Ichigo POV:
After everything that happened today, getting the kids outside was surprisingly the hardest part. Don't even get me started on putting seals on all of them so they didn't succumb to the cold. Many of them had dangerously low anima, and many more had already succumbed to it.
Luckily, Machi was there to help calm them.
In total, there were seventy-four children. Only thirty-one were still alive.
Once we were outside, I made a fire and took food and water out of my dimension for them to eat and drink. I made sure to only give them small portions at first so they don't go into shock.
While they ate, I pulled Machi to the side to discuss the situation.
"What the fuck. I've seen some terrible things. But this… what the fuck," Machi said.
"Yeah. Good thinking, by the way. The song really helped calm them. I honestly hadn't a clue on how to help. Thank you."
Machi huffed and looked away trying to look unbothered.
"Whatever. It was natural. But seriously, why would Hubri keep these children as prisoners? Isn't that strange?"
It was strange. But then I thought about a similar situation Asuka had during her first mission.
"Yes. But this was not the first time. A few months ago, my student went on a mission where a demon had taken people captive. It was hard to wrap my head around, but there was another thing that happened."
Machi looked at me with a confused expression.
"A child had turned into a demon."
For the next few moments, Machi laughed like I had never seen him laugh before. Then he realized I was serious.
"Wait a moment, a child turned into a demon? You've gotta be joking. That's never been heard of."
"I thought the same. But I didn't sense any lie when my student told me. And there are still many things in this world we don't know. Not to mention, Virgo was there as well."
My companion's eyes widened in surprise and he began to blush uncontrollably.
"V-Virgo?"
"The one and only. That means that the demon my student fought has some relationship with one of the defiled, which means that the demon king is somehow involved."
My mind raced, but suddenly an intense, fiery malice ran up my spine. I twisted my neck to look in the direction the feeling was coming from, startling Machi.
"What the hell was that?"
I turned to him. The look on my face told him everything.
A powerful demon was coming.
Without saying a word, we quickly gathered the children and put them into my dimension.
Machi hesitated to leave me alone, but I insisted he follow them. Once he entered the portal, I prepared to jump off the floating rock when a voice of excitement crept into mind.
"When was the last time you had a true battle? How often does a chance like this come? After Hubri, I know you must be thirsting for a good fight," it said
Oh, how I wanted to. But if I die, those kids and Machi will never make it out. So I leapt off the flying rock and began to let contra flow through my body. It would take a moment before I was able to open the rift. But I didn't even have that much time, because the demon was already here.
"BETRAYER!"
The voice boomed through the air, almost knocking me off balance. As I fell through the air, I managed to glimpse the sky and the scaly winged beast of pure rage soaring through it.
"Ira!"
The name of the great demon rang through my mind. I only know of her through word of mouth. Out of all the words that described her, grand and terrible were used the most. Seeing her now, they did not do her justice.
She was a being of pure rage and malice. Even from this distance, I can feel the heat radiating off her. With each flap of her wings, it intensifies and the fear in my stomach grows more and more. Or maybe it was excitement?
The beast turned its head down facing me and it dived. Something that big should not be able to move that fast. Yet before I could react, the beast was on me. It was ready to grind me to a bloody paste, but I was able to catch its upper jaws with my hands and braced the lower one with my legs.
It took every bit of anima in my body to hold Ira's mouth open. Her jaws were strong enough to crush mountains. The heat from her breath alone would be enough to burn all things. Her roar alone would make most people's heads pop. Not to mention Ira's fast and wild flying was making it even harder to hold on.
Then a sudden force slammed into my back. It didn't hurt, but the suddenness almost made me lose my grip. After a moment, it stopped. Only then did I see what she had crashed through. Hubri's palace was now falling out of the sky.
I didn't have time to stare. Death knocked with a blazing, crackling sound. A dark red glow ignited inside the demon's mouth. The temperature in the air shot up and I knew if I didn't move, I was a dead man.
I looked around desperately to see if I had a means of escape. My clothes began to singe despite my anima. The air was so hard to breathe, and I could feel my skin beginning to dry. Then an idea crept into my mind.
I let go and dropped inside the beast's mouth. The heat spiked instantly. My cloak suddenly erupted in flames, and I hurriedly threw it off me. The light became brighter, and I knew the fire coming would reduce me to nothing. But, as the light brightened, the shadows also deepened. At the last second, I dissolved into a shadow and materialized from a shadow on Ira's back.
That was when Ira opened her mouth and dark red flames shot out her mouth. It looked like regular fire, but my instincts told me better. The heat from them was nothing I had felt before, but there was something else in it too.
I didn't have time to analyze her power, for she realized I was alive. With a roar, she suddenly flipped and again I was falling through the air. Ira circled around and opened her jaw. A similar red glow forced me to move. Though she was quite far, I wasn't about to test her range.
Quickly, I unsheathed my sword and with my now readied contra, tore a hole in space. Ira's flames erupted once more, missing me by inches as I fell through the portal.