The Demon, Abigor, ripped at his chest as the black ink-like substance spread across his chest. Blood scattered down from the sky as he tore at his skin, but there was something very wrong with this blood. It was no longer the bright red from before but instead tinted with the same empty darkness that was quickly covering his chest. Before the blood reached the ground, the droplets evaporated into a cloud of shadows that continued to expand almost… hungrily.
The temperature dropped again as the shadows were exposed to the open air. They grew larger with every passing second. The light around it seemed to dim, and even the blood mist froze as all heat drained from the air.
Abigor stumbled away in fear as he saw the expanding shadows. Fear reflected in his eyes as he looked down at his chest. The claw marks his nails left behind were not healing. Wounds that had once healed in seconds continued to bleed. Instead, the gashes were growing as if the darkness was not just spreading across his body but dissolving it, consuming it, feasting on his flesh to fuel the spread of darkness.
His voice quivered slightly as his gaze locked on me. “This power is... No, no, it's not over yet! If you die, it will stop.”
I chuckled lightly as the two wings of fire spread out behind me. “Better hurry then. You don’t have long.”
Abigor’s clenched his fists tight and motioned towards the second Demon, Aym, still smoldering nearby from my earlier attack. “If I tie her down, do you have enough power to finish her off in a single strike? Anything less than an instant fatality will be pointless.”
“I can manage it,” Aym replied with a firm nod.
I smiled in delight as the two demons moved to surround me. If Aym had tried to run away, abandoning his companion, it would have been troublesome to chase him down, but this way, I could kill two birds with one stone.
Abigor moved first. Despite being infected by the black shadow, it did not impact his speed. He charged at me like a living battering ram. His arms stretched out to either side.
I scowled at his overt intentions. As if I would let myself be caught. I canceled the domain keeping me aloft. Without wasting any energy, I plummeted down towards the ground. Abigor was in hot pursuit as he chased after me. Pushing his domain to the limit without holding anything back, he was quickly closing the gap.
“I feel like I am being underestimated,” I mumbled in annoyance before raising my voice at the Demon chasing after me, “Since you seem to have forgotten, let me remind you my specialty has never been close combat.”
As I spoke, my innate talent reached out, connecting with each and every undead on the ground below. Thousands of burning flames all linked to me like an expansive spiderweb that covered the entire city. This connection was invisible and intangible for others, but to me, they were so clear I could almost reach out and touch them. More importantly, I could transfer power through them. Weak as I had been up until now, this minor quirk of my innate talent was of little to no use, but when I was at my full strength, it was what allowed me to became a terror on the battlefield.
While still falling from the sky, I pushed power into the lines connecting my undead and me. The flickering candlelights grew into a raging forest fire. My domain traveled with the energy, wrapping around several hundred of the strongest undead available to me.
Abigor was only an arm’s reach away when the first figure barreled into him with the force of a fired cannon. The Demon grunted as he was forced to stop his pursuit. Furious, he punched at the figure standing between him and me, a large bull-like Demonkin with my undead's signature glowing green eyes. It had no wings, yet it flew through the air with surprising grace. The power of my domain radiated out from it with every move the creature made.
The Demon was able to punch away the undead with ease. It only had a small portion of my power, after all, but less than a second later, four more undead flew into the sky and blocked Abigor’s path. In the next second, a dozen more arrived. Before Abigor could even consider continuing his pursuit, the sky was full of hundreds of undead Demonkin. Each one radiated with the power of my domain.
Abigor bellowed in rage as the undead washed over him like a tidal wave. “Coward! Fight me fairly!”
With childish joy at the Demon’s plight, I stuck out my tongue at Abigor. “Tick tock, tick tock, you better catch me quickly if you don’t want to be devoured by the void.”
The Demon roared like a beast as he smashed his fist into another undead blocking his path. The creature’s head was smashed into pulp from a single blow. Its body fell still before falling from the sky, but for every undead Abigor destroyed, there was always another to take its place. Attacks like rain pelted his rapidly deteriorating body. The wounds on his chest had grown more extensive, along with the darkness eating away his flesh. The bones of his ribcage were now clearly visible. An average human would probably have already died if they were suffering from such severe wounds. The fact that Abigor could still move as if nothing was wrong was a testament to the Demons’ vitality.
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While I was toying with Abigor, the second Demon, Aym, dashed at me from behind. I had been keeping tabs on him and wasn’t surprised by his sudden attack, but what he did next caught me off guard.
Rather than strike at me with his signature metal rod as I expected, Aym shoved his fingers into the holes that dotted his body. I saw them moving under his skin as if fishing for… something. With a sickening squelch and a splatter of foul-looking liquid, he pulled them out and threw five long worms in my direction.
The five squirming creatures looked like tapeworms with bodies longer than my forearm. Their appearance was completely unassuming, but the pressure they emitted was another matter entirely. Each of these five worms radiated the bloodthirsty force of an Alpha.
I had no intention of testing these Alpha. They probably had some unique ability that bypassed defenses, and I wanted to avoid discovering what it might be. Just the thought of those five worms digging under my skin was enough to send chills down my spine.
I took their threat seriously. I didn't have time to dodge out of their way. They were moving too fast for that. All I could do was raise the book in my hand before the worms could reach me. The Chronicle once again rang out with a myriad of speeches that faded one by one until only a single voice remained. This voice was different than the one before. This time, it was a woman speaking with an authoritative tone.
“The law is absolute. None are above judgment.”
The pages of the Chronicle fell still as another of the nine symbols on the front of the book lit up. This time it radiated a pale-yellow glow. The worms, less than a finger’s length from my chest, fell still the moment the light appeared. A high-pitched ringing like the sound of tinnitus echoed from the book. A second later, the eyes of the five Alphas dimed. They had not suffered any visible wounds. There was no sign of any attack. They were clearly still ailve, yet, their bodies simply fell still and fell from the sky limply.
“What a gross attack,” I mumbled with disgust at the fallen corpses. The light radiating from the Chronicle faded, and I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. I frowned in annoyance. I had not been fighting economically, and using the Chronicle was always draining. Even with my regained strength, I still had limits. It was best I finished this quickly.
Aym’s eyes were locked on the book by my side as he slowly stepped back. “Judgment of the Eighth Division? Why can you use someone else’s innate talent?”
“Oh? Is this your first time seeing my armament?” I replied with amused laughter, “That is interesting. I knew Envy treats his Demons like disposable pawns, losing one every few years at least, but you would think he would at least warn you of the basics. Berith and Andras have been around for a while. They should have known about it too. I wonder why they didn’t warn you…” I paused in thought and gave the Demon a mocking smile. “Maybe, you aren’t important enough for them to care.”
“Be quiet!” the Demon shouted furiously. He once again jammed his fingers into the holes covering his body.
I grimaced at the disturbing sight. “No, no more of that,” I said simply.
Aym suddenly screamed as he jerked his hand back in a panic. Blood dripped to the ground. He looked at the now missing finger, then down at his chest in horror.
“You should really be more careful what you let into your body, especially when fighting someone that can control corpses,” I explained with a teasing grin, “Do you know how many of those maggots you sacrificed to survive that explosion earlier? I do. I can name each and every one of the thousand nine hundred twenty-four that died. You cast their little lives away so casually. Now they want revenge.”
Aym’s eyes widened in panic as he began to claw at his skin frantically. “Get—get them out! Get them out!” he shouted. His skin bulged erratically as the insects under his skin began to move in masse.
A war began to rage inside the Demon’s body as the living worms fought against the undead ones. The number of creatures living inside Aym’s body was simply staggering. It was only after taking control of the undead worms that I truly understood. The man standing before me was little more than a skin puppet. Most of his torso was entirely hollow. He had no vital organs I could see, just a mass of crawling insects taking the shape of a man.
My undead insects rampaged through the Demon’s body, destroying everything they could. The still living insects inside his body fought back. The two sides entered a pitched battle fiercer than when the humans fought the Demonkin. My undead insects were outnumbered at first, but with every worm they killed, it would rise again to fight for me.
“Poor little Aym,” I spoke, trying to buy time for the undead to reach every corner of the Demon’s body, “No wonder the other Demons treated you with such casual disdain. Not only do you have a useless power, but you don’t even have a body of your own. No wonder you are so weak.”
“Stop—talking!” Aym shouted. He had succeeded in ripping open the skin on his chest and was now pulling out handfuls of worms and maggots, tossing them to the ground by the hundred, but there were just too many for him to remove them all quickly.
I raised an eyebrow at the sight, noticing that the skin actually bled despite the body being hollow. That meant there must be something keeping blood pumping, however small. The only place my undead couldn’t reach yet was the Demon’s skull. It was more heavily guarded than anywhere else, and there were no pathways for the insects to travel through. The only way to get there would be for my undead to gnaw their way inside. I guessed that whatever it was that kept the Demon alive was located there.
As Aym struggled against the insects invading his body, I took a moment to glance at the other Demon, Abigor. An endless horde of undead still surrounded him. I had lost several hundred good soldiers while focused on Aym but it was a small price to pay for the head of a Demon.
Abigor was a gruesome sight. His body was like a chewed-up piece of meat. The void devouring his body had turned almost every part of his skin completely black. It ate away at the Demon, tearing it apart piece by piece. It wasn’t just his ribcage showing bone now but also the entirety of his left arm and most of his shoulder. His internal organs were now visible, practically spilling out as he fought desperately to reach me before being completely consumed.
I nodded in satisfaction at the spectacle of the two Demons struggling futility against the inevitable. I may have used most of the energy at my disposal, but it would recover by tomorrow. Now, all I had to do was sit back and watch as they both died.