Please Enjoy. I only own the Plot, Wiccan and every other OC. I apologise in advance if any of the characters seem OOC. Please review to let me know your thoughts.
Chapter 4: - Troubling Meetings
My run had taken me to the very outskirts of Mercuno, all cultured life had fallen away by now and only vast woodlands remained, plants unique to this area grew throughout the shaded grove that I was currently trekking through their leaves damp from the previous night's storm.
The entirety of the woods was silent, it was as if the creatures knew that danger was afoot and had flown to somewhere far safer than this place, which wouldn't be too surprising since animals were far more attune to the dangers of this world, and those from beyond, than humans were.
Rustling shattered the pseudo-tranquil silence of the forest, I was immediate alert waiting for whatever it was to make its' next move. Suddenly something wet, almost slimy, and sticky slammed onto my left hand and I was pinned to the tree I was stood next to, I looked at my hand only to find it trapped in sticky wedding, I tried to tug my hand free but to no avail, then the rustling started again and from the trees and bushes descended a swarm of demonic spiders.
These spiders were larger than normal spiders, with blade-like forearms. They came in white and green versions with the green ones being larger, I recognised them as Arachne and I knew that the green version had tougher carapaces. One of the white Arachne charged at me, its' forearms raised to strike, when it got close I curled my legs up to my chest and its' blades burrowed into the tree.
I ignited my entrapped hand with fire which melted the wedding away, before whipping out and plunging one of my daggers into the creature's skull, killing it instantly. I jumped off its' corpse before staring at the remaining spiders as they twitched and seemed to be waiting for something to happen.
One of the green ones then leapt at me, its' blades extended forward in the hopes of cleaving me apart. I curved my body down so that my hands touched the floor and kicked my legs into its' soft underbelly, sending it flying through the air and making it land on its' back, I jumped back onto my feet and using my dagger, I sliced it in half.
However a swarm of little spiders poured out of the corpse, I used my magic to cause fire to blaze around my form and by making it lash out I turned the baby spiders into ash. One of the white spiders jumped and pinned me to the ground, I seized its' blades before it could impale me and I kicked it off of me whilst ripping off the deadly forearms.
I threw the blades at two of the green spiders and they burrowed into their heads, I looked down to see the deep gashes on my hands caused by the blades. I summoned my chain and telekinetically attached my daggers to it whilst I waited for my accelerated healing ability to repair my hands, I twisted the chain through the throngs of spiders as they launched themselves at me.
I slashed at the creatures killing most of them, whilst I proceeded to dodge their attacks as I waited for my hands to finish healing themselves. I looked down to see my palms were clear of any damage and I began to retaliate I summoned forth fire to my hands and I launched it out in twin streams, the flames easily wrapped themselves around the remaining creatures and turned them into ash.
'Well that was annoying.' I thought as I returned my weapons to where they belonged and cleaned the drying blood off my hands. I looked around the area and used my magic to scan my surroundings, trying to determine whether or not anymore demons were around, I sensed nothing and decided to keep moving.
As I continued through the forest, the sun began to set allowing the stars and moon to begin to shine dimly in the twilight hour. The air began to chill becoming colder as time went on, since autumn was almost here. Suddenly an ice barrage came out of the darkened area in front of me and I had to duck so as to avoid the attacks.
I looked up to see three lizard-like lesser demons with icy armour, I identified them as Frost and despite their lack of numbers their power would certainly make up for it. Their claws are effectively swords, and are colder than absolute zero. Also if they were given enough time, they would be able to regenerate any lost body parts by encasing themselves in ice, and as if that wasn't bad enough, they are impervious to all fire attacks that were weaker than Sacred Fire or Hellfire, including my fire.
I removed my sword and looked at them, they began to circle around me their claws poised and ready to attack me, they then launched themselves at me from three different angles. I back flipped out of the way as their claws slammed into the earth, one of them then turned and tried to strike me again, I raised my sword and blocked the attack and began to struggle against the ice demon.
The other two flanked me on either side and charged for me, as they began to close in I pushed harder against the demon in front of me before jumped up and over the demon and as I let my sword hang behind me, I brought the blade down the middle, this move allowed me to dodge the flanking attack and kill one of the demons.
The other two looked at the body of their fallen comrades, before looking at me and re-engaging their assault. They attacked me at the same time and this forced me on the defensive until I could find an opening to strike back, one of them jumped into the sky and attempted to crush me so I used that opportunity to jump up and by using the demon as a leaping pad I launched myself up into the trees and landed on one of the branches.
I used my magic to enchant the leaves of the trees and they fell off but turned razor sharp and began to form a leaf hurricane around the two demons. I jumped up to the top of the hurricane and began to swiftly descend down towards the demons, one of them spotted me and jumped up its' claw bared to rip me apart. I twisted the wind around my sword and swung it three times at different angles which formed a triangle and the wind slashed through the demon, killing it.
I stopped the leaf hurricane and landed on my feet in front of the other demon, the demon began to lash out at me with its' claws. I blocked the attacks with my sword before withdrawing a dagger and slicing the arm off, the demon stumbled back and sealed itself in ice to heal however it was incredibly vulnerable at this moment, so I enchant my sword and then swung it into the ice causing the frozen liquid to crack and buckle beneath the force of the attack thus killing the demon that was trapped inside.
"Well, well my dear it seems you have more power than we anticipated," A voice echoed from all around me. I whipped my head about before finally feeling a crushing demonic force appear behind me, whipping around and jumping back I gazed up at the creature before me. A demon with burning red eyes and clad in mouldy green armour with a huge bow held in its' hand sat upon a white horse that looked sickly, yet was still strong enough to hold up the demon.
"Who are you?" I questioned as I tightened the grip on my sword and held it in front of me. The demon chuckled as if I amused it somehow, he got down of his horse which swiftly collapsed and turned into nothingness.
"Who am I? I am the 1st Horseman, I am Pestilence!" The demon declared. I felt my entire body freeze as I realised what he meant, The Horsemen also known as The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse were mighty demon warlords who ruled over Hell millennia ago alongside its' original Devil King Apocalypse and only when Mundus and Sparda worked together were they able to overthrow Apocalypse and seal him and his Horsemen away.
"How are you free?" I asked. The demon simply chuckled again and I knew I would receive no answer from him, the demon drew back his bow and an arrow of twisting black energy formed. He let the arrow fly and I barely dodged out of the say as it grazed my arm, it felt like fire was scorching across my entire limb and I drove my teeth into my bottom lips to prevent a cry of pain from escaping me.
"Those demons are far inferior to me, even if you are skilled how could you – a mere witch – hope to defeat me," The demon gloated. I gritted my teeth and stood up, I placed my hand over the graze and flooded the area with healing magic which burnt out the demonic magic which had infected the arm.
"I'm not going to let you or any other demon endanger this world," I informed the demon. He roared with laughter before firing another poison arrow at me, I dodge out of the way completely this time, I knew there was only one way to defeat this creature and that was to purify it and the only way to do that was with the use of a Sacred Element which only the Triple Goddess could use.
Pestilence fired more arrows at me, I dodged out the way and used light combined with my sword to disrupt the poisoned weapons, which was lucky as the arrow form turned out to be the poison's weakest state. However if any of the arrows hit the ground or other vegetation then that area would be poisoned and turn rotten in a matter of hours as I saw it was slowly happening to the two trees that had been struck when I had dodge the first two arrows.
"It is impossible for one so weak as you to defeat me," Pestilence gloated. An idea quickly formed in my mind and I smirked at it as I rose to my feet and let my sword hang at my side.
"If you're so powerful how'd Mundus and Sparda defeat you?" I taunted. Pestilence froze and his head mechanically turned towards me, his red eyes blazed like hellfire and he roared in outrage before lunging at me. I ran at him and just as he went to stab me with a poisoned arrow, I jumped over him and took of down the forest path, I didn't glance back as I continued running but I could easily hear him chasing after me.
I had to get out of the forest and into a more open area if I had any chance of implement my plan… of course it all hinged on one thing and if it wasn't present I'd have to run away, which I loathed but I would be unable to defeat Pestilence without it and he would most likely kill me if I tried to fight him with my current power level.
I burst out of the woods and found myself in a clearing that lay before a large mountain, I looked up to see that the full moon was shining down on the clearing, I smiled glad to see the beautiful orb before turning around to face the woods, sitting down and entering into a meditative state. I heard the demon eventually burst from the woods and a roared ripped from his throat as I could only guess he had seen my meditative position.
"So you think yourself strong enough that you'll MEDITATE IN FRONT OF ME!" I heard Pestilence roared. But I refused to let anything break my concentration until I was ready to attack, which would only take a few more seconds. "You insolent mortal!" Pestilence roared again and I could hear the whizzing of an arrow as it headed straight for me.
In that moment I reacted, my eyes snapped open and I stopped the attack with my telekinesis. I saw Pestilence look surprised at my move or was it the fact that my eyes were glowing silver. I spun the arrow around at sent it flying back towards him but he simply caught in his hand and it dissipated and he began to laugh.
"You think my own arrows will work on me? What a fool you are to use such a strategy," Pestilence gloated.
"Problem with that Horseman, that wasn't my attack," I stated, stopping Pestilence's laugh as he looked at me. I then used the gift I had been given and summoned forth blazing pure white flames around my fists, Pestilence stepped back and looked horrified at the flames.
"That will not defeat me," Pestilence gloated, except that this time it was shaky and I smirked at his nervousness. I threw an orb of fire at him, he dodged out of the way but the fire grazed his armour, the fire began to burn and smoulder at the murky green shoulder pad. Pestilence attempted to pat it out but he yanked his hand back the minute it touched the blazing fire as his hand was smoking.
"If you haven't guessed it already, that's Sacred Fire, pretty poisonous to you demons," I stated. Pestilence look up at me and glared, he shakily raise his burning arm and fired a volley of arrows at me, I threw out more fire balls to intercept the attacks before charging forward and ploughed my left fist into his stomach which caused the armour there to begin to burn. Pestilence attempted to stab me, but I dodge in time for it to only just graze my arm and I could already feel the burning pain beginning to surge through my body as the demonic magic ate away at my being.
I brought my hands together so that the thumbs were resting against each other and unleashed a blazing stream of fire at Pestilence, he desperately dodge it but the stream managed to catch his legs and he buckled under the purifying powers of the flames. I raised my hands above my head and began to gather the magic to unleash a final attack to take him out, but before I could strike he was swallowed by darkness and disappeared from my sight, I stopped my attack and allowed the flames to disappear and my eyes to returned to their normal colour.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Sacred Water, I placed some on the wounds I received from Pestilence and then swallowed some more before putting it away. I glanced down at my hands to see that they were smoking slightly with red marks appearing in places before they were quickly restored to their normal condition.
'I barely survived, if the Goddess hadn't granted me the Sacred Fire in time I would be dead. If I see him again I probably won't survive seeing as how my body won't be able to handle the strain of using one of the Sacred Elements for another ten years and I know that the clan head won't give me the Relics that hold the essence of the other Sacred Elements. Looks like the water's all I've, I just hope it's enough.' I thought, before turning to face the mountain, I could tell that something strange was happening at the summit so I decided to see what it was.
*Devil May Cry*
I clamped a hand onto the rock above me as I hauled myself up the cliff face, the mountain was actually a lot steeper that it first appeared and there were few places for me to simply jump from, also the rock was incredibly hard making it difficult for me to dig my daggers in and with it heavily raining the wait would, quite literally, kill me.
I had finally managed to reach a smooth level near the summit of the mountain, I looked up towards the summit and I managed to see that something, or someone, was moving about at the peak. I followed the path that curved around the side of the mountain heading to the top, I entered a short tunnel before coming out on to the summit.
I looked around the area, it was completely flat and clear of any vegetation, with an iron cage encircling the area, at the far end there was a perch and on it stood Mirage. In front of her were two ghostly figures, one was cloaked so I couldn't see their features whilst the other was pale skinned, with short choppy hair, it colour unknown due to his astral appearance, he wore a top that was open to reveal his chest and a pair of pants both of which seemed to be made out of bats.
"The plan has been delayed due to Pestilence's arrogance, however this is only a minor setback, your sister is not nearly powerful enough to stop the others," The hooded one stated. I had hidden myself within the shadows to avoid detection as I watched the exchange before me.
"Even before she meets the other, I'll stop her. Once my end of the deal is complete you will give me what I want correct?" Mirage questioned. I was beginning to wonder if Mirage was brainwashed because it sounded like this was of her own free will.
"Of course we are, my beauty, you will find him and have him once again. Do not forget that," The bat man stated. He moved his hands as if to stroke her face, however as he moved, I saw a reddish-pink glow appear in his eyes and that same glow surrounded Mirage for a brief second before it disappeared.
"I understand, Nile my love. I'll be there shortly," Mirage responded. My eyes would have fallen from their sockets, had that been possible, at her statement. I stood up and walked out into full view of the three people and fired mana bolts at Mirage, she spun around blocked the attack as the image behind her disappeared.
"I know your taste in men as always been… weird, but snap out of it, you don't love that man. You've already found your One!" I exclaimed. Mirage face twisted into an angry look before her staff almost make contact with my skull, most likely crushing it, had I not dodged in time.
"My One, what a joke. He used me, betrayed me, all for power," Mirage hissed as she looked at me. I withdrew my sword and held it in front of me prepared to fight my clan sister.
"And you believe that, man – no that demon – actually cares about you, he's an Incubus and he's manipulating you!" I yelled at her. Mirage's response was to attempt to crush me again but I blocked the strike with my sword and we pushed against each other as the earth began to break beneath us.
Mirage leapt back before separating her weapon and telekinetically making it attack me, I blocked the attacks whilst throwing my daggers at her. Mirage managed to block and dodge some of them but a few managed to slice open parts of her skin.
Mirage held out her hand as black winds began to spiral forth from them, I quickly opened a portal to Purgatory and used that to transport myself so that I ended up behind her. After coming out I went to strike at her but she managed to block the strike and wrapped her chain staff around my torso and used it to slam me repeatedly into the ground.
I slammed my sword into one of the links, preventing the chain from tossing me about anymore, I pulled myself out and stood up to face Mirage. She glared at me before she reconnected her staff and slammed it into the ground, a black aura surrounded it, then the earth began to shake and soon we were thrown to the ground as something happened but I couldn't tell what, although it felt like the arena we were in was moving.
The rain was coming down harder than before and lighting flashed above us, Mirage removed her staff and charged at me, I blocked the strike and launched electricity into her body. She struggle against the magic for a short while before dispersing the attack and launching her leg into my hand, making me drop my sword and she threw it into the wall.
I jumped over her head and back flipped over to my sword before removing it and used the wind to attack her. Mirage raised her own shield to prevent any damage, we then engaged in another struggle as the arena continued to move us through the sky and the rain thundered around us.
"Hey if you don't get out of there you'll die," A voice called out to us. We both looked up to see a helicopter with the blonde demon from before standing in the door, confused by what she said I looked around only to see that somehow during the battle, the arena had moved into the path of a giant flying boulder.
"I suggest that we continue this later Wiccan," Mirage called out. I looked at her and nodded before running to the edge of the arena we had been fighting in and jumped over the edge, causing a cry of panic to echo from the helicopter, I activated my magic and transformed into a falcon, I flapped my wings down hard and began to take off through the ferocious storm. I decided to follow the lead of this Incubus, Nile, and I hope it lead me to some answers as well as a way to save Mirage.