The first two chapters of a book i'm working on.

Lone Wolf

Chapter 1

Summoned Beast Battle

Today was a grand occasion for the temple to the benevolent god of light, Mateus in the realm of Grantsis. This day the priestess had finally acquired the name of a powerful demon from the dark planes, and was planning to summon the fiend in the temple to be sacrificed to mateus.

All in the temple had preparations set in place, the temple knights of Eceledon, the land that hosted the Luminaire faith, were stationed at each exit and powerful barriers were erected by the priests and priestesses.

No expense for the demon's sacrifice had been spared, in the city below, the people were made keenly aware that the temple would be hosting a powerful devil, one of the seven princes of darkness, this one titled “the old wolf” and that their summoning ritual would bring it forth, where it would then be restrained by powerful magics while the invocations and prayers to mateus were to be made.

This was to be the first grand summoning of any sort in nearly ten centuries, the last of which had been a devil princess named rubella, who died at the temple, sacrificed to the lord of light that her soul might ascend to the highest reaches where she would serve him forevermore as a warrior angel.

The people of grantsis, the largest nation on the continent of eceledon, were enthusiastic about the event, and were celebrating the coming sacrifice of the vile demon that would doubtless be summoned forth, a festival was already underway.

The knights made it clear however, that this also had an incredibly high risk of going badly, the priests and priestesses of the temple set about making certain the people knew of the risk and were willing to abandon the city of Dimmery at a moment's notice.

It didn't take long for them to forget this fact, and they began the festival even as the grand summoning ritual entered its second day.

An altar in the main chamber was set before a great crimson summoning circle, the circle had the name of the demon prince inscribed upon virtually every part of its surface along with the words of power that would draw it into the world of Lusedarc, where the head priest would then summon the angel Khasimir to end the demon and bring his soul to mateus.

If however, the demon proved so mighty that the angel could not be summoned, for some devils could counter holy summoning without thinking about the action, they were prepared to go further and summon their god in person.

Mateus had, after all, dealt the fatal blow to the demon princess during the last grand summoning due to just such a problem arising.

The days stretched on, and the people's prayers became more fervent, lending considerable power to the circle, the priests would come in shifts to maintain the summoning magic, seldom tiring due to being able to freely shift the person speaking the invocations. Water was brought to them that their voices be maintained, and all around the white room with windows spilling radiant light through gold and red stained glass windows the air was solemn, determined, and filled with jubilation at the prospect of bringing another foul underworld demon to god's embrace.

The people of the luminaire faith were, to say the least, utterly dedicated to their work of cleansing evil, they rooted it out wherever they could with a vigor and eagerness easily passing fanaticism, few would dare question them, for in their eyes, they were naturally right and should never be called into question.

Eventually a darkness began spilling forth from the circle, and slowly but surely a form materialized from the center.

Yawning, a young man of no older than twenty, wearing tall knee-high boots plated with metal plates on the front that were each covered in a wolf-like image and wearing a long, black trenchcoat of midnight silk over his shoulders, beneath which a fine button up shirt of an equally dark color, complete with an ascot at the front, materialized before them.

His hair was long, longer than most women's and his face was fierce like a lion's. Yet his eyes were filled with a gentle disinterest that bordered on lethargy.

He stretched once more, giving a great yawn as the head priestess in charge of the ritual cried out “Yes!! we finally summoned him!!”

“Prince Lurion Vel Khassis!” she cried, leveling a magical staff in his direction as she spoke “we have successfully brought you to our domain!”

Prince “Lurion” was of course nobody of the sort, though it was his given name, he hadn't ever accepted it as his own. No, the man, for surely, the temple knights thought to themselves as they looked at him, this was no devil, was in truth named Garland, by his own choosing Garland Oaks's given name of lurion was one he'd abandoned in his younger years due to a falling out with his father.

Garland looked upon the proceedings all around him, glancing down at the summoning circle and then taking in the room he was now within.

He recalled going to sleep on a couch in portland, then awakening here, but garland was no fool, nor was he one to mistake a dream for the real anymore than he would the real for a dream realm. He acted, but only once he was convinced of the necessity of action.

In this case he looked, he observed, and he kept his mouth shut while the priestess continued what he deemed “Unnecessary ranting about something religious” which of course was hardly something he cared for.

The room was wide, circular in nature, there was an altar before him and from it, the priestess making all the noise was standing, arms outstretched to what he assumed to be heaven or some deity.

He immediately noted the doors, open, that the people of the realm might enter to see his final moments for themselves.

The room was filled with several warriors wearing ivory armor, their helms with slit T-shaped visors showing little to nothing of their faces.

The room was decorated, the walls held lamps shaped like candlesticks with magical lighting at the tips, though garland couldn't have known that, and thus assumed them to be electrical or perhaps just very bright fires.

The knights wore swords at their hips, the room itself was featureless and white save for flowers of pure white hanging from pots, these had glowing petals, and this detail was precisely what informed garland of his unusual situation.

Now the lights he could have passed off as being electricity, and thereby assumed, reasonably so, that this was another location in his world of earth, and that he'd been kidnapped by a mad congregation, but that wouldn't quite explain why he'd woken up standing, or why strange roiling shadows had receded into the bizarre circle with HIS given named etched all over it!

While garland was of a world that did not, could not believe in magic or the arcane, garland was incredibly open minded and immediately assumed, ironically, that this was a situation involving magic. This was something he wanted to instinctively rebuke, but he quickly denied himself the pleasure to instead listen more closely to the mad ranting of the very strange woman with pointed ears at the altar.

“and when the lord mateus finally comes for you, your soul shall serve-”

yep, that was a danger word if ever he'd heard one, garland loathed servitude of any kind, if anyone thought him a servant or a slave, they would find themselves woefully, and painfully mistaken.

Garland kept listening however, immediately coming to the conclusion that he was in very real danger.

“Now then demon prince lurion, what have you to say? Any final words before the angel comes to strike you down.”

Garland was a simple, but very, very, very rebellious man, to the degree that if he so much as sniffed authority, he would flee, or fight with virtually all his will.

But being simple was not the same as being a fool, garland was simple in the sense that he'd forced simplicity onto his wits to keep them and their constant questions from running his mind ragged, garland was a very insightful man for his age, he'd always been insightful, but had often suffered for it, having the intelligence, or rather any sign of it, beaten out of him at a young age only to have it explode forth the moment he was free to cause him no end to stress.

He needed it now, however, and he immediately assumed two things for posterity's sake, the first, that this was an organized religion of some sort, a safe assumption to be sure, given how the long rant had involved gods and devils, never a good sign. The second, that virtually every person in this room was a complete fool and was witlessly following their leader, the strange elf-lady, or what he assumed was an elf, and that she was also a fool.

Fools, could be fooled, as the saying he made up right then and there went, and garland decided that if he was this “demon prince” they spoke of, then perhaps he should play the part and see where it all went.

“Indeed.” he began, stepping forward as the knights all around winced and went for their weapons.

“I do have many, things I should be saying, however I feel that the first among my words shall be this!” he tried to look as livid as possible, an air of cold rage played over his features as he lifted his hands into the air.

“FOOLS!!” he roared. “YOU DARE TO SUMMON ME?!?! THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS?!(he had gotten lucky with that assumption, he didn't actually think himself a prince of anything, indeed he was quite the pauper, as most wise men often are) “i shall make you all SUFFER for this transgression!!” he turned about, stalking toward the summoning circle to get a closer look at the mechanism which had summoned him to this bizarre world, he couldn't make heads or tails of it however, and slowly turned his head to regard the advancing knights and priests with magical charms, doubtless these would bind him in some way, so he kept his distance as he wheeled about suddenly, prompting them to jump back, terrified.

He was dangerous, so it seemed.

Smiling inside, he continued. “Yes….you should ALL suffer!! but do not think I will be so kind as to offer any of you a quick death! HA!! death will be a distant impossibility where you insignificant insects are concerned!! BEHOLD!!” he lifted his arms high into the air and they jumped back, the head priestess, her face a mask, watched tight-lipped as the “demon” continued his tirade “summon the angel.” she bade.

“Khasimir, holiest of the holy angels, bringer of the light of judgment!! send forth your arrows to detain this foul devil!” one of the summoners cried.

To their shock, the angel didn't come.

“what trickery? Can he be so powerful?! Must we bother our holy lord mateus with this?!” she cried out in horror.

“YES FOOLS!! SUMMON THE MASTER INSTEAD!” garland continued, utterly confused as to why they were summoning anything, though he immediately realized he'd been summoned and thus took the matter more seriously.

“LOOK WELL!! NO ANGELS WILL COME NEAR ME IN MY EVIL!! SUMMON YOUR GOD THEN!! BUT BEFORE YOU DO, KNOW THAT HE WILL WITNESS YOUR SUFFERING AND ANGUISH BEFORE THE END!!” raising his hands, he began making up words to a fake incantation and trying to think of a way out of this dilemma.

“BEHOLD MY DARK POWERS AND DESPAIR WORMS!!! FOR YOU FACE THE LEGENDARY DEMON PRINCE LURION (he hated saying that, but he needed to make it convincing to instill terror, thus he swallowed his pride and used the name they seemed to know) to his amazement, all in the room began to back away slowly in terror as he chanted gibberish and japanese, constantly making stuff up as he stepped forward ominously as his voice lifted, only making their terror worse.

He immediately interrupted with a quick cock of his head, and pointing to the left of the room he cried “JUMPING JEEHOOSAFET WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS IS THAT ABOMINATION?!?!”

To his amazement, and to their own chagrin, the priests had been so terrified that they glanced in the direction he'd pointed when he'd suddenly gone from an imposing specter of evil to surprised and terrified in order to see what could possibly terrify a devil. and when he ran past them, leaping over the altar and laughing “HAHAHAHAHAHAA!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FELL FOR THAT GYAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!” it took the stunned group of high priests, temple knights and the priestess a few seconds to register the event, so paralyzing was their shock.

The priestess's face had gone a ghostly white as she stared off after the black clad demon she'd summoned, the blood draining from her features and a few shades of gray appearing on her customary spun-gold colored hair as she watched him escaping through a distant hallway, immediately turning left and fleeing down the outer staircases along the tower's outer walls.

“a-after him...” she whispered. That whisper then became a scream as she ordered the knights out of their stupor and sent them after the fleeing demon. Cries of “STOP THE DEVIL FROM ESCAPING THE TEMPLE!! HE MUST NOT BE PERMITTED TO ENTER THE CITY!!”

Chapter 2

Wolf's escape, Enter Dainslief The Hero

Garland was confused beyond words, but more importantly, he was impressed.

The “temple” if that's what it could be called was actually a pale ivory tower that was so tall that it rose higher than the mountain it was nestled beside, but the tower didn't shoot straight up, it tapered like a ziggurat, though it was difficult to see that at first, as the portion of the tower he was on was straight and cylindrical, the outer wall consisting of multiple staircases that spiraled down all around the side.

Statues of a holy god towered over small “balconies” that overlooked a vast forest-coated city, the city itself poked out of the deep green foliage of the vast forest, and all around the sides of the mountain the buildings, and people far below could be seen.

Fires burned from great metal grate enclosed sconces, each fire burned a curious white, what garland couldn't know was that the fires were actually magical in nature, their magic coming from several enchanted pebbles tied off in a sack.

The balconies were lined with flowers and greenery, and garland thought to himself that were it not for the rather tense situation he was in, he'd very much enjoy living in a place like this.

The tower's circumference was immeasurably wide, fully two miles around, for that was just the greatness of mateus, that his people would build something so unreasonably phallic and see to it that it was given the proper treatment of being reasonably wide and thick.

The tower's very top was a done he'd hastily raced out of through a staircase leading down, the staircase had led to this grand outer wall and the vista he now witnessed. The sun was just now sinking, painting the skies overhead a gentle orange and glowing butterflies flew around the fires of the sconces, alighting near the great bowls without burning.

Garland of course took the sight in for half a second before returning to the business at hand, escape, and he had never wanted to escape something more than he did now.

Far below guards calmly walked up the staircase, deciding that perhaps they didn't know what demons looked like, garland calmly made his way down seeming in a bit of an anxious hurry.

“well hello there lad! Here to see the demon?” one guard asked.

“why yes! I just saw it!” he admitted and that drew a look of surprise from the guards as they glanced at one another nervously.

“I dare not return, for so terrible was it to behold I would surely have gone mad. Praise be to mateus!” garland said, faking it as best he could while he mulled over the new information of the guards not knowing what a devil looked like, or that his appearance was perhaps not unusual for the people here.

“I'm afraid I must egress. So horrific was the sight that the priestess feared for my health.”

“I understand father, please, be easy...maker's breath what happened to your ears!!” one asked.

“ah...a strange magic of the devil, before he was restrained by the angel he cast a curse on several members of the clergy, told us he would give us the appearance of the vile monsters known as “Humans” though in truth I know not the importance of this, it was as trifling as a change of my ears. I'm sure the curse will wear off, and if not...well...I shall miss them...my pointed ears, but it is a small sacrifice to pay in service to the almighty god.”

they nodded in approval, offering prayers and allowing him to pass.

He made it a point to fasten his trenchcoat a bit more to better resemble a pastor as he hastily made his way down the stairs, but part of the way down a scream erupted from high above.

Glancing up, he saw the high priestess pointing in his direction as she screamed “STOP HIM!! THAT'S THE DEMON THAT WE SUMMONED!! WE MUST DETAIN HIM AT ONCE!!!”

the guards turned to him, and garland grinned sheepishly. “well they ARE rather fetching ears I must admit-” the priestess and a group of temple knights and priestesses closed in, and with a sigh he pointed behind them “EGADS!! WHAT SORT OF MONSTER IS THAT?!?!”

to his amazement, all of the clergy and knights, including the high priestess, turned to glance behind them once more, and the high priestess gave a resigned sigh as she heard garland's laughter “HAHAHA!! IT WORKED TWICE!! IT WORKED TWICE IN ONE DAY!! YOU PEOPLE ARE HILARIOUS!!! AAHAHAHAHA!!!”

she turned to see him descending down the stairs with incredible haste, as he made his way around to a second set of stairs leading down he could hear a bloodcurdling scream of wrath emerge from the elfmaid's lips only to be muffled as he entered the tower through a room that the stairs passed through before reemerging along the outer wall, he grinned as he danced past several monks and fryars praying to portraits of a strange horned man wearing a white gown and with hair unmistakably similar to david bowie's when he played the goblin king in labyrinth.

Just then a pair of knights jumped down from the higher staircase outside as he brushed past the room to the next set of stairs toward the outer wall, and garland stopped in his tracks, glancing up to see that they'd descended from quite a height.

Slowly backing up, he considered this new information “How in the blazes did you survive that jump?” he asked as the knights advanced on him.

“Our faith makes our feet strong worm, now stop right there devil, we're to be sacrificing you to our lord, mateus!” they gestured to the painting while the fryars and monks, recognizing that they were in the same room as the summoned devil, immediately rushed out of the room in horror.

Garland wisely considered his situation, he was dealing with nonhumans of some sort, that much was plain, but their abilities were clearly above human, meaning they had great strength in those limbs.

It also meant that he was at a foul sort of disadvantage.

Behind him, the advancing knights and priests were having trouble getting past the sudden flood of monks and the two before while, while well armed...were only two.

Garland had never fought a day in his life, though he'd always vowed that if his freedom were ever threatened again, he'd kill if need be.

So this was to be a test of that vow then.

The first knight came on with his weapon aimed at garland's breast, turning aside, he found it remarkably easy to respond to the attack, indeed, it seemed as though it were coming in a few seconds more slowly than he was expecting, and he managed to grab the knight's leading wrist and disarm him.

Without pausing to think, he reversed the direction of the blade and drove it into the knight's heart wordlessly, the other screamed in horror and came on, only to find garland using his comrade's body as a shield.

Dealing a fatal blow to the already dying elf, the comrade held his friend in his arms when garland thrust the limp body at him.

A moment later, the elf's head, helm and all, were spinning in the air, and garland continued on, taking the sheath from the body and putting it on, sheathing the weapon as he went.

To his dismay, more were waiting for him, this time priests.

With words of prayer they summoned bizarre rings of light that slowly rose up in small pillars, to his surprise these attacks were very predictable, and he need only keep moving to avoid them.

Still their range could potentially be a nuisance, and so without thinking, he slew the clerics casting the spells as he passed, he didn't enjoy the act, but as far as he was concerned this whole temple and all in it were potentially his enemies, he couldn't suffer them to get in his way and live, the risks of letting too many pursue him were simply too great.

Soon it became a battle as he raced down yet another set of stairs, cutting down knights as he passed them without giving a thought to who they were or what they wanted with him, he was working on pure terrified instinct at this moment.

These clerics were threatening his freedom.

None could be suffered to stand in the way of his freedom.

To garland, freedom was life itself, without freedom he couldn't count himself as a living being, he had to be free, to be anything less was to be dead.

And so he fought as a demon possessed animal then, tearing through the unwary knights as he made his way, not daring to give them license to respond even as the larger group of clerics and knights continued to give chase.

In the distance a woman riding a silver dragon appeared, brandishing a spear thick with lightning and he paused, taking a moment to assess this new threat.

The woman was the high priestess from before, now wearing battle armor, her hair whipping in the wind, the silver dragon roared, the sound deafening and it opened its maw.

He'd seen enough fantasy books to know it wasn't about to vomit up teddy bears at him, he ran, hard and fast as the icy breath of the dragon struck the wall behind him.

He heard the crack of an electric bolt and jumped just as it slammed into the wall right where his feet had been, now he was dealing with a slowly advancing wall of white death and a deranged battle priestess with a magical bolt throwing spear hell-bent on killing or capturing him.

And the ground didn't appear any closer than before, though he'd surely descended several hundred feet already.

Not thinking on it, he ran, he found that his stamina hadn't yet depleted, curious, given how he was flat-footed and couldn't run for more than ten feet at a time, to have to run several stories as he'd been doing only to find himself not tiring….it defied belief.

More magic circles sprung up at his feet and he kept moving to avoid these too, just as he was nearing a part of the staircase level with the boughs of a great tree growing from on of the gardens on the upper wall, the dragon appeared in front of him, its maw opening to unleash its killer breath.

As fortune would have it, there was a door to his right, and he immediately burst through it, racing through a dim room filled with curtains and smoke and...the sounds of pleasure?

He glanced to his left and to his right, finding countless elf-maids and men going at it like rabbits, their bodies sweaty and heaving as they indulged in the throes of passionate lovemaking in what appeared to be a room wholly dedicated to it.

“quite the religion” he admitted he he glanced around. “the human world is more chaste than this.”
One woman with a man atop her glanced at him and smiled as she moved rhythmically with her mate.

“come father...join us for the...holy ceremony….mateus's wife, goddess of love, would surely bless me with your children as well as sir dainslief's here.”

the elf called dainslief glanced up from the maiden to see the “father” staring at them as though they'd committed a grave sin.

“Let em go...it's clear he's in a hurry matilda. Besides, only babe you're bearing is mine.” he growled, getting back to it.

Garland took a moment to calm down as he made his way past the lovemaking couples in various “Booths” comprised of scarlet drapes barely separating them, incense and food, as well as what he assumed to be narcotics, littered the carpet floors smoke from scented candles and brass incense pots both on the floor and hanging from the fresco painted ceilings hung thick in the air, clearly the religion was a dual religion, or perhaps it had a pantheon, there was mateus, that much was certain, as he was the one to be sacrificed to him, but mateus had a wife? And she was an accepted goddess of love in what seemed to be a chaste religion?

He didn't quite get it, but he suspected that this faith worked on wildly different beliefs than what humans, ever the virtuous hypocrites that they were, would have allowed or accepted.

He found the next ten rooms ahead to be more of the same, aphrodisiacs clung to the air in the form of incense, elf men were copulating with men, women were going down on women, it was a dedicated orgy floor for this seeming goddess of fertility and love, no doubt the elves and their religion was founded on this to better attract believers, or...another far more disturbing possibility….the god they worshiped was every bit as real as the goddess they fucked for, and the whole faith was founded on an actual pantheon, something garland's people, the humans, simply didn't have.

In a way, it made him feel quite depressed, but as a virgin and one not particularly interested in copulation of any sort, he decided to leave this strange floor with as much dignity as he could muster, keeping his weapon sheathed as he made his way through countless rooms before finding a staircase leading further down.

The high priestess made her way into the room, and she smiled at the orgy taking place on this floor, yes this was just the sort of thing she approved of, worship of mateus's loving wife, the goddess of love and fertility, she carefully set the knights and priests at her side to looking around with great care for signs that the demon had disguised himself among the lovers.

To her disdain, she soon found dainslief, the captain of the temple knights, having his way with an elf priestess, in particular he was taking her from behind now, and, she noted, doing it to the wrong orifice.

“dainslief, I appreciate your efforts on this sacred day.” the priestess said and the captain glanced up to see her. “but aside from the fact that you're supposed to impregnate a maiden, not send her to the restrooms, erm...how to say..did a dark clad fellow come through here?”

“yep, seemed pretty disinterested in joining us though.” dainslief said with a sigh.

“he was so handsome too.” the elfmaid said through her pleasured gasps. “I wished he would have joined us for a good rutting…”

“dainslief, I must ask you to help me detain him. That fiend you saw is the demon we summoned.”

dainslief stopped cold, glancing up at her in shock.

She nodded quietly. “I dare not disrupt the session, but...through base trickery he managed to elude our bonds. It seems the old wolf is cunning indeed. We need your arm on this, he's already killed several temple knights in his flight.”


“figures.” dainslief grumbled, and he disengaged, despite the priestess's protests.

“Hey, alex right?” he asked, motioning to one of the guards. “Keep her company for me, I don't like abandoning my lady during this-” he coughed “most holy of times, but...eh, sacrifices.” he gave a shrug and began to put his clothing on.

The one called alex began stripping, and the elf maid soon found herself grinning at this new specimen, his abs practically double dainslief's ab size, and she all but pulled him to her as he managed to free his helm.

Conversely dainslief began putting on his armor and attire and strapping a broadsword to his back.

“don't hurt him my sweet.” the priestess cried as alex began thrusting. “he seems like such a nice fellow.”

dainslief did agree there, whoever the demon was, he didn't seem like the sort of person who'd kill for the pleasure of it.

“cappin him alive then lady trish.” dainslief said dismissively to the high priestess.

“thank you dainslief, it would be appreciated. May mateus and his loving wife watch over you-”

“yeah, yeah...damned demon's gonna take a few licks for killing my boys though.” he shrugged, chalking it up to panic.

He didn't know much about demons, but supposedly the last time a grand summoning had taken place, the demon princess had begged for her life before the end.

Not something dainslief thought demons did, though he'd only heard of this from secondhand accounts or “alternate accounts from sources the church didn't give credence to” which in most cases meant they were quite reliable.

In particular, the harrowing account of the last surviving elf who'd been there to see it for himself, ghido, who witnessed the demon maiden for himself and saw nothing showing her to be “evil” in any capacity.

She'd begged for mercy, according to the old sage, and she'd been taken by mateus himself, screaming and begging for mercy from the clerics, who continued their prayers.

Only ghido had been affected by her cries it seemed, and for his “Misconduct” he'd been quietly excommunicated from the faith.

So dainslief didn't really give to much thought to the “demon” as he stood before the front gates of the holy chapel, the main room leading to the outside, he'd taken a shortcut, jumping down several flights of stairs to await the demon as he approached via several staircases.

When he finally entered the main chapel at the base of the temple, he wasn't very tired, something dainslief thought strange, he'd been expected the demon to be at least somewhat fatigued by his descent, but he chalked it up to the devil's supernatural qualities.

Now, standing before it, he put his hand on the hilt of his weapon and drew it.

“greetings again father. I have orders to bring you in alive.”


Garland blinked, hadn't he just seen this elf not an hour ago having sex in the upper floors? Forty stories up?

“Dainslief yes?” he asked, approaching the knight captain, visibly shaken and confused.

“Yeah I jumped down a few flights to head you off...why didn't you?”

“I wasn't aware it was possible..I suppose I shall have to remember you elves can do that.”

“elves eh? Some kinda slang term for us?” he asked, staring into the weapon as he checked his stubble, his hair was frightfully long and ragged, and his armor consisted of a blue longcoat with buttons of pure platinum, he wore a white hood, though because of the length of his messy hair he often just kept it down to avoid looking like an idiot.

His sword, jungengormand, was a massive broad blade thrice his own size, and had to be sheathed at a diagonal angle to avoid it getting in the way.

“what are your people called? And why are you waiting for me instead of that proverbial army from before?”

“Because mr demon, I'm all they need now. You killed my boys...er..I didn't really introduce myself. Knight captain dainslief, of the luminaire faith. My people are called the hydalians. And you? You're that demon jurion or whatever right? “

“Lurion, is my given name, though I am called garland. I disowned that name years ago. I would very much like to know how your people came to know my name at all. But we can continue that for another time. For now I would like to ask, what Is this?”

“what is what?” dainslief asked, checking his stubble in the reflection of the blade and frowning.

“this? Me being summoned here, these priests trying to force me to serve this...god...what is this about?”

“you're a demon, the demon prince...er..whatever your name was. In our faith you're the old wolf, one of seven princes of darkness. We came across your summonable name and took the opportunity to summon you forth as a sacrifice to god. Or so the church has said.”

“for what purpose?” garland asked.

“Probably because they wanted to show mateus their appreciation. Gods, it's a strange relationship they have to mortals. Anywho, so that's why you killed my boys then? We summoned you and you thought you'd just cut my guys down?”

“No, I cut them down for the same reason I'd ever cut anyone down. Your church thought to force me to be a slave against my will. I am no man's slave, no god's slave, I would rather die one thousand deaths a free man than be killed and made a god's slave. Your church, in summoning me here to be a “Sacrifice” has unwittingly defiled me in the worst imaginable way.” garland tore his weapon from its sheathe and pointed it at dainslief. “you threatened my freedom. To me, freedom is life, I can't live without it. Thus I fought to kill your men, who stood in the way of that freedom.”

“freedom to do what?” dainslief asked.

“i...don't understand the question. Freedom is freedom, it doesn't matter what I would do with it. The freedom itself is most valuable to me.”

dainslief took that in, trying to reconcile it with the church's teachings.

“How would you feel, sir dainslief, if you went to bed in your unassuming home one night, only to awake and find yourself threatened by an order of fanatics? Forced to be a sacrifice without ever knowing why or how?”

“yeah, it'd be pretty shitty.” dainslief admitted. “unfortunately orders are orders pal. You're under arrest. My boys didn't die for nothing, so that's good. I can forgive you for putting em down for that reason at least, but i've a job to do.”

“My apologies, sir dainslief...but I must resist arrest.” garland replied coldly.

“that, young fellow, was a mistake.” dainslief said, assuming a stance.

Garland had killed most of the knights and clerics on his way down by taking them by surprise as he went, and so faced with this captain, who was clearly more dangerous than the small army that had been chasing him earlier, he realized he wasn't quite as prepared for a trained, prepared warrior.

And yet the door was behind dainslief, and so garland could only assume his own stance, and try to puzzle a way out of this predicament.

No doubt this elf would buy time for the priests to come in with their magics and bind him, then drag him to his death, helpless, and worse, he'd have to listen to them pray and sermon him.

That was surely a fate worse than death.

“Dainslief...” garland began as he slowly drew near, weapon ready. “You have my sincerest apologies for disrupting your lovemaking for this trifle, however know this, you stand between me and my freedom, I will show you no more quarter than your men. Get out of my way, this is the only warning I'll give you.”

“did you give my boys warning?” dainslief asked.

“Of course not.” garland replied coldly. “it's confused logic to be sure, but i'm not exactly in an ideal situation.”

“aw, I get special treatment from everyone.” dainslief said mockingly. “even demon princes. Man you're gonna need new legs after i'm DONE WITH YOU-” on he came, with enough speed and force to kick up a whirlwind.

And garland braced himself for a certain defeat.