Flames of the Hell Spawn

Chapter 19: The Begining of the End

Sorry about the late update, but when I tried to post it kept telling me that wattpad was undergoing maintenance and wouldn't let me, then my WiFi decided it was a good time to die.
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Gehenna: Satan's Castle

As soon as Rin walked through the door he knew something was wrong. He didn't immediately feel that overwhelming pressure, he didn't feel that that dominating presence that always surrounded the castle. The normal weight of his fathers aura was missing.

Panicked, and forgetting his human cargo, he ran to his fathers throne room. The hallway leading to the throne room was a mess. The walls and tapestries were destroyed.

Rin burst through the door. The throne room was even worse than the hallway. There was blood and scorch marks everywhere. Rin turned in a circle, fully taking in the sight of the destroyed room. Whatever had happened, had happened recently.

He heard a groan. Astaroth was laying on the ground, covered in blood. Rin ran straight to him.

"What happened!"

"Isolde... she attacked..." His breathing was heavy. "took father."

"Impossible! Father is too strong. She could have never beaten him!"

Astaroth pushed himself up.

"There's no time to explain what happened. You take the humans and get out of here. Hide them somewhere. I will get our brothers."

Rin nodded and left. He knew what Astaroth was implying. The humans couldn't know that Satan was missing. They'd surely return to Isolde if they knew. Then she would have both the humans and demons under her control, and with Yukio under her curse she'd have Satan's power at her command.

Yukio and his band were left standing in the hallway in confusion. As soon as they had come through the door Rin's eyes went wide. He bolted off and left them alone.

"The hell was that about?" Bon asked, not understanding the actions of the demon.

"I don't know, but something feels weird." Yukio responded.

"What do you mean?" Shura asked worried.

"When we were here earlier, I felt something. I don't know what it was, but it was overwhelming, suffocating, and almost nauseating. But now, it just feels... off." Yukio explained. 

"Do you think it was Rin?" That seemed like the most logical explanation to Shima.

"No. It actually felt more like Rin was trying to block it from reaching us."

"What do you think happened then?" Shiemi asked concerned and frightened.

"It must be something pretty bad if it made the little demon run off panicked." Bon said.

"Who's panicked? I just forgot to feed Kuro." Rin walked up to them nonchalantly.

He may have been a terrible liar, but he was confident he could fool the humans. It was Yukio he was worried about.  With part of his demon power awakened, he might be able to read Rin's emotion. But he figured even if Yukio could read his emotions, he probably wouldn't understand what he was doing.

Yukio looked at Rin. Did Rin honestly think they would believe that lie? A quick glance to the rest showed Yukio that the others were not going to press the matter. He wondered if he should do the same. That would probably be for the best, just let it be, then they could move on and get out of Gehenna. His exorcist pride, however, didn't allow that.

"Sure, that's what happened." Yukio mumbled. Rin gave a small growl, but didn't say anything about it.

"Forget it, let's just go. The sooner we get to Samuels then sooner you can return to Assiah and the sooner my life in Gehenna returns to normal."  

Normal? In Gehenna? Yukio just couldn't understand it. How could Rin enjoy living in Gehenna? Yukio didn't want to admit it, but more than hating Rin, it pained him. To see Rin hate humans and exorcists, exorcists he used to admire, mentally and emotionally hurt. Just what had happened to his brother? The image of his talk with Xzavier flashed into Yukio's mind. He remembered Xzavier telling him that Rin betrayed the exorcists and fled to Gehenna, but something about the story didn't seem right.

There had to have been a reason Rin turned against the exorcists. Rin had been too determined to defeat Satan for him to side with the demons, maybe that was what he was doing, getting close to Satan so he could kill him. On second thought, that couldn't be it. Rin wasn't smart enough to come up with that plan and he certainly didn't have the patience to carry out such a plan. So what was it? If Yukio didn't have so much pride, he might have asked.

Yukio was thrown back into reality when Rin growled. With a swift fluid motion Rin grabbed one of the throwing knives he kept hidden and threw it behind him. The being in the red rode gave a yelp, as the blade imbedded itself into its forehead.

"Hurry! We need to get out of here!" Rin shouted. "There's probably more on the way!"

As if on que more of Isolde's followers blocked their escape. Rin knew he couldn't fool around. He summoned his sword and let his flames engulf him.

"Kurikara?" Bon said in shock upon seeing Rin's sword up close. He, along with the others, thought that Kurikara had long since been destroyed. Rin clearly had control over his flames without his sword, so they just assumed it was gone.

Rin ignored Bon's comment. He needed to focus on his battle.  He knew that there would be no reinforcements from the palace guards and the humans would not be much help either. He had to do this on his own. Rin pounced, attacking the closest one. It quickly fell to his blade. Their fight was brief. He defeated them without much of an issue. Rin turned back to the others.

"Now hurry!" Rin ran to Samuel's door ignoring the humans surprise and questions. His victory, however, was short lived. A huge lizard like demon cut them off. Rin was really sick of all these interruptions. He attacked once more. Unfortunately, the giant lizard had more endurance and wits than Rin's previous opponents. It countered his attack, roared, and used its long tail to hit Rin in the stomach, sending him flying down the hallway. He violently hit the wall, wheezing. Rin fell to the ground on all fours, coughing up blood. He turned his attention back to the rampaging lizard, he hadn't felt a force like that since the last time he sparred with one of his brothers. Which reminded him of the question that had been in the back of his mind since the beginning of this whole ordeal. Just where the hell was Amaimon when he needed him the most?