The two surviving high-rank demons from Lusya’s group’s previous encounter with Count Rebran were waiting right outside the castle gates when Lusya and the others arrived. That was no surprise. Lusya had sensed them and expected as much beforehand.
“Took you long enough to get here,” the pink-haired demon woman said. “What, were you enjoying a nice little stroll through town?”
“Nah, just being careful,” Beldo replied. “Gotta move slow when you can barely see past your nose.”
The demon chuckled. “Guess that’s true. This place is a real dump these days.”
“It was a pretty nice town when we first got here too,” the white-haired demon man said.
“If you’re into that kind of thing,” the woman said. “Most mortals just annoy me. Can’t stand anywhere with more than a few dozen of ‘em in one place.”
“Beldo, watch Ariya,” Lusya said.
“I will,” he said. “But before we start breaking things…” He stepped in front of her, and put out an arm to stop her from advancing, his gaze fixed on the two high-rank demons. “…is there any chance you two will just move aside and let us through?”
The white-haired man scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”
“Come on, don’t be so hasty,” Beldo said. “We can talk about this. Let’s start with introductions. What are your names?”
The demons exchanged a look and shrugged.
“Roseko,” the woman said.
“And I’m Samdo,” the man said.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Beldo.” Beldo looked over his shoulder at Lusya. “Go on, you too.”
Lusya saw little reason to give them her name. A fight seemed all but inevitable. Still, she saw little reason not to give them her name either. The odds were slim, but if Beldo could bring this to a peaceful resolution, that would be preferable. It would be quicker and easier. And, she reminded herself, result in fewer deaths among the surrounding mortals.
“I am Lusya.”
Samdo frowned. “Sounds familiar.”
“It should,” Roseko said. “White hair, red eyes, feels weird. That’s the Malice Princess.”
“I do not appreciate that title,” Lusya said.
“And I don’t give a rat’s ass what you appreciate.”
“Let’s not fight,” Beldo said. “We still have one more person who needs to introduce herself.”
“I’m Ariya.” Ariya waved at the demons. “Are you good demons, or bad demons?”
“Depends on who you ask,” Roseko said with a shrug.
“We done with introductions now?” Samdo asked. “Where are you going with this?”
“I was hoping that we could get to know each other a little, and you would stand down,” Beldo replied.
Samdo chuckled. “What? You just want us to sit here playing icebreaker games or something until we decide we’re friends?”
“Not exactly what I had in mind, but that would be great, yes.”
“Sorry, buddy,” Roseko said. “But this just isn’t going to go the way you want. We might as well just get to fighting. It’s even a fair fight, two-on-two, and we won’t go after the kid.”
“I can tell you’re good sports by the fact you haven’t already attacked us,” Beldo said. “Although, I won’t be fighting. Didn’t you hear Lusya? I’ll be watching Ariya if it comes to that.”
“Did you draw the short straw and get babysitting duty or something?” Samdo asked.
Beldo shook his head. “No, I’m just a pacifist, so I’ll be sitting out any fighting.”
Roseko burst out laughing at that. It took several seconds for her to collect herself enough to speak. “A pacifist? Whoever heard of a pacifist demon?”
“Not many people,” Beldo said. “I don’t exactly advertise that I’m a demon to mortals, and I don’t get along all that well with other demons.”
Roseko shrugged. “Well, whatever. Two-on-one is fine with us too. Makes things easier.”
“Considering the difference in strength between us, it merely serves to close the gap a bit,” Lusya said. “But not completely.”
“Well, aren’t we cocky?”
“I am never ‘cocky.’ It is a straightforward analysis of the situation. I am substantially stronger than the two of you combined, let alone individually.”
“She is right,” Samdo said.
“Don’t go taking her side! Just ‘cause she’s right, doesn’t make her not cocky. Step back, Mister Pacifist, and let me tear out that condescending tongue.”
Beldo held out a hand toward her and toward Lusya in a placating gesture. “Again, let’s not be hasty. We’re not done talking yet.”
Once again, the Roseko and Samdo exchanged a look before turning their attention back to Beldo, Roseko clicking her tongue.
“We’ve got nothing to say to you. But you’re right, we’re good sports. So, I doubt it’ll change anything, but, if you’ve got something to say before we get started, go ahead and spill it.”
“I appreciate that,” Beldo replied. “Now, I’ve seen plenty in my time. I can guess why you’re helping the count. But you have to see what he’s doing isn’t going to work.”
“It sure is looking that way,” Samdo said. He broadly gestured around. “Unless he has some kind of major breakthrough, this is about the best he can do.”
“Then why—”
“We don’t care if it works the way he wants or not,” Roseko said. “The way we see it, either he figures it out, stops demons from being born, and stops the cycle while he’s at it, or he ends the world with no need to wait for another Demon King. I’d say we win either way.”
Lusya cocked her head and blinked twice. “I do not understand your motivations. You see both the world’s destruction and the mere cessation of demon births as favorable ends?”
“Of course we do,” Samdo said. “In the end, we’re only born so this stuff won’t form.” He waved his hand through the air, seemingly indicating the violet mist of stagnant Malice. “And we’re born in a way that puts us in conflict with mortals right from the jump. It’s a pretty miserable existence. If we can prevent more of that, then we’re good, one way or another.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Beldo said.
Roseko snorted. “And how can it be, Mister Pacifist? We can reject who we are and live a lie like you? If that’s working for you, I’m happy for you, but that’s not for us. We’re not gonna accept being the big bad monsters for heroes to kill, but we’re not just gonna stop being ourselves either.”
Beldo smiled sympathetically. “Unfortunately, the world rarely offers us perfect solutions, demon or mortal.”
“Then the world is wrong,” Roseko spat. “And we’re gonna fix it, one way or another.”
“That would actually be an admiral goal, if not for all the death and destruction.” Beldo sighed. “But I can see I’m not going to convince you.” He walked to Lusya, who released Ariya’s hand, allowing him to take it and start leading her away. “They’re all yours, Lusya.”
“I will come get you once I have dispatched them,” she replied.
“Right.”
He continued walking away, and the two demons watched him go.
“We can wait for the kid to get some distance,” Samdo said. “We’ve got nothing against her.”
“I appreciate that,” Lusya said.
“You probably don’t get it,” Roseko said. “Being a half-demon and all.”
“I sympathize with your position more than you may think. But you are obstructing my goal, so I must eliminate you.”
Roseko chuckled. “All right, then. Come and try it.”
Lusya nodded. She waited another moment for Beldo and Ariya to get a bit farther away.
“Lunera, Miudofay.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She surged forward at Samdo, swinging Miudofay at him. Roseko tried to intercept her from the side, but Lusya had anticipated that. A swipe of Lunera sent Roseko dashing in the opposite direction and kept her out of Lusya’s way. However, the momentary distraction did slow Lusya down enough for Samdo to sidestep her strike, the blade only clipping his shoulder before he lashed out with a kick that she retreated from.
“Bacfa!” he shouted, causing a spiked gauntlet to appear on each hand.
He threw a punch that she easily dodged before slashing at him with Lunera. He crossed his arms in front of him, catching the attack on his guard. The force of it still sent him sailing backward through the castle gates, but he was otherwise unharmed.
Roseko, having recovered from the disorientation of being transported by Lunera, was quick to attack next. Lusya leaned out of the way of Roseko’s kick and sent a wave of fire at her with Miudofay. Roseko leaped to the side to avoid the flames.
“Wastoc!”
A massive battle axe, as big as her, appeared in her hands. She lunged at Lusya and swung the weapon down, but her slow speed allowed Lusya ample time to get out of the way, allowing the axe to slam into the ground, shattering the road’s stone pavement.
Then spikes of rock emerged from around the impact. Then from around the first row, and so on, blooming out in rapid succession. Lusya jumped up onto the castle’s outer wall to avoid the spikes threatening to skewer her. They continued to blossom out, even biting into the wall and some of the surrounding buildings, though not enough to destroy either. However, one Malice signature in one of the the buildings did disappear.
Just as she landed on the wall, she sensed Samdo approaching from behind. She whirled, but she was too late to prevent one of his spiked gauntlets from slamming into her face, sending her rocketing off the wall and down to the ground. They failed to break the skin, but the blow had had much more force behind it than a demon of his strength should have been able to bring to bear. An effect of this Demon Blade’s abilities, obviously.
Lusya slammed into the pavement and rolled to her feet, dodging another swing from Roseko’s axe. Once again, spikes emerged from the ground, this time heading for Lusya in a straight line.
She leaped into the air to avoid them, and Samdo jumped to intercept her, a fist cocked back to strike. She used Lunera to warp him behind him, then whirled and slashed at him with Miudofay. He jumped, but the strike still cut his left foot clean off. Nevertheless, he maintained the composure to turn and punch at her again. The blow was much weaker than before as it clanged off her blades crossed in a guard.
She lashed out with a kick, which he used his gauntlets to block the brunt of as it sent him flying away to crash into a building.
Roseko launched into the air after them, her axe raised to strike and a boulder hovering over the tip, following the axe’s movements. She swung the axe down, bringing the boulder down in an attempt to crush Lusya, but Lusya simply warped behind her with Lunera.
She threw a wave of violet flame at Roseko. The demon threw herself to the side, allowing the flames to consume only her right arm instead of her entire body, reducing it to ash.
Screaming in agony, Roseko plummeted to the ground, landing in a cloud of dust and debris, while Lusya watched from the sky. She could stand on air for quite some time now, so she could take a second to plan her landing. Wary of Roseko’s stone-based abilities, Lusya chose to jump down onto the castle walls rather than stand directly on the ground.
She threw a wave of flames at where the demon had landed, but, before it could reach its target, a wall of stone sprung up from the ground to block the fire. That was followed by a rock spike emerging from the wall and flying out at Lusya. She dodged it without issue.
Using Lunera, she created a rift opening just above where Roseko should be behind the rock wall and flung a gout of flames through the rift. A second later, Roseko dashed out from behind her wall, unharmed. Yet now she was vulnerable.
Before Lusya could capitalize on that vulnerability, Samdo launched himself out of the building he had crashed into at her, forcing her to divert her attention to him. She brought her swords up to block the punch he threw at her. Although she succeeded in defending, his blow was much more powerful than last time and launched her backward, off the outer wall and straight through another stone wall into the castle proper. She righted herself and landed on her feet, skidding along the floor of the room she found herself in. It looked to be some kind of servants’ quarters, with several beds laid out along the sides, each occupied by a catatonic human in simple clothing. Count Rebran extended an odd level of courtesy to the people of this town as he continued to cause and perpetuate their plight. But she could contemplate that later.
That was twice Samdo’s attacks had been strong and once they had been weak. What had been different? Both stronger attacks had come after a prior exchange. If she had to guess, his gauntlets grew stronger, allowing him to strike with more power, based on the attacks he blocked with them.
The two demons jumped up to the hole Lusya had made and entered the room, Samdo using a wooden plank as a makeshift cane to support himself.
“You are strong,” Roseko said. “And even more of a freak than I heard, using that sword.”
“I do not know when your information is from,” Lusya replied. “I have been able to wield Miudofay for years, but I have grown significantly over the past several months.”
“Good for you.”
With that, Roseko launched at Lusya, massive axe raised to strike. Despite the cramped space they were in, the axe sliced right through the ceiling as Roseko brought it down toward Lusya. Lusya dodged the strike, then moved farther away to avoid the spike that bloomed out from the impact. Samdo hurried to intercept her, but Lusya ducked under his punch with ease. If anything, fighting in this confined space made their teamwork less of a nuisance. It was much easier to keep track of both of them this way.
She prepared to kick him away but hesitated. At this angle, he would hit one of the servants. She wouldn’t normally care enough about that to stop, but…
“You’re wide open!” Roseko explained, swinging her axe around.
Lusya jumped over the blow, and Samdo took the opportunity to jump up and throw a punch into her stomach. Even without his Blade’s ability, he was still a high-rank demon. The blow was plenty powerful to launch her away, throwing her through another few walls into a more spacious room, filled with long tables.
As she landed on her feet, she noted that it, too, was filled with servants laid out on bed rolls. From the looks of it, this place was something of a mess hall. Perhaps these were servants who did not live in the castle and therefore lacked quarters to be put in? Another thing to consider later.
Debris from Lusya’s flight had landed on several of them, including a larger chunk that had left a gash on one man’s head. She did not have the expertise to know how severe the wound was, but it was bleeding quite heavily.
Roseko dashed through the hole in the wall at Lusya with another axe strike. Lusya dodged, but it didn’t escape her notice that the strike would slice right through a helpless servant if allowed. Lusya swung Lunera and warped Roseko a few feet away, allowing the axe to slam into empty ground.
Samdo was right behind her, probably hoping to capitalize on Roseko’s attack in some way or another. But Lusya had no problem dodging and slashing at him with Miudofay. He quickly shifted to defense, catching the blow on his gauntlets and letting himself sail away through the air and a wall. Before Lusya could follow up on that, Roseko swung her axe again, forcing Lusya to dodge and whirl to face her. Roseko raised her axe high and slammed it down. Spikes bloomed out from the impact as Lusya sidestepped. Then another set, and another, reaching farther and farther out.
If there was a fifth it would skewer a helpless human. Lusya swung Lunera, warping the prone man to her feet just as another circle of spikes emerged. She stepped over him and warped him to a far corner of the room before quickly returning her attention to her opponents.
“Worried about the humans, huh?” Roseko said.
“Not particularly,” Lusya said. “But I promised I would try to be concerned for them.”
“Sucks for you,” Samdo said as he limped back into the room.
“I thought you would also show some concern for them.”
Roseko shrugged. “We’re not supposed to hurt them, and I don’t really have anything against them, but I also don’t care, and I’m sure the count will understand if it’s in the middle of a fight.”
“You seemed much more concerned about innocent life earlier,” Lusya replied.
“It’s more that we wanted to start the fight on fair terms,” Samdo said. “We didn’t want you losing because you were distracted worrying about the kid from the get-go. But now that we’ve ended up in this situation, we might as well use it to our advantage.”
“I see,” Lusya said. “If you will not attempt to avoid harming them, then I do not believe these circumstances will be advantageous to you.”
“Guess we’ll just have to see about that.”
He launched himself at her, fist raised for a punch. Something was off about the way he moved. He had always been a rather straightforward fighter, but now he was painfully easy to read. When the blow came, it was slow and half-hearted. He refused to commit to it fully. She sidestepped with ease and lashed out with Lunera. He raised his guard with a readiness that suggested that had been the plan from the start. Her blade clanged off his gauntlet and launched him away, while Roseko closed in from the side. Before she could even begin swinging her axe, Lusya rushed at her at full speed. Lusya threw a vicious kick into Roseko’s stomach, sending the demon flying back through several walls.
Lusya sensed Samdo coming at her again and turned to face him. His movements were the same as before. He wanted her to evade and attack so he could absorb the strength of her blow. After observing that absorbing one wasn’t enough, he was probably trying to absorb a few before finishing her off with one big attack. But she wasn’t interested in playing his game.
She dodged and slashed Lunera, but she did not strike him, only opening a rift in front of him. Guard still raised, he started to back away, but she circled around and kicked him in the back with just enough force to send him toppling forward into the rift, which she had set up to close just a second later, with Samdo half inside.
With the space connecting his body severed, Samdo’s lower half flopped to the floor before her, while she heard his upper body hit the ground where she had connected the rift to behind her. A glance back revealed his body lying there, his eyes still wide with shock as his blood pooled beneath him.
Using Lunera’s First Release for direct offense was a little impractical, but it was quite potent. She had only seriously started considering it after unlocking her Full Release, the offensive capabilities of which were largely based in finer control over similar feats. She was glad she had.
“Samdo!” Roseko screamed as she charged at Lusya through the holes in the walls she had made.
Although enraged, Roseko was not blinded. Rather than try to strike Lusya directly, she raised her axe and swung it down well in advance, too far and fast for Lusya to intercept. Roseko likely hoped to force Lusya to split her focus between evading and protecting the humans, leaving her open to a follow-up attack.
Instead, Lusya created a motomancy barrier just above the ground, stopping the axe cold. Roseko’s eyes widened.
“What the—?”
Before she could finish, she let out a surprised shout as two more barriers appeared around her wrists, wrenching her hands above her head and hoisting her into the air. Another two materialized around her ankles, binding them in place. Roseko thrashed and squirmed like a worm against her bonds, but she couldn’t budge them.
“What happened?” she exclaimed. “Why did you get so much stronger all of a sudden?”
“I did not,” Lusya replied. “Since I do not know what to expect when we confront Count Rebran, I was attempting to conserve energy. Your disregard for the humans’ lives forced me to prioritize eliminating you quickly instead.”
Roseko clicked her tongue and hung her head in defeat. “Guess you weren’t being cocky after all.”
“I was not.”
Lusya lowered the barriers to put Roseko back in easy reach. Lusya needed to kill Roseko with as little potential for collateral damage as possible. So, she raised Miudofay and swung, beheading the pink-haired demon. Roseko’s head rolled off her neck and landed on the ground with a thud, while her body went limp. Lusya banished the barriers and allowed the corpse to fall to the ground in a heap.
With the two demons defeated, Lusya banished her Blades and made her way back to the castle gates, where they had started. A moment after she arrived, Beldo dashed around a corner and ran up to her, carrying Ariya. He put her down as he arrived, and she ran over to grab Lusya’s hand.
“I take it it’s done?” he said. “We were watching from the streets. I sensed the others…die and saw you come out of that hole.”
Ariya beamed. “I knew you would win, Lusya. Those guys didn’t stand a chance.”
“Indeed,” Lusya said. “We are free to confront the count now.”
Beldo grimaced and nodded. “Right. Let’s get to it, then.”