Novels2Search

The Sudden Clash

Pietro had a feeling that the situation was vastly different from what he had first assumed. It looked less like Asura getting attacked by some strange monster and more like the red-haired menace randomly assaulting a friendly demon. Pietro knew damn well that demons came in a wide array of shapes and forms, and so the thin woman now appeared to him as nothing more than a demon whom Asura had attacked for bizarre reasons. But only Asura can understand what Asura does.

"Asura, wait for a second! She seems friendl-" Pietro was immediately cut off when Asura opened his mouth and a long stream of fire came out of it. The woman's eyes widened once more but she reacted quickly and ducked before shooting forward from her position. She came like a bullet and tried to cut into Asura's ankles with her sharp nails. Pietro hadn't noticed them, but she certainly had long nails, absurdly long nails even. They looked like weapons more than the unimportant part of a body that humans took them for. Then again Pietro had never seen any individuals of his kind with nails so long they looked like they could be used as butcher knives.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't noticed them at first because they simply hadn't been that long, his eyes would have caught on otherwise. But most importantly, it looked like as menacing as her nails looked, they couldn't quite pierce Asura's skin. The boy hadn't even tried to dodge. He simply stood there, ominously gazing down at the woman. And then, suddenly, he tried to stomp on her neck, she twisted her body while in her crouching position and then shot up, her nails aiming for Asura's throat.

The boy caught one hand, and before the other could reach him, elbowed his opponent right in the throat.

"I will do to you, what you aim to do to me. It looks like you'll lose that game if we play any longer." Asura taunted her, but she remained perfectly calm. Pietro was quite surprised that Asura even took the time to speak during a fight, but he noticed something from his position behind the demon boy. A small orb of fire was forming in the palm of his right hand, which he had positioned behind his body.

It appeared that his target had noticed too, for she lunged forward while her long white shot towards Asura's arm. Pietro gasped as he saw this unnatural attack, and wondered for a second how that hair could move as though it had a life of its own. However, this was all for naught, for the orb of fire disappeared into Asura's palm and travelled across his entire body in a show of crackling embers to reach his other hand. He took ahold of the woman's hair to keep her in position and, with a cruel laugh, put his left hand over her stomach. In a matter of seconds, her entire midsection was engulfed in fire.

She screamed, tossed around and punched Asura directly in the face with such force that Pietro was certain he could have died instantly from the blow. But Asura took it, and with another of his immense smiles at that.

"I was right, you are very funny lady." And as he said so, he let go of her hair and punched her back. Pietro believed they would disentangle themselves from each other but instead, they both glared at the other right in the eye and started trading punches for punches. Obviously, the female demon was on the losing side of this, yet while she was exchanging blows, her stomach healed. It did not regenerate as quickly as Asura himself did, but it was still far too fast and a bit disgusting to look at, but Pietro could not tear his eyes away from the sight. In fact, he found himself enthralled by the fight. He was not a fan of violence in any way but....

There was a beauty to how both Asura and his opponent were trying their damnest to knock the light out of each other with punches that continuously damaged their hands to the point where their knuckles were bleeding.

"You idiot, I did not even desire to fight you, and yet you push me to this!?" The woman asked as she towered over Asura and launched her head forward. The following impact made Pietro wince and avert his eyes.

A trail of blood dripped down Asura's face, from his forehead to his mouth. Pietro was almost certain he would lick it, as it would fit the crazy monster of a companion he had, but Asura was unresponsive. He looked at the woman with an expression, an expression that Pietro could not decipher. And then, Asura blushed. That was no illusion, no trick from Pietro's mind as the woman reacted with the same confusion that he did, but Asura assuredly blushed.

He took a step forward, and she took a step backwards. He turned his head slightly and with his wide eyes, he seemed to peer into her very soul, searching for something. Asura then turned to look at Pietro with watering eyes.

"She looked weak. She doesn't even wanna fight, yet it's the most fun I've had in years....Human, I can see why you were so excited about this journey!" Asura exclaimed and then, as swift as the wind...He disappeared.

Both Pietro and the tall demon had only a split second to realize where Asura was, and the boy was already in position to attack. With his arm lifted towards the sky and his right hand glowing red and steaming, Asura was ready to split his enemy in two or at least completely break her body. Every muscle in his upper body was solicited for what was coming, and Pietro almost found his voice too late.

"ASURA STOP!"

A millimeter, that was all that separated the woman from Asura's hand. It had come down too quickly for her to react, and she had been paralyzed by something else, something that had put fear deep inside of her. The heat from the hand was excruciating, even when it wasn't touching her in the slightest. She quickly moved away with a hand on her cheek. Asura had been going for her shoulder, most likely aiming to cut her from that point all the way down to her legs. Pietro had no idea if he was even able to cut in such a way with an open-hand strike, but the demon seemed quite certain of himself.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Asura angled his face in order to look past his target and furrowed his brows.

" Why do you want me to stop, human?" He asked, and he did so with an innocent tone that grated Pietro's nerves greatly. It seemed like Asura could not even recognize how deeply unsettling he looked.

"Firstly, I have a name and it is Pietro. I don't call you demon, now do I? Secondly...Did you forget why I even told you we should meet the people you saw?" Pietro regained some confidence after it appeared clear that Asura was not angry at him for interrupting his attack. He walked towards Asura, but he did so very slowly. Just in case.

"Oh...Oh, right. Well, I asked her you know?" Asura assured Pietro, but that was when the woman decided to remind them of her presence.

"Yes, he did ask me, then he attacked me out of nowhere before I could answer!"

Pietro looked as unimpressed as he possibly could, but Asura was unrepentant. He just shrugged. He seemed to like doing that no matter the situation.

"I didn't get a good look at their faces when I first saw them. I asked her what you wanted to know, but she wasn't facing me. Then she turned around. She looked kinda threatening, so I punched her in the face." He explained. Somehow it sounded very logical to him. It very much wasn't, even for demons, as the woman clearly proved.

"Why is your first instinct to just punch me!? I was going to answer!"

She talked loudly, but her stance showed her real feelings at the moment, she stood far from him and looked almost cowed. Asura's show of speed seemed to have demonstrated the difference in capability between them.

Before Asura could answer and aggravate the situation further, Pietro kicked in. With a disarming smile, the best one he could produce, he took the attention onto himself.

"Right, so..I am sorry for all of this, but we need to know where we are...And also do you know a way to get to the city known as, uhm...I think it was called Dramora. Do you know where the path to this city is?"

The woman seemed to take her first good look at him and almost appeared surprised.

"A human..Are you human? No don't answer that, it's obvious." She sighed in frustration and took a worried glance at Asura before answering. " I do know the way to the city, but I have no idea why you are asking me that. That friend of yours came from the direction of the very path you are looking for. Did you not see the wall? I mean granted, with the abyss all around us you might have stopped right before finding it....So, did you see it?" She asked as she walked to meet with Pietro.

Somehow he had a feeling it was more in an attempt to shield herself from Asura than an attempt at appearing friendlier. But more than that, it was her words that caught Pietro's attention.

"The wall? We did see it...Is there some sort of hole in it through which we were meant to go? Is the city behind the wall!?" He asked in awe. It did sound quite fantastic. Perhaps the wall was a form of protection for the city. Then again, did the demons even need security?

However, the answer he received was not one he expected or liked in any way. The woman simply pointed her finger up towards the sky, if it was even up somewhere.

"The city is not under the wall, it's on top. Most cities are. You have to climb the wall. This here desolate area is the second level of Hell out of the three that exist. Well, people do say there are more, but I have never found anything under the third layer. This here is...." She extended both arms as though she meant to present something, but there was nothing. There was nothing but darkness around them.

"The frozen Hell, the Naraka. And up, is the apparent layer, the Tartaros, where all of demon society lives." She then pointed behind her, most likely at the gigantic wall, though of course it could not be seen from there.

"The wall you saw...Well, there is one other, they are the walls that separate the three layers. And the reason this place is so dark is that we are...Well, underground I suppose you could say."

Pietro looked around, and then he looked up, but he could not shake the confusion off of his face.

"Underground? I don't think we entered any caves or such things. We...Well, my friend here ran in a straight line, with no ups or downs, and there was frozen sand, and rocks and a sky out there!" He could not believe what he was hearing, but he still wanted answers. This all seemed rather strange to him. How could they even be underground? How could the underground be so big and have such a gigantic wall? And if the path to the outside world was this wall...Well, it couldn't very well be possible. The exit to a cave was not a wall, it was a hole. Or perhaps there was a hole atop the wall?

The woman seemed almost familiar with the confusion he was expressing, as she smiled, although her smile was somewhat strained.

"You did not enter a cave. There are three layers in Hell, each layer is accessed from another through one wall such as the one you saw. Over the wall is the ground. It is only the case here because the upper layer is the first of the layers, the visible one. But it is indeed the ground...The ground of that upper layer, which here would be...The ceiling!" She explained. She did so with such ease that Pietro started wondering if she wasn't used to explaining these things to humans. That would put a meaning behind her reaction to his appearance.

"Wait..What do you mean by apparent? It's apparent for what, for who?"

Now this question, this one seemed to put off the woman quite a bit. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I did not think I would ever have to explain this to anyone...But you are a human and one that comes from the second layer, not from the first one. So of course no one else would've told you. You wear monk clothes...Can't trust these old men to do anything sensible."

She cleared her throat and took Pietro's right arm. Her actions immediately made him worry. She acted as though it was difficult for her to answer. It was strange, too strange!

And as such thoughts went through his head, she answered, and it completely cut off his thinking.

"It is apparent, visible, from up there" She pointed at the nonexistent sky once more."From space, from which others would gaze upon our planet, Hell...Otherwise known as Tartaros."