"Let's continue." The demon said, stretching his newly reattached arm. "But I'll increase the pressure a bit." He turned to Daria and kicked the air, sending a gust of wind - like an invisible blade at her. Daria's blades formed ranks in front of her, but were blown to all sides and a large, jagged wound formed on her chest.
"Sorry about that, It's been two years since the last time I've used this skill, so it's a bit hard to control it." The demon said. "I'll up the power on the next shot." With these words a flurry of invisible air slashes were launched in Daria's direction.
Daria began running to the side, dodging the incoming invisible attacks on pure instinct. She called her blades to her side and jumped on one, using it as a snowboard. With her blades at her side and ill intentions in her mind, she changed direction and went straight for the demon king.
She sent her blades, one after the other, at the demon, but he didn't even dodge. The blades got dangerously close to the demon's chest, but, at the last moment, they bounced off of something. As if an invisible wall standing in front of the demon - the blades struck it, but not one was able to pierce. "If I can use wind to attack, it only stands to reason that I can use it to defend as well." The demon spoke.
Daria didn't give up, she ordered all, but one of her blades to attack consistently from all directions, while the last blade, floating straight in front of the demon, began to spin like a drill. The spinning blade began to heat up, changing color as it did until, finally, it was launched.
It flew at incredible speeds and collided with the wall of air. It collided and stopped, still spinning. CRACK - a sound of something breaking was heard and the blade moved a few inches forward. Another crack and the spinning blade advanced once more.
BANG - the blade - as if shot from a bow - went forwards, but the demon dodged to the side. Still, a tiny cut appeared on the demon's side. "Huh, huh, huh… Now we're even." Daria said, panting heavily and collapsed.
The demon looked at his wound, which was healing by the second and asked. "Really?"
The defenses of the demon king were broken - this was the time to attack - I attacked from behind, aiming to lob off his head in one clean blow, but my opponent was fast - he placed his Konda sword behind his back, tip pointing straight down, and blocked it with ease. Then he swung his sword from behind his back, in one fluid motion, he synchronized the twisting of his torso with the swing of his sword and struck me through the abdomen.
The cut was shallow, but the following cut was aimed to split me in half from head to toes. I paced my sword above my head and braced for impact. The swords collided and the sound of breaking metal was heard.
I panicked, thinking that my sword had just snapped and that I was about to die, but to my surprise, there was no slash from above. Instead, I received a kick to the balls - so hard that it sent me flying.
This guy truly isn't versed in the ways of the warrior… I thought, while lying on the ground, clutching what was hopefully not lost.
The demon approached slowly - every step of his - like the referee in a boxing ring, counting down the seconds for me to stand up. I tried to move, I tried to get up, but the clock still counted down. Every step - a second closer to my death.
The demon approached me and looked down on me, like looking down on some insect. "I expected more from you…" He said. "You are the hero after all, the strongest out of all of us, the one with the most potential, yet here you lie, clutching your balls like some loser. How truly disappointing…" He raised his sword to strike the finishing blow.
"Who… Who are you?" I stammered through gritted teeth. "How do you know me?"
"Who am I?" The demon said. "This fight is getting quite boring, so let's set a new rule - this fight ends when you say my name." He swung his sword down. Eugene the 'Immovable shield' that had lost his shield tackled the demon and dropped him to the ground. With the ferocity of a wild animal, he began pounding the masked one with his fists.
But the demon wasn't fazed, he didn't even block, or try to dodge. After a while, the demon grabbed Eugene by the head, turned his body so that he would be on top and slammed Eugene's head to the ground, cracking the floor.
Tania, whose leg had been healed, appeared behind him and aimed a kick at his side. The demon king blocked with his arm and caught her leg. He raised his other arm and was about to strike Tania's knee with his elbow, but stopped at the last moment.
"A shorty with a spunky attitude." He said, as if talking to himself. "You must be Tania… He used to talk about you…" He let go of her leg.
"Who used to talk about me?" She asked.
"A dead idiot." The demon said, slapped Tania's but and jumped backwards. "Now then, who's next?"
"You… YOU ASSHOLE!!!" Tania raged and charged at the masked one. "How dare you do that?!" She punched and kicked, but the demon easily dodged every strike. What was strange was that the demon king did not retaliate once - he just dodged and evaded, occasionally tripping her, or pushing her off balance.
It seems that we've found our way to victory. I thought and shouted. "Tania, keep him busy for as long as you can!" Then I began to stand up.
"I would have done it, even if you hadn't told me to." She replied.
In the meantime, I collected the ones that had fallen and dragged them to the back where the healers were desperately trying to stop and reverse the spreading petrification.
"You have a plan?" Lina asked, trying to close the wounds on Owen's body.
"I do." I answered. "The demon king will end this the moment we say his name."
"What? Is it like some curse placed on him?"
"I think that he's just doing it for fun…"
"Fucking bastard." Lina sighed.
"Agreed."
"Do you have any leads?" She asked.
"He knows us."
"Half the world knows us, that doesn't narrow it down."
"He knows us personally…"
Lina's hands noticeably trembled. "Are… Are you sure?" She asked.
"Positive. He hasn't lied once." I answered. "I know this will sound strange, but I think that he's one of us…"
Lina stopped what she was doing and looked me straight in the eyes. "Impossible, everyone of us is either here or…" She lowered her eyes. "Dead."
"This is just a thought, but…" I looked at the demon king, who was playing around with Tania like with an old friend. "When the news broke that Alex Jones was dead, Tania was one of the most affected ones, wasn't she? When I asked about it, I heard that she was his childhood friend."
"I'll stop you right there, Arthur." Lina interrupted. "Alex is dead. He has been dead for more than two years now and he remains dead to this day. That demon isn't him."
"But think about it, Think about the contrast of treatment received between Tania and the rest of us. For god's sake, I am still alive by luck alone, Eugene was almost split in half, Owen will stay covered in scars for the rest of his life, Daria had her chest slashed and Tania got off with a slap on the but."
"It's not him!" Lina shouted, slamming her fist on the floor. "It… It can't be…"
"It is." I calmly said. "His body was never found, it has to be him and I'll prove it." I stood up and approached the two fighting. "You're Alex, right?" I addressed the demon king. "Alex Jones - the one that sacrificed his life in order to save his comrades, the one that fell down the ledge of the 50th floor of 'The great labyrinth'. It's over, I called out your name, stop the fight."
The demon king stopped moving. "Alex Jones? That brings back memories…" He said. "But you're wrong… I am not him. I am the reason he's dead."
In the corner of my eye, I saw Tania shuttering. "YOU… It was you, you bastard!" She shouted and advanced guided solely by rage and bloodlust. "How dare you kill him!? How dare you touch a single hair on top of his head?! I'll kill you! I'll kill you and rip apart your corpse!" She shouted, attacking blindly.
"Yes, I am the reason for his death." The demon king taunted, dodging every strike with ease. "What are you going to do about it? Let me tell you, his death wasn't swift, we spent so much quality time together before his demise and he told me so much about you guys - his friends - the ones he considered family. I barely had to torture him." He laughed maniacally.
"That chatter box talked and talked, but, for some reason, he did not beg for his miserable life even once. Worse yet, he held onto the belief that he'd survive to the very end. What an absolute idiot!"
This sent Tania into an even deeper rage and she finally landed a strike onto his chest. The masked one was sent flying into the wall behind him. Before he was able to recover, Twelve swords - gleaming in the torchlight - like nails - pinned the demon to the wall. "Use your move now, Arthur!" Daria shouted.
I didn't hesitate, activated 'Limit break' and took up a stance. I slashed my sword horizontally aiming for the demon's neck. "Cloud piercer - edge of horizon." I whispered to myself as the slashing attack cleaved through everything in its path, breaking the wall and gracing us with the view of the sun setting below the horizon.
I instantly became weak and fell to my knees, but did my damnedest to keep my eyes open. When the dust cleared, I saw the demon's head lying six feet from his body in a pool of blood and finally relaxed.
But the thought about the demon king's true identity didn't abandon me. He knows us and he was the one that killed Alex. Alex was last seen falling from a ledge in the 'Great labyrinth', so just who is this demon king? I thought to myself.
Lina approached me to check on my wounds and overall condition, when a realization struck me and I asked her. "Wasn't there someone else that had sacrificed his life alongside Alex?"
"Now that you've mentioned, there was…" Lina answered after a moment of thought. "I think his name was something like… Isaiah, or Isaac…"
"Isaac Sygrim…" A voice carrying immense killing intent rang out in the great hall - the voice of the demon king. I opened my eyes and looked at the masked one's corpse. To my horror, the pool of blood on the floor began congealing into a semi-serpent form that connected the severed head to the neck. The body stood up with the head hovering above it. "So you do remember my existence…" It spoke. "I feel… Touched." The head landed on the neck and the now revived demon king cracked his neck. "As promised, I'll end this now."
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