The Demon of the Three Rivers – Chapter 07

This is the 7th Chapter of “The Demon of the Three Rivers”. To find the whole chapter list click here.

Also, do remember, this is a prequel to “The House in the Lake”, so, if you haven’t read “The House in the Lake”, there will be some spoilers.

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Velek had secretly followed the Demigod of Light, when he went to meet Alina. Although he had cast the spell properly, he wanted to make sure the two of them would have sex. After all, if the Demigod were to come to his senses, he could have stopped himself.

But, as you know, he didn’t do that. And when the demigod took the undine, the demon knew his time of glory had come. And once the Demigod of Light returned to his home, Velek put into action his plans to take over the land.

Nobody would be able to oppose him, he thought. Certainly not the gods and the demigods. The heroes? Even the thought itself was amusing, to him. He had managed to send half the heroes of the warring time to their deaths, without even touching them. Those of the current era? He could easily kill any one of them, unless they came together, all of them against him.

But heroes are humans more than divine beings. For them to join forces would hardly be the most expected thing, anyway. Even more now that his own power was well known. Fear would stop them.

So, the heroes were not a threat. Only the demons could pose one. Therefore, he had to inform them that only under his protection would the gods and demigods not attack them. Then, he could have the lesser demons serving him, and the others would cooperate with him to be under his protection. So, yes, informing the demons should come first.

When this was done, he took over the land, and covered it with his presence. The humans did pray to the gods for help, but their prayers couldn’t reach the gods. After all, if they could hear the prayers, they could have found him. And this could never happen. He had tricked the gods for all eternity.

But even if one can trick the gods, they cannot outsmart the Supreme Ones. And just because they don’t actively interact with the world, it doesn’t mean they don’t really act. But the vain demon didn’t think of that. And, even more so, he didn’t know that these Supreme Ones had already used his own plans to give birth to their destruction.

In any case, Velek took over the land, and started strengthening his presence. His aura, if you prefer. He wanted to take over the whole world, of course, but he wasn’t in a hurry. He could let the strongest demons try to do that for themselves, using his land for a cover, and providing him with servants and sacrifices.

And some of them, hopefully all, would be killed by a demigod somewhere afar. But even if this didn’t happen, he would become stronger and stronger, until he could win against any demon. And then, as a true Demon Lord, he would snatch the world right from under the gods’ noses.

You remember the myth saying that the sun light wouldn’t reach the land? This isn’t really accurate. The light itself would reach the land, but its divine blessings wouldn’t do so. The rivers were polluted, not by some kind of poison that would kill the fish, but by Velek’s unholy energy which would enslave the spirits of the ones drinking the water, and fill them with despair.

The undines fought back and tried to purify the waters, but as Velek was becoming stronger, and some of them were being killed, they finally abandoned the land. That’s why there were fewer plants and fewer flowers.

Amongst the servants Velek received was an odd minor demonic entity. Velek never used this entity’s real name. He would call him “Diviner”, so that’s the name I know him by. This Diviner was not a pure-blooded demon.

A long, long time ago, a major demoness had thought she had found a way to create an all-powerful demon. So, she tricked a demigod and got impregnated by him. She was certain her kid would have the powers of her and the demigod both, united, and therefore, even the lesser gods would be powerless against her child.

But she couldn’t have been more wrong. For the divine power of the demigod and her demonic power cancelled each other out, and her son was probably the weakest demon of all. This is the Diviner.

Nonetheless, when this demoness gave Velek her son for a servant, Velek accepted him. Weak as he might be, he could be of some help. And then, the Diviner revealed to Velek that he could see a few things from the near future. Velek tested this ability and although the information was limited, its accuracy was the real thing. This was one of the two reasons Velek found the Diviner to be very helpful.

The other was his very human appearance and presence. Detecting his weak demonic energy would be difficult even for those with divine blood, like the heroes and the lesser demigods. As for the humans? Not even the most experienced priest would be able to say that the Diviner was not a human.

So, one day, the Diviner went to Velek to tell him what he had seen. “The God of Purification is coming for you.”

“That can’t be true. No god can find me.”

“I don’t know how. I only know he’ll be here at the break of day after the next full moon and he’ll erase you.”

As unfathomable as what the Diviner said was, Velek knew he was never wrong. So, he needed to come up with a plan to stop the coming god. If he were to fight him, he would have no hope.

“A god is bound by the laws of the immortals. He won’t fight me, if the humans tell him they prefer me ruling over them instead of his help. So, let’s do that. Go to the humans and tell them a god is coming to help them and he demands three young boys and three young girls to be sacrificed to each river, on the next full moon’s night. They’ll hate him before he even comes, and they’ll tell him to get lost.”

But, unfortunately, Velek was wrong. For the humans gladly and joyfully murdered the eighteen youngsters to save their own selves. And when the demon saw that, he left the land, moments before the God of Purification appeared to become the God of the Lake.