• Published 13th Dec 2019
  • 3,696 Views, 144 Comments

How Death Lived - Crimson Wisp



The son of a demon and a necromancer is thrown into Equestria in his darkest hour. Will he find the peace he so desperately seeks, or will he not survive long enough to tell the tale?

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Prologue part 1 (Revised)

There were certain benefits to being the Son of a Former Hell Queen and a Powerful Lich. One such benefit was my extensive knowledge pertaining to the Dark Arts—I have crafted a spell or two over my long existence. Can’t exactly call myself ’alive’ so I simply exist, similar to others with demonic bloodlines. The main drawback was that we were despised by most other for our demonic bloodline and necromantic power respectively.

My mother, Lilith... yes that Lilith, met my father during one of his escapades into Hell to satiate his undying thirst for knowledge. Power alone wasn’t enough to satisfy him, he sought knowledge from other entities. SOMEHOW he managed to woo her and begat little old me into existence. Contrary to popular belief, Mephistopheles the King of the nine circles of hell was very protective when it came to his wife. So upon learning his wife (my Mother if you couldn’t guess) was banging another man. A human no less.

He was absolutely livid, most say Hell has never burned hotter than during that outrage. My father being as smart as he was managed to place his souls in a phylactery before his first death. Several days after my birth he discovered that the demon he fucked gave birth to his child. To say Father was determined as Hell to be with my mother would’ve been an understatement, he managed to get down to the Nine Circle of Hell and free my mother with a newborn me in tow.

Note to even get to Mephistopheles' Fortress in the deepest layer: he needed to cross several rivers of molten lava, battle nigh endless hordes, demons ranging from little insects to towering giants, and all while battling the soul sucking despair permeating in Hell’s atmosphere. Love pushed him past his mortal limits greatly that day to which I am still impressed by. Father managed to live a decent life with my mother raising me.

Near the City of Tamriel in the dense woods’ deepest parts, south of the Black Mountain. My childhood was about as normal as you could get considering my parents. Father taught me the basics of Necromancy and Soul Magics. Only my mother could teach me about my demonic heritage, despite Father’s best intentions he was only mortal in the end. She taught me everything he couldn’t, yet made sure I knew both sides of my bloodline.

Even after so long I don’t know if he was the luckiest dumbass to ever live or the unluckiest genius I knew. Either way he was ridiculously thorough with keeping the secret to his longer than normal lifespan. You can only be resurrected so many times without inflicting lasting damage to your soul...

I still remember the first lessons he taught me, the first time I raised an undead from the ethereal hold of the afterlife. It was a dog which I hadn’t learned how to control yet. So the mad mongrel attacked father and killed him, after he resurrected himself he grounded me until I learned how to control my creations. Like any parent he sent me to my room, only he locked me in with a human skeleton. A spell he used on my bedroom door prevented anything other than an undead from unlocking it.

Demons, including half demons, didn’t count since we were never alive in the first place. At first I thought he was a monster for doing this to me, but the sort of tactic made me learn something that could save my life. He loved using these learn it yourself tactics much through my youth. Many hours were spent going through trial and error until I was able to get the skeleton to follow my instructions.

Upon getting out of my room, I was so tired from not eating that I felt like so could eat an entire cow whole. My youth was overall pretty peaceful and full of happy moments.

That is, of course, until the day after I had just turned eighteen years of age... I still remember it clear as crystal when it all changed. It was the silent night after raining the whole day, the night had just cleared to showcase the beautiful star-filled sky. Father was out of the small stronghold my parents built as a home. Meanwhile, Mother was teaching me how to fly as a birthday gift which I had eagerly waited for many years to learn.

Demon wings physically weren’t supposed to allow for flight; for one thing, unlike the forest birds’ wings that I was so used to seeing. My wings were upside down and covered with hardened scales that serve as a natural shield if I wrap myself in them. They were too large to repeatedly flap them like insects, yet were also too bulky to carry me up in big wing flaps like birds. My mother, however, made it fun for her amusement by giving me enough information to reach my own conclusions. Instead of actually telling what to do! Isn't that a bitch!?

/̸̥̉̂͋̚/̸̦̰̬̺̈́/̶̟̗̭͈͉̃̆͊̑͛/̸̢̯̻̃͌͑̓͜͠/̵͙͉͆̈̆̚/̴̡̔̐̀̍ͅ/̴̫̱̫̘̇͛͊̀/̸̛̦̲̭̎̏̒/̷͎̋͛́/̵̡̛͍̤͊̑̄͗/̸̫̜̘̥̓͆̈́͋|̸̛͕͕̇̚*̴̱̍̾͒*̴̫͌͛̆͘*̸͇̖̼̩̪̿̾͒*̴̢̗͕̫̒̃̚͝͝*̸̳̤̯̲̆̆̂͂̍|̶̡͉̮̼̼̃͑̏\̷͇̍̕\̵̱͍͎͑̎̋̂\̶̢̳̾̎̓͘͝\̶̥̜̼̜͘͜\̵̫̯̩̒\̵̧̫̲̽̐̽̋̊\̵̨̬̳̠͙͛̓\̷̟̹̑͗̇\̶̭̀͂̔̊̂\̶̧͚̳̥̿͛̇̃\̷̙̙̤͙̝̀̌͌̓͝

”Mother, how am I supposed to fly if my wings aren’t made for it?” I asked letting my wings slump to the forest ground, ”I have been flapping my wings like a drunk turkey for the last thirty minutes, yet every way I can think of has failed! What am I doing wrong?!”

Desperation laced my voice as I looked into the black spheres that were her eyes, the only way I could have known she was looking at me was by her orange Irises. Both glowed with motherly love at the level of our home’s fireplace. This way of letting me figured it out on my own was causing frustration to cloud my mind.

”Azazel... you are not a harpy, so you can’t fly like a bird. You are far too heavy to fly like a beetle, so you cannot use an insect's way of doing this. What other creature do you know that is able to fly?” she answered with her own question. A devious smile spread across her face while mine tensed in deep thought as I tried to solve the mystery. I began thinking back to my lessons Father taught me when we traveled to the Black Mountain. An ancient creature attacked... then I remembered a certain creature, I would have slapped myself for not thinking of it sooner.

”Father always gripes about how dragons shouldn’t be able to fly...” I muttered to myself. Her smile turned into a shit-eating grin that was only rivaled by my father’s whenever he told a lame joke. Their sheer stupidity was what made her burst out laughing. In this case, it was her way of letting me know that I had gotten closer to the solution.

”Hmmm... Dragons are too weighed down to achieve flight like a bird, much less so at the speeds they can reach... but, how?” I asked my mother, stumped at this point. She didn’t say a word, instead, she opened her jaw to let small tongues of fire creep past her lips. Her mouth closed with a resounding snap as she exhaled small smoke plumes through her nose. It suddenly clicked at what she was trying to get me to understand.

”Magic! Dragons use magic! To ignite the air the exhale, to harden their scales, to strengthen their muscles, and–” I started.

”They use their magic to fly like the wind!” Mother finished cutting me off. Her wings fluttered in excitement as I figured out the first step to flying. They were like mine albeit considerably smaller to fit her feminine build.

”So, how is it done? Do they use a spell to make their entire bodies lighter, just their wings, or... is it something else?” I asked thankful to finally be getting somewhere. My mother lightly chuckled before pulling me close, a kiss was planted on my cheek. I felt her warm breath near my ear to which she whispered the answer I so desperately sought in an almost seductive manner.

Obviously, my mother didn't intend to do the deed with a minor, much less her own son. This was most likely a tone out of habit, considering she was a somewhat sexual deviant. ”Demons, much like dragons, create powerful gusts of wind that propel them into the skies. Our wings are used as an anchor point for those wind currents, let me show you~”

My eyes widened upon hearing this since I had never seen my mother fly. I knew she could from what Father told me in his own words, it looked incredible as her wings sliced through the air. No matter how much I asked her before to show me she would never do so, not even giving me a small jump. That was until this point as I looked at her eyes still wide yet disbelief showed on my face. She seemed a bit embarrassed, but when she saw me, her expression returned to its usual cool-minded demeanor.

A small smile was flashed in my direction while she stood a few yards away. I stared at her in awe as my tail swished from side to side in anticipation. Mother spread her large wings and did something I wasn’t expecting, they folded back to their normal resting position. Suddenly, she sprinted toward my direction at her fastest speed. I thought she was going to ram into me until I heard a sound. The trees began shaking as wind rushed from under my feet in a violent torrent that nearly knocked me over.

Her wings opened wide, they were positioned toward her rear end. Mother leaped into the air followed by a sound resembling a hurricane—she took flight.

The clear sky allowed for no clouds to block my view, the full moon enabled me to see her silhouette. I took in every detail I could of her form as she flew like a crazed banshee with wind raising around her. While working in perfect unison both wings flapped in a large oval-like pattern. The tips reached from her waist down to her above her knee caps. I surmised that was her wing reach and continued watching how she moved in several laps above the forest.

Whenever moving forward her body was flat as a plank enabling wind to pass down her back. Switching an angled vertical ascent her body was never fully facing upward unless she wanted to go straight up. Mother made sharp and rounded turns to show me how to successfully attempt them. The former required using larger flaps in her wings alongside leaning her torso in that direction.
Rounded turns seemed less forceful as my mother would gradually lean into them using tighter flap-strokes.

She did this all using powerful grace, I hoped to follow suit as soon as I possibly could. Upon finishing her final lap she fell towards me like a shooting star. This created a wind blast strong enough to knock me off my feet. I rolled onto my stomach which wasn’t painful per se the momentum just caught me off guard. As I laid there face down, I heard Mother walking up to me along with Father exiting the house. To no doubt see what was going on.

It simply took seeing me and the crater my mother created to clue him into what occurred. He let out a disappointed sigh.

”You went for a late-night flight and didn’t tell me?” he asked, sarcasm dripping in his every word. My mother simply looked him straight in the eyes before rolling them.

”I was just showing our son how we demons fly, ” she replied. Father walked over while she was talking proceeding to plant a soft kiss on her lips. His hands came to a rest on her curvaceous hips.

”Well, you can take me sky-high in bed tonight to make up for it~, ” he said with a lewd smile adorning his face. Mother’s resolve could not withstand the obscene levels of cheese. She roared with laughter at his joking request proceeding to wrap her arms over his shoulders. A human’s stature often came short when compared to a demon’s after all.

”We shall see about that my little hu–”

”Mother, Father! Please cease that, I’m right here!” I protested cutting my mother off, staggering to my feet I was unable to bear their sappy love banter. Although hearing it from anyone made me sick to my stomach, I hoped to one day engage in it with my special someone. If I had one. Options were quite slim considering I was only a half-blooded demon. They took full bloodlines seriously, and I doubted any humans apart from Father would fall for a demon of any kind. My parents laughed at my discomfort, kissing as they parted.

”I’ll see to dinner, ” my father told Mother.

”You’re the best~” she replied smiling. Her tail swaying from side to side like an excited dog.

”I know, ” he added, his trademark shit-eating grin formed. My mother groaned in a mixture if disappointment with a small giggle fit escaping her mouth.

”Oh, why do I put up with you?” she sighed, his grin remained unwavering.

”I don’t know... you tell me~” he countered. This made Mother turn him around with her long, prehensile tail, she pushed him back into the house.

”Go make dinner, and remember to cook your meat not ours, ” she ordered, ”we don’t want another soul burning incident.”

”Yes, ma’am!” he barked out while saluting, I recognized this impersonation, one of those human soldiers who walked the roads on the forest edge. Father disappeared behind the door and went to make our dinner. My mother chuckled to herself before walking back over to me.

”Alright, Azazel, now that you’ve seen me flying, its time for you to learn, ” she said. I screamed internally in excitement while the flames in my body heated up, I couldn’t stop a fanged smile from creeping onto my face.

\̵̧̖̗̣̯̂̿̓͛\̸̢̡̒̕\̵͈͉̩̱̲͊̄\̵̦͚̹̙́͛\̷̠̫͚͘\̶̨̮͌̑̿\̵̧̳͓̖̌̓ͅ\̵̼̳́̚\̷̛̯͐͊̽\̷̜̭̼̜́̔̓̚͝\̷͍̣̲̌̽̈́̕͘ͅ|̶̜̜̺͐-̵̦̓̓͂-̴͓̓͐͒̊̕-̸̣́̑̈̀͘-̴̨͒̔͘͠͝-̸̯͕̩͐̀̆́|̴̩̯̒̋̋ͅ/̵̢̡͖̬͈̍́/̵͙̮̬̫̈/̷̠̈́̄̚/̵̝̍͂͂̚̚/̴̱̀̓̚̚/̴̢̧̱͍̈́̀̚͜͠/̴͈̯̲͐/̸͇̲͐̉̈́̈́/̵͈̻̀̏̎/̴̗̚/̶̣̣̿͛̋̑̿

After several grueling hours of me jumping and falling that on my face, I was able to muster enough wind pressure to keep myself airborne for a few seconds. Of course... I ended up falling on my face again when the wind ceased. I had been annoyed at not being able to achieve anything in all this time, yet that last attempt renewed my burning enthusiasm. This motivated me to practice even after Mother told me to go inside to eat. Managing to finally get it after a full night of practice.

I was able to fly until I promptly passed out at three in the morning, Mother dragged me inside the house. She dumped my unconscious body onto my bed to which I slept for nine hours. It hit noon as a sunray hit my face through a window, making me wake up. My stomach growled in protest to going the entire night without eating. I wanted to test my newfound mobility so I decide to go hunting. We still had food from the night before, but I felt like challenging myself.

That would require me to travel a ways away since my parents had placed a mile wide diameter barrier around our little plot. It warded off unwanted visitors, including dangerous animals by turning them in the opposite direction without them noticing.

Father designed the barrier to allow things like rabbits, boars, deer, and caribous to pass through. If you didn’t count us, then our home was a predator-free zone where they could feel safe in. Safe enough to breed and give birth to on our land—although most just stayed to rest. Mother tried to teach me how to use a bow which started horribly due to my clumsy hands. Trying to hit bulls-eye targets father made for us that day ended with me being shot.

When I fired the arrow, it ricocheted off a nearby wall embedding itself through a slim crack in my wrapped wing shield. How I managed to hit a sewing needle-sized space still confounds me. Anyway... I asked Father to make me some armor for when I go hunting after I recovered. He appeased my paranoia by doing two things: one, he taught me how to use telekinesis to control and direct the arrows rather than shooting from a bow. This happened two days ago on my actual birthday, he bought me an armored full arm gauntlet which I engraved my initials into the pauldron.

I carefully strapped it on making sure it didn't make noise while I moved. I took a black metal arrow from my room and left out my window onto the ground. Taking in the clear blue sky combined with the Black Mountain pouring over the east treetops, I ran through the clearing where my home was. Upon getting far enough away, I shot off into the skies with a loud blast of wind. Almost immediately did I notice it was much easier to fly during the day then at night.

It wasn’t till this moment that I realized how fast I was capable of flying, I grew nauseous so I slowed down settling on a low glide. I took in my surroundings and noticed I was nearing the barrier’s edge. As much as I wanted to fly further, I couldn’t go through it without either of my parents opening a hole for us to head out. They would never tell me why, but I suppose it made sense. I have only ever been to a city once accompanied by Father on a supply run.

At the time I was too young to understand why I needed to hide my horns, wings, and tail from others. Different races hated me for a reason I thought was stupidly selective. Yes, I was different. Yet to an elf, a dwarf was as different to them as a full human was to me. Father was a mortal human while Mother was an immortal demon Hell Queen. If they could get along well enough to have me, then why couldn’t everyone else?

I assumed for the longest time the barrier was to just keep bad beings that would be mean to Mother and I for being different. Before that dragon encounter on Black Mountain, I thought they would get along with something like me. We both could breathe flames, had scales, and leathery wings. They weren’t as intelligent as I thought they were... not to mention loud.

As I saw that I was getting quite close to the barrier, I began reducing my altitude in an attempt to replicate Mother’s spectacular landing. While it was spectacular I didn’t exactly... land like mother did. More like I crashed into the ground somewhat less hard than my first flight attempts. Once I shook off the dust from my fallen form, I checked for anything broken or sprained. Minor bruising was the only thing present which would heal in a few hours.

I began searching for signs of game like Mother taught me to. She told me to use my heightened senses, my nose wasn’t just for show. Closing my eyes to concentrate, I slowly breathed in large breaths trying to find anything that smelled different from plant life. Minutes passed until I caught a whiff of dung off in the distance. I followed it, my hand near the arrows tied around my waist should I need one. When I reached my target, I took a mental note pertaining to the excrement pile.

”Still fresh... Where are you little piggie?” I muttered to myself as I looked around for signs of my prey. An obvious sign would be disturbed grass from its hoofprints. After several minutes, I saw fresh footprints like I was searching for, but they didn’t belong to the boar I was expecting. In fact, it was something I would never expect this time of the year.

”What’s a Caribou doing down here?” I questioned confused, ”they should be in the Northern Plains since it's summer. So, why...?”

I mulled over what could possibly drive one down here, but just sitting in the woods got me nowhere. I was going to hunt it, bring it back home to skin it, and ask Father why it was down here. He knew more about the wildlife of the forest than I did so he would have some type of answer. By following down quietly, I managed to catch up to the confused Caribou. It stood out like a sore tail ligament against the lush green plants. I could tell due to its antlers it wasn’t just another deer. Luckily for me, the Caribou was facing the opposite I was following it from.

This one was circling near the ravine that sprouts from the Black Mountain and carved through our land before leading deeper into the forest. As I got closer to the ravine, I saw my target casually trotting along the barrier edge. It practically screamed odd since Caribou’s were more cautious than deer. I decided to follow it to investigate its strange behavior up close. Where it was going seemed to relieve it or something was happening to keep this one as calm as it appeared.

While following it I picked up the vague smell of rotting that was getting stronger as we neared the ravine. I assumed it must have been some large carcass nearby, the wind carrying its smell. Ignoring this scent, I continued stalking the Caribou pulling an arrow free from the lasso. My magic held it hovering above my shoulder I kept my target in my crosshairs at all times. Due to my size being a bit large, one wrong move could easily alert it to my presence.

I closely tuck in my large wings as I walked and paid close attention to where my clawed feet went. Keeping my distance by hiding behind the trees I never took my eyes off the large Caribou. When it reached the ravine, it stopped near the edge seemingly frozen in place. I waited a few minutes in which it did not move a muscle so I went to get a closer look. The tree line only stretched a certain length as I now had to rely on my keen eyes. One detail I could make out about the Caribou was that something was wrong with it.

This weird one wasn’t just halting all motion, I could see its chest remain completely still... it wasn’t breathing at all. My revelation freaked me out to the point any anxiety I had quintupled. I shifted my weight to get closer to it and snapped a dead twig under my foot. The Caribou’s ear perked up, time seemed to slow down as it turned to look in my direction. What I saw looking at me made my heart skip a beat, the top part of it’s muzzle was fully rotted down to the bone.

That thing’s eyes... they were pale and utterly empty like when a creature had died. It was like I was staring at a walking corpse that moved on its own, I felt sick to my stomach seeing the state it was in.

Yes, I have performed Necromancy—which involved reanimated corpses, but they were always just the clean boney white skeletons. This thing felt like it was uprooting the life inside me from a single glance. It didn’t just look wrong. It was wrong, so very very wrong. I was snapped out of these disturbed thoughts as it turned its body around facing my direction. In order to keep myself from screaming out of the panic washing over me, I had to put my hand over my mouth to muffle my mouth should I slip and scream. Not daring to move a muscle I also held my breath.

The arrow in held my magic was primed and read to fire at the slightest movement from either of us. Fortunately, this thing didn’t seem interested in me since it turned its attention back to the ravine. A few seconds of standing still while holding my breath got to the point where I thought I was going to pass out. That was when the undead Caribou walked forward, it careened off the edge. I could hear its body hitting the walls of the deep chasm as it fell each bone in the decaying mass shattered on impact.

Then, I heard a final thumping splash as it fell onto the human ankle-deep water pool, I let go of the breath I was holding. Several deep breaths followed in order to calm myself down. Once I had collected myself, I walked towards the ravine to ensure that whatever thing it was would STAY dead. This led me to walk next to the edge of deep terra crack which I immediately regretted.

When I peered over the edge, I now understood why the smell of death was getting stronger the closer you got. The Caribou that just ended itself had company at the bottom. At least thirty caribous, deer, and even a few boars with varying degrees of decay were spread around. By the smell alone I could tell they had been there for a while. My fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, driving me to blast off out of there back to the house.

I have only ever flown as fast as I did then twice, let’s say that I landed as gracefully as my last landing. If not so much worse because I landed in my mother’s garden. Father had been teaching her how to grow spices so she could have them to cook with, saving him time from always going out to buy them. He came out of the house to investigate the noise as I pulled clumps of moist soil and broken ceramic pieces from my hair.

”Azazel, are you o-” he stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing the destroyed ceramic with smothered plants under me. A dark aura rose from behind him, “your mother is going to kill you!!! Why did you-?!”

“Father, we have a serious problem!” I shouted cutting him off. What halted his rant wasn’t the fact I cut him off, it was the fear still present on my face. Father had never been the most effective at reading others yet I was easy to read as a children’s book to him. He knew something was clearly wrong, and by the look on my face he knew it was worse than Mother’s fury over the spices.

”What happened?” he asked me, helping me to my feet. Without my horns, we were about the same height give or take an inch.

”I-I went hunting when I woke up to test my new mobility. I flew near the barrier edge, and spotted Caribou tracks on the ground. I follo–”

”A Caribou? Down here in the summer?” he interrupted with disbelief in his questions. My eyes were glued to his.

”That’s what I thought at first too, when... I finished telling him what had happened. From me following the rotting Caribou, to the smell of death that surrounded the ravine, to the corpse mounds at the bottom. While I spoke, my father was growing more uneasy with every word I said.

”Are you sure that’s what you saw?” he asked, his tone implied that he was hoping I would say it was all false. But, I know what I saw.

”Father, I swear to you it’s the truth! I...” halfway through my statement, he hugged me and began rubbing my lower back.

”It’s okay, go get clean yourself up then stay inside. I’ll go check this out. Stay near your mother. Tell her why you broke some of her plants, hopefully she won't skin you for it.” that last part snapped me out if my old panic right into a new one. It donned on me that I had slammed straight into my mother’s little project. I shook my head of those thoughts before nodding to Father. I did what he asked as he left in the direction of the ravine. By using the cleaning pool in our ’basement’, I washed the sweat and dirt off my body.

I went up to my mother’s room after I was mostly dry. I found her lying face down, resting on her "day off" no doubt. Flopping next to her I gave a defeated sigh.

”What’s on your mind, Honey?” she asked raising her head a bit.

I sighed again before explaining everything to her, she stayed quiet throughout my whole explanation. Once I finished speaking she began stretching the make of my neck. My worries began melting away as we stayed like this for a while, I fell asleep by her side.

Author's Note:

Big thanks to Gazing the Stars for editing this. I'm aware that you guys have been asking for me to get an editor, and one of you pulled through! They did a really good job, so give their page a look when you're done here. Catch you guys later! 😁😁😁