BEFORE.

Luciferians were one of the most vicious and powerful demons. They had green eyes, red skin and dark hair thick and sleek. This one, was a woman and her green eyes, almost unnaturally so, stared at me eerily. Her hair was slicked back and stopped at her shoulders. She wore a black dress and pure white cloak embroidered in gold. Expensive clothing, but the effect was something to behold. Under different circumstances I would've been open to the idea to spending a night with her between the sheets.

Now, though, she smiled ardently, her fanged teeth showing between her deep red lips. I made a effort to keep my eyes on hers. "What do you want?" I asked.

Her smile widened until it became all teeth, and then she turned to the empty grave beside her. "Your friends are about to be ambushed by The Ravagers, this was a trap. The five of you are outnumbered, tired and defenceless. You'll be overrun in minutes, left for dead."

I swallowed. "Why are you telling me this? Why don't you leave me to find out myself, with my friends?"

It seemed to be the answer she was looking for. She turned to me again, tilting her head, her hair swinging to the side and brushing her bare shoulders. "Because you don't have to let your friends die."

I couldn't stop myself from frowning, my mouth tightened. "Let them die? What do you mean?"

"Anathema has a deal she wants to offer you."

I waited.

"If you submit yourself to her duress, she'll call off the attack and let your friends go free. No-one will have to die." She explained calmly, as if reciting a recipe for bread.

"Submit myself? To her?" I clarified.

"Yes. All you need to do is take an adamantium-promise to not leave her care of your own will."

"Of my own will, but surely Sinum could just come along and- I would never make a promise to Anathema. I trust her about as much as I trust you." I paused. "No offence."

She smiled gently. "None taken. That is her offer. To call off the attack all you need to do is promise by Adaman that you wouldn't leave her duress of your own free will." She laughed. "We're going in circles here, Devarion. What is your verdict?"

"I can't promise that. I won't." I clenched the hilt of my sword. "I have to go and warn Sinum." I stepped back.

"Go then, soldier. Let us hope it won't be too late." She waved a hand in my direction before I turned and fled in the direction I had came.

My boots hit the pavement hard as I leapt over the fence and hurtled down the street. In a few seconds I was back where we had split up. The buildings passed by like background noise, and my legs burned from the sudden burst in speed

When I got there Sinum was already in engaged in combat, Hasther and Dei were there as well. They were surrounded from all sides, with tall red creatures in glimmering silver armour.Their swords clashed sharply, the noise jarring to my ears.

They were clearly out numbered, and Hasther who had only a dagger was struggling, blood dripping from her arms. I leapt to her defense and with a quick knock on his head with the hilt of my sword, the luciferean she had been battling was unconscious on the ground.

Sinum had rules about killing, he had never killed anybody, anything, any creature, it was a line he refused to cross. That was his weakness, it would have been easier than anything to kill all of the lucifereans in minutes but because he refused to, here we were stuck, struggling to live another hour.

It was too risky, I didn't know whether we would be able to make it out alive without any bloodshed and when it came down to it in the end I would kill a thousand persons before letting anyone of my friends fall in battle. But I knew that Sinum would never forgive me if I did.

I did my very best to incapacitate as many of the as possible. As it was there was about twenty lucifereans, ten minutes later Dei and Hasther were wearing out, Regil was still no-where to be seen, and Sinum had recieved a nasty blow to his temple that was bleeding heavily.

Suddenly Dei let out a panicked yell, I spun to look at him as I pushed my blade through my opponents abdomen and they crumpled quickly, it wasn't a lethal hit they would be okay. Over a few metres from me Dei fell to the ground and didn't move. I turned to make towards him but two more luciferians came at me.

To say that it wasn't going well was an understatement, at this rate we would all be dead in minutes. There was still about ten luciferians standing, Dei was unconcious, maybe dead and Hasther was tiring too quickly. I wasn't able to reach Dei, and it wasn't long before only me and Sinum were standing back-to-back against the remaining eight.

Even in such a dire situation it warmed my heart to at least know that Sinum had my back like he always did, and I had his. Swords clashed and I took out two more, they collapsed to the ground bleeding red into the dirt. My mind felt fogged, at this point they were just numbers bleeding and blurring into each other. More red figures approached.

It was difficult to keep track of the wounds that I dealt which maybe should have worried me, but as the time passed and I grew more and more tired and desperate. My sword moved in ways that it probably shouldn't have, and more and more blood stained my hands and blade.

Sinum let out a harsh breath, as the last luciferian held him in head-lock his lips turning blue. His sword lay abandoned on the ground. My hands shook from exhaustion and I swung my sword, the luciferian dropped to the ground with Sinum.

I stood there not quite in a daze, but also not quite there. My shoulders still tense even as my lungs still breathed. Sinum scrambled up breathing hard, his face was bruised and tense. Blood stained his teeth because he had bitten his lip too hard, as he always did in tense combat.

"Dev." He said, the words seemed bleak in the hot sun.

"Are you okay?" I asked, making a point to reach his eyes and stepped forward. But he backed away from me quickly.

His eyes were wide and I suddenly realised that it might not be from his near death encounter. "Dev." He said lowly again. "What did you do?"

"What?" I frowned taking deep breaths to ground myself, my hands still shook as I put my sword in to its sheath and when I raised them to brushed some dirt from my face I realised that they were covered in red blood. Not my own.

I looked around at the blood spilt at my feet, the blood staining the earth. A hand twitched on the ground and a low groan came from one of the bodies. My breath caught. I kneeled down beside the luciferian. He was older, and his black hair was unkempt and short, he lay face down on the ground blood staining his abdomen.

I pushed his shoulder to the side gently, and he groaned as he rolled onto his back. Brown eyes fluttered open. He spoke softly. "You won't make it out of this alive, there are more of us, more coming." He coughed wetly.

I didn't say anything. "We are only the first." Red glittered on his lips he coughed and then went still. His glazed eyes looking into something more. He had left this plain, moved onto to somewhere else. Somewhere that I would not follow.

I stood up. My chest hurt, and I couldn't tear my eyes from his.

"Dev." Sinum said from behind me.

I turned around slowly. He was holding his sword again as he wiped blood from his lip. "Get on your knees." He said.

"What?" The word came out of me before I could stop it, and my throat felt hoarse. "Sinum?"

"Devarion, get on your knees. Now. By the order of Malton and-"

I blinked softly then kneeled again. I looked over at him. I had two choices, but Sinum had already made the decision for me. "I spoke with one of the luciferians before they attacked. Anathema offered a deal." I paused. "

If I leave now I can talk to her and get her to stand down. You heard what he said." I let my eyes skim over to the silent luciferian on the ground beside me.

"If the reinforcements arrive we'll be dead in minutes, we barely survived this time and there'll be even more next."

Sinum lowered his sword slightly. "Anathema wouldn't just stand down without anything in return."

I bit my lip. "If I hand myself in to her and promise not to leave of my own free will she'll tell the luciferians to stand down. That's the deal...Let me go. You will get to live to see another day and you-" I paused. "You won't have to see me ever again, if you so wish."

"If I so wish." Sinum repeated. "Devarion, once at a time I considered us friends. I considered you as a sister, there was no-one that I trusted as I trusted you. But these last few years you've been changing. The Devarion that I trusted and knew never would have killed any man, or even considered the idea."

I didn't say anything, I knew that there was no arguing against what I did. I had killed someone, two people now, the bodies were starting to stack up.

"Once you cross that line." Sinum continued. "There is no coming back. What's to stop this from happening again, and again? There's no more line for you."

I wanted to argue that there had never been any line. Only the people I loved. The lives of the people I loved were never going to be dictated by such morals. Whether or not my friends and family got to live to see another sun, another moon, was not a decision to be made by Sinum's lines. Morals can be fixed and adjusted. The line can be pushed and pulled, but people cannot be brought back to life.

I stayed silent.

"Go to Anathema then. I hope never to see you." Sinum turned away. "Goodbye Devarion."

He walked away, supposedly to check on Dei and Hasther. Regil was still missing.

Only when he was out of my sight I stood up. I approached the luciferians body, his face hauntingly still and his eyes blank. I closed his eyelids and took a moment. I knelt on the dirt beside him and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath.

Once I was finished I stood up and taking one last look at the scene, engraving it into the back of my eyelids. I looked up to the sky. "Adaman. If you hear me, by your reign and rule I promise to hand myself to Anathema's domain, and not leave by of my own free will."

Anathema's name tasted sour on my tongue. I could feel my skin burn, but just to check I leaned down and pulled off my shoe, and sure enough I small black circle had appeared on my ankle. I bore the mark of an adamantium promise.

I could feel it's will ushering me along, and with that I headed to Anathema's domain.

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A/N

The next chapter is nearly ready! Hope you enjoyed.