13 Humans, I hate them

"What the hell is that?!" Azazel shouted, staring at the apparent source of the mana pool, below him in the murky depths lies a blood red crystal twice the size of himself, surrounded by some sort of white stone, "It feels... alive. What is it and why do I feel as if i'm being stared at by a predator?" He asked to no one in particular. Little did he know that the crystal was technically alive, it was a solidified drop of blood from a fallen god back during the Great War.

Moving closer to the light emitted by the red crystal, Azazel suddenly felt an extreme sense of calm fall upon him, he felt as if all his worries were fading away, he felt no need to grow stronger, he felt safe as if by being here could protect him forever. Looking within him one could see his soul was being cleansed, causing his comprehension and processing ability to increase, he would now find it even easier to comprehend his skills as if he had received some sort of enlightenment.

Slowly the crystal started to leak out small tendrils of red liquid, intending to entangle Azazel and absorb his energy to strengthen itself and potentially revive, however suddenly the tendrils rapidly drew back, emitting a screeching noise almost as if they were scared of something they found within Azazel's body.

Azazel knew about none of this, as the increased comprehension and cleansing of his soul seemed to have opened a certain area within him, a part of him that he didn't even know existed, suddenly his memories started becoming clearer than ever, he began remembering everything that's ever happened since arriving in the Nether Realm, even some of his time spent in the void was coming back to him, a feat technically impossible since he existed as nothing at that point in time.

However this journey through his memories continued to go back even further, reaching even the point before he entered the void, however once it reached a certain point the memories seemed to slow down before coming to a complete stop at a specific one,

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'Wh..what is that?' He thought, his vision slowly becoming clearer, gradually growing from a blur to a vividly detailed image, his perspective started changing as if he was suddenly reliving this unknown vision... no, this memory.

"...s he ready?" A woman's voice asked.

"Everything is prepared Ma'am" Another voice replied, having a husky gravelly voice as if spoken by someone who had been smoking for 50 years.

Looking around Azazel sees he is in a small cylindrical room, surrounded by a crowd of people dressed in what seemed like some sort of ceremonial robes, the centre of the room contains a wooden table upon which he is strapped, his arms and legs bound tightly, blood dripping from his wrists from the apparent struggle he had put up. "Where is this? Why am I strapped down? Wait, who am I again?" He wondered, momentarily forgetting who he was as he acclimated to his new body.

"Azazel" Spoke the first woman's voice, the voice soft and soothing like how a mother would speak to her child. Stroking his hair she kissed his forehead and spoke gently to him, "Everything is okay, you just need help, it will all be better soon."

'Who is this woman, I recognise her but she's not a ghost, where do I know her from... she's human, wait a second, I'm also human? Is this a memory from my last life?' Tears suddenly started to fall from Azazel's eyes as he realised who this woman was.

Looking deeply into her ocean blue eyes and noticing the black hair flowing gracefully down one side of her head, he knew instinctively... "Mother..." He tried to cry out, however his voice was hoarse, his throat dry and cracked, "Why mum, what have I done?" Whimpered Azazel, feeling the pain wracking his body, pain so strong he just wants to bit his tongue, however he is too weak to make any movement.

"Alice, he is awakening, we need to hasten to ceremony, we cannot allow his kind to live." Sternly spoke an older man wearing some sort of ceremonial hat, quite similar to the type worn by the catholic pope however instead of a cross, the symbol was that of a sun.

"I know Pope Andrei, but he is my baby boy, you can spare me a few minutes to say goodbye can't you?" Sarcastically asked Alice, before turning to Azazel and continuing to stroke his hair. "You know Azzy... I've always hated you, how you were given to me without a choice, how you destroyed my life and refused me any sort of happiness, you are disgusting! How could you exist!" She suddenly started screaming hysterically, tears falling non stop and landing on Azazel's face before merging with his own.

"It is time." Pope Andrei said before pulling a curved and jagged knife engraved with a golden sun on the hilt out from his robes, making his way towards where Azazel was strapped he raised the dagger up high before starting a chant which seemed to draw light towards the tip of the dagger.

"Lumen hoc altius omnipotens cadere possit.

(May the light of the almighty fall deeply upon this demon.)

Distrahere animum mundi nobis salutem nostram damnationem.

(Sunder his soul from our world and grant us safety from their damnation.)

'I don't know how, but I understand it perfectly... Demon? Evil? Why! Why am I a demon, I was just a normal kid living his everyday life, before some people from the Sunlight Church came to my house and took me away, what hurts the most is that my mother handed me over happily, as if she was ridding herself of some burden...' Azazel thought back to the moment his mother... no, that woman is no mother, how Alice gave him away, and he felt so much anguish that he practically wished for the dagger to fall and end it all.

Suddenly light started shining through the metal bars on the windows, signalling the sun starting to rise, "Oh yeah, it's my birthday today... some party this is" Azazel thought while bitterly laughing to himself.

"Creepy, he's laughing even in this state." Shuddered Alice as she remembered the prophecy she received from the almighty when she became pregnant, on his 16th birthday, the spawn of evil shall vanquished, forever freeing the world of darkness. Remembering the disgust she felt knowing she was carrying a spawn of evil inside her, and how often it brought her to thoughts of suicide, she was so thankful that it was all ending now.

Actor huius proprii sui et pariunt, in exsilium agere non revertetur ad suum malum.

(With this sacrifice of his spawn, banish his evil to never return.)

Nos semper vestram justitiam ejus:

(We forever shall uphold your justice,)

Amen."

With the final word leaving the popes mouth, the dagger finally fell, piercing straight into Azazel's stomach, "GUAARGH!!" He roared, feeling the intense pain of the jagged dagger entering his flesh repeatedly and turning his organs to paste, 'I forgot that it wasn't over so quickly... These fucking bastards tortured me to death!' He thought with hate and fear, for almost a while hour he relived his past experience, feeling the pain slowly become more and more numb with every stab, until it finally ended...

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Opening his eyes and finding himself back by the deep crimson crystal emitting dense Mana liquid, he clenched his thin bone white fingers tightly, "Humans... I hate them... Why did I deserve to die!" He roared, emitting so much malice that the Mana around him slowly started turning a dull grey from it's vibrant blue, even the bright red crystal seemed to shudder and turned to look at him as if it were an eye.

"You want no evil? You fear demons?! Well I will claw my way back to your realm and grant you all of it! I will bring pain, I will bring darkness, I will bring death to your realm!" Shouting out his newfound goal Azazel placed his palm upon the crimson crystal and emitted his death energy, slowly corrupting it, causing it to stop emitting basic Mana and start to release pure death Mana, the whole Mana pool started turning a murky grey with the crystal itself starting to turn a ghostly green, with black flames flickering off of it constantly,the white stone surrounding the crystal started to turn darker, white to grey to black, darker and darker until it was so dark that black isn't an accurate enough colour to describe it.

The now almost green crystal shuddered intensely as it tried to resist Azazel's control over it, however due to the fear of the unknown power within him it couldn't fight back, eventually submitting to it's fate and bad luck and allowing Azazel to transform it into a natural source of death Mana, a Death Crystal, henceforth wiping any trace of consciousness from it and removing it's chance of revival.

Looking deeply at his new Death Crystal, Azazel's gaze turned sharp...

"Human Realm... I am coming."