Knight and Demon(EN)

Midsummer. Small merchant town near the sea.
Across the streets walks a dark figure. It was headed towards the town hall square. It walked in perfect calm and the surrounding people were of no interest to him. The people, however, stayed away.
He wore a black hood and whenever someone talked to him, all he did was raise the hood slightly, so that the person could see his face and turn away. Everyone did turn away, as he walked through the town.
No one, not even the soldiers, tried to stop him. The gate guards had actually tried by closing the gate, but he just calmly walked to the gate... and then shattered it with a single blow.

Having reached the town hall square, he took off his hood. He looked like a living skeleton, if it hadn’t been for those eyes. His eyes were dark red, just like freshly spilled blood. Their vision penetrated the people, even though his eyes didn’t even have pupils. In fact, his eyes weren’t even physically existent.
The bones of this skeleton were very old. In times there had been attempts to burn this skeleton, thus the bones were pitch black.
Yet, the monster was still here, grinning. Skeletons always seem to grin. For some reason this skeleton also had wings, or what was left of them. On his head there were horns.

With a dark, cold and yet incredibly loud and clear tone he said: “Vacua vero, contremiscunt!  Veni enim ad sancti,” while not moving a single bone.
No one understand what he had said, so for a while the people were quiet and kept looking at him. Many sneaked away from the square, terrified.
Some time later an armored knight walked across the square. The same knight that had arrived this morning. He didn’t wield a sword; it was on his belt. He didn’t look frightened at all.
The skeleton shouted something at him, in that same strange language he had been talking in earlier. The knight responded to him, silently and without emotion, but yet clearly.
It seemed like they were discussing something. The skeleton always talked with his quaking and powerful voice, while the knight responded as quietly as people normally talk, if not more quiet.
After some time they stopped talking. The knight was looking at the skeleton, eyes not revealing anything, but his hand on the hilt of his sword. The skeleton seemed to not care at all. The knight started to emit a golden glow, while the skeleton reeked of death. Those, that knew about magic also knew, that something was about to happen.
Both of the figures gleamed with force. They stood like this for a quarter of an hour. Then, it seemed that it was all over. The knight looked towards the people and the skeleton started to walk away.
Then, when the skeleton was a few dozen metres a barely audible sound was heard. The sound of one bone being rubbed against another. It was immediately responded to by the sound of a sword being drawn.
Then everything happened fast. With a silent, but hasty pace the opponents moved to each other and the swords met.
The fight had lasted for many minutes, making it ever more clearer that the knight is about to lose. However, it wasn’t final. The knight gathered himself and started to hit back.
With intermittent success for either side, they kept fighting, people watching intensively.
Eventually the knight hit the sword hilt of his opponent, immediately following up with a blow between the eyes.
A quick flame rose from the skeleton’s feet to the head, then disappeared. After that, the skeletons simply fell apart. All that was left, was a pile of easily powderable bones.
Then the knight fell on the ground.
People were startled, but quickly rushed to his aid. It was quickly checked that he is still alive. He was, although very tired. The unknown knight was quickly carried up the stairs of the town hall and made to lie down. A while later he opened his eyes. For a moment it seemed, that they were golden, but when looking again, they were dark green like before.
By the next morning he had recovered entirely. He was found sitting on the stairs of the town hall. Some tried to make him go back to bed, but he didn’t agree. “I am much more well than you know”.
After a while people started asking questions, since he had said that he’s alright. He didn’t respond at all. It even seemed, that he doesn’t notice the people at all. He just sat there, eyes closed.


It was said, that this skeleton was a demon. Well, that was obvious. However, what people didn’t know, was that before becoming a demon he had been a human. He was a childhood friend of the knight. An embodiment of evil, whose best friend was bound to become something much different. The ways of the world are twisted.