Chapter II: The Great Oppression
“What
do you mean, Mr. Chaos?” asked Nissa. “And please, call me ‘Nissa.’”
Azrael
gave her a hard look while she returned a bright smile. But before Azrael could
get out his next question, they were interrupted.
“Holy
shit!” exclaimed a voice from the stairwell. “Mephisto was a demon?!”
“‘Mephisto’
is a demonic name,” said Azrael matter-of-factly. He turned to the
shocked man in the doorway.
“Always
knew there was something fishy about him,” said the man, fidgeting with his
nose and lip rings.
“Who’re
you?”
“I’m
the Assistant Manager, Cromwell,” he said with a sweeping bow.
“Please,
please. We don’t deserve that.”
“Like
hell you don’t! It’s a bloodbath downstairs. Demon bodies, human bodies, blood
here, blood there, that thing!” He indicated Mephisto with his finger. “Dead
and headless, and my boss slaughtered. I am very grateful!”
“Fine,
great, good; I’m glad,” said Azrael. “Does that appreciation have a monetary
value?”
“Monetary?
Well, I will see to it that you are compensated, but it may not be much.
Aphrodite’s Heaven will never live down this controversy. It’ll be closed for
good!”
“Well,”
began Azrael, “as a start for that compensation, how about a free meal and
drink?”
“Oh!
Of course! As long as you don’t mind the gore.”
“There
are worse things than having a drink in a demon corpse infested room. I’ll give
you the name of a reputable exorcist to prevent possession later. C’mon,
Nissa.”
Azrael
and Nissa pushed past Cromwell and headed downstairs to where the bar brawl
took place. It required stepping over a few horrendous sights, but once they
were at the bar, things started looking up, except for maybe the smell. Azrael
leaned as close as he could to either his food or Nissa so as not to smell the
pungent scent of rotting demon. Demons’ physical bodies decomposed rather
quickly since they weren’t of the physical world. As a result, Nissa couldn’t
eat; the smell was too much for her. She had turned a pale green.
Azrael
tried to lighten the mood. “So, how long have you been with your troupe?”
“What?
Oh, um, I don’t dance with them,” she replied. “I only stood in for the job. I
had never met them before tonight.”
“Hmm,
that might explain why you were smiling and they weren’t. Plus, I thought you
were better than them. You had sharper movements.”
“Thanks!
But I was actually smiling because I was excited to meet you.”
“Meet
me? What’s so special about me?”
“You
said so yourself, you’re one of the best. And I am something of a fan.”
“I
didn’t know demon slayers could have fans.”
“What
about that Dante guy who is always on TV?” asked Nissa.
“He’s
a fraud. He can’t really hold his own in a fight.”
“Have
you met him?”
“No. I
can tell just by looking at him. If he isn’t a fraud, then I have a theory he’s
actually a demon himself.”
“Oh,
okay.” Some of Nissa’s fairness returned as she got her mind off the smell.
After a while, she spoke again, “Um, Azrael? I have a ticklish question for
you,” she said a bit nervously. “Um, I don’t have anywhere to stay tonight, so
could I… maybe, possibly… spend the night with you?”
Azrael
put down his fork and cocked an eyebrow at her.
“I
don’t mean it that way.”
“Oh.
You want to bum a room,” said Azrael, finishing his meal.
“Um,
yeah.”
“I’m
fine with it so long as you know I only have one bed.”
“Meaning,
I’m on the couch?”
“No,
you can take the bed. I’ll take the couch.”
“You
don’t have to do that!” said Nissa hurriedly. “I’m the one bumming a place to
stay.”
“Well,
I’m not taking the bed.”
“Then
I guess it looks like we’ll be cuddling on the couch,” Nissa concluded.
“I
have more than one couch,” said Azrael flatly.
“Oh,”
said Nissa slightly embarrassed. “Pity,” she added jokingly. “I love it when a
strong man holds me close to his heart.”
“And
how often does that happen?” asked Azrael, draining his tankard.
“Um…
well…” Nissa stalled. She scratched her
head looking up and away.
“I’ll
take it that it doesn’t happen often… if at all.”
“Yeah…
if at all…”
“Well,
what do you do that doesn’t offer much time to canoodle?” asked Azrael.
“I’m a
demon slayer.”
“You?!
You’re like seventeen and there’s no place to carry any weapons on those
clothes.” Then Azrael quickly mumbled to himself, “Not that that’s stopped some
slayers. Cana always fights nude when she can get away with it, and she fights
with fisticuffs. Crazy bitch.”
“What
was all that?” Nissa had caught
all of it except for whom Azrael had called “crazy bitch.”
“Huh? Nothing!
Never mind! You said you were a demon slayer?”
“Yes,
I did,” said Nissa. She sat up straight and put her hands on her hips.
“How?”
asked Azrael stupefied. “What’s so special about you?”
“I am
Nissa Omen.”
“…
So?”
“Are
you not familiar with the Omens?” asked Nissa a bit crestfallen.
“Obviously
not.” Azrael got up and led the way out.
“I’ve
heard of the Chaos’s,” retorted Nissa.
“Anyone
who has studied demon slaying knows about the Chaos family. We’re the oldest
family in the business. We were the first and we’re purported to be the
strongest.”
“Well,
the Omens are old and strong, too. Wanna hear about them?”
“Sure.”
Azrael wasn’t actually all that interested. He was just being polite and
decided that he would humor her.
“Well,
the Omen family originates back to the year 2427 AD. One day in a small village
in a place that struggles to exist, the first Omen was born. She was born with
the power to bewitch people. To manipulate and control others to do what she
wanted them to.”
“Really?
That’s interesting.”
Nissa
turned. “Why?”
“Well,
these days most demon slayers are created via baptism or some kind of spiritual
and religious initiation. In the early days however, it was common for people
to be chosen because there weren’t any demon slayers. Or at least, not that
many. So, the fact that a person was chosen to be a demon slayer four hundred
years later when such a method wasn’t in vogue, so to speak, is unusual.
“And,
that’s a very unique power. Hyperion doesn’t interfere with free will, so why
would He have blessed a demon slayer with that particular charism. What was so
special about the first Omen? Why would Hyperion grant that kind of power to
man? Or rather, woman. Wait, woman? Did you say ‘she?’” asked Azrael.
“That’s
right. The Omen family has always been particularly feminine.”
“The
Chaos family has always been particularly masculine. Doesn’t mean that there
aren’t daughters of Chaos, but they’re uncommon.”
“Ditto
for the Omen’s, except with males. Anyway,” continued Nissa, “she was labeled a
witch and any time people walked around like mindless zombies, they considered
it a bad omen. The village eventually hunted her down and drove her out. But
after she made it to the neighboring village, she led a rebellion against the
lord of the land using her powers against the lord’s men. Eventually, she
became the new lord and established a more just rule.”
“And
let me guess the next part,” interrupted Azrael, looking back at her in the
lamp light. “She fell in love, got married, and mothered a family? Not necessarily in that order… of course.”
“Right!
Well, kind of…” Azrael’s last remark confused her a little.
“So
why are you called ‘Omen’ then? Omens are typically bad signs.”
“Well,
she didn’t use her powers much after that, but her children used them often.
Again, what happened in the first village happened in the second. She and her
family were driven out. Soon, throughout the entire land, word had circulated
about these witches who could control people and they were told about what
signs, or omens, to watch out for. Pretty soon, anyone who could
manipulate people into doing their will, even if done by just talking them into
it, was considered one of those witches because that was one of those omens.
Soon, people just started calling them Omens instead of witches.”
“Okay.
But that doesn’t explain how a small obscure family with a mysterious power
lasted five centuries.”
“Well,
the first Omens went into hiding, and their children took spouses and had
children. They lived by themselves in almost perfect isolation for two
centuries mastering their new power. Around 2672 AD, a new terror gripped the
land.”
“Demons?”
asked Azrael.
“Demons,”
confirmed Nissa. “Almost instantly, the Omens launched themselves into the
conflict using their powers to aid the descendants of those who hated them
killing the demons. The old stories about bad omens and witches slipped into
legend and were eventually forgotten. The new Omens had won the people’s
adoration and the family flourished.
“And!
The really cool thing about my family is that each Omen uses their powers in
whatever way they choose.”
“Hm.
Interesting.”
“Yeah. So, how did the Chaos’s come to be?”
“Well…”
began Azrael; he was so tired of this story. “Have you ever heard of the Great
Oppression of Hell?”
“I thought
that was just a fairytale.”
“If it
was, there wouldn’t be any demons, and you and I would be out of a job. Anyway,
twenty-first of December, 2012,” began Azrael, “there was a great deal of buzz
about some ancient prophecy about the end of the world and that it would take
place that day. Something about some ancient calendar ending on that day
or something… I don’t remember entirely. It was pretty stupid. But, people being the imbeciles they always
are, they started preparing for the end of the world. For some, this included
living the dreams that were unlived, while for others, it was a reason to
indulge in some perverse fantasies. And for religious nuts everywhere, it
involved the repentance of sin, or lack thereof if you were on the other side.
“One
of these moronic cults got the bright idea to summon demons into the physical
world using a book supposedly written by King Solomon on how to control the
nasty little beasts. Well, they do and as it turns out, the planet, for some
strange reason, is perfectly aligned with the rest of the universe for some
freaky stuff to happen. That opens a gateway from this side of existence into
the next, and then all Hell broke loose. Literally!
“The
planet became overrun with demons and they started to open more and more gateways
allowing their buddies to flow into this world. Well, as fate would have it, a
mysterious bunch of wise men that had gone into the Alps to be away from the
evil of this world found favor with Hyperion.”
“Hyperion?”
asked Nissa.
“God.
Y’know, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yahweh, the God ‘I Am,’ the God of
Abraham and Isaac, Allah; all the same deity. I don’t know why they called Him
‘Hyperion,’ but they did.
“Anyway,
they had found favor with the Lord, and he sent his messenger, y’know, ‘angel,’
to them and told them that the one above would give them the power and ability
to train others to cleanse the world of the physical Hell that had just taken
over. And that He would deliver unto them a man with no past who would become
their first student. It’s all in the Neo-Testament, or the demon slayer
handbook, if you prefer. Anyway, Hyperion blessed them and turned them into the
Maleiorcum. We don’t know much about this very unique blessing though since the
Maleiorcum keep it a secret.
“So,
they pick this bum out of the snow after a storm one day and they start
training him. This was my great patriarch, Drusus Chaos, but he wasn’t known as
‘Chaos’ just yet. First, he went off into the world with the Maleiorcum backing
him up and started freeing the people from the demons. But anywhere he went, chaos
would soon follow because demons would get word of a town that had been
liberated and would crush those people in that town harder and harsher than
ever before. Drusus would return and get rid of the chaos, but it would always
return.
“Eventually
he won the heart of my great matriarch, Ophelia, who would nurse him back to
health whenever he got injured or was fatigued. They fell in love, got married,
and started a family that would last for almost a thousand years. And they took
the name ‘Chaos’ because that’s what they were known for.
“Luckily,
more slayer families started popping up and looked for the Maleiorcum so as to
be trained by God’s special demon slaying forces. The second and third families
were the Grims and Diorazzos. The Grims are known as death lords due to their
close association with the personification of Death, and the Diorazzo family
can control the hottest fire in all of existence, Hyperion’s fire; something
that was only thought to be controlled by the Seraphim and Cherubim.
“And
eventually, the Order of the Maleiorcum absorbed and took control of the
Catholic Church turning it into the Neo-Catholic Church. That’s it. More or
less.”
“So,
what happened to the Chaos family then?” asked Nissa. “Or rather, what will
happen to them?”
“What
do you mean?”
“You
said that they would only last for a thousand years. It’s 2980. So, what will
happen to you and your family?”
“Oh! I
said it that way for this reason.” He grabbed onto Nissa’s shoulders, bent down,
looked into her eyes and said, “I am the last Chaos.”
“What?”
“I’m
the last Chaos on Earth. If I don’t find a wife, that’s it. It’s over for my
family.”
“Oh.
How’d that happen?”
“Demons.”
“Huh.
Wanna know something weird?”
“Always.”
Azrael walked up the porch to his shop which was also his hom
“I’m
the last Omen,” said Nissa. “And for the same reason. We’re the same,” she said
with a coy smile.
“Yeah,
pity that,” he replied without any pity.
Nissa rolled her
eyes. And under her breath, “Take a hint.”
***
“It was dark—it had always been dark.”
Azrael Chaos is a demon slayer for the Order of the Maleiorcum. While on a job, he meets the beautiful Nissa Omen who can control the minds of others with her dancing. After discovering a plot enacted by the forces of Hell that centers on Nissa, Azrael takes her to the monastery where he completed his training to protect her. But things become more complicated when Azrael’s old rival and suspected demon general, Mammon Zebulun, takes an interest in her.
Before the forces of darkness can execute their dastardly plan for world domination and turn the tide against God’s holy warriors, Azrael must face the faults in his faith and find the strength necessary to save Nissa.
Let the Gothic Epic begin.
***
If you enjoyed this excerpt for Remnants of Chaos: Chaotic Omens, you can purchase it here on Amazon. Available in both Kindle and paperback editions.
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