Kadini the Zulu Demon Ch. 01

In mortal life, once upon a time, Kadini was a fearsome warrior. One who served at the pleasure of Shaka, King of the Zulus, and the last ruler of the magnificent realm of pre-colonial Southern Africa. Kadini the Zulu warrior personally killed over a hundred white men when they came to pillage, rape and plunder his homeland. The Zulu warrior had sworn an oath that he would not rest until those who threatened his homeland were brought to justice.

Sadly, Kadini perished in battle in 1825 at his King Shaka's side. The King of the Zulus is noted as being one of the most formidable warriors and leaders across human history, and Kadini was his iron-willed right hand. It was a sad day for southern Africa. Without Kadini to plan his raids on his European enemies or lead his legions into battle, Shaka Zulu weakened, until he was slain by his political rivals and the Zulu Kingdom fell to the Europeans.

When Kadini's soul arrived in the Land of the Spirits, he expected to see the faces of his ancestors, but instead he faced the Judgement of the Damned. His actions during the wars were legendary even in Hell. For Kadini was the same man who once decapitated a European soldier, defecated on his corpse and fed it to the hyenas on the great plains of Southern Africa.

The brave Zulu warrior had indeed committed atrocities. Indeed, the Europeans feared the dark age of Kadini even more than the might of Shaka Zulu, for the King of the Zulus could never match his favorite soldier's wrath. Kadini wasn't always a raging madman hell bent on vengeance. Kadini was once a good man, a proud citizen of the Zulu Kingdom, as well as a loving husband and father. All was well in Kadini's world, until the day his world ended...

When the Europeans began incursions into the land of the Zulus, Kadini's village was one of the first settlements they attacked, and his wife and daughter perished. For this, Kadini hated the invaders and vowed to make them pay. Shaka the King of the Zulus fought bravely against the European invaders, and none of his warriors were fiercer than Kadini, the one whom they nicknamed the Bush Devil.

Death awaits all human beings, black or white, young or old, male or female, at the end of life's journey. Brave warriors like Kadini of Zulu are indeed no exceptions. During the Judgement of the Damned, Kadini argued that he was no monster, and that he was only doing what was necessary to save his people. The Judges heeded his pleas, and he was offered the choice of remaining on Earth to do the work of the damned, or ascending to the ethereal plane. Guess which one he chose?

"Kadini, you are to return to the mortal realm and work as a harbinger of souls, your task is to punish the wicked, to atone for your sins, should you fail you shall return to the land of the spirits and suffer eternal torment," said Bal, the Demon Overlord. Kadini the Zulu stood before Bal, who for the moment assumed the form of a towering, dark-skinned man with a horned head and flaming red eyes.

"How will I do such a thing, Overlord? Dead though I may be, I know nothing of magic," Kadini replied, fearlessly looking into the Demon Lord's flaming eyes. Even among the dead, the sons of the Zulu nation were stoic and fearless. Kadini was still shaking from the ordeal of his death, struck from behind like a coward by a European soldier. Before life left his body, however, Kadini had slain the soldier who wounded him with his spear. Only then did Kadini fall, having gained this final satisfaction from his enemy.

"You will gain the powers of a Demon, and thusly no mortal weapons will succeed against you, but should you fail to bring a thousand wicked souls to me, you will be sent to the worst part of Hell," Bal said, and Kadini nodded. The Demon Lord approached the soul of the slain Zulu warrior, and laid his hands on his shoulders. Crimson flames shot out of the Demon Lord's fingertips, seemingly consuming the dead man.

"What is happening to me?" Kadini screamed, even as the hellish flames entered his body, burning him from the inside out. When Kadini's screams subsided, he found himself...transformed. Kadini was flesh once more, flesh and blood, but far from human. Hellfire flowed through his veins in liquid form, granting him truly extraordinary powers. Kadini looked up at Bal, and the Demon Overlord smiled with satisfaction.

"Go forth, and fulfill your purpose," Bal shouted, and Kadini disappeared in a flash as a swirling vortex of bright red energy gripped him and carried him elsewhere. When Kadini came to, he found himself in a place which to his new gaze seemed stranger than both the Southern African plains in which he grew up and the nightmarish world he just left. The City of Boston, Massachusetts. A massive metropolis made of red brick and gleaming metal, where scores of humans of all hues lived.

"What is this place?" Kadini asked out loud, as he looked at the metallic metropolis from a sort of stone bridge. He didn't know it yet but he was standing on the Charles River Bridge. The resurrected and Demonically empowered Zulu began walking around the City of Boston, Massachusetts, wondering where in Hell the Demon Overlord sent him. Oh, and Kadini was also naked. Someone of course called the police about the six-foot-five, dark-skinned and muscular, very naked man walking on the bridge...

Boston Police patrolwoman Janice Browning was going on her first solo patrol when the radio chatter she heard in her patrol car made her shake her head. She'd been working for the Boston Police Department for a year, and as far as the brass were concerned, rookies weren't to be trusted on their own. Until last week, she'd been patrolling with Officers Dan Smites, Erica Gauthier and James Spiel. Three experienced officers who never hesitated to chew her up for minor stuff. It felt good to be on her own, sort of...

"Hey, buddy, get your hands in the air," Officer Janice Browning said to the tall, and very naked black guy who stood at the steps of the Charles River Bridge, oblivious to the crowd of on-lookers gawking at him. The man looked at her, and seemed quite puzzled. Look at his face, Janice reminded herself, even as the suspect's massive member swung between his legs.

"Who are you, woman?" Kadini asked, staring at the young African woman in the strange blue attire and the odd black piece of metal she kept aimed his way. Kadini tensed, for it reminded him of a pistol wielded by a European soldier he'd slain on a battle field a long time ago, on the plains of southern Africa. He didn't know the language she spoke, but for some reason, he was able to understand her...

"I'm the officer who's got a gun pointed at you, now put your hands up," Janice Browning retorted, and this time, the burly naked brother actually complied. She stepped forward carefully, about to grab her handcuffs and tell him to turn around. The man moved faster than she'd ever seen a human being move, and leapt into the air, clearly thirty meters in a couple of seconds. He headed straight for the water, dove in and took off.

"Strange world," Kadini thought to himself as he swam in the waters of the Charles River. A world where women who looked like his mother and sisters dressed like the whites and carried their strange weapons. When Kadini finally reached a distant shore, he came across a homeless person who loaned him a jacket and pants, and then took him to a nearby shelter. Kadini, hardened warrior though he once was, found himself touched by this man's generosity.

"Brother, you crawled naked out of the river, we figured you needed help," said Mr. Chan, the bald-headed, homeless Asian man who loaned his jacket to Kadini. The Zulu looked at him and smiled, then offered the man his hand to shake. Thus the two of them met. Perhaps not everyone is insane in this strange new world, Kadini thought morosely.

"Brother Chan, I am famished," Kadini said, wincing as he felt a great emptiness in his belly. He hadn't eaten in a long time. In fact, the Zulu couldn't remember the last time he age. Upon hearing the rumble of Kadini's stomach, Brother Chan grinned and brought him to the mess hall of a soup kitchen, where they ate some nice soup with orange juice and cheese bread.

"Eat your heart out, my friend," Brother Chan said, and Kadini took the strange utensils the foreign man offered, put them aside and picked up his soup bowl. Briefly sniffing the contents, Kadini gulped it all down, and then smiled with satisfaction. When Brother Chan looked at him strAngely, the Zulu, heartened, clapped his new friend on the shoulder.

"Thanks for your kindness, my friend, I am new to your world, and I must learn its ways," Kadini said, and Brother Chan nodded, thinking that the Zulu was a homeless immigrant type from Africa. He was only half right. Kadini was about to continue when suddenly he felt his blood boil, and his muscles tightened. Just then, a tall, well-dressed, dark-haired and bearded white man strode in, accompanied by a tall, slender, blonde-haired white woman. The two of them were flanked by a camera man.

"Welcome to the Mission House, Mr. Rodgers," said the woman accompanying the bearded man, and Brother Chan and everyone else in the mess hall clapped. Kadini, not wanting to stand out, did the same. As all eyes focused on the couple, Kadini watched them carefully. There was something unusual about these two, and he couldn't quite place his finger on the reason why...

"Thank you, Caitlin, the Rodgers Foundation is happy to donate and keep the shelter afloat, you really do great humanitarian work here," Mr. Rodgers said, and the woman, Caitlin, smiled and nodded. The man went on and on about humanitarian works, the beauty of Boston, and all that jazz, and the cameraman recorded his every word, and also filmed some of the shelter's residents.

"Something is definitely wrong with these two," Kadini said quietly, and Brother Chan shot him a look. Kadini closed his eyes, allowing his mind to drift to the other place. The Land of the Spirits. The place had many names in many different cultures. The Underworld. The Spirit World. The Hereafter. To him, it was simply the Land of the Spirits. Kadini remembered seeing many Demons there, bringing in the souls of the wicked to be tormented. He also remembered seeing other beings there, beings surrounded by a strange white light...

"What are you talking about, dude? Caitlin here is a regular Angel," Brother Chan said, and Kadini shrugged, and fell silent. Upon hearing the word Angel, something inside of him stirred. Part of the price Kadini had to pay to return to the mortal realm was surrendering part of his humanity. Hellfire flowed through his veins, granting him exceptional powers which he had to fully explore. It also made him sensitive to the presence of otherworldly beings...

"Brother, there is more to these two than meets the eye," Kadini said cautiously, and, driven by an urge he couldn't explain, he got up and discretely left. As Kadini left the room, Caitlin and Mr. Rodgers both turned to look at him. The two of them exchanged a look, and then Mr. Rodgers continued to make his speech while Caitlin smilingly excused herself, then went in the same direction Kadini had gone. Uh-oh, Brother Chan thought, alarmed.

Kadini walked as fast as he could, feeling strange, but he couldn't ignore the warning which had come from deep inside of him. As a creature imbued with Hellfire, Kadini could sense other supernatural beings, and his inner Demon warned him to flee. As the Zulu got ready to do just that, heading towards an exit, something most unexpected happened...

"Demon, how have you escaped from the Pit?" came a loud feminine voice, and Kadini screamed as a bolt of electricity struck him. Howling in pain, he fell, and looked up to see...her. Caitlin, the attractive blonde lady from the mess hall, only she was glowing, and her eyes were solid black. A pair of white wings unfurled from her back, and she glared at him menacingly.

"I'm not a Demon, I am human, was human," Kadini protested, and Caitlin, the Angel, or whatever she was, looked at him with pure contempt. Kadini, sensing that she was about to attack once more, assumed a defensive position and summoned his own weapon. A mace made out of Hellfire simply materialized in his hands, conjured by his thoughts and manifested by the unholy magic in his blood.

"Back to the Pit, Demon," Caitlin shouted as she came for him, and before she could unleash another lightning bolt at Kadini, he swung the mace at her face. The Angel used her wings to shield herself, but the impact still knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling through the nearby window. Caitlin fell into the pavement of the shelter parking lot...

"You first, Angel," Kadini shouted, and he went to look out the window. Caitlin lay on the floor, unconscious, but her glow and her wings were gone. The Demon inside Kadini wanted to go to the parking lot to finish her off, but Kadini had other plans. Besides, he sensed that the Mr. Rodgers guy was also an Angel, and he high-tailed out of there, playing it safe. He thought of Mr. Chan, and figured the mortal would be fine, since he'd been coming to the shelter for some time and the Angels hadn't come after him...

Kadini wandered from the men's shelter located near the Back Bay, and found himself on Commonwealth Avenue. The Zulu looked at his surroundings, and relaxed, trying to appear as nonchalant as the men and women he saw walking around the streets of this strange metropolis. He didn't see any women in blue uniforms brandishing metallic weapons so he figured he was safe, for the moment.

"Caitlin, are you alright?" Mr. Rodgers asked, and the tall, bearded man knelt beside the young blonde woman who lay sprawled on the pavement. Gently he touched her hand, and in doing so, part of his Angelic essence reached out to the Angelic essence dwelling within her. Such is the power of Angels. For Mr. Rodgers, also known as the Angel Rodriel, cares about his heavenly brethren. Seconds later, Caitlin's eyes opened, and they were solid black all around, and then reverted to their light blue color. She looked at Mr. Rodgers, and her lovely face twisted into a scowl.

"I'm fine, there was a Demon here, it was that new homeless guy, the one with the Asian guy," Caitlin said angrily, and Mr. Rodgers nodded and helped her to her feet. A long time ago, Caitlin Monroe, also known as the Angel Cadriel, would never have been surprised like this by a demon. It was a sheer miracle that the demon didn't stick around to slay her and instead took off, for some reason...

Mr. Rodgers lamented this state of the affairs. He wished he'd been there to slay the demon who hurt his beloved Cadriel. Once upon a time, Rodriel was one of Heaven's greatest soldiers, and served under the ArchAngel Michael. As Angelic beings, they wielded considerable power, but on Earth, otherworldly beings lost much of their might due to the rules that the Divine placed in this plane of existence. Angels belong in Heaven, and Demons stay in Hell, for the Divine intended Earth to belong to Man...

"Do you think it's aware of our plans?" Mr. Rodgers asked, and Caitlin was about to say something else when a third person joined them. To the eyes of mortals, the person who joined Caitlin and Mr. Rodgers was a tall, attractive Asian woman in her mid-thirties, clad in a stylish gray pantsuit. Mr. Rodgers tensed, while Caitlin merely looked annoyed.

"Hafizel, what are you doing here?" Caitlin asked in a terse tone, and the Angelic newcomer paused mere inches from her, and gently touched her face. Caitlin flinched for Hafizel, also known as Susan Wong, was one of the most devious of Angels. Hafizel once served in the same division as the very Angels that the Divine sent to flood the planet Earth in Noah's time. A highly destructive being with a penchant for sadism...

"Oh, my pretty Cadriel, you missed me?" Hafizel said, and with that, she planted a kiss on Caitlin's lips. The blonde Angel blinked in surprise, and Hafizel smirked after pulling away, a few seconds later. Mr. Rodgers watched all this, feeling profoundly uncomfortable. Being in humanoid form, rather than purely spiritual, made Angels susceptible to things like lust, anger, and countless feelings considered the province of humans...and Demons. While Mr. Rodgers believed in restraint, the Angel Hafizel obviously felt differently.

"We ran into a Demon, one that was powerful enough to knock down Cadriel and conjure magic weapons," Mr. Rodgers said, and Hafizel looked at him, her interest piqued. Ever since the Angel squad got sent to earth to usher in doomsday, as in the twilight of humanity, things had been going south. A lot of Angels got distracted by the pleasures of human flesh, and had to be sent back to Heaven for discipline. Others gave into anger and hate, abandoning the cause of heaven and going rogue.

Of the twenty five Angels sent by the Supreme Council of the ArchAngels to destroy the world and bring the righteous souls to heaven, only about half remained. With the Angel Hafizel in charge, Mr. Rodgers was starting to doubt the success of their mission. So far, they'd infiltrated numerous human agencies, and one in Boston was particularly promising...

"Rodriel, Cadriel, I need you to track down the Demon, I can't imagine why Hell would send him here, when we succeed in helping Mankind destroy itself, half of all the righteous souls will go to heaven while the rest flood Hell's ranks, we shall finally have the last battle in this great war," Hafizel said, and a beatific smile spread across her beautiful face.

"Is everything in order with the scientist?" Caitlin dared to ask, and Hafizel looked at her and licked her lips. The idea of using an MIT-trained scientist working on a special virus to wipe out the human species was part of Hafizel's ingenious plan. Hafizel knew how lethal viruses were, having studied them for thousands of years. The scientist was working on something worse than AIDs and Ebola combined, and it was oh-so close to being ready...

"Are you questioning the validity of my plan?" Hafizel shouted, and she grabbed Caitlin by the neck and began to squeeze. As an Angel, Caitlin/Cadriel didn't need to breathe, and she was ageless, immune to all diseases, and invulnerable to any weapon forged by man. Still, one Angel may hurt another Angel, and Hafizel is one of those Angels who enjoys tormenting both mortals and Angels, in the absence of demons.

"Hafizel, please, Cadriel didn't mean anything by it," Mr. Rodgers said, and Hafizel looked at the tall, suited, bearded angel and paused. Caitlin was still struggling in the stronger Angel's grasp, like a puppy in a grown man's hand. Hafizel scoffed, then relaxed her hand, letting Caitlin slip through her grasp. The younger angel fell to her knees, gasping even though she didn't breathe...

"Let that be a lesson to you, Cadriel, or Caitlin, whichever name you prefer, if you disobey my orders or question me, I won't send you back to heaven for discipline, I'll kill you myself," Hafizel said angrily. Caitlin slumped on the ground for the second time that day, and once more Mr. Rodgers helped her to her feet. Hafizel shot her a look of pure disgust, and then vanished, having teleported away.

A few blocks away, Kadini sat on a bench on Boston Common park, relaxing in the midday coolness as he thought about his encounter with the Angel at the homeless shelter. Devil's maiden is more like it, Kadini thought, remembering how the Angel attacked him without provocation. It was his first day in this strange new world, and he didn't have a place to stay, or food, or the means to obtain either.

"This place is worse than Hell," Kadini said to himself as the snow began to fall, and he realized that he was barefoot, for the coldness emanating from the cold hard ground was starting to bother him. I should be at rest in the land of my ancestors, my body on the ground and my spirit rejoicing but instead I am here, Kadini lamented.