Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Natali, stroked Lucius's hair, running water through it. They sat exhausted, rushing through floor after floor. Twelve floors ago, they lost Berk to a stray arrow the size of a ballista bolt fired by a giantess.

Mar'Eeyen cradled a knife wound from a rabid ogre. They had already given her a healing potion, so it would heal soon, but that didn't take away the pain in the meantime. Helena kept watch over their encampment in the woods surrounding them.

"What floor is this?" Lucius asked between choked breaths. Even for him this was getting too hard to manage.

"Seventy-Nine, Lucius." Natali whispered.

"Fucking hell. How many in this damn place?"

"Unknown. Maybe 80, maybe 800?" Helena answered, her eyes still glued to their surroundings.

The ground beneath them rumbled. "Fuck me!" Lucius shouted. This was just what they needed. They stood at attention, Mar'Eeyen breathing heavily as the deep wound still tried to close. Lucius could have healed her, but they agreed his strength needed preserved for fighting.

After several moments of tense silence, the rumbling stopped. Steps appeared before them out of nowhere, leading down. "Do you think the dungeon wants us to keep going?" Lucius sighed. His shoulders slumped, the tension evaporating.

Silence surrounded him. The sounds of insects in the forest had stopped. Only the sound of his own heartbeat met his ears. Lucius panicked and glanced around. Mar'Eeyen, Natali, and Helena were gone. Trees in the distance began to vanish without so much as a flutter of the leaves. It was like they ceased to exist.

Lucius moved to step down the steps, but the closer he got, the further away it became. As his speed picked up, the distance became greater and the forest began to vanish quicker and quicker. "What did you do with Natali you damnable dungeon!" He roared. "I will burn you to the ground. I will shatter every stone within and around you. The power keeping you running will be mine! I will devour it and make it my own. I will…"

A flash of white blinded him and everything vanished. He felt the sensation of a small finger pressing against his nose. "Good." A small voice reached his ears.

When Lucius opened his eyes, hovering before him was a small child that looked eerily similar to himself when he was younger. Including the different colored eyes, though this child's were a mirror to his own.

"What are you?"

"Hm. That's a good question. Not sure there is a right answer anymore. Definitely not a living person anymore. Too far into death to really call a spirit too."

"What?"

"A memory. No… still have a sense of 'self' so a memory isn't right… lets call me a fragment of a personality." The child stated with a firm nod. "Ha! What a paradox. To exist, but not exist at once. I think someone did an experiment like that with a cat or something. Bah, too long ago to remember and it wasn't even on this world anyway."

"This world…"

The child snapped his fingers. "Hey now, don't worry about other worlds. Stick to this one. After all, this is the one with your kids that are about to die and all."

Lucius's heart nearly stopped. "My family! Where are they, I have to go to them!" He turned away from the child and looked around, only to be greeted by an endless white expanse.

"Are you working with Luz?" He screamed, "Let me out of here, now!"

"Calm down. No I don't work with Luz… interesting. You managed to give them the right names… or did you. Were those always their names? Luz and Grimm. Maybe in one timeline. One universe. Another existence. Oh!" The child giggled. "Maybe you never named them that!"

The child was crazy. Whoever he was, he was no longer sane.

"That's correct again, Lucius Kane! I'm not insane!" The child shouted out, reeling with laughter. The hungry groan of his stomach rippled through the air, vibrating the foundation of the white expanse. "I've been here a long time and I've been so very hungry. Hungry for food, power, life…"

The child's tone fell. No more was he laughing. Instead tears dropped to the ground. "Hey kid, what's your name."

"Oh that's a good question. I don't know. I think I ate that too."

"You ate your name?"

"Look around Lucius. I ate everything. Even my own existence fell to my endless hunger. Well, most of it. I have one small piece left. Once I consume this fragment, then poof! Me and my power are gone."

"That sounds awful."

"Oh yeah, it sucks major ass." The kid shrugged. "I did have a plan. One that relies on someone like you."

"You knew I was coming?"

"Lucius. I devoured my existence, which means I devoured my future. All possible futures. All but one. The one where you retrieved my gift." The child answered sagely. Though the effect was lost by the smirk on his face.

"What if I died. You didn't devour my futures."

The smirk faltered for a moment, but quickly returned. "I'm just that good." Sweat beaded on the child's forehead. "No matter! Take my gift!"

"What is it?"

"My power, obviously." The child's face darkened, fangs growing in his mouth. "Devour. The power to consume all and make it yours. Life. Death. Mana. Creation. Souls. Blood. Existence. Everything can be eaten. Take it Lucius."

Lucius looked around in the space once more. "I don't think I want a world like this. Can I say no?"

"Oh! I planned for that. There's a reason I wanted you Lucius. Grimm and Luz, they exist within you. The very aspect of their being are light and dark. One cannot exist without the other. They are eternal, no matter how much they wish to say otherwise. Because they are eternally, that means Devour will be eternally fed. Anything you throw at it will be like a dessert. A treat rather than a necessary meal."

"That…makes sense?"

"It does doesn't it!" the child chuckled. "Oh my, Grimm is really raging in there. Something about betrayal… not yours though… hey Lucius, do you know who Lyrah is?"

"My sister. She's an Oracle."

"OH! Prophecy. A powerful ability to survive this many years into your species. Impressive. Most of them are petty tricksters. I've eaten a few in my time, but Prophecy has a way of getting away from me. Its like it knows how to avoid being eaten."

"Didn't you say you ate your own future?"

"Yes well, Prophecy holds a great many strings attached to an infinite number of fates. Pull on your own string hard enough and it will let go. That's what I did. So Lucius. Your family might be dying right now. My power can help you save them. Will you take it?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation. He had to save them. Also, a conversation with his sister was needed."

"Good!" the child clapped. "Oh! One last thing."

"Yes?"

"This is going to hurt worse than anything you've ever felt in your life. Existence will become pain. Your cells will rip themselves apart millions of times over and over again. I'd say you have a fifty/fifty shot at surviving this. But do your best! If you die, then Devour will run across the world eating everything until it ultimately eats itself. Okay, have fun!"

Many things were lost after that moment. The child vanished along with the white expanse, replaced by… nothing. All of it was gone.

Lucius stared at the absence of everything. Flashes of moments appeared before his eyes. Fire, flame, blood. Flashes of steel. Screams. One scene hovered in front of Lucius longer than others. The sight of Commander Arturo on his knees before him.

More than anything he felt one thing: Hunger.