Isaiah has become the most popular child in the orphanage, aside from Madam Greta fawning over him, his stories and surprising liveliness made it quite easy for the other children to interact with him, in his head however, he frowned at himself, in the past, he hated the thought of noisy children surrounding him, it's one of the reasons that he never planned to marry. Yet here he was amongst so many of them, that his fingers and toes together could not count. He spent most of his time contemplating what he could do to get stronger, after all, he did vow to find Pride and make him suffer.
"Hey shorty, what are you thinking about with so much intent?", came Yves' voice, they were now the oldest children in the orphanage, 11 and 12 years old respectively, Isaiah and his brother had grown much closer in the past 7 years, Isaiah was well known for his intelligence and his brother Yves was the athletic star, winning all the sports competitions that the orphanage planned, he also secretly practiced swordplay with the guards around the orphanage, it was forbidden by Madam Greta for children at his age to learn swordplay after all.
"Nothing much really, I just thought of how much I've changed", he replied with a chuckle. The two had come to be known as the Golden Brothers, all the nuns believed that they would have a bright future once they got adopted, or became old enough to leave by themselves. It's not that no one tried to adopt them, the brothers were inseparable and would fight to be adopted together, the only reason they would immediately be turned away, was because, Isaiah's horns were now protruding roughly an inch above his skin, the nuns always told the younger children that he was an unfortunate child who was born like that, claiming that his parents were cursed by a demon lord. They never questioned him about it, and were never scared of him, but who would explain his case to the common folk?
The Human kingdoms often had to sacrifice great numbers of valiant, powerful soldiers and adventurers to keep the demon beasts of the demon continent from breaching their territory, King Darius was indeed extremely powerful, but he could not be omnipotent, that was God's job after all.
Abandoned Church of the Light God, in the slums,
"Oh mighty God of Light, I wish for you to bestow me the strength to slay the unholy abomination, who hides amongst the children of the orphanage, biding his time away and growing stronger, so that he may overthrow the Heavens! Woe unto him! Woe unto him!", a singular, grating voice chanted fanatically, this priest had been relatively well known in the town, but he had been let go of by the Light God's Church because he had harassed a lower noble couple when they were heading towards the orphanage. He claimed that a devil was hiding amongst the children, and on that day Yves and Isaiah were not put on the adoption list. He believed with such furor, as he had a dream in his sleep, of a horned demon bringing the Heavens down to earth and he saw, that the demon grew from a child in the orphanage.
Madam Greta's Home for Lost Children,
Isaiah felt a chill at that moment, they had just finished the day's classes, and were about to head to the dining room to grab their dinner, it was similar to the sense of dread he had felt all of ten years ago, on that fateful night... He momentarily shuddered and then dismissed the feeling, he had reminded himself that he's been living with those memories for over a decade now, it's better not to give them too much thought, as he feared losing his sanity. "Besides", he thought, "No fool should be stupid enough to do anything dangerous with the amount of guards patrolling the streets around the orphanage", after all, in the many years that Isaiah had spent in this place, and out of it, the town guards were always a few steps away. They only ever left the area when the guard shift had to change.
There was roast and soup prepared for dinner and all the children were excited to dig in and enjoy Daisy's cooking, "Hey Isaiah, I just felt a weird chill, did you feel it too?", said Yves all of a sudden, and from the courtyard came the voices of startled guards as a man in messy white robes wildly swung a sword at them, the children were all surprised and headed over to the windows of the dining hall, despite the warnings of punishment from the nuns, naturally, Isaiah and Yves were curious, but the surprise was yet to happen, the crazed man suddenly looked over at the children, but Isaiah felt that his eyes had locked with the crazy bastard, "Devilspawn! I have arrived to slay your unholy existence!", came his voice, with a sudden burst of speed, he avoided the guards and sped towards the window where the children had gathered, "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!", Isaiah yelled, he was luckily in time, yet the following scene was of chaos as all the children clambered away, tripping and hurting themselves and others, the nuns stepped forward quickly to drag the children away from danger. Isaiah and Yves had also rushed away from the window.
The crazed man swung his sword at the window glass wantonly, shattering it and sending shards of glass flying inwards, the children were being evacuated from the dining hall, but the threat didn't stop, he appeared to be a disheveled priest, he turned to lock eyes with Isaiah and shouted, "DEVILSPAWN! Alas, I have come to deliver your soul back to hell!", the nuns reeled when they heard this, they knew that the church did not fully approve of Isaiah being in the orphanage, they had tried their best to recomcile with the archbishop and had reached the compromise of letting him live there if he would leave the country when he became able. He rushed in, jumping through the shattered remains of the window and swung wildly at Isaiah, Yves had stepped in his way but a guard had made it over in that moment and managed to parry the wild attack, "Quickly, you two! Leave this man to us!", he said hurriedly, unable to spare the time to look over, as he was locked in place trying to parry all of the crazed swings from the priest. Yves and Isaiah rushed out of the dining hall, "COME BACK HERE YOU DEMON! I HAVE COME FOR YOUR BLOOD!", came the voice from the hall they had just gotten out of, followed by the sound of a pained shout, the guard had been killed, this priest had some abnormal strength even though his sword technique was no better than a child's, Yves stopped in his steps and turned around, "Brother, no!", Isaiah said, and he turned and stopped behind his older brother, "Shorty, don't ask me stop, the children will be in danger if that maniac is not stopped", just as he replied, the priest had made his way out the hallway, the guard had managed to cut his thigh, slowing down his movement, but this man stood taller as he saw the two boys, an aura of thick bloodlust enveloped his body, making it suffocating to be in his presence, another few guards had made their way into the corridor, "Priest! Stop right there! You are given one last warning before we call in the King's Mages!", irritation immediately took over the priest's sneering expression, since they were behind him they took the initiative and swung their swords, in that instant the priest had turned around, parrying and disarming to two guards with an abnormally powerful swing, the guards did not stop, one of them rushed forward and grabbed the priest, "Move away kids! We'll hold him down!", Yves grabbed one of the fallen swords as Isaiah desperately tried to drag him away, and they almost got past the doorway of the lunch hall when the priest threw his sword after the two boys. To Isaiah's and the guards' horror, it had sunken itself into Yves' back, protruding out of his chest, dripping with his blood, it all happened so quickly that Yves didn't even utter a sound, collapsing as his legs gave way, he died in a single, fatal blow.
"YVEEEESSSSS!! Stay awake! We'll get out of h-here!", Isaiah shouted, tears had already started flowing down his face and a traumatic realization set in, "Why am I so useless... I couldn't even drag my idiot brother out of the way..."
KILL...KILL...KILL...WITH MY BARE HANDS!... I WILL SHRED THIS FILTHY BASTARD APART!!
In a flash, a surge of strength and immense anger bloomed within Isaiah, as his horns grew long and imposing and muscles grew, appearing to be cut out of stone and sculpted by the finest sculptor. His mind turned cold and ruthless, calm, he could think clearly, in how many different ways he would torture this man before letting him die.
All this while Madam Greta had been peeking over from the doorway, staring in horror as the scene unfolded before her, from Yves' death until Isaiah's terrifying transformation, she was powerless to intervene...
The priest had already ceased his struggle in the grasp of the guards, and they too were frozen in horror, a musty puddle had formed beneath the previously rabid priest, as he locked eyes with Isaiah's, sensing the near infinite amount of malice and desire to kill. As if they had barely gained the courage to move, the three men blinked and Isaiah had disappeared, and the two guards became stunned once again, for the saint was no longer between them, and their shoulders were dislocated from the force with which he had been dragged out of their grasp, they both collapsed from the shocking pain soundlessly, leaving Madam Greta to witness a horrifying murder.
Isaiah dragged the frozen priest and held his hand firmly atop the nearest table, "So, you say the gods blessed you with the power to end my life didn't you?", he smiled a cruel smile, full of sharp teeth, "It's a shame they didn't bless you with any wisdom, lest you would not have FUCKED WITH ME IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE!!!", without explanation he pinched one of the man's fingernails until it dug deep into the flesh beneath it, almost wrapping around the bone, past the flesh and he tore it out slowly, dragging along bits of skin and gristle, and continued to pull as the tear reached past the knuckles, then he abruptly pulled separating the small bundle of flesh that had now been pulled away to reveal ligaments and bone, "9 more to go! Although I would prefer IF YOU SCREAMED", with a flat hand, he slapped the dazed priest sharply across the face, knocking out a few teeth and drawing copious amounts of blood from that side of his mouth, the adrenaline that had kept the pain at bay suddenly gave out and the priest uttered a guttural, silent scream, silent, but Madam Greta could feel this scream reverberate as though he had screamed normally, she was sick to her stomach at the sight she beheld, yet she couldn't move, she couldn't muster the courage to move, for she was uncertain of her life in front of the monster that stood with its back to her, as her thoughts were racing constantly, in a mess.
That can't be my sweet child Isaiah... he is the nicest, most compassionate child I know, that monster, is not my Isaiah, I hope he remembers who I am, I should move, but... I can't? Is it right for me to watch this? I need to run! But Isaiah... and Yves is gone...
The priest didn't stop his screaming all the while as his fingernails were slowly torn away from their resting place, sending wave after wave of shaking pain through his body, yet Isaiah kept going, making sure that the man was conscious throughout, casting curse after curse upon him, keeping him wide awake to witness his body getting torn apart, bit by bit..
"Last one already? That wasn't enough fun... how about I boil your insides? Ah yes, that would be amusing...", 10 fingernails lay strewn across the tabletop and now the priest was dragged to his feet, Isaiah's left hand firmly holding his neck as he conjured a miniature ball of hellish, black flames with his right, "That should be the right amount, we don't want to have you dying so quickly now do we? I'll resuscitate you anyways, you WILL stay conscious...", he sneered as he forced this fire down the priest's throat, on the surface, it looked like nothing was happening but, in reality, his organs had burned to ash instantly, yet the curses kept his body intact, regrowing those organs as they immediately vaporized, repeating over and over... and over, until Isaiah got bored and thought of another way to make this emptied husk of a man scream, and regret his choices that led up to this very moment... but the priest's soul had already disintegrated from this plane of existence after being burnt by the scorching black fire... Tears of blood welled up at the corners of his eyes amd trailed down his cheeks and Isaiah let out a humph as he realized that there was no more fun to be had.
As he cast the the broken body of the priest aside and turned, he noticed Madam Greta staring at him with the same fear that he had seen in the eyes of the newly dead priest. A tidal wave of remorse washed over him... unable to speak away her terror he summoned his wings and flew out of the building, flying as far he could away from the country's borders even, flying until he crash landed out of mana exhaustion and mental fatigue after doing what he had done after flying into his rage... and the sorrow he held for Yves' untimely, cruel death. Never to turn back to Madam Greta's Home for Lost Children, never to give genuine importance to any living being ever again...