The Devilish Prince
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble and shake in fright. The drumming sound echoing doom-doom-doom drummed on the wooden floor as if a colossal being stomped into the shabby house.
With each stomp, Jessica could feel the vibrations in the wooden tiles running through her body. She steeled her trembling heart and calmed her breathing, gazing towards the entrance of the room.
A demonic being, which seemed humanoid, slowly stomped towards her room. It was taller than two meters and towered over her. A skull of a beast was plastered against its face, acting as a helmet, and two eyes blazing like scarlet coals leered through the skull.
The demon raised its two massive arms covered by bestial skins and clutched the edges of the door frame to Jessica's room. After it lowered its head to press it through the small door frame, it stared at Jessica.
Unafraid, she stood with her hands akimbo, raised her chin, and shouted, "What do you want?"
The demon dropped its sharp jaw in response and a growling, bellow-like voice deeper than anything scratched over its maw, "Master demands the Mystics presence."
The voice sounded as if it came from the deepest parts of its guts and seemed more like a bestial snarl than an actual voice.
'Since when is a witch called a Mystic?' Jessica thought, but left the thought alone, as the difference probably stemmed from the civilization difference.
"Then take me to him," she said nonchalantly. Because she already knew the master from the girl's memories, she knew that she had nothing to be afraid of.
The Mad Demon gave a low snarl as response and turned around, leading the way. Jessica closely followed it and kept a distance of a meter between them.
Arriving at the door to the outside, the Mad Demon clutched the door frame, cracking the wood apart, and stepped in a lowered position through the door.
Jessica followed it and stepped outside too.
The entire village was devoured in a dark reddish fog, blocking the view to buildings further away. A pungent stench of something rotten assaulted Jessica's nostrils and she was left in a coughing fit, gagging even!
Only after a dozen seconds, she got accustomed to the smell and continued following the Mad Demon.
While walking behind the Mad Demon, Jessica curiously observed her surroundings. Occasionally she could see some hollow creatures dwelling in the dark corners which gazed with their vacant eyes and empty souls at her.
Walking past a spire filled with sloshing, red liquid, Jessica stared at it and pondered about what it could possibly be or functions as.
After a minute, the both of them arrived at the entrance of the pitch-black tower. A humongous, scarlet-red door erected before them. It was decorated with golden engravings and ancient symbols.
The Mad Demon positioned itself before the door, raised his lumpish and deformed hands, and pressed against the door with all its might.
Its muscles flexed from its monstrous arms and its veins popped out, clearly showing that it used all its strength to push against the gigantic door.
A sudden, rumbling noise left the ground quaking. The heavy door slowly crept open while the ground beneath Jessica's feet trembled from the immense weight of the door.
As the rumbling halted, the Mad Demon stood before the opened door and stared at Jessica. "GO... IN~," it snarled and tilted its buffalo-like neck with a cracking noise.
Setting her bare feet on the marble floor, Jessica walked through the door and into the magnificent hall. Dozens of Mad Demons lined up on each side of the hall and guarded the way toward the throne on the raised platform.
Directing her gaze toward the throne, Jessica looked at the boy sitting on it. The boy, Jimmy, seemed to be 16 years old and was rather handsome in some aspect.
He wore black clothes which covered most of his bone-white skin. The black hood, which tumbled over his head, covered parts of his ghost-white hair. Only the long strands of his white hair peeked under his hood and covered his eyes, hiding them from view.
A pugnacious grin came to Jimmy's lips and he swung one of his legs over an armchair, sloppily sitting on the throne. With a mature and playful voice, he called out to Jessica, "You are here~! Come nearer, come nearer!"
Jessica didn't know where to look at his face. Normally, she looked other people into the eyes, but that would clearly not work with Jimmy. So she kept her gaze on the only thing which was the most attention-grabbing about Jimmy's face: his devilish grin filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Barefoot and noiseless, Jessica walked toward Jimmy on his throne. Under the watchful gazes of the Mad Demons, she never lowered her head but acted pridefully.
Arriving before the throne, she lifted her chin and stared with pride at Jimmy. Jessica showed no intention to kneel. Even though the former Jessica kneeled every time before Jimmy, her new self was not willing to kneel.
Jimmy's devilish grin widened, baring his white teeth, and laughed, "You are getting more daring! I like that!"
He repositioned himself and sat in a horse-stance on the throne with his hands on his knees. His white bangs swayed from this motion and Jessica tried to look at his eyes - yet she couldn't see them.
'I'm kind of interested if he would look even more handsome without his bangs. Maybe he has really beautiful eyes that make him even more handsome,' she thought.
Jimmy raised his chin and said with a grin, "It seems that you already got accustomed to your life here. I think it is time for you to start your research." He leaned back in his throne with arms crossed and added, "Because my brother, the Demon Crown Prince, isn't sending any more forces to my land, I want you to create more demons for me. Let's start with 10 Mad Demons."
'You want me to create those things?! -those ugly beings?' Jessica wondered.
Her witch powers were only recently awakened and weren't that strong either. With her power of altering DNA, she was strictly-speaking able to create demons, but not at her current level.
The only thing Jessica did with her powers till now was changing the DNA of a cow so that it had two udders instead of one and could, therefore, produce more milk for the dried-out village.
A sudden idea came to Jessica's mind. Setting up a smug grin, she walked up the platform and approached Jimmy on his throne.
The smile on Jimmy's lips faded and was replaced by a grim expression, but he didn't stop her.
Jessica elegantly stepped behind the throne and leaned over to Jimmy's ear. In a playful voice, she whispered into Jimmy's ear, "Your ambitions aren't very high, right? You only want to spend the rest of your life in this shabby village..."
She stepped to the other side and whispered energetically into his other ear, "Why not aim higher? With me by your side, you could have a stronger and better army than your brother. You could one day be the Demon King… -no! The Demon Emperor!"
Again, she stepped to the other side and whispered in a disinterested voice into the other ear again, "Or do you want to live the rest of your life in this village like a prince who got cast aside and will be forgotten and disregarded by others?"
A devilish chuckle left Jimmy's lips, and with his grin back on his lips, he said, "Very well. Let's do it your way then. When you need anything, just tell me."
Glad that her plan worked, Jessica stepped before Jimmy and looked at him. "Well, there are a few things I need. But none of them are here in this desolate land… I wonder if I could collect them in a human civilization and return after I collected everything that I need?"
Jimmy shortly pondered about it. It was true that nothing was in this desolate land. There were no plants, no animals, and no mines - nothing. In his village were only demonic beasts and demons.
He couldn't even provide clothes for her, and certainly no food which humans enjoy. He fed her the flesh of demonic beasts for the last few days. And even he thought it tasted horrible beyond words.
But he couldn't let Jessica go alone to a human village. That would be the perfect chance for her to run away and talk about the demon civilization. And he could also not let a demon guard her either, it would be too attention-catching.
With no other option left, he said, "Okay, you are allowed to go to a human village. But I will go with you."