Covenant Below

Disclaimer: I don’t own Kyou Kara Maou or Neverwhere.

*

It was a dark and stormy day. Rain poured down endlessly and relentlessly. Even worse than that, it was a Chaos Storm. A randomly occurring phenomenon that caused…odd…things to happen, much like how on Earth sunspots can cause electronics to go haywire. Something simple as summoning a fireball could cause an assortment of random occurrences, the flame could end up turning into a massive conflagration, it could make the flame turn purple, or in one notable occurrence involving Wolfram, a large fish could be pulled out of the river and be hurled straight into the caster’s face. Yes odd things did indeed happen when the Chaos Storm drenched the land and caused sienna colored lightning to lance across the sky.

*

“There is no accord, debate must be held. With what do you speak?”

*

Most people just stayed home and kept warm. Yuri and Ken were in Japan attending a school cultural festival. Wolfram spent the night trying to comb his hair, Chaos Storms always made his hair…frizzy. The other members of the royal family were also just waiting out the storm quietly. Chaos Storms never lasted more than a day, and tomorrow the weather would be gorgeous.

All in all, the sheer randomness of the storm caused things to be very dull.

*

“House Traitor speaks with a sword.”

*

Ryan sighed as he walked the tunnels. Keiji had ran off because of the Storm, silly bear, and now he had to track him down before he got hurt. “Keeeeeiiiiijiiiiiii!” He cried along the tunnels looking for his partner. He was honestly worried as the world flashed that rusty colored light across the world with those deafening booms. Keiji was probably all alone and scared, being out here in the dark.

*

“House Betrayed replies in kind.”

*

Belar ran through the woods. He ran to get out of the pouring rain and the demonic sky. He ran to get away from the demons and the traitorous bastards that had cast him down into this squalor. One day…one day there would be a reckoning that would sweep the land and things would be set right. He would be in power again and all the heathens, demons and heretics would be destroyed. Right now though, Belar had to get out of the rain or he would either down or be struck down by those hellish streaks of light.

*

“House Plague replies in kind.”

*

Belar finally felt that his luck was finally turning. He had found shelter. It was some small stone walled and, more importantly, stone roofed temple. He had no idea what kind of temple it was though. There were no decorations, no carvings, no chairs, nothing, just cobwebs, a heavy layer of dust on everything, and a small stone altar all in one, large, single room. Whomever had worshipped here had left a long long time ago, taking everything that they could with them apparently. Well so much the better. If this place had been undisturbed for so long then that meant he would be safe here. He made an effort to find the least damp corner of the room to sleep in.

*

“House Love replies in kind.”

“Very well…how long does the debate last Speaker of House Love?”

“Until only one is left breathing.”

*

“KEIJI!!” Ryan called out again in the dark tunnels. He was completely lost now. He was cold, water was dripping on his forehead, and he still hadn’t found Keiji. Now he was honestly starting to get worried. If he had run into someone there might be trouble…he might end up hurt! Well…alright more likely whoever met a frightened Keiji might be in a slightly more precarious position than he would be, but Ryan didn’t want to have to deal with another honest misunderstanding.

He paused in his search. Down the tunnels, in the distance he saw the glow of a light and heard the muffled sounds of voices. Wonderful! Maybe they had seen Keiji, or if he was really lucky, someone might want to help him find his lost bear. Then show him the way out of…wherever this was. He proceeded to the glow.

*

“Are we in accordance? No house objects to the terms?”

*

Belar walked around the room, his eyes naturally drawn to the only object of interest in the room, make that the only object period. It was a rectangular cube placed on the stone. It was only four feet long, two feet wide, and came up to just above his knees. He dusted the small slab off. How did he know it was an altar? It was made out of some smooth grey stone that felt somehow colder than the stone that the walls were carved out of. There were no carvings in it, no stains, or any indication that it had been used really. Only the corners and edges of the slab, rounded and scratched with time, were the only markings on it. Somehow this appealed to him. He was never a man who concerned himself with the church or religion…but there was something about the simplicity of this that agreed with him. This place actually felt more holy than some of the gilt and ornament adorned houses of worship he had been in.

Belar didn’t know what possessed him to kneel before the altar. Again, he never concerned himself with the state of his immortal soul. Now though, perhaps it was time for a man who had been robbed of everything he had to take time to reflect and open up his heart.

*

Ryan came into view of the group and stared at what he saw. There weren’t just a few people there was an impressive crowd. There had to be at least fifty people here, probably more. They were all just standing around, trying to avoid any dripping water, leaning against walls, pillars, stalagmites, what have you. No one seemed to notice Ryan’s arrival, they were all too busy watching the scene that was unfolding in the center of the crowd.

There was a small fire in the center and around that stood the strangest scene Ryan had seen in his life. A child, who couldn’t be older than seven, was conducting some sort of ceremony. He (or she, Ryan couldn’t tell) was dressed in rags and other discarded clothes marking him/her as one of those street urchins you saw in the cities or along the wayside. The other participants were even stranger. They stood along the sides of the clearing around the fire, each was holding a sword and they all looked ready for combat.

There was a woman in black armor, saying armor was stretching it though. It was a patchwork job, a strange conglomeration of metal plates, leather patches and strips, studs and stitches. All of it painted black.

The next one was also a woman, but she was wrapped head to toe in bandages. The only clothing she wore was a ragged looking coat. Her eyes were blood shot and the bandages seemed in places to be bloodstained or discolored. Ryan realized that this woman was a leper, or she had some other horrific disease ravaging her body. However that didn’t stop her from looking very deadly with that blade.

The next one was a man that made Ryan think of a fairy tale he had been told of a child. He seemed to be a living embodiment of the Tocktick Man. The fairy tale went that a man once built a clock in the shape of a man, and made it so that he spoke the time. However he wasn’t wound right so he was always saying the wrong time. The Tocktick man had many funny adventures, always trying to get corrected. This Tocktick man however would be sure to give him nightmares. The man was wearing some kind of helmet that covered his eyes, it was covered with gears and dials and springs. He had on a chest plate as well, that also seemed to be made out of pieces of junk. All of it was twitching and making a ‘tocktick’ noise that sounded just like the same sound he had begged his father to make whenever he read those stories.

The last man was maybe the worst of all. He was wearing body paint…and that was it. Although it wasn’t the fact that he was naked, or that he was painted in the most hideous, and jarring colors imaginable in a patternless mishmash that hurt Ryan’s eyes. No…it was the man’s eyes. Ryan had seen eyes like those before when he was a soldier. Those were the eyes of a berserker, of the mad warrior that would charge forward, who felt no pain, who craved blood, who was not a man nor a beast but some horrific mix of both. He had seen those eyes on the battlefield once…but compared to the painted man’s eyes…that was nothing.

“Then speakers of the great Houses of Covenant Below…” The child spoke. “We are in agreement. The house that wins this debate will have say over the argument. The argument is over the claim of these Bounties.” The child gestured to the side where three men were on the floor, bound, gagged, and terrified out of their minds. “Let this debate settle the ownership and then there will be no more argument…so agreed?”

“AGREED!” The entire crowd chorused.

*

Belar prayed. He didn’t know to who, or what. But he opened his heart and bared his soul upon that altar in that forgotten temple as the Chaos Storm raged around him. He did not pray for forgiveness or salvation. He prayed for vengeance.

He prayed for the hated Demon Kingdom to burn.

He prayed for the traitors and heretics that dared call themselves human, to suffer.

He prayed for those that caused his downfall to be punished.

He prayed for the so-called Demon King to die in agony.

His silent prayers changed to murmuring, then spoken chants, then they became screaming rants. Tears ran down his face as he decried his enemies, cursed whatever powers that had brought him down, and he begged with all his heart and soul for someone, anyone, anything to answer his call and give him back what he deserved. He would give anything, pay any price, and do whatever it would take for him to reclaim what was his.

At the end of this rant, all there was left for him to do was to collapse before the stone slab and weep for his loss. He then drifted off into an exhausted sleep.

*

Ryan swallowed, as he slowly made his way through the crowd towards the bound men. He had no clue what the entire story was here…but he knew that he just couldn’t stand by and let these…people…just have their way with these men.

No one noticed him as he moved through the crowd, and Ryan began to notice something. It was…difficult to see these people that weren’t in the full glow of the fire. They were…shadowy…he could only see glimpses of them at best, like his mind just wanted to tell them that they weren’t there. All he could see was outlines of people in sienna. He decided not to focus on it too much, it made his head hurt.

The fighters were circling each other around the fire, sizing each other up. Ryan knew that once the fighting started he would only have a little while to act before it was over. These were not the fighters who delivered speeches or flourishes, these were people who just wanted to kill each other. He reached the bound prisoners and knelt next to them. He wasn’t sure what to do exactly, but untying them seemed like a good start. He looked at the first man and started to reach to the cloth binding his arms when he stopped.

He knew that face.

He had seen it on the wanted posters in nearly every town he had been in. This man had murdered his wife and was on the run. He took a long look at the other two and blinked in confusion. They were also familiar to Ryan. They were large thugs that accompanied known mobsters. They were the kind of person who never cared who they were punching, just as long as there was a face under their fist when it landed. He took a step away.

What in the name of the Demon King was going on?

The crowd let loose a cheer. The leper woman had run her sword into the chest of the painted man. Ryan gasped, as he knew what was coming next. The leper woman had jammed her sword in the corpse and had to waste a moment pulling it out. That was all that the black armored woman needed. She lunged, and with one stroke, lopped off the leper’s head. It bounced along the cavern floor, as the body stood upright spurting blood out of its neck. Ryan kept from vomiting.

Then the woman in black spun and clashed swords with the Tocktick man. There was a moment of silence where the two pushed against each other, but Ryan could see the outcome. The Tocktick man outweighed the woman in black, and was able to force her sword away. Then the Tocktick man, Ryan’s childhood fairy tale hero, slit open the woman’s neck, and then rammed his sword into her stomach…and twisted,

The crowd cheered and Ryan threw up.

The child stepped back into the firelight. “This debate is over. House Betrayed has won, are we in agreement?”

“AYE!” The horde yelled. Ryan slowly backed away from the fire. He was now much more focused on his own safety, those men on the floor…Ryan felt awful for thinking this but…they most likely deserved it. He had to get out of here, away form these people he couldn’t see, away to safety before…

He bumped into one of the people in the crowd.

“What the?!” The person yelled. She came into focus and Ryan almost threw up again at seeing another Tocktick person. This one a woman with half her face covered with that twitching, ticking covering. No…no…the Tocktick woman was a beautiful porcelain doll…not this…oh please no…not this! Ryan couldn’t help it, he screamed.

The entire crowd turned to look at him. The thunder of the Chaos Storm boomed and Ryan saw the crowd clearly. Diseased covered monsters with boils and warts and scars, Tocktick men and women that scared the child in him to death, soldiers in black armor gazing at him with a hate that he could almost feel, and people in body paint gazing at him with eyes that held nothing but insanity.

The child that had been running the show walked forward and stared at Ryan. The way that someone might stare at an oddly-shaped piece of cheese.

“You can see us?” The child asked.

Ryan nodded.

“Must be the storm.” The Tocktick woman behind him said. “He saw everything.”

The child nodded. Then sighed. “Kill him. Make it look like an accident, we can’t have those from Above seeing us. They’ll find us and feed us all to The Snake.” The child looked at Ryan. “I’m very sorry about this. We’ll make it painless.”

Ryan closed his eyes and waited for the end to come. He could hear the thunder echoing through the tunnels again.

“RRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!” That was NOT the thunder. There were screams and the sound of running. Then a moment of silence, followed by a wet, rough tongue licking Ryan’s face.

“KEIJI!” Ryan’s eyes shot open and he hugged his partner, tears flowing down his face. “Oh Keiji…thank you…thank you thank you…you chased the nightmares away.”

The pair found a quiet corner and curled up to sleep through the night. Ryan holding tight on to Keiji’s fur the whole time. No one bothered them. The skies far above them quieted and cleared.

*

The Chaos Storm had ended and the next morning the world would return to normal. Well…as normal as the Demon world gets.

However…on the night where Chaos runs rampant, Belar’s prayers were not unheard.

And on that wild night, where the walls of reality were thinned,Some…things…slipped through.