Since Halloween is around the corner, I thought I should do something spooky again. Alduzur is back, better and stronger than before.

I also wrote something about what Alduzur has been up to in the last year since he was freed from his imprisonment. You can read about that event here >>> https://aryion.com/g4/view/948513 . But at that time I didn't have an editor, a great writer and my friend  ms850 (Who did a proofreading and correction of my story now as well), so the old story is probably full of errors. If you can overlook that, you can check it out.


The following text contains only mentions of vore.


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Alduzur: The Hunt begins


It had been a year since Alduzur was freed from the sarcophagus that had been his prison for hundreds of years. The world has changed a lot since the Dark Ages. There are more people overall and that also means more corrupted souls. Like the two wannabe hell worshippers who unleashed him, hoping to be rewarded for it. Unfortunately for them, they were just as stupid as they were corrupt. They missed a very simple truth. The purpose of the hell-spawn is to punish evil, not to spread it. Of course, there are some very evil beings who dwell in hell and from time to time they escape and wreak havoc on earth. But such beings were once human souls themselves who went to hell rightfully. The worst of the worst humans who feed off the suffering of others. However, Alduzur and his kind are hell-born, and such demons are inherently different. Not that they want to help the good people directly. To put it simply, they don't care about pure souls. Their goal is to capture and send the corrupted ones to hell and ONLY the corrupted ones.

Alduzur is one of those. At over three meters tall, the minotaur is the leader of the so-called Sin Hunters. Their mission is to travel the world, actively seeking out irredeemably corrupted humans, only those with zero chance of redemption. And the way to send them to eternal punishment? Through the stomach. It's also the first part of the punishment. Alduzur, or any other hunter, simply swallows his target alive and whole. And after they're digested, their souls are sent to hell. But the Hunters' mission was interrupted when Alduzur was bound by a dark ritual and sealed in a sarcophagus somewhere in Western Europe around the year 1500. The wicked souls had gained too much authority, and they knew that the Hunters, with the powerful minotaur their forefront, were after them. By sealing away their leader, they caused the other hunters to return to hell. The evil humans hoped to their rightful punishment that way. Fools... They didn't realize that they were only delaying their doom and would end up in hell anyway after they died. But the Hunters would prevent them from doing more evil if they could get them into their stomachs before death came for them in another form.

And now, half a millennium later, the infernal minotaur is back and the hunt can return with him. But he needs his Hunters and their power. On his own, the hunt will be very slow. He knows exactly what he needs and that is to regain his strength and the gateway to hell. All he is required to do to get both is to eat people. For after devouring the sinner, Alduzur becomes stronger and also absorbs the knowledge of his prey. By doing so, he learns about the modern world, how it works, new technologies, and knowledge of the current language of humans. Alduzur himself never bothered to talk to anyone in the past, but knowing what people say can come in handy. But mostly, he used it to collect rumors and tales of haunted and "cursed" places where the Hell Gate might be located.
So, he traveled through Europe gathering information during the last year. Most of the rumors about the Gates of Hell turned out to be dead ends. Either it was just a local legend, or the paranormal occurrences had a cause other than the presence of the gates. He's eaten many sinners on his travels. For now, he is only trying to hunt down insignificant criminals whose disappearance wouldn't attract much attention. The demon doesn't want to risk the powerful and corrupted people finding out about him before he can regain all his powers and companions.

With every human he devours, the minotaur grows stronger. His red-glowing eyes used to be without pupils, but now he has them again. They glow like red-hot steel and anyone with darkness in their soul trembles in fear when Alduzur rests his gaze upon them. He has also upgraded his weapon. Formerly a large war hammer, transformed into a lever-action rifle. Modern times call for modern tools. Plus, Alduzur liked this new weapon a lot.

After a year of searching, he finally stumbles a solid lead. There's a castle in central Europe that's supposed to guard such a portal to hell. And truly, this castle is indeed a mysterious place. Its location makes no sense at all. There are none of the historic borders, trade routes or rivers it would guard, nor has it ever served as a permanent residence. Moreover, its defenses are facing inward. That means the castle wasn't preventing anyone from getting in, it was stopping anyone... or anything from getting out. The castle never served as a prison either. Not officially, at least. The reported paranormal presence is said to be the strongest in the whole region and one of the legends about this castle speaks of a gateway to hell that this fortress is supposed to keep sealed.

The castle doesn't look very impressive anymore, clearly having the best days behind it. The outer defensive walls no longer exist and after many reconstructions over the centuries, only the main cube-shaped building on top of the rock remains. Nevertheless, it is still a very promising trace for the minotaur. Indeed, as Alduzur steps in front of the main gate of the castle, he can feel the strong paranormal energy of the place. This has to be it. The castle gate is locked. Not really a problem normally, as a powerful minotaur like Alduzur can easily break in, but the noise will definitely grant him the attention of the people inside. He feels the presence of two. Probably guards. So, he turns into a cloud of black smoke that easily slips through the cracks in the gate, it being one of the few abilities the hell-spawn has in storage for situations like this. Inside, he re-materializes and starts to wander around to find and (only temporarily) incapacitate the two night guards. A burst of flames shoots out of his hand, from which his rifle materializes. A few minutes later, he spots the two guards. They are about to take turns on patrol. Before they can notice the demon, however, they are hit by a shot from the infernal weapon and fall to the ground. Not dead, but merely stunned for a while. The minotaur walks past them and pays them no further attention. Fortunately for them, their souls are too pure, so they repel Alduzur rather than stirring the desire to eat them in him.

The demon is drawn straight to the castle chapel. Inside it looks normal, but Alduzur can feel a strong energy coming from underneath the floor. His rifle is engulfed in bright flames once egain and transforms back into its original form, which is a two-handed war hammer. The demon intentionally stabs his palm with one of the sharp spikes of the hammer, letting a few drops of slightly glowing and steaming blood fall to the floor. The entire chapel starts to shake as the droplets seep away between the stone tiles on the ground. Knowing that he has finally found what he had searched for the last year, the demon raises the hammer above his head and strikes the floor with all his might. It crumbles and the debris falls into the dark abyss. The whole castle, including the chapel, is positioned on the rock, but there is a deep crevice under the chapel. At the bottom of which a faint red light glows.

Suddenly, a hot wind blows up from the depths, carrying out dozens of shadowy figures - Alduzur's Sin Hunters. They gather around their leader in a circle and fill the chapel easily with their numbers. They seem to have no physical form yet and are made of a darkness itself that is even blacker than the shadows of the night that still fill the interior of the chapel. The formless clusters of black smoke have one thing in common and that is an ominous pair of crimson glowing eyes. Alduzur raises his weapon and roars so loudly that the entire castle trembles once again. That is the command for the other hunters to scatter across the world and devour the corrupted souls.

When they arrive at their destination, they will take on the form that best suits their environment. But since a few dozen Hunters are still too few for the whole world, they can give even normal animals the ability to swallow their prey whole. In addition, they will increase their intelligence to human levels. Some may even eventually learn to speak. But unlike demons, they will be able to choose whether or not to digest their prey. Being swallowed alive and released again may serve as a powerful warning to people who still have a chance to redeem themselves. Then there's one more ability that the hell-spawn don't have. If such an animal swallows a person they like, their stomach will have a calming effect on that person. So, unlike demons who can only punish the bad, these "enhanced" animals can, in a way, reward the good. The demons don't know why that is, not even the powerful minotaur himself. Probably to provide some sort of balance between dealing punishment and reward.

From the courtyard of the castle, Alduzur watches his minions scatter away in all directions. He grins diabolically and leaves the castle, knowing that the hunt has begun now...

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