Demon Generals*- Of course there’d be more

Midnight.

I’m holding down the Demon General Balthos with Gravity Well. The black smoke orb is pulsing under the sheer weight of gravity. I place the orb on the street below us.

Hannah points at the orb, and the floating Flame Lances strike it, lighting up the street in flames.

“You can’t hold me down forever!”

Balthos exclaims as he tries to free himself.

I gesture towards Toshikasu, who’s currently with Grayson on the roof of the inn on the other side of the street.

“Toshikasu, use the strongest Light Magic you can cast. I’ll keep holding him down”

“Okay!”

He dispels the Light Clones and jumps down from the building.

“Light of Judgement!!”

A huge magic circle appears on the streets below and another high up in the sky, centering on the Demon General.

The entire city is illuminated by the huge ray of light descending down from the skies onto the ground bellow, creating a huge pillar of light which shines intensely for a few seconds.

The light fades away. Toshikasu falls, he fainted from using the Rank 10 Magic Spell.

“Nature’s Bind!”

Vines attach to Toshikasu, preventing him from falling. The street below us is replaced by a giant hole which seems to extend a couple of meters down.

“Easy there kid. Don’t go dying on us”

The vines carry him to the roof, then is lifted up by Grayson. He waves over to us.

“That was easy!”

The gap in the street suddenly closes, bringing our building and the inn together. Loralei and Evelyn walk over to Grayson. Evelyn points behind us.

“It’s not over. Get over here”

We look behind us. There’s another demon. He’s floating in the air, covered in full armor. He’s holding a huge 2-way axe in one hand and a dark orb in another. Looks like he saved Balthos.

He waves his hand over the orb, dispelling my spell. Damn, he’s likely another general.

Jace, Renz, Hannah, and Aidan walk backwards. Jace whispers out to me, more like a half-shout.

“Hey, you deaf? Back away man!”

I teleport behind Grayson.

“Ah what? Come on! Why’d I even warn you”

Evelyn immediately dispels the illusion. The building in front of us goes back to the original position and the street reappears below us.

The armored figure just keeps observing us. The smoke reforms. Balthos is visibly angered, but he hides it immediately. He looks directly at me.

“That was unexpected. Rank 8 magic Vacuum and Rank 10 magic Gravity Well. Looks like I’ll have to take you more seriously”

The armored demon speaks as well. His voice is very heavy.

“Balthos, don’t forget the other one. Rank 10 magic Light of Judgement. You would have been obliterated if I didn’t save you.”

He looks at Loralei and Evelyn.

“You two, explain yourselves. Why would you betray us?”

A silence fills the air for a few seconds. Hannah is quietly chanting another spell. Renz readies his spear.

Loralei speaks up.

“One reason, among others. You never considered me and my sister as one of you demons.”

The armored demon is silent.

“Fair enough. You were never cut out to be a Demon General anyway”

A woman’s voice calls out from the side.

Another demon appears to our left. She’s wearing full armor as well, and she’s holding both Martin and Nadia. No visible weapons other than the blades attached to the armor on her forearms.

“It’s a good night to die, traitor”

Raspy voice. Another one appears on our right. He’s wearing lighter armor than the two heavily armored ones. He’s holding two short swords.

“Nadia! Let her go!”

Aidan aims his crossbow at the demon. She points toward the surrounding buildings.

“Boy, you should take a good look at your position first”

Hundreds of demons appear, from the streets below and the rooftops all around us.

Balthos laughs.

“You’re done for heroes!”

They all look like Demon Generals. It was already hard with just Balthos, now there’s 3 more of them.

The situation looks bleak. I could teleport us all out of here, but Nadia and Martin are currently being held by one of them.

*roarrr!*

Huge flames appear in a straight line across the city as a Greater Dragon breathes fire all over the place. Never thought I’d be glad to see Nathan again. The generals turn their attention towards the destruction for a moment.

“Cover your eyes! Flash!!”

Hannah shouts as the area is bathed in a sudden burst of light. I guess this is our cue. Forgive me guys, but you’re all dead weight right now. I’ll go all out here.

“Ally Locate! Mass Teleport! Levitate!”

I focus on the carriages. A huge magic circle extends under our party and teleports everyone away, except me who is currently in the air, and Nadia and Martin who are currently being held by the female demon general.

The Demon Generals look at the inn to see that everyone’s gone. They then turn their attention to the floating figure right above them – me.

The grimoire floating on my shoulder is filled with so much Mana. I feel like I could even take the Demon Lord out. Evelyn’s Illusion spells cost way too much mana to use – and she did it multiple times. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had the Unique Skill, Unlimited Mana.

Rank 10 Earth Magic.

“Quantum Pulse”

Everything around me slows down to an extreme degree. It doesn’t stop time however. It just slows every living being to an almost complete stop within range. Nathan keeps disrupting the demon formation outside my spell’s effective range. The demons which rush to attack me immediately slow down to a stop as they enter the field.

I gather Mana from the book. It’s draining really fast.

I float down towards the female Demon General. Her eyes are still looking at the spot where I once was. I slowly try to pull Nadia and Martin from her hands. She’s got quite a grip on them.

Alright done. They’re both free. Their weapons are gone though, probably back at wherever they hid earlier before they were found. It doesn’t matter since all of our heroic-grade possessions are enchanted with Auto Retrieval. Martin’s rifle and Nadia’s sword will just teleport back to them in a few minutes. How convenient.

I land on top of the inn.

“Ally Locate, Mass Teleport”

Alright. Time to get out of here. I’d love to stay and try to beat the crap out of these generals, but I overestimated the amount of Mana in the grimoire. The book is almost out of Mana. Quantum Pulse would shred whatever Mana I have inside my body if the book’s Mana runs out.

Nathan and Martin disappear. I’m still here.

Wait. I’m still here?

I look around me. The demon generals are still frozen in mid-air.

No wait. The one beside Balthos. The armored one.

He’s pointing a finger towards me. He can still move, albeit very slowly. He’s mouthing the words – Soul Bind. I can’t teleport away.

I move towards him. His eyes follow me as I circle behind him. I need to end this quickly.

“Frozen Claymore”

An ice sword forms in my hands. I slowly plunge the blade into the neck of the armored demon. I’m glad he’s not wearing a helmet or neck armor.

“That’s one General down”

To make sure he stays down. I swipe the claymore horizontally, cutting his head off. That should do the trick. I can already feel the effects of Soul Bind wearing off.

The other demon generals would quickly get me once the field ends though. Hm. 

Rank 10 Air Magic.

"Winds of Disaster"

The air pressure around us drops. Winds start to swirl, forming an air column in the middle of the area. The wind speeds pick up, and soon cyclones start to form all around us, centering around the middle.

The Quantum Pulse suddenly dispels. I’m out of mana. The color in the area around us desaturates for a moment and then comes back, freeing the demons from my spell.

“Where’d the hero go?”

Balthos exclaims, still looking at the spot where I was before the spell.

The armored demon and I fall to the ground. Right within the demon horde. Before the demon generals could realize what was going on, the cyclones quickly blur the surroundings, fling dust and debris that gets ripped off from the surrounding infrastructures.

“He’s over here!!”

The demons rush towards me. One of them swipes his blade at me. I try to parry it, but the force of the two blades clashing made me lose grip of it. Curse my inexperience with swords.

“Teleport!”

Before the blade hits me, I managed to teleport myself somewhere random. I land right in the middle of an open street. The shadows surrounding the area are disappearing. The city sirens begin to echo across the city. The spell I cast turned into a full-fledged hurricane and is destroying everything on the east side of the city. And there’s a Greater Dragon wreaking havoc on the other side.

“Ugh!”

I clutch my stomach. One of them managed to stab me in the gut, but I don’t think it’s fatal.

“Heal”

The wound slowly closes. There are people on the streets again. I’m done for if anyone finds me.

I turn and head to the nearby alleys. I just hope I don’t bump into anyone-

Sure enough I bump into someone.

“Ah sorry about that sir!”

A half-elf. Half high-elf to be exact. He’s wearing some weird clothes that are probably worth an entire building. His blonde hair has streaks of black in it, his skin a shade darker than most elves-

My eyes direct to the sword he’s holding. A mercenary?!

“Uh Sir? Are you okay?”

Crap. I’m at a disadvantage. I’m out of Mana and I don’t even have a weapon. I back away slowly.

“Even the elves are after our heads huh?”

The half-elf seems to be confused. He then realizes that he’s holding his sword.

“Ah! I’m so sorry sir. It’s just that everyone suddenly disappeared and there were these shadows all over the place”

He imitates a shadow by wriggling his hands. What a weird way to emphasize.

The sword he’s holding suddenly budges. He pauses for a moment.

“You mean it’s him?”

Is he talking to me? Wait no. He’s talking to his sword. Alright I really need to back away. Or I’ll just head in the other direction. I pass by him and begin speed walking away into the alley.

“Hey! Wait!”

The half-elf suddenly gives chase. Crap!

I make a run for it. My Mana recovers a bit.

“Ice Wall!”

A wall of ice appears behind me, blocking the path between me and the half-elf. A piece of wood suddenly juts out of the ground and trips me over. No!

I face plant into the ground. I raise my head to see that the half-elf is already in front of me. He squats down to my level.

“Hey I said wait, sorry if I was too blunt. Here”

He offers me his sword. It’s definitely high-quality, mostly platinum alloy and riddled with enchantments.

“Huh?”

“Oh, please hold the sword”

Is he toying with me? Does he think I can’t fight anymore? I grab the sword.

Aelius.

“Huh?”

The half-elf smiles.

“Yeah, I was like that at first as well”

“Was that you?”

No it was me. The sword. It’s me Yatsumi.

My eyes widen. Sword.

“Amaris made you an angel!?”

The sword pulses.

Correction. Archangel. I’m a flipping archangel, but also a sword right now.

“No, more importantly why are you here?”

I’ll tell you about it. Let the Seiji lead you out of here first.

Who?

“Seiji?”

The half-elf responds.

“Yes, that’s me”

“Okay then”

So this half-elf is named Seiji. I look at him again. He looks like an airhead. But I can’t be choosy. I stand up and give him the sword/Yatsumi.

“Alright then, I see you’re out of mana. I’ll teleport us out of the city”

I nod at him. He starts chanting.

“Mass Teleport!”

A magic circle appears below us. A second later, we’re in a forest.

“Alright! Another teleport then-”

“Wait. I need to meet with the others first”

I use the Mana gathered by the book.

“Ally Locate”

I focus on Iris.

“Mass Teleport”

We teleport somewhere out in the open. Iris is wearing her suit.

“Aelius!”

She immediately grabs – hugs me.

“You’re back! What in the name of Aelius was that?? Don’t try to solo things out!”

Grayson immediately shakes me. We’re somewhere far from Rosenburg, in the open plains at the entrance of a forest.

“Is everyone okay? Nadia and Martin? How’s Toshikasu?”

Aidan walks over and gives me a light punch.

“They’re all fine, just unconscious. Thanks for saving them. Thanks for saving my sister”

“So. Who’s this?”

I look behind to see Loralei already has her scythe around the half-el- I mean Seiji’s neck. She’s holding the sword/Yatsumi by the scabbard.

“Ah Loralei, he’s a friend!”

She lets go of the scythe; it disappears. Seiji coughs.

“That was a bit rough miss”

“I can be rougher if need be.”

“Huh what does that mean?”

The rest of the group proceeds to scold me while Seiji and Loralei argue in the background.

“Ah everyone!”

I point at Seiji.

“The half-elf is named Seiji. He helped me get out of the city”

Everyone comes over to greet him. Iris is still holding my arm.

“Um Iris, you can let go now”

She lets go. The metal exoskeleton detaches itself from her and disappears.

“Ah, sorry about that. I’m glad you’re safe. I was about to go back to get you”

That explains why the group stopped.

“Don’t worry about it, I had it under control”

“Under control? Seeing as you needed someone to help you out the city, it didn’t go well. Next time, at least let me stay with you.”

Loralei gives me a punch to the back.

“Ow!”

“Loralei!”

Iris confronts her. She just ignores Iris and walks in front of me.

Evelyn starts healing me. Loralei looks at my stomach. She places her hand on it.

“Tsk”

She seems angry. But more importantly, this is embarrassing.

“Um, can you let go of my stomach? It’s already healed, don’t worry about it”

Loralei lets go.

“Everyone! Let’s move out!”

Hannah calls out to everyone.

“Where are we going this time?”

Renz walks over to me. He looks at me then heads to the carriages.

“We keep heading west, that’s about all we can do right now”

Okay then. Let’s go.