Dulce was barely rattled by the explosion, immediately rising to his feet with excitement painted on his face. The light was blinding, but he squinted into it regardless, trying to make out the hulking figure on the ground.
Had he truly succeeded? Had he truly summoned a Hellhound to keep him company for an eternity?
The summoning light slowly ebbed away, letting the last light of the ending day shine softly, revealing a giant mass of black clothes and wings? Dulce tilted his head to the side in confusion, approaching the creature he had summoned from the Hells.
He barely made it into the creature's personal space before he was caught by the neck, his legs dangling feet off the ground simply from the Demon rising to his full height.
Dulce got a clear view of the Demon he had unfortunately summoned, his dark red skin and the snarl on his face were enough for him to realize that he had made a grave mistake. "M-My apologies-" He tried to clear the air, but the rest of his words were cut off by the Demon's sharp claws piercing his chest.
He choked on blood, red spurting past his lips and staining his front. The Demon's entire forearm had pierced clean through his chest, bloody bits of internal organs clinging to its claws sticking out of Dulce's back.
Kath'tan tossed the foolish human to the side without a second glance, waiting impatiently to be returned to the heat of battle by the summoning circle. He scoffed, the expression hard. He was accustomed to unfairness, but wasn't this too much?
Summonings had become obsolete for centuries now, the mystic texts long banned and forgotten by humans. Yet, one of the first summonings in recent times had to be him, and right in the heat of possibly the most important battle of his life.
Kath'tan frowned and glanced down when a few long minutes had passed, and nothing had happened. There was no blinding light, the red candles long extinguished, the drawn sigils on the ground smeared by him.
For the first time, he glanced in the direction he had thrown the human in, a morbid curiosity in his eyes. Most low-level Demons wouldn't survive that, not to mention a weak human. The human hadn't moved either, crumpled up in a corner of the room, his blood smeared all over the walls.
Kath'tan didn't waste further time, every moment spent away from the battleground was precious. Without him, his men could never possibly hope to defeat the Chaos faction.
He lifted a clawed hand and decided to carve open a portal himself. Perhaps the summoning circle was flawed, it would explain why the human was foolish enough to summon a Fiend.
A storm started in his outstretched hand, one made of red light and black wind. It grew bigger and bigger and then completely collapsed instead of expanding into a portal.
Kath'tan's frown deepened, and he found himself looking at the discarded human, a second and a third time. It might seem that the summoning circle wasn't at all flawed, but that the human was still well and alive. He tried creating a portal back to the Hells one more time, and this time there was a rebound.
It crashed into him, knocking him down to one knee. Rage swirled in the depths of his purple eyes as he rose to his feet and walked over to the human. He had to hunch over so he didn't knock the roof off with his horns, each step rattling the floorboards.
"Stop pretending," His low demonic voice broke the silence, "Get up and undo the summons, unless you would rather death." Either outcome didn't matter to Kath'tan, killing his summoner had simply been faster, and that was why he had gone for it.
Perhaps if he had been summoned at a different time, he might have indulged the human brave enough to summon a Fiend from the Hells. It seemed more than foolishness now, seeing as boring a hole through the human's heart wasn't enough to kill him.
Dulce slowly sat up with a pained expression. It had been too long since he had to experience such pain; it made him frown, a distant memory struggling to surface, one that was dissipated by the rattling demonic voice calling to him.
"I'm low on patience, human." Kath'tan gritted out, disdain on his face at the dazed look the human wore.
Dulce pushed his hair out of his face, "My apologies," He repeated what he had been about to say, "I made a mistake in my summons, and it can not be undone." He looked away as he said that.
It hadn't been malicious when he had drawn that clause into the sigil, he had just wanted to keep his pet companion forever. It was more greed than anything, and a lot of foolishness, seeing as he hadn't taken his clumsiness into account.
Kath'tan stared down at the human like a bug under his foot, grudging respect despite his frustration. Fiends admired strength, and the human looked largely unaffected by the large hole in his chest- it was quite impressive.
"Very well, what is it you wish for?" He deigned to ask. There was no telling how long it would take to kill the human, the battle was about lost. Like most all humans, he expected something trivial, no doubt riches and power.
Dulce tried taking a step back, but he was hemmed in by the wall and the hulking Demon, who was as tall as the cottage. "Company," He said in a small, strangled voice. "I wanted for a hound to keep me company for all my days-"
His words were enough to have clawed hands around his neck again, the blood loss and pain turning his silver blue eyes a jarring red.
"A damned Vampire," Kath'tan spat out, the rage in his eyes that had previously cooled burning up again ferociously.
Dulce had little else to say to that, he had truly summoned the Fiend to do such an arduous task -- he was all at fault. So he said nothing as the Demon slammed him into the wall, breaking it against his back.