World's First Demon Lord

Gadiel

May 14, 9:35 pm, Canberra, Australia

"Gnk...hck..."

Ai gasped, her wide eyes slowly closing as she lost strength. Gadiel simply watched as he felt the life slowly drain out of her.

It was so easy. It was so easy to just...squeeze the life out of her.

It was easy to rationalize it away too, he realized as he watched himself choke her in the reflection of the mirror. That person in the mirror wasn't him. It was his reflection.

After all, Gadiel wouldn't choke someone out.

Gadiel wouldn't kill a room full of people just because they were annoying him

Gadiel wouldn't want to murder someone just to shut them up.

Gadiel was a good person.

He was.

He was a good person.

...

With a sigh, he dropped Ai. She fell to the floor, gasping and coughing, eyes watering.

But Gadiel didn't stay to watch. Instead, he gently put Tarik down, then froze a patch of the floor and broke through it. The hole was big enough for him to drop down while carrying Tarik.

"Where...do you...think...you're going?" Ai gasped.

"Away from you," said Gadiel, picking up Tarik once more. Immediately, he froze.

"God, you are so stupid," said Ai's voice in his mind. "Did you just forget that I was in here this entire time?"

Gadiel grit his teeth as he began to sweat. He watched, unable to look away as Ai's breathing slowly stabilized, becoming more regular and the coughs dying out.

He couldn't move. He couldn't move a muscle.

"If you had killed me, I would have stayed inside your head anyway," said Ai, gradually getting up. Her breathing was still a little labored, but it was much better than before.

"But your head would have been swimming with guilt and whatever and it would've been sooo much easier to make you into a puppet."

"But then you had to go and keep me alive," she said in his head. "This is why I hate you so much. Because even though you're bad, you're so bad at it."

"Make up your mind," said Gadiel through gritted teeth. "Am I a natural at being bad, or am I bad at it?"

Internally, Gadiel was screaming. He was straining, muscles bulging, sweating as he tried to move anything.

But he couldn't. He couldn't move at all.

Panic rose up his throat. He wanted to move, he wanted to lash out, to hit everything in his vicinity, blow, to go on a rampage to show that he was still in control.

But he couldn't. He wasn't.

Instead, the air around him got colder and colder.

"That's right," Ai smirked, stepping back. "Do you know what happens when people like you overuse your powers?"

Gadiel stared hatefully at her.

"Of course you don't," she giggled. "After all, you don't remember anything about being the Moon, do you?"

He remembered the person described in the books Tarik had been reading.

"And that's why you'll never truly unlock that power of yours," sighed Ai, walking backwards, away from Gadiel's slowly increasing radius of cold.

"Because you won't acknowledge who you are," she continued. "You're just gonna keep being this 'Gadiel' person you think you should be, instead of the person you actually are."

Gadiel was only half-listening. He was too busy trying to keep his cold inside. But the more he tried to keep it all in, the more quickly it was escaping, making him feel even more tired. He couldn't help it. The panic inside him was out of his control.

It was hard to breathe. He knew he was breathing properly, but it was hard to breathe, he needed to breathe. He needed control, he needed to move, he needed this, he needed to be in contro-

"MOVE!"

He screamed as he moved his body to the right, turning away from Ai.

And facing the window.

The black, reflective mirror.

As soon as he saw his own reflection, Gadiel's eyes widened with terror. He froze in terror, his body unwilling to listen to him as his heartbeat skyrocketed, his breathing getting heavier.

No...no...

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no nononononononononononononononononono-

"And now," said Ai, "you're mine."

He felt his chest tighten, as if a string had been wrapped around his lungs. His body was slowly pulled up in the air, chest first, back arching.

He couldn't move. This was his nightmare all over again. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't move, he couldn't talk, he couldn-

"You're really no fun," Ai pouted, twirling her fingers. Gadiel's body moved in accordance to her hands, slowly turning and being pulled towards her.

"It's no fun breaking an already broken toy," she sighed. "But I guess I need to in order to get my hands on the real prize."

Gadiel wasn't even listening he was too busy screaming inside his own head, muscles tense as he tried to move.

"Oh, relax," said Ai, rolling her eyes.

Immediately, Gadiel's muscles relaxed. That only made Gadiel scream in his head even more.

"Urgh, you're so noisy," Ai grumbled. "Why do you always have to ruin my fun?"

"Maybe it's cause you're a terrible person," said a weak, brittle voice.

Ai's eyes went wide, and for a moment, Gadiel stopped screaming in his head. Who else was up he...

The next moment, Gadiel felt his body being violently thrown to the side, right in front of a blast of fire that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Immediately, his shirt caught on fire, but Gadiel didn't care.

Tarik. Tarik was awake.

He desperately wanted to turn, to see him, but he couldn't. He could only stand there, blocking Ai from the ongoing blast of flame directed at her.

Wait. Ongoing flame?

Gadiel noticed that despite his shirt catching fire, and the constant heat on his back, he felt pretty fine. If anything, he felt that the flame was just sort of warm, and not that hot at all.

But judging from the way Ai was sweating, it seemed like the fire was actually a lot hotter.

For a moment, Gadiel wondered if his flesh and nerves her been burnt off before he could even feel it, and that his back was actually a charred mess.

Ai tilted her head, noticing Gadiel's thought. She too, was curious; Gadiel could tell from her thoughts leaking into his mind.

She turned him around to check his back, making the flame now hit Gadiel's face.

Except it didn't.

As soon as he was turned around, the fire stopped. Gadiel stood face to face with a tired, panting Tarik.

He looked terrible. There were bags under his eyes, his lips looked parched, and he was breathing heavily. It looked like he could drop unconscious at any moment.

And yet, Gadiel's heart couldn't help but be calm as soon as their eyes met.

Those eyes that saw him, truly saw him as the person he was. Gadiel knew that Tarik didn't ignore his flaws, nor did he force Gadiel to face them. He simply took him for who he was, and saw him for the imperfect person he was.

And he smiled.

It was a small, tired smile, but it was a smile that said that Tarik was glad to see Gadiel was there. It made Gadiel's heart ache terribly to receive a smile like that.

He couldn't be that bad a person if someone like Tarik could smile like that at him.

Before he could even think too deeply about this, Tarik immediately came close, and kissed Gadiel.

On the lips.

For a moment, Gadiel was shocked. Tarik's lips were warm and soft, and despite their dryness, somehow inviting. Gadiel couldn't help but be dragged in, kissing Tarik back sinking into his warmth. He grabbed Tarik around the waist, holding him close as they lost themselves in each other.

When they broke apart, Tarik looked as dazed as Gadiel felt. They both grinned at each other, suddenly embarrassed.

But they didn't let go of each other.

"I'm sorry," muttered Gadiel. "I was stupid. I shouldn't have been so controlling and weird."

Tarik shook his head.

"You were kind of right though," he said begrudgingly. "I was also being kind of...weird. I never wanted to lead you on. But I guess I kind of did. And I'm sorry."

Finally, the shadow that had been over Gadiel's heart for the past couple of days lifted. He felt like he could finally breathe, that he was finally able to say the right words to the right person.

He never wanted to make a mistake like that again.

"NO NO NO NO NO!!"

Suddenly, the pair became aware that the background noise that had been going on while they had been making out was Ai, screeching her head off.

"IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO GO LIKE THIS YOU STUPID LITTLE-"

Gadiel and Tarik shared a look, and each raised a hand. Ai was smart enough to notice something was happening, and quickly moved to the side.

But it was too late.

A blast of fire and a spear of ice shot out if their hands, hitting Ai dead on. She blew up into a fine, white mist.

"Gadiel, focus on me," said Tarik quickly, turning to Gadiel. He grabbed Gadiel's chin and pulled him down to eyes level.

"Just focus on me. Nothing else," he said.

"Wh-" was all Gadiel managed to say.

Then the pain hit.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Gadiel felt like his head was being ripped in two. He could feel something wriggling inside it, burrowing its way deep inside his mind. He was vaguely aware that he had fallen to the floor, and was convulsing.

He was also aware that Tarik was saying something, but his consciousness was rapidly fading away.

The last thing he heard was the maniacal laughter of the person he hated most in the world.