"Ready Nikolai?" Leiden asked as his mismatched icy blue and lush green eyes scanned the towering walls of the demon colony, narrowing into a vicious stare at a nearby sentry.

"Always sir," Nikolai said, his voice rang with respect for his commander.

"Halone?" Leiden called out into the darkness, from behind some heavy brush a pair of amber eyes glistened with intensity.

"Yes sir," she answered.

The pitch black night sky was illuminated with the three rising moons and a plethora of stars, twinkling like precious gems as they hung suspended. Beneath Leiden, Nikolai and Halone were hunkered at the edge of the vast forest, monolithic pine trees cast heavy shadows which concealed them, their eyes stone cold and muscles bristling in anticipation of the assault they were about to commit.

Nikolai rose up, standing tall as he took aim with his bow, firing off an arrow that spun silent and deadly, burying its head in the jugular of the sentry, who was sent tumbling over the wall; his body landed with a thud and wet choke.

Hurling a grappling hook up the side of the wall Leiden gave it a tug to make sure it was sure before taking point, scaling the wall with his most trusted subordinates behind him.

Racing across the grand rooftops, their boots smacking against the slate tiles, the trio went to their pre planned position, resting on the abandoned balcony just above the window of a grand banquet room.

"Halone, check how many demons are in there," Leiden explained, Halone perched herself atop the ledge, Nikolai and Leiden holding one ankle of hers each, as Halone lowered herself so she hung in midair, her hair tumbling down as she scanned inside the room, seeing dozens of familiar blood red eyes and razor sharp teeth.

"There's at least thirty in there," Halone said, her voice low as she sneered bitterly at the demons, desperate to taste their blood, "alright pull me back up," she said, Nikolai and Leiden carefully lifted her back onto the balcony edge.

"How are we going to do this?" Halone asked, looking with an eager but controlled expression that darted between Nikolai and Leiden. Leiden never fully revealed a plan till it was underway, so as to avoid any potential spies setting them up.

"Like this," Leiden stated, his voice a level monotone as he jumped up onto the balcony ledge, turning to face Nikolai and Halone before allowing his body to drop off the ledge; disappearing in a gust of wind, the pair quickly ran over to the ledge, the sound of shattering glass pierced the cold night air.

"Oh shit!" Halone exclaimed as she peered down to see Leiden grappling with the demons, snapping their necks and stabbing them with rapid brutality, "fucking hell look at him go!" she called out excitedly, a wide grin stupefying her face.

"Best get to it then," Nikolai stated with a sly smirk, jumping over the ledge and propelling himself with a strong kick inside the banquet hall, firing an arrow from midair that landed squarely in the chest of a demon.

Halone quickly launched herself over the ledge, spinning round in mid air to hurl herself through the smashed glass opening, she landed with her thighs squeezing round the neck of a demon, that she swiftly turned to break their neck with a sickening crack, one that reverberated through the air that was filled with frantic screams and desperate cries.

Looking around, her eyes bloodthirsty and rabid, her gaze landed on a cowering, young, male demon-taking our her knife she thundered towards the demon, only stopping when Leiden jumped between them both, his eyes poised with a deadly stillness.

"No," he commanded, Halone huffed as adrenaline surged through her body, leaving her shaking, "we take this one as a prisoner of war, retribution," he explained, "retribution for when they took you," he stated, she nodded breathlessly, feeling her shoulders rise up and fall down quickly as she struggled to slow her breathing.

Her eyes flitted around the room, seeing the demons were all either dead or dying, an eerie silence filled the room as did the stench of death permeate it.

"Plant these on the bodies," Leiden instructed, giving Halone a few small, round metallic objects that were equipped with small hooks, she drove them into the bodies without question as droning alarms came alive, the night was flooded in light as spotlights began to seek them out.

"Let's go," Leiden commanded as Nikolai tied the demon's hands behind his back, driving a knee into his spine to force him to his feet, Leiden sprinted down a hallway, the other following behind in close pursuit.

"Leiden, sir, what were those things?" Halone asked as they scaled to the top of the wall separating the demons from the natives.

A devilish smirk curled across Leiden lips for the first time in the night as he grabbed the demon by his chin, twisting it and forcing him to look out at the castle they had just assaulted.

In his other hand he took out another device, a remote control, which he pressed down with a click-in the distance a fiery explosion consumed the castle, bright orange flames licking upwards in a brilliant burst of light, "bombs," Leiden explained with pride, "that's killed the demons that would've responded to the initial cry for help, so another ten or so dead, give or take of course," Leiden continued in a matter of fact voice.

"Hear that?" Nikolai taunted, his eyes shooting a vicious glare into the demon, "that's all your buddies up in smoke, literally," he spat, a malicious laugh ushering from his lips as the demon's head dropped, defeated and utterly broken.

Then, under his breath, he muttered something.

"Speak up boy, or we'll cut out your tongue," Leiden snapped, the demon's head slowly lifted, although his expression wept with sorrow a smouldering defiance burned deep in his blood red eyes.

"For every one of us you kill we will kill fifty of yours," he sneered, spitting up a wad of blood that landed at Leiden's blood encrusted boots.

"Wishful thinking," he uttered in a dismissive sweep, "let's go," he snapped, Nikolai took the prisoner down the rope, followed by Halone and finally Leiden. No matter what Leiden was always the first man in and the last man out.

They arrived back in the encampment to rabid cheers of delight from the rebels, Halone basked in the glory, losing herself in the ecstasy of the moment-she was used to being shoved and spat on, being branded as nothing more than a whore. This, this she could get used to. So she allowed a smile to carve upon her features, lightening them up with a demented breed of glee.

Leiden lead the demon through the encampment, leaving the rebels to poke and prod at him with spears, daggers and arrows, when the demon's purple blood stained the blades the rebels grew insatiable in their bloodlust, frenzied howls and yaps escaping their lips.

Leiden brought the prisoner to the foot of SIN's cage, who stirred in his cage only to see the demon, his eyes peeling wide open with shock.

"Recognise him?" Leiden asked with dry snark.

"Beelze!" SIN yelled, the demon only looked to him with a hollow and lifeless gaze.

"SIN," Beelze cried, the word rolled off his tongue with a sharp sense of heartbreak-a deep rooted sorrow was imbedded in him as a reunion under any other circumstance would be beautiful.

Then, just as suddenly as SIN had recognised his best friend, Leiden ripped the jaw clean from Beelze's skull, leaving his tongue to flop limply, hot blood gushing from the open wound. Clenching the fractured jawbone in his tightly curled fist Leiden drove it through Beelze's skull with a calculated cruelty, leaving the body to lifelessly sink to the floor.

SIN sat in shock, his entire life came to a grinding halt as his mind refused to process the horror unfolding in front of him. It felt surreal, it was surreal. He didn't flinch as Leiden opened his cage door, kicking the body inside his cage to rot as ravenous boards of flies began to collectively buzz around Beelze.

Inside SIN's chest his heart hammered against the walls of his rib cage, breath coming to him in increasingly frantic, desperate, suffocating gasps. His friend's blood pooled against the bare soles of his feet, the icy cold sensation of it causing a wave of nausea to scratch at the back of his throat.

Unable to control his breathing he started to hyperventilate, cold sweat soaking his skin as he began to tremble, indescribable fear tightly gripping his entire body as he stared, paralysed and numb, into the blank, empty slates that were his best friend's eyes.

These monsters were going to kill him. They were going to torture him till he begged for death, and then make him suffer even more.

They were going to break him till there was nothing left to break. Utterly devastated and destroy him.

Frantically scrambling and clawing away from his best friend's body he began to howl, deep sobs of agony tearing from the bottom of his obliterated heart and ripping out from his taut throat. The urge to escape reconciled with the knowledge there was none.

There was only one thing left to do, only one thing he could think to do. The only escape, his last resort.

His teeth touched the sides of his tongue, tears burned in the corners of his eyes as he cried from frustration-unable to bite down, unable to end his own life. Pathetic.

I hate you, he thought to himself, just do it-fucking do it already!

Tears spilled down his face, his teeth managing to press just a fraction harder into the muscle of his tongue, his eyes squeezed shut and his vision was consumed by darkness.

You need to do this, he told himself.

Slowly he began to press his razor sharp teeth into the flesh of his tongue, tasting the metallic sweet in his mouth as he fought back the urge to vomit. 

Panicking he began to breath harder, accidentally sucking in a lungful of his own blood which send him into a coughing fit of throwing up his own blood.

As everything around him went dark he felt himself detach from his panic, a wave of serenity gently washing over him and drifting him away into a dark world of nothingness, leaving his body to bleed out.

__________

I'm getting quite into writing this story again. I've got everything planned out, I just need to figure out whether I want to write a sequel or not. Most likely not however, because this story says all I want to say, it conveys my message well and I believe a sequel would only confuse that message.