Demonic Beast And God Of Fire

Tch, I was too late!

As soon as the word “Indra” came out of the young man’s mouth, the woman knew that she had made a grave mistake.

Indra was indeed the form she was taking at the moment, but someone from another world would never be able to piece together that knowledge — lightning deities were a dime a dozen, after all. But since her opponent had called out to her directly, it could only mean one thing.

“So, you’ve finally shown yourself… Vritra.”

The great serpent that abducted all water in the world. The great calamity that once sunk mankind to the brink of destruction. The demonic beast Vritra.

It was not a coincidence that Tatsumiya Renji was Indra’s target. The deity of lightning and the demonic beast of water shared an inexplicable connection. Indra had wanted to dispose of him before the beast could manifest itself — by going after him on Earth. However, she was already too late.

Not only did her encounter with him triggered the deadly serpent sleeping within Renji, but by bringing him to this world, Vritra had finally had the chance to awaken itself. But it was no mere case of body-snatching. In fact, it was something much simpler, yet much more complex.

“Renji, stop.” The woman took off her helmet, revealing her human face to the young man before her.

“Rei…ko…”

As she had expected, even if Renji had all but completely turned into the serpent, there was still a fraction of his mind left. His eyes — now with pupils as small and flat as a needle — shrunk in rage, while the few muscles left visible on his scale-covered face twitched uncontrollably.

It wasn’t a case of another spirit inhabiting the body at all. Vritra was nothing more than a parasite. A toxin that invaded the young man’s body. This toxin gave him the forbidden knowledge he needed, but it did so by overwriting his current consciousness. “Vritra” by itself had no will of its own — it was still Renji from start to finish.

And that was why Indra loathed it so much.

She just needed Renji to freeze for a moment… for her to deliver a final strike.

Putting on her mask again, the woman called forth her strange sword. Lightning gathered in her palms, making a spectacular display of pure white. Floating in front of her was her rounded sword, spinning around itself as if to charge with all the electricity that it could muster.

“Vajra of Indra, smite thy foe!”

Indra raised her hand forward, mimicking a throwing action with all her might. The vajra, following her direction like a magnet, flew forward like a speeding bullet. One hit, and the serpent would be no more.

However, it was not time for Tatsumiya Renji to die just yet.

Before the vajra could strike the young man, a sudden flash of red engulfed his body. The sword, even with its lightning, was blasted away as if hitting a concrete wall, leaving behind a trail of explosive flames.

But Tatsumiya Renji was no longer standing.

The young man lay with his face kissing the ground, motionless. From behind his neck, a small whisk of smoke could be seen even in this pouring rain — proof that whatever knocked Indra’s vajra out and Renji along with it was no ordinary matter.

And no ordinary matter it was indeed. Standing before Indra was another armored individual. This one did not bear the same dark tones as Indra or Renji, though — even in the rain, its bright red gleamed as if to signify its owner’s burning will of life. The armor appeared to be much bigger than Indra’s as well. While the latter focused on speed with a rather slender build, this new opponent had large, spanning shoulder blades like a dragon’s wing, while in one of the arms, there was an open draconic mouth. To add to the asymmetricity of the armor, on the back of the opposite side of the dragon’s mouth was a single red-and-black wing, clearly not meant for flight.

The armored individual raised his dragon-mouth up in the air. A massive ball of fire focused in its “mouth”, and without any warning, was released into a pillar of flame. As the fiery blast reached the darkened sky, any and all rainclouds disappeared within a flash, turning the sky back into its clear blue color. Once sunlight had returned, the sandy ground evaporated in a blazing speed, warping even the air around into a suffocating steamy environment.

In the middle of that twisted air, the red armor spoke:

“I’ve finally found ya… Kanaaaaa!”

“Why do you insist on getting my way again… Arjaaaaaa!”

The two sides rushed in, sparks flew from the clashing between vajra and dragon mouth. Against a normal opponent, Indra’s vajra held a great advantage — it could strike with lethality from both ends, creating a unique style that was impossible to defend. But not against this opponent; for one, fighting with a dragon’s mouth was already unconventional to say the least. But Indra also knew it better than anyone else — the opponent before her had an armor tougher than anyone else. Piercing it with a simple physical strike would be nigh impossible.

And so, she was determined to pull the tides to her advantage.

From her soles, a booming thunder sounded. It was the same trick that she used against Renji — by kicking up a literal thunderstorm, Indra could achieve speed as fast as lightning, making her directions impossible to guess.

Flashing behind her opponent, the woman struck his neck with her vajra. However, as if having eyes from the back of his head, the armored man had already blocked the attack with his dragon mouth, even having it bite on the vajra to stop Indra from drawing it back.

“Tch. Annoying accessory!” Indra shouted, flicking her wrist as hard as she could to break free. However, it only strengthened the bite, while from within the dragon’s mouth, another burst of fire was about to form.

“Eat this!”

The man countered. The dragon’s mouth finally opened, and along with it was a torrent of raging flame, blasting away Indra and her vajra alike. Even from within her armor, she could still feel the intense fire eating her armor and flesh at once, creating an excruciating pain that could only be cured by cutting off the entire arm itself.

Even as Indra stood up, her right arm was still on fire.

At the same time, the armored man had already lifted Renji up and carried him on his shoulder like a piece of luggage.

“I’ll be taking the Great Serpent now, thank you very much. Our fight will have to be delayed to another time, Kana.”

“Once we’re in these armors, there is no Kana, only Indra. You know that.” The woman answered, still wincing in pain.

“So why did ya still call me Arja?”

“It was… in the heat of the moment.”

“Then that’s settled,” the man, now Arja, answered. “As long as ya still consider me Arja, then I’ll consider ya Kana as always. And because of that, remember: I will make ya give up on that parasite, even if that’s the last thing I do.”

On Arja’s back spawned another wing, and the man flew away without so much a trace. Now alone in the desert, Indra finally took off her armor completely — with a flash of lightning, Indra was no more, leaving behind only a pale girl with back-length black hair in a sleeveless shirt and baggy pants, her arms glowing lines of bright gold.

“Speak for yourself. Aren’t you willing to take one of those parasites as well… stupid.”