Dantalion of the Goetia: Taste the Obsession of a Demon - Page 76/108

Rowan, Count Druite, and the demonic army were powerless, slowly being consumed by Satan's control. The illusions altered their thoughts and rationale.

"What's happening to him?" Rowan yelled.

"It's like Dantalion says, Satan commands his will unto even demons. He is taunting us, tempting our allegiance," Druitte protested.

"Why doesn't he show himself?" Rowan's voice screamed through the cavern, causing it to echo throughout the first heaven.

"He waits. He controls us… reminding us we now tread on his dominion," Dantalion's voice was barely audible.

"My Lord, are you alright?" Druitte and Rowan raced over to the jagged rock.

Dantalion's bleeding flesh dissipated as quickly as the illusion came, and he shook out the rest of his body checking to make sure everything was still in tact. His opaque eyes returned to normal, his canines bearing a victorious grin at his armies.

"I am a demon of the Goetia, once an angel of God. He forgets who he has chosen to possess."

The demons saw what happened to Dantalion, and needed to prepare themselves for the worst. Rowan, envied him. He began to see why I was entranced. Dantalion withstood exile and possession, still maintaining grace, a superior power that kept him in control.

Exhausted, the armies rested in shifts. Dantalion created a central fire, and Count Druitte and Rowan sat beside him.

"My fall was just the beginning," Dantalion confided to his legion. "A girl I loved was exiled to the afterlife."

Rowan especially, was curious about Dantalion's love for this girl.

"What did she look like?" Rowan pried.

"The girl is Laurel," Dantalion said reluctantly, eyeing Rowan.

"How can that be my Lord, when you yourself said she was exiled to the afterlife two ages ago?" Druitte inquired.

Half the demon army on guard scattered around the fire, leaning closer to hear.

"I believe Lilith and Laurel are one in the same. She came back from the afterlife to find me. She now wears the face of a mortal girl, a girl who's soul has been stolen," his voice ached with remorse.

"We'll find her. We know she is here," Rowan told the others confidently.

Dantalion looked at the others, those whose exile he hoped would one day be restored. He told them the history and fate of the demons of the Goetia.

"Long before the girl, and before the demons of the Goetia were ever sealed by the mercy of God, a young King Solomon called upon my brother demons to do his bidding. Halphas was the first. Solomon commanded him to build towers, furnishing them with gold as offerings to God," Dantalion explained.