Chapter 17: A Fragile Peace

The group continued to run as Alex and Celeste followed the Oni girl. Alex turned and noticed Celeste was slowing down. Exhaustion was clear on her face; she could no longer keep up. From the constant battles and chasing after Alex, she had never given herself time to rest. Sweat beaded along her skin, and her eyes were heavy with fatigue. She began to lag behind, and Alex asked, “Would you like some help?”

Celeste gave a weak smile. “Yes, please. I don’t think I can keep up any longer.”

Alex stopped and lifted Celeste, carrying her princess style. Only then did he notice her wings were gone. He activated his Fast Walker Boots and sprinted after the Oni girl, catching up as they dodged and avoided demons and corrupted beings scattered along the path.

As Celeste’s eyes grew heavy, she slowly drifted to sleep in Alex’s arms.

They eventually reached Fujiyoshida City. When they arrived, the Oni girl looked around and said, “Wow, this does look a little bit better than the last layer of hell. Hopefully, the place I stayed in is a bit nicer.” She turned to Alex and added, “Follow me, and don’t step in the cracks.”

Before Alex followed, he looked around the town, noticing the ground was split by deep fissures. A black liquid flowed between them, bubbling and releasing a low fog that drifted around their knees. The town still stood, though many of the buildings were damaged, unlike the city in Saitama Prefecture, which had been reduced to rubble and fire. Then his gaze went to the sky. Mount Fuji floated upside down, surrounded by red, bloody clouds, and black liquid seemed to run down to the inverted tip, dripping steadily toward the ground.

The Oni girl glanced back and called out, “Hey, are you coming?”

Alex refocused and followed her down the streets.

Meanwhile, Legion was outside the forest, pulling every part of itself together. They coalesced into one massive, complete form, growing as strong as they could be.

While they focused on becoming whole, three demons who had sensed Celeste’s holy energy lingering in Aokigahara Forest arrived where Legion waited. They looked around, feeling the devastation and the faint echo of that holy power.

Legion turned to them, irritated. “What are you demons doing in our territory?”

The first demon peered down. “We are sensing holy energy. This is not the first time. We are wondering where it went.”

Legion’s tone grew deep and menacing. “The ones with the holy energy are ours. You will stay out of our territory or suffer the consequences.”

The demons scoffed. “And what are you going to do? It looks like you took quite a beating from them. We can still sense remnants of holy energy radiating through your forest.”

One of them turned to fly away, but before he could escape, Legion shot out tentacles that wrapped tightly around him, dragging him back. “I said, the one with the holy energy and her friends are mine. You did not heed my warning. Now you will become one of us as well.”

The demon struggled desperately as Legion’s mass enveloped him, pulling him into its body. While Legion was distracted, the other two demons fled.

As they flew off, one said, “The ones with the holy energy couldn’t have gone far. Legion will take time to fully form, and its attention is divided. If its other fragments are still scattered through all of its tunnels, that gives us enough time to hunt them down and devour the angel before Legion fully forms.”

The demons vanished from Legion’s territory, splitting up in search of the angel. As they flew, they imagined how wonderful her flesh would taste, picturing themselves bathing in her blood and savoring every moment of it.

Back with Alex and the group, the Oni girl led them to a building. “Come this way, come this way, we’re almost there.” She guided them into a business building and down a flight of stairs that led into a dim parking garage. “This place is safe,” she said. “So we should be able to rest here easily.”

She led them through the parking garage to a small room at the side that looked like an operations hub, lined with old surveillance monitors and control panels. Once they entered, she closed the door and pushed a desk against it to block the entrance. “This is what I used to call home on the second layer,” she said softly. “We should be safe here, so go ahead and rest.”

Alex gently laid Celeste on the floor, making sure she was comfortable before sitting back against the wall. The Oni girl crawled over to him, resting between his legs as she wrapped both arms around his right leg and laid her head on his thigh. Tears welled in her eyes and began to fall as she quietly cried, the tension and fear finally easing now that they were out of danger. Before long, she drifted into sleep.

Alex leaned back, exhaling deeply. “Well, it’s finally over,” he murmured. “Hopefully this peace lasts for a little while.” He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep along with the rest.

An uncountable number of hours passed before Alex finally woke. He looked down to see the Oni girl still wrapped around him, sleeping peacefully. Then his eyes shifted toward Celeste. She was sitting upright against the wall, glaring daggers at the Oni girl with one hand resting on Masamune.

Alex blinked a few times, then asked softly, “Is everything okay?”

Celeste’s eyes hardened as she watched the Oni girl sleep. “I didn’t say anything before because we were in a rush, but we need to get away from that Oni. She’s dangerous to have around.”

Alex looked at Celeste. “How can she be dangerous?”

Celeste’s voice was flat. “Do you know about Oni's? They love to feast on human flesh.”

Alex reached out and stroked the Oni girl’s head. “I don’t think she’s like that. You can see it in her eyes when I interacted with her. She’s just an innocent Oni girl. Anyway, let’s talk to her when she wakes up and find out her situation.”

Celeste met his gaze. “You can do that, but I will keep an eye on her. If she shows any signs of danger, I will not hesitate to cut her in half.”

Alex sighed, then asked the question he had been holding back, his concern plain. “Are you okay? You seemed pretty banged up, and your angel wings are gone. Will you be able to heal them? Will they grow back?”

Celeste lowered her head. “No, they are gone for good.”

Alex tilted his head. “So I have a question, Celeste. What was that thing in the forest, that demon? It actually spoke to me, and everything else we have come across down here has not said a word so far. Is that thing a greater demon that you mentioned?”

Celeste nodded slowly. “Do you know the legends of Legion?”

“Yeah, Legion. I have heard about it, or whatever it is. A body filled with hundreds of thousands of demon souls, all sharing a single mind and body.”

Celeste sighed. “Yes, that is it, but that was long ago. Legion is no longer the same as described in the books of the past. It has grown far stronger over time. Eventually, all the demons assimilated together in both mind and body, and now it can absorb other beings, making them part of Legion itself. Each being it assimilates increases its power and strength. That is why it wants us so badly. That is exactly what we faced in that forest. Now we have to find a way around it, because it has set its sights on us. It sees us as rare and powerful beings in Hell, ones it wants to assimilate to grow even stronger. I am not sure how much longer we will be safe before Legion comes after us.”

Alex rubbed his forehead. “Well, I do not think we have a choice either way. When I landed in the forest, I felt a strong tugging. The portal is in the forest, so we have to go through its territory to get to it. We just need to find a way to either go around him, trick him, or something, and get past him.”

Celeste considered the situation. “That will probably be impossible. He has eyes everywhere. But maybe this is the perfect time to use Bunyan’s Axe. If we can catch him with a full power hit, it might scatter him enough for us to reach the portal without too much trouble, unless he has grown too strong over the past thousands of years.”

She then tried to change the subject and brought up something that had been bothering her. She stared at Alex’s arms and the scars on his face and body. “So, how did you get so beat up in the short time I was away from you?” she asked, worry in her voice.

Alex looked down and shrugged lightly. “Oh, these? A few are from demons, but most are from myself. You were unconscious for about a week, and I got really worried. I needed to figure out how to heal, so I sliced myself and tried to heal the wound. It did not work properly. It just scarred like this. I kept doing it over and over until both my arms ended up like this. Then I gave up and headed to the hospital to see if I could find any medical books or maybe skeleton models with organs to figure out where everything was. I was trying to understand how to heal, because honestly, I have no idea how you even do it.”

Celeste nodded slowly. “I see. Our angelic healing is a bit different. Instead of just patching up the body like you were trying to, we look into the soul. Inside every soul is a blueprint of the person’s body. From that, we can heal both inside and outside wounds perfectly.”

Alex sighed. “That is pretty convenient. I wish I could do that.”

He chuckled softly. “All I really learned from my little adventure was a very bad vibration healing spell I came up with. As you can see, it did not do so well. Although, once I work the kinks out, it might actually turn out pretty good. But I am going to have to practice a lot before I really get the hang of it.”

Celeste stood and walked over to him, looking down with a gentle smile. “You must have worked really hard. And it must have been very painful. Here, let me heal your scars and wounds. Even though you managed to heal them, they were not properly done. I can tell your body is not moving right. My healing magic should repair everything.”

As she spoke, she held out her hands. Alex did the same and held her hands as her palms began to glow with radiant light. Holy energy coursed through him, running up his arms and spreading through his body. His scars faded, his wounds closed properly, and before long, his body was as good as new.

Celeste’s face grew pale, and she swayed slightly.

Alex frowned. “Are you alright, Celeste?”

She stepped back and nodded. “Yes, I am fine. It is just a side effect from losing my wings.”

“Well, do not push yourself too hard,” Alex said, still worried.

Just then, they both looked down as the Oni girl finally began to stir awake.