Jun, Friday 14, 2007 - 1:15 PM

Swish! Norika zipped through the blazing city, unharmed by the flames. In a flash, she appeared behind Samael, her sword swinging down, aimed at his neck. Samael, with reflexes honed by countless battles, spun around, catching the blade in his hand. He winced as the flames licked at his skin, but with a roar, he threw a powerful punch that sent Norika flying.

‘Did she get stronger?’ Samael mused as he watched her recover. ‘No, her moves are just less predictable, more wild and violent.’

A crescent-shaped blast of fire surged toward him. He leaped aside, narrowly avoiding the searing attack, only to feel a sharp pain as Norika's blazing sword pierced through his abdomen from behind. Blood spurted from his mouth as he coughed violently.

Grinning, Norika taunted, "Not so tough now, huh?" She conjured a makeshift platform of flames in mid-air and launched herself, spinning rapidly. Her leg, encased in blue flames, connected with Samael, sending him crashing into the ground with a devastating heel kick.

She didn’t relent. In an instant, she was upon him again, her sword a blur of fiery slashes. Samael, though wounded, managed to dodge most of her strikes and countered with a wave of dark energy that sent her crashing into a building.

“To think you would dare challenge me, a Demon Lord, and actually injure me,” he growled, glancing at his wounds, which were healing slowly due to the unique properties of Norika’s flames. “I must commend you. Your death will be a great testament to my power.”

Samael summoned a horde of nightmarish creatures. Hulking, humanoid forms with mottled gray-green skin, glowing red eyes, long claws, sharp teeth, and unkempt black fur. Lesions covered their bodies, oozing a foul-smelling fluid.

“These are Ghouls. Incredibly strong and agile, able to scale walls with ease. Let’s see how you handle them,” he said, pointing at Norika.

Undeterred, Norika charged at the horde, her sword cleaving through them with ease. Suddenly, she was launched back by an explosion.

“Ugh, what happened?” she muttered, shaking her head as she stood up.

“Seems like your fire and their ooze don’t mix. When they come in contact, it creates an explosion,” Paradox remarked from the sidelines.

“That’s going to be a pain to deal with,” Norika grinned. “But nothing I can’t handle.” Her eyes glowed with energy as she shot beams of fire at the horde, causing a massive explosion that collapsed several buildings.

One of the Ghouls silently appeared behind her, thrusting its claws forward, aiming for her heart. But she twisted around, her sword stopping its advance.

“Thought you could get the jump on me, you weak creature?” She leaped into the air, spinning and launching it with a powerful kick to the face. Another Ghoul blindsided her, sending her crashing into the ground.

“I really need to stop letting my guard down,” she muttered, clutching her broken arm. “But man, these things sure pack a punch.”

She rolled to the side as another Ghoul crashed into the ground where she had been standing, leaving a crater.

‘She’s doing quite well. The longer she fights, the more she adapts,’ Samael mused, watching as Norika took down Ghoul after Ghoul. ‘She’s a dangerous fighter, not caring about her well-being while fighting.’

A Ghoul flew past Samael’s face, courtesy of Norika, who stuck her tongue out at him before charging, with multiple Ghouls close behind her.

“Don’t think I forgot about you!” she yelled, lunging at him with her flaming sword, engulfing him in blue flames.

Samael barely dodged, badly burned, but began to regenerate and flew into the air, growing wings.

“Get down here and fight me, coward!” she screamed, spinning around to create a vortex of flames that killed every Ghoul around her while forming a barrier of fire to protect her from the massive explosion.

“She really is getting into this, isn’t she?” Eve marveled at Norika’s power.

“She sure is. Guess it’s because her opponent is quite powerful,” Paradox replied.

They both felt the heat of the flames. Eve created a barrier to protect herself, while Paradox imagined the area around him was flame-free.

Norika launched herself high into the air to strike Samael but was sent crashing down by a blast of darkness. She stood back up, sending multiple crescent blasts of fire at him, all negated by a barrier of darkness.

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As she prepared for another attack, she was trapped by shadow tendrils that wrapped around her body. Samael floated down, placing a hand on her head and beginning to drain her life force.

“Shouldn’t we, you know, go help her now?” Eve asked, worried for Norika.

“She’ll be fine. Just watch, things are about to get interesting,” Paradox said.

“What do you mea—” Eve was cut off as Norika’s blue flames burned even brighter, turning Samael’s arm and the shadows to ashes.

“You are going to regret doing that,” Norika growled, appearing instantly in front of him, cutting off his other arm before kicking him away with a flame-covered leg, leaving an imprint on his body.

‘She’s gotten stronger. I have to end this quickly, or else I’ll lose,’ Samael thought, turning toward Paradox and Eve. ‘But even if I win, I still have to deal with those two. I’m not at full power. But if I can absorb some of her flames from the Underworld, that would give me all the power I need.’

With that in mind, Samael summoned another horde of Ghouls and sent them toward Norika.

“This trick again? It’s getting old,” Norika muttered, spinning around to create a whirlwind of flames that killed all the Ghouls in another explosion.

This time, Samael wasn’t surprised. He used his shadows to trap some of the blue flames and absorbed them into his body, increasing his powers and healing his wounds rapidly.

“Much better, this feels much better,” he said, flexing his muscles and releasing a beam of darkness at Norika through the smoke, expecting it to land. To his surprise, it didn’t. He was hurled to the ground by a punch to the back.

“How did she get behind me so fast?” he groaned, standing back up, only to be punched in the face, the chest, and finally hit with a ball of fire at point-blank range.

“Don’t think that absorbing my flames means anything. I’m still going to win in the end,” Norika boasted. “So much for being a Demon Lord. I thought you’d be much stronger than this. Disappointing.”

"Why, you insolent brat! For this mockery, I will end your life in the most painful way imaginable." Samael's voice thundered as he launched a blast of chaotic energy, a destructive force that erased everything in its path. It traveled so fast that most would be unable to dodge it.

'Hmm, this is quite dangerous. I should dodge, but where's the fun in that?' Norika thought, taking the attack head-on. The blast tore through half of her body, spilling her blood everywhere.

"Ha, not so strong now, are you? If you had never challenged me, your puny life might have been spared."

Off to the side, Paradox sighed and facepalmed for two reasons: One, Norika could have transformed, taking the attack with ease, or barely dodged it in her base form. And two, since the more damage she took, the wilder she became, this fight was already over.

Samael walked over and picked her up, charging up an attack in his hands to finish her off. But just before he could, flames covered Norika's whole body, healing her. She gripped her sword and cut Samael in half diagonally.

She then released a torrent of flames from her hand, intending to turn him to ash. Samael barely made it out in time, with only his lower half being reduced to ashes.

"Don't run," Norika said in a voice that sounded muddy and inhuman. "I want to have some fun turning you to ashes and hearing you scream in pain."

For the first time, Samael felt true fear. In his eyes, Norika appeared as a true Demon Lord. In all his time, he had never feared the power of another. He had always been the Demon Lord, the strongest being on this planet, until that accursed day when a "Hero" came and cut him down. Since that day, he had to go into hiding and find a host to regain his lost powers.

"Are you afraid?" Norika's voice echoed inside his head, causing him to have horrible visions of his death. "To be completely helpless and outmatched, to lose while boasting about your powers, to become so overconfident that it leads to your downfall?" She walked slowly towards him. "This is called fear, and to think that the 'Mighty Demon Lord' would show fear to a lowly being like me is wonderful. Show me more of your fear. Let me relish it, bask in its glory before I kill you." She thrust her sword, sending another torrent of flames at him.

'This woman is insane. She is worse than any corrupt human or demon I've ever seen. I have to get out of here, or else I'll truly be killed.' Just then, a voice appeared inside his head saying, "Do you want to escape? Do you want to flee with your life?" The voice sounded familiar, very familiar, as if he had just heard it but more raspy. He looked to the side and saw Paradox—or what seemed to be Paradox, but his outfit was different, with a smirk on his face and two fingers up. "You can either run and flee with your life or stay and fight and die. Your choice."

Samael chose the first option, and the Paradox look-alike teleported him away somewhere else on Paradox Earth.

Jun, Friday 14, 2007 - 1:25 PM

"Where did he go?" Norika looked around, releasing fire in every direction and reducing the already destroyed city to ashes.

'Where did he go?' Paradox wondered, not sensing his evil counterpart, Yami Paradox, who had been watching everything and had sent Samael away.

"Phew, I'm glad that's over," Eve sighed in relief.

A few hours went by until Norika finally calmed down and realized that Samael had somehow managed to escape. The city and surrounding area had been charred by her flames, leaving only the scent of smoke and charcoal.

"Well, I might as well report everything that happened," Paradox said, notifying Division Omega-7 about the event and Samael's escape, giving a very extensive description of both Ares and Samael.

"I doubt he will be back anytime soon with his injuries and the fear that was engraved in him, so why don't we head back home?" Eve suggested, ready to get some rest.

'She's not shocked at what just happened,' Paradox mused, remembering that Eve had been trained by Scarlet and Norika, both of whom were insane. Even before that, she would torture criminals before turning them in. 'Just what is up with them?' Paradox thought as they all began heading back home.