“I’m fine.”

Pheera clawed out of the rubble, completely covered in dust. A mist of white and blue energy shrouded her body like a blanket as she wiped the blood dripping from her mouth.

Narvari exhaled heavily. She was so relieved Pheera was alright that she didn’t even question how she had survived.

“Don’t be rash,” said Azmel. “Don’t just charge at the demon. I just got a reading from the xuul and it’s fifth-order. I don’t know how a wraith lord ordered up, but I’m betting it had something to do with the thing it just drank.”

“Face me, Little Shar,” the demon roared. “Will you keep hiding behind these weaklings like a pathetic little child? I thought you were the descendant of the mighty Erasmus Shar.” The demon laughed. “Tell me, what was it like, hearing the screams of your people as my demons consumed their souls? It was music to my ears.”

Narvari gripped her fist. So this was the demon responsible for all the horrors that had befallen her beloved town. This demon was the reason why her grandmother was dead, why Jimbaga was dead…

You will pay for this.

Another explosion went off and Narvari was sure that it was one of those strange guns those demon hunters were using. Except that neither Pheera nor Azmel had used their guns.

The demon slowly turned around. Narvari saw the third demon hunter, the shortest of the three. His gun was relatively smaller, closely resembling a pistol. No, three pistols combined with a single grip. Purple energy poured from the triple barrels of the gun and consumed the demon. The demon was unfazed.

The short demon hunter fired his gun continuously.

“Okay, what the hell.” His eyes widened.

“Yanvirrak, it’s no use. It’s fifth-order,” Azmel said.

“But the mission says only first-order demons were here.” Narvari sensed the panic in Yanvirrak’s voice. “We should call for backup. I’ll call for backup.”

“Calm down, will you?” Azmel’s gun disappeared from his hand. Thick silver fluid emanated from his body covering him like a silver blanket. “Get behind me, both of you.”

Yanvirrak and Pheera did as they were told.

The smugness on the demon’s face paled as the silver fluid around Azmel’s body morphed into arrows. A shower of arrows, as if released by an entire army of archers, raced toward the wraith lord. The demon continuously leaped out of the way with a swiftness that could only be described as the wind.

But Azmel was even swifter and more graceful with his movements. Whenever the arrow fell somewhere else other than the demon, it simply disappeared. The wraith lord screeched when a few of the arrows impaled him from the back effectively decreasing his momentum.

Blood as black as coal dripped out of the demon.

Thin threads of silver fluid seeped out from the fingers of Azmel’s right hand. The threads flew after the demon and connected themselves to the arrows impaling him.

Azmel balled his right fist and the demon froze instantly. With a simple tug of his hand, the demon dangled up in the air as though being controlled by a puppeteer. Azmel hammered the demon into the ground. A tremor tore through the earth lasting only a few seconds.

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“I will kill you. I will kill all of you.” His blazing red eyes glared at Azmel. The wraith lord struggled to get on his feet but it seemed the silver threads connected to him had frozen him in place.

“Your elema weakened him,” said Yanvirrak. “His regeneration has slowed down.”

“I’m not stopping until he’s vanquished,” said Azmel. The silver fluid appeared in his left hand and morphed into a long silver spear. Azmel suddenly disappeared and reappeared by the demon’s side. He plunged the spear into the heart of the wraith lord.

Narvari covered her ears as the demon wailed in anguish. Pheera and Yanvirrak ran to Azmel’s side when the cries of the demon died down.

Is he dead?

Barely had the thought formed in Narvari’s head when a powerful force flung Azmel, Pheera, and Yanvirrak into the air. They fell heavily to the ground, several meters away from the demon.

Slowly, the demon stood up. A malicious power that made Narvari’s skin crawl radiated from his being. His wounds were healing at a visible rate and his muscles grew even bigger. Blue liquid trickled down the demon’s mouth and he licked it. He pointed towards Azmel and his team.

“I’m going to enjoy killing you and Little Shar.”

Yanvirrak shouted, “This can’t be. How is he ordering up?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Azmel scrambled to his feet. “Trinity.”

Purple energy seeped out of Yanvier’s eyes like a pair of spectacles. That same purple energy also wrapped around his fists and legs. The same thing had happened to Pheera, except that her energy was blue and white.

“Capture formation.” Azmel took a tiny black cube, barely the size of his palm, out of his pocket.

They all surrounded the demon in a triangle.

The demon laughed. He stood casually at the center, his bright red eyes full of amusement. “You intend to capture me? In your dreams.” Then its laughter turned into a fury the likes of which Narvari had never experienced. Narvari clenched her jaws as a pit of fear opened in her belly.

Azmel didn’t seem to be fazed by the demon’s wrath. He removed something from the black cube and threw it toward the demon. “Forward.”

All three demon hunters lunged toward the demon. The synergy among the three was flawless but even still Narvari could tell that they were no match for the wraith lord.

Soon, the demon had the upper hand, simultaneously sending a powerful punch into Yanvirrak’s throat and a kick into Pheera’s abdomen. The two were violently thrown back. Narvari wasn’t sure what Azmel was doing, but he seemed to be controlling something gray relentlessly following the demon.

The wraith lord, however, would not stand still. He skillfully evaded all of Azmel’s attacks. Then he boosted himself up into the air and then projected himself towards Azmel. Azmel didn’t have time to dodge and he was sent flying away with a single kick in the face.

All the demon hunters lay useless on the ground. A few minutes ago, the demon was at the mercy of Azmel and his team. What had changed so suddenly? Narvari wondered what exactly the demon had drank to make it so powerful to the point of invincibility.

“Are you sure you lot are vanquishers?” the demon raved. Vanquishers? There was that word again.

The demon continued with its tiring monologue. “Has the legend of the mighty Ancient Order of Vanquishers sunk so far?” He scoffed. “Demons quaked in fear for centuries when they heard about you. Is this what my brethren feared for so long? Pathetic.”

The demon cackled. “Are you watching this, Little Shar? Once I’m through with these weaklings, I shall come for you. For the glory of my master, you will go through a slow agonizing death, Little Shar. Never will you defy Master Stein in your next life.”

Master Stein? Who the hell is that? Was it another demon? From the little she had gathered, Narvari understood that the stronger a demon, the higher their order. Was it possible that this Master Stein was a higher-order demon?

She was so confused right now. And so scared. No, that would be an understatement. Fear had taken root in her heart and paralyzed her completely. She had fought those wraith demons. As weak as they were, she couldn’t even kill a single one. But the demon hunters had killed them.

Now, however, the demon hunters didn’t stand a chance against the wraith lord. How could Narvari possibly defeat such a powerful demon?

The only reason she still had hope for her town was that the demon hunters were here. If they died would that not be the end of Sharmandi? If the strange guns and abilities of the demon hunters were not working against the demon, then she knew her ordinary weapons would simply be useless.

Why would anyone want to do this to her? To her people? Who would do this? The demon said she had defied his master. Narvari could not think of anyone. Hours ago she didn’t even know demons existed so how could she have defied one?

“Now, now, which vanquisher do I kill first.” The demon seemed lost in an impossible decision. “Hmm, so many juicy options. Oh, I know.” His eyes rested on Pheera. His face narrowed into a chilling smirk. “I’ll start with the girl.”