Rayun Helmet

"The boy is alive. He met Roku," Jarl hissed in disappointment as he made his report.

"You let that happen?" Urug snarled, turning his attention to Jarl.

"I underestimated the Lugina, my lord. I should have gone myself," Jarl pleaded, falling to his knees and bowing to Urug.

"If you were another, I would have your head for this. Since you know where to find Roku, bring me his head. I'll see about the Ur'ul Thuk myself," Urug ordered, turning away and waving his clawed hand at Jarl.

"Yes, my lord."

"Filth," cursed Urug as he wandered along the corridors, heading for the cause of all his trouble, the orb of mugin. If only he was powerful enough to enslave the orb on his own, he wouldn't need to be chasing a pesky human.

"You didn't succeed, did you?" A calm voice reverberated within the orb.

Urug's face deepened in a scowl, he didn't come here to be taunted by the orb.

"It's only a matter of time. Nobody escapes from me, not even the human you have chosen to help," Urug's deep voice boomed as he walked to the orb.

"What do you want Urug? You know you can't touch me till the cycle is complete unless you have some sort of a death wish."

"I want an audience with your human. I want to offer him his life. Don't you think he deserves a chance to avoid the pain I'm about to send his way?" Urug smiled, stretching his clawed hand towards the orb.

"Just this once. You can't ask for this again," the orb responded sternly.

"Get on with it already," Urug huffed, another smile playing across his face as he felt the cool touch of the orb making contact with his hand.

"Will he be able to..."

Urug was barely able to finish his sentence before he was flung into a portal which carried him straight into the Lugina camp, landing him right in front of Agashi.

"Demon," a voice screamed, and within seconds there were hosts of the Lugina pointing their spears in his direction as Alice pulled Agashi back and away from him.

"He's not really here," she whispered in his ear.

"She's right, you know. I'm not really here. I've just come to give you a choice," Urug chuckled, shifting his gaze across the armed hunters threatening to attack.

"What are your terms? You want to surrender?" Alice yelled at the top of her voice.

"Oh! It's you? Now I know why you look so familiar. Your father is Roku, isn't he? By the time we're done here, his head will adorn my chambers. Does that sound like surrender to you?" Urug laughed maniacally.

Alice hated her father for as long as she could remember, but hearing about his death under these circumstances broke something within her.

"I'm here to offer the human the same deal I offered your father. Ur'ul Thuk is not a title he can carry. Look at him and tell me if he can command you against the hordes I will undoubtedly unleash to punish this insolence," Urug threatened, his clawed finger pointing menacingly in Agashi's direction.

"He is not like Roku. He will not accept your false truce," Alice yelled, shielding Agashi from view.

"You should let the puny human speak for himself, my dear Alice," Urug chuckled.

Agashi emerged from behind Alice, the markings on his body glowing as he became the focus of Urug's attention.

"There you are," the demon lord chuckled, waiting for Agashi to speak.

Name: Agashi; energy level: 250; new mission alert: Kill Urug; reward: Orb of Mugin; Accept or Decline. The message was impossible to miss.

"What are you going to do about that message there, boy? Die or be a coward like her father and live the rest of your wretched life running from my Heshni," Urug sneered, chuckling maniacally as he waited.

"I accept the title of Ur'ul Thuk. I will stand against you and your horde of demons in defence of the human race," Agashi yelled in anger.

Urug froze as he heard Agashi's words. First he felt surprise at his bravery, then anger at his guts.

"Why, you little..." he lunged towards Agashi only to be sucked out of the Lugina camp by the orb.

"You have his answer. Prepare yourself," the orb remarked icily as Urug fumed.

Alice stood staring at the spot Urug stood. She'd seen the demon lord from a distance on a couple of occasions but the apparition they saw was quite terrifying.

"A summon from the council commander."

"You're coming with me, Reiki. Make sure he's safe while I'm gone," Alice ordered, marching away from the camp.

***

"Where's the boy, Alice?" Eredin snarled, pointing a threatening hand at the Lugina commander.

"The summon was for me alone my lord."

"How dare you take him under your custody? This is treason," Eredin yelled, trying and failing to keep his temper in check.

"What's the treason here, my lord?" Alice demanded.

"You were asked to hold him in the cells till we determined the truth about him."

"I was asked to keep him in custody, my lord and I did exactly that," Alice countered, she was growing tired of the demon's constant heckling.

"Then please explain to the council if it's common practise for the lugina to house a criminal in their camp."

"Is this true, Alice?" Eliott demanded.

"He's still there as we speak," Eredin accused.

"It might interest the council to know that before I received your summon, Agashi had decided to accept the title of Ur'ul Thuk and stand against the demon lord. It is the responsibility of the Lugina to train him and equip him for the task ahead of him."

Eliott heaved a sigh of relief before turning towards the demon contingent.

"This changes things Eredin."

"It changes nothing, Eliott. Your soldier violated orders without authorization from any of us. You can't sit here and tell me there's no punishment for that," the demon was practically frothing at the mouth as he spoke.

"I see nothing wrong in her conduct and from the report she has given, I think you have much bigger problems on your hands," Eliott pointed out with a smirk on his face, amused by Eredin's meltdown.

"You really think that scrawny bag of bones has any chance against Urug," the stone demon chuckled, annoyance flashing over it's features.

"It's not my place to say, my lady," Alice was beginning to enjoy this.

"Before we go any further. I haven't had the pleasure of doing this in the 1999 cycles before this. I still can't believe it's actually happening," Eliott smiled as he gestured at one of his attendants.

The young man approached Alice and put a scroll in her hand.

"Give that to Agashi. He'll know what it is when he sees it."

Alice nodded curtly and quickly made for the exit.

***

"That didn't take long," Reiki observed as they hurried towards the camp.

"We're at war, Reiki. I don't have time to explain," Alice blurted out. The lieutenant refrained from saying anything else till they got to the camp.

"This is for you," She called, handing the scroll to Agashi.

"What is it?" He asked, and as he stretched his hand to collect, the neatly rolled paper dissolved completely, feeding itself into the bangle on his hand.

Name: Agashi; energy level: 250; new mission alert: Kill Urug; reward: Orb of Mugin; sub-mission: obtain Rayun helmet; reward: 5000 credits, hypnosis repulsion; accept or decline.

ACCEPT

His bangle began to vibrate once more as a map was projected onto the ground; the helmet's location.