The demon form of Askathstral descended from the dark sky at an alarming rate. Its traumatized body now buzzed with unstable secret energies as it desperately tried to hold onto its physical form. Gracelessly the demon landed heavily on Divina’s right shoulder, knocking her to the ground, the sword from her hand, and the air from her lungs. She felt the world twist backwards and then an unexpected bone jarring jolt and an explosion of pain through her broken arm. Under the demon's talons she fought for every shallow gasp as she tried to fill her lungs with enough oxygen to make sense of what had just happened.

She could still hear the screams of the young girl nearby. She could feel the oily form of the demon pressing down on her. Her eyes darted around looking for anything she could use to get herself free. In the distance the passing storm roiled and flashed with rage at the twisted nature of the abominable forest below it.

“Ahhhh, That’s the thing about the deities of this world.” The demon idly commented on the situation as if imparting some deep universal secret. “They’re fickle and shallow.” Askathstral deliberately shifted its weight onto Divina’s broken arm a little more and she cried out in pain. “I, on the other hand, will give you all the attention you need, for as long as it takes.”

With a long drawn out motion it raked a single claw across the Paladin’s chest-plate leaving a neatly engraved line through the delicate primordial language sigils and patterns.

“Get on...” She gasped, still struggling for breath beneath Askathstral. “ ...with it then.”

“Ahhhh, I am so very much looking forward to devouring you. Taking my time to enjoy every morsel. Striping the flesh, inch by agonizing inch.” The razor sharp claw made its way to the exposed flesh of the Paladin’s jawline and lightly scored a crimson gash in its wake.

Through gritted teeth she cursed the demon, looking to the heavens for aid. “Audrashini.” She pleaded.

“And then, I will restore my form by devouring your pristine, paladin soul.” The demon followed her line of sight its head twisting unnaturally as it looked towards the clouds that hung in the night sky. “Ahhh, don’t hang your hopes on the storm goddess, she is long gone.” Its attention snapped back to Divina as it drew another line perfectly parallel to the first. “Your frail human ears can’t hear it, but her dying thunder is miles away. It gets further from us with every one of your last breaths”

“You don’t know…” Divina gasped as fresh surges of pain rippled through her body with every lingering laceration. “...anything about belief.”

“Ahhh, yes human, tell me about your belief. What do you know that I do not? I have lived a hundred thousand of your human lifetimes.” A third line, this time following the soft curve around the brow of her eye. “What could you possibly know that I don’t?”

She stifled a scream again. The demon paused for a second as if really contemplating what her answer might be. Impatiently it added. “Tell me this hidden wisdom child and I will give you a few moments of peace.”

“You… you...” Divina could no longer muster the breath to get the words out.

It took a few moments for the demon to realize what was happening and shifted again to allow Divina to suck in a deep breath.

“You may continue.” Askathstral mocked.

Hard-eyed and determined, the Paladin spat the answer. “You demons think of yourselves as equals to the celestials. Gods feed on our love and devotion. Yet you feed on humanity’s darkness. Greed and fear and hopelessness and pain sustain you. And those emotions cannot be sustained indefinitely.”

In the moment the demon had drawn its claw away she struggled to escape its grasp. Askathstral simply shifted its weight again and secured the girl in place once more. It chuckled, a mirthless sound and finished the incision it had started a few moments before.

“Ahhhh, That’s too bad. I forgot how boring you Paladins are. You think that this world, this creation, is binary. Black and white. Good and evil. Order and chaos. You foolishly believe in the hollow concepts of right and wrong. You all cling like insects to those ideals, like they could make a difference to your pitiful existence.” The demon began to draw another scarlet line across the Paladin’s face and with it drew another cry of pain from the girl. “Let me teach you what makes a real difference in this reality. Pain is the only thing that matters. And those who control it, control this world.”

Through her steeled resolve Divina drew together the words, as the demon made yet more bloody furrows in the skin around her right eye and mouth.

“You are...” Four lines had now been carved along her skin, “...mistaken, you conceited...” the fifth line intersected the first four, “...inter-dimensional life-sucking-tick.” She drew on what she suspected were her last scraps of power and laced her next words with divine energy. “The goddess…” six lines now marred her face. “...is with me, always.” Seven lines carved with the perfect impatience of a hungry fiend. Burning emotions boiled up in Divina. She felt them roil and mingle with the divine. “My heart...” the eighth line was a perfect circle. Blood ran down her forehead and into her eyes as she screamed. “...beats with her holy thunder.”

Those last words, full of righteous indignation and holy-imbued mortal-will, washed up and over the unsuspecting demon, its skin and feathers and fur breaking apart. The power exposed, in places, the demon's owl-like and blackened skeletal frame. As it separated from the host, the demon flesh returned to the black abyssal ichor that it had once been. Askathstral scrambled backwards at the touch of those words filled with holy authority. It tried to mitigate that destructive, holy power by willing a nullifying spherical shield between itself and the onslaught of divine magics. But the spell had been fed by Divina’s immutable belief in her goddess. The effort was useless. The demon could barely hold its form together, let alone command the arcane forces any more. That dark sticky ichor arced through the night air and then fell to the dirt with a sickening splat and the scent of burning sulphur, that made Divina’s stomach twist and turn, threatening to empty itself once more.

Bleeding and badly injured, but now full of anger and adrenaline that fueled her body beyond its limits, she pushed herself back to her feet, wiping the blood from her eyes, and strode towards the now violently shaking, emaciated demon form. It lay on its back, roles now reversed, at the charity of the holy warrior. Taking her sword again in her left hand she made three clumsy slashing cuts at the creature's ribcage, slicing away the now-brittle coal-coloured bones. Below the black liquid she revealed a bright blood-red heart, far too small for the demon's body. It beat a steady rhythm, unattached from arteries and veins. Divina pressed the tip of her blade to the pink flesh and smiled.

“Ahhhh,” the demon grovelled, “have mercy on us.”