The Demon Paladin

So this is the latest in my series of character concepts for Soda Pop's Relic Knights. I decided to write his backstory in a slightly different way to my others for a change, which does mean it's a bit longer but I hope you'll think it's worth it. So, without much further ado, here it is.

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You could say I had a rough childhood. I don't know much about my earliest years, 'cept that I was adopted by my Dad, who is a Paladin with the Shattered Sword Order. That meant he was away a lot, and like most kids without a parent, I had to be educated at a state boarding school. Now, that's nothing special, and I know that, but there's something else you should know about me, which meant that my coming up was a bigger ordeal than any other kid, fact, end of.

I'm a big red demon. From my first year at the school I was twice as tall as the next kid, which is bad enough whatever colour your skin is. And I don't even want to mention the horns... You could tell from the first minute that I was adopted, and kids don't have the same subtlety adults do. And when you're twice the size of everybody else, that just means there's more of you to hit, but I didn't want to hit back. Let's face it, I'd kill 'em, and I'm no murderer. That's what I learnt from my Dad. Just 'cause you got power, doesn't mean you have to use it. It's all about restraint. It's about honour, and justice.

Eventually kids get bored when they know they can't get a rise out of you, so my later years at the school were pretty lonely. Nobody wants to sit with the big red kid, who knows what space germs he's got? Been on this planet as long as anybody, still got space germs. That was until she joined, the one ray of light in a school full of psychos. Lucie her name was, Lucie Blanchett. I never sought her out, and why would I? New kid joins the school, first thing they learn is not to talk to the red guy. Except her. No, she sought me out, she knew that out of everyone there I needed her the most, and boy did I need her.

Well the next year everything changed. All the guys who used to bully me seemed to have 'matured', got over their hang ups. Pretty convenient. She never fell for it though. Hated posers as much as I did. Well, eventually we finished our training and join the order. Her idea of course. I mean, even with my Dad there already, who would accept a big red monster like me? But they did. They admired my fighting skills, but most of all they valued my discipline, my ability to hold back all the damage I could wreak. I never felt so accepted.

That is, until the day they came back for me.

I'd been with the Paladins for nearly a decade, protecting the weak and helpless. I was assigned to a small scout party. I had the muscle, my Dad had the experience, and Lucie had the courage to keep us all strong. We had other guys assigned to us, depending on the mission. We needed a pilot, we got a pilot, we needed a stealth expert, we got one of those, we needed a Paragon... you get the idea.

This particular mission we were headed for a border planet, at frequent risk of pirate raids. That was nothing new, they've got defences enough for that. But this time was something different. My Dad, he gets a sniff of danger, a sense of something more nasty approaching. But where most people's instinct would be to run, he goes towards. Said it felt like destiny.

I hate it when he says that.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse, the rain was coming down so fast you could barely see 5 feet in front of you. Every so often you got a glimpse of something when lightning streaked the air, but aside from that the darkness was total. We were all stationed at strategic points around this one town, built in the middle of a maze of rocky outcrops. Natural defences, see? The residents could find their way around with their eyes closed, but any one else tries it and they'd be lost for days, just to pop out the other side never having encountered nothing worth looting. Except, these pirates didn't want anything on the inside.

I was getting creeped out. Our orders were to stay where we were and keep radio contact down low, but something wasn't right. It'd been too long, too quiet, I dunno, maybe I've picked up my Dad's sense for things. Or maybe I just wanted to hear her calming voice again. I pressed the button on my collar to call Lucie. Nothing, just static. I try again, nothing, not even a hiss through the teeth to say 'Not now, you know what our orders are, pitch off''. I'm about to try again when the lightning flashes up the silhouette of a group of giants standing in a loose mob right up close to me, and I didn't even hear 'em coming.

No, not giants. Not compared to me. They were my size, red too. In fact they looked just like me, 'cept for my armour.

“Who're you?” I called out, challenging them to answer.

“My subjects call me Warlord Mamaro-To” a deep, gruff voice answered, and as my eyes adjusted I could see that the one who spoke was the biggest and meanest looking guy there.

“But you may call me... father.”

“What?” I heard myself ask before I'd even fully thought about what he said.

“Your name is Tsunogi and you are my son” he spoke again “But there will be time for that. Come.”

“I ain't going nowhere. Tell me now.” I knew one thing, I was staying put til I had backup.

“You are stubborn, but I guess you get that from me. Very well.” The warlord coughed, and you could tell it was 'cause he wasn't used to using this language for so long. “A great number of years ago one of my rivals infiltrated a minion into my personal guard. It seems their plan was to steal away my infant son to deny me my heir, and to train him as an assassin whom I could not bring myself to kill.”

I held my defensive stance as I listened, cautious but keen to finally learn where I came from.

“The minion was vague on any further details... even under torture... but we eventually learned that our kind had been defeated and driven away from their outpost by the humans, abandoning anything that would hinder their escape. Including you.” He coughed again. “But, my son, this day we have come to welcome you back into our clan”.

“How can I know you're telling the truth” I asked, still not fully trusting this group of strangers.

“Look around you. But for that human armour you are the perfect example of our fighting race.”

I scanned around at the other figures. Physically they looked like me, sure, but their clothes were wild and feral, and their eyes lacked anything I recognised in myself.

“You are a Noh warrior, embrace your destiny!”

That word, the one Dad always used. I could feel myself getting angry that anyone could decide my destiny but me. I kept it in, controlled myself and just uttered one word.

“No.”

Mamaro-To snarled, but a smile soon returned to his face. “Very well. If you will not willingly discard your human life, we will have to take it from you.” He barked something in an alien language and the warriors either side of him parted to allow two more forward, each of them holding a human prisoner; my Dad; Lucie.

“NO!” I screamed as I tried to run forward, but at that moment I realised I was rooted to the spot by some kind of black magic, stuck in the same defensive pose, suddenly totally defenceless.

“What are you doing?” I shouted angrily.

“It is inevitable that you join us. It is your destiny. In fact, it has already happened.”

As he spoke, another figure came out of the darkness, but not in the same way the others had. It was as if he was pulled together from shadows, pushing into this world from a world of darkness. His very existence here made the current darkness seem even darker. But there he was, a Noh warrior, right in front of me where he hadn't been a second ago, 'cept he looked different to the others in a somehow familiar way.

Then it hit me.

He was me. He had been almost completely stripped of my sacred paladin armour, the remaining pieces vandalised with angry looking runes. He had a mean look to his face, the sort I'd pull if I'd got out of bed the wrong side to find I'd been given toilet-cleaning duty. The worst thing about him was looking into his eyes. There was nothing good in those eyes. They were alien eyes. Filled with hate.

At a nod from the Warlord, the warrior holding Dad threw him forward. He was badly beaten and stumbled straight to the ground. Without ceremony, the shadow-me thrust his halberd straight through Dad's breastplate. I heard a soft thud as the blade carried on through to the soft earth on the other side. “DAD!” I cried out as he coughed blood.

“He is not your father, he is just a weakling human. I am your father, and I demand respect! He is your fate.” Mamaro-to's face was screwed up in the nastiest dog-snarl I'd ever seen.

“He is not me” I cursed through gritted teeth, as I felt purpose and justice surge through me. “And I am not one of you.” Control came back to my limbs as the dark magic flinched away from the energy that now filled me.

“You may be my father, but you'll never be my DAD!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I sprang into action, my halberd a blur as it separated the copy's head from it's body. As the dark version of me slowly collapsed to the ground it dissolved, bringing light back to the clearing.

As if the darkness had been holding them at bay, the light brought with it a whole squadron of paladins who all burst into the clearing.

The Noh were already cowed by the sudden brightness, but the arrival of reinforcements broke their nerve and many of them turned to run, only to be cut down by the approaching sword sworn. As for me, I was a storm of motion and precise fury, striking down the remaining Noh who dared to stay and fight. In the middle of it all, with my brothers-at-arms fighting alongside me, I felt like I finally belonged somewhere. At some point in the confusion, even the Warlord slunk away, until the only trace of the warhost that remained were their dead and their heavy indented footprints.

Realising the battle was over, I turned to run to where Dad had been struck down, but as I got closer I saw Lucie was kneeling over him, with a strange blue light glowing from her hands. I stood dumb as an ox for ages, watching her use healing powers I never knew she had. Everything started to click in to place, like how she always knew what to say to raise spirits, how cuts and bruises would stop hurting the minute she applied a balm, the way she always made a guy feel 10 metres tall. It was like she just knew how to find what was wrong and what it needed, the same way she had found the one guy in the boarding school who was hurting most and helped him just by being there.

I couldn't see any change in Dad though, and I was afraid to ask the question. “Will he...” I managed eventually.

“He'll live” she said simply.

That was all she needed to say. I collapsed to my knees next to them, as Lucie continued to work her magic.

I still haven't caught up to Mamaro-To for what he almost did to my Dad, nor has he dared to show his face for fear of what I'd do. Not even sure myself, doubt my famous restraint would be enough to hold me back if he did. Several of our men and women died in their raid that day, so he has made our most wanted list either way.

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and that's just what happened with Dad. He's fitter than ever, and his brush with death seems to have strengthened even his already, frankly, quite creepy foresight. Seems you can't escape destiny.

As for Lucie, well I owe her my life for saving my Dad, and there won't be a day goes by I won't show it. And that's really all there is to say.