Heroic Demon

The three of us headed towards the Morana mountain range, which separated Rajlina from the rest of the major continent. Truly an arduous journey, we spent months traversing the mountains, fighting off cold and beasts. We thought we would perish, until we met that man I now know as Sir Walters. He pointed us towards the base of the range, along with a camp of survivors

Twas a miracle! Many Rajians occupied the camp, all escaping over the mountain. From all walks of life, knights and fishers, hunters and adventurers. We were accepted as one of their own. We would come together and rebuild the Rajlina kingdom, we promised.

(Many Lines are Scratched out and are unreadable.)

They're dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. They're dead. Why? Why? I didn't understand.

-

Northern Fish Disease. Those rotten fish spread that disease to those on land, spreading pure death to anyone they met.

-

Why? Why were Uda and I unaffected but you were, Lunia?

Why did you die? Why did they kill you? I’ll ring you back. I'll see you soon.

-

And if I can’t, I’ll follow you down to hell and bring you up myself.

-Excerpt from the recovered journal of Absalon Ramorski.

♕♛♕♛♕♛♕

The leg, covered in smooth black felt that seemed to compare to darkness itself, kicked through the head of a boar shaped monster. Blood spilled out, staining the apparent expensive fabric.

Uda Wróbel, the mysterious woman dressed in all black, stood in front of the busy Eris.

“... How is she?” The woman asks in a gentle voice, looking at the small girl in the white clad Eris’s hand.

“She’ll make it.” Eris responds confidently, continuing to flow the warm energy from her hand into the girl.

“...That’s good.”

“Kiru!”

“Tsk!”

Two loud voices suddenly interrupted the two women.

A shorter man, with only one cat ear on his head, raises a longsword nearly twice his height and swings it downward. A large, almost opaque, slash extends, cutting dozens of monsters in half.

Beside him, a taller young man, clad in white similar to Eris, swings his katana through a deer, slicing through it like butter.

“I thought magic didn’t work?! How are you doing that?”

“This ain’t magic ya brat! It's martial arts… Don’t tell me yer swinging that sword without trainin?” The old man says as he glares at Hiiro.

“Uh… Haha.”

“Tch! While it ain’t like it gonna matter much if we don't close that gate.”

“The gate?”

“Yea. close it, monsters stop floodin in like rum down my throat.” The old man chuckled and continued, “Some monsters will get over the wall, but it’ll allow us to move them back.

The monsters continued to flood into the city, seemingly an endless flood of monstrosities.

“But how? No matter how much we cut, they fill in the empty spots and continue forward!”

“Gehehehe! Just do as I say, kid!” The old man says as he places the longsword over his shoulder with its flat blade facing toward the twilight sky. “Get on’r”

“What?!”

“While, hurry yer arse up!” The old man screamed.

“O-okay!”

Stepping onto the long sword, Hiiro shockingly stares at the old man as he places his weight on the blade, feeling like a normal step. How strong is this guy?!

Old Nile, a veteran of the century war that ended just 2 decades earlier, had been entrusted with the oversight of what the school of Saionia called a ‘problem children meet-up’, due to his overwhelming strength. No matter what problems the children would bring, the school trusted Old Nile to handle it.

“Ya ready, Brat?”

“Wai-?!” Without waiting for a response, Old Nile flung Hiiro up in a catapult-like motion towards the top of the city and its walls. “Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Flying through the sky, Hiiro raced upward and towards the walls. Quickly, he felt himself slow down, then begin falling toward the cold pavement below.

“GOOOOOD DAMMMMMMIT!” Hiiro fell toward a gathering of accordion deer, who quickly noticed his impending presence. “Kiru!”

Swinging his sword down, Hiiro called out the word he was familiar with. The sword cut through the deer directly under him, splitting it in two. Despite the small victory, Hiiro's descent did not slow, ending with him crashing into the street at high velocity.

“Gah!” Hiiro slammed into the cold street, the stones under him cracking. “Geh! Guess, this is what the pope meant when he said I was tougher!” Looking at his condition, none of his injuries had worsened from before, nor did any new ones appear.

“Okay! I just gotta close the gate!” From what he had seen, the gate was only a few meters away from him.

“Let's go! Kiru-!” Hiiro began, calling out his attack and swinging his sword through a goblin standing in front of him. Just as his sword met the goblins skin-

Pfffft!

A familiar sound rang in his ear as a large ball of fire filled his vision from behind the goblin. Quickly switching to a roll, Hiiro's sword changed to slicing through the Goblins leg, separating it from the rest of its body.

“F*cking hell! It’s you F*cker again!” A red scaled Dracofolk screams toward Hiiro from in front of the opened gate.

“How’d you get out?!” Hiiro recognized the man as the thief he had chased earlier. “Weren’t you arrested?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, F*cker!” The man says, lifting his scaled arm up. “But this time, I’m gonna finish your miserable life!”

The two faced off once more.

♕♛♕♛♕♛♕

Neia watched as the people bearing simple weapons and armor clashed with the ever-coming wave of monsters.

It’s not looking good…

While no life was lost, the people were beginning to tire, and many were seriously injured. The lower amount of casualties could be attributed to the lack of variety to the monsters, making them very predictable.

Still, no progress is being made here… We’ve only been able to hold them back…

Watching the monsters march forward, Neia placed her hand on the ground and felt memories fading.

““Wall!””

From the ground the stones suddenly rose. while nowhere near the city walls, a semi sturdy stone wall of about 150cm tall and 30cm thick raised from the road just front of the monsters

“It won’t hold them for long, but it should allow them to retreat…” Neia muttered.

“Retreat? We don’t need to!” The flower king, Pavel, yelled.

“You’ll die.” Neia said to him.

“Then I’ll die with honor!” He responded, raising a shabby sword into the air.

I really can’t let you do that.

Neia looked at the men, and some women, covered in bruises and cuts. Her arms raised somewhat on their own.

“Shut up.” They whispered to themselves.

Their hands seemed to glow faintly, the light gaining a sickly gray color.

““Delens.””

A moment passes with no changes. Pavel continues toward the wall, getting just a meter before it when-

“““““GRAAAAAAH”””””

Several roars scream out from behind the wall, followed by the sound of flesh being gouged and bitten.

“Huh?” Pavel stopped just short of the newly formed stone wall. “What… Are they fighting each other?”

The sounds continues, filling the streets with the sounds of horror.

Seems it worked… Still, it wont stop them, just thin their numbers. I need to find another way-

Neia’s thought gets cut off suddenly when the water from the drains on each side begins to gather in the air. No, not just them!? The fountain from the square and the waterways ahead too?!

The water all congeals together above the large horde of monsters, covering the entire street from the small wall to the gate. Without warning, the water drops like a doll forgotten by its owner.

As the water strikes its targets a voice from behind rings out-

““Frysa””

The noises from behind the wall suddenly stop, as if frozen in time.

“While, that will hold them for a while.” A feminine yet stern voice says, walking between Neia and Pavel.

“Ah! Guild Master!” Pavel says in understanding.

“Great job Pavel.” The woman says, using her hand to move her split black and white hair to the side. “I'll handle it from here.” I was finally able to get out of that damn meeting!

Neia looked at the women as a thought entered their head. Was my spell even necessary?

♕♛♕♛♕♛♕

Hiiro jumps past a flaming rock speeding at him. The rock smashes into a bear-esque monster that had just entered the city.

“Dammit! Stop dodging!”

“Yeah right!” Hiiro dodges another as he responds.

“You can't win, I know what you can do!” The man tells Hiiro with a cocky smile.

“Tch.” He’s right… My Pneuma is canceled out by these ‘meteors’...

““Aag Ka Gola””

Two more ‘meteors' are flung towards Hiiro.

Dodging one, Hiiro is unable to dodge the other. The meteor closing in, Hiiro lifts his hand and says-

““Kaze!””

Feeling as though he had lost some time, Hiiro quickly raised his sword as wind protrudes from its edge. The almost invisible blade of wind cuts though the combined stones

“Kiru!”

The katana, its blunt edge still marked on its blade, cuts through the fire ball, sending the two pieces of stone and flame flying into monsters.

“Wha!” The man looks shocked. “You can use magic? Why the F*ck didn’t you before?!”

Hiiro rushes forward, closing the gap between the two quickly.

““Aag Ka Gola””

Without the time to pick up another rock, the man casts a large fireball toward Hiiro.

“Kiru.” Hiiro quickly cuts it in two, the split fireball going on to cull more monsters behind him.

“Daammi-”

“Hyaaa!” Hiiro reached just in front of him and swings his sword down.

“N-NOOOOOOO!!!!”

Just as contact is about to be made between the blunt edge of Hiiro’s katana and the Dracofolks scales, a change occurs. From every orifice, fire shoots out, wrapping around the man’s body and sending Hiiro flying back.

“Gah!” Catching himself on the pavement, Hiiro quickly recovers.

“WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY! WHY DIDN”T YOU USE MAGIC!” The man says, crazed.

“I… I just didn’t think of it.” Hiiro says, completely serious. “Magic is used on monsters. That's what I thought, so I just never thought about using it against people.” I'm sure Arakawa would lecture me on that…

“YOU YOU YOU YOU! FUCKER!!!!” The man raises both hands, pointing them towards the square.

““DEEVAR!””

A large wall of flame spreads out from his hands, covering the length of the street.

“Ki-!” No! It doesn’t matter if I cut it, its too big and the buildings on the sides will keep it from splitting! His intuition told him that this wall of flame would not stop once it hit a monster, but would keep going. Eris and that girl! Ms,Wrobel and the old man! It could even reach the square.

His thoughts raced as he quickly let go of his sword and raised both hands forward.

““Kabe!””

A wall of water formed, rushing forth from his hand and matching the great wall of flame before him.

TSSSSSSS

The wall of water initially began to hold back the wall of fire, but after a moment began to turn into steam. The fire’s getting hotter!?

“HAHAHAAHAHAHAHEHEHAHAHAH” The red scaled man laughed maniacally.

“Remember, you have to be a hero.” The words he would often hear before school rang out in his head.

“I. Have. To!” Hiiro ran toward the wall. If I can’t stop the wall, I’ll stop the caster!

Just as Hiiro is about to collide with the wall, he stops.

He was not prevented by a ‘meteor’, nor by a monster.

A man in a studious brown robe stood before him. He seemed to be rechiing his golden ears and an extravagant pair of glasses adorned his head.

“Enough.”

Suddenly, the wall of flame and the fire escaping from the man ceased, as if erased.

“W-who?!”

“Ah. Thy may refer to me as Absalon.” The man says, looking back at Hiiro. “Absalon Ramorski.”