The demon smiled at Frederick as it squeezed harder on his neck, its extremely sharp claws cutting deep enough to draw blood. It had a long mouth that stretched wide, the tips reaching its beady black eyes and and showing off its long, sharp, serrated canines. The demon whispered something, causing the old man to suddenly turn his head. He screamed in pain after turning his head and looking at X. No, not in pain. In fear.

'X, run away. Stage 2 de...'

He coughed out loud, frothing at the mouth, unable to continue warning his grandson.

The Stage 2 demon then turned towards X, looking him straight in the face, and its smile widened, its face becoming much scarier. It spoke in a harsh rasping voice.

'Yes...Run...I see...How far...U go.'

X stood, unable to comprehend what was going on. This demon was torturing his grandfather and was ordering him to run away to take its time hunting him down. The demon raised its long bloody hand, still looking at X, and swiped down, tearing Frederick's right arm apart, the forearm separated from the rest. As X watched, the only person in the world whom he liked screamed out in pain. And X could not even fight back.

Upon hearing Frederick's scream, one of the knights turned away from his battle and ran straight at the demon. His eyes shone with a fiery fury that signified his admiration for his role model, and even though there was a wound on his head that was constantly leaking blood, he still charged into battle against the strongest enemy to protect his role model.

'Sir Frederick'

He yelled the retired knight's name like a battle cry as he rushed forward, dragging his giant longsword through the ground. The demon let him get closer, the sickening smile still plastered on its terrifying face. As the knight swung his sword at the demon, it jumped in the air, dodging the weapon by an inch. It turned in the air and landed hands first on the night's back like it was diving into a pond for swimming. The knight could not even react as the demon plunged its razor-sharp claws into his back, ripping through the strong but sensitive muscles that lay underneath. A loud, painful cry left his mouth, echoing through the lush green forest.

X stared at the knight, then at the demon who was heading back to his grandfather. His body was nearly paralyzed with fear, and yet he knew that he had to move. His life was worth nothing in comparison to that of these knights. And although he wanted to live, he wanted Frederick to live as well. He cared about his adoptive grandfather's life more than his own.

The heat in his guy increased tremendously, causing ripples of pain to flow through his body as if someone was repeatedly stabbing him with a butter knife. He took a step forward, surprised by the difficulty of moving his own body. He took another, and the heat increased, sweat leaking from his and pouring down on his face in liters. Suddenly, he stopped, spotting movement in Frederick's injured body that lay in front of him.

The retired knight got up on his knees, spitting out blood. His muscular left hand was placed on the ground, the veins on his hands popping up, and being so visible X could see it even from the distance. He relaxed his body, removing the hand from the ground and holding the chopped-off part of his right arm with it, then pushed it back to the stub of the injured hand.

Blood gushed out of the major wound with increased speed, meeting with the forearm. The blood melded away, turning into bone, muscles, and flesh, reforming the elbow joint in less than 10 seconds. It was not humanely possible, and X had only seen demons perform anything similar, but this was even faster.

'I should have killed a stronger one.'

Fredrick muttered in a deep pained voice, but he surprisingly smiled to himself after that. X was unable to hear his words, all he could hear was incomprehensible muttering, but he was still shocked to see Fredrick smile. As his grandfather got up to his feet, his hand completely healed, X almost whistled in admiration. This was like one of those stories that Fredrick used to tell him, and right now, his grandfather was the main character. And X had to help him.

The demon was also surprised by his recovery and stopped walking. IItsviens popped out of its body, rage flashing on its face vividly, and all of a sudden, the energy in the region changed. The grin that was plastered on the demon's face returned as it stared down at the old man.

Something glowing blue streaked around its body, completely clashing with its blood-red aesthetic. A small fallen leaf that lay beside the demon, something similar to what X used to play with during the autumn months, was struck by a streak of blue energy, and in an instant, it went from a green leaf to a pile of grey ashes. X understood what this energy was. He had seen it during thunderstorms when he had been staring into the clouds to trace the pattern of their movements.

It was lightning.

The demon lunged forward and covered the 20-metre distance between itself and Frederick in a flash of blue. Its sharp claws swung down on the old man, carrying with it a surge of electrical energy that jumped out of it instantly. Frederick, however, was not completely defenseless as he swung his axe straight to the demon's neck, the hilt of the weapon clashing with the razor-sharp claws.

A great boom was heard, and dust rose off the ground due to the impact. A massive shockwave sent shivers down X's spine. Trees shook from the tremors formed on the ground, and X could hear a loud crashing noise in the distance.

Stolen story; please report.

When the dust settled, he could see the axe, embedded in the demon's forearm, blood gushing down. Frederick's recently regenerated right hand was placed on the demon's neck, crushing it just like the demon had crushed his neck a few minutes ago. The demon clawed at the muscular arm coking him, lightning arcing from its body and crashing onto Frederick's, leaving burnt patches of skin all over its body. With a scream, the two of them resumed their fight.

X's head started hurting as if the heat had moved from his gut to his brain. Random sights passed in front of him, each one extremely vivid and nonsensical. There was one about an old man he did not know covered in blood, another about a mountain. X did not have the time or the atmosphere to delve into these sights. He needed to help. He took another step forward, grabbing the butcher's hatchet tightly as he glared at the demon. Suddenly a sight passed through his head, so realistic it stopped his motion and all the pain in his body. His body closed its eyes, unintentionally concentrating on the vision.

A massive cave, so tall the sky looked brown. A giant waterfall was roaring, pouring down hot, boiling hot magma from a region near the ceiling of the cave. Behind this stood a ginormous shadow, one so big it was not possible to measure its length, one that was bigger than even the lavafall that hid it. Its head was not visible, and the shadow of its long neck was the topmost, visible part of its body. The neck was massive when compared to any creature X could think of, but looked thin in contrast to the shadow of its body. Its lower body could not be seen due to the frothing of the lavafall, but its massive wings were visible.

They were so big, just like the lavafall, X could not see both ends at the same time. He had to turn his head right to focus on a single wing, hoping to see the end, and when he saw the tips of the jagged wings poke out of the end of the curtain of molten rock, he gasped in shock.

It was bright yellow in color, so scaly X though this was a wing of a lizard. Large tooth-like projections jutted out of the continuous v-shaped tips of the wings, reflecting the light of the lavafall so brightly it felt brighter.

Down, at the bottom of the lavafall, on one of the small solid rock islands right in the middle of the pool of lava, stood a speck, slowly glowing brighter and brighter till it shone like a torchlight. X's vision zoomed onto that small, glowing speck, and as his eyes adjusted to the increased brightness, X saw something that shocked him more than anything else he had seen that day.

His jaw dropped in shock.

On the small rock island in the middle of a near-endless stream of lava stood X himself, a few years older, with longer hair and stronger, more pronounced muscles. His wavy blond hair glowed down and covered his eyes, which glowed vibrant pink.

He was wearing armor that he had never seen, golden armor made with multiple pieces stacked on top of each other, gilded with grooves through which some fiery liquid flowed, similar but different from the lava that surrounded them. Rubies were embedded in each piece of armor, that glowed like fire in the dark. He held a hatchet similar to the one he was currently holding, made with steel without any inscriptions or gildings.

He crouched forward like a wild cat ready to pounce on to pounce on prey. His knees were bent, his body turned to the side. His right arm gripped the hatchet tightly, his left pushed back to balance his body. His pink eyes glowed brighter by the moment, and all of a sudden, X was kicked out of the vision.

X copied that stance in his real body, following exactly what that armored version of him in that vision did. His eyes glowed brighter, and his body steamed. He wished to pounce on the demon that was fighting his grandfather, but for some reason he was calm. He looked at the battlefield instinctively, analyzing the fights and seeing who was winning and where.

His grandfather was holding the demon back, able to maintain an equilibrium as they exchanged blows. The three knights at the distance were faring even better and had almost killed the demon they were fighting with. They were losing only one battle.

Rem was struggling against the demon with only one hand. His other hand was ripped off by the demon, which was leisurely walking towards him. The knight could barely stand, and now he had to face a demon alone since his partner was the one who got demolished by the Stage 2 demon. He raised his sword and charged forward once more, and all of a sudden something clicked inside X's head.

Rem was the only one capable of helping his grandfather. The rest of them were just fodder.

X embraced the heat that was coursing through his body and lunged forward. The heat that was coming out of his body caused a rise in temperature. The grass near his foot burst into flame. The hatchet's wooden handle started to burn, and the metal edge got softer and more malleable, a drop of molten steel falling.

A jet of golden flames blazed forward, and X was gone.

Every person in the area turned to look at this bright flame ignoring the battles they were, including the Stage 2 demon. The flame shot right past Rem and the demon he was fighting with. A burning wooden hatchet with a metal edge shot out from the glowing stream of fire, removing the demon's neck from its body X appeared right behind it, the golden flames morphing into the 15-year-old, his mouth moving as he whispered something.

'Fire Escape.'