Unending Adversity

     As Andre and I stepped out of the tower onto those dimly-lit streets, my senses were lit up with the feeling of thousands of demons in the skies above. Most were lesser demons, not even lords, but they came in many shapes and sizes, most having some kind of wings with which they could fly, but some even rode atop those that could.

     Many of them quickly noticed my presence and began their descent towards me.

“You understand what you need to do?”

“’Kill everybody’ is a pretty easy one!”

“And try not to get struck by lightning.”

“I’ll try!”

     Without another word, Andre spread his wings and took flight, speeding past many demons on his way up and, without even stopping, decapitating them with his jaws. The incoming army quickly identified him as an enemy and began to cluster around him while others continued their focus only on me.

     My body crackled with electricity as I put full power into Sero and needed only aim at the oncoming crowd and let loose. The first bolt surged through them, chaining from one demon to the next in a branching line of annihilation. Charred corpses fell with the next group falling not far behind as one bolt after another flew.

     The oncoming demons spread out, attempting to circle in the skies around, but that meant nothing as a conical field of electricity wiped out all that carelessly approached. Even as they began to land behind buildings to hide from direct hits, bolts of lightning shot through the sky and struck them even behind cover while tearing through others high in the sky.

     The sky boomed and cries followed as a thunderstorm began. Indiscriminate bolts surged across the sky and struck the city, followed by a hail of charred corpses large and small.

     I could feel stronger opponents hanging higher in the sky: Lords. They were watching and assessing my capabilities before jumping in carelessly. There were dozens of them of various strengths, but the longer they idled, the more I focused my lightning on them. Many could defend themselves even against lightning, others could simply endure the strikes, few fell outright.

     I needed a plan for when those Lords got involved, as I doubted I could handle direct combat with that many of them at once. I concentrated my lightning on only those demons that got close while focusing some power on forming a copper net that I spread across the city. Across the ground, over the building exteriors, and hidden among the piles upon piles of demon corpses, I wanted something that conducted electricity with as much coverage as possible.

     Finally, the Lords began to descend. I was lucky that they weren’t all coming at once, only four of them to begin with, but the first to land was greeted with my full concentration and a single thunderous BOOM as lightning washed over them, obliterating them in an instant. The other three froze in shock, stopping their descent mid-air, but they were already too close. A field of electricity, not enough to kill, but enough to paralyze caught them and forced them to fall to the ground where they were summarily electrocuted to death.

     This brought realization to the other Lords, that carelessness and arrogance may get them killed in a similarly trivial manner. So they descended, leaving only a few hanging in the sky, some chasing after Andre, but most of the several dozen Lords descended to the city and began their assaults without delay.

     I ran. I sprinted through the city as dozens of different attacks were flung at me from all directions. Fire, acid, adhesive foam, spikes made of shadows, swords made of bones, clouds of insects and swarms of rodents, all converging upon me. There was no possibility for me to outrun all of them and I had to use my lightning defensively, countering their attacks while sending other charges through the copper net to counterattack the Lords from seemingly random directions.

     I ran inside one of the buildings so that the oncoming attacks needed to come through a single doorway that I flooded with a surge of electricity. But I could sense the Lords, and they could sense me. They knew where I was, and those that didn’t need a direct path summoned their attacks around me within the enclosed space. Spikes, bones, shadows, mental attacks, they bore inward on me from all directions.

     Quickly, I switched my powers to Durus and encased myself in tungsten armor and spikes, then smashed my way through the wall behind me where another Lord was waiting with an enormous scorpion tail that began its lung, only to scrap off my armor. Still, the force of that tail caused me to freeze in my tracks and for the other attacks to catch up to me. They battered against my armor, shaking me inside like a turtle in its shell.

     My armor spread, thickened, and morphed into a spiked sphere around me. The sphere quickly rolled, trampling and impaling the Lord with the scorpion tail and rotating in place to utterly shred its body, insuring its death. Then the sphere leaped into the air towards the next Lord. They evaded a direct hit, but I launched one of the spikes at them, catching them by surprise as it impaled them. Then, with the spike lodged in their body, I controlled that spike to make it expand and spread into hundreds of blades that shredded them from within.

     As soon as the spiked sphere landed, it would no longer move. It would struggle, but it was stuck, covered in that adhesive foam. In that moment where I couldn’t move, acid began to melt through the sphere. I had hoped that tungsten could resist it, but a Lord’s demon acid probably didn’t have the same characteristics as real acid.

     Switching my power back to Sero, I brought down lightning on the surrounding Lords, killing two outright, but the others finding ways to protect themselves such as going indoors, shielding themselves under corpses, or using their abilities in some protective manner.

     The acid dripped through and just barely grazed my arm, but the burning was immense as I cried out in pain. Worse still, those shadow spikes came out from within the sphere, and with no room to evade, I was stabbed from each direction, yet they didn’t go as deep as I expected as a light seemed to protect me from them.

“You’ve done well, my champion. Allow your goddess to lend you aid.”

     The acid ceased its burn and the shadow spikes were pushed out of my body. I quickly leapt out from the sphere and stood atop one of the nearby buildings.

“Hear me, demons! Know that you turn your wicked claws and foul powers against the champion of Venia, Goddess of Punishment, Regret, and Redemption! For your crimes I judge thee: Guilty! Your punishment is death!”

     While, at the same time, the goddess’s voice echoed in my mind.

“My power is not endless, champion. Strike quickly and decisively!”

     Multiple of the Lords were emitting a brilliant white glow and I could feel my body being drawn towards them and a desire to punish them. I pointed to one of them and brought a single bolt of white lightning down upon them, weaker than normal, yet they were consumed in a white flash of divinity and incinerated.

     Two others cloaked in the glow took noticed and attempted to hide, yet they met an equally-swift end. Other Lords, however, ones that did not have that glow on them, stepped forward and began their attack. One such giant brute leapt forward with a single giant fist that scraped me as I leapt to the side, causing me to go tumbling as I landed. Yet, as it struck me, that white glow enveloped the demon as well, to which a single bolt of lightning reduced him to ashes.

     The Lords were not foolish and quickly understood: only those who had attacked thus far were already marked for punishment, the others who had stood by thus far were not as vulnerable. At their command, the lesser demons which had stayed out of the way descended upon me once more in a dense stream of claws, fangs, and bodies.

     I focused my lightning on them, creating a concentrated cone of electricity that kept the swarm at bay, though with charred claws and corpses still striking me as I slowly stepped back, trying to get into cover again. The Lords didn’t stop their attack, however, as those small rodent and insect familiars came at me from the sides and the acid came from above.

     I rushed into the nearby building, focusing my attacks on the doorway while preparing myself for those spikes and bones that attacked me before, but they didn’t come. Rather, one of the Lords punched a hole through the wall and began to spray that adhesive foam wildly into the room. There was no evading it this time, my legs were caught, upper body soon to follow, with more and more of me being swallowed in it. Even my electricity couldn’t burn it away fast enough until the swarm of demons crashed into me, plowing through the wall, and piling on top of me in the middle of the street.

     I struggled and electrified, doing all I could to get them off of me, but even killing them only buried me under a pile of charred corpses. Using the copper net, I sneaked a few bolts through, instantly killing two more of the marked Lords who thought they’d be safe with me buried, then used my metal power to bring the net upwards, to intercept any more of the demons from piling atop me. But through the gaps in the net came a rain of bone swords, piercing the demons atop me, cutting through the charred bodies, and skewering me underneath them.

     I quickly covered myself in a tungsten shield again to protect from those oncoming swords, but I could already feel those shadow spikes stabbing into that glowing armor around my body. What could I do in this position? The Lords understood my abilities well enough now, they knew how to counter me on top of outnumbering me. Even with all I had killed, there were still dozens of them.

“Do not give up, champion! The moment you surrender, the moment you despair, death becomes certain!”

     But what could I do? I was getting worn down slowly but surely. I could sense Andre as well, fierce as he was, having difficulties against the sheer number of enemies. Curson wasn’t going to bother helping, I’m sure it concluded that my death would at least delay the other Demon Gods.

     As I contemplated and dreaded, my mind wandered to Siti, how I missed the only bit of joy that I’d found down here. Her unapologetic selfishness and teasing smile. I wondered if she was alright, if she had escaped from Caedes. I needed to get back to her. Regardless of myself or these demons in my way or the plot of any Demon Kings or Gods, I needed to get back to her. She wanted to go to Earth too, and I wanted to bring her there.

“Yeah. I can’t stop here. She’s looking for me.”