She could feel the rushing footsteps vibrating through the walls. A smile crossed her lips as she grabbed the long steel pipe leaned against the side of the decrepit building and turned to deflect her pursuer’s attack. She could not see but could sense his cold, gray eyes glaring at her with the hatred known only by demons and those who hunt them. He turned to avoid the range of the steel pipe and brought down the butt of his gun hard against her neck, causing her to dissipate into the radiated nothingness. He observed his surroundings frantically. She twisted the pipe between the chains that joined his twin guns together and appeared behind him, snapping the pipe against his neck and trapping him.

“So,” she began, whispering in his ear. “Why have you attempted to kill me this time, Hero?” He threw his weight back against her in response and slipped out from under the pipe, leaving his guns tangled.

“Acting won’t protect you, monster,” he trembled with rage as he spoke. “You sent a hoard of your beasts to kill us! I just have to ensure you don’t live to send more!” He drew a long tear-shaped blade from the sheath on his back and charged at her. The pipe fell to the ground with a clatter as she became trapped between the wall and the blade that was now deeply embedded in her torso.

A chuckle lifted through the air and she walked through the blade unharmed as if it were nothing more than an illusion. She lifted her blank, void eyes to his in a peaceful gesture. “Of all people you should know by now that I can’t be killed, especially not by my own weapon.” He could feel her words echoing in his skull before he could hear them. “Now, if you’re finished, we need to talk. I believe we may be able to help each other.”

The man snatched back his guns and aimed the barrel of one at her head. It was only common sense that a demon slayer would never agree to make a pact with the devil. She laughed and pushed the gun away with her finger.

She told him the demon who ordered the village to be attacked was Severim, a powerful demon who wasn’t to be underestimated. He had also begun claiming to be the god of all demons. The demon-slayer laughed mockingly at her.

“You claim to be the queen of demons yet when another challenges you, you don’t fight back in response. Are all of you this cowardly?” she shook her head at him in disappointment before continuing on.

“It isn’t cowardice that prevents me from fighting him so much as worry for what could happen to this world should he succeed. He believes he has found a way to banish my soul, similar to how I must banish those who no longer deserve theirs. I must admit I believe him. Should I disappear and he rule, this world will fall into complete disarray and your kind will be utterly decimated. This is where I require your help. In the state I am now, he could destroy me any second he wished, all he must do is find me.”

He removed the blade from where it had become wedged in the wall and started to walk away. Nothing would be more foolish than to do what she was asking, he thought. She shook her head and cursed the human’s creator. “You would let the world be destroyed out of your grudge knowing there could be a way for you to save it? For a time I thought those with souls like yours would prove to be superior to the souls I created, but it would seem I was wrong.”

A bullet lodged itself in her throat and she was thrown back against the wall. His eyes burned with a rage more intense than before as he stared down at her. He remembered the time before he had stolen her powers; how she had killed the one person he would give up his life for. Before then life had the illusion of being peaceful, even with the daily attacks by demons. He had been able to see beauty in the remains of apartment complexes and towering business buildings where now he could only see a place to wait another night for death to come. He grabbed her head and slammed it against the wall, knowing she could still read his thoughts.

“Perhaps that is your flaw,” her voice spread through his skull. “You have fewer memories so you cling to them.” The empty eyes showed sympathy towards him. “I’m sorry for what has happened to you, but the choice remains: either forget about the past and return my powers or the world will be flung into complete chaos.”

He dropped his head into his free hand and contemplated his choices. He knew he could never trust a demon but a voice from the past tried to calm his anger and convince him of what had to be done. It was only by gut instinct that he came to terms in his own mind. He looked back at the demon who had raised herself from the ground and healed her wounds before making his response.

“I’ll return your powers but with two conditions. I will follow you and no one else is to be harmed,” he said, holding the blade out in front of him. “Do we have a deal?”

She nodded in agreement before tearing a strip of cloth from her sleeve and tying it over her eyes. She changed once her hand touched the blade. She appeared younger and emitted an energy that radiated off the buildings around her. The shape of the blade began to alter until it had become a scythe which she slung over her shoulder. The man questioned her about the makeshift blindfold.

“It’s for your own safety. Now, shall we go?”

The village was more of a collection of rubble than a town. The few buildings were made up of strips of metal stolen from the ruins of the city and what little lumber could be found. A small river ran along one edge of the village and emptied out into a lake hidden in the woods behind it.

The two were greeted by glares and fearful glances upon their arrival. The man led the way to his home quickly, hoping to avoid the other survivors as much as possible. Before they were halfway to their destination, however, another survivor shouted after them.

“What do you think you’re doing bringing her here, Victor?” Victor turned to face the man, but upon seeing the crowd that had gathered with him, looked away from his glance, ashamed. He tried to explain, but the man cut him off again with threats of death before raising his own weapon to the demon. Victor snapped his arm away before he could fire the gun.

“Calm down, Kjell. I wouldn’t bring her here without reason.”

“Reason?!” Kjell shouted in his face. “You’ve lost all your reason! You haven’t forgotten what happened to Celisia, have you? We should be killing her, not welcoming her into our homes!”
Victor clasped a hand around Kjell’s throat, promising to kill him should he ever mention the incident again. The others watching the scene grabbed what weapons they could find and pointed them toward the two men. Suddenly a group of small demons appeared between the crowd and the house.
“Victor, put him down. There’s no need for you to kill your own kind,” the demon interjected. “As for the rest of you who are wondering, no, I haven’t had him possessed. He has made an agreement with me and my children here are to protect you until he has fulfilled that agreement. They won’t harm any of you under the punishment of eternal banishment. Now, go back to your homes.” The villagers stared between her and the demons uneasily. Victor let go of Kjell’s neck and retreated back to his home, eager to avoid the gazes of those he had sworn to protect.
Once inside, he sat on the edge of his bed and dropped his head into his hands. He felt as though he had betrayed everyone by agreeing to assist a demon. She entered as his thoughts continued and she leaned against the wall waiting for any response from him. The silence drifted through the room for what seemed an eternity before Victor made a sound.
“I’m stuck with you until this Severim person is dead, so we may as well learn each other’s names at the least,” he said without lifting his head from his hands. She looked up at the ceiling for a moment and thought before responding.
“I have many names – Hades, Hel, Grim Reaper, Satan – but the last human to make an agreement with me named me Omen. Call me whatever you wish, names have no meaning to me.” He removed his hands from his face and faintly nodded.
“Omen it is then.” He got up from the bed and opened the door to leave. “I need to ensure everything is okay with the others before we leave in the morning. I suppose you can wander around if you want, just no killing anyone.” The shame that showed on his face changed again to resentment as he looked at her again. She motioned for him to leave and he did so.
Once he had left she walked around the single room home and examined his belongings. A few rotted bookshelves containing diaries and unbound stories lined a portion of one wall. The adjoining wall only had a small hole knocked into it to function as a window and a dresser, and the next wall held only the door through which Victor had left. The bed leaned against the remaining wall along with a broken bedside table. She shuffled through the drawers and found another diary that had been removed from the bookshelves. She flipped through its pages before sighing and stuffing it into the bag she carried over her shoulder. She glanced around the room one last time before leaving the house to explore.
The sun was already low in the sky when she began following the stream along the outskirts of the village. She watched the waters as she walked, hoping that maybe some form of life may still remain. Upon reaching the lake she shook her head and laughed before looking up to the sky and speaking. “I apologize for destroying your toys, brother. I promise you it was an accident.”
“It’s okay. I never have time to play with the fishies anymore anyways.” A small voice responded from the bushes, taking her by surprise. She turned to see a child crawling out of the forest and sitting down next to her at the water’s edge.
“I don’t think I’m your brother though,” she laughed sticking her feet out into the water. Omen crouched next to her and asked why she was out of her parents’ sight. The little girl rolled her eyes and lay back on the dirt. “All I ever hear in the village is people arguing over who has the right god. Daddy keeps telling me there is no god while everyone else tries to lecture me about reading the bible or meditating or some other worshipy stuff.” Omen laughed loudly and sat next to her, sticking her own feet in the water.
“Well then, if you don’t believe in any of the religions in your village then what do you believe?” she asked, still looking at the lake for any remaining signs of life. The girl shrugged her shoulders and stared up at the sky.
“Life, I guess.” The two sat there for a time, one staring at the water, the other at the sky. “Do you know any good stories?” the girl interrupted the silence, sitting up and staring at Omen. She shook her head telling her there was nothing that she would want to hear from her. “Well, you’re supposed to be some kind of goddess, right? How was the world made? And all of the people on it?” Omen lay back as well to stare up at the sky.
“Well since you seem eager to hear this story, I guess I have to tell you. For as long as I can remember there were only two beings, me and my twin brother. We grew tired of sitting around with nothing to do so we both agreed to make our own kind of ‘lesser being.’” The little girl cut in before she could finish.
“So we were made because the two of you couldn’t find any toys?” Omen laughed, nodded, and continued her story.
“My brother and I created two very similar beings and we made thousands of different bodies for them to inhabit – wolves, fish, humans – any kind of animal you could think of. The beings he created would give life to the different bodies, as would mine, but there was only one difference between the two. The souls he created couldn’t hold memory of their own – it would all have to be kept in the bodies we created. My souls held onto their memories for their entire existence. After we put the souls into the bodies we noticed that they needed somewhere to go once the bodies died so we gave them all the ability to re-enter another empty body after they died.”

“Oh oh oh! That’s like that belief Mr. Aragi has – re-incineration, I think.” The girl added, making Omen laugh again.

“I think you mean reincarnation, but yes that is exactly what I mean. Now, after a few centuries the souls I created began to grow envious of my brother’s souls because they could remember how it felt to die while the others forgot everything when they were reborn. Some of them decided they wanted to make life as miserable as they could for the others so, they did everything they could to worry them. That’s when I saw the mistake I had made. Humans with the forgetting souls began to call those who acted in such ways demons and had them hunted. I was seen as the evil goddess because they believed all of my creations were demons whom I had sent to kill them when in reality many of them worked alongside humans. It was because of this that I returned to the world to destroy the souls that had corrupted themselves with anger, hence the idea in Christianity that Satan was a fallen angel cast out of the heavens. And I suppose that’s the end of the story for now.” She smiled at the little girl as she finished.

“So you’re saying that anyone could be a demon, and it wouldn’t matter so long as they didn’t try to kill me? And that I’ve been re-incinerated?”

Omen spotted a small glint in the water and snatched it up in her hand. “I’m saying that you could have been this fish at one point in time and a so-called ‘demon’ could have as well.” She tossed the fish back into the water and watched it swim away down the stream. The girl pulled herself out of the water and chased the fish along the water’s edge.
Omen shook her head with a smile and looked up at the darkening night sky. “Maybe you should try coming down here to deal with this mess sometime,” she said, feeling a quiet buzz in the back of her head and chuckling in agreement before standing up and returning to the village.

Victor slowly opened his eyes as the sunlight from the small window crossed over his bed. He reached his hand out to touch the cheek of the woman lying next to him. He brushed the long brown hair that fell over her face behind her ear and smiled. She made a soft noise before blinking her deep green eyes open and staring into his. She whispered good morning and smiled at him before softly kissing his cheek. Something felt wrong. The woman gave him a confused look and vanished.

“It’s amazing that you can do that,” Omen said from across the room. Victor was startled and turned to see her sitting atop one of the smaller bookcases. “Perhaps holding onto my powers for so long has had some kind of effect on you. That wasn’t just your imagination – you created a complete illusion of her.” He turned to reach for his guns out of habit then stopped. He reminded himself of the deal he had made with her the previous day and looked back up at her.

“How long have you been sitting there?” he asked, wondering if she had been poking around through his dreams.

“Almost all night. Don’t worry; I have no interest in what you think about in your sleep. Only that Severim is dealt with as soon as possible. Hurry up and get dressed. We need to make a detour.” He watched her skeptically as she left the room wondering what she possibly could have meant by a detour. He walked over to the dresser and pulled out a set of clothes, not caring much for how they looked. He pulled them over his head and grabbed the guns from the broken table.

He paused with his hand resting on the table for a moment before reaching for the drawer that held the diary. He hesitated and shook his head, deciding he couldn’t look at the pages again and followed after Omen. She was standing outside the door waiting and turned when she saw him without saying a word. He followed her out of the village and into the forest, hanging his head in shame. Normally, he would be surrounded by the other survivors wishing him luck whenever he was departing but now they all watched from their windows with fear.

The two trekked for only a few miles before reaching a small clearing against the side of a cliff wall. A small pond rested near the edge of the clearing, fed by a stream that trickled through the rock face of the cliff. Victor relaxed at the familiar sight, remembering times when he would leave the village to escape the chaos caused by the religious arguments.

The calm only lasted for a few moments until he realized that Omen had known about this place. Rage clouded his head again as he understood that Omen rummaged through the thoughts and memories of those she killed. He raised his gun to her as she pulled a small knife from the bag she carried.

“Put it down, Victor. I told you before, I’ve met her but I never killed her,” she said. She turned her back to him and knocked her fist against the cliff face, listening for a slab of stone that sounded different from the others. She found the spot and shoved the knife into the small gap in the rocks, prying the pieces out and withdrawing a book from the hole she had created. “This is what we came here for,” she said, handing it over to him.

He turned it over in his hands wondering how the diary from his bedside table had come to be hidden under a pile of rocks miles away. He looked up at Omen again and saw her shaking her head and pulling a replica of the book from her bag. “She asked me to swap the diaries until she thought the time for you to know had come.” He flipped through the pages, noticing that almost all of the entries were the exact same with the exception of a few added entries. He turned to the last date in the diary and read what had been written on the bloodstained page:
August 29, 2146

I’m sorry this has to happen, Victor. The world is too chaotic for me to live with now. Omen has shown me a way to end all of the fighting between us and the demons, but I must give up my body for a time.
She says there is a demon named Severim commanding all the others against her, and she must destroy him in order to tame the remaining demons again. I cannot defeat him in my current state and neither can you. Omen must possess someone in order to banish his soul with her own powers.
I trust her as much as I do you – were it not for her I may never have survived to find you a month ago – so I’ve agreed to let her possess my body in exchange for protecting you until Severim is dead. I know how you hate demons but please trust her. It shouldn’t take long for me to return, but when I do, hopefully the demon attacks will have subsided and we can be together again.

I love you, Victor. Please do not be angry with me for my decision.

He read through the other entries and found that all of the ones he hadn’t seen before mentioned the days when Omen was with her.
The book slipped from his hands and fell to the ground as he looked up at Omen. She had removed the blindfold and stared at him with one open eye. The eye was no longer blank and white as it had been before but was now had the same deep green color as the woman from that morning. Omen moaned and clutched at her head before replacing the blindfold. “You see now?” she asked.
Victor shook his in confusion. “I don’t understand. This was written eight years ago; if you knew Severim was plotting against you for so long then why haven’t you killed him yet?”
“Because you stole my powers the day after she wrote that. I was completely defenseless against him for those eight years and, in turn, so was she.” He resented himself for being such a fool in his own mind. As many times as he had attacked Omen, he never realized he was really hurting the one he wanted to avenge. He wondered if she could even return after how much damage he had dealt to her body.
“She says she doesn’t want you to be mad with yourself because you never knew,” Omen interrupted his grief. “She can still return but it will take time. Her soul will have to be reattached to her body.”
Victor grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her in desperation. “How long will it take to bring Celisia back?!” Omen lowered her head and smiled. He heard Celisia’s voice in his head asking him to have patience. He let go of her arms and stared at her in shock.
“I’m not sure how long it will take, but we need to kill Severim first.” Omen answered him, turning to leave the glade. “We will need to travel a little farther and then you can rest. We should be prepared before the fight.” Victor glanced at their reflections in the pond before nodding in agreement and following after her.

“This is the entrance,” Omen said, pointing at a fairly large hole in the ground that sloped down into a dark abyss. “I can only sense Severim. He doesn’t seem to have any other demons guarding him.” Victor nodded and gripped the guns in both hands. Omen slipped down into the hole and slid down out of sight. He heard Omen give the okay in his head and followed after her.

The hole continued down for a few hundred yards until he could see lights at the bottom. When he climbed out of the tunnel he noticed he was standing in a strangely lavish ballroom, lit with chandeliers and candles. The room was empty except for Omen who had begun tracing a circle around her with her foot.

“What are you doing,” he whispered, hoping any one hidden in the room would not hear.

“He’s using his powers to block mine,” she responded in a worried tone. “I’ve gone completely blind. I need to summon someone to help us.” She knelt down and began drawing symbols inside the circle.
Suddenly chains snapped up around her and lifted her off the ground. Victor turned quickly to find a demon that appeared human with the exception of his clawed hands standing on the other side of the room. “Well, well, mother. It seems you’ve fallen quite easily into a trap.” He taunted, his voice like the sound of gravel being dragged across glass. Omen spat at him as the chains tightened around her. “I’ll end this as quickly as I can. I even have a new body made just for you.” He pulled away a curtain that had been covering one of the walls and revealed a weak, emaciated body.
Victor charged at him and fired, thinking he had the demon by surprise. The bullets were only deflected by the demons skin and he turned to knock him off his feet. “You thought a human would be able to help you, mother?” He laughed and turned to face Victor. “Tell me human, wasn’t she the one who killed your beloved? Why do you help her?”
All Victor could feel at that point was rage. He was back in his room, waking up from the night’s sleep and expecting to see Celisia’s beautiful face. Instead he was greeted by a pool of blood next to him that trailed over the bed and out the open door. He grabbed his guns and followed the trail in a panic. It led out of the village where he found a body hunched over on the ground, making gruesome noises. He lifted his gun without thinking and the beast turned to face him at the sound of the clinking chains. It looked human with the exception that its eyes remained closed and blood covered its face and dripped from its mouth.
He found himself in the strange ballroom again and looked over at Omen. “I can see her memories,” Severim said, clouding Victor’s mind. “She devoured her alive.” Victor began walking toward her ready to kill her in her helplessness. She screamed at him not to come any closer but he couldn’t hear. She began struggling to break free of the chains and continued to scream at him. Stopping only a few feet outside of the circle, he raised his gun and aimed for her head.
“Victor, stop!”
He froze as Celisia’s voice sounded through the room. He looked up and saw her bound in the chains where Omen had been only seconds before. The gun fell from his hand and clattered on the floor as his mind began to clear. Omen’s scream echoed through the room, warning him to move, but it was too late.
Severim kicked him from behind into the circle. Victor screamed in pain as he watched his right hand being torn apart piece by piece as if by hundreds of small knives until there was nothing left. The chains that suspended Omen above him shattered and she landed next to him. “Thank you, Fenrir,” she whispered to herself. Victor noticed an aura removing itself from her and disappearing back into the circle.
Omen rushed over to Severim with her scythe and swung at him, barely missing as he ducked. He grabbed her leg and threw her against the wall containing the emaciated body. He grabbed the heads of both bodies and began forcing Omen’s spirit into the uninhabited one. Victor struggled to pick up the gun and fired at the demon, causing Severim to lose his concentration and turn to face him. He smiled and used his powers to throw Victor against the wall.
His head slammed hard against the wall and he felt the trickle of warm blood on his forehead. His vision began to blur from the blood loss as he saw Severim coming closer. He saw the dagger-like claws rising above his head and closed his eyes in anticipation.
He heard the clink of metal on metal and narrowly opened his eyes. A woman was standing in front of him, struggling to hold back Severim’s clawed hand with two blades that covered her fists. She managed to push him back and jump at him for an attack. She, too, was thrown back against the wall but jumped back into the fray without hesitation.
Victor saw a flash off to the side and heard the distorted sound of someone yelling. The woman retreated back toward him and another figure took her place in fighting Severim. He saw Severim thrown to the ground and the figure standing over him. The body seemed to disintegrate at the figure’s gaze.
The blurriness began to leave his vision and he saw Omen replacing the blindfold over her eyes. A sweet scent drifted through the air and he turned his head to see Celisia crouched next to him, holding her hand over the stub of his arm. He watched in amazement as his hand began to reappear.
“It would seem my powers transferred to her more than they did to you,” Omen said, walking over to the two of them. Victor ignored her words and stared at Celisia, unable to believe that she was there. Even though eight years had passed, she still looked the same as when he had last seen her. She held his head in her hands and made a sad smile.
“Celisia,” he mumbled, unsure of what he could say. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his. “I’m back, Victor. I promise I won’t leave again.” He lifted his head to thank Omen for bringing her back but she had already vanished.