《The Demonologists》 Gone to Shaitan Oh fuck, I cannot believe I''m going to die like this. I always imagined I would face my death with more nonchalance and here I am, tears running down my face running for my life from some lion-headed guy in a suit.The thoughts went rapid-fire through Ben''s mind as he raced down side streets and alleyways. ¡°I wish I at least got to eat a decent meal before I go, oh god someone save me¡±. The tall slender young man risked a look behind him and saw an eight-foot-tall man wearing a blood-drenched white suit with the head of a lion, black fur and antlers quickly catching up to him. Why does it have fucking antlers! "Please don''t eat me!" Ben pleaded between gasps, "Seriously I wouldn''t even taste good, I''m too lean, and I''m honestly not worth the effort." Fortunately for Ben, he knew this part of the city better than anyone or else he would''ve been caught by this thing several blocks ago. Unfortunately for him while distracted by the look of the monster gaining on him he took a wrong turn into a dead-end.Oh dammit Ben, rookie mistake always know what''s around the corner now your going to be eaten by the love child of Bambi and Shere Khan way to go.As the beast-man caught up to him Ben began to make peace with his death. The beast-man opened his maw and closed in on Ben to end his life. As Ben felt the teeth pierce his skin he heard a loud crack and saw a flash of dark purple light come from outside his peripheral vision and the beast was flung away from him. Ben''s eyes shot to where the sound came from and saw a tall lanky man with medium length blonde hair, and 5 o''clock the next day shadow. He was wearing a white zip-up hoodie with a tight gray t-shirt and dark skinny jeans and his hands were crackling with a dark black and purple energy. The man turned to Ben and spoke to him in a cheerful tone "Good morning mate, my name is Xander. I''ll be back in a moment to explain some things but if you don''t mind I need to see to our associate here." Ben only managed a quiet grunt in response. The frivolous new addition calmly walked forward and thrust his hands out towards the monster and a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and struck the creature. Less than a second later Xander was standing over the monster holding a glowing curved dagger in his hand and quickly plunged it down into its chest. The beast-mans chest quickly bled into a thick black shadow leaving behind only a fang, some hair, and a vial of black and red liquid.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Xander snatched up the limited remains of the creature and quickly pivoted to turn to Ben. "So, now that that''s taken care of now to deal with you." Xander dusted himself off as he walked toward Ben and stowed his blade somewhere on his back. "You sir have been bitten by a Shaitan. Now, while public knowledge of them is limited and considered myth, I happen to know you have about 30 minutes until you succumb to the dangerous venom it injected into that bite. Unless you drink a potion made from this here vial and some very rare and expensive herbs." Ben''s heart which had finally started to slow to a near-normal pace skipped a beat and then started to race. "Please, sir, I don''t have any money or, well, anything really. I''ll do anything, I don''t want to die, please help me." Ben begged with all his might.Funny how little pride does for you when faced with the end of your lifehe thought.Ben would''ve laughed at himself if he wasn''t too busy sobbing. Xander looked at Ben and started giggling "Mate, I''m just fucking with you. Shaitan aren''t venomous, well, that one wasn''t at least, you''ll be fine the bite didn''t even break your skin anyway." Xander stuck his hand out and helped Ben to his feet. "Name''s Xander, I hunt monsters. It''s a pleasure to meet you." Ben shook his hand a quickly stammered out "Hi, I-I''m Ben, I run from monsters apparently thank you for saving my life.¡± Xander chuckled ¡°Well hey, look at you, you managed to be funny things are looking good for your sanity. Let¡¯s go grab a burger, I¡¯m starved and I figure your life is worth at least that much¡± Xander promptly began wandering out of the alleyway and Ben sprang after him. ¡°Well I would love to treat you to some food; the problem is I don¡¯t really have any money to buy you anything.¡± Xander stopped to actually look at the young man he saved for the first time. Before him, he saw a maybe eighteen-year-old with messy dark curled hair and sunken features. Xander took note of how dirty he was and how even though he wasn¡¯t injured at all his clothes were torn. Xander said after a few moments, ¡°Come on then mate a meal will do you good after such an encounter, you can pay me back some other time.¡± and started to stroll down the road with Ben following closely behind him. Enter The City of Demons Ben sat across from Xander gazing at him a bit shocked "I thought you said, ''a burger''?" he stated a bit accusingly. "That was when you were paying my friend." Xander choked back through a large bite of a double cheeseburger. In front of Xander were 3 double cheeseburgers, two large fries, and a large soda, Ben couldn''t imagine eating this much in one sitting. "You didn''t have to buy me dinner too, I mean you already saved my life and I have no way to pay you back," Ben said sheepishly "Besides what was that did you throw lightning at that thing? you said you would explain but you haven''t told me anything. Is it even safe to talk here what if people hear us?". Xander sat back from his meal, already halfway through it, and said, "If anyone hears two dirty looking young men in a burger joint at 3 AM talking about demons they''ll just assume we are on drugs. Ask whatever you want I will answer your questions." "Isn''t there some sort of introduction speech you have that goes over the basics?" Ben asked more than a little frustrated by Xander''s lackadaisical attitude and unhelpful answers. Xander kept eating and shook his head. Ben sighed and spoke, "That thing, you said it was a ''Shaitan'', what is that and why did it attack me?" Xander swallowed his second burger and began explaining, "A Shaitan is a middling demon there are a few tiers of demons but the general scale is lesser, lower, middling, higher, and greater. As for why it attacked you well it wanted to eat you," well glad we clarified that Ben thought. Xander continued "Shaitan are generally soldiers or minions of a more powerful entity. This one was unbound and escaped to the upper city and sniffed you out and decided you looked tasty. Most likely you have a latent connection to magic and this made you particularly delectable." "So, if this thing got ahold of me what would have happened would it have eaten my soul or something?" Ben asked quietly. "basically." Xander replied, "It would have eaten your body and drank your essence which would have been even less pleasant than it sounds, although that is arguably better than what would''ve happened if it killed you without consuming you." Ben stopped for a moment and finished his considerably smaller meal before asking "What would have happened then?" Xander finished the last of his food and coughed a bit struggling to swallow the too large last bite. "Well," he managed to squeak out "depending on how much of the body and soul remain those killed by a demon remain trapped in their bodies until they are corrupted and eventually rise as lesser demons usually zombie-like creatures called gozrim". "Xander." "Yeah?" "We have a problem." Xander ran out of the restaurant with Ben leading him to where the Shaitan first made an appearance. "You were being mugged when it attacked you?" Xander asked shocked, "Is it even possible to have that level of bad luck what is wrong with you." "Trust me it''s possible that''s not the point though, how do we kill these things? You said I have magic, how do I use it?" Ben asked Xander as they ran "No, I said you probably have a connection to magic this would just make learning magic much quicker and easier but would still take more effort and time than we have right now. here take this it''s a dagger, the pointy part goes into the bad guy''s important bits." Xander wheezed out as he handed him his blade, "Hopefully you won''t need to use it." The two men turned the corner into the alleyway Ben was cornered by the thugs and then shortly after attacked by the Shaitan for the first time. Standing where Ben remembered seeing the Shaitan killing the would-be muggers were three grotesque humanoid creatures with torn flesh and small sprouted horns Xander signaled for Ben to stop and started speaking quietly "Listen, hold the dagger and defend yourself if you need to I''ve recovered enough of my strength that these guys aren''t a much of a threat to me. If one of the gozrim attacks you, I will try to protect you but I can''t promise I''ll be able to get to you fast enough I don''t have much magic to spare.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Xander rushed forward at the creatures summoning the same purple energy as he had earlier in the night and shot a small bolt of energy at the one in the middle knocking it back and onto the ground. Pulling out a dagger from his back he slashed at the one on the right leaving a deep cut in its chest and driving it away from its companions as he battled with this gozrim the one that was to the left had made its way behind him channeling the lighting into his legs he lept into the air and threw his dagger into the back of this gozrim''s head and landed behind it gathering the last of his magic into a spear shape he threw a bolt of lightning at the head of the gozrim he had been fighting and it disintegrated. Ben''s distinct bad luck had managed to kick in once again however and the first gozrim which had been knocked down had managed to stand and was now charging straight at Ben. Holding the dagger and shaking more than a little, Ben prepared to defend himself. The gozrim wasn''t particularly fast and they didn''t seem super strong so Ben didn''t think it could kill him before Xander would make it over to save him but pain is unpleasant and better off avoided. Ben took a step forward holding the dagger firmly and thrust it forward into the wound Xander caused with his magic. The blade stuck into the heart of the monster and it collapsed onto the ground. As the bodies began to dissipate into shadows they each left behind a small collection of bones. Xander approached Ben and panted, "I''m glad you managed to take care of this one, sorry it made it to you I used up all of my reserves. Grab those bones they might come in handy and let''s go." As Xander opened a door to a stairwell in the alleyway Ben picked up the demon bones which were a little larger than dice. Ben looked at Xander confused "Where are you going there''s nothing down there and what do you mean let''s? I don''t know what''s going on." Xander stopped a few steps down and turned back and looked up at Ben and answered "We''re going to my place I figure you don''t have anywhere to sleep and since you were able to kill the gozrim I was right to suspect you''re connected to magic otherwise the dagger wouldn''t have done much for you. you can choose to turn and leave but I can''t protect you if you aren''t with me and you''ve grown on me you''re like a puppy I''d be sad if something happened to you." Xander stared at Ben waiting for a response. After a long moment, Ben sighed how did my life come to this? he thought as he began to follow Xander down the stairs "So why do they just disappear like that and drop bones or vials?" Ben asked as they descended. Xander laughed a little, "Well it is a bit odd at first, basically, Demons are creatures of concentrated magic when they die the magic returns to the world very little of their body remains after that dispersion and of course anything in their possession also falls to the ground." "I guess I will have to accept that, where are we going these stairs shouldn''t even go this deep we''ve been descending for at least 3 minutes this is impossible there''s nothing down here-" Ben''s sentence was cut off as Xander finally opened a door that led them to view he never would have imagined. In front of Ben was a bustling city with skyscrapers and strange colored clouds and lights everywhere creatures were flying through the air carrying people some he recognized from myth and some he''d never seen before. he was overlooking something similar to his home city of LA but how could this possibly be here. "Where are we?" Ben asked in amazement. "This is my home and where I grew up Ben welcome, to Los Demonios, the City of Demons.