?" she muttered at him as she began to waddle away, "this way, I sense more!"

Gup followed with sack in hand. It felt right to have such a thing. Perhaps it was who he was? Either way, it was too deep, for Gup.

"Holy, holy, holy…"

The thunder of simultaneous crashing of weapons together was a thunderbolt in his chest. His eyes went wide in a spook as he looked for a place to hide.

"Quit being a scaredy imp! It's just Lucifer and siblings!" she scowled with her eyes, fist raising and ready to bonk.

Gup blinked, only hearing the order to not be afraid and thus he obeyed. He felt courage bolster his frazzled nerves. He also felt the presence of another demon. He sensed it skulking in the shadows, invisible to his eyes.

His tail pointed straight up as the demon advanced.

“What do you see, Gup?”

An eye swiveled to Amy, he barked a response, “Uh, yes. The shadows- something there!”

“Oh! It’s hiding. Okay demon, let’s see what you are!”

“Piercing Light!”

The shadows vanished as a lance of light shot from her finger, striking into demon’s position. Gup sensed it was now above them. He looked, seeing the dark figure rapidly descending.

Amy caught on, looking up, “Oh cool! I’ve never seen one of those-”

It crashed atop Amy, blade first down into her body. She fell flat on her back. Gup’s felt a rage at his master being attacked. The black clad demon, bounded away, its blade having shattered. Amy sat up, rubbing at her head.

“Ow- that was a good hit!” she continued speaking as if nothing had happened, “It’s an assassin classed demon. It’s so cool!”

Gup was confused. The demon had hit her with a supposed fatal blow and it only shattered the blade instead. Amy was tougher than he imagined.

The demon was tall and slender, its face appearing as nothing more than an angled red visor with a hole in its forehead. It glanced to its blade, seeing the broken weapon. It sheathed the weapon in its skull, pacing around Amy, trying to gauge her as a threat.

“Oh ho- look at that- that’s definitely new! I bet it’ll draw a different weapon!”

She was proven correct when the demon gripped its horn, pulling free a long thin gun. Gup was even more confused. That was a sword moments ago- where did it go?

“Yes! Oh that’s so cool! A demon mimicking quantum storage in its own way- wow- Supremacy!”

The assassin demon dropped its gun, going stiff for a brief second. It went slack, rubbing at its head. It bent down to gather its rifle, feeding it barrel first into its forehead, clicking the horn into place. It gracefully strode to her, standing at attention.

“Keheheheh! I’m the best! Say I’m the best, Gup!

“Amy is the best!” Gup barked, wagging his tail. He readied the sack, waiting for her to deposit. He learned quickly. Some learned through practice, while he learned through head bonks.

The angel glanced to the demon, inspecting him.

“You! Do you have a name?”

Amy clapped a large hand at its shoulder, sending the demon off balance.

“No,” the demon’s distorted voice echoed out as it recovered, unphased by her gentle strike.

“Okay! You’re a new class of demon I never seen before! Hmm… You’re a Corsair demon and your name is Revent!” she bounced on her feet nubs with glee, the demon froze in response.

It nodded, as if accepting its new charge. It bowed to her, speaking freely.

“Thank you Amy.”

“Wow and a gentle-demon too! Okay Gup, catch!” Amy touched the demon, shrinking it to a tiny statue. She chucked to Gup, who lept at it.

“Mine!” he barked, catching it with ease. The bag didn’t feel any heavier than before, which was odd. He liked this sack.

“Go me!” Amy declared. She waddled away and Gup followed, stamping awkwardly on two feet.

Gup sensed a massive divine presence in the center of the battlefield, dwarfing everything else. The demons on his immediate peripherals were now in the sack. They trudged in the ash, leaving a long trail along the once grassy plains. Gup spotted the pile of demon stones, each one was a former comrade. Sitting atop the pile was Lucifer- not the fake and now dead Lucifer but the one true Archangel Lucifer. She dispassionately grasped a stone, crushing it with the pinch of her finger and thumb. Stones clinked from the pile to the ground, shifting under her grace. She wore her white robes, he long golden hair splaying to the ground. She gripped another stone, nodding subtly.

“Belial,” She announced. The stone vanished away. She grasped another, sighing in boredom, “Roaring Lion.”

The stone vanished away.

She gathered a larger stone, her countenance brightening.

“Me.”

She crushed the stone, breathing in the power. Every stone she crushed was a demon that ceased to exist- Gup knew this on instinct. Based on the way she pressed each one into powder, she knew as well and gained immense satisfaction from it. Gup gulped.

Lucifer was staring in their direction.

“Amy, why are you here?” she asked, her voice cold, probing for sin. A mask of annoyance upon was her face.

“Buh- uh- well I sensed other demons nearby and wanted to help-”

“You were told to wait on the palanquin.”

Lucifer’s eyes betrayed her rage as her mask fell way to another; anger.

“Wah! But-but Azazel said I should help!”

Gup remembered that. The one arm Angel suggested she should assist to get closer to Lucifer.

Amy wilted.. Lucifer launched off of the stones, sending many flying as she landed next to the flustered Angel, towering over her. Amy fell to her back, whimpering as she tried to protect herself. Gup hide behind his sack, seeing those fiery eyes of anger enough to wreck Pardominion.

“Lucifer my love!”

A voice cried out from afar. Lucifer paused, Her face twisting in rage at the interruption.

A porcelain Angel of transcendent masculine beauty swaggered to her, one hand gripping his sheathed odachi, the other was missing, covered by a shoulder cape. Amy remembered, it was a wound from so long ago before their imprisonment. Each were wounded in their own fashion. That was what Gup remembered Amy saying on the flight to Pardominion.

His smile was broad, his ebony hair rushing in the wind. His bare ivory chest and arm shone in the light, well sculptured and perfect. His square cuisse armor clinked as he moved, the pinnacle of grace.

“Leave Amy be, my love. It’s me you want.”

He drew his odachi in a fluid motion, the orhicalcum blade whipping the air.

Lucifer stalked past Amy, a blade of her own twirling in her fingers. There was rage on her face. But also desire. A hunger.

She hissed at him, venom oozing from her, “I’ll gut you and braid my hair with your entrails.”

“Gup, we need to go,” Amy declared, picked him up before he realized they were leaving. She took off, her sad four foot crow wings flapping madly.

Lucifer struck, the ringing of their blades deafening Gup. he hung in between her hands, sack firmly gripped in his grimy hands.

“He lied to me… He used me to get with Lucifer. She always gets like this after a fight- I should’ve known… They’ll fight and then… Embrace.”

Amy’s words were sad, hurt, wounded.

“Master, we have demons now- don’t be sad!” Gup replied, trying to help.

“I know. I- I know. I’m the best.”

The way she said it implied they were only just words.

She flew over the floating golden palanquins deep railing, hovering just above the ground as she dropped Gup off. Gup’s eye swiveled at the movement to his left, spotting the armored angel. He squeaked in surprise as he caught site of the lone glowing eye staring back at him. He sat cross legged, still towering over them.

“Barthin!” Amy announced as she landed next to him.

The Angel nodded to her and went back to inspecting a bracelet. Her previous hurt vanished away at seeing her friend. Gup liked him because Amy like him.

“Whatcha got there, Barthy?” Amy asked, waddling to the larger Angel. She gripped his thigh, trying to lift herself up to see the curious item. He was plated head to toe in adamantite- apparently the armor was his flesh. His stechhelm glinted as he addressed her, displaying the pitted silver bracelet.

“Is that a QSD artifact? For me? Can I have it?”

Barthin paused, as if considering his words. Gup remembered he was mute and thus difficult to speak to. The Angel shrugged and nodded, handing it to her.

“Oh, Barthy! My very own QSD! This is amazing! You’re the best- just like me!”

Barthin nodded, returning to his serene posture. She scurried into his lap, looking up at him as he began stroking at her head. Seeing the normally martial warrior of an Angel having a tender moment with Amy confused Gup. As did many things. As did most things.

Everything confused Gup.

“Thank you, Barthy,” She stated quietly.

Gup sat next to them, hugging his sack close as his tail wagged. It was up and down with Amy, but this time it was up.

Gup was happy today.