Iggy didn’t waste time as she swiftly moved over to where our daughter was. I readied myself to deal with anything that those people wanted, but if they didn’t make a move, it was better for me to not try anything strange. They could very well just be investigating us… however, their weapons and gear would suggest otherwise.
I couldn’t see who they were since they were covered from top to bottom in that white armor, which made them look more like those futuristic soldiers from movies than actual knights. But I could tell even with those dark visors that they were also looking at me.
One of them sustained a look before turning to look at the ones standing next to them. It was then that they dropped all pretense of being stealthy as they moved out of the bushes and to the perimeter of our house.
I brought out my large hammer and readied for anything that could happen, but in that moment, without any warning, a few canisters were fired into the house, shattering the windows and exploding in a cloud of smoke.
“Iggy! Miri!” I shouted and quickly moved to see how they were.
As I did, I heard my little girl loudly crying in fear, and that fear spread to me. Luckily, when I reached their room, I saw that my wife had the girl between her arms and that they were unharmed.
“What is going on!?” Igladith asked, an anxious expression on her face.
“We’re under attack by men in white armors,” I replied and tried looking for anyone inside the house. “Get ready.”
It was then that the front door of our house was blasted to pieces and the men rushed inside. Soon after, the windows were destroyed as well, just as the backdoor. Now, the house was full of those people.
“Quickly! We must destroy the darkness of our world!” shouted one of the men, before they rushed us.
I prepared myself to fight, but when I tried to summon magic, I found that I couldn’t do it. My magic was blocked. “What the—”
“Yaaargh!” shouted one of those men, a sword in his hands as he attacked me.
My magic might’ve been blocked, but this mighty red body if mine wasn’t, so with a swing of my hammer, I countered the man’s blade, sending the tiny piece of metal flying into a wall before kicking the man away.
“Magic’s blocked!” I warned, hoping that Igladith wouldn’t try to rely on her magic.
“Yes, I noticed!” she replied, holding our little girl between her arms. “It’s on the smoke. There’s some sort of Holy magic in it.”
I focused my eyes on the cloud of smoke surrounding us and I could indeed see a couple of golden motes floating in the air. These people came here prepared and ready to strike us.
“We should quickly leave then. I’ll make a hole in their group and then you’ll—”
Suddenly, the wall next to Igladith exploded and a man in different kind of white armor strode right in. The overall design was the same, but there were golden patterns drawn all over it, and in his hands he carried a shotgun; quite an unusual weapon to use for a warrior in this world.
“Iggy! Watch out!” I shouted, but it was too late.
Without wasting a breath, the man pointed the barrel of the gun to my wife’s head and pulled the trigger. A loud boom followed with a fiery, golden light coming out of the front of the weapon.
My mind froze momentarily when I saw my wife’s head violently jerk backwards and her body sag right with it to the ground.
“No!” I shouted and fiercely swung my hammer in every direction, sending a couple of those men flying, before I rushed to the golden one.
The man didn’t seem to care about me as he made his way over to Mirlaneth, the barrel of the shotgun pointed at her crying face as blood-red tears fell down the sides of her cheek.
I tried to summon my magic, even if just a little bit, but that hateful Holy magic in the air wouldn’t allow me to bring even a spark of fire to my hand, and the handful of men standing in the way to the man in the golden armor were proving to be stronger than the couple of ones I batted away.
“How disgusting. I can’t believe the minions of the dark would be allowed to spread like this in our clean and beautiful world,” he calmly said while looking down at my crying little girl. “Oh the things I would do to you right now. Nothing would be too far when dealing with ontologically evil beings.”
My body felt like it was burning by the hottest fires of hell as I watched and tried to push away these men, but the longer I stayed in the cloud of Holy magic, the weaker my body felt, and the harder it was for me to swing them away.
While I was struggling with the men, despairing at the impossibility of saving my girl, Igladith quickly stretched her arm and grabbed the man with the golden armor from the leg. He quickly turned his head to look down at his legs and tried to move the barrel of the gun down to my wife, but she was much faster than him, as she easily lifted the man, before throwing him to the other side of the house. His body flew as if it was fired by the shotgun in his hands, crashing through several walls of the house and landing outside.
“Don’t… you dare… touch my little girl…!” my cute little wife said and I could feel my spirit being reinvigorated.
Igladith was a pure Dark Demon, as such, she was one of the strongest demons one could meet. I even felt somewhat silly for thinking that a shotgun like that would be enough to take her out now that she stood up. All that the man managed to do to her was simply knock her out momentarily and leave a couple of burn marks on her perfect skin that was already healing.
I smiled widely and swung my hammer with as much strength as I could muster in the middle of this Holy cloud. The men still managed to block me, but with Iggy protecting our little girl, there was nothing for me to fear. I could eventually overpower them and take them out.
Iggy was slowly releasing her power, starting with the black dress that she usually wore, which transformed to move over to her back to give her a pair of large dragon-like wings while also revealing her body under the dress.
Stolen novel; please report.
She had the best body a demon could ever wish for, with clearly detailed muscles, a pair of long strong legs, and thin long arms; all covered in black scales that made her look as if she was armored. Her thick tail dangerously swayed from one side to another before lifting from the ground just as the rest of her body.
“This cloud of Holy Power is too strong…!” She said with some difficulty, “I can hardly use my magic power, so I’ll protect Mirlaneth while you deal with all these rabble.”
“Leave it to me!” I shouted and brought down my hammer on one of the men standing in my way.
The contact between the hammer and his sword created a shockwave, and I was impressed to see that the man was able to withstand that, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop me, as I harshly kicked the man away while he was struggling with the hammer on his sword.
“Shit! Where’s the boss!?” asked another of those men and I turned to slam my hammer on him. Just like the other one, he blocked, and once more, I kicked him away.
Another couple of men walked into the room, stopping momentarily to look between the fallen men I had kicked and my floating wife. Iggy didn’t waste any time, and with a swing of her hand, a needle of darkness flew through the air, hitting one of the men in the middle of his armored helmet, which cracked as the man fell backwards on the floor.
“Ugh,” my wife groaned. “Not nearly enough to even wound him.”
The man with the cracked helmet stood back up with shaking legs. “T-The power of darkness s-sure is powerful.”
“But not powerful enough to stop us!” shouted the man with the golden patterns as he walked back into the house from the holes left by my wife. “Come men! We must stand tall to defeat these evil beings!”
The men shouted in unison and continued the attack, with much more vigor than before. I would’ve even felt entertained by such a display of strength, but with my family on the line, I couldn’t afford to even chuckle at their fanaticism.
There was enough room for some of the men to move around me and go over to my wife and daughter—even while I was wildly swinging in every direction—but they found a much formidable fighter in my wife, who was easily able to toss them in every direction whenever they were in her range; some of them even landing on top of the ones I was fighting.
After a couple of minutes of struggling with one another, I found that the Holy Power in the cloud wasn’t weakening me anymore, but my power wasn’t coming back to me, so at best, we were at a standstill in the struggle.
“Boss! We don’t have much time left! People must be aware of what is happening here right now!” one of the men shouted, before having one of them fall on top of him.
“Grrr!” The man with the golden patterned armor growled and looked between me, my wife, and my daughter. “We shall not be defeated by the powers of darkness!”
Saying that, the man reached for something hanging in his belt and threw it to the middle of the room. Some of the men froze momentarily while I simply looked at it without realizing what it really was.
From the strange artifact, a blinding light exploded. It pushed me to one of the walls, while making my skin feel as if I was standing under the heat of the sun. I didn’t know what happened to my wife and daughter, but judging by the sounds of them crashing, I figured the same thing happened to them.
“If we can’t deal with them, then we’ll at least make sure they don’t spread,” the man said while he walked deeper into the room.
In between the blinding light, I managed to see the man’s silhouette hurriedly making his way to my fallen daughter, who was covering her face with her small hands. Igladith had fallen somewhere to the side and was also covering her face, so she didn’t know that our daughter was in grave danger.
“Iggy!” I shouted, pushing away one of the men that stood in my way, only to be grabbed by another one. “Our daughter!”
“Huh!?” She quickly reacted and looked around, even if the blinding light hurt her eyes.
But it was too late, the man had his barrel pointed on our daughter’s head. I struggled and pushed, but there was no time to get to her. The man squeezed on the trigger, and I knew that it was the end.
Due to the blinding light, the only thing I heard was something pop and I feared that it had been my daughter; my Miri. And it really was her, but it wasn’t because she was wounded. From her back, a ball of dark liquid appeared, which moved even faster than the man pulling the trigger of his weapon.
It looked as if someone had thrown black paint over a glass dome, which quickly covered my daughter completely. The weapon on the man’s hand fired, just like it had done before to my wife, but his bullets hit the dome of darkness covering my daughter.
“What the—'' the man exclaimed and tried shooting my daughter a couple of times, but the bullets would just bounce off.
I was astonished. My daughter was…
“A Barrier Demon!” I shouted and tried to look for my wife who seemed to be frozen in place. “Iggy! Our daughter is okay! She’s a Barrier Demon! We have to deal with these people now!”
I couldn’t see my cute little wife’s face, but I knew that she had snapped out of the same terror that I had as she moved once more, swinging her arms in almost every direction.
The man with the golden patterns seemed to have given up on my daughter as he turned the weapon to Igladith, but since she was moving so wildly, his weapon was hit and thrown to the other side of the room. He was then quickly hit by her right after, which made him land next to a few other men.
“Gods fucking damn it!” the man shouted and I did the same as my wife did: swing my hammer wildly to send a few of those men away.
But once more, I realized that they weren’t going to give up, as they still came back at us, even if doing so would end up with them being hit once more by our wild swings.
“I won’t come out of this empty handed,” the man whispered and I saw him reach for another one of those artifacts in his belt.
“He’s throwing another one of those—”
I tried to warn, but I wasn’t fast enough. The artifact exploded just like last time, hurling me and my wife away, while making the dark barrier that my daughter was hiding under bounce from one side to another.
“If we can’t kill them, then at least I’ll take away the monster they created!” the man shouted. “Grab that ball of darkness. We’ll destroy it back at the base—with its contents!”
“No!” I shouted in response, but the men surrounding me, the light blinding me, and the Holy magic in the smoke cloud wouldn’t allow me to move.
My wife wasn’t in a better position, as it appeared that her magic was faltering already and she couldn’t keep herself in the air anymore, the men surrounding her just as they were me.
In between the blinding flashes of light, and the swings of men, I saw them grab my daughter and drag her out of the house. I struggled, I pushed, I tossed my hammer; but none of them were willing to make way for me. I gritted my teeth, and I even tried to stab them with my horns, but this was just as much a stalemate as it was before.
“The boss has already extracted that ball of darkness and is safe!” One of the men shouted. “We must withdraw as well! Move out!”
“No!” My wife shouted with a broken voice as she tried to attack even more fiercely than before, but she was missing every single one of them as they were already leaving the house.
The men fighting me also left, and even in the blinding light, I tried to follow after them, to not miss the direction in which they went, but they repeated for a third time what they did before as they threw yet another one of those artifacts in the middle of the room, blinding both me and my wife and forcing us down to the floor again.
I heard my wife wailing and shouting as she continued to attack everything in the house, breaking as many things as we had. But I couldn’t do the same. I had realized that they had taken our daughter, and that right now, there was no way to know where they went.
While my vision was slowly returning, I calmly made my way to my wife, who was still desperately swinging everywhere.
“Iggy…” I whispered, but it seemed as if she couldn’t hear me. “Igladith… she’s gone.”
“No!” she shouted, turning her face to me, a face full of despair as black tears smeared her perfect face. “They can’t be! We must—we must—”
It was then that she stopped moving and fell into my arms, softly crying as she covered her face. “She’s still alive. Mirlaneth is our daughter—your daughter—and a Barrier Demon. We’ll get her back.”
“H-how…” she replied between sobs. “The h-humans of this world don’t care about us. T-these things happen everyday even to their own, and—and they don’t care. Why would they search for one of us?”
“We’ll do everything we can,” I softly replied. “I know of someone that might help us.”
It might be a long shot, but she was the best that I could think of. We needed a hero, and I know of a hero that might help us.