The stench of sulfur quickly filled the air. Each swing of the sword connects with its target and cuts through cleanly. Time for Lucy began to feel endless. For every imp she had slayed two would take its place. Her face now covered in Demon blood and sweat she could feel her body slowly getting heavy. It had been nearly ten minutes since the start of the engagement and it showed no signs of stopping. A lake of blood had begun to pool across the battlefield. Imps being only as strong as pre-teens posed little to no threat by themselves, but after one hundred swings, after two hundred swings. Her comrades began to be overtaken by the horde of imps.

CRUNCH! SNAP! MONCH MONCH MONCH

She could audibly hear the bones of comrades being broken in several pieces. They let out shrieks of pain as the imps began to eat them alive. The platoon’s numbers quickly began to drop as fatigue began setting in; what was once a hundred strong became fifty then ten. They quickly formed a semi circle to cover each other with their backs all on the barrier behind them. As Lucy swung at imp she couldn’t react fast enough to another one behind it. Its sword missed her face by millimeters, but it cut cleanly through the holy bandages that were meant to suppress her curse.

That’s when it happened. Lucy was overcome with pain and began howling a scream that seemed to resonate with power. Black Lightning began sparking from her eye and began creating arcs in ever increasing size. Everyone froze human and demon alike and merely stared in wonder at the scene unfolding in front of them. The pain quickly overcame Lucy and her scream faded to nothing, she had fallen unconscious, but till her eye would not close and began to endanger the humans around her. The captain made the unfortunate decision to abandon her as no one could approach her without getting severely injured.

As what was left of the units ran towards the walls Lucy fell to her knees. That’s when the captain saw a horrific sight. The imps began eating their fallen brethren. They didn’t stop there, they began attacking each other and eating each other alive. The swarm quickly dwindled to a few hundred from the seemingly endless ocean that used to exist. A bright beam of light shot into the sky as if a beacon to the heavens had been opened. The captain had never experienced anything like this before. Once the light dissipated there stood a demon. It still appeared to be an imp, but it was different now. It’s eyes now turned a deep shade of red compared to the normal shade of yellow. It was nearly twice as large as a normal imp and had a black aura that made one sick from staring at it for entirely too long, it’s tail was now carved with an extremely sharp edge that instantly cut through a few of the imps that had been in its range.

EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!

EMPEROR LEVEL THREAT DETECTED! ALL COMBATANTS CAPTAIN AND LOWER RETREAT IMMEDIATELY!

EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!

Captain Bishop sent everyone else inside. He wasn’t going to leave Lucy behind even if it killed him. He had trained the child since her days at the academy and he wasn’t about to let her die before him. He began running towards Lucy to grab her. Before he could reach her there was a roar of wind that tore through the air followed quickly by a massive explosion. The blast knocked Bishop back several meters and when he could finally regain his balance; he saw it, the entire field covered in a blue inferno. He knew there could only be one person responsible for such carnage, the Council of Magi’s Hiroki.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He rose through the ranks to the Council faster than any member since the founders; at twenty-six he single handedly defeated an Emperor Terror Demon brought back the largest magic crystal someone has single handedly recovered. The crystal was worth enough to ensure you could live the rest of your life in luxury. He led a platoon aptly named the “Firing Squad”, they were known for being a rambunctious bunch of trouble makers, but their power was well understood.

Once Bishop regained his sense he began searching for Lucy only to realize she was nowhere to be found. He began to panic and fear that she was caught in the fire as collateral damage, until he heard a scruff voice behind him say,

“You were supposed to retreat Bishop.”

He slowly turned around to see another member of the Council standing there. Renfrew known for his potent healing magic and the oldest member of the council as he was going well into his seventies. He had Lucy in his arms with fresh bandages over her eye. She had a light blue aura surrounding her from what he could only assume was Renfrew’s magic; it meant she was alive, unconscious, but alive.

Bishop let out a sigh of relief before saying,

“Sir, that was an order I couldn’t follow with a member of my team still in jeopardy “

“Aye, I understand, but losing you would have been a greater loss.”

Renfrew looked from Bishop down to the girl he was carrying and sighed, he then proceeded to have him take her from him and continued,

“That girl’s cursed my boy. She’s lucky to have lived this long. I felt it as I was administering the bandages. It’s grown considerably stronger since she was a child, even if the blessings and her magic have stalled its progression it will not rest. She has probably a year, two at best before the curse takes a hold and destroys her along with everything around her. I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I feel you deserve to know. She’s been classified as a category five security risk. The Council’s going to meet in one months time to vote on her life. At best she’ll be exiled. At worst she’ll be executed.”

Renfrew then walked past the defeated looking man towards Hiroki who was walking towards them after having ensured all the demons were dead. He had a casual attitude despite displaying such a powerful display and had his hands behind his head as if it was just any another day.

“Sorry about the crystals. I'm pretty sure I melted them all along with the demons, but don’t worry the council will cover the bonuses” Hiroki said in a completely cold tone.

This angered Bishop and he began seeing red. He had lost nearly his entire squad before they had showed up and he acted as if the only thing that mattered was money. He put Lucy gently on the ground and ran up and grabbed Hiroki, who was only a staggering 163 cm to Bishops 191 cms, by the shirt and lifted him off the ground and began to bark.

“WHAT ABOUT MY MEN, ARE YOU GOING TO BRING THEM BACK? ARE YOU GOING TO TELL THEIR FAMILIES YOU BURNT THEIR BODIES TO ASH SO THEY CAN’T BE BURIED OR SEEN AGAIN? WHERE WERE YOU!”

Hiroki’s eyes glowed a dark shade of red as he said purely as fact, “get your hands off me before I turn you to ash”

“Now is not the time for this gentleman. Bishop I understand your concern and it will be dealt with and my condolences to your men, but they are the first line of defense. The increase in protocol was not announced until there was an Emperor threat…”, “if you could call it that” Hiroki interrupted, “...Anyway we came as soon as we could after the alarm was sounded. We’ve had enough death today captain; your team needs you.” He said as he gestured to the incapacited Lucy behind Bishop.

In a reluctant sigh he loosened his grip and let go. The two council men proceeded to head back into the city leaving him there alone staring at the dying flames smoke darkening the sky.