[2016] Never Accept Your Demons (Short Story Category)

[smash_fic]

Title: Never Accept your Demons
Rating: PG
Prompt: You cannot change what you refuse to confront. – Unknown
Fandom/Series: Seraph of the End/Owari no Seraph
Word Count: 1273
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
Summary: No matter what anyone says, Krul will never accept her brother has become a demon.

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Never Accept Your Demons

 

“Queen Krul Tepes...”

Eyes the colour of blood glowered down from a throne cast in darkness. A small figure sat rigid against the velvet and stone, her eyes shining in the melancholic lighting. Her clawed fingers gripped the polished armrests and her knees melded into the rim of the seat.

“Report.”

The captain raised his head to look up at his queen. Pointed ears and red eyes – noticeable among humans but it made him a mere extra in a den of vampires. Sanguinem, Krul’s domain, had grown louder the past month; though it would be wrong to say it became happier. The January snows had coated the outside, leaving the cavern-city feeling even colder. It wasn’t felt by the vampires but the chill had deeply affected their new ‘livestock’.

Yet the newly anointed queen of Japan couldn’t care less. Provided that as long as her Seraphs remained alive, intact and out of the hands of cunning Progenitors, she had barely the mind to diverge any of her attention to them. Her mind had been focused on the sole purpose of finding the one who she had planned to share her reign with.

“There have been no further leads as to the location of King Asura Tepes, my Queen. Our searches have lead to no-“

He was cut off sharply by a large whoosh of air and a rumble beneath his feet. Casting his eyes to the side, he was greeted with the sight of the solid marble churned, jagged and ripped open to look like the maw of a beast ready to swallow him whole. If he still had a heartbeat, it would be tick-tocking rapidly against his ribcage. Darting his eyes back to the vampiric throne, his hands curled into fists from where he crouched. The girl-queen had risen to her feet and her arm was falling gently back to her side, evidently having unleased raw power in a fit of rage.

“I’ll ask you again.” Her boots clacked as she drifted down the steps towards him. Her obscure pet bat fluttered over to sit on a stool by its master’s seat, one enormous eye watching curiously. Krul’s powder pink haired flowed out behind her, the only outright supernatural indication of her barely bridled emotional distress. “Report; but this time tell me something good.”

The guard swallowed, acutely aware of the fangs protruding from his liege’s mouth. “T-the investigators have determined that King Asura has not been turned to dust but...” he paused. He didn’t know how he was going to proceed. After all, in the passage of the past few weeks, many views had been drastically changed in the vampire community. To walk above the ground without restrictions was a new novelty, to have an easy and frequent blood supply was celebrated and to die of starvation was considered an even stronger sign of pity.

His line of thought was cut off sharply with the blunt slam of a small but powerful heel against his chest, sending him flying back. It seemed she had caught onto what he had been planning to say. The guard landed in a graceless heap across the room, tangled in his cloak. He scrambled to unbind himself but in the same moment he was whacked against the wall, limbs shattering and turning akimbo.

“I will not accept such laziness.” The vampire could barely hear over his suppressed groan, but it wasn’t hard to picture the poison dripping past the life-stealing canines. There was a sharp clack against the floor as the vampire queen sauntered to him. “To imply that Asura has been enslaved at the hands of mere humans is not even laughable – it’s downright slander against him.”

The underling grunted when the cloth covering his face was ripped away, Krul’s nails just barely touching his skin, with a foot pressed sharply into his throat. He chocked but remained still. Krul was years above him and she was also a member of the Progenitor Council – fighting her would be suicide. She twisted the sole of her boot into his neck with enough strength to crush the fragile organs of a human; for a vampire it was merely torturous.

“Now, how shall I punish you for such a traitorous act? Demotion? Corporal punishment? Frontlines? I hear that we’re losing a fair few to the Imperial Army.” Krul leered down at him. To a human, the appearance of a preteen girl wouldn’t have denoted any form of intimidation but physical age was of little consequence amongst vampires. Her lips curled back in an imitation of a smile.

“Or how about I turn you into a demon? Let you become,” he shivered at how her voice caressed the word, drawing it out and riddling it with venom, “what you are so apparently obsessed with.”

Krul’s arm whacked him on the side of the head, faster than even supernatural eyes could manage to follow, effectively knocking him out – for as long as needed. She stepped forcefully (not stomped – noblewomen never stomped) back up to the throne and yanked on a rope hanging behind the curtain, very nealyr ripping the fibres clean apart. The doors opened and a domestic servant shot in. She ignored the downed city guard and came to a crouch at the throne, her eyes cast dutifully away from the slash along the floor.

“My lady?”

“Take him,” she swept her sleeve to the wall, “to the dungeon under charge of slander.” She didn’t even turn to look. Why should she care? Whoever would say such ridiculous things about Asura Tepes, the older brother of Queen Krul and a Progenitor? Not to mention the one who had built this city to share with his sister. Who had the audacity to even suggest that he would be captured, starved and then spellbound to a weapon to kill his kin?

To... even imply... he had died...

Krul kept her back facing the door as the maid hauled the man out and the door clicked shut. With a raw and equally rare scream, she curled her hand and smashed the throne in a fell punch. She howled with all the primal rage and anger stored within her, built up by their literal god-forsaking curse. A curse to send the dregs of humanity down into the pit of monstrosity. A curse to rip apart their humanity, to make it easier to kill ones who had once been kin – whether it be through overwhelming desire to feed or to save their necks. A horrible curse that would lead to the eventual death of its victims by turning them into unending demons.

Demons that her brother had...

No. She would refuse to accept such a concept. Asura was strong – even stronger than her. He would not end like this. Even if the purple haired teen had taunted her and evaded her question of where her brother was. Even if her lover killed a vampire using a sword containing a demon before attacking his recently turned girlfriend.

She leant against the wall and took a long shaky breath. This was insane. She was a queen now; she had to remain composed and not let her emotions get out of control. She just had to wait. She raised her head and took a long gulp.

Yes...

She just had to wait for him. He would be fine. He would return to her when the time was right. She just had to have faith in him – however strange an ideal for a vampire that was.

She would never accept his death. As long as she didn’t accept it, he would stay alive.

He was stronger than that...

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