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| Zermon's appearance closest to "Darkness" in film "Legend" |
“What you have to understand from the beginning is my unique situation here. As ruler of hell, I have a number of specific and time-consuming responsibilities. Demons come down all the time, and very few are of quality for any real use. Finding suitable, appropriate assistance is nearly impossible down here.
“What would some ‘god of the dead’ think he’d get from us down here? The lower demons overwhelm me enough with stupidity, so how can the dead possibly be of use? This god or whatever-he-is makes dead people get up, walk around, and occasionally eat a few people. I’ve got much better than that without the awful smell.
“This ‘god’ named Abbias, furnished me with living people to send straight into our flames so I could make demons with potential quality. He needed to rid himself of number of hideous child-soldiers created by the barbaric humans to fight his rancid armies. We made a deal. He delivered several dozen souls, but I didn’t want to spoil them all at once, because I needed time to see how they would respond to the transition into demons. Perfection takes patience. I suspended them above the pits for a while, so they could get to know the place better. After all, I am an impeccable host.
“Then arrived the bane of my existence, that little monster bitch Shevata, who ruined it all. I was minding my own business when one of my intellectual imbeciles reported my fresh souls were missing. Lower demons I sent to track the souls were never seen again. Finally I summoned Mathiam. He’s my weaker twin brother, but when it comes to finding culprits, he usually pulls it off. He found our little she-devil within hours. As she dropped unconscious into my arms, talk about unimpressive! She looks like she’s twelve, but she says she’s sixteen. Her hair is matted, her face is dirty, and at least a dozen swords and daggers fell out of her clothing as I carried her. I hate to say it, but the girl needs a course in hygiene.
“I’ve spent a millennium imprisoning obnoxious members of the upper world. I questioned a few, tortured a bunch, but never found results to take up my valuable time. Shevata was no different. I had some of the fools in my domain work on her a few years. I’ve never seen a ruder prisoner. She tried to kill every demon that entered her cell, even if they didn’t threaten her. She was impossible, stubborn to the point of a nightmare! All I needed her to tell us was how was she getting the souls out of hell. And she guarded her secret, laughing, like I’d never find out. Well, she was right, I never found out until centuries later.
“As I pondered over what to do with this scourge of humanity, I decided to move on with changing her into a demon, to improve her hideous attitude and keep her impressive murdering abilities. All she had to do was drink some unholy water from a goblet. Is that asking so much? I used to drink it all the time, which made me the intellectually superior, well-rounded ruler of demons that I am. To her, I might as well have demanded a dragons’ treasure, as she sustained her lack of cooperation like a rock. She choked down a little, kicked the chalice away, and then like an idiot, jumped into the flames!
“I knew she’d never rise from the fire. My world couldn’t tolerate her any more than her own. Years later, I called in my favor to the god of the dead, so he gave me access to the human world with a gateway to hell. I could summon my demonic servants to the human world as needed. Everything was set up perfectly, by my own design, of course, with a fallen city nearby, plans for me to leave a half-human son to maintain rule after I got sick of the place. So who shows up? My old friend Shevata. She looks the same, plain, underdeveloped, and in severe need of a decent hairstyle and wardrobe.
“Humans tell each other about unstoppable forces, like me, naturally. What they don’t say is sometimes the worst of us all arise directly from the world of their making, instead of the world that I’m ruling."
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