Noto arrived back at the monastery to see the reinforced doors swinging on the hinges. The air was thick with the stench of fear and despair. Nothing stirred. Nothing moved. It was as if the entire world had stopped moving.
He made his way through the maze of streets, moving up the hillside towards his compound. The cobbled road aided with his stealth as his bare feet made no sound.
As he approached his home, the doors here we ripped to shreds. He quickly place his sandles back on to avoid injuries. "Tregu must have been here," he thought as he moved deeper into the compound. The living residence was in the back, with the courtyard behind that. As he edged closer to the residence, he noticed it, blood, so much blood it couldnt have been from one person. His face drained of color as the magnitude of what happened set in. He quickened his pace, but he knew everyone was dead. He walked up the stairs into the house and made his way around to the courtyard.
Dropping silently from the upper level,
"Immortality will be mine," he thought as he landed inside the courtyard, without a sound, Noto took a cautious step forward, noticing how still the air was—no natural sounds, something was wrong. Then it hit him: the smell of rotting meat and corpses.
Walking into the amphitheater, a dug out mound of stone steps with a wide mouth for performances, the mound of bodies stood as a grim statue in the otherwise beautiful landscape. Crows and buzzards already circled the corpses, waiting for the forthcoming banquet. Noto glanced around the mound at the source of the carnage. The demon he'd been tracking for the better part of a decade sat just twenty steps from him. "Am I quick enough to reach him? Will he strike me down on my first step? None of that matters now."
Noto walked around the bodies, edging closer to his goal. He wasn't a small man, so moving silently required constant practice. One sound before he was in place would mean death. "Immortality is at hand!" He leaped at the demon, who cocked his head to the side. The demon snatched him mid-air by the throat and launched him into the sky.
"Ah, Noto, you insolent worm, still chasing my coattails, I see," the demon snarled. Noto, hurtling through the air, heard nothing but glimpsed his house from the new vantage point. Falling to earth at blinding speed, Noto pulled out his sword. "If I'm going to die, at least I'll wound the bastard. Tregu is the ruler of the earthly realm and holder of infinite life. I must defeat him." Noto hit the ground at breakneck speed, splintering the courtyard into fragments of stone. Tregu seemed amused that Noto wasn't a bloody mist on the floor.
Noto staggered to his feet, thankful for the hardened-goblin armor encasing his body. The sword, forged from a lancet claw, would never break. Tregu laughed, the sound rumbling from the depths of his streamlined stomach. "You surprise me every time, you filthy yearner."
"Well, I have to evolve to keep up with the demon of immortals."
"You have some new playthings—hardened-goblin armor and what looks like a lancet sword." Without a word, Noto closed the fifteen-foot gap in a heartbeat, sinking the sword deep into the demon's torso, hip to shoulder, slashing upward in one fluid motion.
Tregu lay on the ground, the side of his face visible to Noto twisted with rage. Exhausted, Noto sat down and rummaged in his pack for his flask. He popped the cork and gestured for Tregu to drink, smirking as the demon's face split in half. "Well, Tregu, I believe it's time I end this."
Tregu's laughter warped grotesquely from his two halves, and the ground shattered beneath them. His body began to regenerate, pulling itself back together. Noto, knowing death loomed, braced for impact.
"You've got balls, kid."
Those were the last words Noto heard before Tregu smashed him through the mountainside.
Pieces of bodies lay strewn across the blood-soaked earth. Noto lay broken on the rocks that had once been the monastery. The mountain had been obliterated by the impact, massive stones scattered like pebbles. Tregu landed lightly beside the carnage, strolling toward Noto.
"So, you thought you could storm my domain and steal my power—my life's blood, my essence. Naive little fool. I'll send you to a place better than your wretched upbringing. You damn yearners are all the same. Pathetic! I wasted no energy on you!"
Noto, unable to breathe or move, slipped into darkness as Tregu reached his side. "That's right! Chase the raven down the tree." The sweet, seductive call of the void consumed Noto. Tregu glared down in disgust. "The boss wants you alive, so be grateful." Noto heard none of it, already swallowed by oblivion.