Ibaraki watched as his blast obliterated everything in its way, and a sense of jubilation rose within him. But in an instant, a large mirror materialized and absorbed his attack effortlessly.
For the first time in his long life, Ibaraki felt bewildered and intimidated by the unknown. Could there exist an ability that could absorb all attacks without limit? The Ord used to create that mirror seemed to resemble that of demons but was also human at the same time.
The woman named Chariot charged at him, and Ibaraki imbued a blast in his hand. She was fast, much faster than him, but he could feel the clear difference in raw power between them. He charged up a blast in one of his right arms and shot it at her without hesitation as she was mid-air. However, she spun herself mid-air with such speed that it created enough traction to dodge the attack.
Ibaraki wasn't done yet. One of his arms extended like a snake and landed a punch on her liver, leaving Chariot breathless. Despite the attack not being an Ord blast, he felt a couple of her ribs give out, and she flew away and smashed against a mountain in the distance.
Ibaraki looked at his own hand that he had used to punch the girl and sighed. He had tried to punch through her with that attack. Chariot was one of those Warrior affinity exorcists who had reached a stage in their powers that most would consider monstrous. Any other average warrior would have had their organs splattered on the ground if they had been hit by such an attack, yet Chariot was likely well, and soon enough, she would be able to get up.
Despite feeling uncomfortable leaving such a talented exorcist alive, Ibaraki knew that he had bigger fish to fry. The other kids were monsters too, and that youngster who could create mirrors, there was something deeply unsettling about him. Every instinct in Ibaraki Doji's body screamed that he had to take care of the youngster now, or he would grow up to become a dangerous adversary.
He blasted Ord off his feet like a rocket and used his four arms to adjust himself and chase after the kids. When he arrived, one of the kids threw an iron ball at him, but Ibaraki grabbed it mid-air and threw it back with such force that it caused the air to crackle.
The team would have been dead if it weren't for the silver-haired girl, who turned her Ord into a thin string and cut the iron ball in two. The leftover pieces caused an explosion with each landing.
Ibaraki noticed that some of the human youngsters had panic in their eyes. Since the mirror creator was among them, he decided not to use blast attacks and instead entered close combat.
A big, spiky-haired man stood before him. "You're going to fight me if you want to-"
Ibaraki didn't wait for the exorcist to finish his monologue and attacked immediately. Surprisingly, his fist stopped before it could even touch the exorcist's skin. The big guy winced and said, "Damn, for an old man, you have fists that could crush diamonds. Though I guess demons are always in their prime."
Since the exorcist who had stopped him wasn't moving and had his eyes closed, it was clear that there were some conditions he had to fulfill to complete his technique.
Suddenly, the exorcist opened one of his eyes and punched Ibaraki Doji in the face. The exorcist's fist was stronger than diamond, like getting punched by an unbreakable force. Ibaraki even felt a couple of his teeth crack as his body flew off and smashed onto a tree that exploded upon contact.
Though he wasn't hurt by the attack, Ibaraki laid on the grassy ground, staring at the sky.
Since when were random young exorcists able to push an ultimate class demon like him so far? There was also that strange feeling he got when looking at the exorcist called Sei.
Ibaraki could feel it in the air, times were changing and he had to do something about it!
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Getting up, he dusted himself off and stared at the group of youngsters. "You shouldn't have come here. Today will be your day of your deaths-"
Whatever he was about to say, he stopped as a mirror manifested below his feet, and he immediately flew up. Another mirror manifested above his head and swung down like a fly swatter, engulfing him.
Within the blink of an eye, he was in another world, a dark world. Every shadow and every sound seemed to hold a threat, and he felt an overwhelming sense of dread wash over him.
Every instinct in his body was screaming at him, there was something disastrous in here, something that, if it got out, could even threaten Lord Shuten Doji!
But before he could try to sense where the dangerous feeling was coming from, Ibaraki Doji was barraged by a tornado of water. There were iron balls in the tornado that smashed onto him, but such weak projectiles only shattered as soon as they made contact and didn't injure him at all.
“Even steel at such speeds can't even leave a scratch," said a voice that belonged to a human fused with his demons. He had fish scales and gills running down each side of his neck, and even had a serpentine tail. "Chariot made it look so damn easy when she cut off your arm. She really is something else."
"You think you can use words to confuse me? You're a hundred years too early for that, brat!" Ibaraki Doji snorted, causing water to shoot out. He had sensed something was wrong when water was moving in his body. The brat had tried to confuse him with random talking while trying to sneak water into his body.
The youngster laughed awkwardly, as if what he was caught on was just a silly prank. "You can call me Kon. I think that after a while of calling everyone brat, it would get hard to recognize who is who, especially at your age."
Ibaraki had lived for centuries and saw Kon's words for what they were: baseless insults to try to get him mad. He didn't even bother listening to Kon's words and went directly on the attack.
He kicked off the ground and approached the youngster. Ibaraki's eyes widened as he noticed something. Kon smirked, with a victorious gleam in his eyes. "So you finally noticed? This place isn't quite friendly to demons. The guy who made it really doesn't like them. Even I am somewhat affected by it in this form."
Suddenly, another mirror manifested next to the youngster's side, and Agon stepped through. His punch was already charged up, and Ibaraki wasn't a fool to take another one of those attacks. But as he tried to take a step back, the liquid darkness below his feet wrapped around his ankle.
"{Super Impact!}"
The attack landed point-blank. Ibaraki even sensed another hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw that a small mirror had manifested, and a woman had poked her hand through and touched him.
He tried to manifest his ability or even use his Ord, but nothing came out, and Agon's fist sank right through his rib cage, going elbow-deep.
Ibaraki coughed out a mouthful of blood and couldn't believe what had just happened. Agon pulled out his arm and let the demon fall to his knees. The woman still held her hand on his shoulder, so he couldn't even use Ord to enhance his own regeneration.
By now, Ibaraki saw the signs and came to accept it. He was dying at the hands of a human. No matter how much he wanted to reject it, he couldn't.
"Lord Shuten Doji will turn the sun dark and cause the heavens to quake!" Ibaraki proclaimed and glared at the exorcists. The one who had fused with the demon was now in his human form, with his strange fish-like demon by his side.
Before Ibaraki Doji could say anything more, the fish demon's jaws met him, and he saw no more. Just like that, the mighty demon was vanquished. It was the first time in thousands of years that humans had succeeded in defeating an ultimate-class demon.
However, Ibaraki perished with thoughts of hatred in his mind.
***
I stood on the sidelines, watching as Carpy devoured the corpse of the ultimate class demon. My hands shook with excitement, but I suppressed the urge to cry out. I wanted to scream in triumph, but it would have been quite lame after a battle like this.
And bringing Agon to deliver the finishing blow was pure genius on my part– not to toot my own horn. He executed the shounen finish perfectly! While he hadn’t screamed about the power of friendship, he was probably thinking about it when executing that attack.
A mirror appeared in front of us, and we all stepped through it. Among the crowd was Velma, wearing her glasses and no longer in her Chariot alter ego. Chariot was known to be a prideful and sadistic character, but Sei had insisted that we not bring her to the fight.
But before I could celebrate any further, someone stepped out from behind a tree, slowly clapping, and revealed themselves.