Chapter 3 The Blackgoat Prince’s Mama is ridiculously beautiful! And also scarier than death!

Crunch! RIIIIP! Snap! Gulp!

HURL!

Dark crimson mixed with the yellowish-brown fluid spewing out of Akane’s mouth as she hurled what felt like all the meager meals she had suffered through since becoming a prisoner. With each gruesome noise perpetuated by the demon devouring his “meal”, her stomach twisted in her guts forcing bile to rise in her throat.

“Shit(snarf crunch snap)!” the demon snarled, fingers dripping and red as he shoveled more and more into his mouth. “Everything tastes like shit! (gulp)Shitty priest could’ve at least had the decency to taste good, y’kno(crunch)!”

Akane trembled at his words. Humanity? Had she really looked for humanity in this monster? She had heard of demons before in both worlds she had called home. It was one of the few things that weren’t so different between Earth and Alothas; Demons in both worlds were cruel monsters that devoured people and tricked them into deals that gave the signatory their deepest desires in exchange for their souls.

At least on Earth demons weren’t real… well, she had discovered gods existed there hadn’t she? So maybe demons were real as well? Well at least on earth it wasn’t so easy to meet one!

And now here she was almost shoulder to shoulder with a real-life, living, breathing, and (hurk!) eating demon. Not a day passed since coming to this world, had she awoken hoping to be back on earth in her comfortable bed, in safe Japan escaping this strange, vivid dream. But never more than she did just then.

But if this were a dream the blood… wouldn’t have felt so warm and wet, dampening her sandals, and making soppy splashes every time she took a step. A-and in her dreams sounds were always hazy, or like they were coming from far away, but every tear of flesh, every snapping bone, and crunch of the demon’s jaws were not only awful but distinct. And the smell…

“The smell…” Akane said, clutching at her stomach as it rebelled inside her as if doing so would keep the scant contents remaining in her stomach from being violently rejected. It did not.

“Smells like shit, right?” the demon’s broken voice distracted her for a moment from her dry heaves and wretches.

She turned to him and found his odd eyes observing her with the slight interest someone might reserve for an unusual rock.

“...e-eh?” Akane managed to sputter around the foul taste remaining in her mouth. It smelled like a lot of things and excrement was one of them. “U-uh…”

“Yeah, y’kno?” the demon said dipping his head down low and tilting his head. He began moving towards her, crawling on his hands and feet with the manner and ease of a lizard, each step pushing him further and further from the realms of humanity. “This city, this nation, the world… the people? All shit, y’kno? Reeks so bad I can’t stand it, yo! Ever since I came up to shitty Alothas my nose has been assaulted by this foul-smelling place.”

Akane fell backward, blood drenching her up to her shoulders as her butt landed in the puddle with a splash. Even as it ran down her arms and legs, leaving crimson trails behind, she paid it no mind. She could only watch, breath bated, eyes growing wide enough for her eyeballs to slip out, as the demon invaded her space.

“But you…” the demon moved with the creeping stalking steps of a predatory beast as he placed a hand beside her hip. Akane shook but could move no more than a deer paralyzed by the glare of headlights as he maneuvered his head towards the nape of her neck and inhaled deeply.

“You don’t smell like shit at all, yo.” the demon said, pulling his head back and licking his lips. “You smell delicious, y’kno?”

“A-ah… eh?”

Akane had just prepared herself to die and be devoured. She had even begun picturing herself like a heroine in those old vampire movies. The ones were the beautiful girl was consumed by the handsome monster. She even closed her eyes and swooned.

But the pain… never came.

When she opened her eyes she found that the demon was moving again, but this time much less like a hunting beast. This time he seemed much more like a… foraging chipmunk?

Gathering all the… pieces that he had not scarfed down he could fit in his slender arms, his tail would slash the air cutting it open like it was cloth. Reality seemed to shred where his tail landed leaving a gaping tear where a distorted darkness lingered.

“Y-your not gonna eat me?” Akane said, not quite accepting this strange bout of good fortune.

“Eh?” the demon’s lip curled up in a sneer that was eerily similar to an expression she had been seeing a lot lately. It clearly read, is this person an idiot?

“What you wanna get eaten, yo?” the demon said dropping his gathered pieces into the gaping hole in reality. “Never heard of nobody ever wanting to get eaten, y’kno?”

He went back to his task of gathering up bits of leftovers.

Akane waved her hands in front of her face as it burned and flushed crimson. “N-not like I want to get eaten or anything. B-but you did say I s-smelled delicious.”

The demon turned to her with narrowed eyes he rolled in the most overbearing, and obnoxious way. “Yo, you still sound like you wanna get eaten. Are you one of those weirdos?”

“O-of course not! I-I’m just curious.”

“...I see.” The demon’s tail flicked back and forth lazily behind him, as he tilted his head considering her question. “Pretty much everything has smelled like shit since I came up here. It’s rare to find something that hasn’t been soiled by the presence of those shitty bastards that rule this world. So you do smell pretty tasty… but why would I eat you if you haven’t bothered me? Besides, I’m full. Momma would get pissed if I ate too much while I am fre-- I mean out of her sight. She might even try to drag me back.”

He had been staring up towards the floating shrine with his chin resting on a curled finger and a pondering expression lingered in his eyes for a moment. “I am curious about why you smell different though, y’kno?”

Akane had only just opened her mouth to reply when a brilliant flash of silver startled her to silence.

“Ah!” the demon said slamming a fist down on his palm, as his glowing silver eye began to dull. “So that’s it? You’re from another world!”

“H-how could you tell?”

The demon tapped his nose after he deposited the last of his unfinished meal in the distorted space. “The smell. And… some annoying memories. Sometimes w-- the gods drag people over from other worlds to do their dirty work. Pretty messed up if you ask me yo.

“Whelp see ya.” he shot her a lazy grin as he spun away.

“W-wait!”

“Now what am I gonna do with you bastards?”

Akane had almost forgotten her fellow prisoners. All of them had been frozen, some on their hands and knees, others on their stomachs and backs. To her surprise, one of them even managed to keep on his feet, though by the way he shook standing took everything he had.

“You guys were laughing at me, right?” the demon said, though contrary to being angry his villainous smile only grew. “You were looking down on me while we traveled, y’kno?”

The other prisoners trembled as they stared into his eyes. Did they imagine it or since he sprouted those horns had the iris of that goat pupiled eye grown wider? It looked like it was trying to swallow up his sclera. Had it always been that way? And the silver one… had the sclera there been quite that dark? Now it looked more black than grey.

“Are you going to kill us too, demon?” The man who kept his feet beneath him managed to spit. “Just for a few jokes?”

“Hmm.” The demon seemed to consider this question with deep thought as though he had been asked something profound. His head was tilted his chin rested on a finger and he tapped the toe of one boot on the ground. “I am an avenger of justice it is true… hmm, perhaps a festival of slaughter for jokes would be too far, y’kno?”

Cold sweat began to flow down the prisoners' backs as they listened to the demon's personal debate.

A few moments of tail twitching contemplation ended as sudden as it began. When the demon snapped his fingers, his tail sticking straight up like it had transformed into an exclamation point.

“Solution, yo!” the demon was excited. Or at least he seemed that way with how his tail swished back and forth like a puppy being offered a bone. “I will give you bastards a chance! I have become so merciful, y’kno? Mama would be so proud!”

He started rubbing his hands together as his tail began to wave through the air faster than ever. “I’m gonna share one of my memories with you guys, k? If ya manage to survive for ten seconds without your minds breaking no punishment, yo!”

His eyes narrowed in cruel anticipation as his head drifted to the side. “...but, if your minds break before then… well, that will be a punishment worse than death, yo!”

“T-ten seconds?” A prisoner who had fallen only as far as her knees asked.

The demon closed his eyes as an innocent smile lit his face. He held up a finger before all of them. “Easy right? I went through this for thousands of years. Ten seconds is easy peasy, yo.”

“Okay demon.” the man on his feet said, baring his teeth at the demon in challenge. “We accept.”

The demon licked his lips gave the prisoners a smile that had each and every one of them wondering if they made a terrible mistake; the demon didn’t give them any chance to take back their words. As soon as they agreed, he raised a hand towards them and polluted the air with a malicious aura that stole their breaths away.

Akane was ignored. The men and women she had found terrifying before had been reduced to hysterical blubbering mess. Some foamed at the mouth with vacant eyes, others tried to remove them with their own fingers. Attempting to claw away whatever they were being forced to witness

“Oh!” Akane was beginning to be able to judge the demon’s emotions by the state of his tail. It seemed to shoot straight up in the air every time he was excited or surprised. “Wow, yo! Didn’t think humans could be so resilient, y’kno? Looks like two of ya bastards are gonna make it!”

The man and woman who had spoken, though their bloodshot eyes looked ready to roll right out of their heads, and they clenched their fists tight enough their nails drew blood from their palms, they somehow managed to resist their minds being torn asunder by the demon’s curse.

“Kuhahahaha!” the demon roared throwing his head back in delight after planting his fists on his hips. “I am so impressed, y’kno? Whelp a promise is a promise. The two of you are free to go… where ever it is you can go in this place, anyway. Kuhahahaha!”

Just like that, he dismissed the prisoners from his thoughts. It was like they no longer existed, or rather never existed in the first place; he had forgotten them completely. Now he only had eyes for the floating shrine to [Punishment]; they were roving about it like the floating stone structure was no more obstruction to them than the air.

For some reason Akane found herself shrinking back from the demon. She had seen him do lots of terrible things in a very short amount of time, and while some of the things he had done made her literally lose her lunch, she hadn’t felt true fear towards him for some reason. Now, however, she was shivering…

There was something about the way he had frozen; he was so still… more still than it should have been possible for a living thing. Nothing twitched, not even his tail, he didn't breath, he didn't blink, it was like he simply stopped doing all the things that living creatures do naturally by simply being alive. It was as though he had been transformed into a statue, if only… if only there wasn’t that oppression radiating off of him.

His aura had been of mad hatred from the moment he had been left in the carriage, but now his rage had such a weight to it even Akane who had been spared his ire before began to get caught up in it.

“Brooooother, I’ve found youuuuu!” There were so many emotions twisted together in those four words Akane struggled to even recognize them. “Don’t worry shitty big bro, little brother is on his way, y’kno? I been waitin’ so long for this, yo. Don't hate me, k? I’ll be visitin’ the others too. You’re just the first stop on my festival of vengeance!”

“...eh?” the air had distorted around his back for a moment. Akane thought it looked a bit like a glitch in a game, but nothing happened after a moment. “Guess thirty percent isn’t enough, yo. Better go with fifty.”

THROOOM!

Color was sapped from everywhere, the people, the walls, even the air seemed to lose its substance as the demon siphoned all of the mana in the vicinity into his body, corrupting it and changing it into energy he could use.

Splurt! C-creak! CRACK!

Black ran down his head as his hand length horns burst further out of his head, doubling in size. His cheeks bled a bit as well, as finger length bone spears pierced them creeping backward towards his ears.

“Ah…” the demon sighed like a great burden had just been lifted from his shoulders. “It feels good to be able to let loose like this, yo.”

He rolled his shoulders his cold eyes never leaving the base of the shrine. “No way he hasn’t noticed me now, y’kno? Better get going.”

This time when the air around him crackled, twisted and broke like the pixels in a buggy game, four obsidian colored plates long and wide as bastard sword blades materialized behind each of his shoulders. Had they been attached to his back they might have been wings.

The demon crouched down until his claws tore into the prison ground and flexed his body in preparation for a great leap. That’s when Akane moved. She wasn’t sure why she did it; she only knew that this demon was the strongest creature she had seen in this world or the last. The moment he left she would be on her own. He was a demon… that was true, but he couldn’t be all bad, right? He had saved her after all, hadn’t he?”

The demon dragged all the mana he could from around it, devoured it and transmuted it into demonic energy within him. Flying took a lot of power, but it didn’t matter. He would need a whole lot more than fifty percent of his strength when he reached the top of the shrine. There would be much stronger enemies than mere Bishops up there.

He would no doubt find [Punishment]’s Cardinals up there, along with countless Holy Knights, and maybe even a hero or two. He might even need to bring out one-hundred percent of his strength if he encountered [Punishment]’s Pope. And then there was his brother himself…

The corners of his mouth split his face till they almost reached his ears. It didn't matter. Not when he was this close. Finally, after all of these years, that twisting hatred that had been a thorn in his side for so long would get some relief.

He was so enthralled by that prospect it took him several moments to notice something odd.

“...eh?!” his tail. His glorious tail was being violated by that weird busty girl! “Get off of my tail, you perverted busty woman!”

“No!” Akane said squeezing it even more intensely. “Take me with you!”

“Are you an idiot?!” he said, snarling the words as he flicked his tail back and forth trying to shake the nuisance off. “Why would I take you anywhere?”

“You saved me! Take responsibility!” Akane said holding on for dear life as the world blurred around her.

“ Your words don't make any sense! That was coincidence, y’kno?” he shot back shaking his tail more vigorously. “Those bastard priests just got unlucky enough to try my most hated crime before my eyes! Get off of me, yo!”

“No! you are my guardian!” Akane said, her eyes were spirals of dizziness. “Protect me!”

At that moment Akane began to feel very strange as something surged within her. Just as the pressure was building to a point where it was starting to become uncomfortable a voice rang out in her head.

Conditions met. Activating skill [Bond] on demon &$%##^*...

Demon &$##^* is now your [Guardian]

“W-what have you done to me?!” the demon roared glaring at her with an eye that had been completely swallowed by red save for a goat-like pupil and another that’s sclera was black as a midnight sky.

He tore his eyes away and his fingers began flitting around before his face like he was manipulating the controls of an invisible keypad.

“MY STATUS?! GUARDIAN?!” Akane flinched at the rage in the demon’s roar. “What sorcery is this?! No matter, yo! I hope you have enjoyed being alive! Rejoice at having touched my glorious tail before you died! I’ll turn you into pudding against the wall, you boob witc--eh?!”

His powerful tail flexed welling with enough power to burst the annoying wench upon the wall like a trodden on slug. But… no matter how much strength he put into his tail… it did nothing more than strain vainly in her grasp.

“H-how is this possible?”

Akane looked just as shocked. “I don’t know…?”

Then her eyes widened as a memory struck her. “Ah! That’s right! The goddess who sent me here said I could bind any one person I met to me… hee hee… how convenient! Now you have to protect me!”

“C-convenient?! Yo! Listen he--” the demon had been in the middle of preparing to rip the girl to shreds with his words since he didn’t seem to be able to do it with his claws, but before his word blades had been able to mentally lacerate her, his eye twitched and he began staring back towards the shrine.

“Shit!” he said crouching down in a combative stance with his sharp claws out to either side. “Let go of my tail! It is gonna get bloody soon, yo!”

“No! you’re just going to leave me!”

“You idiot! I can’t! Aren’t you the one that put this curse on me? How is it that you don't know the details?! Now let me go! I will not be able ta keep ya safe with you holding my tail. Not with these shitty bastards anyway!”

He seemed to be telling the truth, so Akane slowly let go of his tail.

“Good. Now find somewhere to hide. These bastards are gonna be trouble, y’kno? HUH?!”

The moment Akane let go of the demon’s tail it was as though a magnetic force had seized her. An irresistible force slung her forward until… SQUISH!

She was squeezing herself to the demon’s back.

“What are you doing?!”

“I-I can’t help it something is-ah! Please stop moving around so much! You’re-oh!-squashing them!”

“You perverted boob woman!”

“...We came rushing over because we felt massive demonic energy, but this is…”

“Dunno? Maybe we were wrong, captain?”

“Juuuust looks like their flirting arooound?”

“Shit!” the demon said, glaring at the armored groups of people that surrounded them. “This is bad, yo!”

“W-who are these--ahn!--guys?” Akane said shimmying around on the demon’s back.

“We are the Holy Knights of Lord [Punishment].” A woman who seemed to be their leader said stepping forward. “And our Lord desires us to irradicate this unsightly blemish on his domain.”

She narrowed her eyes and curled her lips at them like they were nothing more than roaches. “But instead of finding a threat, it looks like we stumbled on nothing more than a perverted couple.”

The demon had collapsed onto his hands and knees as a great shadow of negativity seemed to sap away his strength. How powerful could these knights be to reduce this demon to a crumbled mess that could do nothing more than mutter under his breath?

“Th-these bastards…”

“Are they really that dangerous?” Akane said her fear rising.

The twelve people that surrounded did feel even more dangerous than the Bishop, the aura enveloping each of them was so intense even Akane could tell they were bad news.

“Dangerous?” the demon said shooting her a dark look. “These trashes… dangerous? Are you an idiot, yo? It’s just to be caught in such a state… To be ridden by a perverted boob witch… and for them to say I was flirting around with a cake-less woman like you… And worse of all to be called a pervert by people dressed as shamefully as them…. The humiliation… Mama… your son… he is ashamed…”

“Well… you do have a point.” Akane shot a nervous glance back at the Knights and had to admit they didn’t much look like knights at all. Though they were a little more covered than the priests of [Punishment] had been, they were still wrapped in tight leather that would look more at home in a bondage shop than a battlefield. And even though their ‘armor’ had metal on it, they were limited to spikes and chains instead of protective plates.

“You see! You see! Even though! Even though they are dressed like exhibitionists!” The demon was pounding his fist into the ground in misery. “Even though they are so kinky they have the nerve! The nerve, yo!”

“Somehow this guys words… are pissing me off.” The tall voluptuous woman who seemed to be the leader of the knights said. She pulled a long weapon that could have been called a spear if it didn’t have so many hooks along the blade and shaft and jabbed its point at Akane and the demon. “I won’t feel satisfied until I bully them a bit.”

“Their leader is so kinkily dressed and her chest wouldn’t even lose to the boob witch…” The demon was shaking his head sullenly. “Every time she moves they threaten to pop out, y’kno? Yet somehow I am the pervert, yo? And she is the one who is pissed off? How many insults do I have to endure?”

“That’s my line!” the Knight captain said, her face flushed with a combination of embarrassment and anger. “Bring me that bastard’s head!”

The Knights roared as they charged the mouthy demon. One thing could be said for their “different” armor, it did not seem to way them down at all. They moved fast enough that a normal person would not be able to track them with their eyes. They were invisible to Akane, so when a man even more massive than the Bishop slammed an enormous flail atop of them she didn't even notice it in time to scream.

She had only just released her voice shrilly in the demon’s ear when she noticed they were standing quite a distance from where the flail had torn the ground into rubble… standing on a wall looking down on the knights at an angle that should have been impossible.

“Control your shrieking, yo!” the demon said. “Are you trying to destroy my hearing? As if such an attack would reach me, y’kno? I am insulted.”

“H-how are you standing here?” she said squeezing the demon’s neck so hard he made a weird “glrk” sound.

“Well, y’kno, I jumped, then landed, and like bam, I stood up.”

“I do not think that is enough of an explanation!”

He was standing on a wall like it was the ground. It appeared that gravity had only a loose authority over demons.

“There is a time for everything, y’kno? A time for explaining…” He grinned down at the knights. “And A time for killing. [Shadow Spear]!”

His tail lashed out behind him plunging into his shadow like it was the surface of a still pond. The spear-shaped tip hadn’t disappeared for more than an instant before the shadows of the knights writhed behind them boiling like the surface of a pot set to fire, then exploded outward each one hurling the wicked tips of a hundred deadly black tail spears towards the backs of the knights.

If their training had been any less sound these ordained soldiers of [Punishment] would have taken on a new meaning to the term Holy Knights. Even as they avoided the worst of the attack, some of the slower warriors’ skin tore open as the blades sliced through their exposed skin spilling yet more blood onto the ground.

“Shit! Not good enough…” The demon said grinding his teeth in frustration.

“You’ll pay for that spawn of Apokolypze!” the Knight captain screamed launching herself at him like a musket ball.

“Tch!” the demon somersaulted over her head just avoiding being pierced by the tip of her spear like the wall behind him.

“Yoooouuuuurrrr wide open, ya knoooow!” a teeny female warrior sang as she swung a barbed whip at them that made the air scream as it tore through it. “Caaan’t dodge in mid-air, duuuumy!”

“That is a human weakness, you idiot munchkin!” the demon said flexing the wing-like plates at his back, making the whip CRACK in the space he had been as he skidded across the ground a moment later.

“A winged demon? What powerful evil.” Said a pouty-lipped, porcelain-skinned man as he chucked a needle towards the demon from the folds of his voluminous sleeves. “We must smite him here! [Holy Spines of Penalty]!”

“Argh!” The demon snarled as he was blinded by a flash of white before his by shook with the impact of dozens of needles that had been cloned from thin air out of the one the Knight had thrown.

“It BURNS!” He screamed as the Holy energy tore through his being.

To say harming a demon is difficult, is like saying the ocean is deep. True but woefully inadequate. Their bodies are made of spirit energy, not physical matter like mortal creatures. Higher ranked demons could dissipate and morph beyond the laws that constricted beings natural to Alothas and become immaterial at will, physical wounds were a nonfactor, they could even absorb the mana out of magic attacks and convert it into demonic energy if the magic used was too weak. Only high tier magic, or martial skill honed to a certain level could reliably harm them.

That… and Holy energy.

“M-Mr. Demon?” Akane said from his back. Her eyes had been squeezed shut as tight as they could get, but his screams forced them open. What she saw made her gasp in both horror and guilt.

Most of his wounds were along his arms, the shining needles piercing his skin all the way up to his shoulder.

“Y-you got hurt defending me?” she whispered into his back shielding herself from the shame by burying her head into the back of his neck.

“Tch! It’s ain’t like I gotta choice, yo!” the demon said, glaring at the knight who had dared to wound him.

Like they were suddenly stricken with a great weight his arms fell to his side and hung there like they were dead. “My arms will be useless, yo, unless…”

His eyes cut back to glare towards Akane. “But I cannot bring out more power. Not with this idiot this close! She would not be able to bear it, yo! I will just have to make do, y’kno.”

“I won’t give you a chance to rest demon!” the giant with the flail roared as he struck again.

The demon smiled as the man’s great shadow fell over him.

“[Dark Doorway],” he said as he fell through the shadow like it had been transformed to a pit deep enough to swallow him and Akane whole.

“Nooo did he escape?” moaned the tiny woman as she bit the handle of her whip like a petulant child. “I wanna play with the demon some more.”

“Don’t you sense that corrupt energy you fool! He’s still here so be on your guard!” the captain said glaring around their shadows in search of the elusive demon.

Her vigilance was her salvation.

“The strongest first!” the demon roared launching out of the captain’s shadow his savage teeth seeking the supple flesh at her neck.

“I won’t be easy meat, demon.” the captain snarled leaping back pulling her neck from the jagged points of the demon’s fangs as they snapped shut. “Lieutenant!”

“Riiiighto, Capt!” the small one’s whip cracked as it wrapped around the demon’s ankle, just as he had lowered himself to launch at the captain’s neck again. “I might be small but I am strooong!”

She grit her teeth and twisted her body wrenching the demon’s leg out from under him. Akane and the demon found themselves hurtling through the air. The demon glared at the impetuous munchkin; if he didn’t manage to stop her the boob witch wouldn’t be much more than pudding on the wall.

With as much strength as his current form allowed him, he stomped his free foot down. In a whirl of shadows, his boot melted away the swirling shape congealing into a monstrous foot that was some terrible marriage between a goat’s hoof and a wolf’s paw.

His claws plunged into the ground digging deep until the found purchase and with a jerk that made Akane squeak he stopped their flight in its tracks.

“Not strong enough, shitty Knight.” he said grinning evilly at her. It was his turn to flex as he kicked his still entangled leg out with all his strength. “Time to fly!”

“EEEEEYYAAAAA!” the tiny knight flew through the air filling the prison with a high pitched squeal as she hurled towards a wall with enough force to turn her bones into powder.

“Vice Captain!” one of the Knights who had stayed in the background for the entire fight leapt between the tiny Knight and the wall cushioning the impact with his body.

“You’ll pay for that demon!” It seemed the lower-ranked Knights had been laying in wait while the officers in their group distracted the demon; they had surrounded him while he faced off with the more combat able higher ranks so they could attack from six directions at once.

“Do you think I will be shown up by background characters?” the demon sneered. “How conceited!”

He roared as the dark flesh on his arms bulged then tore apart with the wet sound of ripping meat; they burst sopping black icor that solidified into three pairs of arms that devoured the needles of holy energy riddling his flesh with the power of corruption.

Before the blades glowing with holy energy could lacerate his skin each blade was stopped by a hand… only one pair of which was human. The lowest arms were capped with, though the digits could be called fingers, they were more like hooves--thick keratin material that was tough enough to crack the blade meant to tear into the demon’s flesh. The middle pair of hands were human… if ever there was a perfect pair. Flawless perfect proportioned black fingers grasped the blades of the sword almost daintily. Fragile as those slender fingers looked the blades they caught did not even twitch between them. The topmost pair of hands were those of a hunting beast; they were sharp, savage, and somehow regal. Those beastly claws did not stop the encroaching blades they cut through them.

Before the ringing sound of finely wrought metal clattering on the ground in a clear almost musical ringing sound struck its first note, the beast claws had finished their decent, then flipped unsheathing themselves further out, and began to reascend.

“Those blades couldn’t cut butter, yo!” the demon said, his laughing sounding like both a howl and a bleat. “Let me teach you how to eviscerate!”

“You have gorged yourself enough on carnage, demon!” the captain of the Knights roared touching the tip of her spear to her lips. “Be pierced, feel pain, repent and be purified! [Convicts’ Bane]!”

“Your edge can’t reach me in time, ya fool! Despair as I turn your comrades into salami!”

“I will not let you have your way!” the Knight captain said as her Faith washed over her piercing the prison’s gloom in brilliant white as the Holy Energy merged her with her weapon forging them into one entity…

For an instant she transcended humanity becoming one with her faith, transforming into a great javelin of light energy that pierced the demon’s chest spitting him like a roasted pig.

“GAH!” blood flowed from the demon’s mouth along with his groan of anguish. Blackish red liquid splattered on the ground beneath his boots as he stared in disbelief at the Holy energy piercing his chest.

Had he been another demon the agony would have driven him insane, but the demon knew pain as well as he did his own soul. Still, the wound was severe enough that had he not been bound by the boob witch’s curse his form would have been dispersed and he would have been forced back to Apocalypze in order to recover.

But he was bound, so he was forced to listen to the sound of his flesh sizzling, inhaling the smell of his body frying like it was on a hot skillet, and seeing his meat around the light spear bubble, burst, and melt as it was forcibly purified.

“Mr. Demon!” Akane said as she watched his body turn to ash. “Pull it out! Pull it out!”

“If I could I would!” the demon snarled. Smoke curled from beneath the hand that grasped the spear as it burned from contact with the Holy weapon.

“You’re going nowhere, demon.” the knight said as her body reformed in a burst of crackling white lightning. She gave the demon a savage grin as she pushed the cruel hooks of her spear further into the demon’s flesh. “My knights! The demon is mighty, but he is at his end. Add your strength to mine and we shall purge this abomination in the name of Holy [Punishment]!”

With a triumphant cry, her warriors rushed at the demon. Those whose swords were shattered by the demon grasped the knives at their belts and strengthened them to deadliness with their faith.

“I won’t be felled so easily!”

The demon bared his komodo dragon teeth at the striking knights and snarled in such savageness that it caused the knights with weaker hearts and faith to hesitate.

In their weakness the demon found his chance; a window to strike had opened and the razor edge of his spear-headed tail whipped, lashed and struck through it with a speed that would have made a striking cobra seem like it was standing still.

Blood splattered as it spilled after the veins of knights were opened by the razor edge of the demon’s tail; the knights surely suffered for the scant designs of their armor. The demon had a surgeon’s accuracy with his strikes finding openings in the plentiful gaps between the Holy energy enshrined leather piercing and lacerating with such ferocity that the wounds they suffered forced the knights to draw back.

Dragging this out more ain’t gonna do me no favors, yo. He thought. It’s time for me to get the hell outta this tough spot, y’kno?

But that hateful spear still held him fast. The savage hooks held him fast like teeth in an unforgiving beast’s jaws damaging him with torturous savageness whenever he moved more than a hair.

His eyes met the knight captain’s who held him prisoner and as she gave him a tight-lipped crooked grin their thoughts aligned. They both knew the demon’s time was up, behind her the demon watched as the giant of a knight drew back his great flail and the tiny knight, no longer grinning, walked towards them on trembling legs whip at the ready. Even more troublesome than either of those small fries was the swift-footed knight who struck with those cursed needles who made the demon’s ears twitch with every step as he crept up behind him.

If all of them struck together he would be torn to shreds in an instant. Avoiding them would be child's play normally, but… the boob witch’s famous features gushed forcefully against his back as she squeezed his neck tight with terror. She was the problem. Moving at the speed it would take to avoid their attacks would snap her neck like a twig. Drawing forth more power was out of the question being in the proximity of that much corrupted energy, for a weakling like her…

Not only would her flesh, but her very soul, would be torn asunder. Not that he cared whether she lived or died, but her powerful curse prevented him from allowing her any harm.

“No helping it then,” the demon said returning the knight captain’s smug smile with a lupine grin of his own. “Guess I’ll just have to eat one of these bastards' attacks, yo.”

His tail whipped forth like a scorpion’s point arching at the captain with speed that was blinding. With her eyes wide at the approach of death, she leapt back, getting pierced in the shoulder by a thrust that was meant for her neck.

The demon roared at her retreat in both triumph and agony, for when she left she took her spear with her. It spilled hissing blood and bits of sizzling flesh as it withdrew, the damage he received from the spear’s leaving even more draining than what he suffered as it plunged into his body.

But at least he was free. Not that it did him much good. He could already hear the shrill whistle of the needles the knight behind him unleashed before his wounded leader even struck the ground. The demon was forced to dive forward to avoid being skewered again, but…

He didn’t have the luck to escape unscathed.

“You’ll pay for hurting the captain!” the giant’s roar was like thunder in his ears as the demon gazed up at the looming form of the massive knight. Engorged veins pulsed as the big man’s muscles swelled, powering his swing giving the spiked ball of his weapon the force and speed of a carriage on full throttle.

It hit the demon with such violence had he been a human his bones would have been vaporized, had he even been a lesser demon he would not have likely survived that smiting. For even a demon such as he that blow was bad news. Had he taken it directly the best he could have hoped for was to be crippled by the smashing impact.

Fortunately, the demon’s tail intercepted it; when he received the mitigated energy of the attack on his shoulder he was merely sent skidding across the ground on his side instead of losing a shoulder and a good deal of his side along with it.

“M-Mr. Demon!” Akane said, she watched the demon groan as he forced himself off of the ground. “Are you going to be ok?”

“Tch.” the demon spat the blackish blood welling in his mouth onto the ground. It sizzled and hissed eating away at the ground like it was acid. “I would be, yo, if I didn’t have a chain on my back weighing me down.”

“It’s not like I can help it!”

“Shut up for a second!” the demon snarled. His tail cracked like a whip behind him while he glared at the knights drawing around him in a half-circle their glowing white weapons leading the way.

He had to escape! There was no way he could both protect this idiot and kill the knights, but where could he flee to? His plan had been to get sneak into Chastening, fly to the shrine and kill [Punishment], in that order. Keeping some busty chick company was never part of his agenda.

But [Punishment]'s prison city was less a metropolis and more a labyrinth. Beyond the knights was a maze that stretched with the borders rivaling any of the great cities of Alothas.

Even more so than its width that stretched upon the horizon until beyond sight, was Chastening's depth. The demon stared beyond the knights to where the stone floor was replaced by gates sliding open and closed with torturous metal groans, shifting places with each other guarding the unknown abyss of the lower city.

"No choice, yo…" the demon said, resigned. He would have to find a way to get rid of this curse before delivering [Punishment] his hot serving of comeuppance.

To the depth's of Apocalyze they go.

A small fry knight's, braver than the others, foot made a hissing sound as his foot edged closer towards the waiting demon. But as his scraping boot called the attention of those demonic eyes he froze as a mouse would under the assault of a serpent's glare.

"My difficulty comes from making my escape, yo." The demon said, as he lifted the pressure of his gaze from the petrified knight and settled it on his captain who was… less affected by its malice. She struggled to her feet grasping her shoulder and giving him a defiant glare. "What to do… what to do?"

He flinched like he was struck when his silver eye burst into brilliance giving birth to a sudden burst of ball lightning.

"No! Fuck you!" He said, roaring his defiance to someone only he could see. "This body is mine you bastard!"

His eye flashed like it could answer him and it answered furiously if the brilliance it burned was any indication.

"I don't care, yo!" The demon was clutching his eye while he screamed as though to contain it. "I will not give you CONTROL!!!"

But the light burst through the gaps in his fingers radiant and indomitable. Soon its luminescence domineering his protests leaving the demon quivering as the silver light pulsed in steady triumph.

The knight captain did not overlook the opportunity presented by the demon’s sudden enigmatic paralyzation. There was no time to ponder the reason behind the chance; there was only her divine ordinance. To punish.

She lifted her spear ignoring the searing throb of her shoulder and the arm that dangled useless beneath it and let her voice ring out in a clarion call that became strength to her weary subordinates.

“Courage, comrades!” she said thrusting her spear’s tip towards the faltering demon and marching with a resolution that made the leaking wound at her shoulder seem no more than a scratch. “Victory is before us! All we need to triumph is your steadfastness as knights and your faith in our Lord’s divinity!”

Her knights grit their teeth their hearts soaring as they gathered strength from staring at their captain’s confident back. There was no cheers. The time for huzzah’s would be after the last drop of the demon’s blood was quenching the thirst of the parched prison floor.

“Mr. Demon! Mr. Demon!” Akane said eyeing the approaching blades with trepidation as the knights approached with growing speed and confidence bolstered by the continued incapacitation of their feared foe. “Their coming! Do something! Get them with your tail! Or I know! That sword! Cut them with that black sword!”

“I won’t give that monster the opportunity, witch!” The captain said raising the tip of her spear towards the shrine hovering over their heads. At her words the spear burst into searing white flame as the god [Punishment]’s energy entered it in response to her faith. “This will end by my spear, and it will end now!”

“Your sword, Mr. Demon!” Akane said clutching the neck of the unresponsive and squeezing and she hid her eyes in his bloody mane.

But her words did not reach the demon in time. He didn't even twitch to defend himself as a storm of swords pierced his front making his body convulse as the points skewered him from his head to sternum; the blades stuck out of his body at gruesome angles.

Powerful as he was none could survive the brutality of the knights assault demon or no. Seeing the demon dead on his feet still clutching his eye with two of his six hands, the others spread out in impotent aggression, the knights released their bated breaths.

Then the cheers of triumph came as they achieved impossible victory without sacrificing even one of their numbers.

"No mr. Demon…" Akane wept into the demon's back. Sadness at his fate and fear of her own overwhelming her.

She was so distraught she failed to notice that skewered as the demon was not a blade had reached her flesh.

"Rejoice! Today we have vanquished a blemish to our Lord's domain! Knights be proud! An abomination is dead all hail Lord [Punish-"

"Ah… please don't mention that dastardly villain's name."

An alto voice, beautiful as a silver moon rise on a pitch-black night, stunned the captain’s monologue to silence. The sound was so melodious it sounded almost like singing. It was soothing to all that heard it, or it should have been at least, instead it ended up being jarring and fearsome.

A tongue that was so melodious… to be so jarring… it was only possible because of its source. Every eye rolled towards the demon stretched wide as they could expand, widened at the preposterous event unfolding before them.

“M-mr. Demon?” Akane said, peeking timidly at the demon. She wasn’t as shaken as the knights, she had heard the demon talking this way before after all. Still, there was something different. The tone? His inflection?

“...It would have done me no good.” the demon said with a gentle curve to his lips as he tilted his head towards her studying her with an eye that was alien in his face for its kindness. It’s appearance was different as well the black sclera had vanished, replaced by a shinning silver that was almost too brilliant to look at directly.

“H-hmm?” Akane said confused. What would have done no good? She said, mesmerized by his transformation. His demeanor doing for his beauty what his earlier crassness could not. It was poignant now, intoxicating.

As His six monstrous arms melted back into a pair, Akane thought his beauty went from being as terrible as a storm to something vast and deep like the fathomless darkness of the ocean. His presence had lost the feeling of the impenetrable black lurking beneath the bed, where you just knew something massive, ravenous, and hostile lurked. It had become something tranquil… but as Akane looked at the calm waters of the demon’s eyes she felt a different kind of unease.

It was as though that calm penetrated only to the surface.

“The sword. It wouldn’t do much good against them. [Broken Law] can both cut anything… and nothing at all.” even his chuckle was like music. “Besides you’re kind’ve got it stuck where it is right now.”

“Ah! Sorry!” Akane blushed noticing the strange pulsing warmth of the sword from where it was pinned between their bodies for the first time.

“W-why does a demon give off this presence?” the knight captain was the only of her force to regain any semblance of composure. “This feeling is… this feeling is the same as my lord [P-hurk!”

Her words died in a gurgle as air was crushed from her throat; the demon’s slender fingers were cruel in their grip, his brutal strength stealing the strength from the captain’s legs forcing her to collapse to her knees.

“Please. Don’t. Say. That. BASTARDS. NAME.” the demon said, there was no kindness in his eye now. He looked at the knight captain like she was something gross that crawled from a refuse heap.

He even made Akane tremble. That tranquil surface he projected had been broken, revealing the roiling storm of madness and hate it had hidden away.

“It’s taken me everything not to crush the life of you poor sods fooled by that bastard’s sick doctrine. The scent of his reek on you all churns my stomach.” the demon said, curling his lips to display his displeasure. He sighed releasing the captain’s neck and stretched, the weapons falling from his body and hitting the ground simultaneous with the captain’s bottom.

The knights of [Punishment] had their will broken as they looked upon the demon’s skin, which was untarnished like he had not been in a death struggle with them moments before. And this air of divinity that enveloped him… was this truly a demon?