Zhergah wiped the sweat from his brow and blinked. His body was shivering from the strain in his muscles but he could not afford to lose focus, not when he was this close. It had been six days since his encounter with the demoness of the realm Sheol and he had not been able to get her out of his mind since then. Even though he had travelled far on the wind, carried by his demonic wings, to find a place so different from where they had met, everything he saw reminded him of her. And now, more than ever, he hated his dark heritage.

The demon in front of him was a particularly ugly one. Zhergah eyed his opponent as he shifted stance and put more weight on his right leg, leaning slightly backwards. The creature had four arms, each ending in a nasty clawlike hand and its human-like torso was covered in blueish scales. The lower body was rather the body of a huge snake and the head reminded slightly of that of a bat. It hissed. Zhergah growled.

His hand gripped tightly around the hilt of his sword and once again they clashed together, claws and wings and sword swinging and ripping through the air to find some form of corporeal contact. He was growing tired, both physically and mentally.This had to end soon. But he could not kill the creature, no, he needed it to talk.

It was two days ago he had found the trail of demon scent more familiar than any he had senced before and for the first tim in his life, he had actually taken up the hunt of a demon. Normally, demons came to him, to convert him to their domain or to kill him for the power he held within him. Two days had passed and he hadn't slept or eaten. He had followed the trail like possessed to find the demon ahead and just as he had lost the scent, the beast had attacked him from out of nowhere. Obviously he had lost some skills to stay hidden.

Snarling like a mad dog, the demon attacked again. Zhergah danced aside, striking out with his wings and connected, ripping a hole in the creatures skin. A black smoke poured out from the wound. The hunter smiled. It had come from The Black Wastes, the same domain his father originated from. This was his ticket to be free of the demon inside him. If he could only stay alive and not kill the horrible thing that was attacking him.

The battle raged on for hours, neither of the demons ready to yield to the other until finally, after a quick sidestep, Zhergah managed to get a clear shot at his opponent's back. The strike came fast and connected. With a roar of rage the demon went down and the half-breed was over it in an instant, forcing it down on the ground and locked it there with his sword, which by now burned red with the power it had consumed from the fallen demon.

"The gate", he demanded. "Where is it?"

The defeated demon snarled and laughed through its pain. An ugly sound which reminded Zhergah of the ways other children would taunt and laugh at him when he was a child and it drove him furious. Slowly he twisted the blade in the wound it sat in. The demon howled in agony.

"Last chance, fiend", Zhergal screamed. "The gate. Where is your beacon? Tell me and I will quicken your passing." His voice calmed and took on a hissing tone as he spat the last words out between his teeth. "I can kill you now, or I can make this last for days. Where. Is. It?"

An hour later he stood in the forest clearing, next to a small pool of water, eyeing it carefully. There was tremendous force here. A gateway to the Black Wastes was half-open in the water and he could see movement from far below. He knew exactly how to open it enough to pass through but he couldn't very well go there alone. He knew that if he tried, the demon who had served his father would take notice and come for revenge for killing their master. He needed someone to come with him as cover. Someone powerful enough to overshine his own power.

Suddenly he hated himself even more as the shadow of Sheol came to his mind. Surely he couldn't use her to do this. He couldn't even begin to think it. And still he was. He twisted and turned the thought, trying to rip it to shreds in his mind, but every time he thought he had found a better way, there it was again, overshining the idea. He frowned. This was not right. Sure, he wanted to see her again, oh how he wished to see her again, but he knew he couldn't. She was a demon and thus, she was evil. Calling her to him would only result in more pain when the time came and she turned on him. He would have to kill her then, and he didn't know if he would be able. She had some strange power over him which he had never encountered before. It wasn't demonic force, no, he knew he was more powerful than her if he unleashed it all and let the demon inside of him feed. He knew he could drain her in a heartbeat, but there was something in his mind making that act impossible. He would not be able to hurt her by will. Not even in the slightest.

But still, even though he tried to fight it, he heard himself calling out her name. As his voice echoed through the forest, everything darkened. The wind came icy between the trees, and the scnet of Sheol itself seemed to creep into his nostrils.

"_name_! I need you."