Hellbound With You

Inside a massive dark castle, Zeke was in the throne hall.

His sword was dripping with sticky dark demon blood. Many demons had been slaughtered and were scattered in small piles around his feet.

Fisting his hand through a high demon's hair, Zeke tugged hard and made him look up at him. That action not only signified submission from the high demon, but it effectively exposed the vulnerable neck area to Zeke. "I've warned you… never dare try to betray me, Duke. But look at what you just did. Now everyone's dead, all because of your idiocy. To think you even managed to harm Prince Gavriel. You've found his weakness, haven't you?"

"Forgive me, My Liege!! I swear I will break ties with Prince Argon from here on and swear my loyalty to no one else but you." The high demon begged for his life, knowing that Zeke was not one to mess with. "I swear on my own lifeblood. You can take full control of my mind, Prince Ezekiel. That should be enough to make you trust me again right, my Liege – ahh!!!" A bloodcurdling scream spilled from the high demon's lips.

Zeke had plunged a knife into the man's eyeballs without even a blink of his eyes. His dangerous, heartless gaze stared down at the Duke.

"I, Ezekiel, never give any second chance to traitors. Never!" He declared and the man's agonizing scream filled the massive throne hall as Ezekiel gave the Duke a slow, painful death. And that had all the still living demons around to feel shivers and fall silent in fear. "You know why…? If they can betray you once, they can always do it again. So I'd rather avoid the trouble. Wouldn't you agree as well?" Zeke snarled softly. However, every single one of his words were heard by those around and they shivered strongly in trepidation.

When the Duke's lifeless body crumpled to the bloody floor, Zeke lifted his face and stared at the empty throne.

After dismissing everyone, Ezekiel took his robe off and discarded it. It had been soaked in the blood and gore of others. He hated demon's blood getting onto his skin, so he always puts on cloaks when he knows he was going in for another slaughter.

When he took his gloves off, his eyes caught onto something shiny - his wedding ring. He stilled and stared at it. Lately, he was beginning to feel numb. The endless killings and wars had started to make him feel nothing. The almost daily occurrence of bloodbath had been numbing his conscience and he felt like one day, he would actually forget how it feels like to feel something anymore.

This world was more dangerous than he had ever thought possible. There was only one last prince left for him to kill. But it was not going as easy as he had planned it to be. He was not expecting that this prince Argon was intelligent, if not as intelligent as him. He had not only fought with a large army on his side, but also with tactics, schemes and plans that had been put into place and just waiting for Zeke to fall into. Thankfully Zeke still had the upper hand and was able to figure out his plans.

The biggest problem was that Prince Argon had held Zeke's mother hostage before Zeke could even find her. And now Argon was using her to his advantage. But that was not the only problem that he was facing. Gavriel himself was also a huge problem. Due to his condition, he was weak and with Zeke needing to protect Gavriel every moment, he could not quite do the many things he had planned nor could he fight with abandon and ease. Because he could not leave Gavriel alone. And now, his already weak self was harmed as a result of that f**king duke's betrayal.

Things were not going smoothly as Zeke had initially planned. Though he never once thought that he would fail, he could foresee that this battle would go on for far longer than he had calculated it to be. And he was a little afraid of what he would end up becoming if this dragged on. The chaos and darkness and killing in this world was just too much. It was overwhelming and had the power to corrupt anyone's heart and turn it to nothing but a numb and dead wasteland, incapable of kindness nor even basic emotions.

Shutting his eyes tightly close, Zeke brought his hand to his lips and kissed his ring in a worshipful manner. He had been doing this every single day. He kissed his ring, shut his eyes closed and then picture Alicia's face in his mind, finding his centre and grounding himself with her image. Every single day, he never allowed himself to miss out doing this. It was because he feared that this world and its darkness would gradually cause him to forget what he was truly fighting for. His beloved Alicia.

"Alicia…" he then uttered softly. Uttering her name out loud had become like a daily prayer to him. He always did this because of the same reason. He feared that he would eventually forget her name if he did not do this.

"My Liege." Ruka's voice pulled at his attention but he did not bother to turn around. "We've found a… a strange woman. She has long silver hair. And she claimed to be your… wife."

Zeke froze at what he had heard being reported by his subordinate. But his shoulders eventually relaxed and a lopsided smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"I know you wouldn't even consider believing it… so we just went ahead and had her brought along with us." Ruka continued, obviously knowing already that Zeke will just laugh off at what he had reported.

But Zeke did not react and just nonchalantly discarded his dirty gloves. To him, what they were telling him was impossible. Just plain impossible that even though deep within, he desperately wished that it was true, he would not even dare consider taking a look at the woman they were referring to.

"Stop with that nonsense and have someone clean up this mess." Ezekiel's deep and emotionless voice rang out. "Also, have Archer prepare for war –"

"Ezekiel!!" echoed a familiar beautiful sound - a sound that Ezekiel had resigned himself to not hear ever again while he was in this world. A sound that instantly pierced through his numbing soul.