VERNER: The Devil Hunter

Blood red flames

Sunflower Village, 8 years ago

The bright full moon lit up the night sky, the sun had just set an hour ago and young Verner was in trouble;

"Mom is going to kill me!!" he cried and he ran home as fast as he could, sweating heavily. His mother had sent him to get some spices from a nearby market away from the village earlier, but he got carried away by street games and lost track of time. He was really late and had to run as fast as he could before the night got even lonelier.

Bats whistled, crickets chirped, owls hooted, the young night was filled with sounds, but as Verner got closer to home, they disappeared slowly, making the journey even scarier

"My legs hurt..." he muttered, he stopped to take a break and breathe, sweat dripping from his smooth little boy face. His legs were hurting terribly and so he had to start walking instead of running because he was too tired. All of a sudden, the quiet night became louder, a lot louder, not from bats and crickets, but people, people crying, wailing, screaming. Verner became terrified, the sounds were coming from his village uphill, and became louder the closer he got. At this point he was to scared to think, to feel pain anymore, he began to run as fast as he could, even faster than before, running through the thick forests until he got a view of his village from the hill. A massive wave of fire and smoke had consumed the entire village, but this was no ordinary fire, it burnt red, bright blood red. He could hear all the screams and wails now, with thunderous sounds from the hoards of humans fleeing the village and that's when it struck him...

"MOM!!!" he ran immediately towards the village, ran through the burning houses, most structures in sunflower village were built with wood, so everything was literally burning to the ground. The fire and smoke made it hard to breathe, hard to think, but he had to find his mother. He ran and ran until he got there, his small home burning heavily with blood red flames, but his mother wasn't in there, she was just outside, with her throat slit, lying in a pool of her own blood.

"MOM!!!!" he screamed as he rushed towards her dying body, tears rolling out of his eyes, "No...no no!!!...mom please no!!!" he cried and cried, his hands tightly gripping her blood stained dress, but she did not respond, until she did;

"Ver...r...ner" she muttered

"Mom...mom?" he replied with tears , despair. "Run...p...please" she cried.

"Mom?" he noticed a huge shadow forming in front of him. He looked up and in sheer horror, saw the man who did all this, the devil of devils. He was almost 7 feet tall and wore a shiny black cloak, his hair blood red, just like his flames. He looked into Verner's eyes, and Verner did the same.

"WHO ARE YOU??!!!...WHY DID YOU DO THIS!!!....WHAT DO YOU WANT???!!!" Verner cried and screamed, the devil only looked at him, almost with pity, he took a step closer and Verner screamed, gripping his mother's dress even more.

"GO AWAY!!!!..." he cried out, the devil kept staring at him, then he offered his hand to Verner, as if telling him to follow him. Verner was confused, frightened, frozen, and then, out of the flames, burst a man dressed in a green and blue robe, his left arm was chopped off and he was terribly wounded, he held a massive sword with a shiny silver blade and sea weed like quillons.

"MALACHAR!!!!..." he screamed as he launched himself towards the huge devil with his sword, he made a giant slash and a huge wave and water came out of his sword and struck the devil, throwing him some feet away;

"....You die here TODAY!!!" he charged towards the devil again, but he stood up and summoned a massive wave of red flames around himself. Malachar glanced back at Verner, he looked at him straight back, dead in the eyes. The flames surrounding him shot into the sky and with them he went, the devil was gone.

The man with the sea weed sword turned around to look at Verner, his blue and green coat stained with blood, his left arm that was chopped off still loosing blood but he couldn't think about any of that now. Verner held on to his mother, crying begging her to wake up, but she was already gone. The man looked around and saw all the dead burning bodies, the destruction, the chaos that had come as a result of his failure as a devil hunter, his eyes filled with tears, pain, as he watched the little boy cry, he failed to save his mother, it's his fault all of this happened he thought to himself as he couldn't shake off the guilt.

And when the sun rose, the fire had burnt everything it could, all that was left was ash and ruins, and in the middle of it, the devil hunter carried little Verner away from the scene. Verner had cried so much he couldn't even speak again. All he could think of was the devil who had taken his mother from him, and while the hunter carried him from the village, he made a vow to himself;

If the devil Malachar ever showed up again, he will not let him go unpunished,even if it costs his life, he will avenge his mother.