"Excellent, my Mistress. There is much you must learn!" He said, propping his scythe over his shoulder.
"O-okay. What am I learning first, Reaper-san?" Hotaru shakily replied, her courage fizzling away.
The great demon grimaced. "Ugh. First lesson: call me Horny. Horniculus takes too long, and Reaper isn't part of my name - it's part of my title."
"Yes sir, Horny-san!" The little girl enthusiastically replied, the sudden informality of the situation comforting her.
'Gods... This kid has more mood swings than a bi-polar schizophrenic!' Horny thought. Aloud: "And for your second lesson, how to discard your pathetically weak and frail mortal shell."
And with that, the demon brought down his great-scythe, cleaving the young keeper in twain.
-----------------
If infarctions were possible for incorporeal spirits, then Lundar would have just had a heart attack. After two-hundred years of inactivity, two-hundred years of relative peace in the over-world of Harmonia, he finally sensed the awakening of a dungeon heart, signifying the birth of a new keeper.
He rushed to the new keeper as fast as he could, of course (two-hundred years is a VERY long time to be doing nothing, after all), only to reach his destination in time to watch the new keeper's death at the hands of the most unlikely of creatures: Horniculus; The Horned Reaper, The Bringer of Death, The Unstoppable Goliath, The Great Inflamer, and The Devourer of Souls.
You'd think one with so many gruesome title would be EAGER to see the inevitable evil a new keeper would bring, really.
"Ah, Lundar! How... nice... it is to see you today," Horny rumbled to the figure behind him, not turning an inch.
Lundar paled, if that were possible. 'I fear, Lundar old boy, that you may have met your end, for Horny appears to have noticed you... and he isn't displeased.' Lundar thought to himself, every fiber of his "being" quailing at the conclusion he came to: Horny finally found a way to destroy him. Nevertheless, he kept up the usual appearances, and began to taunt the beast, "You, my dear Reaper, appear to have fallen victim to your own incredible stupidity once again: your first chance to escape this tomb in two-hundred years, and what do you do? You kill it. Stupid beast, yo-"
"You misunderstand, old fool, as usual," Horny interrupted, turning around with a great grin on his face, "I merely intend to craft the new keeper a suitable housing for her soon-to-be evil soul." He opened his fist, displaying said object, and began to weave his demonic energy for the task.
The "color" returning to his face, Lundar simply stood there, dumbfounded by the demon's actions. As a shape began to form, Lundar grinned... When the Reaper developed a look of concentration, Lundar began to chuckle... And when Horny seemed to be straining with all his might, the spirit broke out in gales of uncontrollable laughter.
"HaHA! You truly are a stupid, STUPID beast!" He crowed.
On the floor lay a voluptuous figure, tall, with long dark purple hair perfectly framing her delicately carved face. From her hair peeked two small horns, and a long, thin tail with a triangular spike at the end protruded from underneath her. Lundar bent down and peeled back one eyelid of the figure, still chuckling as the lifeless red eye with a slitted, cat-like pupil stared up at him.
Horny gasped for air, the strain finally too much for him. "Explain yourself, spirit! Why do you laugh while I craft the bringer of your ultimate doom?!"
"Simple, my dear demon. I know what you apparently do not: the soul of a human is the most powerful thing in existence, and the inherent nature of such a thing cannot be altered. In short, a good soul shall always be good, and an evil soul shall always be evil. Heh, stupid beast..."
Horny fumed. Damn that annoying spirit for being right, as usual! "No matter, then. If I cannot make my new mistress evil, then I shall corrupt her as much as I can, and eliminate all the weaknesses inherent in her goodness."
As Horny began again, Lundar leaned against the dungeon wall, and watched.
"She will know vice, she will know sin, she will know corruptions beyond imagining! She will never age nor die! And she will know not that greatest weakness of all goodly people: the love between a man and a woman. No, the very thought of loving a man shall have no effect on her, for she shall never feel it."
The Inflamer soon finished his incantations, inserted the girl's soul into the body, and then sat down to rest, with almost the entirety of his energy spent.
And as they waited for the new keeper to wake, Lundar commented, with a thoughtful frown on his face, "You know, I don't think you actually eliminated the weakness of love from our new keeper..."
"How do you mean, spirit?" Horny rumbled in reply.
"You made it so she can never feel love for a man, but forgot to include any mention of love for a woman..."
"...I hate you when you're right..."
"You must hate me a lot, then."
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(Posted Sun, 06 Feb 2005 09:01)
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