1vAll Part I (Patreon)

the sky was painted red as if it was about to rain blood. Under the

red sky stood a desolate city filled with several modern buildings,

but some were looking as if they were built by the devil himself.

This was Hell City and it was surrounded by a mountainous wasteland.

If one looked closer, they'd notice that several of the city's

inhabitants were in the sky. There was a hulking fellow with pale

green skin drifting in the sky, his catlike, red eyes were firmly

glued to the ground as his petite human wife took comfort in his

arms. They were both watching a battle down below in the wasteland

known as the city streets.

There were still several

civilians on the ground attempting to escape the turmoil that began

once a glowing blue figure met with a glowing red figure. Everybody

recognized the blue figure as Lord Azul, the tyrannical King of Hell

City. There was no mistaking his pale blue skin, rough goatee,

brick-house physique and his dreaded hair, tied back while the rest

of his dreads slithered down his shoulders. Absolutely nobody

recognized the glowing red figure. His name is Joaquin Joseph. He

stood at a towering 6 foot 3, had long, brown hair, tan skin, dark

eyebrows, one eye jet black and the other a catlike red. His physique

rivaled that of Lord Azul, but hadn't quite matched up in appearance

as Lord Azul was older and of a much thicker species. See, Joaquin

was a mere human standing against a Demonic King. To understand why,

the hands of time must turn back to before the seeds of this battle

were planted.

14 years prior, on a

similar night in a somewhat rundown house in the city, an adult,

Hispanic male was bidding farewell to his demonic wife. She wore her

hair tied up in a bun, but let her bangs flow down her full face. Her

eyes bright orange, her skin pale blue while her lips were a slightly

darker shade of blue. At the corner of her eyes were curved lines

known as her demonic markings. Every demon inherits these markings

from a previous generation. The man wore his hair slicked back and

sported a thin mustache combined with an elegant goatee.

“I'll try not to be gone

for too long, my dear. The good King says it's an in-and-out job,”

he declared to his wife as he laid a hand gently on her shoulder.

She couldn't help, but worry

despite his assurance, “Paolo, isn't there any way you could

postpone? I'm sure Lord Azul would understand. After all, you and him

were childhood friends, so I'm certain he could cut you some slack?”

Paolo furrowed his brow and

softly leaned his forehead onto hers, “Cora, I promise that I won't

be gone long. Besides, you have the children to keep you company.”

As soon as Paolo stated

that, he noticed in the corner of his eye that his young son,

Joaquin, had been standing on the other side of the wall and

eavesdropped on his father's conversation with his stepmother. The

father motioned for his son to come over and the boy did as asked,

only to be stopped by his father's hand placed gently on his head as

he ruffled his hair.

“Joaquin, while I'm gone,

you're the man of the house. Make sure you take care of your

stepmother and your little sister, ok?” asked Paolo with a gentle

smile, “Dad needs to go to work.”

Young Joaquin simply nodded

and replied, “Yeah, dad, don't worry about us. I'll take care of

Cora and Clara.”

Paolo immediately looked

over at Cora, who had a saddened look on her face. Little Joaquin

still hadn't taken to calling Cora “Mom” yet despite her and

Paolo being together for years and having a child together. Still,

she was appreciative that he, at the very least, respected her enough

to address her as Cora instead of “Weird Demon Lady” as he did

when they first met. Paolo lifted his hand from his son's head,

walked over to Cora, kissed her goodbye and left out the front door.

As Joaquin and Cora watched Paolo leave, they were unaware that this

was going to be the last time they would see him for a very long

time.