Excerpt from the wise dragons demonicon: the bloodclaw

This species of demon is related to the succubus, they are four armed demons whose fingers are equipped with long and sharp red nails. Though they might be low ranks they are feared by some mid rankers and sometimes by the high rankers for one peculiar trait, once scratched by their claws the wound they caused will never heal and the victim shall bleed out, even if the demon is killed this effect does not fade, it can only be stopped by the one who inflicted the wound or with extreme healing spells….

The bloodclaws torso looks exactly like that of a human man or woman, they have red skin and their hair has a dirty white colour, their eyes are orange to red. Their legs are shaped like those of wild animals but with the same red skin their torso has, they have no tails or wings but do have four arms..

They are incredibly fast runners and climbers and are known to live in family groups in the abyss, sometimes they are also allowed in hell if they swear allegiance to the devils…..

....

To say that Thorn went on a shopping spree was an understatement, she and onewing passed through the wall in their wraith form and after several minutes of the stormwing succubus greedily eyeing all the available weapons they began to select the ones they wanted to take.

Obviously Thorn went straight for her beloved halberd, Onewings sadness momentarily made way for a feeling of embarrassment as the stormwing hugged the weapon tightly, she had always known Thorn was a total battle junkie who loved weapons but she did not know how passionate she was about them.

Soon they had gathered some swords, daggers, spears and bows in a small heap on the floor, how they had managed to stay that silent whilst doing it was a complete mystery, if only one weapon fell it would make an immense amount of noise and wraith forms or not the people would know someone had been here.

“we should go now Thorn, onewing whispered, not only for me but for the master too, if we get caught he’ll be in trouble again!” Thorn looked at her for a moment, the excitement in her eyes toned down a bit, “yeah we should probably get back before he wakes up and finds us gone.” Thorn took a pouch and opened it before starting to stuff all the weapons inside.

A few minutes later they stood on the streets again, Onewing was looking to the night sky as if she was afraid the sun would rise soon (which was probably truly what she was thinking about). Thorn on the other hand looked happy as she eyed the spatial bag she held in her hand, their shoplifting had paid off.

“Thorn, Onewing suddenly spoke up, could you send me back without walking back first, all these mortal emotions are too much.” Thorn looked at her and saw how the griefwing succubus clearly was in pain, how did she not notice that before, probably because she was too busy with weapons. No, that couldn’t be right?!

“I can do that, she said quickly, but be warned if I am not with you and because we are not standing next to the grimoire, it will be less comfortable to teleport into the pocket dimension!” Onewing did not care and a minute later after Thorn had sent her back the griefwing succubus vanished in thin air leaving Thorn alone in the streets of Ursan. “Well that went well I guess?”

At that moment she felt really stupid, taking Onewing with her to help her had been her intention at first but then when Iskander walked past that weapons shop and she saw that halberd. Before she became a deviant succubus she had never known guilt, that changed after her time in the arenas though, where she had to kill people just like her, now she felt it too, guilt for making someone that she wanted to help into a part of her shopping plans.

Okay she hadn’t known about Onewing feeling the grief and pain of mortals but that did not make her innocent of the fact that she basically on purpose used onewing to make sure Mephisto did not say anything to Iskander. The card devil hated it when Thorn did things behind Iskanders back without giving him a fair chance to discover her plans, coming from a card devil, who were notorious for giving clues to their plans that could also completely set you on the wrong trail if interpreted wrong that was very ironic.

Speaking of Mephisto, the card devil would probably tell Iskander that she had gone out after he saw that Onewing returned without her! Thorn prepared to immediately teleport herself to the grimoires pocket realm when she suddenly felt something.

It felt like something tug at consciousness, as if something wanted to draw her attention and guide her somewhere.

“It can’t be, she knew that feeling but she’d never thought she would feel it inside this town, the last time she’d sensed it, it had caused a battle in which Iskander had to kill someone to prevent something terrible from happening. She had to figure this out before iskander woke up and called her back into the grimoire, this was more important than her little heist not being discovered by her master!

She closed her eyes and focused on her surroundings, “there.” She felt it again, the feeling of a “beacon”, something that drew the attention of her demonic instincts. Only one thing had ever drew her instincts attention before and this could only mean one thing, the warlock curse had just now appeared on a mortal! Even though almost all mortals saw warlocks as practitioners of the dark arts who made bargains with demons for power or made demons into their servants.

But that was only the way mortals saw it, in truth being a warlock was a curse, a true warlock, not a simple demon summoner who called himself a warlock but a true warlock was a mortal bearing an ancient curse. It had been on the end of the age of sorcerers when the realm gates were collapsing and fiends attacked the mortal realms, more specifically the moment before dragons drove the demons and devils back against the gods will, that the most powerful demons attempted to make sure that even when the dragons locked them up they would be able to escape.

But they underestimated the might of the dragons, even though the gods were already reigning them back these primordial defenders of the mortal realms fell upon them like a thunderstorm, the curse that was being cast upon the realms failed when the dragon kings sealed the gates to the abyss and hell before being called before the gods to be punished for ignoring their commands.

The mortals obviously did not remember, they did not remember how the goblins and orcs sacrificed their empires, they did not remember how most dragons were banned to separate planets for saving the universe and they definitely did not remember about the warlock curse!

Every fiend knew what the curse was, it was their gate into the realm of mortals, well….. if the curse successfully took over it’s host that was. Three “variants” of true warlocks existed, Iskander was a warlock of the chain, these mortals had the warlock curse, but they had the control, willpower or simply the ability to control the curse and it’s effects, instead of being a tool for demons, demons and their demonic energy were the warlocks tools.

Warlocks of the pact were quiet common, they had a weaker version of the curse and were offered a pact by a demon or devil who had a high ranking, the warlocks became essentially agents of their patrons in the mortal realm. Lastly there were those people on who the curse had taken the effect it was always meant to have, the curse made the mortal host into a living breathing gate to the abyss and to hell!

But these warlocks of the gate were rare, rare than warlocks of the chain even, the curse had been unsuccessful and laws of magic that the magic goddess had put in place after the war made the probability of such a warlock appearing incredibly slim.

But it happened, and even warlocks of the pact or the chain or just demon summoners could end up losing control when awakening their powers and become a danger to the mortal realms by becoming possessed or corrupted by the demonic energies. For fiends like her who were contracted to a warlock it was a double feeling, she was loyal to iskander of course and she was not going to betray the one person who allowed her to stay in the mortal realms.

But still most demons and devils at first were seeing warlocks as those who were supposed to be their gateway into the mortal realms, afterwards (at least in iskanders case) most of the contracted demons would gain respect for their master but that feeling that your master was actually meant to be a tool to enter this place remained still.

But that was Iskander, he had power and a natural talent for negotiating and winning over demons, normally a demon would act upon the feeling that his “master” was in fact always supposed to be a simple tool to them. They tried to tempt their new master, to corrupt them and sometimes this worked, pact warlocks did not have that problem since they already were “tools” of one powerful master but for most warlocks of the chain it was a constant battle.

You needed to stay in control, not let your emotions take a hold of you and more of that crap that made it even harder. And now a fresh new warlock had awakened right here in the town her master visited, she sometimes wondered if his father, an arch mage, had cursed him with bad luck. A warlock could awaken his curse at any age, as a kid, an adult or even when they were older, the younger the host the more chance demons could easily manipulate him or her.

Thorn flew now, still in wraith form whilst she got closer to the “signal” the curses awakening gave off. She knew that she was not the only one who would be able to feel it, other demons and devils who had found their way to this realm would feel it as well and then this town and iskander would be in serious trouble, finally she landed at a small house at the east wall of the town, not too far from the tavern.

She passed through the wall and without making a sound or looking at the interior she went up the stairs, above were three doors, she could feel a soul in two of the three rooms and one of these was the one giving of the signal. Thorn acted quickly and stepped through the door, finding herself in a small room with a few closets, a chest and a bed. In bed was a small boy, a child of at most 14 years old, his soul shone purple as the curse sent out it’s signal to the whole world. When she looked better she noticed small chainlike light around it.

“ a warlock of the chain, she whispered softly, Iskander will have to hear about this.”