Excerpt from: The wise dragons demonicon: the volcanic wrath demon:

Wrath demons are the embodiment of wrath, they are powerful in combat and in their full strength able to destroy a large city with ease. They come in many different forms but one of the most common species is the volcanic wrath demon, most of them appear as humongous humanoid creatures with skin made of volcanic stone with lava for blood and large horns.

They are unable to fly but possess potent fire magic and earth magic, a volcanic wrath demon resides in the layer of wrath in the abyss where demons of wrath live. They are hotheaded combatants who grow in strength with every won battle, they are shock troops of wraths prince and serve as his army in wars with devils of hell or rivaling demon princes or lords……….

If summoned in the real world a wrath demon has only one mission, to take over his summoners body, manifest fully in the mortal world, and destroy all in his path until he gathers enough souls to open a demonic gate to the wrath layer so his master can march through……..

---------------------------------------

Thorn knew Kratos was a pain in the arse the first time she met him, but this was beyond being just a pain, the wrath demon had attacked its own master. If that old card devil Mephisto had not warned her about Kratos leaving the book Thorn would not have noticed what happened, she would thank him later after dealing with this traitor.

As soon as she materialized in the mortal world she flung her whip at Kratos, it wrapped around his neck and choked the wrath demon, bringing him out of concentration and balance. Thorn pulled with all her might, despite her small frame she knew that she was strong enough to knock him over, she managed to almost make Kratos fall on his back but then the element of surprise was gone.

Kratos tore apart the whip from around his neck and turned around to face his attacker, Thorn felt pain for a moment as the whip, a part of her being was damaged. “Thorn, long time no see, the wrath demon said in a threatening tone, what are you doing out of the book?” Thorn looked at him, a massive wrath demon with skin like volcanic stone, an immense ego, and a traitorous personality. “Why did you attack him Kratos!?”

Kratos grinned and his voice became humorous as if he had to laugh, “I took my chance of course, my pact has a tiny loophole you see, not like the others who are locked up like that fool Mephisto.” Thorn roared at him, “most of us stay in the book out of free will, Iskander has done nothing but good for us unlike the demon lords and the devils!”

“You lot are going against your nature, Kratos no longer laughed but roared, I and the others who are locked up are true demons, you are weak simpletons betraying demonkind!” Thorn shivered at those words, “unnatural”, that was what she had heard so many times during her life, a succubus who does not want to seduce but to fight, a lust fiend without lust, a failure to her family line.

She was free now, under a pact of trust and able to freely wander in the mortal world without restrictions but that had only been till recently, those words reminded her of her past, the taunting, the slavery, the arena, the humiliation and the r…. Thorn shook her head and stared Kratos in the eyes, “Stop tempting Iskander into sin Wrath-demon, he has done nothing to you!”

Kratos suddenly glowed, his veins filled with lava pulsated as in his right hand appeared a demonic blade, “you will not hinder me succubus!” Kratos jumped straight at her and lifted his blade, thorn acted quick and materialised her twin blades before he came down. The gigantic burning blade sliced right down, thorn held up her blades and crossed them, catching the sword in between.

The impact made the ground quake and she felt her bones almost break under the pressure as she mustered all her force to stop the sword from hitting her. “Nice trick but it won’t save you, Kratos roared, you cannot keep that up forever.” Thorn grinned and spread her humongous wings, “I do not need to do that.” She flapped with her wings.

Suddenly Kratos was hit by a hurricane that knocked him back as Thorn took to the air and circled above him, he was pissed off and that was exactly the plan. What the wrathdemon had not noticed was that Iskander had gotten back up, she could see he was trying to call Kratos back but he would need more time to shake of the effect of the lingering wrath aura.

Thorn began casting lightning spells, bolts of lightning that hit Kratos straight in his face, he could not fly, all he could do was roar and fling fireballs which Thorn evaded easily.

She was a stormwing succubus, the air was her battleground, as long as Kratos could not materialise his true powers in this world she had the advantage.

“Enough,!” Thorn stopped in the air, Iskander had regained focus and Kratos was now frozen in place unable to move any longer. “Return to the book Kratos, I order you to stay there for a week and not to flee!”

Kratos body began to fall apart, his skin crumbled into volcanic dust that floated to the book in Iskanders hand. Kratos was locked up again, Thorn stared at Iskander as his eyes closed and he fell on the ground unconscious. Before he passed out she saw a flicker of green light escaping the book, soon enough another demon stood next to the warlocks unconscious body.

An enormous creature looking like a wooden ent with long arms, massive claws, a beard of leaves and a terrifying face with jagged teeth in it’s mouth.

Thorn landed and walked up to the demon, she recognized him. “Hello Arbeus, nice to see you.” Arbeus looked at her, his wooden horns and skin, his green blood and hair made from leaves made him look like an animated tree but this was not the case, Arbeus was a forest demon.

---------------------------------------------

Arbeus suddenly found himself in the mortal world in a forest, his master laid on the ground next to him, Thorn the stormwing succubus his master cherished came down from the sky and landed next to him. Her face looked grim and Arbeus could feel an aura of wrath lingering around his master, what happened here?

“TH..O…R…N, Arbeus spoke with his voice that sounded like breaking twigs, W…H…A..T……HA…PP…ENED?” He sometimes hated his own voice, he spoke too slow to really converse with most fiends and demons because of it, only others of his kin had the necessary patience to talk with him in long conversations.

Thorn looked at Arbeus, “Kratos attacked Iskander.” Arbeus eyes shot open, he felt rage boiling inside his bark skin, what did he do?!!!! Thorn looked at him, “Arbeus he attacked Iskander, I speak the truth…..”

“KRAATOOOOOS, Arbeus roared and the animals and wind in the forest joined his cry, wolves howled, monsters roared and the wind blew through the trees sounding like an angered army of ghosts. Thorn backed away, as soon as Arbeus saw that he realised where he was, “So…RRY….TH..O…RN…LOST….MY….TEM…PER.”

The succubus nodded and Arbeus looked at his master again, Iskander, the boy who had stopped the cultists who tried to forge a pact with him to raise an army of ents to attack their enemies. He had been disgusted by it, using nature to further their own gains, nature did not obey anyone, it was unnatural what they asked of him.

Yet if Iskander did not show up he would have to do it, they threatened to destroy forests and even though Arbeus was a demon he was a forest demon, a demon of the wild untamed nature that did not accept mortal races or anyone else messing with it. Forest demons like him were once servants of the nature goddess and allowed to enter this world until the other gods decided the woods would become resources for mortals and they banished them to the abyss forever.

But that boy had stopped them, he had made a pact with Arbeus instead, to allow Arbeus to protect the nature in this world in return for a pact with him. Arbeus had accepted and felt grateful, he had been allowed to walk in this world once more, to once again see the animals and plants that his kin once protected. Now that boy that had granted his deepest wish laid on the ground, wounded by an ignorant wrathling!

“I…WILL…RIIIII..PP…HIS…AAARMS….OOOFF, Arbeus growled as he prepared to go back into the book to give Kratos what he deserved, but suddenly he felt a hand on his claws.

“Arbeus, Thorn said, I am all for the idea of slicing that bastard into bits but could you heal Iskander first?” Arbeus stood still for a moment, he was a fool, he had lost himself in anger whilst the reason he was summoned had been forgotten by him.

“I….WIIIIILL…D…O, Arbeus lifted his claws and touched Iskander as he channeled nature energy in the warlock, Arbeus felt that Iskander was malnourished and tired, things were clearly not going well for him. As Arbeus let go of his master he looked at thorn, “PROO…TEEEECT…HI..M.”

The succubus nodded, Arbeus knew she would do her duty as one of the holders of a pact of trust and looked at his masters grimore, “I..REE..TUURN….TO…THE….BOOK….NOW.” Arbeus felt how he fell apart as his energy and essence slowly drifted to the book, before he disappeared fully he looked at his master, hoping that he would soon be better again.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

in the books pocket dimension the card devil Mephisto was playing “patience”, the cards were his way of venting stress, stress that he now had in abundance thanks to what had happened a moment ago. Arbeus had come back in the books pocket dimension and told them, the thousands of fiends that this book housed, what happened, Mephistos worst fear had come true after all, Kratos had attacked Iskander, his own master and had tried to take him over while he was emotionally weak.

Mephisto had no pact of trust and Iskander had made sure that he could not escape the book unless he released him. He understood it of course, letting a card devil loose upon the world was not something Iskander would do or was stupid enough to do. He figured that he could gain the trust of the warlock and by doing so gain more privileges, he was a carddevil no cheater, he only played fair and hated cheaters.

And a cheater was exactly what Kratos was, attacking your opponent when weakened, disgusting! Mephisto was happy he had warned Thorn fast enough because Arbeus had told him and the others what had happened, the lower ranked devils and demons like the imps were shocked to hear it, the higher ranks apart from a few like himself had only been sad that Kratos failed.

Onewing, one of the succubi who like thorn had abandoned her kinds lustful tendencies after what happened to her had even cried, she was a broken demoness, tortured and experimented on by a demon lord and then given to a mortal underling of his. Mephisto was angry and stressed, Iskander was in a sorry state and if one of the demons took advantage of that he and the others would be in serious trouble.

He could only hope that Iskander regained his former strength, the strength he had respected him for, the strength of mind needed to beat him in a game. The card devil had nothing but respect for his master but even he was now feeling more and more pity for him, the boy had a terrible childhood and family, a terrible power, and a terrible life nowadays.

What if he……? Mephisto eyed a deck of cards on his game table, no he had promised himself to never ever use the tarot cards to see the future, never again would he do it, it had caused him enough trouble already.

Besides the tarot cards would only see one possible future, if he used them he would only bring himself to be afraid or calm thinking that this was true. The future was not predictable but no many people realized that. Mephisto could only hope that in the future Iskander would have a bit more luck on his side