Chapter 56 - Onslaught

Grey eyes scanned the area below, taking in the location and dimensions of the tear. It was fairly large, covering most of the festival area, and its position directly overhead made it difficult to make out the fleeing villagers.

Whipping winds swirled towards the gaping tear, snapping branches and pulling them into a growing storm of bark and dirt. Screams rang out, slightly muffled by the wind, and a few villagers clung desperately to sturdier trunks in an attempt to stay upright. The tear remained stubbornly in place, the wind only strengthening with each passing second.

Halberd firmly in hand, Lazar hurried down the tree, Ciel just behind him. He nearly jumped down instinctively, but he had to remind himself that he couldn’t fly anymore. He’d need to get lower before doing so.

Through the scattered branches and past the dark void, the seraph could just barely make out Alaric’s figure ushering villagers out of the tear’s range. As he descended down to the next branch, a flash of blonde drew his attention to the left. There, Madeline and Matilda walked, pushing forward against the violent wind and slowly making their way away from the clearing.

Lazar’s brows furrowed, remembering Madeline’s health issues. From what he could tell, however, the two were fairly far from the tear and seemed to be making steady progress. Matilda was holding onto her sister, and even from the distance he could make out the grim, determined set to her jaw.

The seraph kept climbing down, searching for wherever seemed in most need of help. The line of food had been completely overturned, splattering the ground and neighboring trees. Through the panicked frenzy, the residents of Carran moved with a united urgency. Villagers stopped to help the slower members evacuate and yelled directions. Despite the tear’s sudden appearance, slowly but surely the clearing thinned out.

And then, the air shifted.

A subtle chill rose from the pit of the tear, the kind that crept forth in silence and sank deep into the bones. The inky darkness of the void, marring the forest like a stain, rippled, and from those depths long spindly fingers reached out.

Lazar didn’t think. He let go of the branch and let himself fall just as the demon climbed down from the tear.

Lazar brought his halberd stabbing down, the blade tip piercing straight into the demon’s skull as he landed. Vibrant green liquid spurted from the wound, but he didn’t have time to process it, tumbling onto the bare earth from the impact of the jump. His breath temporarily escaped him, pulled out of his lungs during the hard landing, but he forced himself up. He could still move, he noted, and that was the most important part.

The seraph didn’t have time to assess his injuries more thoroughly; he could already see more demons pouring out from the tear and taking advantage of the new rip between realms.

Shrieks rang in his ears, the villagers fleeing faster as all semblance of order was lost. His eyes quickly scanned the demons landing on the ground. Amorphous, soft creatures with clusters of eyes. Hard boned insectoid demons attacking with whipping tongues. There were no humanoid ones that he could see, and based on their number and appearance, he suspected that these were recently born demons.

The tear must have connected to a demon birthground in the Abyss. He could still vividly recall those quivering mounds glowing an icy blue; as long as some remained on the other side, the demons would keep coming.

The wind whistled in his ear, and Lazar jerked around, bringing up his halberd and blocking an incoming blow. A bony tail bounced off the silver shaft, retracting back to its owner, but three more followed.

The seraph blocked one and leapt over the next two, not pausing as he bolted towards the demon. Flat body, hard gleaming white exoskeleton, a smooth round face with no features. Another tail shot straight at him, and he dodged to the side, using his momentum to swing the halberd down into that uncanny head.

The blade easily sunk into the exposed area, and the face crumpled like a popped balloon. Lazar yanked his halberd out, only lingering long enough to see the demon collapse before moving onto the next.

Two demons came barrelling at him, a short one with wrinkled skin and a larger, slug-like mass that undulated and lurched across the ground with deceptive speed.

Lazar slammed the butt of the halberd into the smaller demon’s stomach before it could jump at him, spinning the weapon around and then using the blade to carve into the larger one without missing a beat.

The blade dug into the flesh with no resistance, pulling the weapon forward, and the seraph stumbled a little. As he did so, he felt a sharp sting on his leg and looked back to see the smaller demon had latched on with sharp teeth, beady eyes staring up at him.

Lazar raised his leg, the demon still holding on, and slammed it down onto the ground. He heard a crack and the grip loosened. The next kick sent the demon flying away in a limp mass.

The seraph turned back to the larger demon. Its pinkish flesh quivered, warping and rippling like waves that climbed higher and higher in an attempt to wrap around him entirely. A soft mist began to pour out of its skin, and Lazar felt a sudden wave of dizziness.

Gritting his teeth, the seraph tightened his hold on the halberd and sprinted forward, carving the blade down the length of the demon’s body without stopping until he reached the other end.

Lazar gasped, inhaling fresh air while the sliced halves of the demon fell apart and landed on the ground, melting into thick pools of liquid.

He straightened and looked around, chest still heaving a little as he regained his breath. A little ways away, he could see Ciel, the flesh eater carving her axe into another demon. Her clothes were already splattered with blood, but she herself seemed none the worse for wear. These demons weren’t exceptionally strong so far, and he trusted her to handle herself without issue.

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More concerning was the fact that there were still some villagers remaining, desperately fleeing from the demons flooding the clearing. From where he stood, he could see a man huddled against a tree clutching a child close. A tall spindly demon advanced towards the two.

Lazar’s eyes narrowed, but before he could move, a bright spark flew across the clearing. With a loud crack, the demon ignited in a flash of flames that sent it crumpling to the ground. The villager hurried to his feet, grabbing the screaming child and running into the trees.

A few feet away, Alaric stood with an arm extended, fingers still glowing from magic. His breaths were heavy and his clothes stained either with demon blood or his own. In his other hand, he’d drawn his sword, and the blade was so dirtied that the metal was entirely obscured.

“Alaric!” Lazar called. Dark brown eyes shifted over, widening a little when they saw the approaching seraph.

“You should be evacuating,” the human said, and even his voice sounded strained. Up close, it was clear that the man was overexerting himself. It didn’t help that he’d used magic earlier during the festival; the soul could only take so much essence manipulation without a break.

Lazar heard a high pitched screech behind him and drove the tip of his halberd back into the approaching demon without looking. He heard it gurgle and land on the earth. He yanked the blade out, eyes still fixed on Alaric, who was staring at the ground behind him with wide eyes.

“You need to help the rest of the villagers evacuate,” the seraph urged. “Ciel and I will hold the demons off for now. I promise we’ll be alright.”

Alaric opened his mouth to argue, but he hesitated, eyes flickering first over to Ciel, easily fending off three demons at once, and then to Lazar’s steady gaze. After a brief pause, his jaw clicked shut and he nodded grimly. Lazar internally sighed in relief as the man turned and hurried to help a stray villager along, directing her to safety with assured confidence. The people of Carran trusted him, and he knew the man would do everything in his power to protect them.

The seraph turned to face the dark tear above them, demons still falling and landing down on the ground, and adjusted his grip on the halberd. His main use, meanwhile, would be to hold back the demons for as long as possible.

Lazar heard footsteps and a familiar presence approaching behind him, and he glanced back at Ciel. The demon’s hair whipped wildly in the wind, but those golden eyes looked more amused than anything. The skin on the right half of her face, he noted, looked a little more uneven than usual. In the chaos of the battle, it was probably difficult to maintain her disguise.

“Feels like we never left the Abyss at all,” she drawled in a low, rumbling voice. Despite himself, Lazar couldn’t help but smile a little at that.

As the next group of demons descended, the two leapt forward. Lazar kept one eye on Alaric and the villagers as he carved through flesh and bone. His body fell into a rhythm, mind focusing in on the sounds and sights of battle.

Demons kept pouring out of the tear, but they were, Lazar noted, beginning to slow down. As the number decreased, however, the demons who did climb out were stronger. None were sentient or comparable to the more powerful demons they’d encountered in the Abyss, but Lazar suspected these ones had more time to develop after forming from the quivering mounds.

A hulking demon with a grinning mouth and thick, blunt limbs punched at the seraph, and he brought his halberd up to block the blow with the shaft. He gritted his teeth. He could feel his muscles shaking a little as he strained to push the demon back.

He felt his shoes slipping on the barren ground, the demon pressing closer. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever.

In a split second decision, Lazar yanked the halberd away and fell backwards.

The demon lurched forward from the lost resistance, and as it tumbled down, Lazar didn’t miss a beat. He drove the tip of the halberd into the creature’s chest, using gravity and its own stature against it as it fell onto the blade.

Red poured from the demon’s crescent mouth; Lazar felt the halberd pierce all the way through. The creature choked, and a stream of blood landed on the seraph before the demon collapsed onto him in a mass of twitching limbs.

Lazar felt its weight crushing down on him, and he struggled to get out. He ended up having to slice the halberd across the dead body in order to carve out an escape route.

He rose somewhat unsteadily back to his feet, coughing a little. Around the clearing, he noted that the number of demons had thinned out significantly. Though the tear still hung ominously overhead, most of the immediate threats were gone as the current hoard was slowly but surely cut down. Lazar turned, noting that he could no longer see any villagers nearby. Alaric must have managed to evacuate them all.

The seraph lunged at the next closest demon, cleaning slicing its head off. Ciel was close by and covered head to toe in gore, and Lazar suspected he didn’t look much better himself.

The flesh eater carved into one demon, and as another approached, she attempted to pull the axe out. The blade caught, stuck, but Ciel barely reacted. Undeterred, she simply spun around and dug her hand straight into the approaching demon’s throat, ripping into it. The creature made a sputtering sound and fell to the side, but Ciel barely gave it a second glance.

Golden eyes turned to Lazar, briefly scanning the clearing.

“Is that all of them?”

The seraph took a moment to study the area more closely himself, searching for any hidden areas where demons might be lying in wait.

The barren earth was now covered in limp bodies and broken branches. The wind of the tear had ripped into neighboring trees, bringing many crashing down. One of the musician’s violins sat in a heap of snapped wood. The place was unrecognizable from the warm, lively festival that had just occurred there.

Lazar nodded to Ciel. “I believe so, at least for now.” He realized how hard his chest was heaving and took a moment to try and catch his breath. “Alaric evacuated all the villagers. We should join them soon.”

Ciel hummed in agreement. She walked over and attempted to yank her axe out once more, and this time the handle completely broke off from the blade.

She shrugged and threw it aside. “I’ll get a new one,” she said simply. Her hand was still covered in blood and lumps of flesh, which she didn’t bother to clean off.

As the two turned and readied to leave, however, a shadow fell across the clearing. Lazar froze.

Tears didn’t cast shadows.

Slowly raising his head, the seraph stared straight into the pitch black void.

From within, a single long, spindly leg stuck out, gripping onto one of the standing trees and digging into the bark. It easily spanned more than half of the clearing alone. A second leg followed and latched onto another. Then another. Then another.

Above them, spread over the clearing like a looming web, a demon peered down at them. Round yellow eyes lined its gleaming limbs, and in its center, a single gaping mouth hung open, dripping down a string of drool and saliva.

It released a hollow creaking sound, and a sudden gust of wind rushed past, sucked into that open mouth.

Lazar jumped back, but as the wind blew past him, for a moment he felt a tugging on his soul.

Grey eyes stared up at the massive creature, who peered back with those scattered yellow eyes.

This one was a soul eater.