Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) (14 page)

Despite Amos’s comment, Ash charged forward gripping the sword with both hands. He was planning on swinging the sword as hard as he could, but Shiva beat him to it. She dashed forward pointing her sword directly at Amos’s head. But the old man was much more skilled than them and evaded easily. By grabbing two more swords from his back-barrel and turning his body sideways, Amos defended against their pitiful attacks. Ash, who swung his sword like a baseball bat, found his blade halted with little effort by Amos’s own sword. Shiva’s forward jab was evaded simply by twisting his head and then disarming her.

The two were helpless against him. Ash dropped his sword, eager to surrender. Shiva gave up as well, realizing she was too unprepared to duel with a weapons expert like Amos.

“You both have a lot to learn. Aura was better than you when he was only ten!” Amos said as he collected their swords. “I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

By the time the teacher finished scolding them, the sun had all but disappeared from the sky. After dismissing his new students, Amos navigated the castle halls heading for the exit. He walked slowly, lost in contemplation as he paced the dimly lit corridors. Seeing his son in the flesh stirred up past memories he’d rather of forgotten.

Aura wasn’t doing any better, as he walked the darkened streets of North Hell, going nowhere in particular. He had to get away from his father, but didn’t feel like going home nor did he wish to spend his free time in the company of others. For once, he avoided the bars where he’d usually go to hit on women.  

Like his father, the young death toucher walked aimlessly, reliving in his mind the memories that had fueled his nightmares for most of his life.

Twenty-nine years ago…

Amos Draxler sat at his office desk reviewing his weapon orders. He would have to skip lunch again if he wanted to get all his orders filled for the day. With Al Satan recently taking the throne from his father Wilhelm, the castle staff was also going through a big shakeup. Most notably, the new Commander of the Royal Guard.

Sepultura Stryd had been chosen to replace the previous Commander Archen. While Archen was a compassionate Commander who put more efforts into helping the communities and serving the people, Al Satan’s choice of replacement was obsessed with creating an army. He led a successful recruiting operation and nearly tripled the Royal Guard’s number of enrolled soldiers.  More soldiers meant more weapons. And the castle’s official weaponsmith was Amos Draxler.

The family business was suddenly booming, but the business was beginning to come
before
the family. Amos flipped through his pile of papers, pausing only to write down numbers, addresses, and deadlines. Without so much as a knock on the door, his nine-year-old son Aura barged in, his whining louder than usual.

“
Dad
!!” Aura said. “I’ve been waiting outside for an hour now! Were you ever going to come out?”

Amos spun in his chair, startled. “What are you talking about? Why aren’t you at school? Your mother and I pay a lot to send you to the noble’s academy! You better not be ditching again!”

“It’s a
weekend
!” said Aura.

“It is?” Amos looked closely at his desk calendar. “This means I’m already behind on tomorrow’s order!” Amos spun around and returned to furiously flipping through his paperwork and writing down data. For a minute, the only sounds that were heard came from the millworkers operating the heavy weapon-forging machinery on the factory floor.

“
Fine! Then forget your stupid promise!”
Aura slammed the door and stomped away, leaving his father to his work.

Several minutes passed before Aura’s words entered his father’s mind.
Promise? What promise was he talking about? I don’t remember a promise…
He continued to think on it for another couple of minutes, until a big ball came smashing through his large office window. Again, Amos jumped off his chair in fright. He picked up the ball and went to the window.

“
Um
…” Aura called out from the ground below. “I’m sorry!”

Amos gripped the ball. How could he forget? His son wanted to play catch with him over his lunch break. “I remember now,” said Amos, looking back at his desk covered in paper. Amos grabbed his jacket off the coat rack and exited his office. On the way out he called to his assistant, “I’m going home for lunch! I made a mess in my office, go clean it up!”

He met Aura in the factory’s small yard and they headed home together. It was a short walk, since Amos insisted they live in South Hell to be closer to the factory. The father and son entered their modest home to a mouth-watering aroma coming from the stove.

“You’re home!” Angelica said in surprise. “I can’t remember the last time you came home for lunch.”

“I had to,” Amos said. “I promised.”

“Good,” Angelica said. “Lunch is just about ready.”

Aura was already seated at the table in anticipation. His twin sister Nora sat across the table drawing in her sketchpad, which she carried with her everywhere she went. Once Aura had even caught her sleeping with it! For only being nine-years-old, Nora was a prodigy. She could draw anything. Landscapes, portraits, even abstract art. She went through many different phases, but she was currently stuck on one that her father did not approve of.

“What are you working on there, Nora?” Amos asked, eyeing her paper. Nora dropped her pencil and held up her sketchbook. She just completed a portrait of a very handsome, muscular,
shirtless
boy. Amos smiled, faintly. “You used to draw the loveliest landscapes. Why don’t you go back to doing that?”

“She’s a young lady,” Angelica said. The mother carried a large pot to the table and set it before her family. Lifting the lid, steam poured out and she cleared the air. The pot contained a roast demon bird that looked every bit as fantastic as it smelled. “It’s just a phase. All girls go through it at one time or another.”

Nora tore the page out of her sketchbook and handed it to her mother. Angelica carried it across the room to the far wall. Grabbing a pin, she stuck the picture to the wall amongst several other risqué drawings of handsome young men in various states of undress and poses.

“But at her age?” Amos said. “Shouldn’t she still be playing with dolls?”

“I have a doll,” Nora said, holding up an old doll she’d outfitted with a black suit. Over the doll’s face Nora sued on a handsome boy’s face that she drew herself.

“I don’t want you playing with
that
doll anymore,” Amos said. Nora wasn’t listening; she had gone back to working on another sketch.

Angelica dished everyone up, making sure to cut up Aura’s meat for him. Nora shoveled whole pieces of food in her mouth without even looking up from her artwork. Almost a minute went by before Angelica finished cutting and Aura finally got to start eating his food.

“You spoil the boy too much,” Amos said.

“I know,” Angelica said smiling, running a hand through Aura’s hair.

“You should stop, you’re only softening him up.”

“Nonsense! I’m just giving him all the love and attention he needs.”

“He doesn’t need
attention,
he needs to start training.”

“Not this again…”

“Why not? All the other boys his age are starting. It’s good for them to get started early.”

“I don’t want our boy training yet. He gets to be a kid for a few more years still.”

“Unfortunately,
we
don’t decide how long he gets to be a kid. The
demons
do.”

Aura stopped eating, a worried look appeared on his face. Even Nora stopped sketching, but didn’t look up from her sketchpad. This was not the first time their parents argued over the subject of Aura’s training.

“We’re in a time of great calm,” Angelica said. “Demon attacks have been down for years. You’re lucky the new Commander hasn’t realized that yet, or you wouldn’t be doing so well at the factory.”

“Regardless, I still want Aura to join the Royal Guard when he comes of age, like I did. My father raised me to be an honorable warrior first and a weapons merchant second. If Aura’s going to take over the family business some day, he’ll have to do the same.”

“Well why don’t we let Aura decide?” Angelica proposed. “What do you think, sweetheart? Would you like to join the Royal Guard some day?”

“I don’t wanna,” Aura said without hesitation. “They have to fight
so many
demons. No way I’m going near any demons!”

“I’d rather you stay away from them too, sweetheart,” Angelica said. “At least for a few more years. But you
will
have to start your training some day, mister.”

“Yeah, sure, we’ll see,” said Aura.

“Where’s your honor, boy?” Amos asked his son. “Are you just going to let the Draxler legacy end? For the last four generations we Draxlers have served in the Royal Guard before inheriting the family business. And you’ve had the great fortune to be the first of us born to a noble! It’s about time you realized that life can’t always be about playing games and having fun. You will have to grow up. The sooner you do, the sooner you will understand the importance of the family legacy that sits on your shoulders, and the honor that comes with it.”

Nora scoffed. “
Aura
? Be
honorable
? I’m sorry to inform you dad, but he’s a total softie.” Nora kicked at her brother underneath the table. Aura yelped in pain, grabbing at his shin.

“Nora!”

“Clearly, he needs the training,” said Amos.

“Just a few more years,” Angelica said. “
Please
.”

Amos caved. There was no way he could convince his wife. He began to think of ways he could ‘sneak-train’ Aura without anyone knowing. Noticing his daughter sketching very quickly now, he asked her what she was working on.

“I’m done with boys for today,” she said. “I’m drawing a baby now.” She flipped her sketchpad around to reveal a depiction of Aura as a small, sobbing baby in a diaper.

“
Nora
!” Aura shouted at his sister. “Erase it!”

“I just draw what I see,” Nora said. Despite his daughter’s rude behavior, Amos managed to laugh. This definitely wasn’t the family he thought he’d have. They were an odd bunch, but his love for them was immeasurable. His only wish was for something to happen that would change his son into a more mature, motivated, and honorable young man.

Then he got exactly what he wished for.

The following morning, the Draxler house was abuzz with their usual breakfast routine. Angelica sprinted laps around the kitchen making everyone’s individual meals. Nora brushed her hair while chewing on a warm piece of toast. Amos eyed the morning paper in-between bites of egg. Like every day, Aura was the last one to the breakfast table.

“Mornin’,” he said with a yawn as he sat down at the table. He was rubbing his eyes when Amos looked up from his newspaper and noticed the change.

“What did you do to your hand?” Amos asked.

“Hmm?” Aura didn’t seem to know his father was speaking to him at first. He opened his eyes and saw that his right hand was entirely black. It took him a moment to realize he was seeing correctly. He screamed, tipping over his chair and falling backwards to the floor.

“Aura!” Angelica said.

Amos was at his son’s side first. He gripped his son’s arm by the wrist, right below where the skin turned black. “What happened?”

“I don’t know!” Aura panicked. “It wasn’t like this when I went to bed last night!”

“Oh my poor baby!” Angelica cried. “Does it hurt, sweetie?”

“Not really.” Aura stopped crying. He wasn’t in any pain, just shock. “It doesn’t feel different. I must have slept on it,” Aura said.

Nora peeked over the table to examine her brother’s new oddity.

“No one’s hand would turn completely black just from sleeping improperly on it,” Amos said. “This has to be something else.”

“
What
?” Angelica pleaded. “I’ll use every one of my noble connections to get the best medical minds and brightest scholars working on figuring out what this is!”

I’ve heard about this before,
Amos thought to himself.
There’s no mistaking it, it looks exactly like in the old stories...

“Dad…” Aura said. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Listen, all of you,” Amos said. “I think it’s a curse.”

“A
curse
!?” Aura said.

“Cool!” Nora exclaimed.

“
No
!” Angelica said.

“Yes, a curse called the death touch. God used to give his Archangels this power long ago.”

“How the heck did
I
become one?!”

“No one
wanted
the power, it was given to them at random.”

“
Why
!?”

“This all took place a long time ago, back when the angels used to interfere with the humans on a regular basis. God realized their work could be done more discreetly if the angels could remove souls with a single touch. It’s also written that they could do
things
with soul power that no one else could.”

“
Scary
!!” Aura held his hand far away from himself. “So I can’t touch anyone with this hand anymore or they’ll
die
?”

“
Interesting
,” Nora said, admiring her brother’s cursed hand.

Amos went to his room and returned holding one of his old metal gauntlets. He held it in front of Aura and made him put it on over the black hand. “Don’t take that off,” he told his son.

“For how long?” Aura asked.

“
Forever
.”

“He can’t wear that thing forever! It’s not even his size!” Angelica said.

“If word of this gets out, there’s no doubt that the Royal Guard will be after him. They can’t just let a power like that walk around freely. If his ability is ever discovered, he’ll most likely be taken into custody for life.”

“Then what?” Nora asked, now much more interested in her boring family.

“He’ll either be forced to serve the King, or
executed
.”

Angelica wailed in sadness some more, while Aura looked down at the large metal gauntlet on his hand. “I’ll never tell a soul,” he said. “I’ll wear this gauntlet all the time!”