CHAPTER 6

TRUTH

“Hey, boy.” Lex murmured in displeasure, a bitter taste on his tongue. “Why don’t you come a little closer?” He then opened his arms, as if gifting this Angel an embrace.
“Ugh, as if I would ever get close to a Demon.” The Angel shrugged with distaste.
“Oh. I see.” Lex looked down with a small smile. He looked up, eyes meeting with Anoukes. “Your brother, huh..?” His fingers twitched.
“Lex…” Anouke whispered. “Please don’t hurt him.”
“You’re talking to a Demon, Anouke – he’ll obviously try.”
 “Hey…” Lex said, diverting his eyes from Anouke’s to the other Angel. “Say, what’s your name?”

“Not that it matters, but if you must know, it’s Raziel.”
“Ra-zi-el.” He spoke, as if testing how his name felt to speak out. “Raziel.” He smirked. “I don’t like you, Raziel.” Lex folded his arms and lowered his eyelids a little, looking sullen. “Lex, please. I don’t like that look in your eyes. It’s scary.”
“Oh.” His eyes widened. “I look scary? I see. But, listen closely.” He inched toward Anouke. Raziel stepped closer but Anouke held up his hand and he stopped, letting Lex whisper into his ear. “I’ll show you scary.” He reeled back from Anoukes face and stared at him. His fangs protruded from his lips. Anouke saw himself in the reflection of the pupil of Lex’s blood-craving eyes. He licked his lips and muttered that same phrase again.

He stepped up to Raziel, staring him down – proving who was stronger just from height. “Hey, boy. I’m still feeling quite hungry, you know. You look like a good meal.”
“I dare you.”

At the same time, they both stretched out their arms towards one another’s faces. Raziel’s fist landed directly on the bridge of his nose and Lex didn’t manage to land his first punch. The veins bulged from Lex’s skin like a river bank bursting. “Oh, I see,” his voice was demonic now. More so than any other Demon. Deep and gravelly, echoing in the forest like a voice through a speaker.

“You’re trying to tell Anouke that all Demons are the same – bloodthirsty creatures who can’t control themselves. Just so he’ll give up on me. Isn’t that right?”
“I won’t give up, Lex – no matter who you are! What you are makes you you, Lex.”
Lex’s heart felt pained, like there was a strong pull inside his chest. “Who I am. I don’t know who that is.” His body relaxed and stepped away from Raziel and turned to look at Anouke.

His crimson eyes returned to normal, an alluring blue-ish grey with dots of gold glimmering around his iris. His veins sank back into his body and his incisors shrank back. His balled fists remained though, like his subconscious knew that he was a Demon. But he himself didn’t know who or what he was. “Can you help me find out?” He smiled. A genuine smile. It reached his eyes. “Lex…” Anouke muttered. Like they were in a world of their own, they seemed to have forgotten about Raziel. Yet, he made himself presentable as he walked into their little ‘fairytale’ scene and threw his hand at Lex’s face with an almighty punch, knuckles digging into his temples and he fell to the floor with a smile.

Anouke watched in horror. “Raziel! Y-you… He was calm! There was absolutely no reason to do that. He was perfectly fine, he wasn’t going to fight. His eyes were so gentle and kind. You just--” he paused. “Goodness, you nearly made me swear at you and I never do that. I hardly ever get angry either, so you better understand how damn serious this is.” He walked up to Raziel and pushed his index finger into his chest. “Why would you do that?”

“Because--” Raziel stopped at the first word of reply, blood leaking out from his mouth, and dropping onto Anoukes finger. He staggered backwards and he fell to the floor.
“R-Raziel…?!” Anouke crouched down and realized what had happened. It was The Angels Antagonism again. Higher ranks. Anouke had noticed the caliburn. Only the hilt of the weapon was sticking out of his back – the blade had gone right through.

The metal was a dark purple with a streak of glowing red down the middle, a texture like flowing lava. “Hey there, Angel.” The Higher Rank dropped to the floor from a colossal tree, landing with certainty – not even looking as he fell. “Like the caliburn?” He said as he pulled the blade out, Raziels blood spilling out. The Demon licked the blood from the blades edge and inhaled. “Ah, the taste of Angels blood. So good…”

 Anouke gritted his teeth. An Angel fighting an upper-ranked Demon? This was going to be difficult. But neither was going to run away. “I am Kurkoren. You are?” He asked, unbothered.
“I’m… Repulsed is what I am right now!” He lashed out.
“My, my. Aren’t Angels supposed to be calm?” He reached out a hand. “I can tell you’re strong. Akuma would love you to be a Demon.” He noticed Lex on the ground. “Speaking of, Lex needs to be seen.” Anouke stood in front of Lex’s body like a mother protecting her terrified child. “You have to get through me first!” Anouke yelled.
“I have a feeling all Angels are like this. Petty and irritating. However, it’d be my pleasure to take Lex away from your lonesome self. Is that why you’re with a Demon? Loneliness? How shameful.”

“And I see that most Demons are the same. Why can’t you leave us be?!” Anouke yelled, closing his eyes and leaning forwards with clenched fists and furrowed eyebrows.
“I need to take Lex back to Akuma. If you hand him over, I’ll give you a quick and short death, but if you make me take him from you, it’ll be long and sufferable.” The higher rank snickered. “Now,” he held out his hand, “What will you do?”

Both of them stared at each other. “Hey, Kurkoren. How come you’re in The Angels Antagonism?”
“Uhm, are you forgetting that I’m a Demon? There is nothing pleasurable nor beneficial with you being here, so I enjoy the sport of chasing Angels down and making them suffer – It’s quite fun.”

“I see.” He murmured and looked down.
“Looks like I’ll have to take him from you.” Kurkoren said and cracked his knuckles.
Anouke poised himself, ready to battle. “I don’t want to do this…”

Kurkoren barreled towards Anouke, crouching down low, aiming his head for his stomach to knock the wind out of him. Anouke, reactions quicker than a blink, raised his elbow and struck down. The Demon was too fast however, and Anouke fell on top of Lex’s body, gasping for the air knocked from his lungs. “Looks like I underestimated you, Kurkoren.” Anouke whispered. Kurkoren didn’t answer with words, but instead kicked his body off Lex. “I’ll be taking my prize first, and then your head will be my trophy when I return.”

Anouke jumped up as he watched him swing Lex over his shoulder like he was just a hefty sack of potatoes. He ran right behind him whilst he began to walk away, crouched down and span around, extending his leg – tripping him over and Lex fell from his shoulder. “You bitch. You could’ve gotten off easier if you let me just take him. But looks like I’ll have to make you suffer more than I originally planned.”

Kurkoren, in his state of anger, launched his fist, landing it on Anoukes jaw with a sharp crack of the bone. Lex’s eyes snapped open; face a little muddy and facing the leaves on the forest floor. Only, Lex was his true self.

 A Bai Ze.

He growled as he stepped forwards, raising himself above both Anouke and Kurkoren. His paw crashed onto the ground with a little shake, claws piercing through the ground like fangs devouring flesh. Anouke faced him, the creature’s eyes mirroring the horror on his face. Kurkoren stepped back even, shocked and also feeling intimidated.

 “Lex was over there, move out of my way! I need to make sure he’s okay.” Anouke demanded, overwhelmed and petrified. Anouke began to run past Kurkoren but then realization hit him. This… This is Lex. His eyes are the exact same! Anouke told himself and jumped back to avoid getting hurt. He observed the creature in awe but still felt terrified. There was a central horn of fire, starting from his snout, just above his nose.

He had two ears, flicked back like he was wincing in pain. There were spikes protruding from his forearms, messy but thin fur straggling around them. His fur was matte black; he had spikes which were an extremely dark blue. Yet, his eyes were the exact same as Lex’s. Bluish-grey with specks of gold. As Anouke’s eyes roamed over past the front of the body, he noticed that there were more than two eyes. There were two on the face where eyes normally were, but there were another two on his shoulders, looking up at the sky.

“L-Lex…” Anouke stuttered, looking into his eyes. Lex wasn’t looking at him though, but instead staring Kurkoren down. Kurkoren stood his ground, staring back and even daring a challenging step forwards. He wrapped his three tails together before loosening them and letting them gently stroke the surface of the forest ground which was now dented with claw marks and massive paw-prints. His tails were different colours; one was black like the rest of his body – apart from his under belly which was a light grey – one was red with a white tip and the other was an extremely dark purple, almost black, with a tip of orange.

Lex stepped forwards, towering over the Demon and Angel. His eye had a number in it and the other had the word ‘Higher-low.’ After all, Lex was a lower-rank in the higher-ups. His left eye on his face read ‘Higher-low’ and the right eye on his face read ‘2’.

Anouke shouted Lex’s name once again, snapping him back to reality and the Bai Ze finally turned to look at him. “Anouke.” He said sternly, voice rasped and low. Kurkoren stepped near Anouke and Lex turned towards him with a menacing growl, lips peeling backwards to reveal a set of perfect teeth. As he looked down at Kurkoren, Anouke noticed even more features to the creature. He had an eye under his horn of fire. There was a group of spikes on his back, too. They were dark blue with light red at the very tip.

They protruded only from his left side – there were four of them – and there were another three poking out from the back of his head down to the bottom of his neck like a mane.  He was ready to rush Kurkoren by snapping down at where he was standing. However, there he was. He kicked Lex, entering the scene from the shadows, and he rolled over a few yards. He shook his body, dirt and muck falling from his ever-so clean fur.

 Anouke gaped as soon as he saw him. He could never forget that face and neither could Lex.

“Dayle!” Both of them hollered at the same time. Kurkoren looked over at Dayle with distaste. “Tch, I don’t need your annoying ass to ‘save’ me, Dayle. All you ever do is brag that you’re the strongest.” He muttered, spitting his bitter feelings towards him.
“Oh, I’m not. I just sent some lower ranks out for this kill – let them try him so you can get a feel of how tough it is to defeat a Bai Ze.” He said and staggered backwards, fading into the shadows. He was gone.

“Dayle, wait!” Anouke cried out, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He stood there, panting, looking around for any sign – even a silhouette – of Dayle. As he looked around, the moon observing him in the centre of the sky, dark clouds crossing over it, the lower-ranks flooded in, straight after Dayle had disappeared. They charged for Lex. An immense amount of thoughts flooded through his mind. He looked back and forth, where Lex was about to be attacked and where Dayle had disappeared.

Lex had an easy fight with the lowers. He knocked one out of the sky, the other six flying around him as the eyes on his shoulders watched them, eyes moving rapidly in their sockets. He crushed the ones head by stepping on it with one paw, and it burst open like a watermelon. His three tails, which were wrapped together, hit another one. It hit her with such force that when her head collided with the tree, it split open and the blood poured from her face like a river of red. She dropped to the floor. Dead.

Two down, five to go. Lex span around, three tails spread afar from one another. One was low to the ground, one straight out and the other a little higher. The bottom tail nearly hit Kurkoren as he span around like a spinning top. He jumped back to miss it and ran into the trees, hopping up them, climbing the branches and crouching down on one, toes curling around the branch he perched on, his right hand holding him up on the branch above him and he watched intently.

What would Akuma think of this? Lex is actually a Bai Ze! It would be kind of cool to be the only one to know about this, but… It could be beneficial to tell Akuma. Lex would be brought back by Akuma himself. How exciting! Kurkoren thought to himself, smiling, as he watched.

Lex jumped into the air, spinning, and two wings sprouted out of his back. But they weren’t wings beings would usually see. Nothing of that sort. His left wing was water, his right wing flames like his horn. He flapped, body moving like a dragon guarding treasure, eyes squinted a little to show the seriousness of this situation – looking intimidating. As he flapped down, wind blew aggressively, causing the rooted down trees to sway and the leaves on the forest ground to lift in the air like a blizzard.

He swatted the lower-ranks out of the air like they were buzzing flies. Like when a waterfall hits the water at the bottom of a lake, bits of water splashed from his left wing, causing the bark to dampen. On his flame wing, it did the opposite, burnt the trees. Before he started a severe forest fire, he span around to make sure there were no Demons and blew the fire out himself – just by doing that. He finally dropped down to the ground. His body shriveled up and writhed in pain, shrinking back to his Demon self.

Before he passed out, he looked at Anouke who came sprinting over to him after watching that situation unfold in a trance. He held Lex’s head up. “That’s the truth. Are you still sure you want me near you? Sure that you still want to try and change me?” He said with a gentle smile before dropping his head in Anoukes cool and benign hands. Anouke carefully put his head on the forest floor and looked around for Dayle and Kurkoren. He didn’t even realize that Kurkoren had left. But had he left?

As he carried on looking around, he spotted Raziels body. “Brother…” Anouke said, sorrow filling his heart. “Is this all my fault? Just because I’m so hung up on my child-hood dream to change a singular Demon at least.”

As he grieved over the last of his brothers, Kurkoren jumped down from the tree, hopping on a lower branch and leaning forwards, holding onto it with his right hand. “Anouke was it? You’re not very good at finding Demons to say you’re an Angel.”

He jumped behind the body and Anouke stepped backwards, posing himself in an impressive fighting stance. “Woah!” Kurkoren exclaimed. “You have to become a Demon, Anouke. We could teach each other awesome techniques and brawl forever.” He crouched down near Raziels body and Anouke felt offended. “How dare you?” He said, inching closer to his deceased brother and Kurkoren.