Where the hell IS this place? (Chephros.)

[Phobia Valent]

Phobia flew through the air, softly alighting on a branch of a dead-lloking tree.

He had been flyng for three or four days, only having fed n a few birds he caught in flight, and he was a little bit hungry. He groaned softly as hs stomach growled. Looking down, he saw some strange, bear-like creature. It had meat, and blood, so he ate it. Slowly. Animal fear was different from human fear, but it still sated him.

Plus, this thing tasted pretty damn good for an animal.

He was picking the meat out from between his tusks with a rib-bone, when he took flight again. He crunched down on the bone, savoring the taste of the marrow, as he flew over what he diddn't know was the Austrailian Outback.

"Where is that god-be-damned academy?"

Then, in mid-air, he hit something large. He hit it HARD. He fell to the ground with a thud, and stood up, brushing himself off.

"That hurt....."

[Chephros]

Chephros often left the Academy for Earthly flights. He barely found the ever-moving Academy when he returned, but that was fine with him. He remembered landmarks and the normal direction of movement, and thus found it rather easily. His eyes, although a distinctly inhuman pale green, were sharp. While people thought him blind, he found it funny when they underestimated. He was contemplating exploiting that advantage when he smelled and felt something incredibly familiar.

It was another Demon in the vicinity.

Now he was paying attention to the ground. Demons didn't normally have wings, and so he paid attention to below him rather than in front of behind him at this point. Holding himself steady in the air, he scanned the ground, and then was rudely surprised when something slammed into his back. The forty foot drop wasn't enticing, so Chephros gathered his nerves again and flapped his scaled wings, keeping him airborne as he saw the other Demon drop to the ground.

"Oh, that's just lovely."

Chephros corrected himself and stood straight in the air, then folded his wings and dropped like a statue in the sky. When he came near the ground a high powered shockwave forced his momentum to stop about one foot off the ground. It nearly unbalanced him as well, but he managed without even moving. Touching down, he looked at the demon. He had....feathers....

"Who are you?"

[Phobia Valent]

"Phobia Valent."

He had no reason to object to saying his name. He was being addressed by a demon he had no reason to be hostile against. He was a Plutonian, and thus very violent, but not a Tartarusian, and obeyed the limited "Code" that hell had.

Which was mainly "Don't kill a demon unless you have a reason. Have fun with the human souls, though."

He stood up, brushing himself off. One of the spines that rose from his hair had snapped, but it was growing back at a pace that was visible. Within two minutes, it would be back. Painful, but he enjoyed pain, to an extent.

He noticed that the demon before him had scales. This was a trait he had never seen before.

"If I may ask, who are you?"

He spoke humbly, or at least as much so as a Plutonian could. If he had an unprecidented trait in a demon, he might be a Demon Lord.

Phobia shited, brushing dust off, and making sure his clothes were ok. They were made of his mother's hide, so there was only this. If these ripped, they would re-grow, as Plutonian flesh did, but it was still annoying.

His stomach rumbled, but he ignored it. He couldn't eat anything around here, anyway.

[Chephros]

The name would be relatively meaningless until there was a reason to remember it, but the fact that the kid's name Phobia suggested he was taught things about fear. Demons names often represented themselves in some cases, but Chephros had yet to find his name's meaning. It didn't really matter that much, but he found it important to know what he was expected to do in life, or perhaps what it was meant for him to be. His wings folded along his back, and his bone tail swished and curled up to his shoulder. Stepping forward, Chephros raised his right arm, putting his hand in front of Phobia's face. His left arm was the only one with a wrist blade on it for now, and he didn't want to cut the fool.

Charging his hand with Chaos, he found it flickered and shot towards Phobia. A simple test to be positive of his demonic nature. Chaos, the energy of demons. It would fly away from him if another was very close. The purple/black shadow fog disappeared when it got near the demon, and Chephros simply looked at the demon's cloths. They were a leather-ish type of armor, but not one that seemed native to this world. His hand reflexively reached out, put a fold of it between his fingers, and rubbed it a bit. It was tough, and served it's purpose.

"What's it made of?"

He wouldn't wait for an answer before continuing thinking, but would subconsciously say '...nice...' anyway. After a few moments of thinking, he would look up to the Demon and look into his eyes. His own pale green ones would seem troubled, and deep in thought, which, in fact, he was.

"How did you survive the Tracers? Hell, you must eat meat of some sort...how did you avoid being found, if you weren't? If you were, how did you fight them off? I would be very interested in knowing this. I've lost too many demons to them, I really must destroy them, but I haven't found out a good way to."

[Phobia Valent]

Phobia actually took the time to look over the demon who had found him here.

It was obvoius he was a Demon Lord. So many rare demonic features.

Horns and spikes? Not as rare as the other features, but the horn on his forehead ws untwisted. That was nearly unprecidented.

Wings? In most demons, very rare.

The tail? Very common, unless it ws covered in spines and spikes. That made it nearly unprecidented.

The pale green eyes? A sign of potential godhood.

It's made from my mother's tanned hide....and I know no "Tracers".....are you...a Demon Lord?

He would have bowed if he wasn't frozen in place. A Lord, here? That was unthinkable, almost. What were these Tracers he spoke of? What did they do? Most importantly, when would Phobia get to eat again?

Well, he'd get to eat again now. He reached out and grabbed anoethr weird, bear like creature, nd started gnawing on its leg as it squirmed and made its sad little noises.

[Chephros]

Before he answered anything, Chephros looked at Phobia. He was shut up in silence, almost amazed.

"Heh.....you know...you're eating a Koala...right? I find it funny that humans find these things cute."

Of course, now his mind replayed everything this demon was saying. First of all, he was asking if Chephros was a Demon Lord. Not yet he wasn't, but that wasn't needed information to anyone but Chephros right now. Also, the nature of the armor's material hit him. This kid killed his mother, skinned her, and tanned the hide to make personal armor. If that wasn't cruel enough to prove demonic origins, then there was almost nothing else that would. 'Course, if it was a lie, then it was just stupid, but this guy didn't seem to be lying.

Another proof was his jaw. With his collar down to eat the Koala, his fanged mouth and his pair of tusks were easily visible. The fangs in front were almost common to demons, but the full mouth wasn't, and tusks themselves were rare. This demon had a good amount of potential with him, especially with the way he was scaring the hell out of a simple koala, which lived in fear.

"Yes, I am. Perceptive of you."

A Demon Lord in training at least. This kid would make a good underling, provided he could make it through Chephros' layer of the abyss. The tracers would be another problem.

"Tell me something. What did you eat before hand? Did you eat any people? If so, did you leave anything behind at all? Bones, skin, organs, anything from you, or them? Is anyone you know about following you, or do you think someone unseen might be as well? If so, you were likely found by a Tracer."

The mention of them visibly pissed Chephros off.

"Tracers are mages who slay Demons and close the ruptures we get here through. They've killed too many demons already, and I plan to destroy as many of them as possible. However, to stay protected from them, I joined an order of 'beasts'. A group humans have outcasted through legend, and who mages have right to fear. You will have their protection if I can get it, and possibly a rank under me. That is, if we can control your hunger and blood lust."

[Phobia Valent]

"Hmmm.....I ate one of my sister's slaves, but I left nohting behind. Not even a drop of blood or shred of his soul. Although I can subside off of human fear, if need be.

He was a relatively simple creature, and in the "Excitement" that followed seeing his sister again, he had forgotten about the campers. He had left no trace, of course, but he had still forgotten. humans bored him, anyway. He really couldn't remember what the slave had looked like, but remembered he tasted horrible and stringy.

A demon lord, though.....here. He finished off the koala, not leaving behind a single trace that it had ever lived, crunching down every last bit of it.

He gave a bow.

"I am but a Plutonian, M'lord. I'd be happy to do anything I can to help your cause, be it controlling my bloodlust, or slaying a thousand tracers."

He would bow until he was told to stand. He had found a master.


After all, Plutonians not bound ot a lord never survived long. They weren't very smart.

[Chephros]

"Hmph, then you are lucky. If he was a slave, it won't matter. Your sister, from the looks of it, is a demon as well. Her having slaves means that the humans are aware of magic already, and the Tracers will not hunt you for eating one of them. However, if you do eat something in the open such as a farmer's horse, a trader's goat, a feral beast, or even other humans, leave no marks. No blood splatter, no organs, no bones, no skin. Burn it, eat it, obliterate it, do anything, but leave no marks or you will be hunted."

The koala had been completely eaten, bones and all. There was nothing left of it to be identified, no cause to think it ever existed. If Phobia truly had eaten all of the human like this creature of the Earth, then there would be no real problem with him leaving behind traces of his meals. Hunting would be relatively easy, they could both fly after all, and forest creatures could fear as well as provide meat and blood for him.

"If fear works for you, try finding a mother bear. They are like koala's only much bigger with brown or black shaggy fur. They are often easily annoyed, and will fight to defend their children. Eat their cubs in front of them when they are helpless, their fear alone will likely fill you."

Then the last comment filtered it's way through his ears. This demon was a Plutonian. Those were demons from hell who were feared there for their vicious attitudes and blood lust. However, when compared to the Unbloodeds from his own layer of the Abyss, they were actually nothing. From what it sounded like, Plutonians fought simply for the pleasure of fighting, much like Cheph did. Unbloodeds however fought for their lives, gaining power in hell as quickly as they could to stand up to the Blooded Ones who gained it in the same amount of time, but got more.

"Plutonian ehh? Nice, but nothing special. I've seen better in my own realm."

[Phobia Valent]

The bear idea, he made a mental note of, or at least as much of a mental note as he could make. As for leaving a trace, it wasn't in his nature. Fear was all-consuming, as some said. He never left anything behind, of himself, or hs food.

Then, the Demon Lord made a comment about him being weak. An insult. His entire race had been insulted. Not that he truly cared about the rest of the Plutonians. Only himself. But his honor, what little he had, had been insulted.

His claws outstretched, he leapt at the demon lord. Clawing at the thing's eyes, with a keening wail that would have struck fear into the hearts of any mortal being that heard it, but it would likely do nothing to scare this demon.

As the Plutonian code was wont to say, "Better to die with dignity, than to live insulted."

Although his life was now forfiet to the demon lord, he would die with dignity.

[Chephros]

Apparently, the demon took his comment personally. His leap wasn't exactly hard to anticipate, the two were of near even speed, and the other demon couldn't hide his movements well enough so that Chephros couldn't almost guess the exact end point of everything he was bound to do. His unbladed right arm came up, his hand opening, and would aim to grab the Demon's throat. The wrist blade would aim for Phobia's right arm, to potentially cut the top of it open in a nice long gash if it continued.

With the demon's throat grabbed, he would slam him against a tree, pinning him to it.

"Don't take it too personally Plutonian, but the Unbloodeds of my realm are stronger than the demons that come here anyway, and nearly as strong as those that make it back. If you were to come up against one of them right now, they would slay you alive on the spot and drain whatever power they could from your body simply to further their own survival. Unbloodeds are rare Demon Lords, but there have been cases of them. They are some of the strongest demons because of their blood lust that is survival born, not habit born like your race's."

His arm would push harder and close any gap there was between the opening of his fingers and his thumb, and press Phobia's neck to the tree tightly.

"Do not dream of thinking your race compares to their savagery. They will not band together because in doing so they lose power to their own allies. They do not speak, they fight instead!"

His right arm was in use, and so Chephros lifted his tail. Extending it to ten feet long, he curled it around his side, and then slammed it into Phobia's jaw. Upon impact, he would use his Chaos pulse sideways to hit the teeth and tusks again. Likely, quite a few of them would come loose, but none would fall out.

"Understand?!"

[Phobia Valent]

His teeth....the only part of him that wouldn't regenerate eventually. The only thing he really, truly, cared about. Keeping tose teeth intact was all that mattered, really. The rest of his body could regenerate, given time.

But his tusks were loose....he'd have to shove them back into place......and that would be painful.

"...I understand. Can you let me down so I can fix my teeth?"

He sounded a bit depressed. If this Demon Lord's own level of hell was so depraved, Phobia would be of no use to him, and if you were of no use to a demon lord, you were dead. At least where HE came from.

He was shamed. Shamed and completely useless. He'd never find and kill Dementia at this rate. Even if his life was forfiet, he would find and kill her before he died.

[Chephros]

Chephros pulled his hand free of the tree bark, the force of his grab having buried it slightly, and let the other demon free. Knocking his teeth loose had apparently found it's mark on his pride, as he sounded depressed, and so Chephros knew he would behave, or relatively at least. However, as he was thinking of this little hellraiser he had just dominated pretty much, he remember the Academy. It would be moving very soon, and they needed to get there now if they were going to have a chance of finding it without going around the world to the Blood Society.

"Do whatever you're going to do, but do it quickly. We need to move. Now."

He wouldn't wait for Phobia, he would spread both of his seven foot wings and take flight, flying back towards the Academy. They really did need to hurry, the thing had a way of disappearing somehow. They were stretching it already, having taken so long. Chephros normally flew around, enjoyed air and scenery, then went back. Every so often, he would look back to make sure his little demon follower was coming along, then fly faster towards the Academy. If he fell behind, Chephros would slow down, albeit a bit anxious, but then hurry the Demon along.

He didn't want to introduce him to the Blood Socieity. Not yet.

[Phobia Valent]

"Right."

Phobia wrenched his teeth back upwards, or downwards, jamming them back into place. As he did this, he extended his wings, following just behind the demon lord. He diddn't know why he was still alive...he had raised his claws against a demon lord, and had most likely been declred useless.

He honestly diddn't understand what the guy had meant about "Unbloodeds", but they sounded
strong....very strong. Like a true challenge. He wanted to fight one, one day, but not yet. He was obviously too damn weak, at the moment.

He picked up speed, until he was flying right behind Chephros.

"...how strong are these "Unbloodeds"? Is there any chance that, given time and training....a demon like myself could stand up to one?"