Agon threw a punch in front of him, and Sei charged towards it, appearing to attack. But just before Agon's fist had fully extended, Sei manifested a mirror. The four-armed demon's eyes widened, but it was too late as strings burst out of the ground and wrapped around him like a cocoon. However, it took him less than a second to break through the restrictions.
As Agon's fist hit the mirror, another mirror appeared behind the demon's head. He quickly turned around and punched the mirror, cracking it. Yet another mirror manifested behind him however, and Agon's fist came through, hitting the ultimate class demon right through the kidney.
BOOOM!... A loud explosion rang out, cracking the walls from the shockwave alone. Despite trying to resist, the four-armed demon's body flung away like a ragdoll.
"We have to follow him!" I shouted. I didn't care whether Agon was there or not; I wasn't going to let the 'defeated villain returning stronger' cliche happen. No, I was going to kill that bastard right now!
We chased after him, and he ended up in a clearing. The forest around him had turned into a grassland as every tree had been blasted away. The ultimate class demon had a large whirlpool-like wound on his side where Agon had hit him, and two of his arms were missing as he had tried to block Agon's attack. Despite all that, he didn't seem panicked or angry, and instead asked, "Do any of you know about the Rashomon Gates and what kind of place it was?"
Although he was speaking casually, his body was shaking, and he was having a hard time regenerating. It seemed like Agon’s attack had been effective, as the demon struggled to stand up. He looked at everyone's faces and sighed. "As expected, it's been so long that no one remembers anymore. There was a time when even the great clans of today were nothing more than families trying to establish some order and take over, of course. Nowadays, they paint their history with sunshine and rainbows, describing how brave their so-called hero ancestors were."
Ord exploded out, and Chariot was ready for another attack. But before she could even move a muscle, a dark gate with the face of a red demon painted on it appeared. There was something unsettling about the gate, like trying to touch the ground when you're swimming but there is still water underneath it.
The four-armed demon clapped his four hands into a prayer motion, his eyes filled with hatred and rage. "Men, women, elderly, or young, the Rashomon Gate was the dumping ground of murder victims and unwanted babies. The gate was covered in so many talismans to dispel evil that one would think the whole thing was made of paper. But despite their efforts, their methods weren't enough to quell such hate!"
“{Dark Gate of Dispute}”
The ground rumbled beneath my feet, and the gate loomed before us, growing as large as a skyscraper. I couldn’t see its top. The discomfort from before turned into untold terror as my body shook. It felt as though a seed of fear had been planted deep in my soul.
I knew that this wasn’t my own fear, but something forced on me by a special power. So that seemed to make the ability less effective on me, but the others were different. Even Chariot's hands trembled.
The demon was having his power-up moment in the middle of battle, and I couldn't help but stare at Agon. Though I considered him a good friend, he was a jinx. Whenever he was around, weird shounen shit started happening.
“Carpy! River!” I yelled out two words, enough for Carpy to understand my plan.
He spewed out water and formed ropes, grabbing onto everyone and pulling them away. But Chariot immediately sliced the water rope that came toward her.
“Hey! I have a plan! We need to retreat to a river!” I explained to her, trying to clarify that the water wasn’t some sneak attack from the ultimate class demon.
Chariot turned and looked at me with a cold gaze. “When did you get the guts to order me around, kid?”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Holy fucking shit! Why couldn’t these people just put aside their egos for once in their lives?! This wasn’t the time to have a dick-measuring contest!
You know what? Screw this, if she wanted to stay behind and die then I wasn’t going to stop her. “Carpy, retreat!”
We blasted away with Carpy hovering us above ground while manipulating the water to move at incredible speeds. I turned toward the others and said. “Does anyone have any plan in mind? Now would be the best time to share.”
“I have a left-over Rook Piece that I can use on someone,” Bets said. “I believe that this piece will increase physical strength and defense, while increasing their Ord’s defensive properties.”
The piece would have been perfectly fit for Agon, but his body wouldn't accept it. Chariot would have been the next best candidate, but she didn't seem like the type to accept a handout. It was too late anyway, that chance had passed by now.
Explosions rang in the distance, indicating that the battle between Chariot and the 4th Commander was intense. Knowing the slim chance of Chariot's victory, it was time to prepare an alternative plan.
Turning to Bets, I asked for his input. He was the genius of the group, and I was certain he could come up with a better strategy than me.
After surveying the area, his gaze settled on a guy with the ability to turn his Ord rigid and strong like diamonds. Bets handed his rook piece to the guy and said, "His defensive ability is already impressive, and with this piece, it should help us considerably. This way, Sei can be more free-acting and not worry about blocking attacks for us."
Freeing up Sei was an excellent idea. Among ultimate class demons, his power would be the most useful, as he could absorb and even throw back any attack, no matter the class.
Finally, we arrived at a river, surrounded by tall grass, indicating no recent human interaction. However, that didn't concern Carpy or me.
The river rose up like a serpent, swirling around before curling into a large ball. I extended my arm toward Carpy, and he extended his tails. As soon as we made contact, I activated my special ability.
{Perfect Me: Metamorphosis!}
I effortlessly controlled the water ball and gathered even more water from further away.
"Can you fill this with iron balls?" I asked.
The big-nosed guy took out a jar of boogers and started flicking them towards my water ball. It was gross, but I turned the ball into a water tornado and added steel balls to it. The resulting vortex was a couple of times more dangerous.
The explosions from the fight between Chariot and the ultimate class demon grew louder and closer until we could see them all.
***
Ibaraki Doji, a demon who had reached the apex of his power, was quite old and could not grow stronger anymore. It had been a while since he had encountered a human capable of holding up against an ultimate class demon like himself.
Due to his origin from hatred, Ibaraki Doji loathed humans. Unlike Lord Shuten Doji who only saw humans as a small obstacle and did not necessarily hate them, Ibaraki Doji knew the threat humans posed and the evil they possessed. He was determined to get rid of them before they could get rid of him.
He remembered how, thousands of years before, humans used to have exorcists who could kill ultimate class demons. The thought of humans reaching that level again made his heart tremble.
Ibaraki still smiled whenever he thought of those glorious times when every demon banded together to kill that one exorcist, or as they were called back then, demon slayers. The man whose name demons dare not speak even to this day, The Strongest Demon Slayer, was the same person who discovered and rationalized the creation of special abilities. He was the detestable man who brought Satan, the most powerful demon at the time, to his knees and mocked all the demons over the world.
UNACCEPTABLE! That would never happen again!
Ibaraki attacked like a madman; he would rather die than allow such an era to come again. As his hatred intensified, his dark Ord exploded out, and he opened the gate which he had manifested. A dark beam shot out of the gate, obliterating a whole mountain and everything else in its wake. This was the energy generated from the hate of thousands of murder victims - the hate that would destroy everything.
Although his opponent managed to dodge the attack with her speed, she was not his main target. "As expected of humans, you dodged the attack and let your comrades die!"
The dark beam was headed straight in the direction where her team had fled, and the woman's eyes widened.