Chapter 16

Two thousand years ago, Ignatius was only a thousand years old. He lived in a village with his wife that housed the tribe of Fire. The village’s sustainability was gradually decreasing because of the fluctuating weather impacting the harvest. The leader of their village, the Lord of Rage, was not ruling to the best of their ability, and everyone knew that. It was custom in the village that if their ruler was not meeting the expectations of the people, the villager’s were allowed to take the title for themselves. 

Ignatius laid in bed with his wife by his side. She played with his hair as he pretended to sleep.

“Wake up.” She whispered, her voice ever so soothing. 

Ignatius still kept his eyes closed, wishing that he could listen to her whisper forever. He started smiling, and then his wife knew that he was faking. She grabbed a pillow and beat his face with it.

He jokingly yelped, “Ah! Stop!” 

“Get up, sleepyhead. You have to join the men in hunting today.” She said as she continued whacking him with the pillow.

Ignatius tackled his wife. His long hair draped on top of her face. She blew away the hair that tickled her nose.

Ignatius whined, “What’s the point in hunting when all the corrupt souls are eating the hell beasts? We might as well just survive on fruits.”

His wife poked his nose.

“Then how do you suppose I'm going to keep all this muscle without any protein?”

Ignatius jumped to his feet. He pumped his chest and immediately started getting dressed. His wife giggled, and he laughed. They were happy.

Ignatius left his wife with the other village women and children, and he joined a group of men. They were all equipped with weapons of poor quality. Ignatius inspected the pile of weapons that laid on a cart. He scowled at the sight of it. The village's economy was really struggling, in due time, the whole village would succumb to weather or their enemies. 

Ignatius joked, “What do they expect us to do with this stuff? Kill rocks?”

One of the burly men answered, “Nah, Iggy. We can't even kill rocks with this garbage. I ought to just kill our weak lord, then I’ll get us a better life.”

A man with coily hair answered, “Ah, true that, Ethan. Our lord doesn't even compare to the Lord of Longing.”

An old man announced, “Oh, speaking of the Lord of Longing. It hasn’t even been two hundred years since he joined the emperor's army, but he has managed to become the emperor's general and attain the title of lord! I heard he’s building a city! We ought to move there, I tell ya.”

Ignatius had a grand plan.

“I have an idea. What if whoever kills the most hell beasts by sunset get’s to have a chance at killing our lord? No one is allowed to oppose and try to take the crown until the winner either fails or succeeds!”

The men nodded their heads in agreement.

The old man looked down at his rusty sword. 

“I’ve been alive for almost a hundred thousand years. Ever since I was kicked out of the elders circle, I have been surviving on little to nothing. Now maybe I can live for a purpose.”

Then the men travelled forward through the tightly compact forest. This place was where hell beasts lived, it was the perfect habitat for them, and they were not found anywhere else in the Underworld. The compactness of the forest was against the demon's advantage, but luckily they could move the trees. Anyone in the Tribe of Fire knew the language of flames.

Ignatius whispered to a tree and placed his hand on it. The other men watched in amusement. The wood on the tree ignited with a ripple of blue light, like a stone thrown into a lake. Then the trees moved to the side, revealing an acre of burned ground. In the distance, a couple hell beasts ran back into the trees. Hell beasts were short creatures with brown-black dusty fur. Their eyes glowed a violent red, and their jaw was strong enough to snap a demon in half. The men split apart and rushed toward the trees. Everyone quickly outran the old man, and he was left alone with his rusty sword. 

Ignatius found himself alone in the burning forest. Only the familiar sound of crackling fire could be heard. Despite the fire, the forest was still dark. Everything was an inky-crimson shade, and the air was full of ash and smoke that made it hard to breathe for non-native species. Ignatius, being a part of the Tribe of Fire, had evolved to withstand the heat and smoke. Ignatius slowly walked as he tried his hardest not to step on anything that would make a noise. He slowly moved forwards toward a faint clicking noise. The clicking got louder and louder until it stopped. Ignatius stopped moving. 

The clicking noise was the call of hell beasts, they used it to communicate with their pack. Ignatius put his back to a tree, and the fire moved away from him like he was surrounded by a barrier. He peered his head behind the tree and came to witness a hell beast. The hell beast was feasting upon one of his peers. Ignatius heard the sound of a crunch and saw that Ethan was hiding behind a tree in front of him. Ethan was slowly moving forward towards the creature to strike. Ignatius pulled Ethan back and covered his mouth. 

Ignatius whispered, “Did you use him as a lure?” 

Ethan nodded his head, and Ignatius pushed him away. Ethan very carefully stopped himself from landing on anything that would disturb the hell beast. Ignatius slowly stalked toward the hell beast, and Ethan fumed. 

“What are you doing, Iggy? That’s my catch!” Ethan yelled while whispering.

Ignatius flipped him off without looking behind him and continued moving closer. The creature gobbled down the demon. Peeling flesh from his bones and ripping open his organs. The hell beast’s jaw was so large that it had only taken a few minutes, and it was more than half finished eating. Then, with a sharp strike the beast was stabbed through its brain. Ignatius had struck the creature with his rusty sword. Ignatius draped the creature across his shoulder and Ethan scowled.

“That was my catch, Iggy! What the hell?”

Ignatius looked at him with a smirk. 

“It wasn’t your catch. It’s a person's catch when they kill it.” 

Ethan mumbled angrily, then stomped his foot on the ground.

“Fine! I’m going to win. I will catch more hell beasts than you!”

Ignatius agreed to the challenge, and they both raced to catch as many hell beats as possible. As the red sun lowered behind the mountains and the sky turned into a magnificent gradient of warm colours, the group found themselves meeting at the field of which they left the old man. The field was covered in gigantic creators, and with further inspection, it was proven to be footprints. All of the men cursed as they walked around in confusion. They all dumped their kill into their own piles, and Ignatius stood proudly by his. He didn’t really care about the craters, as he was too absorbed in his own winnings. His pile was by far the largest out of the group, and his mind was full with thoughts of the future. Then a sword was thrown at Ignatius’ feet. The sword was bent and broken. It was stained with black blood belonging to the old man. Flashes of memories regarding the old man flashed through Ignatius’s mind. He remembered how everyone outran him, he remembered his speech about how he wanted a purpose. Ignatius felt the burning of something growing in his gut up through his throat. Then the feeling escaped through his mouth, a burning, horrifying laughter.

Ignatius howled, “Old man! You really thought you had a chance to become something?! What an idiot!”

The rest of the men also joined in the banter. All of them seemed to forget the underlying issue. They all brought their kill back to the outskirts of the village and piled them onto a wooden cart. They travelled with their kill to the village and the night was full with laughter and dancing. 

Ignatius and his wife layed in bed in silence. His wife played with his hair and sighed.

“This evening was wonderful. Thank you for your hard work.” She whispered.

Ignatius smiled and brushed her cheek with his finger.

“I couldn’t have done it without you as motivation, Sera. I was thinking about you and your muscles the entire time.”

Sera laughed, but not for long. She stilled her face and stared at Ignatius’s burning eyes for a long while.

“You're going to kill our lord, aren’t you?”

Ingatious stayed silent. He didn’t know whether to tell her the truth or not. Sera closed her eyes then said one final word before she fell asleep.

“Be careful.”