Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Two halves of a void faced one another. One half of the space was bathed in a white light, while the other appeared to be made of endless darkness. Neither time nor substance existed here; only these two halves.

The darker of the two was an entity known as Grimm, so named by the boy whose mark they could interact with the earthen plane through. The other was Luz, Grimm's counterpart.

"Luuuz…" Grimm called out. "You haven't been talking to me as much lately. Are you perhaps getting tired?"

There was no response from the light.

"Come on Luz, I'm getting bored. Lucius is taking a long time to get things done. So, entertain me." Grimm continued, but still the light said nothing.

"Bah, who needs you. At least I know you can hear me. You don't really have a choice in that after all. You know… he hasn't used your gifts hardly at all lately. It seems to be taking its toll on you, old friend.

"Meanwhile he uses the abilities I grant him all the time! It really feels good to be needed, you know? Oh… right, I guess you wouldn't. Ha, it's okay buddy, I'm sure the world will change any day now and Lucius will turn over a new leaf!" Grimm began to laugh.

"You really never shut up do you?" The white space answered.

"Luz! Finally! Come on, I was bored."

"I fail to see how that is my problem."

Grimm continued to laugh. Luz was not wrong. It wasn't his problem that Grimm was 'bored.' However, his boredom was vastly overexaggerated. Grimm simply wanted to gloat that for the first time in their long history together, someone had finally chosen to work with him.

No more were they attached to self-sacrificing and self-righteous nutjobs that Luz tricked into calling heroes. Every time a window to the earthen planes opened, the people they reached always took Luz's offer. Of course, because Luz was big on the whole 'self-sacrifice' thing, they often led meaningful, but very short lives.

They experienced loss like no other and had most of their lives and possessions taken from them. This time around, Grimm vowed to make something different happen. That was when he found Lucius. Now, he was not going to pretend his motives were pure as to protect the boy from self-sacrifice.

No, the reality of it was that he was just bored of seeing the same kind of idiot make the same mistakes every time they were granted another host. It had become almost too much monotony to bear.

Eventually, Grimm shrugged, or he would have if he had a body. "Yeah, you are right. I can resolve my own boredom… maybe by taking Lucius to the dungeon that the mortals call 'Demon's Stomach'? Oh! Or how about I help him access that tower they named 'Grimspire.'… Honestly I can't say I disagree with the mortals' naming sense. I kinda like it."

"Grimm… you wouldn't…"

"I would and I am. Lucius knows what to do and where to go next. Granted he still isn't strong enough for the dungeon, but we can fix that… Okay well he's strong enough, but the timing is off!" Grimm laughed at his counterpart.

"You know," he continued. "You look dimmer and dimmer every day. I'm worried you are going to disappear at this rate. Don't worry, from someone with experience, you'll come back when Lucius dies and we get a nice little reset. It's the curse we share after all, forever tormenting one another."

"I think you are the one tormenting me, Grimm." Luz muttered.

"Yeah? How about you try to watch hundreds of people do the same thing over and over again on repeat. Excuse me for trying to make life have a little extra spice to it." Grimm whined.

"You're a child."

"Maybe."

"What are your plans then?"

"Hmm?"

"Your plans, surely you wish to accomplish something in the earthen plane. I highly doubt that you are doing this solely because of the need for entertainment. You are up to something, you always are." Luz accused.

Grimm thought for a moment. What was he trying to achieve? He didn't know if there was anything he found important. Honestly, he started this journey thinking it would all end the same as it always had; Luz winning the affection of the wielder and Grimm eventually fading away until the wielder died and they started over again.

"Nope! I just think it will be fun! Truly I enjoy Lucius because he seems to defy my expectations. He knows I try to manipulate him and he doesn't seem to care. In fact he seems to appreciate the fact that he can always trust that I am untrustworthy. Haha!

Such a fun guy." Grimm laughed. "However, there are others around him that I find interesting and I don't know how I feel about them. Time will tell."

"Who might that be? I'm partial to that Desmond fellow."

"Yeah, you would be…" Grimm then felt something strange. "Wait a minute, hold off there Luz! I don't think so!"

While engaging Grimm in conversation, Luz attempted to take control of the gate they shared to talk with Lucius and grant him power. If Luz took control, there was no telling what damage he would do. Blocking any of Lucius's progression now would be deadly to him.

"Are you trying to get him killed?" Grimm accused.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Oh you sick bastard." Grimm began to chuckle. "That is downright dastardly! You would think I was the one who came up with it, props to you, Luz. Trying to forcefully reset our little game before it's ready."

The only response he received was similar to that of someone clicking their tongue. It seemed that Grimm was right on the money. If Luz had gotten through, then it was entirely possible that he could have blocked Lucius's progression again. Doing that now would set not only him, but those close to him up for failure and eventually death.

"Not very heroic of you."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

"Then don't be a dick?"

"Where did you learn that phrase?"

"You know what, you are going to keep trying to distract me, so I'm going to ignore you now. We will see how you like it." Grimm then stopped speaking to his counterpart.

Instead, he busied himself with thinking. The biggest thought on his mind was what their host would feel when he reached the bottom of the dungeon.