Shuto, Kingdom of Shobu

Early Summer, 1462

Pul passed his days in an unending nightmare.

Unable to speak or revert to his human form, he was held in a cage, trapped in the palace annex. The sounds of his howls drove away any servant who might have been attached to the annex, and the only people who came were the soldiers who tossed him rotten scraps or dead animals once a day. At first he starved himself, refusing to eat the filth they left him, but unable to control his hunger, he would fall into a blind frenzy and wake up to find that he'd ripped up whatever they'd given him and consumed it. His rational self would fill with disgust and he would vomit, but eventually, he gave in to the blank moments...allowing his consciousness to be taken over by the dark thing that held his mind and body captive.

Filled with despair, Pul could no longer tell day or night, waking or sleeping, and fell into a daze.

After what seemed like months, his confinement abruptly came to an end.

Unbeknownst to him, the war with Moutan had been going on for some time and one day he woke to find himself in a moving cart, cage rattling under the cover of a heavy tarp. The clank of weapons and heavy equipment, the sounds of shouted commands, all told him that he was moving with a contingent of soldiers, but he could not discern where they were headed, even though his sharpened senses overwhelmed him with information.

He had no idea how long he travelled, but it must have been many days later when the tarp was ripped off the cage and he squinted his ruby red eyes, wincing away from the glare of torchlight. Standing in front of him, arms folded, was the sorceress who had accompanied Furusawa from that time in the Northern Forest.

Pul hissed and growled in rage, reaching his claws out, and only jerked back when the talismans keeping him in the cage, burned him.

The woman did not react to his pitiful struggles, only surveying him with a dispassionate look.

"What kind of oni is it, Lady Kana?" asked the commander with distaste. He stood back a bit as if he could not stand the breathe the same air as Pul.

Ignoring the commander, the sorceress said:

"This one will be sent out first. Only once it has penetrated deep into the enemy lines will you follow. Do you understand? It's not yet been tamed, so it would be better to hold your men back for the second wave."

The commander shifted uneasily.

Even though the thing disgusted him, it still had the form of a young boy. To send this small creature as the first wave of the attack seemed questionable.

"Do you have a problem with the command of your King?" she asked, watching the man's expression.

His eyes immediately lowered.

"No my Lady. It shall be done as you see fit," he said, bowing.

"Good," she said curtly. Gesturing to two underlings beside her, she said: "Prepare it."

Yanked screaming and struggling from the cage, Pul was immediately suppressed by spells. Chanting under their breath, the underlings were obviously sorcerers, and red seal script climbed up his body as they tried to bind him. However, he resisted mightily, scratching at his body with his black tipped claws, breaking the seal script apart.

The Sorceress frowned and snapped her fingers. The seal script instantly flared up and wrapped around his throat choking him.

That brat! He's barely awakened, so I didn't expect that he could break the spells of lesser sorcerers...well...I guess that's expected of the Lord's vessel.

Unable to bear the excruciating pain of the seal script burning around his body, Pul fell to his knees panting.

"Had enough?" the woman asked, walking around him slowly.

Still panting, he only gnashed his teeth as he glared up at her, claws scrabbling at the script around his throat. Even though he was drawing his own blood, he felt a strange defiance well up in him.

They glared at each other for a moment, and then the sorceress sighed, taking a different tact.

"My name is Kana. You've been brought here to fight in the war against Moutan."

War against Moutan?! he thought as he jerked his face up in surprise. When did that happen? Why?

His mouth worked strenuously and the words that had escaped him for so long, slowly forced themselves out.

"W-Why?" he grunted, struggling to pronounce the word around his long tongue.

"Because blades must be honed, my dear little demon. You are Lord Akuma's chosen vessel and the weapon promised to King Seigen for this war," smiled Kana.

The myriad of emotions that flickered across Pul's face only made Kana's smile wider. He realized now why Seiren had been trying to protect him from their father and the bitterness of that betrayal soured his mouth. He was seized with a burning hatred.

Is this all I was worth? All he wanted me for? So I've never been considered his son... Seiren...why didn't you tell me everything?

The words of denial that he wanted to say died in his mouth before he could utter them. Slowly his body began to tremble as his heart filled with boiling rage. A black miasma swirled out around his body, heavy and thick with a demon's power.

"That's it!" Kana breathed, eyes gleaming as she felt the darkness grow around him. "That's what we want. That rage..." said Kana. Turning to her subordinates, she said: "Go. Send him to the front."

The commander shuddered. If he had felt even a moment's pity for that creature, then that was wrong. The creature's burning ruby eyes had not contained even a drop of humanity in them.

***

Although the land around was flat, the commanders of the Moutan army had settled themselves on a gently sloping hill. This was the only high point for miles. Right now, in the high summer, the plain was a sea of grass as tall as a man's thigh.

Moon, sat on his horse. The beast was uneasy, whuffing air out its nose. He was worried as he too felt that the battlefield had taken on a strange, almost electric air.

"Easy..." he whispered to it, as it kicked a hoof in the dirt, sidling sideways.

Surveying the grassy ocean before him, and watching it move in waves as the grass was pushed by the breeze, he could just barely make out the advance of Moutan's men as they crawled through the tall grass, inching closer to the enemy position.

Turning his horse he headed back to the command tent to report. Years of experience told him, something was wrong, but he would now be challenged to explain that to the battle commander.

Down in the green sea, the men continued to inch their way towards the enemy line.

Whoosh!

"W-What was that?" whispered a Moutan soldier at the very front, shifting his grip on his halberd. Beside him, his comrades, peered into the dawn.

The grass suddenly parted and then there was pandemonium. As blood curdling shrieks filled the air, the lines of men faltered, scrambling backwards as they were suddenly struck with heavy wet thuds.

"Arm! It's an arm!" screamed on man. "Demons! Demons!"

His companions recoiled when the man was suddenly punched through the chest by a long red arm of flame that yanked him forward into the crazily waving grass. A moment later the body exploded into the air in gruesome pieces.

Only then did the soldiers realize that they were being showered with the tattered body parts of their comrades.

"Run!"

"The grass is burning!"

At the command tent, hearing the distant shrieks, the army leaders rushed out and stumbled to a halt as they surveyed the carnage, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Moon swung up onto his horse, breathing hard, and charged down the small slope, directly towards the white skinned, red eyed creature that was killing men with six arms of flame that sprouted from its back.

"Fall back!" he roared as the men scrambled around him. "Quickly fall back!!"

Whipping out his sickle shaped swords, he charged toward the demon to give the men time to retreat.

For Moon, this would only be the first encounter with Shobu's war demons. As the war progressed, Shoban sorcerers continued to release demons and all manner of non-human creatures to fight along Shobu's army.