Excerpt: Devil Inside

Gralagah stepped out of the tunnel into the open space beyond. He looked around and a flexed his fore-claws. A few Warwa passing close by cringed as they were driven past him into the very tunnel he had just exited. Their cringe gave him a nice little jolt and he briefly thought of following the little group to get a hit off of their obvious terror. But his rational mind, what there was of it, fought for control. He had just won a certain freedom for himself and to go back in now would only have him come to the notice of Kanukadee and his generals. He had other plans for the moment.
Gralagah set out at a slow lope. He didn’t have a particular destination in mind for the moment. He just wanted distance between himself and the network of caverns that were Kanu’s the centre of power. Also, he knew he would be less likely to be disturbed by one above him if it looked like he was on some sort of errand set by his master.
He was no fool now and had earned his name. He wasn’t likely to do anything foolish enough to risk losing it, but he had grand aspirations. He wasn’t going to remain a 5th forever. He had struggled and won in order to reach the rank he now held. He knew the value that he was worth to his master. In fact he knew it better than his master did. He was more clear thinking than many of his peers. He was not satisfied to simply survive at he level he had attained, taking pleasure for the misery and pain inflicted on those below him. Even better was the havoc he could cause to those of one of the other five houses. The power drawn from those terrible clashes was pure ecstacy. The challenge of course was ensuring that your side was going to be the victors and making sure that you kept yourself well matched against the opponents you chose to fight.
That exact sort of planning is what had quickly elevated Gralagah to his current position. And he knew it would continue to help him. He knew with some primal part of himself there was more to be had then being a soldier in someone else’s never ending war. The five Houses of Hell had been at war for eons. He had his sights not on the top most 7th rank general. He wanted his own house. Now he needed to figure out his next move.
As he ran he ignore the dank misery about him and considered what he knew about the Hells that encompassed his entire existance. There were Five Houses of Hell. His master was Kanukadee. The others were Vorlyn, Glupian, Guvvie, and Wacumacher. Guvvie was the oldest of Hell’s Lords, and Vorlyn the youngest. His own master fell right in the middle. After the Lords came the general, each Lord had only two or three of these 7th rank demons. Mostly the generals tolerated the presence of the others who swore allegiance to their Lord. Infighting among them was rare as they had a certain amount of followers for their own amusement. Infighting in the 6th rank was rampant, each of the demons in this level fighting ruthlessly to be noticed and rewarded by the generals or their lord. The epic battles at this level was one of the reasons why there were so few generals. So few survived the 6th rank that there were not many to challenge the places of the Generals.
Next rank down was the 5ths. Gralagah’s own rank. This was the level where a demon earned a name. He earned a certain place in his Lord’s retinue and at times a certain amount of freedom. Those below were simply know by their ranks, 4th through 2nd. Those of the 1st rank were called the Warwa. These were the youngest demons. Physically they were as unsubstantial as there minds were inconsequential. They were basically thoughtless drones who’s main purpose was to suffer and bring power to those above them. It was impossible as far as he knew to destroy a Warwa, they would just take eons to recuperate in excruciating pain only to resume their agonizing existence. Still, Each demon had once been a Warwa and found a way to survive. Each demon began at the 1st rank and those who were stronger, more cunning found a way to gather some small amount of power to themselves and gain some substance, thereby elevating themselves to the 2nd rank.
The Warwa belonged to no house. There were simply too many of them and they were so dispensable that they simply existed for all of the houses to abuse. Once they achieved 2nd rank the demon achieved a certain amount of self awareness and would be taken into whichever house happened to find them first. Gralagah’s Lord Kanu had teams of 5th and 6th demons whose purpose was too comb the areas of non-allegiance terrain, as well as his own land to find ?unattached?belonging? 2nd ranks and bring them into his fold. Occasionally an excursion was launched into enemy territory to collect some of these infant demons in order to make a Lord’s ranks swell. This was exactly what had lead to Gralagah’s current measure of freedom. He had been on a routine boarder patrol when he spotted three 2nds cowering beyond his borders, on Guivvie’s land. He corralled them and presented them to his Lord himself.
In so doing not only had he earned himself 5th rank but more importantly, Gralagah had discovered that along with the rank came a name and the ability to absorb more power from those who suffered around him. Even as he ran along now he was passively taking hits from the pain and misery around him. If he actually stopped to watch one of the Warwa being flayed for example, he could draw an energy burst. The thought of the thrill of that power slowed his step, but only for a moment. He recognised those causing the misery. Two 2nds and a 5th. No other 5th would tolerate him stopping to sponge some energy. It would no doubt provoke a fight. If it had been a 4th instead a 5th, then maybe he would have stopped. Gralagah had neither the banked energy nor the desire to fight right now. He kept on jogging, surviving on the stray misery he could absorb as he went.
He thought of the power transfer that he and his fellow demons needed to survive, and enjoyed so thoroughly for the thrill of sensation it sent through the body. Technically any demon could absorb, and transmute into energy and power the raw emotion of others around it. He was now understanding, that the higher the rank, the more the power grew. And also the higher the rank the larger portion of the energy a demon was able to hoard for itself. So basically, a bunch of 3rds could torture a Warwa and each take and equal share in the pain it gave off. However, if he or one of a similar rank happened by, it could take all of the power, leaving only a pittance for those who were actually doing the work. He wondered if with his higher rank he could chose how much energy to absorb, thereby perhaps allowing lower ranks around him to have more and become indebted to him. It was this sort of reasoning which allowed Gralagah to proceed up through the ranks.
From what he had observed, proceeding higher through the ranks was going to become more difficult. He would need all of his cunning, his brute strength and hoarded power to survive at this level. But he wasn’t happy with the thought of surviving at this level. His view into his Lord’s lair today had him thinking bigger thoughts. He didn’t want to be a 6th or even a 7th. He rubbed at the brand burned into the skin at the centre of his chest. He wanted it all. He had his eyes set on becoming a Lord himself. But that would take time, and planning, and power. He would have to be careful. If he was not cautious he would come to the Lord’s attention and that could prove fatal. Well not fatal exactly but it was possible for a demon of higher rank to attack another so greviously that the victim actually lost a rank. In serious cases a victim’s existence could be completely destroyed and it would become just another Warwa. He would have to plan cautiously.