Ghost (Buryoku Book 11), page 34
Roy could feel the demon trying to push back, but this time, the opposite occurred. The demon began to fail, its own power insufficient to stop the incoming tide. Roy’s technique crushed the demon’s far faster than when the enemy’s attack had foiled his, the demon disappearing within the wave of crimson that swallowed the sky.
The technique continued for several seconds more, Roy wanting to be sure the demon was well and truly destroyed. A flash of warning from his left alerted Roy to the presence of an enemy, and almost without thought, its claws extended, gaping with the power of his full will and might.
The enemy Sovereign appeared right where his senses had warned him, the demon obviously having intended to sneak attack him while his attention was focused on where the enemy was supposed to be. Except, the demon hadn’t counted on Roy being able to counter.
“Obliterate!” Roy roared as his claws slammed down on the surprised demon, Titanic Demon Reiki coursing with lightning as it activated a series of scripts within the claws.
He felt the demon try to fight back and impose his own will over Roy’s, but he was unprepared for just how much power Roy had to bring to bear. His grip tightened, and after a tense thirty seconds, the fist closed as Roy’s Reiki tore the demon apart.
A muffled explosion went off within as the Demonstone shattered, killing the demon permanently. Roy was surprised the exploding stone hadn’t done more damage, as it had belonged to a Sovereign, but he could figure that out later. For now, he had friends to save. Now that he was free to choose his opponents without worrying about being attacked, they would finally have the advantage over the enemy.
Roy shrank in the blink of an eye, the massive Demonic Titan shrinking down to its smaller size. Seven spheres of red now hung over Roy’s shoulders, each feeling nearly twice as dense and heavy as they had previously. According to his calculations, he was using around seventy-five percent of his full strength, which gave him some insight into how strong he should be once he managed to tap into his full power. The fact that it scaled so exponentially told him that he could expect to be significantly stronger once he managed to pull it all out.
For now, though, this should be more than enough to make the needed difference in defeating their enemies.
53
“Ow!” Ferry complained as Violet pulled the bandages tightly around her stomach. “That hurts!”
“Well, if you stopped squirming, it wouldn’t hurt so much,” Violet replied, pulling the bandages tighter.
“Why can’t I just take a Pill?” Ferry said as Violet tied the bandages off.
“You can,” Violet said. “But you need to wait a bit longer for your body to purge the foreign Reiki. Otherwise, the healing won’t be as effective.”
Roy watched the two of them carry on as he worked on burning the foreign Reiki from his body. It was far easier for him than the others would be able to manage, but that was mostly due to his being a Sovereign.
Once he joined the battle, they had had a pretty easy time in subduing the remaining Sovereigns. Sure, the battle was still a tough one, but with an advantage in both numbers and strength, their team had managed to pull out a win, with just a few more injuries on their side.
“You have grown in strength once more,” Snarl said, coming to stand by him and rubbing one of his shoulders. “You constantly seem to be one-upping me. Every time I manage a breakthrough and think I’ve finally caught up, you surge ahead once more, leaving me behind.”
“You’re not as far behind as you think,” Roy said with a wry grin. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ll be stronger than me the moment you discover your Conqueror technique.”
“I still can’t believe we won,” Violet said, moving over to join their small group.
“It’s thanks to Roy,” Ferry said, giving him a wide smile.
Bandages wrapped her arms, chest, and torso, showing where she’d taken the worst injuries. Violet had also taken several and was sporting similar bandages. Snarl had forgone bandages, his wounds having scabbed over and the foreign energy having been mostly burned from his body.
Roy, on the other hand, was almost completely better, his cuts and bruises having been closed by his natural healing. It also helped that he was constantly cycling, though he was doing that almost subconsciously.
“So, what now?” Violet said, looking back to the gate where Hermit had vanished through.
“I say we leave him here,” Ferry said. “It would serve him right for just ditching us like that.”
Roy extended his senses as far as they could reach. He couldn’t sense anything at all in their surroundings, meaning that no further demons would be coming, or so he hoped.
“No, I think it’s best if we stay right here,” Roy said. “He’s got a lot to answer for and we’re going to get those answers out of him.”
“No need to be so gloomy,” Violet said, clapping him on the back. “We’ve destroyed all the demons Hermit ditched us with, even the ones we thought we wouldn’t be able to.”
“We were lucky,” Roy said, and he knew it more than most. “If they’d decided to work together instead of splitting up to fight us individually, we might not be celebrating right now.”
“It was the demons’ hubris that cost them their lives,” Snarl said. “They thought to toy with us. To make sport of those they deemed to be lesser. They paid for their mistake with their lives. Taking advantage of an enemy’s weakness is hardly what I would consider to be luck.”
“Well, look at you,” Violet said, grinning at the wolf. “You’re actually talking sense for once.”
The wolf ignored her, turning his nose up. Violet laughed and Ferry joined in. Roy felt a grin spreading across his face as well. The odds they’d been facing had been bad. Logic dictated that they should have lost that battle, yet they had managed to prevail. This was something to celebrate.
He opened his mouth to say so, when a voice, bone-chillingly cold, spoke.
“This looks like a cozy little party. Would you mind if I joined?”
The group spun around, Roy feeling a spike of alarm as he took in the demon floating just ten yards away from them.
“Where did he come from?” Geon exclaimed.
Roy didn’t know either. He hadn’t sensed anyone coming or anything nearby.
The demon was tall, though not massive by the standards Roy had seen, only standing at around six-foot-eight. His body was covered in a mass of muscle and dark gray in color. He wore a breastplate with a glowing, green skull embossed on the front.
The armor extended to his arms, showing dark bracers clad with long spikes. His hands were left free and unencumbered, revealing them to be almost human in appearance. His torso remained free of armor, revealing a chiseled abdomen that appeared to be made of stone, and it continued down to his legs, which were clad in greaves that matched the bracers on his arms.
On the demon’s head was something Roy had never seen. It was a helm that covered all but the demon’s eyes, which shone green from within. Some of the face was left open, but it was cloaked in shadow and a pair of curving horns jutted up from the demon’s helm, completing the terrifying look that matched the demon’s presence.
If Roy had been able to sense anything at all from the demon, he might not have been so worried, but the fact that the demon could hide from Roy told him that this was no Sovereign.
“Keep your guards up,” Roy warned, his sense of danger spiking as adrenaline began to rush through him.
This was not an ideal time for this to happen.
“That seems a bit rude, don’t you think?” the demon said, the cold voice sounding amused. “You act as though I’ve come here to kill you.”
“We’re not stupid enough to believe something like that,” Roy said as his group gathered around him, shoring up their defenses in preparation of an attack.
“Get ready,” Roy said.
Geon hadn’t dismissed his constructs, nor had the massive cannon been put away. If they could land a surprise attack on the demon while he was off guard, then maybe, just maybe, they could injure him if they attacked together.
“I don’t want to kill any of you,” the demon said. “Cross my heart.”
“He’s a strange one,” Geon said. “As far as I know, demons don’t have hearts.”
“All I want is the man responsible for killing so many of my kin.”
“You’ll have to wait if you want to fight him,” Roy said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder.
The demon looked up, the glowing spots of light narrowing for a moment as he took in the Torii gate.
“Well, that’s a real shame,” the demon muttered. “There’s nothing to be done about it then. Can’t have interference if he’s grown so strong.”
Roy tensed, expecting an attack, but when it came, he was too slow to react. The demon was in their midst in the blink of an eye, hand flashing out and roiling with green light. Roy was already turning, his Armorer technique cloaking his body.
The whole world seemed to be moving in slow motion, though the demon himself moved at normal speed. Roy reached, eyes going wide in fear as the demon struck at the nearest target – Ferry. Roy saw the fist slam into her stomach, green light exploding out of her back and blood spraying from the wound.
Ferry’s eyes swung up to meet his, blood bubbling up at the corners of her lips. Her eyes were wide in terror. The demon twisted, a foot flashing out and smashing into Violet’s chest, the woman flying back off her feet, blood spraying from her lips as green light surrounded her. The ugly crunch of bone echoed loudly in the suddenly still air.
A beam of concentrated green slammed into Snarl, the wolf having managed to get his Armor up, but that only held the attack back for a second before it punched through, ripping through the center of the wolf’s chest and out his back.
The demon turned on him then, a fist rising to take him in the gut, but Roy was not so easily beaten. Lightning flickered across his skin as anger boiled up in his veins, the horror of what he’d seen sinking in in a way that only witnessing firsthand could impart.
The demon’s fist slammed into his chest and Roy was thrown back, tumbling end over end. He took hold of the power in the air, flipping himself right side up and skidded to a halt, the Armor over his chest shattered and a dull pain throbbing where the demon’s fist had struck.
“Not bad,” the demon said, turning to face him. “I’m impressed you’re still on your feet. You must be a strong one. Good thing I ran into you when I did. You could have been trouble for us in the future.”
Roy barely heard what the demon said, his eyes swinging from Ferry to Violet and then to Snarl. All lay still, blood pooling around their broken bodies. His mind seemed to fracture for a moment, the reality of what he saw too horrifying to comprehend. And yet, there it was, staring at him as plainly as the moon just beginning to peek out from behind the clouds.
His mind went back to Aika. Was this how it had ended for her as well? She’d been killed by an opponent who shouldn’t have been attacking her in the first place.
“Roy! You need to calm down!” Geon yelled, his voice sounding distant. “Take hold of yourself!”
They were gone. They were all gone, and he was alone.
“Nothing to say, I see,” the demon said. “A pity. I would like to know your name before I kill you. I think a companion of mine could use your body. Using it against the humans will bring me much amusement.”
Roy’s gaze fixed on the demon and all he saw was red. This creature was the one responsible for this. This demon knew they wouldn’t be able to stand up to him and that he was so much stronger than those he faced. This monster had so callously murdered his friends and was now talking about using his body against others of his kind. His family.
“No,” Roy whispered, feeling a burning heat pervading his body as his eyes seemed to freeze solid with cold.
“No?” the demon said. “Is that your name? You humans always have such strange ones.”
Roy screamed, his Reiki boiling up from within his body and exploding out in a roar that shook the earth. His body seemed to ignite from within, his Core blazing so bright that a miniature sun appeared to burn within him.
“Oh. This should be interesting,” the demon said.
Roy didn’t hear him as his Demonic Titan formed around him, the ground around him shattering as he slammed into the demon and drove him into the side of the Tower.
54
Roy blasted forward, slamming into the demon with all the force he could muster, his body radiating so much Power that a normal Gold-Belt would have been drained in under a second. But Roy wasn’t paying attention to that. All he saw was the demon before him, the monster who had murdered his friends and left him with no one.
The demon laughed as Roy drove him into the Tower, then grabbed one of his arms and whirled around, hurling him into the air. His mouth opened wide, and a blast of power exploded outward, slamming into the demon as it hung in midair.
His wings drove down, and Roy was before the demon in an instant, claws raking out at its face and skittering across the metal helm that hid the demon from view. The screech of metal on metal was enough to set anyone’s teeth on edge, but Roy didn’t hear it.
“Die!” Roy roared, his claws lancing forward, massive and imposing as they ripped at the demon before him.
Roy felt the demon oppose him for the first time, the demon’s will clashing against his. He could feel the demon’s strength behind the exchange, but he didn’t care. He released the attack, reaching up and grabbing one of the dense spheres of power hanging above his head.
They felt far heavier than they should, but Roy barely noticed. Without thought, he slammed the sphere into the scales covering his right arm, then punched again, a wave of destruction on a scale not before seen blasting from the end of his fist and causing cracks to spread in the world around him.
“My, aren’t you a dangerous one?” the demon asked, his voice showing a bit of strain as green armored scales spread across his body.
They fuzzed at the edges as though moving at great speeds, but Roy’s attack would not be foiled. He vowed that this demon would die if it was the last thing he did.
A beam of power exploded from his mouth once more as Roy shot forward, feeling the coursing strength of the sphere lodged in his arm pouring into him. A fist the size of a city wall smashed into the demon as Roy cut off the beam, appearing from within the blinding light and driving the attack into the demon’s body.
The air splintered and cracked as reality warped around the area of impact. The demon disappeared, vanishing in a flash as Roy’s technique blasted him into the far distance. A line of dust rose as the creature’s body tore a swath of destruction through the earth. Roy tore off after it, his wings driving him toward the demon at incredible speeds.
The demon exploded up from the ground, splinters of stone sticking to its armor. A small chip showed in the breastplate, proving that Roy had managed to do some damage, though clearly not enough.
Good, Roy thought.
He wouldn’t want the demon to be let off that easily.
“My turn then,” the demon said, then flashed forward, a glowing green fist driving into Roy’s abdomen.
He was fast, the attack coming before Roy could react. The blow drilled into his stomach, his Armor buckling. The force of the attack was enormous, but Roy’s Armor held as he was blasted back through the air. He wasn’t going quietly. A beam of power exploded from his mouth, and chains whipped from his arms, snagging the demon's legs.
The demon was simultaneously blasted in the face and dragged back along with him. The demon, understandably, didn’t like this. It lunged forward as the beam cut off, hands driving toward Roy’s face and stomach.
Roy’s fist slammed into the side of its head as it approached. Sure, Roy couldn’t see the demon’s attacks, but he could anticipate them and act accordingly.
The demon flew, slamming into the earth below and Roy followed up, driving another punch down and unleashing a wave of destruction. It slammed into the earth as the demon hit, buckling the ground and driving the creature deeper into the earth.
Roy felt a disturbance from below, then immediately to his left. He was ready. The monster wouldn’t sneak up on him so easily.
“Strike!” Roy commanded, throwing his other fist back and imbuing power into his claws.
Lightning flashed from above, but instead of transporting him, it struck the claws themselves, causing a new line of script to shine as light crackled over its surface. The backhand slammed into the demon as he appeared, lightning trailing the blow.
“Clever little…” was all the demon managed to say before the blow slammed into the side of his jaw.
The air crackled and sizzled as a massive fork of lightning lit up the sky, driving through the demon’s helm and out the other side. The demon streaked away once more, back slamming into the seemingly indestructible Tower and beginning to slide down.
Roy spun, reaching up and grabbing at another of the spheres. More. He needed more. This demon was tough, but it would fall by his hands.
He vanished, lancing toward the demon once more. Lightning crackled across his claws as Roy poured Reiki and his unending rage into the attack. The demon was before him in a flash, fist driving into his stomach once more, and this time, Roy’s Armor did give out. He smashed into the ground, the earth buckling and splintering around him.
He could taste blood.
The demon appeared above him, fist raised to drive into his head. A blast of pure lightning exploded from the claws as they shot forward in a double palm, using pure force from Roy’s sides.
Roy watched the attack, once more getting the sense that time was slower than it should be. He could see the claws, glowing crimson, flashing up to meet the demon, lightning trailing each of them. A furious storm of destruction was contained within their glowing scripts. Then they struck, and Roy threw all his willpower behind them.
