Chapter Text
Deep in the abyss where darkness slumbers, Ike finds himself standing all alone. There’s nothing here; the air is still and somewhat lukewarm, the ground smooth like marble, reflecting his lone figure. Ike stands up, stumbling on shaky legs and looks around, confused.
A few flower petals drift across his face, floating by without the help of wind.
In this dark, desolate world where not even light dares to tread, chrysanthemum petals float from somewhere deeper in the abyss, beckoning him to come and follow. He’s hesitant, but with nothing else to use as a guide, he decides to search for the source of this peculiarity.
His lone footsteps echoes on, bouncing around him as if he’s in a cave. It doesn’t take long before the shower of flower petals start to become more and more dense, obscuring his vision. Ike braves through them, one arm shielding his eyes until all too suddenly they stop pelting him.
Ike lowers his arm and finds himself standing in a flower field all of a sudden, a sea of chrysanthemum blooming around him. Their soft, golden petals sways gently as a faint draft blows across the field, caressing Ike’s face in a mockery of affection.
Amongst the flowers, Ike spots a skeleton lying down on the ground, flowers overtaking the hollowness of its bones. Ike approaches it, looking into its bony face with a frown.
Though he has no recollection of who or what the skeleton is, for some reason, his heart aches nonetheless.
The ground under his feet suddenly turns soft, sucking him in before Ike slips and falls with a scream, his body ragdolling against steep stones before he hits his head on the hard ground. He stays still for a while, white noise ringing in his ears and body feeling like it’s been destroyed to a pulp.
Through bleary eyes, he sees himself in some sort of ditch, faint light visible from the opening right above him. He groans and rolls to the side, seeing specks of red staining the trail of stones lining the earthy walls.
He must’ve fallen and hit his head on those stones (but he has a feeling he shouldn’t be here in the first place), which explained the blood. Still, there’s way too much gore from a mere head trauma, and as Ike forces himself to get up, he finally understands why.
There’s blood all over himself, pooling right underneath him and mixing with the ground, turning into a disgusting muck. Every inch of his clothes (the set he’s wearing looks foreign—gaudy and all too eye-catching) is dyed red in blood, and upon closer inspection, it seems the blood comes from the array of wounds littering his body; specifically from his back. He feels something brushing his arm and looks to the side—
Finally noticing the black wing glued to the right side of his body.
Ike gasps and falls to the side, gaze never leaving the wings and shrieking when it flaps against his body pitifully. It takes him a moment to realize that it is, in fact, a part of him—as much as his arms and legs are. A few meters from his fall, he sees the remnants of his other wing, cut haphazardly and lying uselessly on the ground.
Well, that explains the pain in his back then.
“He’s still alive.” A voice comes from above and Ike snaps his gaze up, seeing four men peering from the opening. They all look at him with contempt, disgust so clearly painted in their eyes it makes Ike’s stomach turn.
One of them, a blonde with lavender eyes and a hefty build, jumps into the ditch and lands in front of Ike. His hands are wrapped in bloody bandages, wounds littering his face and bare, tattooed chest. Even without saying anything, Ike knows exactly what they’re planning.
He backs away until he hits the wall, whimpering in fear as the blonde towers over him, no mercy left in his eyes. Ike tries to climb up, desperate for survival, but the blonde catches him by the leg and throws him back down. Ike screams as the blonde stomps his ankle, dislocating the bones.
He’s doomed.
“Still have the gall to run after what you’ve done, huh?” The blonde picks him up by the neck, choking him. “Didn’t know the demon lord was such a bitch. ”
“P-Please…” Ike sobs, hands uselessly trying to pry the blonde’s hand open. The blonde tighten his hold on him and Ike can feel the force crushing his windpipe to shreds. “I don’t want to die…”
The world spins around him, colors and shapes turning into a blurred mess as his eyes roll to the back of his head. He stops resisting then, hands lying limply by his side. Just as he feels death itself come knocking for him, someone’s voice drifts to the edge of his consciousness.
“Wait, Luca, don’t kill him yet.”
At that, the blonde lets him go, leaving Ike crumpled on the ground, uncaring of his pained coughs and wheezes. Through his teary vision, Ike sees the blonde glaring at him, but he’s keeping his arms to the side, complying to whatever his friend said.
“We should bring him back to the kingdom and let everyone gang up on him.” The other person continues, voice tinted with sadism. “Go get the ropes, I’ll tie him up.”
The blonde, Luca, easily hauls Ike up like a sack of rice and climbs up, practically throwing Ike to the floor the moment they’re out of the ditch.
One quick glance tells Ike they’re in some kind of church or shrine; the old walls toppled over, the altar ransacked, and a long, deep crater that splits the building in half ends at the pit that Ike found himself in earlier. Ike sees his own reflection on the marble floor, looking back at him with so much fear and pain it feels like he’s looking at someone else’s reflection.
A tall brunet ties him up with a weird looking rope (Ike guess the symbols etched to it means something, but he’s too out of it to properly make sense of them), testing the hold to make sure it's tight before Luca carries him out of the building and straight to their waiting horses. He straps Ike on one of the horse’s back and climbs up, taking the reins in his hands.
He waits until all of his friends are good to go before he takes off ahead, galloping through a thick forest. The broken building slowly fades into the background, overtaken by mist and darkness, and fear starts to coil in the pit of Ike’s stomach.
He can feel his body growing weaker and weaker from the blood loss, and despite not wanting to fall unconscious again, Ike’s mind shuts down as pain overtakes his senses.
000
The sound of birds chirping and broken twigs pulls him out of his slumber. He blinks wearily, sunlight obscuring his vision in bright white before his eyes adjust to the sudden change.
They’re going at a much slower pace now, trotting along the forest floor in fabricated calmness. Animals skitters about, running straight to the bushes when they see them walking by. The four men are talking to each other in hushed whispers. Ike can’t really hear them well, but he manages to snag a few information about his captors.
The blonde’s name really is Luca, always smiling, always laughing along and playing pranks at his friends. There’s Shu, the smaller one of the bunch with multicolored hair and a crafty smile. Mysta is the one with brown hair, sharp eyes, and an equally sharp wit. Lastly, there’s Vox, the one that ties him up. From the looks of it, it seems like Vox is the leader of the team–everyone keeps turning to him whenever they ask something.
There’s pounding at the back of his head, his body temperature rising at an uncomfortable pace. He tries to see straight, but everything around him is transformed into splotches of colors, dancing and swimming.
It’s the wound affecting him, his mind supplies. Perhaps they’re much more severe than he initially thought.
A particularly hard bump sends Ike plopping to the forest floor. The men stop in their tracks, not a hint of pity in their eyes. They stop and observe him, but none dares to touch the supposed demon lord until Shu puts a hand to Ike’s temple, checking his temperature.
“Sheesh, he’s burning up.” Shu looks around, spotting a group of familiar plants nearby. “Mysta, Luca, go get me those plants. I’ll make some medicine for him.”
While the other three are busy making medicine, Vox keeps guarding him, his golden eyes boring straight into Ike’s heart. There’s a sword on the man’s hip, and though it’s sheathed, Ike can’t help but feel that it’s repelling him—like his own body is rejecting it. There’s dried blood on the handle too, and if Ike can guess, perhaps Vox is responsible for cutting one of his wings off.
The rest of the group comes back with medicine in hand. Shu shoves something in Ike’s mouth none too kindly. It tastes bitter. Ike’s tongue goes numb from the awful flavor, but Shu pushes the small medicine to the back of his mouth and Ike chokes on his own spit, coughing as the medicine slides down his throat uneasily.
“There you go.” Shu huffs. “I don’t know if human’s medicine works on demons, but we’ll just have to see.”
“Haul him back up, we’re moving.” Vox says, already climbing back onto his horse.
After securing Ike to the back of one of their horses, the group continues their journey through the forest, now silent. Ike closes his eyes, the vertigo making it really hard to focus on anything. It’s not like he needs to be awake anyway, so Ike keeps his thoughts at the back of his head, trying to dissociate to alleviate the pain.
The lush forest slowly thins out, the trees becoming more scarce before they’re replaced by miles upon miles of green grass, swaying in the wind. It would’ve made for a beautiful and memorable sight—if Ike wasn’t out of his head at the moment.
Their journey comes to an abrupt stop when they see a familiar face up ahead, nestled in a small, multicolored caravan.
It’s a pair of men, sitting together in the grass. The taller one has eyes and hair like silvery moonlight, a heartbeat tattoo over his left eye and mechanical limbs. The other a small purple haired man, with heterochromatic eyes sparkling like the stars in the night sky and an eye-catching robe covering his head. The moment they see the group, they wave at them.
“Fulgur, Uki!” Luca waves his hand back.
“Hey, we finally found you!” Fulgur says, smiling fondly. “Uki here says he feels a bad premonition coming, so we decided to check.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about a thing; we got the demon lord without any casualties!” Vox says, smiling proudly.
As the rest of the group chat about their adventures, Uki slips around and approaches Ike, his brows creasing. He gently cups Ike’s cheeks, rubbing soft circles under his swollen eye. Ike, desperate for any semblance of kindness, leans into the touch, sobbing. The force of the universe whispers a message to Uki’s ears and he gasps, eyes widening in fear.
“Did you…” He stops, fumbling with the words in his head. “Did you really catch the right demon?”
Vox quirks his brow, unamused. He had been the leader of the whole operation, and hearing Uki dismiss all of his effort is honestly making him feel insulted. “What are you talking about? Of course we did! There’s no other demon lord in the area.”
“I just did a reading of his essence and…” Uki is still in disbelief himself. “Guys, this demon lord has no shred of malice in his heart.”
000
Awareness trickles into him in ebbs, the smell of flowers and herbs and antiques pulls him from the throes of slumber. Ike blinks to awareness, taking the time he needs to fully ground himself before he looks around.
The first thing he notices is the ornate ceiling above his head, decorated with all sorts of trinkets and multicolored tapestry. The bed he’s laying on is as eccentric as the things around him, with a patterned blanket that catches your eyes and soft downy that makes him want to sleep all day. There’s a small stove and table tucked in the corner, filled with things Ike can’t really name.
Footsteps approach from the other side of the room and Uki shows up, smiling gently at Ike. Though Ike is afraid, he feels not an ounce of aggression coming from Uki, so he relaxes his taut limbs and settles with backing up against the headboard in an attempt to make himself less threatening.
“Hey, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” Uki sits on the edge of the bed, hands pulled close to himself. “My name is Uki and I’m here to help, alright?”
Ike searches for any hint of lies in Uki’s eyes, but he finds none. All he sees in his gaze is warmth, kindness–it’s as if he’s staring into the eyes of a worried mother. With a sigh, Ike gives Uki a nod, and that’s all the confirmation he needs to start working.
Uki gently turns Ike around, inspecting the bandages he put on him when he’s unconscious earlier. The wounds on Ike’s body are deep, but none were as severe as the wound on his back, right where Vox had cut one of his wings off. It’s infected, but thankfully, not at a fatal stage. Uki’s pretty sure the wings won’t grow back though, not with this amount of damage.
“What a bunch of savages.” Uki curses silently, finger gently tracing the wound on Ike’s back. “Then again, can’t really blame them; you’re a demon lord after all.”
“...What?” Ike turns his head around. “What do you mean I’m a demon lord?”
Uki blinks, eyes comically wide. All sorts of thought crosses his head at breakneck speed before he sighs and facepalms. “You got to be fucking kidding me.”
“I kept hearing them calling me that, but I’m not a demon lord.” Ike furrows his brows. “At least, I don’t think I am?”
“What kind of normal human has a wing growing out of their back?” Uki jabs at Ike’s healthy wing, making him wince. “And there’s also your so-called dark magic? Hello?”
“Magic? What are you talking about?” Ike grows more and more confused each passing second.
Both of them stay silent for a while, each stuck on their own thoughts before Uki lets out the most horrifying groan known to mankind, finally realizing the core of the problem.
“We’re not on the same page.” Uki deadpans. “Okay, first of all, what do you know about…everything?” He gestures to the whole room.
Ike hums, recalling all that he knows. “I know my name is Ike Eveland, and I woke up in a ditch somewhere, wounded but still alive. After that, there’s four men calling me a demon lord and they attempted to kill me, but I guess I’m fine now?”
“Oh my fucking god, bitch.” Uki groans again. “First of all, you’re not fine. Those men are a group of adventurers hellbent on killing you. Second of all, did you not remember anything before this? Anything at all?”
Ike shakes his head. No matter how much he tries to recall anything beyond that, all he gets is a flash of blurry images and dissonant voices, but he couldn’t really make sense of them at all. It’s as if he’s reading some indecipherable book, written by a madman.
“No, I really have no idea what happened to me, or what I am, really.” Ike lowers his head, shivering when he remembers how murderous his captors are. Tears start to pool at the corners of his eyes. “I don’t want to hurt anybody, I really don’t! So please, I beg of you, don’t kill me…”
To prove his point, Ike grovels in front of Uki, trembling like a scared lamb. Uki immediately lifts him up, wiping his tears and hugging him tight. Ike freezes, his flight or fight instinct triggering. Once the initial shock melts away, he hugs him back, nuzzling the crook of Uki’s neck.
“There, there, I won’t hurt you, I promise.” Uki pulls away, a determined look in his face. “It’s going to be a lot harder to convince those guys, but I’ll try.”
“Thank you.” Ike sobs, his lone wing pooling splayed weakly in his lap. “Thank you so much, Uki…”
Uki nods briskly, giving Ike a reassuring smile. “I’ll go talk to them outside. You should rest up for now.” He walks to the door, about to cross the threshold before stopping. “And don’t touch anything here! I don’t want you breaking things!”
“Noted.” Ike smiles back.
Uki keeps his smile on as he swings the door close, before turning around and facing the four men responsible for hurting Ike with an expression that scares even the meanest demon around. “Listen you little shits, I’m gonna talk and you four have to listen, got that?”
Fulgur, who was busy cutting wood a few meters back, hears Mysta’s loud scream somewhere in the distance. He shrugs and continues on with his work.